#Masters Scholarships 2023

[scholarhunter]

Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU) Graduate Studentships in Canada

Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU) Graduate Studentships in Canada

Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU) Graduate Studentship is now open to all interested at the University of Calgary. Applications can be made for the academic year 2023-2024. The University of Calgary will award this studentship to students who identify as residents of Alberta and have enrolled in a thesis-based masters or Ph.D. study program. The winning applicants can expect to receive support…

[esseindiablog]

Another day, another exciting scholarship! Government of Mexico is looking for international students like you to study there FREE of cost 🤑🇲🇽

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), through the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AMEXCID), has developed a scholarship program to contribute to nations' sustainable development by fulfilling objectives and commitments adopted in international agendas. 🔥

✅ Benefits

1. For Master's scholarships, mobility at the Bachelor's and Master's levels, and Master's level research, a monthly stipend of 4 (four) times the monthly value of the the Federal Economic Measurement Unit (UMA), currently equivalent to $12,614.80

2. For Doctoral scholarships and research stays at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels, a monthly stipend of 5 (five) times the monthly value of the UMA, currently equivalent to $15,768.50

3. Medical Insurance

4. Payment waiver for Mexican visa

5. Transport

📅 Deadline : 21st July 2023

📌 Check out eligibility here - https://esseindia.com/study-visa/

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#mexico #🇲🇽 #mexico🇲🇽 #méxico #government #scholarship #scholarships #freeeducation #free #education #goabroad #abroad #studyinmexico #trending #trendingreels #explorepage #explore

[9jacompass]

Apply Now: Entrance Bursary Program for International Students at McGill University in Canada 2023

Apply Now: Entrance Bursary Program for International Students at McGill University in Canada 2023

Applications are invited from international eligible students to apply for the entrance bursary program at McGill University in Canada for 2023/2024 academic session. The Entrance Bursary program is a Need-based financial aid for future undergraduates. The goal of the program is to make the University more accessible to those who face financial challenges by supplementing other funding resources…

[slythereen]

Hello there!

I’m new to f1 and Lestappen.

Is there a Charles and Max master post somewhere with their history? I keep hearing about the social media unfollowing and podium walk off and want all the tea and timelines.

Basically all I know about is the inchident.

Many thanks!

hello and welcome!! my scholarship (read: obsessively reblogging things or bookmarking them thinking i'll actually find them again later) tends to be VERY chaotic, but i know there are definitely compilations out there. i've read some great ones.

nini (@scuderiafemboy) has a LOT of lore content on tumblr and twitter & does a lot of translating of dutch interviews/manages to unearth old interviews all the time. the twitter thread of threads covers 2018 through june 2023! she also compiled some of the database on tumblr here.

@chibrary archives interviews, articles, etc., in glorious fashion. this is charles centric but naturally charles' history intersects with max's so there are some good pieces in there, like this 2015 article on the lestappen rivalry in karting. the #driver:max tag provides a lot of golden content (such as extended lore on the inchident!).

moments™

marginally related, but dani (lecstappens on twitter) once posted the video of max and charles being scolded and warned to behave themselves during the race following the inchident. one of my favorite pieces of lestappen info frankly... demon children. (also on posted by @il-predestinato on tumblr here. who, btw, is a gold mine of lestappen content.)

well, as long as i'm adding some favorite gems while i try to find the specific post i'm looking for... the lestappen singapore flag moment is my roman empire. i am also haunted by the awkward weather convo video. which i know is out there, but i am going crazy trying to find it.

i decided to just commit to the moments list, so here is charles drinking red bull gate 2023 (courtesy of @countingstars-17)

charles asking the tifosi to stop booing max at monza this year (@il-predestinato seriously has so much content)

this excerpt of max's manager talking about charles (@blueballsracing)

if i don't stop myself i will be here all year

more mini compilations !!

