#Jamaican scientist

[xtruss]

Why Are Some People Faster Than Others? Two Exercise Scientists Explain The Secrets Of Running Speed

— April 29, 2024

Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt, in yellow, Holds the World’s Speed Record For Humans. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Usain Bolt, The World’s Fastest Human, Ran a 100-Meter Sprint at a Speed of 23.35 Miles Per Hour (37.57 Kilometers Per Hour).

That’s mind-blowingly fast for a human. It’s about the same speed as cruising in a car through your neighborhood or in a school zone. It might not seem that fast when you’re in the car, but for a person? Few runners in the world can even come close.

There are several reasons why some people can run very fast while others tend to run more slowly. Genetics – the traits you inherit from your parents – play a role, but so do your choices and experiences.

As pediatric exercise scientists, we create and evaluate programs that help children be healthy. The exciting news is that while you have no control over your genetics, you can train to improve your speed.

Fast Twitch, Slow Twitch

One major factor that influences your ability to run fast is the structure of your body, including how your muscles work.

The human body has more than 600 muscles that work together, allowing you to move in different directions and at various speeds. These muscles are made up of groups of fibers. There are two main types: fast twitch and slow twitch.

Muscles have different mixes of these fiber types. For example, two muscles make up the calf: One is predominantly fast twitch – that’s the gastrocnemius, used for sprinting and jumping. The other is mostly slow twitch – that’s the soleus, used for walking and jogging.

Speed and endurance are both important when you’re playing soccer. AP Photo/John Cowpland

Fast-twitch muscle fibers are larger and help your body move quickly and generate significant force. Sprinters tend to have an abundance of fast-twitch muscle fibers. However, this muscle fiber type also tires quickly, which limits how long you can run at top speed to relatively short distances.

Slow-twitch muscle fibers are smaller and help you run at slower speeds, but with greater endurance. Long-distance runners and competitive cyclists tend to have a lot of these muscles.

How much you have of each type of muscle fiber – fast twitch and slow twitch – is mostly determined by your genes, so you’ll have to work with what you’re born with when it comes to muscle types. But exercises can help train those muscles.

Your Brain Plays A Big Role

Physical ability isn’t just about muscle. Your brain plays an important role, too.

Your skeletal muscles are controlled by your brain – you think about your actions and then execute the movements. For example, you can control how long your stride is, how your arms move, how your feet hit the ground and even the techniques you use to breathe.

You can teach your body to use the best running techniques. That includes proper posture, so your body is standing tall, and an economical stride, so your feet land below you rather than too far out in front, where they can slow you down.

Five Tips For Running Faster, From An Olympic Sprinting Coach.

You can also improve your running form by using your whole body, with your arms pumping in opposition to the legs, running on your toes and maximizing the time spent in flight phase with both feet off the ground. Using proper running techniques helps the muscles create more force and work together, which helps you run faster.

The more you practice an activity, the better you will get. As your ability to run fast increases, challenge yourself to run even faster.

How To Train To Run Faster – Myth-Busting!

You may have heard your friends chatting about ways to boost your speed or searched the internet for tips on getting faster. Time to bust some of those myths.

Myth 1: You Have to Run as Fast as You Can to Train to Be Faster. That’s false!

You don’t have to run as fast as you can to get faster, and it actually helps to take short breaks to recover in between activities where you are sprinting.

Myth 2: You Need to Lift Heavy Weights to Get Faster. False!

Functional strength training involves performing exercises that help you get better at specific movements. They involve using either medium weights or just the resistance of your own body weight. Doing planks, lunges, step-ups or jump squats are great examples. These activities focus on the muscles that are instrumental during running.

Myth 3: You Need to Specialize in Running Early in Life to Become a Fast Runner. False!

Picking one activity to focus on early in life may actually limit your ability to develop into a fast runner. Doing a variety of physical activities can help you develop new skills that improve your running. For example, the movements and endurance used in soccer may translate into the ability to run faster.

Myth 4: Training Isn’t Fun. False!

Training programs can take many shapes and forms. You can play running games with your friends, work on fast footwork using an agility ladder or create obstacle courses. There’s nothing like a little healthy competition to motivate your training.

What’s important is having fun while training and participating in activities that promote running speed on a regular basis.

So, whether you want to be the next Usain Bolt or you just want to win a race against your friend, remember that with a little bit of genetic luck and hard work, it may just be possible.

— Dawn P. Coe, Associate Professor of Exercise Science, University of Tennessee

— Elizabeth (Kip) Webster, Associate Professor of Exercise Science, University of Tennessee

[journeytojaburo]

Probably shouldn't be aimlessly browsing pixiv for zeta fanart considering I'm barely a fifth of the way through the show but every time I go on that website I witness that where there's a fujoshi will there's a fujoshi way

[herpsandbirds]

Cave Velvet Worm (Speleoperipatus spelaeus), family Peripatidae, endemic to 2 cave systems in Jamaica

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

This species is live bearing (viviparous).

Only 7 individuals have ever been found by scientists (as of 2021).

photograph via: Jamaican Caves Oraganisation

[successfulgoddess333]

WHO AM I??

Hi baby

I’m going to talk a little bit about myself

I don’t wanna reveal too much

My face and everything else will remain anonymous for safety and privacy💕

Name:

My name is Honey(yes this is my birth name lol)

You can call me by my name or honeybee

Or even honeycomb

Do NOT call me beehive 😡

Unless it’s related to Beyoncè💕

Age: 23

Topics:

I discuss the void state, Law of assumption,Reality Shifting (I haven’t talked about this yet but will if you need more info)

And All kinds of Manifestation methods

How to talk to Honey!!!

Just dm me any questions I don’t take asks anymore so if you have any questions just feel free to dm me

Ethnicity/Nationality

My mom is Afro Peruvian, Indian,and Haitian

My dad is Jamaican

Sooo

I’m black hehe🤟🏾

I don’t do these I’m super private it’s soooo weird omg

What do I like??

