#Vilified Jaguar

[agreenroad]

Vaccinated NFL Player Wanted Unvaxxed Jailed – Died Unexpectedly at Age 38 - Vaccine Impact

Vaccinated NFL Player Wanted Unvaxxed Jailed – Died Unexpectedly at Age 38 – Vaccine Impact

Nwaneri is another name added to a growing list of people who publicly flouted their COVID-19 vaccination status, and then vilified those “anti-vaxxers” who refuse to be injected, going so far as to call for the “anti-vaxxers” to be sent to jail, and has now “died unexpectedly” at the age of 38. Former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive lineman Uche Nwaneri died ‘suddenly and unexpectedly‘ on…

[keepers-kiss]

      Some Crazy Bastards & Their Friends Officially Present:   

                               A Balmung rock & roll and punk tribute festival, ala The Hair Ball, with a twist. Featuring:

Happy Gyuki Clinic, Clockwork Coeurl and Chimera ware vendors!

Fashion Contest & Prizes! 

Superb Raffle Listings!

Themed Block Performances !

Dancing in Gardens!

Swank Clothing!

Loud Music!

 ..............and more! 

💀 The Who: Your Face. Your Friend’s Face. Their Friend’s Face(s). You get the idea. 💀 Where To Go:  Kobun Gardens | Shirogane W18 Main Ward  [BALMUNG] 💀 When’s The Fun: Saturday, July 28th, 3pm PST/6pm EST 💀 Thematics:  Classy Rock and Roll Punk. Bring your best straps, flannels, short skirts, spikes and Edge. Colours optional but moderately encouraged. 💀 Music Playlist Genres: Rock, EDM, Punk, Metal [ BGM Music Playlist ]   💀 What You’re Walking Into: [ Festival Docket & Guide ] Click me for event information + a handy map! 

The Akanezaka Markets and Kobun Gardens are decked for a festival-- a ROCK FESTIVAL! An IC neutral gathering where Garlean citizenry and Eorzeans can come together, mingle for a night out with music, dancing, games and raffles! Who doesn’t like a good prize or six? Catering to the event provided by BAR SAISEI. 

Event Runner’s Notes:  As it is a public event, there’s a few IC and OOC notes to take! First and foremost, the event is considered a ‘Garlean Friendly’ event for Garlemald citizens and those still residing within Kugane, Shirogane, and the surrounding islands, as well as traveling Eorzeans. 

This means there might be some (understandable) tension between the two factions. Kobun Gardens, as Kugane officials have stated, is neutral ground. No violence will be permitted within the festival space. (Pretty please.) Everyone’s there to watch the show, drink outlandishly, dance too hard and bid a few cheap raffle tickets on overpriced market board items. 

OOCly, if the crowd seems too thick, feel welcome to party up and/or mingle further into the ward! Announcements of upcoming events, running games and raffle cutoffs will all be in /Y. 

The background music playlist & performers sets for the evening may include songs with light/moderate profanity. 

The DJ music queue will open up to the public after ~2 hours. 

Posters featuring character art by: 

Red Sparrow @ziyo-yo

Vilified Jaguar @jasui-vihn

S A V A G E @aegir-ffxiv 

Night’s Howl @thornedembers 

& Savo the Sewer Cat @savothesewercat 

Some relevant blog tags: @balmungrpcalendar @balmungrp @balmungroleplayers @for-gold-and-glory @luckysparrowffxiv @@artemishimura  @kimkomotsuka @dmlynx  @dylanthornexivblog @song-and-lace 

[nights-howl]

Night’s Howl @ the Lucky Boat Show!

