#This is bad for the Ripley economy

[rippersz]

Haven’t seen a lick of Arcane but my god….

FUCK.

[the-big-nope]

Mighty Nein vs. Ripley Swap

Soldiering on through the Vox Machina rewatch, and thanks to @damienchickenspawn, I’ve spent the entirety of “Cloak and Dagger” taking notes for another Party-swap What-If comparison, with the Mighty Nein vs. the Ripley encounter this time. Same rules apply: setting the M9 at an equivalent level (15), ignoring the variability of dice rolls, and accounting for the fact that they had time to prepare spells in advance of the encounter, although less was known about the situation this time, so the spell choice couldn’t be as specific as it was with the Kevdak fight. Fair warning: it gets very long under the cut. Ready? Let’s go.

First off, I have to admit this encounter comparison is much harder to map, because it had two minor combat sections leading up to it (sinking Ripley’s ship and the air elementals on the Glintshore beach). I’m going to assume a similar outcome in combat time and hit points lost, but the resources spent on them is harder to predict due to the differences in characters. At the very least, I’ll assume either Jester, Caduceus, or Caleb has spent their eighth level slot to cast Control Weather like Keyleth did to speed up the airship’s travel, and since they wouldn’t have access to the Keyteor option, the M9 might have just left it up to the airship and basic ranged attacks (maybe a Fireball or two) to take out the boat. However, I will note that following these encounters, since Caduceus often has Prayer of Healing prepped, the M9 would have been able to get a quick bit of healing in with only ten minutes spent. If they aren’t in an immediate chase scenario, this is what they often do between a chain of encounters. 

Now, the meat of this episode is the skirmish with Ripley and her crew on the island. From what I remembered of this fight from the first time I watched it, I recall it being messy as hell and very rough, especially with the giant burst of damage at the start and Ripley popping in and out of combat for most of it. That memory wasn’t incorrect, and I’d forgotten a few elements, like the high level wizard henchman and Orthax joining the fight near the end. With VM, BY FAR the biggest MVPs in this fight were Keyleth and Scanlan. They were the most able to spread damage across multiple targets, Keyleth did some significant damage to the enemy wizard, Scanlan fucked up the whole enemy side with a Reverse Gravity, and they were responsible for keeping their teammates awake and in the fight. The DPSers did their best, but they weren’t focusing fire enough to whittle the numbers down, and Ripley was off the field the majority of the battle and so couldn’t be taken out in order to break the ranks like with Kevdak. Keeping that in mind, let’s first take a look at what the M9 would bring to this encounter as a 15th level party, ranked in order of “Here To Fuck Up Anna Ripley’s Shit.”

1) HOLY SHIT Y’ALL, THE CLERICS. If VM had had their cleric available, it probably would have meant a significant tide turn. The M9 have two, and at 15th level they have so much available to them. At their level, Battle Mercy Jester has access to some wicked damage spells like Blade Barrier, Harm, and Fire Storm, and they both have access to some very powerful support spells: Heal, Heroes’ Feast, Antimagic Field, and (this one I think is particularly up Caduceus/Taliesin’s alley, since it provides major buff and debuff benefits, as well as being one of those spells that would particularly piss off the DM) Holy Aura. Advantage on all saving throws to party members, disadvantage on all attacks against affected party members, and if any fiend or undead (like say, Orthax) hits an affected target, they have to make a Con save or be blinded until the spell ends. Yikes. Even if it was one of the clerics who expended their eighth level slot for Control Weather, they still have a spare who can pull out some powerful tricks along with everything else they already have access to, and thus would probably end up carrying this fight the most.

2) Caleb. While not quite as pivotal as the clerics in terms of MVPing this battle, ol’ Widogast is still scraping in at only two levels below archmage at this point, and he could have some nasty shit available to him, depending on what he takes. 15th level wizards could pick such beauties as Delayed Blast Fireball, Crown of Stars, Prismatic Spray, Reverse Gravity, Forcecage, Antimagic Field, Feeblemind, and Sunburst. Again, accounting for those possible options alongside everything else he already has access to, he could do some absolutely monstrous damage to the enemy team. Of course, aside from all of the fancy new toys, the other part that puts Caleb at second place in terms of enemy hazard is the good old classic, Counterspell. I’ll get into more detail below, but that’s a big one. 

3) Fjord. Our sailor boy will be nine levels into warlock and six levels into paladin at this point, with a paladin oath picked out, Aura of Protection (both Fjord and any ally within 10 feet automatically gains a bonus to a saving throw equal to Fjord’s CHA modifier, which would be a big help against that gunpowder trap at the start), and access to second level paladin spells. Like I said in my last party-swap, Fjord’s just super unpredictable as a fighter. He’s got melee capabilities, arcane spells from both himself and Star Razor, and now a fair reserve of divine casting as well. He’ll have a good bit more Lay on Hands to spread around (30 hp!) as a backup to the clerics, as well as proper healing spells if needed, AND he’ll have access to two Channel Divinity options once he picks an oath. He’s going to have a lot of tools at his disposal to attack or support in whatever way is needed.

4) While the spellcasters really were the pillars of this battle for VM and that would probably hold true for the M9, our DPS girls still deserve some love. Veth would be dealing a Fireball’s worth of sneak attack damage, would have access to 3rd level spells, and could use her mage hand to give herself advantage against a target (if Sam remembers it XD). Beau will have proficiency in ALL saving throws and will likely have bumped up her WIS to boost her Stunning Strike DC. And at this point, Yasha will basically be unkillable; with access to Relentless Rage, Persistent Rage, and Rage Beyond Death, she would need to take her hit point maximum worth of damage in a single hit to be killed outright even at 0 hp. If it’s true that she has recently won her wings back as well, Yasha is going to be a terrifying Valkyrie of unstoppable force.

So, with that summed up, let’s take all that and measure it against the primary factors that made this fight so challenging and memorable for Vox Machina. 

The Gunpowder Trap

Before initiative even started, VM took a big chunk of damage from the gunpowder trap, which I don’t think the M9 would have been able to see coming either. Alarm spells were set up so there would have been no surprising them except on the off chance Caduceus popped a Detect Magic on approach and noticed them; possible, but unlikely. So odds are placed on the M9 taking the initial damage as well. Beau and Nott have a good chance of escaping with no damage, since they have Evasion, Caleb can automatically halve damage with his Ring of Evasion, and Yasha has advantage on Dex saves so she has a better chance as well. However, Fjord, Jester, and Caduceus have no benefits in this situation and aren’t particularly dextrous, so they’re likely taking full damage at the outset. Fjord has Aura of Protection which would give him a +5 bonus to any save, as well as any allies within 10ft, but this trio is still the most likely to get hit hardest. Luckily, they’re on the upper half of the M9′s hardiness scale, so while the damage isn’t small, it doesn’t put them in danger yet. Then combat begins properly.

Ripley

Probably the most problematic feature of this combat was Ripley’s Blink spell and VM’s inability to pin her down or figure out what was going on with her. Her crew were mercenaries, so if Ripley had gone down they likely wouldn’t have continued to fight, but as long as she was up, the fight continued. Watching the episode again, it seems like Matt lingered over the moment where Ripley cast the spell, as if waiting to see if someone was going to counter it. Scanlan was the only one capable of doing it in VM, and whether Sam was distracted, Scanlan didn’t want to burn the spell slot, or some other reason, he didn’t counter it. I feel like the M9 is more trigger happy with the counterspells; they can afford to be, since both Caleb and Fjord can do it, and potentially even Veth if she takes it as one of her 3rd level spells, making the chance of the Blink getting countered much higher. However, even if Ripley had managed to get it off, the M9 have knowledge VM didn’t. Both Jester and Fjord can cast Blink themselves and might be able to recognize it much sooner. That would mean fewer turns wasted hunting for an invisible Ripley and more time concentrating on her allies, or else clustering up near where she would reappear and holding actions ala the Inevitable End fight. Still a difficult element to work around, but better for their action economy and it makes Ripley more predictable. She does have Cabal’s Ruin (the awakened version I think), so she would be able to halve damage on one spell and boost her damage, but that’s only once per short rest. She could manage one huge damage burst if she used her turn, action surge, and the cloak charges all in one go, which could be pretty bad for a single party member. 

The Adds

There aren’t nearly as many mooks involved in this fight as in the Kevdak one, but they pack plenty of punch to make up for it. The mage was by far the biggest threat out of all of them, being capable of casting up to 7th level spells. Both his Prismatic Spray and Chain Lightning did significant damage to Scanlan, Percy, and Keyleth, making the situation more frantic with VM constantly trying to stay on top of their low HP. The Goliath fighter ended up being a non-entity because she didn’t even get a hit off. The gunners did their share of damage, but were probably the lowest threat on the field. As with the Kevdak fight, Caleb would be highly beneficial in doing collective damage to groups at a time (Fireball, Web of Fire, maybe a high level spell like Prismatic Spray or Delayed Blast Fireball if he wanted to clear them quick), similar to how Scanlan used his wand of fireballs to hit the gunners. The ability to counterspell or otherwise incapacitate the mage is also vital, since he dealt out a good portion of the damage, so I could see Caleb’s attention being split there. The big damage spells the mage dished out did require Dex saves though, so the same likelihood of success rules from the gunpowder trap still apply. Like Grog, I could see Yasha focusing on the goliath fighter, while Beau and Nott could get up on the gunners. How well this all goes depends on how well they can shrink the damage from the mage, while making sure the clerics are up and in the right position to heal and support.