Music food animals

Did I say music because

MUSIC!!!!!!

My favorite artists

I love all kinds of music

Even death metal occasionally

I like Harry Styles,Kid Cudi,Lady Gaga The Beatles,Ice Spice and many moreeeee

I also love movies

Literally almost any kind

But anyways

Let’s talk about something more interesting!!

Now that you know me(kind of)

I want you to know about this technique I discovered

It’s not new at all

In fact ppl on here have already talked about it I’m just late

As usual 😔

Anywayyyyyy

There’s a technique I want you all to try

It’s called the

“Wim hof breathing”

Method

No methods are needed But if you really want one

Then here you go pookie

(Found this on a website but it won’t let me copy the link😔)

WIM HOF BREATHING METHOD

Find a comfortable position.

Breathe in deeply through the nose or mouth and through the belly to the chest. Then let the breath go unforced.

Exhale through the mouth, then immediately breathe in again.

Take 30–40 such breaths in short bursts.

Take one final, deep inhalation then let the air out and stop inhaling. Hold the breath until you feel the urge to breathe again.

Inhale very deeply to full capacity and hold for 15 seconds, then let it go. This completes the first round.

Repeat the whole process, steps #2-6, 3-4 times.

After completion take time to meditate and enjoy the state of deep relaxation

After the very last step you should be a deep trance like state you should be really relaxed

I recommend that you let your next subliminal play

Which should be

Either a theta or epilson wave track or pink noise

Make sure your desired subliminal that plays after is Not a guided meditation you wanna still be in a trance

Start affirming in that point

And don’t stop

Just feel how relaxed you are feel that powerless body but powerful mind

Your body is at ease your soul and mind collide in such ways that allows you to breathe freely without any stress no harm

In the void state

Your main goal should be getting peace

Because if you’re entering just affirm

You’ll likely put it on a pedestal you’ll get frustrated and give up

It is not a wish granter bitch

It’s you

Baby you are powerful

Baby you are pretty

Baby you can tap in the void

And make the bring the 4D to your 3D and make it your home

Don’t use the void as a wish granter

Use it for peace

Don’t treat the 3D like the enemy

Treat it like a friend

After all it exists the way it does because of your assumptions

Whether you say this is hard or this is easy

Sugar, you’re right either way

Because if you assume something then that’s how it’ll be

If you think you’re pretty you’re pretty

But if you think you’re broke

Then you’re broke

If you think you’re rich

Then you’re rich baby

You could have wings

Superpowers

Be the biggest singer or rapper in the world

Star in the next Dune Movie

Be best friends with Ariana Grande

Be a Scientist

Be smarter than Albert Einstein(I mean was he actually super intelligent if he lacked common sense)

You could be get a bigger butt!!

I mean didn’t necessarily have a pancake ass

But I definitely didn’t have a Nicki Minaj

BUT I DO NOW!!!!

And bestie you can too!

Plastic surgery who???

Do we look like a Kardashian-Jenner?? I think the f not🙄

The void is our plastic surgeon

You wanna a smaller nose?

Got it

Tig ole biddies?

Got it

Nicki Minaj butt?

Got it

Floor length hair?

Got it?

Whatever you want to change about yourself

Got it!

And for the last time babies

You ALWAYS ENTER THE VOID EVERYTIME YOU SLEEP

Mentally just be

Physically sleep

In that moment baby

Forget the 3D and its fuck ass bob

Because the 3Ds not your enemy but its your puppet

You’re a ventriloquist CONTROL THAT MF

The 4D is you

The void is you

Quit saying what you can’t do babe

You CAN BECAUSE YOU ALREADY DID AND YOU STILL DO

“HoNEy I StiLL didNT gET inTO tHe vOiD”

YES YOU DID!!!!!!

You did it

You just didn’t know

Bro the void is just recognizing you’re asleep

And getting in contact with your mind

Which is where you already go when you go to sleep

So ha

Billie

There’s your answer

When we fall asleep

That’s where we go

The mf Void State

The only thing your cute ass has to do baby

Is just be aware

When Neville Goddard says just “BE”

Bitch just BE

That’s it

Be aware

Like that SpongeBob episode

“Be the crane”

Be the Void

It’s just you love

So why you stressing

Why complicate something YOU created?!

Baby girl make it make sense

Own your power bitch

I love you My darlings

Month is almost over

Bring me my success stories

Or I’ll be your sleep paralysis demon 😈

(Just kidding)

Or am I;)

NOW BITCH LOOK!!!!

YAYYYY

Imma keep pressuring you to listen to this(NOTE YOU DO NOT NEED SUBLIMINALS)

But I like this one🫠

Wrong emoji

I can’t find that cute one at the moment I’m rushing cuz I wanna eat my burger!

SLADE:

https://youtu.be/oKU8YIicYQg?feature=shared

THIS

because it’s soooo peaceful

Slade is the best

BYE BITCH GO GET THAT DREAM LIFE NOW!!!

I love you ⭐️💕

[mercurygray]

So I Hear You Liked...World War Two Dramas

What's that? You said you wanted a World War Two series where women actually speak to each other? Have I got a deal for you!

When Band of Brothers first came out, I did not have cable, but what I did have was a card at a library that owned seemingly every PBS drama ever broadcast. I know and love a lot of these shows, and I hope you do, too.

As we wait for Masters of the Air to join us, maybe you can fill some time with one of these!

Classic: These shows were made in the 70s and 80s and while the production values are not the same as something made more recently, they're all fun to watch.

Danger UXB - daily life in a bomb disposal unit.

Dad's Army - comedy show about the Home Guard.

Hogan's Heroes - situational comedy about life in a POW camp.

Piece of Cake - follows British pilots stationed in France as the Phony War begins.

Homefront Perspectives:

✨Housewife, 49 - Based on the wartime diary of Nella Last, who participated in the Mass Observation project. One of my favorites.

✨Foyle’s War - procedural crime drama following DCS Foyle and hsi team as he solves murders in wartime Britain. Another favorite.