The Hingan Rock Band has grown now to have two new Members!  Joining them here is the Vilified Jaguar, We hope you all remember him from the Bad Rep Ball because now he’s one of the Night’s Howl and ready to Howl On!  Look forward to seeing them at the Drunken Moogle’s Performance Night the sixteenth sun of this Moon as The Red Sparrow will be joining them then as well! Screenshots courtesy of @jean-ashdale <3

[bogleech]

Okay so full spoilers for the plot of Kipo but I’m going to do a long review of the villain’s backstory under a cut:

Scarlemagne like I said seems like a very simple, hokey villain; he’s a sadistic and hate-filled baboon who wants to rule the world, he has the power to turn any primate into a mindlessly obedient slave with his disgusting pink pheromone sweat, he makes them dress like British aristocrats and he makes everyone dance while he plays the piano in an old shopping mall he thinks of as a glitzy palace. It’s as hilarious as it is terrifying. But then they tell you why, and it’s done so much better than I’ve seen in almost any other series like this.

So, as we learn not that far into this series, Kipo herself is a mutant, basically a werejaguar, specifically a werejaguar whose full jaguar form is godzilla-sized. What she herself finds out is that her parents made her that way, and I love how that’s never a source of angst for her, she loves it!

Maybe you kind of see where this is going though and it won't sound that shocking to find out this is a Mojo Jojo scenario; that Kipo wasn't the only experiment her parents conducted on animals. Originally, they were tasked by their superiors with developing an anti-mutagen, something that would change all the animal life on the surface back into normal creatures and put humans back on top. As part of this experimentation they attempted giving mutation to some of the last remaining natural specimens they had, including a baby baboon, Hugo. But once Hugo started to actually talk, and started learning from them like a human baby, they couldn’t bear to continue the project as intended. They loved their adoptive mutant ape son, they read to him every day, they played with him, they taught him history and science and they hatched a plan to escape with him. All they wanted and all he wanted was to be a family together. However, this was around the same time they were already working on their personal superhuman child experiment, which put their escape plan on hold for nine months. During this time, the bosses found out about Hugo and put him in a small enclosure for their own harsh experimentation. His human parents still visited him every single chance they could, reading him stories in secret, still promising to escape with him. I think the really saddening part is that Hugo is never actually bitter towards the baby coming. In fact he’s still excited about having a sister and being a family with her too. But then there’s a pretty big incident that’s still not necessary to spoil, the result of which is that the whole facility is seemingly destroyed and the parents have to flee with the newly born Kipo. They assume Hugo is dead, but...they don’t really double check or look for him. There’s enough chaos that it’s unfortunately understandable that they just take their baby and run and that everything would probably be one big blur in that situation, but, Hugo did survive, and wait around, and look for them, attacked by monsters and cold and alone, thinking they were dead. After all that, he just kind of incidentally runs into his father with Kipo, and he realizes at least one parent survived but did not come back to look for him, and that’s about the part where he snaps.

What I think is really excellently done here is that, after everything Hugo has done as "Scarlemange," Kipo immediately wants to love him as a long-lost sibling and she’s PISSED about his abandonment. Meanwhile, her father is never just totally vilified for any of it; the narrative acknowledges that he fucked up in a believable way under incredible pressure, he feels deeply guilty and he wants to make it all right as well. And, in turn, while Hugo/Scarlemange refuses to forgive his father and truly shouldn’t have to if he doesn’t want to, he STILL doesn’t hate Kipo, because she was just a baby! His baby sister! She didn’t know and she’s not the one who hurt him! Holy shit a villain who is reasonable about this kind of thing! This dynamic between all three is something I haven’t really seen executed so well before. You can’t really hate anybody involved but you wish they hadn’t made the choices they did. -ONE MORE LAST CHANCE SPOILER WARNING FOR PEOPLE SPOILING THEMSELVES-