Kynan

Kynan is a unique but significant factor in this fight. He did a fair bit of damage, knocked out Keyleth once, and kept Vax distracted for a number of rounds trying to talk to him. In the big picture, I question whether Kynan would have become a factor at all if this was the M9. He ended up with Ripley because Vox Machina, or primarily Vax, rejected him, a little harshly but not maliciously or without reason. The M9 can be blunt and even rude with NPCs, but I don’t see any of them taking a similar approach in that situation. They toted baby Kiri around with them through several dangerous locations and gave her a knife. They had Calianna sign a gag waiver and said they weren’t responsible for her dying if she tagged along with them, and generally they’re inclined to make friends at the drop of a hat. Even if someone like Kynan did approach them, they probably wouldn’t respond in the same way Vax did. However, since I’m using the battle scenario as it happened, we’ll say Kynan is there regardless. Of all the M9, Caleb or Jester seem like the most likely people to pause and try to talk him down. On the one hand, Caleb has a higher charisma than Vax and Jester is Jester, so they’re more likely to persuade him sooner to stand down. On the other hand, they’re also less likely to sacrifice their whole turns to devote their attention to him, so that might hurt their chances. If they fail, he plays the same role in the fight, with perhaps a higher chance of being more ruthlessly targeted by Yasha and Fjord, who don’t think favorably of betrayal. 

The Terrain

This was a relatively minor factor in comparison to those above, but the rough terrain, the big crater, and the damage taken from the glass did eat through movement and HP. Unavoidable in most cases, but can be mitigated by most of the members to whom it would matter. Beau’s a zippy girl, so she can reach any point on the battlefield at the cost of some HP. If Yasha has her wings, it becomes almost a non-factor for her. Poor Veth is the only one really stuck with it, but she’s ranged, so even then it wouldn’t hamper her too much. 

Orthax

Funnily enough, Orthax was probably the least significant factor in this fight, at least on a broad scale. He came out a few rounds in, the sunlight lowered his AC and put his attacks at disadvantage, and he didn’t get many shots in at VM. He has the ability to cause PCs to attack each other, but it’s a rechargeable ability, seems to only affect melee attacks, and doesn’t sustain. He did take two death saves off of Percy and made him waste his last bullet on friendly fire that might otherwise have gone to Ripley, but in a macro scale he wasn’t much of a threat. Against a party with two clerics and a padlock, he’d probably have an even harder time. Just flick a Banishment his way, or a solid 5th level divine smite, and he ceases to be a problem. 

Conclusion

I think the most important factor of the M9 coming off well in this fight would be the ability to focus fire in the right places, ensure the mage can’t deal major group damage, and to protect their clerics. They’ve shown a reasonable ability to pull that off if they’re on a straight battlefield and all together, and as long as their rolls for saves and counters aren’t abysmal, I could again see the M9 coming out of this encounter much more smoothly than VM, their higher percentage of spellcasters being the biggest factor in tipping the scales. Not to mention, even if someone dies, the M9 are almost always ready for that situation. VM had just come from Ank’Harel, a large city, and the M9 make it a point to get stocked on diamonds whenever they have some downtime. Plus, at this level, they would have three party members capable of resurrecting a fallen teammate, with Caleb using his 14th level Transmuter’s Stone ability. The fight against Ripley and her crew would definitely require more brainpower, and depending on their luck could be just as difficult if not more so than it was for VM, but with the right rolls on their side, their wide variety of unpredictable tools, and plenty of healing available to keep the team up, the M9 would probably have this fight in the bag too. 

(Side note: I wonder if the outcomes of these two party-swaps I’ve done have more to do with the players being more experienced and accustomed to working as a unit after all their time playing together, or if it has to do with party composition and how Matt constructs the encounters to challenge them personally. I’m sure both factor in at least a little, but I might have to do VM in one of the M9′s fights at some point just to see. There’s a lot fewer to pick from, since the M9 are still just catching up to the levels we met VM in, and projecting forward is easier than taking levels off of the characters, but I guess we’ll see. If you read through this chonk, I hope it was worth it!)

[olderthannetfic]

It’s International Fanworks Day and also the 30th and final post in this series. If you follow my tumblr, you know that my true fandom isn’t buddy cops or Highlander or any of those things. No, my true fandom is...

WANK

No matter which bitchy piece of fujo-course nonsense you’re looking at on tumblr, no matter which debate about WNGWJLEO or women in slash or fanfiction vs. media you're reblogging, your grandma was having that fight in a zine somewhere in 1985 and at Escapade in the 90s.

Here’s a vid review from 2002:

"History Repeating," [...] was an Amanda vid. In-fucking-credible. Who knew? Who knew I could like Amanda? Who knew there were fresh HL clips I hadn't seen a thousand times before in HL vids? (Of course, as someone pointed out, she had her own spin-off.) This rocked--sharp, fast cutting and pretty, pretty shots, with a hot bisexy vibe running through it. And, you know, people like to say that there's all this self-hating misogyny in fans--you know, that women hate shows about women, hate women characters breaking up the OTP, etc. But when you see a femme-centric vid like this bring down the house, you really have to wonder. Is it misogyny, really, or is just that we usually see a bunch of crap representations of women in media and resist them?

So on the theme of There Is Nothing New Under The Sun, here is a selection of past Escapade panels on gender, representation, and problematicness:

1993 - Anti-Feminism in Slash Fandom (Or, how 'it was never this good with a woman' syndrome... where are the women, and why do we care?)

1995 - Why Lesbians Read Slash - (What's the attraction? Why do they care? Why do they write it?)

1996 - Character Bisexuality: Convenient fiction or character trait? (Is this a good compromise between "We're not gay, we just love each other" and "I was gay all along and just faking it with women"? Or is this too easy? Special mention for the stereotypical bisexual villian who's evil, sexy, and can come on to everyone.)

1996 - Female Heroes: Female Empowerment, or male power in women's bodies? (Give a woman a gun and make her really tough. Wow, cool! yes, or no? Are we celebrating women, or are we merely putting breasts on male action heroes? Heroines under discussion may include (but not be limited to) Sara Connor, Ripley, Vasquez, Thelma & Louise.)

1997 - Gender Astigmatism (The Gender Continuum: in what we read, in what we write, and what we are, there is always a connection with a point on the gender continuum. How do our definitions of "feminine" and "masculine" influence our creativity? Where do bisexual characters fit in? (besides there, you dirty-minded person!)

1998 - Xena: Does Girl-Slash Get Us Going? (Xena is the first show with a feminine couple to be really popular. What kind of slash fans are interested? Does gender orientation matter? Or do slash fans love slashy couples regardless of their gender? Can m/m fans be 'converted' to f/f fans?)

1998 - Bastards & the Women Who Love Them (When Methos says, "you live to serve me," any normal '90s woman says, "I don't think so!... or does she? A happy contemplation on the virtues of handsome thugs.)

1998 - Slash: a Continuation of Women's Writing, led by Constance Penley (In case you didn't know, in her recent book NASA/TREK (yes, the slash is intentional), she addressed slash as a continuum of women's writing, combining women's romance, and the male quest romance. Join her for a discussion of slash -- where it was, where it is, where it might be going.)

1998 - The Trauma of Slash Fans in Het Fandoms (Or, what to do when find women doing all that cool, tough-guy stuff you love.)

1999 - Male Slash Fans - Welcome Voice, or Infringement? (Slash is written by women for women — or is it? The Internet has attracted new fans, including the "male slash fan". Who is he? What does he think of what "we" do? Do we care?)

2002 - Femslash (General discussion on female/female slash fiction. If Buffy wanted something cold and hard between her legs, why didn't she just choose silicon?)

2003 - Slash: Feminist political act or really good porn?

2005 - Where have all the lesbians gone? (When some slash lists explicitly state m/m only, where do you go for femslash? Are there any hot femslash couples? Pimp your femslash fandom here, or bemoan the lack of strung female characters in the current conservative social climate.)

2007 - Femslash: The Other Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name (Femslash. It's a work that makes some of our hearts leap for joy and inspires complete and total disinterset—or even dislike and disdain—in others. Where can we find the good stuff? What makes it good? And what's up with the haters?)

2007 - SGA: The Women of Atlantis (What do we like about how the women of SGA are written and portrayed, and what makes us wince? What do we think about how their issues are being woven into the show's narrative?)

2008 - Gay is Not Slash (...even though slash is sometimes gay. The current argument about m/m romances by women as taking recognition *away* from male gay writers, depends on m/m writing being intended as gay lit. And slash, for one, isn't, even if there can be overlap. What overlaps? What doesn't? What examples do fans like?

2009 - Female Character Stories: Halfamoon, Full Moon or Just Moony (F/f slash, and other stories centered on female characters, are gaining visibility in fandom. Are there things fens will write about women that we won't about men? (Given MPreg, *are* there?) Should f/f be like m/m, or is it unavoidably different?)