Island at War - Wartime life on the Channel Islands during the German occupation

Land Girls - Follows the lives of a group of Land Girls working on an estate farm.

Bomb Girls - Follows the lives of a group of workers in a Toronto munitions factory.

Home Fires - Life in a small British town near an air base. Based on a book.

World On Fire - Follows the disparate lives of several people in several countries as the war begins.

✨All Creatures Great and Small - The life of Yorkshire Vet James Herriot, based on the book series of the same title. A favorite, both the 1970s original and the 2020 version.

A French Village - Daily life in a French village is upended as the Germans invade. Follows the same village through the entire war.

My Mother and Other Strangers - An Irish village deals with the introduction of an American Air Force base.

Colditz - life in one of the war's most infamous POW camps. Features Damian Lewis!!

Atlantic Crossing - the life of Crown Princess Marta of Norway as she tries to advocate for her country while living in the United States.

The Halycon - Life in a posh London hotel during the 1940s

Spies and Science:

X Company - Canadian drama about life overseas for spies

Resistance - French wartime drama about a woman in the French underground movement

Restless - Postwar drama about a woman who spied for the Russians in England during the war.

✨Manhattan - If you liked Oppenheimer, have I got a show for you!! Follows the lives of several scientists and their families as they move to Los Alamos. A favorite.

✨The Heavy Water War - Norwegian/British operations Grouse and Gunnerside to destroy German heavy water plant. A favorite.

The Twelfth Man - Norwegian sabotage operation gets shot down in occupied Norway.

✨Generation War - German experience of war from variety of perspectives. This show is excellent. Everyone should watch this.

✨SAS: Rogue Heroes - Follows the foundation of a parachute regiment in North Africa that would eventually become the basis for Britain's commando units. A favorite.

Postwar:

A Place to Call Home - very soapy Australian post-war drama about an upperclass family.

Our Wonder Years - Follows three sisters in post-war Germany as they attempt to confront the past.

Tannbach - Follows a family whose German town is split in two along the new East-West border.

The Defeated - Crime drama following a policeman trying to find his brother in post-war Berlin

Small Island- a Jamaican woman moves to London after the war and tries to adjust to a country that doesn't want her there

Call the Midwife - Social drama in the 1960s addressing the health and lives of the post-war poor of London.

[fat-oc-battle]

naomi (she) character & art by @ackee

naomi chung, one of the main characters of my future webcomic, traversion. she's a chinese-jamaican immigrant who moved to miami in her mid 20s to pursue her dream of becoming a tattoo artist. outside of work, she spends her time hitting up alternative and caribbean clubs around town with her best friend and roomate, xia. loves to use men for free drinks. a huge bitch with even bigger boobs.

neocities page

VS.

allysion (she) character & art by @identityquest

Allysion is a clever and easy-going woman in her early 30s. She comes from rich family history of earth scientists. Her own interests are in speleology and mining technology; she'll often disappear into the depths of the earth for days at a time. She'll gladly talk the ear off anyone willing to listen to her extended lectures on cave formation.

[contemplatingoutlander]

“All Beyoncé and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have:

Caucasian blue eyes

full Spanish lips

a classic button nose

hairless Asian skin with a California tan

a Jamaican dance hall ass

long Swedish legs

small Japanese feet

the abs of a lesbian gym owner

the hips of a nine-year-old boy

the arms of Michelle Obama

and doll tits            

“The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”

—Tina Fey, Bossypants

____________ Meme Sources: Image; layout

[fatehbaz]

In April 2024, scientists from the Natural History Museum of Jamaica and The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus accepted a very rare and historic specimen: a 16-inch lizard called the Jamaican giant galliwasp (Celestus occiduus). It had previously been stored in the Hunterian museum at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “‘Celeste’ is home!” announced one Jamaican news outlet [...]. Celeste was collected in the 1850s and represents a species that was endemic to Jamaica but is now classified as critically endangered and possibly extinct. Scientists in Jamaica, who have never seen or handled one of these lizards, are elated [...]. As scholars of Jamaican landscape histories who are interested in environmental justice, we believe this repatriation illustrates important truths about colonialism and its legacies.

Celeste’s 170-year residence in a Scottish university collection speaks to uncomfortable connections between colonialism and natural history.

---

[O]fficials, physicians, naturalists and amateurs from Europe traveled across the colonized world, collecting local plants and animals [...]. Many objects they brought back [...] are housed today in European libraries and museums. [...] “The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica,” by Patrick Browne, published in 1755, was the first text in the English language to use the system of classifying plants developed by Carl Linnaeus. The book shows how major advancements in natural history, botany and biology relied on field work conducted far beyond metropolitan Europe. [...] Exploration and collecting specimens often relied on the knowledge and labor of enslaved persons who acted as field assistants and guides – but the historical record has little to say about their roles. Today, organizations such as Kew Royal Botanical Gardens in England and the New York Botanical Garden continue to rely on the knowledge and collections derived from colonial-era tropical botanical gardens in places like the Caribbean islands of St. Vincent and Jamaica.

In Jamaica, there was a direct relationship between geological exploration and the plantation system. The first geological surveys of Jamaica were conducted by naturalist Sir Henry De la Beche, the son of a Jamaican plantation owner and first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.

British physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane’s extensive holdings of books, manuscripts and specimens became the founding collection of the British Museum. [...] His collections include more than 1,500 plant specimens from Jamaica, which he acquired there from 1687 to 1689. After England gained formal possession of Jamaica in 1670, it established monoculture production of sugarcane across the island. Extensive land clearance, damage to local ecosystems [...] exacted a heavy toll. Some of the plant and animal specimens that collectors extracted and exported abroad may be the only ones that exist today.

---

Colonizers also introduced harmful species, such as the Indian gray mongoose (H. edwardsii), which was brought to Jamaica to prey on rats in plantation sugarcane fields. [...] The Indian grey mongoose quickly became a major threat to numerous species, including the Jamaican giant galliwasp.