@hyacinthsdiamonds once produced a nice list of the ridiculous lore around lestappen that sounds made up

some 2021 specific "best moments" compiled by @coconutshygame

there is one post i am thinking of that touched on their wild lore/destined f1 rivalry etc. but i can't find it now so stay tuned 🫡

also, for some theorizing on the most recent lestappen debacles and what it all means with ferrari/rbr and a potential charles to rbr (ot charles to more power at ferrari) move:

@tsarinablogs is a Scholar™ with lovely essays

@valyrfia has an addition to the marketing mayhem

i recently compiled my unhinged #rbr-ferrari sticker war content to advocate for rbr charles here, which was added to by this anon with banger points

personally i use #rbr charles for the theorizing and delulu hours, but i think #lestappen rbr and #lestappen gate 2023 are also prime hunting ground for rbr specific lore

anyone who has info to share pls do ❤️ i know i'm missing loads of scholarship that is lost in the pits of my unorganized blog

[communistkenobi]

im an undergrad student who was thinking about specializing in studying fascist movements in North America for my masters and ive really enjoyed reading your book commentary - you connect things that I'm not always aware of in ways that are really comprehensive and appreciate

Do you know of any researchers who are moving things on the topic right now (most of the books ive read are around 20+ years old, unfortunately)?

(sorry if any of this is unclear/grammatically incorrect/weirdly worded - I'm super sick rn)

thank you! I'm really glad to hear that :)

For contemporary writing, I'm currently working through some of Alberto Toscano's work - he has a really interesting article from 2021 on fascism from a Black radical/Marxist perspective where he summarizes various historical analyses of fascism from Black (particularly US) thinkers and activists. One thing I especially appreciate is that he complicates Aime Cesaire's formulation of fascism (i.e., "european colonialism come home") as incomplete when applied to settler colonial contexts, especially the United States - one of Cesaire's articulations of fascism is that (to paraphrase) "one fine day, the prisons begin to fill up, the Gestapo gets busy" and so on, and Toscano, working through Angela Davis and George Jackson, responds with (again I'm paraphrasing) "the prisons are already full! The Gestapo is already here!" etc. Toscano also has a new book that just came out in 2023 called Late Fascism, which explicitly addresses the current moment. I only have a physical copy of that so I can't share a pdf unfortunately, and I still need to get around to reading it lol.

These are also a couple random articles I found insightful:

Carnut (2022). Marxist Critical Systematic Review on Neo-Fascism and International Capital: Diffuse Networks, Capitalist Decadence and Culture War - does what it says on the tin

Daggett (2018). Petro-masculinity: Fossil Fuels and Authoritarian Desire - talks about car culture as a site of modern reactionary political movements, links climate denialism with (proto-)fascist movements

Parmigiani (2021). Magic and politics: Conspirituality and COVID-19 - this one does not mention fascism explicitly, but imo the intersection between new age spirituality, anti-vaccine sentiment, and qanon/q-adjacent conspiracies are pretty important to understanding contemporary fascist social movements, so I'd still recommend reading this

Finally, this isn't an article but I found this recorded lecture about the history of Qanon pretty interesting. I don't think the author gives particularly insightful answers on how to solve the problem of far right conspiracies in the Q&A portion but I found it to be a helpful summary

Otherwise I've been focusing a lot on decolonial scholarship more so than fascist scholarship - this is again guided by Cesaire's argument that Europe/The West broadly is inherently fascist. These works aren't contemporary, but you can look at this post for some of the readings I linked on decolonial scholarship if you want to go that route. Those are serving me more for theoretical frameworks to guide contemporary analysis, not analysis of contemporary events directly

also idk if I need to put this disclaimer, but just in case this leaves my blog: this isn't a full throated defense of/apology for everything in these articles, I'm not claiming they're sufficient to understanding the present moment, these are just some of the things I've been reading recently and have found helpful in some way or another. a lot of contemporary work I have read (much of which isn't linked here because I don't think its very good/do not have it on hand) focuses on populism and authoritarianism as central analytical terminology, which i think does a lot of work to exceptionalize and mystify fascism as a historical and political process/project originating from European colonialism & Western imperialism, but these terms are endemic to the field so you have to contend with them no matter what

good luck with your studies!