2011 - My ***** is Not Ideologically Driven, But is it Homophobic (Slash fandom often sees itself as a mostly liberal community. IDIC, right? But recently there's been a slash backlash: it's anti-feminist, a 'symptom' of internalized misogyny. We're 'erasing' the women characters after all. Is slash homophobic? Does slash fandom appropriate gay culture? Is it awesome and ennobling as it makes us happy in our panties, or is all that self-hatred bubbling just beneath the surface of our porn?)

2012 - Natural Woman (We've lamented the lack of strong, believable female characters (who dress appropriately). But now we have them: Gemma Teller and Audrey Parker; Salt and Haywire; we've got Bechdel-passing women who look like they can throw a punch. Still, most of them are in the sci-fi or action genre, so are we really seeing progress? And what are we doing with them, as fans?)

2012 - Don't Call It a Bromance (It's Just Canon) (TPTB are increasingly aware of slash, and bromance is regular fare on TV canon these days. Does overt bromance make the fic and art hotter or just vanilla? Is there an anti-slash backlash in our shows? Is the emphasis on men's relationships making women disappear? Inquiring minds want to know. If you have answers, theories, or just want to squee, join in the fun!)

2014 - (The End of?) Ladybashing in Slashfic (Slashfic used to regularly feature bashing of female characters. Now, blatant bashing seems less fashionable. If you recognize this trend, let's talk! Were most ladybashing fics ones for juggernaut pairings in megafandoms, or were they everywhere? What's causing the change: more women in leading roles/ensemble casts, fic writers being more conscious to avoid bashing ladies even if they're not their favorites, more willingness to blame show writers' bad writing (instead of the character being just bad/evil/stupid) for bad female characters, or something else entirely?)

2015 - Fifty Shades of Fandom (Fifty Shades of Grey has become the representation of fan fiction in mainstream culture. It’s bad fan fiction, and it’s being used to ridicule women while making millions off women readers and viewers. Can we connect with these women: proto-fans who would love to read, and maybe write, great fan fiction if they found it? Can we use the FSoG phenomenon to expand our community? Does keeping our doors closed and our mouths shut perpetuate both monetization of our fan culture and misogynist scorn?)

2016 - Who Are We? (How do we define ourselves in this age of so many OT3s and team orgy pairings? Does m/m/f count as "slash"? Is slash-only space slipping away? (And would that be bad?) Do m/m and f/f belong together more than they do with m/f? Is "Media Fandom" a valid term any longer? Who are we if we start shipping het?)

2016 - Ladies Loving Ladies. (There would seem to be enough queer women in fandom to write/want more f/f. Do lesbians write f/f, m/m? Both? Do straight women? Or are we still missing the iconic female characters and relationships that create a great slash fandom? Did they figure out the answer to this question at TGIF/F and if so, what is it?)

2016 - By Us For Us (Fic, even kinky slash, is practically mainstream these days. The ebook revolution puts publishing within reach of almost anyone. Sundance hits have been filmed on iPhones. So why aren't fangirls making more media? Or is it happening right under our noses? Is this a place where our women's gift economy does our community a disservice? Discuss what's out there, what we'd like to see, and what's holding us back.)

2017 - LGBTQIA+ in Slash Fandom (Queer fans have always been here. In a subculture often defined as "for" straight women, what do we as fans have to say about non-straight, non-cis, and non-conventional sexuality and gender in fanfiction, in fandom, and in the larger culture?)

2018 - Confronting the Tensions Between Slash and Queer Representation (Slash fandom thrives on homoerotic subtext. Many queer fans are unwilling to settle for this quasi-representation. Part of every slash fandom seems loudly invested in their ship becoming canon. Some are queer fans who want actual textual representation in their favorite shows, and some are fans using queer politics to fight ship wars. Then the “slash is not activism” posts make the rounds. Is slash activism? Is advocating for slash ships in canon the same thing as advocating for queer representation?)

2018 - Representing Slashers (What does "representation" in the media mean to us? We know what more gay or POC representation means, but what about slash fandom, which is largely female and focused on bodies that don't resemble our own? Would better female characters in media better represent us? Or male characters written for a female audience? Come talk about the intersection of slash, personal identity, and media representation.)

2018 - Anonymity in Slash Fandom: Choosing to Hide (Why do the majority of slash fans hide their hobby? Is it fear of blackmail? Embarrassment? Fear of losing employment? How does this affect your happiness? How does this affect your security? What would an ideal world look like? Who would/have you told about your interest in slash? Who would you never, ever, tell?)

2019 - Fandom Post-Slash? (In an era of "ships" and #pairing #tags on Tumblr and AO3, has the "slash" label lost its meaning? Same-gender pairings are as popular as ever and fans still ID pairings with a virgule between the names, but how many fans still call m/m and f/f slash or femslash? How many fans identify as "slashers?" Het and slash were opposing binaries which few fans crossed. Are these barriers breaking down? What purpose has the term "slash" served? Has fandom moved

past it and, if so, what does that mean?)

[theorynexus]

77:   Why am I so hungry?

That subtitle was totally unrelated to this post. I just am. Okay, this is actually the next day, now. It turns out I wasn’t able to complete this post yesterday for some reason or another. Let’s get this show on the road, now. ...

I continue to appreciate the echoing effects of certain phraseologies, reactions, and conversations throughout Paradox Space, even when the same people are not the ones uttering them.

That’s soooo cuuuute!~   (The knitting, not Jane’s behavior. Though I could be sarcastically insulting her by saying as such, that is not what is going on right now.)

This is really all quite beautiful. Though it is a little sad that Kanaya laughs at Karkat’s eligibility, I suppose it is reasonable that she of all people would recognize the difficulty of his fit into the role.

Ohhh gasp! A new character!  And one who seems to be born for the role that they’re playing!  Very, very interesting~ More importantly: I am glad to see that Hussie is sticking to the idea that the gods influence their universe in some abstract ways following its creation.  Though this could also be as a result of her actually being in the world (after all, vectors of influence in a media-savvy, highly developed world can be quite potent, indeed!), I like to think that that is not necessarily the case, at least.

Honestly, that actually sounds quite beautiful. It’s something of a shame that she wants to swiff that way~

Yeah, I can certainly see why watching a bloated monster excrete eggs and bloody rainbow slime might turn one off from the idea.  Reminds me of the scene from Alien 4. The one with the Alien Queen that had been altered with Ripley’s DNA. You know what I’m talking about.   Bloody disturbing is what that is. Not that I can’t understand why it might be beautiful to trolls.  However, the thought of being a mostly sessile organism whose sole purpose is the release of eggs is something I’m sure most human women would not be too fond of, naturally.  Not that I’m meaning to kink shame any who happen to find that kind of thing arousing. It’s just, well, realistically... a bit problematic for my tastes.

To be fair, Dave’s always had a desire to be an influencer.  That said: his theoretical actions were also aimed as a necessary retaliation to Jane’s own departure from the proper equilibrium. I do not blame Dave for that decision, and honestly think that it’s actually the responsible thing to do.  The only thing that might allow evil to prosper in the world when there are people with the capacity to stop it is for those people to let the matter fester and rot everything around it. Those who have the capacity to stop its rise have a responsibility to do so-- or at least to try. To fail to have done so, and simply to have allowed Jane to run unopposed would be nearly as unethical as actively supporting her, knowing that her intention was to perpetrate a campaign of reproductive control and gradual genocide-- or at least that she was likely to do so, given all of the evidence that they had available.   As such, I can place no blame on Dave in regard to this.

This is because Dirk is subtle, and thus insidious, as much of the world’s worst evil happens to be. To bring him up is not something so obvious as to question the somewhat flagrant behavior of the one he would pull the strings of.

I think that it is probably good for her to be taking things slow and focusing on the “now” while she recovers, but I do hope she doesn’t reject that greater calling for too long. Worrying about things in general can be a very healthy thing. Particularly for a seer.  Her responsibility as a god did not cease when the universe was created.

Rose is right to question that. Just because things have calmed down for a moment doesn’t mean a long-term threat like ambition is going to totally fade.  Mind you, it may very well do so, considering Jane’s present desire to break away from things, but they do not know that to be in play. Besides, as I was saying, being gods, they have a very long-term horizon to consider. Honestly, Dave and Jane wanting to be concerned at least to some extent with the flow of the economy might not really be so bad, if neither of them was intent on essentially bending the wills of others to their own desires in order to see the path they had in mind be blazed by their civilization. Unfortunately, the level of interference a god ought to have in a society (especially one so peacefully-developed as this one is) is a matter that is sticky and somewhat difficult to properly establish as a hard-and-fast rule. Even so, 0 interference is something they couldn’t do even if they actively tried.

For one, they aren’t old. I do certainly know the feeling of a young person thinking that they are old right as they cross into adulthood, though, so I won’t begrudge them that. More importantly:  Pffft.  You think that marriage takes away the need/impulse to be cool?   What a silly one you are.  It just means the development of more in-jokes and maybe the redirection of where the coolness might have to go.  ;3 (I am a very silly person too, yes.) ... What the heck does “Bank’s closed” mean?