It remains a key adversary today in the struggle to stabilize the population of the critically endangered Jamaican iguana. [...]

The Jamaican giant galliwasp’s classification as possibly extinct in the wild reflects optimism from the almost unbelievable rediscovery of the Jamaican iguana (Cyclura collei). Prior to 1990, this species was presumed extinct, but then scientists discovered a remnant population in the island’s Hellshire Hills.

---

All text above by: Alex A. Houghton and Thera Edwards. "Returning a 170-year-old preserved lizard to Jamaica is a step toward redressing colonial harms". The Conversation. 3 June 2024. At: theconversation.com/returning-a-170-year-old-preserved-lizard-to-jamaica-is-a-step-toward-redressing-colonial-harms-229339 [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.] Image and caption are shown unaltered as they originally appear published with the article. Image is CC BY-ND 4.0, available at biodiversitylibrary.org/page/188786.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Li Zhou at Vox:

In their opening wave of attacks on the Democrats’ likely presidential nominee, some Republicans are homing in on Vice President Kamala Harris’s race and gender — despite certain party leaders’ pleas for them to steer clear. Members of the religious right have dubbed her a “jezebel,” while other conservative activists suggested that she’s slept her way to the top by citing past romantic relationships she’s had. GOP commentators have also echoed many of the same “birtherism” attacks that were once used against former President Barack Obama, falsely claiming that her candidacy isn’t viable because her parents were Jamaican and Indian immigrants. (Harris is a US citizen who was born in California.) And they’ve tapped into common GOP talking points about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), implying that Harris isn’t up for the job and was selected for VP solely because of her identity.

“The media propped up this president, lied to the American people for three years, and then dumped him for our DEI vice president,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said in a post on X. (Burchett has since said he wishes he hadn’t said this, while adding that it’s the “truth.”) There is a common thread in all these attacks: They take aim at Harris’s identity, rather than her agenda or experience. And they come despite the fact that last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson implored his party to focus their criticisms on policy and politics. “This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris, and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever,” Johnson said. Many of these remarks are simply hateful and examples of misogynoir, a compounded form of sexism and racism directed at Harris, a Black and South Asian woman. But there’s a sinister political calculus to them as well. Collectively, they aim to undercut Harris’s legitimacy as a candidate and are one prong of sweeping critiques Republicans have made about her eligibility. Plus, they strive to leverage existing racism and sexism against Harris, activating voters who share those biases.

“They hope to taint her with the suspicion of not having earned the positions she has achieved and harness the fears of those who resent seeing women and people of color in elite spaces,” says Juliet Hooker, a Brown University political scientist and author of Black Grief/White Grievance, a book on race and politics.

[...] These statements include implications that Harris is promiscuous and that she’s weaponized her sexuality to get to where she is — a misogynistic claim that’s often used against successful women to question whether they deserve the position that they’re in. Such attacks have manifested in conservative references to her past relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and repeated offensive taglines like “Joe and the Ho.” That’s often paired with questions about why Harris hasn’t had any biological children, and how that discredits her from being a leader due to claims that she’s not sufficiently invested in the country’s future. Beyond the fact that this line of attack is incredibly dismissive of the role of stepparents in America (Harris is the stepmother to a son and daughter), these sexist statements both superimpose traditional expectations on women and seek to undermine the VP by arguing that she doesn’t conform to those standards.

Racist narratives, including “birtherism” style attacks that question Harris’s citizenship status, similarly seek to cast doubt on whether she’s eligible for office. It’s part of a long tradition of conservatives portraying nonwhite politicians as short of “real Americans” and therefore not fit to hold these positions. And statements referring to Harris as a “DEI candidate” also intend to poke at her qualifications and ignore the significant experience she’d bring as a nominee.

Those remarks stem from Biden’s statement committing to selecting a woman as his number two when he ran for office in 2020. He then narrowed his final list of contenders to include four Black women. Those choices were intended to improve representation and diversity at the highest levels of the party, which had never previously had a Black woman as president or vice president. Republicans, however, have seized on his decision to suggest that Harris was picked only for this reason, and not because she also brought significant qualifications including decades of experience as a legislator and prosecutor. Such monikers are so demeaning because they suggest that people of color are undeserving of the roles they get, and “implies that [they] can only succeed when we are needed to fill quotas, and not because of merit, hard work or talent,” writes Variety’s Clayton Davis. The misogynoir directed at Harris aims to suggest that she’s somehow illegitimate as a candidate, and signals to people who hold these biases that the GOP is a home for them. 

The MAGA cult’s sexist and racist attacks against Kamala Harris are about fears and anxieties of a woman of color potentially leading the nation.

[minipisi-is-dumb]

why do you headcanon tails as venezuelan?

no clue if this is a genuine question or not but <3 ty for giving me the chance anon

im venezuelan so it can be a easy "why not" is not like our existence in media much less representation is a thing so i can believe anything i want

but !!!! if u want more specific stuff let's go then

1) Mobius is basically latin america. they're all latinos your honor

not just that sonic in general is basically The Franchise in latam ever but also that a lot of other characters are coded as latinos (ex. Sonic as brazilian or argentinian depending on who you ask, knuckles jamaican/peruvian, silver chilean etc are popular hcs) for mannerisms and story and funzies.