[wangxianficrecs]

Lovesong of the Square Root of Negative One by honeydrip (Imeden)

Lovesong of the Square Root of Negative One

by honeydrip (lmeden)

M, 55k, Wangxian

Part of Wei Wuxian's Birthday 2023

Summary: The prompt (how it started): wwx's car is broken down in the desert and he uses his 1 bar and remaining battery life to message his fic exchange mod instead of like calling a mechanic or something (from sfs) The fic (how it's going): a meditation on the power of stories, and why we write Mojo's comments: very cool story that kind of reminds me of that Johnny Depp movie Dead Man, in that you're never quite sure what's reality. Half the story is WWX's fanfic (which is a great, dreamy, eerie story itself) and much of the rest is WWX in the desert, chewing over past mistakes and staring out at the stars thinking about how this is where it all ends. Mysteriously, although there is no cell signal and WWX is literally writing his story with a pen on a notebook, each chapter gets published on AO3, which is how LWJ and JC find out he's dying in the desert and a race against the clock begins. Excerpt: Wei Ying rubbed at his forehead. He knew he had failed. He had been so stupid, so convinced that all it took in this world was belief, passion, and of course intelligence. He had that in spades, and he’d known he was brilliant no matter how often he’d laughed it off and shrugged and played innocent when asked. He’d ignored Jiang Cheng’s sullen glares and the way he had watched Wei Ying with bitter envy as Wei Ying had gotten all the scholarships and all the attention and all the love (or so a-Cheng thought). He’d run off to school without a single glance back. He hadn’t even said goodbye, so sure that he would come back in triumph. He had thought that he would find his people out there — the ones who would appreciate him and recognize him for his talents. What a laugh. Instead he had found nothing but exhaustion and bitter struggle. He had burned all his brilliance up in a single blast (or, more precisely, four years in a prestigious university on the coast, four more years in an acclaimed master’s program overseas, and another half a year of a doctoral program in theoretical physics, hardly enough to get more than the barest amount of work done, but still enough, more than enough to show him how weak he was) and now he was in the middle of the desert, everything he owned packed into the back of a car he’d basically stolen from Wen Qing, nothing left behind him but a life well and truly fucked to pieces. Not even the good kind of fucked.

pov multiple, modern setting, modern with magic, magical realism, blood and gore, elements of horror, layered narratives, a story within a story, slow burn, somebody lives/not everybody dies

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

#20yrsago MSFT buys spam company, sues the competition, silences political activists https://web.archive.org/web/20040803201355/http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001774.php

#20yrsago Genome of human zit sequenced https://web.archive.org/web/20040803105000/http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996222

#15yrsago Annie Lennox gives her masters to mashup artist DJ Earworm https://web.archive.org/web/20090717083944/http://djearworm.com/annie-lennox-backwards-forwards.htm

#15yrsago High school student suing Amazon over book-deletions which rendered his study-notes useless

#15yrsago Six String Nation, the chronicle of Voyageur, a remarkable, unifying, synthesizing Canadian guitar https://memex.craphound.com/2009/07/30/six-string-nation-the-chronicle-of-voyageur-a-remarkable-unifying-synthesizing-canadian-guitar/

#15yrsago HOWTO make a prison soldering iron https://web.archive.org/web/20090803185647/http://prisonproxy.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-its-made-soldering-irons.html

#15yrsago Canadians vow mass-mooning of US spy-blimp https://web.archive.org/web/20090805142350/http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1680060

#15yrsago Rich NY town tries to shut down children’s library because poor kids might use it https://research.checkpoint.com/2019/cryptographic-attacks-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

#5yrsago Cop says Amazon told him they had “partnered” with 200 US police forces to sell and tap into Ring surveillance doorbells https://www.vice.com/en/article/j5wyjy/amazon-told-police-it-has-partnered-with-200-law-enforcement-agencies

#5yrsago Affluent parents surrender custody of their kids to “scam” their way into needs-based college scholarships https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-financial-aid-fafsa-parents-guardianship-children-students

#5yrsago The darkest SEO: forging judges’ signatures on fake court orders to scrub negative Google results https://web.archive.org/web/20190726010633/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-reputation-management-cbs-news-investigation-finds-fraudulent-court-orders-used-to-change-google-search/