Cartoonishness aside, this is all a rather nice scene.  I appreciate the little touches like the fact that Rose is hesitant to dip her legs in the muck that Kanaya has already become comfortable with. It’s very interesting to hear that the grubs chew through their own eggs, by the way!   Also that the legs are off-beat, which I suppose might mean that the grubs have to get used to walking?  Very, very curious stuff!

You mean like grub paste?   Man, mulched flesh... that is a weird image. I guess it means like hamburger?

***can’t help but release intermittent giggles because of the incredible dramatic irony factors, here***     On a more serious note, though, it is really interesting to see that trolls having actual ancestors is a relatively rare thing, despite the emphasis that Highbloods put on the idea of everyone having one.

And also the hearts of all who read this in the foreseeable future, I’m sure.   Man... the idea of Vriska actually having a chance at a life with responsible and non-abusive parental figures is such a dream come true!   And honestly... this particular scenario is a very interesting one, in particular. Not one I would have ever considered possible!   Not sure it technically counts, but ‘t’is very interesting+captivating, nonetheless!

Yeeessss!~  Perfection! <3 Though honestly I am still not convinced that Vriska will not be eventually saved via Retcanon-involved dramatic dives and flourishes, but I do in fact believe that she is dead as can be right now, considering Rose’s vision.  Despite the fact that the Void of the Green Sun Black Hole should block most Light from penetrating its mysteries and escaping, I think that Rose’s powers would be the ones to be capable of it, if anything in reality can do so. 

And I’m sure that shall include when the little child gets up to just the right kind of mischief and messes with their various irons in the fire.   X3

[orbemnews]

Cybercrime Hits the Pump Hackers take down a major fuel pipeline One of the U.S.’s biggest pipeline operators, Colonial Pipeline, disclosed late last week that it was forced to shut down after it was hit by ransomware. It’s a sobering reminder that cybercrime is one of the most serious threats that companies face. Colonial acknowledged that its corporate computer network had been hit, crippling the company that supplies 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel. (A criminal gang known as DarkSide was identified as the perpetrator.) While the shutdown, now in its third day, hasn’t yet had a major impact on the markets for gasoline, diesel or jet fuel, analysts warned prolonged downtime could lead to higher gas prices as demand rises when the economy fully reopens. Colonial declined to say when it would restart operations. Cybercrime is on the rise. U.S. officials note that the frequency and sophistication of ransomware attacks has soared in recent months, targeting police departments, hospitals and manufacturers. Companies are often reluctant to reveal much information about these attacks, making the scope of hacks difficult to gauge; last year, a ransomware attack took an unnamed natural gas facility offline for two days, according to a vague statement from the government at the time. The attack on Colonial comes months after news of the hacking of the network services provider SolarWinds, which Russia has been accused of orchestrating. The Biden administration is weighing how to respond. The White House had already been planning an executive order to create new digital safety standards for federal agencies and contractors, as well as new disclosure rules. Government officials have conceded that the order as currently planned wouldn’t stop the most skilled hackers from infiltrating computer networks, though they say it might have helped prevent hacks like the Colonial incident. In the meantime, the Department of Transportation passed an emergency order yesterday relaxing rules on transporting fuel via road in some states. This latest attack highlights the vulnerability of infrastructure to cyber attacks. President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan doesn’t have a lot to say about cybersecurity specifically, so how to protect these projects from attacks could become yet another point of contention in the already heated debate over the bill. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING New warnings about how the coronavirus spreads. U.S. officials acknowledged that the virus is airborne and can reach people more than six feet away, raising questions about how employers can redesign offices to reduce the spread. Still, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was open to relaxing indoor mask mandates — so long as Americans continue to get vaccinated. 1MDB sues JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. The failed Malaysian sovereign fund sued 25 individuals and nine entities, a list that includes the two Western lenders, Bloomberg reports. It’s the latest fallout from a bribery scandal in which Goldman Sachs admitted last year to a role in abetting crimes. The fight over unemployment benefits heats up. Friday’s disappointing jobs report stoked debate over whether the Biden administration’s policies are working. Republicans (and some Democrats) argue that the $300 weekly supplement is discouraging people from finding work; others say any clogs in the labor market are temporary. Investors rebel against executive pay. Shareholder votes in favor of U.S. executives’ compensation have fallen to their lowest level — an average of 88 percent — since 2011, the year that “say on pay” votes became mandatory, The Financial Times reports. So far this year, six S&P 500 companies have failed to win a majority of support for pay packages. An online cheating scandal is roiling Dartmouth. The school accused 17 medical students of cheating on remote exams. The allegations have caused an uproar at the university — several students say the software was at fault — and highlighted issues around the tracking of students without their consent. Dogecoin: Who is the joke on? In this year of crypto craziness, the funniest money of all is Dogecoin. The token that started as a joke, riffing off a popular internet meme, has generated scarcely believable returns and distracted from more serious discussions about the future of cryptocurrency (see the separate item below for more on that). Is Elon Musk really taking Dogecoin to the moon? That’s what the Tesla C.E.O. has been pledging to do, literally and figuratively. Yesterday, he tweeted that one of his other companies, SpaceX, is “launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year — Mission paid for in Doge.” The announcement came the morning after he dropped a few Dogecoin references as host of “Saturday Night Live,” at one point calling the token “a hustle.” Dogecoin fell by nearly a third in price on the night of the show. It was such an eventful night for the cryptocurrency that the Robinhood trading app couldn’t keep up. SpaceX and Geometric Energy Corporation are indeed teaming up to carry a 90-pound satellite on a Falcon 9 moon mission, paid for with Dogecoin, according to a statement yesterday. “Having officially transacted with DOGE for a deal of this magnitude, Geometric Energy Corporation and SpaceX have solidified DOGE as a unit of account for lunar business,” said G.E.C.’s chief executive, Samuel Reid. Dogecoin is only disconcerting if you don’t get it? “It’s cheap, fun, viral and has a great potential for return,” Marcos Brakenridge, an undergraduate business student at the University of Kansas, told DealBook. Brakenridge, the treasurer of the student investment club, bet big on Dogecoin in February, when it was around a tenth of its current price, to make money for a down payment on real estate. Tens of thousands of dollars in returns later, he’s confident its value will keep going up because Musk — and the rest of us — keep making a fuss about it. Today in Business Updated  May 10, 2021, 7:48 a.m. ET “People just seemed shocked. They’re speechless. They’re really blindsided.” — A former executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on the couple’s divorce. The split makes personal a shift that confidants say was underway in their philanthropic roles, The Times reports. Ms. French Gates had consulted with divorce lawyers in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reports. Crypto goes to K Street Away from the memes and manias, the cryptocurrency industry is maturing, as shown by its growing contingent of lobbyists in Washington and a recent hiring spree of former regulators. The burst in activity comes amid growing enthusiasm from mainstream investors and increased concern from regulators, The Times’s Eric Lipton reports. Clarity on how to regulate digital assets is likely years away, Eric told DealBook. This month, the House passed a bill backed by crypto lobbyists to create a working group to examine frameworks for regulating digital assets. “The bill the House passed is a sign of how far they are from doing anything substantive in Congress,” Eric said. “There is no consensus on how to go forward and there are serious rivalries in the industry.” Congress usually acts in response to disaster, said Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, at the House vote, noting that the F.D.I.C. was created after the Great Depression, and the C.F.P.B. came after the 2008 financial crisis. The bill, he noted, was a chance “to act proactively toward financial innovation rather than to address gaps in our regulatory framework after the fact.” The bill is now with the Senate Banking Committee. “Financial regulators have been slow when it comes to protecting consumers from private-sector digital assets that add more risks to our financial system,” Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the committee chair, told DealBook in a statement. He declined to provide a timeline for advancing the legislation. Until there are rules, it’s all about enforcement. In December, the S.E.C. sued Ripple Labs, creator of a popular crypto platform, saying its token, XRP, is an unregistered security. The company argues that XRP is a commodity, like Bitcoin, and has enlisted lobbyists, lawyers and other well-connected advocates to make its case. The lawsuit has persuaded other industry players to get more involved in crafting rules “because right now it is like the Wild, Wild West,” said John E. Deaton, a lawyer who moved to intervene in the enforcement action against Ripple. On work and vaccines On Friday, we wrote about one of the most vexing issues facing boardrooms: Should companies mandate that employees get vaccinated before returning to the workplace? We asked for your thoughts, and many of you shared opinions, personal experiences and suggestions for handling this complex issue. Here is a small selection, edited for clarity: “The way we’re doing it at our company is, if you submit a reason from your doctor or you have a religious belief or some other valid reason not to get the vaccination yet, you are required to be tested weekly and submit the results to H.R.” — Patricia Ripley, New York City “We don’t know the long-term dangers of these vaccines. They may be bad or good. No one knows. Our employers should not be able to simply ignore any of our worries and concerns.” — Brandon Atchison, Verbena, Ala. “I strongly support employer mandates. A few well-publicized firings will end the ‘hesitancy,’ but the firings must be backed up by classifying them as ‘for cause.’ That means no severance for executives and no unemployment for staff who refuse.” — Paul Levy, Carolina Beach, N.C. “Individual rights are the cornerstone of American democracy — trampling them for the vaccine rollout is a dangerous precedent. People seem to forget that these ‘temporary changes’ end up as permanent, with the result that your employer can now compel greater access to your personal decision-making.” — Anonymous “An unvaccinated person exposes everyone in the office, including visiting customers and clients, to the virus. Why should everyone else be jeopardized because of one person? Simply let unvaccinated people continue to work at home and suffer any consequences to their career paths that may result.” — Joseph Carlucci, White Plains, N.Y. THE SPEED READ Deals More than 30 tech start-ups received taxpayer-funded rescue loans — and then went public via SPACs less than a year later. (WSJ) Simon Property Group and Authentic Brands agreed to buy Eddie Bauer, adding to their stable of clothing brands. (Reuters) Politics and policy Norwegian Cruise Line threatened to keep its ships out of Florida ports after the state barred businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. (NYT) “Policymakers Used to Ignore Child Care. Then Came the Pandemic.” (NYT) Maya Angelou and Sally Ride will feature on a series of quarters to be issued by the U.S. Mint. (NYT) Tech Jeff Bezos sold $5 billion worth of Amazon stock days after the company disclosed stellar earnings. (Bloomberg) Clubhouse is finally available on Android, but the audio chat app’s popularity on iOS continues to decline. (Insider) Best of the rest U.S. and European banks are split on how quickly workers should be brought back to the office. (FT) Netflix said it won’t work with the group behind the Golden Globes until it improves diversity within its ranks. (Deadline) An internal Walmart memo bluntly laid out the challenges the retail giant faces to maintain its dominance. (Recode) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Cybercrime #hits #pump