Oh and let's not forget The World Map where Mobians live basically in latin america no i will not let it alone

mobian uza is literally just latin america i cannot. point at it enough

2) color pallete!!!!!! is real easy since his whole colors are yellow blue white and red in similar tones to the flag so. another win for the venecos (imma put this old image i made some time ago)

3) his tendency to use even the most "useless" objects and make crazy inventions with it (yes i will acknowledge the paperclips in this one because it's been in different shows and games)can be interpreted in many ways, but is a very huge value for us to just have to go on and fight for better or for worse, we don't let ourselves give up so easy and our working culture has shown that really what's stopping us is the state of our country

there's a really common stereotype for venezuela that we're criminals or lazy or don't work, and that's far from it. idk i feel like tails' story connects with that sentiment of fighting for more no matter what you have ANYWAYS

4) SCIENCE AND HISTORY BABEY!!! Venezuela has been really important historically not just for promote independence in South American nations, but also our scientists and petroleum industry have been contributed a lot to the world.

examples like the diamond scalpel, citgo being an originally venezuelan company, the vaccine against leprosy, the corner clamp and i could go On. but tails being a science enjoyer AND being venezuelan is also a cute detail :)))

that's really it. put projection alongside cute clues ive found and details from venezuelan history (as i am a huge nerd of it) and you get little venezuelan tails!! thanks for the ask anon lol

viva la patria

[justforbooks]

Alan Arkin, who has died aged 89, was a star at the beginning of his career and a beloved character actor until the end. Though best known for comedies, most notably Catch-22 (1970) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006), lightness was not necessarily his forte; even at his funniest, he exuded gravitas. “I’ve studied acting seriously,” he said in 1982. “I’m not the clown who wants to be Hamlet or anything like that. I just think that regarding oneself as comic means that one’s primary obligation is to get laughs.”

He could be a prickly figure. “Alan does not meet you halfway as an actor,” said the writer-director Marshall Brickman, who cast him as a brainwashed scientist in the science-fiction comedy Simon (1980). “He’s a very serious actor. I think he’s brilliant. But he’s not interested in winning you over via personality. The way he photographs has a kind of austerity that’s a little hard for an audience to take. You either like Alan or you don’t.” The Oscar Arkin won for playing a heroin-snorting grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine ratified his status as a US national treasure.

Arkin was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Beatrice (nee Wortis) and David Arkin, both schoolteachers. As a child, he attended acting classes. The family moved to Los Angeles when Alan was 11, but trouble befell the family when David was accused of communist affiliations (disproved posthumously) during the McCarthy era.

Alan studied acting at Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences (now California State University, Los Angeles) before transferring to Bennington College, Vermont. In 1955, he married Jeremy Yaffe, and became active in the folk music scene. Along with fellow members of his group, the Tarriers, he was credited as co-writer of The Banana Boat Song (Day-O), an adaptation of a Jamaican folk standard. (A different version was a hit for Harry Belafonte.)

After an inauspicious film debut with the Tarriers in Calypso Heat Wave (1957), he threw in his lot with acting. He made his off-Broadway debut in the late 1950s and joined the Chicago improvisational group the Compass Players in 1959. This led to a stint with the Chicago improv troupe Second City and his Broadway debut, in 1961, in the company’s show From the Second City, which he co-wrote.

Arkin did not forgo folk music entirely: he formed the children’s group the Babysitters, which also featured Yaffe until their divorce. The band was later joined by his second wife, the actor and writer Barbara Dana, whom he married in 1964.

He left Second City after landing the lead on Broadway in a 1963 production, Enter Laughing, for which he won a Tony award. In the same year, he wrote, scored and starred in the Oscar-nominated short film That’s Me. Norman Jewison gave him his first major film role in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966), a comic take on cold war paranoia. Arkin received an Oscar nomination for his performance as a lieutenant on a Soviet submarine that runs aground in New England.

His range was indisputable. Comparisons to Peter Sellers abounded even before Arkin took the title role in the misguided, off-piste comedy Inspector Clouseau (1968). He accepted a rare villainous part in Wait Until Dark (1967), terrorising a blind Audrey Hepburn. In the same year, he played one of Shirley MacLaine’s lovers in Vittorio de Sica’s portmanteau film Woman Times Seven. He won a second Oscar nomination for playing a deaf man in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), adapted from the novel by Carson McCullers, and starred as a Puerto Rican widower raising his children in Popi (1969).

His landmark role came when he was cast as the anxious bombardier Yossarian in Mike Nichols’s film of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. The New York Times critic Vincent Canby summed up Arkin’s appeal: “[He] is not a comedian; he is a deadly serious actor, but because he projects intelligence with such monomaniacal intensity, he is both funny and heroic at the same time.” The eight-month shoot was an arduous experience for the actor. “If they had shot footage of the making of the film,” he said, “it would’ve been a hell of a lot closer to the book than the movie was.”

Arkin had already directed several shorts when he embarked on his full-length directing debut, an adaptation of Jules Feiffer’s blackly comic play Little Murders (1971), set in a fractured and hostile New York City. The film’s critical reputation has grown steadily along with that of Arkin’s follow-up, Fire Sale (1977). Both pictures exhibit an acidic, rueful comic tone consistent with the mood of 1970s independent cinema.

In the same decade, Arkin played a long-distance truck driver in Deadhead Miles (1972), scripted by Terrence Malick; unsure how to market this eccentric road movie, Paramount shelved it, though it has surfaced occasionally on television. He teamed up with James Caan in the action comedy Freebie and the Bean (1974), with Peter Falk in The In-Laws (1979) and with Jeff Bridges in the 1930s-set Hearts of the West (1975). In The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1977), he played Sigmund Freud, who welcomes Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson) as a patient. He was a washed-up superhero in the Australian musical comedy The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) and a concentration camp prisoner in Escape from Sobibor (1987).

During the 1990s, Arkin’s movie career began its second flourishing. He specialised in sympathetic father figures in Coupe de Ville and Edward Scissorhands (both 1990) and Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), and played a desperate salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), the film of David Mamet’s play. He was also memorable as an assassin’s psychiatrist in Grosse Pointe Blank (1997). An acclaimed performance as a troubled insurance manager in Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001) attracted further awards.

The independent smash Little Miss Sunshine exploited Arkin’s contradictory qualities of coarseness and warmth. After that, most of his films felt minor: in 2008 he delivered another beneficent father routine in Sunshine Cleaning and a helping of spy antics in Get Smart, and was a twinkly editor in the family hit Marley & Me. More challenging was Rebecca Miller’s drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), in which Arkin played a man married to a woman 30 years his junior. His fond portrayal of a grizzled movie producer in Argo (2012), Ben Affleck’s thriller set during the Iran hostage crisis, was hugely admired and was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar.