Unfortunately, none of that is ultimately enough to really turn this guy around. He’s willing to call off killing thousands of other mutants for Kipo’s sake, but only under the condition that she help him execute their dad instead. It’s a horrifying extra twist and a moment where we (and Kipo) might have to accept that Hugo is beyond saving, but, we still know that there’s a reason for it, and even if what was done to him wasn’t consciously malicious, it still wasn’t really forgivable. The last we ever see of Scarlemagne is being hauled off as a prisoner, but that’s after Kipo saves his life one more time, and there’s no “YOU WERE A FOOL TO LET ME LIVE! MWAHAHA!” moment, no last shot of him glaring from his cage with scary music or anything, he just keeps looking sadly at Kipo and you know he still wishes they all could’ve just been a happy family. I’ve seen hundreds, hundreds of tragic villain backstories. I’d say a majority of them were interesting and gave the villain a sympathetic streak to some degree or another, but I think this one is executed to a pretty uncommon degree of competency. The villain himself is outrageous, while the explanation is subtler and more real-world, and the way he, Kipo, and their father all feel about one another because of it is completely believable even while nothing anyone did is ever just “excusable.”

[jasui-vihn]

🐾 Vilified Jaguar 🐾

After moons of keeping his heart light and ambitions bright, Jasui has claimed the Bad Rep Ball in the name of letting his pained experiences reign. No inhibitions lie ahead as he takes song and anger alike to cast his rage, taking on the named of Vilified Jaguar to remain uncaged.  This is the non-poster version of my drawing for the upcoming event! Master post for the Bad Rep Ball can be found >> here << .

@keepers-kiss

[uknewsdigest-blog]

Week Commencing: 07/01/2019.

Mon: 

- Businessman who hiked drug prices handed OBE: A multimillionaire whose company’s drug price rises have cost the NHS around £50m was handed an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list, The Times reports. Vijay Patel exploited a loophole in health service rules to increase the price of old medicines of which his firm, Atnahs, was the sole supplier by up to 2,500%. The hikes included upping the price of a packet of antidepressants from £5.71 to £154. 

- British stars clean up at Golden Globe awards: Brits have fared well at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, with Olivia Colman, Christian Bale, Richard Madden and Ben Whishaw among the winners. Colman was honoured for her role in The Favourite, while English-American actor Bale won for playing ex-US Vice-President Dick Cheney in Vice. Bohemian Rhapsody, about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, picked up best actor and best film in the drama category. 

 Tue:  

- Giant fatberg blocking sewer in Devon: The largest so-called fatberg ever found by South West Water is blocking the sewers of the coastal Devon town of Sidmouth and will take about eight weeks to remove. The obstruction is 210ft long – more than the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa – and composed mostly of fat, wet wipes and grease. Work to remove it will begin in February. 

- MPs complain to police after Soubry abused: At least 55 MPs have signed a letter to Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick expressing “serious concerns about the deteriorating public order and security situation” around Parliament, after Tory Anna Soubry was verbally abused and jostled by pro-Brexit campaigners. Labour’s Mary Creagh called the abuse “vile, misogynistic thuggery”. 

- Millions of patients to see Skype doctors: Theresa May wants millions of patients to see their doctors via video-calling services such as Skype, in a bid to save billions of pounds as part of a “wholesale transformation of the NHS” announced yesterday. NHS England boss Simon Stevens said the current model of hospital appointments was both “outdated and unsustainable”. 

- England needs three million new homes by 2040, says report: A report by a cross-party group of MPs says England needs three million new social homes by 2040 in order to save millions of people from a future in dangerous, overcrowded or otherwise unsuitable housing. If the recommendations are taken up, it would mean building more new council houses than in the 20 years after the War. 

  Wed:

- Army called in as drone disrupts Heathrow Airport: The UK military was called in to help police after sightings of a drone briefly halted flights at Heathrow Airport yesterday. The Metropolitan Police said it was deploying “significant resources” to monitor the airport after a drone was spotted shortly after 5pm. Departures were quickly stopped as a precaution, but were resumed an hour later, with the airport fully operational again by 10pm. 

- Sexual abuse in childhood linked to raised suicide risk: People who suffered sexual or emotional abuse as children are two to three times more likely to kill themselves as adults, a new study has found. Academics from the University of Manchester and South Wales University analysed the results of 68 previous studies on the subject from around the world. Suicide prevention charity Papyrus said 70% of calls to its helpline were from people who had been abused during childhood. 