[lovelyfantasticfart]

Basketball Suggestions You Won't Find In Other Locations

3. when property costs are going down : owner will attempt to promote the property no less than revenue or least value. If we return to the query, why is property worth what it's, using the precise data, the outcomes are all the more regarding for actual estate bulls. Adding to the effect is an art installation of more than a thousand hand-folded, white paper boats hanging from the ceiling with string in a floating mass from one excessive window throughout the room to another. The thriving economy of Vancouver make condos a terrific possibility for the working professional, the young first time home buyer or the child boomer inhabitants downsizing to a more suitable location for their altering lifestyle. Vancouver condos have lowered housing value averages in the city, based on a brand new Royal LePage actual estate survey. And it鈥檚 gone through a worth correction already, while Hong Kong hasn鈥檛. And, this helps to make sure the market will attain its target targets for the 2015 yr. The tax took impact on August 2nd of this year.

Whole listings had been up 15.6 per cent from August 2017 and finished the month four per cent above the ten year August common. As you will recall, in our final publish we shared with you the above meme which we present in our in-box. It hasn't. And when it does get pulled, we will see that tipping level. Christmas Reward Suggestions Bulky Sweaters For Girls o see Professor McGonagall in regards to the Firebolt,wonderfully stunning maiden of sixteen, a race to the steeple. Toy autos resembling recycling truck, hearth engine or any race automotive are the last word to encourage the imaginative play. They do not have the lush, world-famous gardens of Vancouver's west aspect, however they're nonetheless fairly inexperienced for a undertaking half-hour from Beijing's airport. Generally in south from Mexico and Cuba, and could be as far west as Siberia. Keep engaged on it, even if your property is already available on the market. Have money mechanically deducted out of your checking account each month to buy stocks, bonds, or go into a money market. It could also be a greater proposition just to buy a fancier home, if that鈥檚 actually what you Need.

You could have been fired by a pc. As the city is getting recognition daily, it becomes very powerful to have one's dream dwelling here. Christopher Alexander, the govt vice president for Re/Max Integra, Ontario-Atlantic Canada, noting that costs have steadily increased by double digits within the luxury sector 12 months over year. Although the entire world is eager about investing in Canada, and investment has risen significantly over latest years, it's the Chinese language funding in the country that has actually turned heads. Asia, and typically even going back and forth over completely different generations. The information comes amid concern from the provincial government over the actual Property Council鈥檚 ability to self-regulate. For the actual estate industry in Vancouver, the future seems to be like notably promising. Employment opportunities in Burnaby are much diverse, including main brand names like Digital Arts, Eastman Kodak, Future Shop, HSBC, Nokia, TELUS, Translink and major petro-chemical operations by Chevron Company.

And with US President Donald Trump鈥檚 2018 state of the union speech, it appears to be like just like the US is on its method to its greatest financial development in history. Bad correspondence can by no means be a barrier in shopping for the true estate of your choice, which is why it is efficacious that you just make your realtor learn your thought course of and point of view in the acquisition of your estate. Tops Recommendations on Soccer That Anybody Can Comply with out is merely obtaining in entrance of the other participant when the shot is within the air. And if you鈥檙e in hurry and want to settle down in areas inside the city from the place you can easily access your workplace; you can find it immediately. Actual estate brokers included in Top Agent Journal aren't exclusively the top producing real estate brokers in Washington. Metro Vancouver has hitched its wagon to the technology workhorse, however speaking at the Vancouver Real Estate Technique and Leasing Convention this previous November, Colliers Worldwide senior vice-president Scott Chandler said residential real estate is the linchpin holding every thing collectively.

The Index Data just isn't a proposal or recommendation to purchase or promote or a solicitation of a suggestion to purchase or promote any security or instrument or to participate in any explicit trading technique. Purchasing a house is probably the single most costly factor most people will ever purchase. This placement will allow you to hit the ball as powerfully as possible. It was on this evening that Chang, dressed as a rich service provider, got here to the nice feast. And in order that they were discovered. As Robert Ripley might say, "consider it or not", yes there are good deals to be discovered. When you find yourself remaining at a lodge, it is a very good thought to depart a tiny suggestion for the housekeeping personnel. We are here to cater to your wants. Full kitchen has all white cabinets and all white appliances with tiled backsplash. Newly remodeled kitchen with SS appliances, new counters and backsplash. Water Meter: Now turn off all the taps in your own home, and take an in depth look on the water meter. Our subconscious exists to protect us; however the very element that's working on defending us is actually destroying our chances at monetary independence.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/3jZZvCY

[raceandspeculation]

Ripley and Feminism

Alien and Aliens focus on underlying theme of feminism and its effect on gender roles, motherhood, and race by examining the main character: Ellen Ripley. The first film, Alien, takes us back to the late 1970s, the pinnacle of the second-wave feminist movement, and illuminates the deep, repressed fears of that era’s men. Alien is recognized as a feminist film because of it’s representation of the workplace that welcomes the notion of a place where traditional gender roles are eliminated. The men’s fear and anxiety that lingers under the surface focuses on the equalizing of the sexes and how that might also lead to the blending of sexual biology.               Alien begins on the spaceship Nostromo. A crew is revealed to be in hybersleep returning to Earth but then a distress call reroutes their mission and the crew travels to an unknown land to explore the issue further. Upon their crew investigating the area, Officer Kane makes contact with an egg and a pregnancy occurs. Not the traditional form of pregnancy however. It is Kane who becomes impregnated when the creature attaches itself to his face and releases sexual fluids into his mouth. This pregnancy and eventual birth of the Alien monster is one of the most pivotal scenes in this film due to the fact that a male is “giving birth”. The article “Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader” describes the film to have played on the anxieties set loose by a decade of feminist and gay activism. Looking for a warm host for their eggs, the aliens didn't bother about the niceties of sexual difference. When the baby burst from John Hurt’s chest, it cancelled the distinction on which human culture is based.(Taubin,94)