He starred with Al Pacino and Christopher Walken as ageing crooks reuniting for one last job in Stand Up Guys (2012), and with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman as retirees who plot to rob a bank after losing their pensions in Going in Style (2017). He was also in Tim Burton’s live-action remake of Dumbo (2019) and played a Hollywood agent in the Netflix series The Kominsky Method (2019) with Michael Douglas.

In 2020, he published Out of My Mind, which detailed his 20-year friendship with his spiritual mentor John Battista, though Battista’s full name is not mentioned in the book, nor his fall from grace (Battista was charged with the sexual abuse of several women and one girl) and suicide. The scandal caused a kind of paralysis in Arkin for six months, he told the Guardian in 2020. “But I doggedly went on and I’m glad that I did.”

He is survived by his third wife, Suzanne Newlander, whom he married in 1996, two sons, Adam and Matthew, from his first marriage, and a son, Anthony, from his second marriage.

🔔 Alan Wolf Arkin, actor and director, born 26 March 1934; died 29 June 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[markoferko]

How Kamala Harris’s Immigrant Parents Found a Home, and Each Other, in a Black Study Group

At an off-campus space at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1962, a tall, thin Jamaican Ph.D. student addressed a small crowd, drawing parallels between his native country and the United States.

He told the group, a roomful of Black students, that he had grown up observing British colonial power in Jamaica, the way a small number of whites had cultivated a “native Black elite” in order to mask extreme social inequality.

At 24, Donald J. Harris was already professorial, as reserved as the Anglican acolyte he had once been. But his ideas were edgy. One member of the audience found them so compelling that she came up to him after the speech and introduced herself.

She was a tiny Indian scientist wearing a sari and sandals — the only other foreign student to show up for a talk on race in America. She was, he recalled, “a standout in appearance relative to everybody else in the group of both men and women.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 7.20

Beer Birthdays

Louis Hudepohl (1842)

Peter Adolph Schemm (1852)

George Reisch (1957)

Arne Johnson (1965)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Thomas Berger; writer (1924)

Stone Gossard; rock musician (1966)

Edmund Hillary; New Zealand mountaineer, explorer (1919)

Max Liebermann; German artist (1847)

Diana Rigg; actress (1938)

Famous Birthdays

Lola Albright; actor (1926)

Alexander the Great; Macedonian king (356 B.C.E.)

Giselle Bundchen; Brazilian model (1980)

Kim Carnes; singer (1945)

Chris Cornell; rock singer (1964)

Donna Dixon; actor (1957)

Desmond Douglas, Jamaican-English table tennis player (1955)

Omar Epps; actor (1973)

Judy Greer; actress (1975)

Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder; Dutch poet (1620)

Sally Ann Howes; actor (1930)

Erik Axel Karlfeld; Swedish poet (1864)

Periklis Korovesis; Greek author (1941)

Cormac McCarthy; writer (1933)

Alistair MacLeon; Canadian novelist (1936)

Clements Markham; English explorer (1830)

Gregor Mendel; Austro-German scientist (1822)

László Moholy-Nagy; Hungarian artist (1895)

Giorgio Morandi; Italian painter (1890)

Sandra Oh; actress (1971)

Petrarch; Italian poet (1304)

Richard Owen; English zoologist (1804)

Nam June Paik; artist (1932)

Francesco Petrach; Italian scholar (1304)

Tadeusz Reichstein; Polish-Swiss chemist *1897)

Wendy Richard; English actor (1943)

Carlos Santana; rock guitarist (1947)

T. G. Sheppard; country music singer-songwriter (1944)

Taichō; Japanese monk (682)

Frank Whaley; actor (1963)

Dean Winters; actor (1964)

Natalie Wood; actress (1938)

[lboogie1906]

John Henry Michael “JT” Thompson (born June 15, 1959) is the inventor of the Lingo programming language used in Adobe Director and a former Chief Scientist at Macromedia. He is a former professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and an instructor at Drexel University. He is committed to teaching and motivating successive scions of tech developers. He is a graduate of MIT and the Art Student League of New York.

He spent part of his childhood in Jamaica. His parents, in search of a better life for their children, moved from the UK to New York. In 2012 he returned to his homeland Jamaica, to implement the Digital Jam 2.0 project. This included directing a course of mobile app development workshops. According to him the vision for the project was to “export an innovative software development strategy to enable Jamaican youth to prosper in the global internet knowledge economy.” He was honored for his innovations and commitment to coaching with the Silver Musgrave Medal for Science in 2012 by the Institute of Jamaica. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[ciaossu-imagines]

Do you have any headcanons for Iris Hepburn?

Of course I do, my lovely anon! Thank you so much for this request; it always makes my heart so happy to see the female characters get requested for! I hope you’ll enjoy the headcanons 😊

Despite how the anime coloured her, I refuse to believe that Iris isn’t at least mixed race. Like, I refuse to accept her anime colouring and call bullshit whitewashing on her character. To me, she’s mixed rate, Italian and Jamaican.

She definitely loves pampering and spoiling herself. She makes spa and salon days part of her regular self-care and really splurges on the high end hair and skin products, and uses luxury brand make-up. Nothing that touches her skin can be cheap and she actually puts a lot of work into her skincare and make-up routines, which she finds really soothing.

In another life, she definitely would have become an influencer or YouTube/TikTok star within the beauty world, showing people how to do makeup looks while also encouraging people to remember that men ain’t shit, hold your head up, look amazing, feel amazing and crush those jackasses under your feet, queen! She definitely comes off as that kind of person to me.

Besides having three piercings in each ear, I also think she has a VCH clitoral  piercing. She likes the look of tattoos on certain people (it will make them about twice as attractive as they were without the tats), but she’s firmly against them on herself unless they’re tiny and delicate and she hasn’t had any tiny and delicate tattoo ideas that compel her enough to go get them done.