#5yrsago Zero Sum Game: action-packed sf thriller about a ninja hero whose superpower is her incredible math ability https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/30/zero-sum-game-action-packed-sf-thriller-about-a-ninja-hero-whose-superpower-is-her-incredible-math-ability/

#1yrago When the app turns you into a robo-scab https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

[scholarhunter]

Commonwealth Master’s Scholarships by FCDO to Study in UK

Commonwealth Master’s Scholarships by FCDO to Study in UK

Commonwealth Master’s Scholarships by FCDO to Study in UK: All candidates from low and middle-income Commonwealth countries who want to undertake full-time taught master’s study at a UK university are eligible to apply. Commonwealth The studentships are offered in any area of science or technology, including, for example, agriculture, veterinary science, or forestry. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth…

[mrhaitch]

hi mr.haitch!

as someone who's interested in academia, do you think you can speak a bit about your experiences and journey? it's something i've had my eye on for a bit but honestly don't even know where to begin and idk if i'm just having a mini life crisis because i'm feeling unfulfilled in my current field.

I think I've spoken about this before, but I'll do it again. Please note that I am currently not in academia at present, although I do have plans to return. Currently I'm teaching functional skills in English and maths to kids in their late teens (many of them with severe emotional, behavioural, or learning disorders) so this will be more of a retrospective.

(Be warned, it's long)

Let's get one thing very clear: I was a bad student and my road into academia is and remains crooked. I had bad grades in highschool, an appalling attendance record, and spent a great deal of highschool in detention. It is a miracle that I finished highschool, and a further miracle that I was accepted by a college, and fluked through my A-levels.

I never paid attention in class unless it was something I cared about. Homework was a mythical concept, I never participated, rarely engaged, and generally treated school with disdain.

And I didn't get better until I was in my twenties.

Some of it was anxiety, a lot of it was arrogance.

So fast forward through my undergrad years where I oscillated wildly between workaholic frenzy (political philosophy, existentialism, philosophy of religion) to staunch absenteeism (philosophy of language, socratic philosophy). In my final year things kind of clicked, I knuckled down, got into a few fights with my lecturers, forced my grades up, and came out with a good enough grade to get onto a masters course.

This was largely in thanks to my writing, which I'd become increasingly dedicated to, completing and submitting my first (and thankfully unpublished novel) in the process. During my master's I revelled in the greater degree of independence, how I could direct and engage with the material in my own way, and how it connected with my passions (creative writing). I still had an arrogant moment, failed to prepare for an assignment and failed it. The failure capped my overall grade at a pass which sank any hope for a scholarship.

Dejected and pissed off, I then took the first job that came my way and gave up on academia. I languished in the service industry for four years and thought I'd amount to nothing more. Some political nonsense happened towards the end, I pushed back against the wrong people who promptly tried to fire me under false (and illegal) pretenses.

Haitch pushed me to look into doing my PHD again. I applied, teaching out to one of my old MA teachers to be my supervisor and he accepted with far more enthusiasm than I could've hoped for. I got a loan from the government and vowed to throw myself at my PHD as hard as I could, and I did.

From 2019 until early 2023, I worked five days a week (plus some time in the weekends) on my thesis and my writing. 8-5 every day with my nose in a book, or plugging away at a manuscript, or drafting papers. I lived and breathed it every second. I kept a journal where I pushed myself to work harder and harder to achieve what I felt was my dream. During that time I was determined to come out with my experience and qualifications than I could possibly need for an entry position. I shadowed my colleagues when they taught classes, exchanged emails with academics I admired, published more short fiction.

Brick by brick I built a portfolio and a modest reputation. Then I was invited to speak at a prestigious convention in the UK. I met legendary literary agents, famous authors, hung out with people I admired, and had a chance to read some of my work to an audience and discuss its themes.

I taught for two years, while at the same time working two other contracts for various outreach bodies teaching and supporting kids from deprived or disadvantaged backgrounds.

And I still can't get a permanent position.

I've been shortlisted once or twice, and knocked back at the first hurdle a whole bunch.