               Men and women are shown to be equal on the reproductive scale through this scene. The penis is no longer the object of male power, the men’s unconscious fear of feminism is revealed: that sexual difference will be eliminated along with gender, leading to the equal distribution of reproductive duties, regardless of sexual orientation. Men will have to share the burden of pregnancy and birth. The scene challenges the viewer to objectively look at the opposite sex as opposed to the regular subjective lens that societal pressures place on the shoulder’s of the human person. Society enforces the notion that men go to work, take care of women, that men are the strong heroes. Women however, are seen to be submissive care takers who stay at home with their children and tend to household chores. The baby alien protruding through Kane’s body allows viewers to see revered roles.             Alien and Aliens both shine light on female empowerment through Ripley’s heroic character. Alien illuminates Ripley’s independence and intelligence. She is a woman among a predominantly male crew that is the lone survivor in the end. She is the hero of this film, the brave fighter, and a role model to women. Ripley then evolves in Aliens as a maternal and more vulnerable character. She is seen through a maternal lens in this film in the way she takes care of Newt, the young orphan girl. She is a powerhouse, Ripley kicks ass and defends Newt against the Alien creature in this film. She is seen as a woman who can do it “all”. The opposite gender roles that Ripley and Kane shine light on the fact that women too can be strong, they can do it all by themselves without men. Through Ripley, women are shown that they too can push through their problems and fight through their personal struggles. Ripley is a mother, a colleague, a friend, a woman, but most importably she is a survivor.               The first film casts the idea that Ripley is a supporting character at the beginning due to the fact that we are introduced to a male character before we meet her. The article also acknowledges this when it states “Although Ripley is the protagonist of Alien and Aliens, their narratives are not a function of her point of view. Often she seems as alienated (indeed!) from the story that’s constructed around her as she is from her coworkers, or from the company itself”(Taubin,96) Ripley is seen as a someone in the background, the viewers question whether to follow her at first because she is not given protagonist qualities towards the beginning of the film. Science Fiction and Action films tend to view women as the “sidekick” or lover of the male superhero.The women in these films are hyper-sexualized and made to attract a male audience. However, in this film, Ripley is seen once in modest underwear as she changes. She has boy like features, no make up, and is allowed to sweat. Ripley stands tall on her own merit. She isn't seen as action barbie but as a real woman taking on the challenge to save her life as well as the lives of her crew members. In the end, Ripley achieves victory against the monstrous Alien, but the victory- the film’s representation of feminist victory- leaves her isolated in the depths of space. The final scene shows Ripley as the lone survivor headed back to Earth in hybersleep. This emphasized male anxiety in the face of feminism: that a feminist victory can only be achieved by the elimination of gender roles.                The monstrous Alien is a mix of both male and female. The teeth are what stand out most because the teeth are what kill. It’s inner and outer jaw represent the vagina while the process for killing it’s prey, a giant erection-complete with teeth and dripping with semen-like ooze- shoots out of the Alien’s mouth to penetrate the flesh. This poses sexual confusion within the film but also serves as a representative of gender equality. Both sexes represented equally in the form of a  foreign creature. This allows the viewer to visually look at the roles intermixed without entirely freaking out because it is still fictitious. It poses a “what if” sort of speak. The role of the alien represents the societal issues at hand. That is why it is so scary, it’s controversial. It’s meant to ask the questions and get people to pay attention to their own societies. To look around and critique their situation.            The second film surrounds itself around feminism as well but also of nature and motherhood. Ripley is seen as the good and kind mother while the alien is situated as a bad and dangerous mother. Ripley is presented as caring, nurturing, and protective towards Newt while the alien is at it’s most destructive and is nightmarish. If Ripley is the prototypical, upper-middle-class WASP, the alien queen bears a suspicious resemblance to a favorite scapegoat of the Reagan/Bush era- the black welfare mother, that parasite on the economy who's uncurbed reproductive drive reduced hard-working taxpayers to bankruptcy.(Taubin,96)

This film directly relates to the time period in which it was released. Ripley’s character is a white female who is celebrated for being the hero while  another feminine figure in this movie, the alien, is seen as dangerous and toxic. Women of color are not brought to light in this film, there is an issue that arises here. Women of color are not given a seat when feminism is on the table. Feminism is seen as something white women advocate for but when it come to women of color there is hardly fair representation. The white woman in this film is seen to have family values all the while fighting for liberation. The alien queen is villanized and must be conquered. The queen is shown negatively because she poses a threat to the Ripley, and therefore, women who resonate with her. The queen is not given a point of view.  This shows that not only is there gender inequality between the sexes, but also inequality within the female gender alone. The final scene in this movie illuminates this conflict by placing Ripley above the alien. Ripley is seen to be the mother who will stand up for her child and fight for her own life but the alien wants to destroy that. The relationship between the two mothers mirrors societal expectations placed respectively on the white woman’s shoulders to be nurturing and loving all the while forcing the idea that minorities are savages that need to be taken care of.             Ripley pioneers her way throughout these two films to provide an example of what it would look like if there was gender equality. The celebration of the female superhero is showcased in both of these films as well. Ripley is a strong, tall, and intelligent woman who takes on multiple roles throughout the story line. She bravely takes on multiple challenges in order to ensure Newt’s survival as well as her own. The films Alien and Aliens both challenge societal issues in both of these movies. They highlight key elements on the fight for gender equality, race equality, and feminism. These movies transcend time due to their illumination of the issues that society still faces today.

Word Count: 1518

Works Cited Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader. Ed. Pam Cook and Philip Dodd. London: Scarlet, 1997. 94-96. Print. /.latest_citation_text

[businessliveme]

9 Travel Tips to Ease Your Trip from a Globe-Trotter

(Bloomberg) –At Bloomberg Pursuits, we love to travel. And we always want to make sure we’re doing it right. So we’re talking to globe-trotters in all of our luxury fields—food, wine, fashion, cars, real estate—to learn about their high-end hacks, tips, and off-the-wall experiences. These are the Distinguished Travel Hackers.

Ashley Glasson is brand director of LNA clothing, which was founded by her twin sister, Lauren Alexander, and friend April Leight. The California cool clothing brand, known for its rocker-chic basics, expanded into swimwear this year; the second LNA swim collection arrives next month.

Glasson prefers Delta Air Lines for international trips, but has a newfound love for Alaska Airlines domestically. She says it’s efficient, with a strong frequent-flyer program. “I get upgraded 95% of the time, and when they say ‘priority boarding,’ half the plane doesn’t get on.” Her annual mileage tally is from 100,000 miles to 125,000 miles. She lives in Beverly Hills with her dog.

Don’t take that sleeping pill on a plane until this exact moment

A friend of mine likes to take certain sleep aids when she travels. One time, though, she called me from a terminal while wandering around—her flight had been delayed and she’d had to get off. I wasn’t sure if she was going to make it back onto her plane. So when traveling with a sleep or relaxation aid for those longer-haul flights, you should always wait for the captain to announce “in-flight team, seats for takeoff.” Never find your seat, get settled, and take the pill, only to find yourself sleepwalking off the plane from unforeseen maintenance issues that have you deplaning and delayed.

When considering making a hotel your regular haunt, ask this unlikely question

I stay at the Ludlow in New York because it feels like home now—I’m there once a month. The best perk about being a regular is that most hotels keep a folio on you, noting what you like. This person likes to stay in corner rooms on high floors, for example, or they prefer red to white wine. But what really makes a difference is if the hotel staff doesn’t change over too often. Most of the staff at the Ludlow have been there for as long as I’ve been staying there. It’s a good test of a hotel: Ask the staff how long they’ve worked there. If they’ve been there for a year-plus, that’s a good sign to me.

Treat the airport lounge like a jet-set version of Cheers

And when you’re a regular flyer on a certain route, get to know the people at the airline lounge and put in requests for what you like. Some people don’t go to the airport to go to a lounge, but I like it. When I started going to the Alaska Airlines lounge at JFK—which is a very, very good lounge—they didn’t have Aperol and didn’t know what an Aperol spritz was. So I asked them about it. Now it’s on the menu.

Staffers at airports can provide more info than the airlines themselves

I follow airside operations on Instagram and check them on the way to the airport, especially during extreme weather, to see what the situation is like that day. It started when I began following an account that’s now been taken down: LAX Air Flight Ops. It was a bunch of guys who worked at the airport updating people with photos of planes taking off, what flights were delayed, stories of what their day was like. At any airport, search the hashtag #airsideops or #ATC to find accounts to follow.

Read: How to Survive the World’s Longest Flights in Style

Save space in your toiletry bag by swapping a few lotions for this product

I carry a jade face roller, which is an in-flight routine habit that I’ve picked up from my sister who is very, very into beauty. A lot of women like to travel with facial products, but they’re the hardest things to pack—there are so many of them. A jade roller from Herbivore is an easy way to depuff your face while you’re still in the air so you can arrive looking refreshed. It gets the circulation going in your face. On a long-haul flight, I use it both in the middle of the flight and upon landing.

Sidestep the tourists on the Amalfi Coast

There’s no place like the Amalfi Coast. Praiano is my favorite—it’s a little town between Amalfi and Positano and is very low-key. If you’re in Praiano, you’re shielded from the high traffic of tourism. I love the Hotel Grand Tritone, which has been there for 50 years. It’s reasonably priced, too; my room was $350, I think. A lot of those hotels [on the Amalfi Coast] don’t have beach clubs attached to them, but this is one of the few properties that has a private beach and a whole lounge area on the rocks attached to it. I went to Ischia [for the first time] this past August—it’s where they filmed The Talented Mr. Ripley, and I’ve heard it called the “new Capri.” It feels very classic, relaxed, and Italian. It’s a volcanic island, so our hotel had a collection of thermal baths. We swam in the Med, drank local wine, and ate rabbit, which Ischia is known for.

Bring two pairs of headphones on every trip…

I always bring a pair of old-school, wired headphones on every trip—the ones that actually plug into your iPhone. I have nightmares about losing one of my AirPods on a trip or a long-haul flight, and then what do you do? You just have one AirPod.

… and always pack this in any carry-on

If I’ve had to check a bag, I always put an extra outfit in my carry-on. I learned that on my last Virgin Atlantic flight to London. We hadn’t even taken off and an aggressive amount of tequila had been dropped into my lap. I didn’t enjoy spending 10 hours smelling like a bottle of silver Patrón. The flight attendants felt bad for me, because even though I was in Premium Economy, they let me sit at the real bar on board and drink martinis, James Bond-style.

You can still visit Tulum without splurging

The first place I went without parents was Tulum, Mexico, which now is obviously a very tourist-y, fashionable destination. When we went then, it wasn’t expensive; maybe the nicest hotel on the beach was $80. That same location? It’s now $900 or so. It’s wild what happened to Tulum, but I still go back, because I love Tulum very much. If you want to go, stay at Casa Pueblo. It’s a very mellow, underground kind of a hotel where lots of locals hang out. Or there’s a hotel called Amansala, which is on the first stretch of the beach and where the rooms are still reasonably priced. I love them. And go at Christmas, when Tulum is kinda empty. It will be crazy over New Year’s.