 While her breasts get the most amount of attention from people, her favourite parts of her body are actually her lips and her thighs. Speaking of those breasts…implants. Iris was actually quite flat-chested for most of her life, and while most people still considered her to be very beautiful, she always felt insecure because of it so she pulled the trigger on getting implants and actually loves her body more after the surgery; she definitely has no regrets about it.

I do think Iris is someone who thinks cosmetic surgery is not a horrible thing and would consider getting more as she ages, particularly face-lifts or Botox to help slow the aging process. She’s admittedly a little bit of a vain person though, so her opinion is weighted by that.

Iris gets crushes really quickly and has absolutely no shame when it comes to flirting and making her attraction clear, though she’s very teasing and coquettish about it. She definitely pursues anyone she gets a crush on, but there’s a lot of games and push and pull – Iris loves making people chase after  her, making them think they need to pursue her hard and lavish her with gifts and attention, while she’s actually batshit insane about them.

Since I know it’s going to be brought up…yes, Iris is very much into the sadism/masochism scene, both sexually and just in general. I feel she’d actually have been really interested in playing dominatrix either sexually, financially, or as a domineering ‘life coach’ for her clients if she hadn’t instead chosen to go into the Mafia.

But let’s also never forget that Iris was a scientist. She is extremely intelligent, curious about the world around her, and while she’ll play dumb, that’s only to get others to underestimate her. She was high-school valedictorian, in the top three of her class in university, and she still reads medical and scientific journals because those subjects inspire and fascinate her.

Going along with that, she’s actually crazy intelligent emotionally. She’s always been good at reading people and she has no problem using her gift at ‘figuring people out’ to her advantage in any way she can.

She doesn’t really crave sweets unless she’s on her period, when nothing will satisfy her more than dark orange chocolate. Most of the time, she prefers salty to sweet – she’s the type to add extra salt to everything. Sliced up an apple to eat it? She’s sprinkling salt on it. Buttered popcorn freshly made? Oops, there’s almost a quarter of her salt shaker emptied onto it. It’s her worst food habit, both taste and health wise.

Iris loves step aerobics, yoga, and dance classes as ways to exercise.

[partyanimal167]

The Informant- Miguel x F!Reader

I'm in a writing mood, so I need to take advantage of this before the call of my bed makes me return to my true form as a simp who stays reading about fictional men. I have no idea how far my plans for this fic go, so we shall see together. Thanks for stopping by! For the sake of this fic, let's say this is the start of the Spider Society, but Miguel is still handling things in Nueva York.

cw: fem reader, mdni, author knows some Spanish, Afro-Caribbean reader in mind

He never planned on things going this way. He just needed to be sure of things and knew that there were those who could stay neutral and be relied on.

Rumors spread quickly, and there wasn't always a way to know what was true and what was falsified. People had their sources, and whether that source was reliable or not could be a matter of life or death. Miguel had a few places to go to, but he wasn't really expecting the answers to be so within his reach.

Miguel was trying his best.

He thought that gathering a bunch of Spiders would make thing easier after realizing how complicated yet connected dimensions were. Yet, wrangling Spiders and keeping things in order was proving to be its own challenge. Nueva York was stable but not free from the villains who lurked in the shadows. As of right now, a man named Kingpin was starting up chaos in the shadows.

Miguel groaned into his coffee as he waited for a test to finish at work. He starting to rethink his life as a scientist if he needed to babysit a bunch of energetic Spiders as well. He shouldn't have been surprised though. Some of them were the only superheroes in their home-universes. It would be a miracle if they quickly adapted to being on a team and coordinating together.

An alarm went off on his phone, and Miguel was grateful that he could actually take a lunch break today. He gulped the remainder of his coffee and tidied up his station.

After discarding his lab coat, he ran down the hall to the elevator and checked his phone. A notification made him grin for once, and people questioned where he was running off to as he dashed through the lobby and out the doors.

Pat's Place sold the best Jamaican food around, and while Miguel stood firmly on his love for empanadas, he did indulge himself with beef patties every time he knew the food cart would be near his job. It saved him the trouble of going to Queens at the main restaurant. The food was amazing, but the added bonus, of course, was seeing you.

Your hair was pulled back with a bandana, and you chatted casually with the patrons when you saw a flash in the corner of your eye. You smiled to yourself as you saw Miguel straighten up his dress shirt and approached the cart as if he hadn't booked it two blocks to get his fix. You stepped away from the register and waved the man over to you--away from the line.

You reached down and pulled out a black plastic bag already filled with his typical order of two spicy beef patties, coco bread, and a cream soda. The man placed a kiss on your cheek and took the bag from your hands. "Mami, you're the best."

You chuckled and winked. "Yeah I know." You leaned forward and tucked a piece of hair behind his ear. "You missed this."

Miguel felt his face warm slightly and scratched the back of his neck. "Ah, I was in a rush."

"Mmhm. I don't know why. I always set your food aside." you commented.

"Yeah, but your grandma's gonna kill me one day if she hears I'm skipping the line. You know how she is about fairness."

You laughed and waved your hand. "I'll worry about old Miss Patricia." You stuffed your hands in your back pockets and rocked on the heels of your feet. "So what's going on in the world of Mr. Big-Time Geneticist? Girls giving you trouble as usual?"

Miguel rolled his eyes as he stuffed his patty into the bread. "Oh please. No one wants to be dealing with me. I got enough on my plate."

"Really?"

You wouldn't know the half of it. Miguel bit into his food and fought his instincts of moaning. "What about you? Miss Pat succeed in setting you up with anyone?"

"Oh jeez, I wish she'd give up. I'm this close to telling her I have a girlfriend if I didn't know she'd switch tactics."

"Are you just now telling me I don't have a chance?"

You smiled as you wiped a crumb from the corner of his cheek. "Oh papi, you always have a chance with me."

Just then, Miguel's phone rung, and he cussed to himself seeing that Peter B was calling. "Sorry, I gotta take this."