Academic positions are like gold dust scattered down the back of a unicorn as it leaps over a double rainbow. It is hard to get a job teaching and researching at a university, especially in the humanities. It is endless rejection with minimal feedback, banging your head against a brick wall over and over wondering if you felt it move or if you've just softened your skull.

It's hard, very hard, and takes a lot of commitment and a lot of sacrifice, with zero guarantee you'll get anyway.

But you do it because you can't imagine yourself doing anything else.

The eagle eyed amongst you will recognise this as the same conclusion I reached about writing, and they're right. It's the same. Often thankless, frequently difficult. A feeling of toiling alone in the dark, waiting for someone, anyone to peer into the well you fell down.

But as hard as it is, if that's the path you've chosen, a part of you doesn't care. You do it anyway. You do it in spite of what it costs you, and the little it gives back.

At least, that's how I see it. Thank you for attending my rambling, somewhat doom-laden, TED talk.

[izicodes]

Starting an Associate's degree in Computer Science!

Monday 15th May 2023

Exciting news to tell!

A month ago, I saw an advert online whilst browsing about the "University of The People (UoP)" and I thought it was one of those fake online universities - then I did research!

How I started

This online tuition-free university, based in California, USA, has a lot of great reviews, with a 4.8-star review on Trustpilot to YouTube video reviews (even in the comments)! I was very impressed so I decided to look at the programs they have available they have an Associate's, Bachelor's, and a Master's in Computer Science! I always wanted to do a degree in Computer Science regardless if I have a job in the field or not. I like studying, it keeps me busy!

So, I decided to apply for the "Associate of Science in Computer Science" which lasts for 2 years - it's just under a Bachelor's degree and the equivalent to the Level 4 qualification version of the apprenticeship I just completed (the Level 3 qualification)!

It was easy to sign up but there were some complications for about a month and I just got the email that I can start the degree on the 15th of June!

There is a "prep for your degree" site so I am going to work towards that slowly before the big day! Watch past students' reviews more!

About the University

Link to the University's page - LINK

Online, recorded, and live lectures

$60 application fee (£50)

While UoPeople is accredited and recognized by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) in the United States, its recognition in other countries may vary.

Link to the Associate of Science in Computer Science - LINK

Associate of Science in Computer Science has 20 courses to complete. The end exam for each course cost $120 (£100 max).

The Associate's degrees in total around $2,460 (£1,900) for the degree

Payments are flexible plus scholarships for people who are less fortunate!

Associate's are 2 years long but since this is self-paced a bit you can finish earlier!

*This is from applying and getting accepted!

That's all but I'm super excited to start! Wishing me good luck on this new journey! 👩🏾‍🎓🏫💻💗

[9jacompass]

Apply Now: British Council Funded GREAT Scholarship For Studies In the United Kingdom 2023/24

Apply Now: British Council Funded GREAT Scholarship For Studies In the United Kingdom 2023/24

For the 2023-24 academic session, up to 200 scholarships are offered by 49 universities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. British Council Funded GREAT Scholarships offer students from 14 countries the opportunity to have £10,000 towards their tuition fees for a wide range of one-year taught postgraduate courses. Each scholarship is jointly funded by the UK government’s GREAT…

[journeytothewestresearch]

12th-Century Sun Wukong

I was happy to learn that the Monkey Pilgrim (Hou xingzhe, 猴行者), Sun Wukong's antecedent, appears among a large set of late-12th-century ritual scrolls portraying the famed 500 Arhats. [1] He is depicted as a monkey-headed, black robe-wearing figure with the lower half of his body obscured by clouds, making him hard to see unless you zoom in on the image. He holds what appears to be the head of a staff in his left hand (fig. 1). Our hero is located just behind Tripitaka, who is riding a white horse led by a spirit-soldier(?) or perhaps Sha Wujing’s antecedent (fig. 2). The full scroll shows this scene happening above the heads of four arhats (fig. 3), indicating that the Tang Monk is considered to be one of these Buddhist sages.