- Tory claims London pollution charge will hit millions: The pollution charge being introduced in London could affect almost 2.5 million cars and vans a year, official figures suggest. London Mayor Sadiq Khan had previously stated that fewer than 60,000 vehicles a day would have to pay the £12.50 ultra-low emission zone fee, but Gareth Bacon, leader of the Conservative group on the London Assembly, has warned that the charges could be Khan’s “poll tax” moment.  

- MPs vote to restrict no-deal Brexit options: A majority of MPs have signalled that they will not accept a “no-deal” Brexit by inflicting a humiliating defeat on the Government in the House of Commons. A total of 20 Tory MPs backed an amendment to the Finance Bill that would restrict the Government’s freedom to make no-deal Brexit tax changes without the “explicit consent” of Parliament, by 303 to 296 votes.  

  Thu: 

- The Government has announced tightened regulations on the operation of drones, following major disruptions at some of the UK’s busiest airports, including chaos at Heathrow this week. 

- Bercow vilified in newspapers over Brexit vote: Commons Speaker John Bercow is vilified in right-wing newspapers today, after allowing an amendment Brexit vote. The Sun dubs him “Speaker of the devil”, while the Daily Mail says he is a “disgrace to his office”. Bercow broke with precedent in allowing yesterday’s vote, which the Government lost - meaning it must provide an alternative EU deal within three days if it loses next week’s vote on Theresa May’s Brexit plan. 

- Jaguar Land Rover to cut 5,000 jobs in UK: Jaguar Land Rover is cutting as many as 5,000 jobs in the UK in an attempt to save £2.5bn costs. The firm, which employs 40,000 people in Britain, says most of the jobs to go will be in marketing, management and administration. A “perfect storm” of falling demand for diesel cars and Brexit uncertainty is to blame, according to the BBC. 

  Fri: 

- Rudd U-turns on proposal to cap child benefit: Amber Rudd has announced another U-turn on universal credit: she will not cap benefits for families with two or more children born before 2017. Child Poverty Action said it was “fantastically good news” but called for the two-child cap to be scrapped for all families. Rudd also said she was putting off rolling out universal credit. 

   Sat: 

- Top Tory Brexiteers believe Britain won't leave EU: Leading Tory donors who spent millions on the Brexit campaign say they now believe that Britain may not leave the EU. Crispin Odey, a hedge fund manager who has given more than £870,000 to pro-Leave groups, said: “My view is that it ain’t going to happen. I just can’t see how it happens with that configuration of parliament.” Two other key donors made similar predictions.  

- Minister: stopping Brexit would empower the far-right: Blocking Brexit could empower far-right extremists, says the transport secretary. Chris Grayling says that failing to leave the European Union would lead the 17m people who voted for Brexit to feel “cheated”, ending centuries of “moderate” politics in the UK. He said it would also provoke more “nasty” incidents of intimidation.  

- Prisons minister: short sentences should be scrapped: Prison sentences of six months or less should be scrapped, says the prisons minister. Rory Stewart argues that the move would ease pressure on prisons and be better for offenders, reports the Daily Telegraph. He said that ”very short” jail terms were ”long enough to damage you and not long enough to heal you”, adding: ”You bring somebody in for three or four weeks, they lose their house, their job, their family, their reputation”. 

- Charity warns over plan to scrap free TV licence for elderly: Abolishing the free TV licence for over-75s could push 50,000 older people into poverty, according to Age UK. After the broadcaster opened a consultation on whether to start charging older people the £150.50-a-year fee, the charity said such a move could harm the elderly, “potentially forcing them to cut back on other essentials such as heating and food in order to remain informed, entertained, stimulated and connected to the world beyond their doorstep”. 

   Sun: 

- Row over Church's appointment of resurrection denier: Controversy has erupted after the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby appointed as his ambassador to the Vatican a priest who denies the physical resurrection of Jesus. The Rev Dr John Shepherd said that the resurrection of Jesus “ought not to be seen in physical terms but as a new spiritual reality”. A former chaplain to the Queen said: “You cannot call yourself an orthodox Christian if you don’t believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus.” 