The post 9 Travel Tips to Ease Your Trip from a Globe-Trotter appeared first on Businessliveme.com.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2PZzXZF via IFTTT

[verschwoerer]

An accident at the California storage site would leave residents nowhere to run

On August 9, 2018, standing tall and looking the part of the hero, David Fritch stepped up to the lectern at a Community Engagement Panel meeting between the owner of a now shuttered nuclear power plant and local residents concerned about the beachfront disposal of nuclear waste.  “I may not have a job tomorrow,” he began, “But that’s fine. I made a promise to my daughter.”

Fritch introduced himself as an experienced nuclear power plant safety worker, sent around the country to oversee safety at various sites. He then reported what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) called a “near miss” incident at the radioactive waste storage facility of the local nuclear power plant.

On August 3, 2018,  a 100,000 pound thin-wall cask filled with deadly irradiated nuclear fuel got caught on a flange while being lowered into the steel-lined concrete vault of  the waste storage site, known as an ISFSI (independent spent fuel storage installation). The cask got stuck on a ¼” guide ring for about an hour over an 18-foot drop.

“It was a bad day…. And you haven’t heard about it,” said Fritch. “And that’s not right.”

It was “a bad day” at a place where close to 3.6 million pounds of high level irradiated commercial nuclear fuel are being rushed into the sands of a fragile bluff, one and a half feet above the mean high tide, 108 feet from the sea, near an active earthquake fault, in a tsunami inundation zone, behind an inadequate sea wall.

It was another “bad day” at the long troubled and now closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) and its radioactive waste burial site on San Onofre State Beach, the iconic birthplace of California surf culture. Coastal scientist and engineer, Rick Wilson of the Surfrider Foundation called it the worst waste site possible. Charles Langley, Director of Public Watchdogs and co-author of Radiological  Regulatory Failure, called it insane:  “Due to the danger from corrosion,” said Langley,  “you never put nuclear waste next to salt and water.

”The ISFSI opened on January 31, 2018 to public opposition from Orange County citizens groups concerned about nuclear safety, including San Onofre Safety, Public Watchdogs, and Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE).

Fritch explained to a stunned audience that the two-man loading team handling the incident did not know that this was the second serious cask loading incident. “Public safety should be first and it is not,” Fritch said. “Behind the gate, it is not.” 

Mandated by the NRC to report a nuclear incident in writing within an hour, Southern California Edison waited 42 days to issue their report, having informed the NRC three days after the incident via a “courtesy phone call.”  Forced to issue a response, the NRC subsequently concurred with Fritch’s account, admitting to the possibility of: “a load drop event,…[in which the cask] could have fallen 18 feet into the storage vault if it had slipped off the inner ring assembly.” 

How serious would the potential outcome have been had that nuclear waste cask fallen? Tom English, environmental engineer and former Presidential nuclear waste policy advisor, and local colleagues at UCSD and at the Samuel Lawrence Foundation, concluded that a cask could have “hit the concrete floor with the explosive energy larger than two sticks of dynamite.” They noted that based on the NRC’s own analysis of a similar dropped cask of slightly different dimensions, there was a 28 percent chance following a drop event that local residents would have needed to evacuate.

How can such a rate be acceptable in a highly populated area, they wondered? In a failure scenario caused by a steep drop of a cask, the air ducts could be damaged: “Water,” warned English, “would have to pour into the hole to cool the reaction and prevent or control a meltdown….As at Fukushima…the enveloping water would instantly become radioactive steam and require the evacuation of millions of people.”

Who would coordinate evacuation? Not the Marines standing guard across the freeway from SONGS nor any part of the federal government, which has opted out of any emergency or evacuation planning now that the nuclear plant is closed. Not by the state of California which has not come through with any comprehensive plan.

But even if there were government plans in place, nuclear emergency plans on paper are unlikely to be workable in real life. A serious accident could compromise the abutting rail line and freeway, the adjacent Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the Pacific Ocean, vast treasures of land and wildlife, and a state that is ranked as the world’s fifth largest economy.

By the end of 2019, Edison plans to house 73 radioactive waste casks on the shoreline site. Along with an older ISFSI on site housing 51 thin-wall casks about 100 feet further up the beach, SONGS will become the largest commercial irradiated fuel burial site in the nation. Each thin-wall cask weighs about 100,000 pounds, bolted shut and loaded with pez like pellets of uranium. “The amount of radioactive isotope, cesium 137, contained within each cask is equivalent to one Chernobyl accident worth of escaped radiation in the event of a through leak into the atmosphere,”  English told me.

Fritch’s allegation of an earlier cover-up of a loading event at the ISFSI  was verified by Nina Babiarz of Public Watchdogs in a sworn affidavit, and confirmed by the NRC in a Webinar on November 8, 2018, according to Langley.

In the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not of the story, there was yet another near-miss at the ISFSI.  Edison disclosed at a Community Engagement Meeting on March 21, 2018 that a four-inch bolt, used to secure a shim needed to circulate cooling helium within the nuclear waste cask, had fallen off, discovered right before the cask was to be filled and buried. Loading had been halted for 10 days but was once more underway.

Local nuclear safety advocates were horrified. What about the first four casks of the same model, already in the vault? Did they share the flaw, which could lead to overheating of the irradiated waste? The NRC declared it had made its inspection and found everything in order. However, no technology presently exists to inspect the interior of this model of thin-wall cask entombed in concrete.

Why would anyone rush to bury high-level radioactive waste on a state beach with high seismic and corrosion risks? In the opinion of Langley, there are two reasons: First, that Edison chose the old footprint of SONGS former Unit I to sidestep superfund cleanup costs and accelerate NRC approval (claiming the NRC suggested the beachfront site); Second, by dumping the waste onto public land, Edison sprints to the finish line, potentially also dumping liability for any future nuclear accident in a legal maneuver called “bona vacantia,” or legally ownerless. Public land equals public liability.

Fritch has since left the nuclear industry. SONGS’ Chief Nuclear Officer responsible for managing the ISFSI, Tom Palmisano, has stepped down. The NRC writes that it suspects that all thin-wall casks “in the storage vaults may have had metal to metal contact” between the cask being lowered and the storage vault. There is only ½” of clearance between the cask walls and the vault lining. The NRC acknowledged: The thin-wall casks “ tend to bump against the shelf while being loaded into the vault…”.    

This raises the probability that all 29 thin-wall casks in the vault sustained damage to their exteriors, potentially accelerating cracking and leaking. At the time of the near drop incident last August, a 30th filled cask turned up locked in limbo, unable to be returned to the spent fuel pool or to be buried in the damaged vault. It remains stranded in a building, stored within a transfer cask. However, transfer casks are not intended to provide an indefinite radiation barrier for thin-wall casks but are only approved by the NRC for brief usage, protecting workers during transfer operations.  

Neither Edison, the subcontractor, Holtec, nor the NRC will release information about how they can maintain a safe temperature for the stranded cask. The NRC states only that the cask is being kept sufficiently cool. Nuclear safety advocates are not reassured, particularly since the NRC is leaving it up to Edison as to whether they choose to resume loading operations into the clearly defective model of vault, the Holtec Hi-Storm UMAX.  

Safety advocates consider this example, as well as the NRC’s pervasive pattern of lax oversight in all the near miss incidents cited in this article, as the very definition of a “captured agency,” a proverbial fox minding a hen house. Donna Gilmore, Director of San Onofre Safety and frequent intercessor with the NRC, concludes: “Congress and the President should mandate the NRC enforce safety standards…and force the NRC to stop misleading them about the safety of systems they approve.”

Public Watchdogs and San Onofre Safety advocate for immediate closure of the beachfront ISFSI.  They propose loading the irradiated fuel into thick-wall casks that are 10 to 19.75 inches thick and stored in hardened buildings. This variant of cask, most commonly used around the world and which withstood the earthquake and tsunami at Fukushima, can be inspected and repaired to prevent leaks and explosions. These two groups then propose moving the sturdier casks across the freeway onto higher and drier ground at Camp Pendleton.  Bonus: the marines stand guard.

Nuclear safety advocates recognize, however, that the plan suggested above is a “least worst” option, by no means 100% safe. At San Onofre, as elsewhere, the problem of safely, securely, and permanently storing high-level radioactive waste is yet to be solved. Without vigilant citizen oversight and advocacy, in the hands of the nuclear industry, the “least worst” option will never be achieved.

“For nuclear disaster at San Onofre,” concludes Langley, “you don’t even need an earthquake or a tsunami, you just need the nuclear industry.” And its lapdog regulator, too.

https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2018/12/16/the-mad-plan-to-store-nuclear-waste-on-the-beach/

[edensashes-blog]

Where we are headed?