"No worries. I'm getting back to work. See you around."

Miguel half-listened as Peter went on about some weird notification popping up about some suspicious activity in the slums. He chewed on his food and let his eyes trail over to you as you continued to work--smiling at customers and giving out change. He hummed to himself.

"Hello!? Peter to Miguel! Are you listening?"

Aye cabron. "Yes, I got it. I'll go confirm some information later on tonight. It's Friday, so I'll have the time."

"Whatever you say, brother. Just be on the look out. If this Kingpin is anything like mine, then you might have some problems."

~~~

Miguel groaned as he leaned against an alley wall. He was making his nightly rounds in the slums to find his usual informers, but if they weren't locked up, then they seemed to nervous to talk...which was weird.

Miguel didn't always wear the mask, so some knew him as a nosey scientist with a knack for trouble if others didn't see Spider-Man. Either way, it never seemed to be a problem before, but Peter's warning may have been true.

Miguel flicked his watch. "Lyla, I need some assistance."

The fashionable woman popped up and stretched while yawning. "What's up? I take it I'm not searching for a lovely lady's favorite perfume?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Come on, it's Friday. I know you got your patty fix." The woman went on while filing her nails.

Miguel groaned. "No, this is not about her. Why are you even bringing this up?"

"I'm just saying bud. You could use some fun. Actually while I have you here, I found something interesting, she-"

"Lyla Lyla, not now. I need to find someone who can tell me about this Kingpin guy. My guys won't say shit, and that's not a good sign." Miguel went on.

The woman pouted before humming for a moment. "Fine. I'll do some digging, but go home. You left the lights on.

"Can't you just turn them off?"

"Yes, but you need to be more careful. Humanity narrowly escaped extinction decades ago. Do better."

...

That Saturday, Miguel found himself in a part of the ghettos that he didn't know well. He kept his guard up of course but became a little more comfortable when he heard the use of Spanish and English interchangeable with a crowd that was more brown and black than European. He memorized the directions Lyla gave him--ending up outside a shady lounge with a bodyguard that had definitely seen some bad days considering the face scars and calloused knuckles.

He watched from the shadows as people came and went sporadically. There were ledges on the adjacent building that allowed him to peer inside the upper levels. Men in suits chatted while girls paraded around in dresses and skirts. Alcohol was involved; cards scattered on the table. It looked like any old hideout and nightly business, but why did Lyla tell him to come here?

Suddenly, the back door opened, and the main floor's music drifted out. A man shook his hips to the reggaton being played while holding his hand out for a woman coming down the stairs. Black lace stilettos clicked against the stone pavement, and a young smooth hand reached out towards the man.

Aye dios mio...

Miguel could only look from his mask as you beamed at the man who pecked your cheek before striding to the end of the alley where a blacked-out SUV waited.

You stood under the dim overhead light holding your elbows before exhaling deeply.

You turned to walk out the other end of the alley but stopped with a gasp when a flash of black and red appeared in front of you.

"Holy fuck!" you held your chest before taking a moment to relax. You couldn't believe your eyes. "Spider-Man?"

What the hell was Miguel thinking? Oh right, he wasn't. He paused suspended upside down before clearing his throat. "Hello..." he trailed off awkwardly.

You blinked for a moment. "Hi...can I help you with something..."

"Actually, yes." Miguel pulled on his web, flipped upright, and landed on his feet. "Are you a...hostess here?"

You crossed your arms and raised your brow. "Are you asking me if I'm a hooker?"

"What! No! I-," Miguel paused and tried to find his bearings. He was so much better at dealing with people...though most of the time those people are strangers and not the patty-lady he has a crush on. Speaking of which, this was probably the third or fourth time he's seen you not in your work uniform. The dress was fitting you really well. He-

"Miguel! Focus!" Lyla helpfully called out.

Miguel pinched the bridge of his nose and continued. "No, no. I'll be up front about this. I need some information, and I heard someone here can help me out."

You looked Spider-Man up and down before smiling--a little amused. "Hmm, if someone told you all that, how come they can't tell you what you're looking for?"

Smart girl. "It's not so simple."

You nodded while in thought before reaching into your purse and pulling out a card. You passed it. "I won't make any guarantees, but you're gonna need to find another time to chat. I don't know how many people here would be excited to see their local masked vigilante out at night."

Miguel looked down at the card then up at you. "What about you? What side are you playing in all this?" he thought about the man he saw you with earlier.

You gave him a playful smile and shrugged. "I know things. That's all. That knowledge might have a price, but secrets are too costly."

"Why is that?"

Your eyes flashed a darker emotion. "Because the truth always comes out in the end." You turned to leave.

"Uh wait," you turned to look at him, "it's late. Do you have a ride?"

You chuckled and tilted your head. "Why? Gonna swing me over to your place?"

Miguel groaned internally. You were completely one-uping him tonight. "Well your...friend left you, and it's dark. I want you to get home safe."

You took a few steps back in front of him and placed a chaste kiss on the masked cheek. "Keep fighting crime, and I'll be fine." With that, you walked down the alley's path. When you were on the sidewalk, luck was on your side, and a cab came to pick you up.

Miguel stood there dumbfounded for a moment before shooting a web up and sitting on top of a building. He pulled off his mask and pressed on his wrist. "Oi Lyla, what the hell?"

The woman rolled her eyes as she looked at her own digital phone bored. "I tried to tell you about her last night, but you so rudely interrupted me."

Miguel rubbed a hand across his face. "Okay, but what is she doing around all this? I thought she was just helping her grandma out and living a normal life."

Lyla shrugged. "Not everything is online for me to search. Everyone has secrets."

Miguel thought back to what you said about secrets and sighed to himself. He just hoped that your secrets weren't too pricey after all.

~~~

Okay, I feel like I know where I'm going with this. I do think this is going to be more couple-centric with a good portion of action. Not sure though. I haven't written any action scenes in years.

There will be more! Thanks for reading, and I look forward to what comes next.

Part Two