I actually found the simian immortal by accident while researching an article about Tripitaka’s Buddha title. Dr. Meir Shahar tells me that this depiction of Monkey doesn’t appear to have been mentioned in previous JTTW scholarship (personal communication, June 3, 2023). [2] Therefore, I’m so very happy that I can share this discovery with my readers!

For more ancient depictions of Sun Wukong, please see my past article:

Fig. 1 – A detail of the Monkey Pilgrim (larger version). From Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang, Images of the 500 Arhats (Wubai Luohan tu, 五百羅漢圖, 1178-1188 CE). Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk. Image from Nara kuniritsu hakubutsukan, Tōkyō bunkazai kenkyūjo, 2014, p. 86. Courtesy of Dr. Liu Shufen, a research fellow at the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.

Fig. 2 – A detail of Xuanzang on his his horse (larger version).

Fig. 3 – The full scroll (larger version).

Notes:

1) To learn more about these paintings, see Zhou (2021).

2) Dr. Benjamin Brose tells me that the painting appears in a Japanese source, but the Monkey Pilgrim is only listed as an “ape-like figure” (personal communication, June 3, 2023). See Nara kuniritsu hakubutsukan, Tōkyō bunkazai kenkyūjo henshū, 2014, p. 86.

Sources:

Nara kuniritsu hakubutsukan, Tōkyō bunkazai kenkyūjo henshū [Nara University Tōkyō Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Ed.)]. (2014). Daitokuji denrai gohyaku rakan zu [Daitoku Temple’s Tradition of the 500 Arhats Paintings]. Kyōto: Shitau bungaku.

Zhou, Y. (2021). The Daitokuji Five Hundred Arhats Paintings and Their Beholders [Master’s dissertation, University of Alberta]. Education and Research Archive. https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/f0bf436c-f6e5-46a2-920a-91c8b9dd5ba9

[gradfieldnotes]

feb. 22, 2023 — snapshots from work lately. this month has been full of deadlines for me, which in a way was exactly what i needed. i had to submit my scholarship reports and updated dissertation proposal by feb. 10, which took a lot of work but allowed me to center myself again - it forced me to figure out what the heck i'm doing. since then i've been working on some papers i want to publish at scientific journals. it's been a learning curve for me, dealing with a lot of different projects at once, but i'm slowly getting the hang of it and procrastinating a little less. currently, though, i have a 2k word essay due sunday that i haven't even started working on, so... guess we can't have it all. i'll get through it, though! and it's the final essay for my final course credit for my master's. after that, only the dissertation left! wooo exciting (and scary).

[beardedmrbean]

Prominent #MeToo journalist and activist Sophia Huang Xueqin, 36, was convicted by a court in China of "subversion against the state" on Friday and given a five year prison sentence, according to her supporters.

Huang reported groundbreaking stories about sexual abuse victims and survivors in China, and had spoken about misogyny and sexism she faced herself in newsrooms of the state-run media. Her trial was held behind closed doors at the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in southern China. 

The verdict was not immediately confirmed by Chinese judicial authorities.

Huang was detained alongside labor rights activist Wang Jianbing in 2021 at an airport in Guangzhou. Their supporters say they were held in solitary confinement for months during their pre-trial detention, and that the trial only began in September 2023. 

According to a Friday social media posts by the "Free Huang Xueqin & Wang Jianbing" group, the charges against Huang related to meetings she had led in Guangzhou from late 2020, during which the court ruled she had "incited participants' dissatisfaction with Chinese state power under the pretext of discussing social issues."

The supporters' group said Wang was also sentenced on Friday, to three years and six months in prison, on the same charges.

When she was arrested at the airport, Huang had been on her way to start working toward a masters degree in Britain, on a U.K.-government sponsored scholarship program.

The convictions "show just how terrified the Chinese government is of the emerging wave of activists who dare to speak out to protect the rights of others," Amnesty International's China Director Sarah Brooks told CBS News' partner network BBC News on Friday.

Amnesty International called the convictions "malicious and totally groundless."

Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on activists working in different fields in 2021, BBC News reported.

"#MeToo activism has empowered survivors of sexual violence around the world, but in this case, the Chinese authorities have sought to do the exact opposite by stamping it out," Brooks said.