- Rise in UK children in gender-title switches: Children as young as 10 are having their gender changed by deed poll. Over the past five years, the UK Deed Poll Service has seen a surge in the number of parents paying £35 to alter their child’s title from “Miss to Master” or “Master to Miss”. Around one under-16-year-old is making the change every day. 

- NHS landed with £1m compensation bill for Savile victims: The NHS has a £1m bill for compensating victims of Jimmy Savile after the late broadcaster’s estate contributed just £53,000. Over a 50-year period, the TV and radio personality raped and assaulted scores of patients, staff and visitors in 41 hospitals, a children’s home and a hospice. He passed away in 2011 before his crimes were revealed, and was reported to have had an estate worth at least £4m. 

- Arrest after child killed in hit-and-run collision: Detectives have arrested a man after an 11-year-old boy was killed in a hit-and-run collision in Manchester. The child was treated by paramedics at the scene in the Beswick area of the city but died of his injuries later in hospital. Police have arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. 

[adorkablephil]

Critical Thinking = Good

I'm so tired of people in this phandom jumping all over anyone who dares to question the behavior of DnP in any way. When we consider it wrong to think critically about someone's choices, then we are taking the first step down a slippery road.

You can admire someone and still disagree with them about some things. You can even love someone, someone in your real life, and still disagree with them about some things. You can still think for yourself, and point out when you believe they've done something problematic. It doesn't mean you admire or love them any less—it only means that you hold them, like any other human being, like you yourself, accountable.

I personally find it problematic that Dan has chosen to make himself a posterboy for conspicuous consumption in his choice to take part in a Jaguar advert. That doesn't mean I should burn all my DnP merch, stop watching his videos, and unfollow him on Twitter. Criticizing one choice he makes doesn't mean that you've vilified him—it only means that you have an opinion about one small thing. And having your own opinions is good. Holding people accountable and speaking up when you have questions is good.

Requiring people to support their idols slavishly and unquestioningly, attacking them if they dare to speak a critical opinion, is the path toward fascism.

Telling people that they shouldn't say anything negative about Dan since it doesn't affect them personally ... well ... I don't want to live in a world where people only speak up about things that affect them personally. We've seen where that can lead.

So yeah, I'm a fan of Daniel Howell, and I respect and admire many things about him as a person and as a creator. That doesn't mean I have to stand behind everything he says and does. And if I personally believe that choosing to advertise a product that encourages a cultural tendency toward conspicuous consumption that hurts the poor, a product that he himself does not appear to personally value or support, a product that he is allowing to use his face and his name purely for monetary gain when he has so many other options for earning income ... then, yeah, I'm going to say I think his decision was problematic.

That doesn't mean I'm disloyal, because I don't think even Dan would require blind and unquestioning loyalty from his fans. It just means I have a mind of my own. And that kind of independent thinking is something I believe Dan would encourage, because—unlike Jaguar cars—I think it's important to what he's shown us of his world view and personal ethics.

[bigyack-com]

In Apple TV+’s Little America, Immigrants — Indian, Mexican, Iranian — Take Centre Stage