I do not consider myself an alarmist nor do I advocate taking ideas to the extreme. Extremists and people committed zealously to a single mindset or ideological framework are some of the most dangerous fucking idiots on the planet. But I do consider it prudent to take certain things seriously. The truth is that opinions amount to nothing. You can rant and rave like an idiot until you are blue in the fucking face and accomplish nothing. So I do not expect anyone to listen to my opinions regarding certain issues. So rather than ramble on about my feelings. Try to remember that most of the idiots out there screaming their opinions and views are just screaming for attention and don’t actually have any more insight or knowledge about what they are screaming about than anyone else. It is all about attention. First off today I want to simply tell you to take a closer look at the presidential election process. Be aware that your vote does not carry nearly as much weight as you have been led to believe. Look into the “Electoral College” and the difference between the popular vote and the electoral vote and how many times in the past several presidential elections that the popular vote (Which is your vote) did not amount to shit and even though the American people voted for one thing the electoral college (the real vote) decided that you were wrong and went against you to put the loser in office. I’m not giving my opinion on this matter either way. I just want you to take the time to look into it and know for yourself how it works for real. It will likely piss you off.

Now for the primary topic for the day and that is where we are headed. The dry facts are that the world is a horrible place sometimes and people in power have their own agendas so it gets a little overwhelming to look at all of it at once and try to figure it all out. Just look at things with a detached logic (if you can) and keep it all boiled down to dry facts so that you can form your own conclusions. Lets start with the fact that your government is really not much different than a lot of the countries that you think are evil. Just accept that fact and deal with it. America at one time was the greatest country in the world but that simply is not true anymore. That does not mean that you should be anti American or stop being a patriot. It just means you need to wake up and realize what those concepts really mean.  Remember the quote that “ Blind faith in bad leadership is not patriotism”. Pick any single aspect by which you would judge a country and nine out of ten times you will find that there is another country that does it better. Education, economy, social ideas etc. The only thing we really lead the world in anymore is the amount of money we spend on our military. That amount is about five times higher than the next three highest spenders combined and those spenders are allies. So when I tell you what I think is coming don’t stick your head in the sand and keep telling yourself that “America would never do something like that”. Bullshit! They will and on some scale already have several times. The truth is that the single biggest problem we all face is the world population and the astonishing lack of resources that results from it. Again, keep it to dry facts. Do the math and see for yourself that we are headed for a disaster of epic, almost biblical proportions. There is no avoiding it. It is simply that bad. To avoid or at the very least to minimize this inevitable horror the powers that be in the world (meaning governments, the world bank, and the ruling class) have been evaluating the potential effectiveness of different strategies for decades. There is really only one that will work and save the planet. Reduce the population of the planet be at least 50%. It is that simple. It will happen. How it will happen is debatable and that is not what I am here to talk about. And I am not here to try and convince you. What was it Ripley used to say? “Believe it or not”. If you want any info on what you should or can do about it you can let me know. I won’t tell you what you should do but I will share with you what I am doing and hopefully that will help.

[raceandspeculation]

John McNally                                                                                                            2/19/17

Dr. Smalls                                                                                                                 English 3690              

                                    Ripley Perceived as a Maternal Figure

           In 1979 Ridley Scott redefined everything the public had previously known about the science fiction genre with his breakthrough film Alien. Unlike any popularized sci-fi movie before it, Alien captured a much darker side to the diverse genre and borrowed many elements from classic horror monster films. Through the aid of low-lit dynamic shots, slow camera sweeps, prolonged periods of silence that created profound feelings of uncertainty and dread Scott created a sort of harrowing, unsettling atmosphere that captivated audiences and left them with a certain anxiety as to what will happen next. Alien would soon become a colossal success commercially and breed many sequels and a few prequels, which would also create a divide among fans who argue whether or not the Alien films to come were for better or for worse. David Seed describes the film’s nature transitioning from being horrified to being anxious once the alien creature gets loose on the crew’s spacecraft. They write in their article Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction that “The alien then escapes into the Nostromo and the film builds up to a powerful claustrophobia as the crew attempt to track it down. Scott introduced a subsidiary theme in revealing that one of the crew members was an android under orders from ‘the company’ (never named) to bring the alien home.” (Seed 39) This creates an entirely new type of extreme concern because now not only does the threat of the face hugging alien on board loom, but it seems that the main character can trust only herself in this desolate setting.  The success of the series cannot be chalked up to Ridley Scott’s vision for an art house-esk, sci-fi monster movie alone and therefore we look to the other most vital and defining point in the series, the character of Ellen Ripley whom sort of acts as the first female lead in a science fiction film of this success level.

           Ellen Ripley, portrayed in the film by Sigourney Weaver, was unlike any typical hero seen in this genre before. Unlike stoic, rugged, and arguably boring white male space captains like James Kirk or Han Solo, Ripley was a rule following, protocol based solider whose goal ultimately became to survive and warn Earth of the alien lifeforms inhabiting the planet of LV-426 that wiped out the entirety of Ripley’s crew except for her and of course unlike the aforementioned space heroes that were designed for white male audience members to put themselves in their place, Ripley was a woman—Not a woman boxed into the ‘damsel in distress’ category but a unique and dynamic character whom many film critics regard as a sort of catalyst for female leads in the science fiction genre. In the words of Jennifer Lynn Ruben in her article Illusionary Strength: An Analysis of Female Empowerment in Science Fiction and Horror Films in Fatal Attraction, Aliens, and The Stepford Wives; “While some scholars argue against Ripley’s empowerment, other scholars suggest the female protagonist illustrates a woman’s empowerment in two ways: through 1) a traditional maternal role and 2) a nontraditional leadership role. Unlike the damsel in distress, Ripley displays characteristics of a mother, a leader, and a fighter.” (Ruben 28) Ripley is a female lead whom is not hindered by her maternity, which is how it seems to be most commonly perceived, but rather empowered by it. Her maternal nature is not quite as evident in Alien, though still highlighted from time to time through her caring of her cat “Jones.” At the end of the first film, Ripley freezes herself cryogenically embracing the cat, Jones, in her arms as if to symbolically sow the seeds of motherhood that would play as a much larger theme in the sequel Aliens.

           Aliens, directed by James Cameron, starts with Ripley in a hospital being greeted by a man, Burke, who tells her she was lucky to of even been found. Before Ripley agrees to be sent on another alien-chasing mission it is revealed that she had been in a frozen sleep for over fifty years and had lost a daughter. With no crew or child, Ripley seems devoid of purpose until ultimately agreeing to another journey into space, this time to a different planet where a group of rugged marines who seem to be excited for the sport of hunting aliens. Much like in Alien, characters are slowly picked off and the chain of command dwindles to the less and less qualified, until arriving at the character Private Hudson who is seemingly not up for the task and therefore Ripley must yet again lead. Ripley’s maternity is defined when on the planet they find the young girl, Newt, is the lone survivor on this planet invested with the same horrific, acid-blooded aliens from the first film. Ripley immediately seems concerned with the young girl Newt’s safety, in a way replacing the lost role of her daughter. Newt runs from the marines and will only talk with Ripley in a very intimate ‘mother-daughter’ scene in which in the two are talking in a small, womb-like room on the abandoned base and Ripley assures Newt’s safety. She puts herself and the remaining crew at great risk to ensure the safety of Newt, who all things considered is more of a liability than an asset, sort of cementing Ripley’s priority as a mother. Ripley is not the only character representative of motherhood, as the alien itself is as well. Often referred to as a ‘Queen’ the alien is characterized as more a ‘bad’ mother whereas Ripley is the ‘good’ mother. (Taubin 95) There are underlying race connotations between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mother as Ripley acts as sort of the ideal, white savior mother leaving the alien to be characterized as a profoundly stereotypical ethnic mother. “If Ripley is the prototypical, upper middle class WASP, the alien queen bears a suspicious resemblance to a favorite scapegoat of the Reagan/Bush era – the black welfare mother, that is a parasite on the economy whose uncurbed reproductive drive reduced hard-working taxpayers to bankruptcy.” (Taubin 95) The underlying comparison is entirely disturbing and reflective of the way a black mother was viewed in society during the film’s release.

           Despite any negative race connotation apparent in James Cameron’s Aliens, the series itself is generally held in a positive light by critics and film analysts for empowering women in the science fiction genre, even if Ellen Ripley still fits the role of the white savior, she was the first to truly do so as the female lead which arguably set the path for further representation for women in the science fiction genre. One is inclined, however, to question Ripley’s relationship to Newt. To me, it seems as the role of a mother is sort of thrust onto Ripley in the second film as if for no other reason than to feminize her further. As I stated before, Ripley in the first movie was very much a rule follower and insisted on doing things professionally and by the book for as long as she possibly could, which is why it seems odd that she is so quick and willing to put the entirety of her remaining crew at risk to save this child she knew nothing about. The inclusion of Ripley having a lost child too was simply just placed in our laps with no previous indication as if solely to justify the reason she cares for the young girl Newt so much—Replacing the role of Ripley’s lost daughter. Regardless of this personal critique of the mother daughter relationship of Ripley and Newt, Ripley has solidified her place in the history of science fiction as one of the first and most defining female leads.                                            

                                                                   Works Cited

           “The Alien Trilogy: From Feminism to AIDS,” Amy Taubin, Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader, edited by Pam Cook and Philip Dodd, Temple University Press, 1993, 93-100

           David Seed, Chapter 1: “Voyages into Space” (6-26) & Chapter 2: “Alien Encounters” (27-46) in Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2011

             Ruben, J. L. (2012). Illusionary Strength: An Analysis of Female Empowerment in Science Fiction and Horror Films in Fatal Attraction,

Aliens, and The Stepford Wives (Master’s thesis). Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.