[olivieblake]

Hey, Olivie! I'm in need of advice, and a bit of assurance, but mainly advice.

Right now, the traditional publishing industry is - pardon my French - shit, and I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm on the verge of querying my second manuscript, and for context, it was very well received by my closest circle, my critique partners, and several agents and editors who wanted to see the manuscript on their desks in 2022 during pitch events. However, revisions took a bit longer than anticipated due to school and work on my end. It's 2023 now, and I'm almost ready to submit, but now I'm not so sure of this book, or my career.

Trends come and go, and right now, I'm not sure if my book would do well in the current market. My first book, ironically, was a romantasy I wrote two years prior, and now, it might hypothetically do better. But that isn't the main point - I'm tired of writing projects that fall wayside of what's desired by agents and publishers mainstream, by just a couple of years or a couple inches off the mark. Additionally, right now, there are fewer agents and editors to go around due to several scandals I won't specifically name. It just feels like every single barrier is up against me right now. Publishing is a business, and I don't know if I'm a desired product.

I know my worth. I know I'm qualified, and I'm a writer with a fair bit of experience under my belt, but right now, I just don't know if the traditional industry is right for me or not, and I'm seriously doubting the idea of having a future part-time career - or even a full-time one eventually at all. I really don't want to go through indie publishing, since I don't have the resources nor time to market myself without a team on my side. And to be fair, I'm almost a college graduate (undergrad, senior), so this might be jitters talking, but so is my anxiety. I'm mixed Southeast/East Asian, so given publishing's fascination with slotting Asian voices into neatly packaged, "exotic" hashtag Diverse Voices Packages - I just don't know if my not-neat voice is wanted, or will ever be needed.

It would kill me, but...I don't know if I should just stop and come back in a couple of years, or just stop altogether. I'm not sure I'm strong enough to follow through with my current book and face another set of rejections, then write nine more books and face nine more rejections. TLDR: the pessimist in me is having A Time. any advice gladly appreciated!!!

okay

I'm not going to lie to you

I was nodding along sympathetically and then

I got to your age

and I burst out laughing

I laughed OUT LOUD oh my god my sweet summer child

(for reference: I am 34, I have no formal writing training, I started trying to get published when I was 27, I didn't see any success until I was 31, at your age I had a masters degree and a scholarship to law school and was very sure I was going to be a lawyer. I am. not one)

okay so laughter aside, please allow me to tell you gently, very gently, that at this age, you're not supposed to know what you want, you're not necessarily supposed to see your career, and you're not meant to understand if there is a place for you in the market until you try. look, I won't lie to you, traditional publishing is a life filled with rejection on every floor. there is no level of success where you will no longer hear no. and yeah, it's hard to find your way in—I tried for five years before I got my first publishing contract, and showed no particular success until a completely different self-published book went viral through essentially no doing of my own an entire year after that. everything that happens in publishing is a spectacular accident. and what's very crazy to me about the fact that I'm currently sitting in my third week on the nyt bestseller list is that this book was actually my first self-published book—I wrote it six years ago, when all of publishing was telling me no. I had no reason to believe I had any talent for writing, but I did it anyway, because I loved it and only felt alive while I was doing it. the fact that it is successful now, with nothing having changed along the way except for someone giving me a chance in this industry, is why I am laughing. because everything is an accident and all of this is mess.

so, the choices you make in publishing CANNOT be about external markers of success. it can't be about money (that is, beyond the question of how will you survive while writing—I could because I had a freelance job and my husband's income to help me. you'll need either family money, a partner with an income, or a job). it can't be about marketability. your desire to publish has to come from somewhere innate and you have to be able to take no and keep going. for the question of self/traditional publishing, the main issue is: do you want to run your own business? you can self-publish so long as you don't mind managing your own editorial, sales, PR, production, and marketing. if you have the resources to get started, and if it's a genre/age category that has shown success (adult SFF or romance), it is a totally valid way to make a living. if you, like me, prefer not to handle your own production/marketing etc, then traditional publishing is the way, but you will encounter all of the gatekeepers along the way who might say no. so you have to think how you're willing to deal with that, and how you will pay the rent and buy the groceries over the course of publishing's very lengthy timeline, where you will make your advance in 3rds (so about 1/3 per year through the production process) and likely have to consider supplementing your writing with a full or part time job.