In the opening frames of Little America — the new Apple TV+ anthology series, out next Friday — Asha Bhosle's eighties disco hit “Udi Baba” plays over the opening credits. The song has nothing to do with what we're about to see, but it sets the stage for the first episode. Titled “The Manager”, written by Rajiv Joseph (Draft Day) and directed by Deepa Mehta (Elements trilogy), it follows a first-generation Indian immigrant named Kabir Jha — played by Suraj Sharma (Life of Pi) as an adult — whose life is torn apart after his parents are deported back to India in the early 2000s. Bhosle's instantly-recognisable voice is one of several Indian — and Pakistani — links in the Little America premiere, alongside Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's “My Heart, My Life”, Arif Lohar & Meesha Shafi's Coke Studio hit “Alif Allah Chambey Di Booty”, and an anachronistic appearance for “Kajra Re” from Bunty Aur Babli. Kabir's mother Seema Jha (Priyanka Bose) watches Indian soap operas, and the father Krishan Jha (Ravi Kapoor) namechecks Sachin Tendulkar when the family plays cricket. They are all things only those from a South Asian origin will understand. And in a way, that's what Little America is about. Inspired by the true stories featured in Epic Magazine, the Apple TV+ series celebrates immigrants. Their culture, their values, their hopes, their fears, their dreams, their perseverance, their way of life, their search for an identity. Little America is diverse behind the scenes too, with immigrant writers and directors from the very regions handling the stories at times, and aided by a creative team that has the Pakistan-born Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), and Alan Yang (Master of None) of Taiwanese origin. The eight half-hour episodes in total — all of them will be available on the same day, unlike with Apple TV+ previously — are centred on migrants from all over the world. That includes France, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Singapore, Syria, and Uganda, in addition to the already mentioned India. While most episodes are set exclusively in the US, a few spend some time in the countries of origin, be it through flashbacks or cross-cutting. And there's even a concept episode, one that's largely silent, starring Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) and featuring Zachary Quinto (Star Trek). Spoilers ahead for Little America. In fact, some of these other Little America episodes do a much better job than the Indian immigrant one. “The Manager” finds Kabir pushing himself to win the National Spelling Bee — clichéd but a true story — so he can appeal his parents' case in person with Laura Bush, wife of former US President George W. Bush. Only to find out that there's little Ms. Bush has to offer. Kabir ends up growing up without his parents around, while also having to look after the family motel as his uncle guardian lazes off. Though the episode touches upon Kabir's isolation, it also leaves a lot out of his story. The more powerful episodes, the best of the lot in season 1, are the ones involving a Mexican undocumented teenager called Marisol Rosado (Jearnest Corchado), and a Singaporean single mother named Ai Wang (Angela Lin). Titled “The Jaguar”, written by Dan LeFranc (The Affair) and directed by Aurora Guerrero (Mosquita y Mari), the former charts Marisol's journey to becoming a national level squash player. In the latter, titled “The Grand Prize Expo Winners” and written & directed by Tze Chun (Gotham), Ai breaks her back to build a life for her two kids.

Angela Lin, Kai To, and Sophia Xu in Little America Photo Credit: Apple A mini-version of an underdog sports drama, “The Jaguar” finds an uncaring, under-confident teen defy her underprivileged background and find direction in her life, with help from a tough-love coach (John Ortiz). In doing so, she also rediscovers the love of her family. Meanwhile in “The Grand Prize Expo Winners”, Ai struggles with her fear of abandonment, which she eventually overcomes on a cruise. The episode is one of a select few that has nice tiny touches, as when a bored Ai, left behind by her kids and with nothing to do, cleans her cruise ship room. Little America doesn't always hit these heights though, but even at its quietest, it delivers an important and resonant message. Joshuah Bearman, executive producer and Epic Magazine founder, acknowledged that when he said: “Immigration has become a political issue, but not if you just tell people's ordinary stories. We wanted to make this show so that audiences could just get to know other people.” Despite Bearman's assertions, a series that brings immigrants centre stage, at a time when they are being vilified by leaders globally, makes a statement in itself. All eight episodes of Little America are out January 17 on Apple TV+ worldwide. The series has already been renewed for a second season. Read the full article

[jauneybravo]

Bittersweet: Hating your Love

   At an airport where the only thing that soared were the planes, his heart remained anchored to the ground - sinking slowly. Whoever she truly was, his first love was gone. It was the purest kind, nurtured by innocence and chivalry. Yet, even with the best intentions, he was left shattered and astounded. This was a love to change all love, his saddened brow was a reflection of that understanding. It had been so long since he’d delved into this memory, but the drinks seemed to ease the pain. His voice trailed on, low and focused as he struggled to offer the impacting memories justice. It was a story for Taeyeon, the girl who chose to gift him truth so often. --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --

    Jaune Arc spent four years in Europe before travelling to Japan, honing his spirit and intentions close to home should anything go awry. He had an abundance of money for one person to rely on, but his proximity was simply insurance.  It was during these years that he stumbled across a helpless girl collecting her scattered groceries in Venetian streets. She offered a name in meeting, though he later learned that her real name would elude him. So in stories he’d recounted to himself, she’d been known as Rosa.     She was a local to Italy, amazingly connected and capable of making opportunity rain amidst a drought. With watchful eyes, Jaune learned the ways of such magic. It was in her eyes, a fresh sienna speckled black that was smooth enough to inspire the finishes on the very boats that passed them on their weekly riverside strolls. The magic was given away to anyone attentive enough to catch the slight movements she paired with her pure smiles. Laughter and a silky, flawless way of speaking paved their way forward to realizing their shared ambitions. Soon enough, the two friends discovered true love, and left the country. Their dreams could no longer be held within Italy itself, they’d decided.    Dreams. That much, they were.      Years went by, miles were traveled, and smiles unraveled. The two were an impossible pair, as high tempo as their spirits, infectious to all who crossed their paths. Even between the two, the symptoms of their love appeared to seep deeper and deeper with every passing year. Milestones were breached, fretful first-times freed, and above all; unwavering trust was gifted. To the naive, eighteen year old Jaune, she was all that should exist in the world his family wished for him to tend and see flourish. Inevitably, marriage became a topic.     However, nothing is forever. And lies are hardly everlasting.     A distance began, leaving Jaune with question after question. Some were answered halfheartedly, while others were not. At the time, it was a mystery. Rosa became the one person in his life he admired the most, the woman whose ideals and ideas instigated his own fantastical mindset. She was an unreachable goddess, paving a path for the most amazing journey towards a throne next to her. Months of a widening chasm, jagged as the teeth of a ruthless wolf, lead to reality. 

    In his final steps towards that throne, Rosa snatched the stairs from under his feet.      Jaune could never forget the preceding moments, and are the freshest in his heart. The drive en route to the airport was poisonously silent. It seized his throat, shook his heart, and often cut his breath short. The young man wished to speak, to argue, to plead on his knees. Yet, she was able to render those intentions powerless. Rosa knew she could turn his own thoughtfulness against him, turning morals into the shackles that held Jaune in stasis. She trapped him in sympathy and compassion, tricking him into a conflicted state.      As much as he wanted her to stay,                      he still believes it only right to allow her to do as she wished. 

    They arrived at the airport, and she held nothing but the clothes on her back and a farewell. Yet, just as she was about to leave him for good, he finally gave in to his selfish passion. His hand caught hers, and froze time. The way her head tilted to the sky as she stayed with her back turned was ingrained into his mind. Her swift and aggressive turn to face him still strikes his soul in dreams. Her eyes were lit ablaze, more fiery than anytime he’d seen before. She was fierce in her words as she vilified herself, speaking truths of lies. Like a wild jaguar, she seemed to strike from the shadows and swipe at his spirit, again and again.       The years spent with her were so brutally shameless, Jaune was easy to forget himself in high emotion. Curled into a ball upon his feet in the midst of a busy airport, Jaune clutched his knees and hid his twisted, excruciatingly pained expression from the world. He sobbed, and sobbed until strangers finally offered kindness and a helping hand. As they lifted his weakened body, he wiped his eyes and forced the blur to dissipate. He stared at where she stood, hoping her flash of curling brown hair might return.      Instead, he only saw small puddles in the wake of Rosa’s path away. 