basically, the point is: query the book. you have nothing to lose. do it now before the winter holidays because nobody in publishing reads over the holidays. don't worry about whether your voice is wanted. you already know it is. send it out. the worst you can hear is no. and then try again, or don't! but my advice is always shoot your shot, and your resiliency and adaptability is what will carry you through this process, more so than sweat or skill. getting an agent or a publishing deal is not what will make you believe in your talent. you have to believe in it now, and the love and the work you put into the stories you tell is what will be rewarded in time

[kuramirocket]

Mexican biologist Yuliana Bedolla 

Off Mexico's west coast, the Baja California Pacific Islands are key global nesting sites for 23 seabird species and Natividad Island shelters 90 percent of the breeding population of the Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas).

Mexican conservation biologist Yuliana Rocío Bedolla Guzmán, Director of the Marine Birds Project at Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas (GECI) says that invasive mammals like cats and rats wiped out at least 27 seabird colonies in the past.

The researchers have been working with fishing cooperatives to decrease the likelihood of reintroductions that would lead to expensive eradication efforts.

"In 2021, we created the local community group “Líderes Comunitarios'' formed by enthusiastic and committed women who have received formal training on island biosecurity and bird identification, and are becoming agents of change in their communities," Bedolla says.

Recently, Bedolla won a 2023 Whitley Award from UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) and will use the funding to boost the role of local women and fishing cooperative.

"The goal is to continue preventing the accidental introduction of invasive mammals on Natividad and San Benito Oeste islands by actively involving local leaders and fishing cooperatives in biosecurity protocols," she says.

"My Grain of Sand"

Bedolla grew up far from the sea in Moroleón, a small town in central Mexico, where she enjoyed being out in nature.

"But I had my Eureka moment when I learned to snorkel when I was 12 years old at a beach in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, in the Mexican Pacific," she says adding that she remembered a feeling of amazement, wonder and a new sense of connection to nature.

"That experience was life-changing for me and marked the beginning of my journey as a conservationist," Bedolla says, "From that moment on, I knew I wanted to become a marine biologist and contribute with my grain of sand."

She would go on to study Marine Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, learning to dive and study coral reefs and associated invertebrates on several islands in the Gulf of California.

Bedolla would contact GECI in the course of her masters degree and years later, after a Phd in Germany, GECI offered her the directorship of the Marine Birds Project.

Bedolla says that being from the Global South helps her to bring diverse perspectives and approaches to scientific research, which can lead to more innovative and creative solutions.

The San Benito Islands, which is among the islands Yuliana Bedolla is trying to protect from invasive species

Yuliana is a marine biologist, graduated with honors from the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur (UABCS).

She is a Master in Coastal Oceanography from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) and a PhD candidate from the Justus Liebig University of Giessen in Germany. For her doctorate, she obtained a scholarship in Germany. Yuliana speaks Spanish and English and has basic knowledge of the German language. Her doctoral research focuses on the foraging ecology of three petrel species that nest in the San Benito Archipelago, in the Pacific of Baja California.

She began collaborating with the Ecology and Conservation of Islands Group, A.C., (GECI), in 2009 as a field biologist, and is currently the director of the Seabird Project, which aims to restore and conserve seabirds through the use of social attraction systems in conjunction with systematic monitoring, research and environmental education. She has carried out numerous research studies with national and international institutions. Her scientific publications in international journals focus on the response of seabirds to environmental conditions, the parasites that infect seabirds and the response of native fauna to the eradication of invasive mammals.

She has collaborated with several national seabird conservation programs and has been directly involved in environmental restoration projects in Isla Isabel, San Benito Archipelago, Banco Chinchorro and Arrecife Alacranes, related to the eradication of invasive rodents for the benefit of seabird colonies, among other island species. Her activities at GECI include project planning, staff coordination and supervision, applied research and monitoring, environmental education with local communities and dissemination of information in conferences and scientific reports and publications.

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