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

   ❛ Dieu, a few hours later, my father called me while I was pathetically moping on the airport’s bus stop. ❜ His quiet voice had drawn the Taeyeon and Jaune quite close, and it was most likely impossible to hide the stealthy tears that sneaked down his chin. ❛ It turns out...she was telling the truth about being a liar. Rosa was a con artist, and made off with a fortune. ❜

   ❛ Even though she stole more than that. Even though she stole years of my life. Even though she stole my innocence...! ❜ A desperate hand reached out to his dear friend, clutching to the fabric of her skirt like it was a stress ball. ❛ Even though I hate her -- I still love her.❜  Now the crying had lost it’s silence. Sobs began to disrupt as he let lose unspoken words.     ❛ She was a liar -- through and through. I remember -- those kisses. I remember the days -- the nights. I re-remember the dreams we shared! The expression she wore with those stupid, cute freckles when we finished at a benefit -- or met a goal! Not for our sake -- but for other’s! ❜ His heart was aching, tearing, exploding, bleeding. All he could do to combat the pain was hunch himself over and dig his fingers into the resistant couch they sat upon. 

   ❛ Most of all -- most of all -- I remember that last day. The longer I live -- the longer that day becomes. And -- ❜ His head lifted and tilted back now, struggling for air, it seemed. ❛ -- the more I understand, she was lying about lying. ❜     A few moments of silence passed before he began to speak again, collecting his calm for this most important justification. Jaune leaned, and rested his head onto Taeyeon’s shoulder as his hand moved from the skirt into her own palm, fitting more kindly than it had with her now wrinkled skirt. ❛ See, Taeyeon, when she was telling me the truth of her nature, she’d forgotten to let go of my hand. ❜ A few steady breaths. ❛ It was the same as our first successful benefit, and our admittance of love, and the day I’d offered marriage...❜

   ❛ It’s...all in the past now...but...❜ Having said so much, he finally became at a loss of words. ❛ the moral of the story, I guess, is that I never want her to ruin the way I see others. She haunts me with every new face, but -- I do my best to stay true to who I was, and who I want to be. Maybe that answers your question. Of...why. And how. ❜                                                                           ...                                                      ❛ I’m just...stubborn, I guess. ❜

[reading-writing-revolution]

"Time for a history lesson:

I intended to write this as soon as Donald Trump began to vilify this latest migrant caravan from Honduras, but my busy season as a farmer and political activist prevented me from doing so. Now that the anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic roots of the massacre in Pittsburgh have been revealed, it's even more critical for us in the United States to learn the truth.

The horror of life in Honduras is our fault.

This is not an exaggeration. It's not "blame America first" hyperbole. It's a simple truth.

In 1901, the writer O. Henry (real name William Sydney Porter) coined the phrase "Banana Republic" to describe Honduras and neighboring Central American countries. The term has lost most of its punch today (what with being appropriated by a clothing company), but at the time it described a supposedly democratic country fully controlled by foreign corporations. In the case of Honduras, the main company in charge in 1901 was the United Fruit Company (still ubiquitous on supermarket shelves, but now known as "Chiquita").

Big Banana was responsible for coups against Central American governments, for horrible mistreatment of workers, and even for massacres against communities where they did business. They installed favorable governments and then signed 99-year-leases on huge tracts of land for both plantations and railroads. They murdered opponents with impunity. Central Americans called United Fruit "el pulpo", the octopus, because they had their tentacles in every facet of society. And all of this was encouraged by the U.S. government. It was the definition of economic imperialism.

The "Banana Republic" label stuck to Honduras through most of the 20th Century, even as other industries (especially clothing manufacturing and resource extraction) took hold. Again and again, Central American democracies were destroyed by a series of military dictatorships.

Now jump forward to the 1970s and 1980s: Economic stagnation and the legacy of decades of imperialism led to leftist movements (both non-violent and violent) fighting against their corrupt and ineffective governments. The backlash led to the notorious "contras" in Nicaragua, U.S.-backed right-wing militias tasked with preventing leftists from taking power by whatever means necessary. Our government used neighboring Honduras as the base of operations due to a favorable relationship with the military dictatorship in charge (and we still have a major military base there).

An American by the name of John Negroponte arrived in Honduras in 1981 to serve as Ambassador for Ronald Reagan. Known today mainly as George W. Bush's Director of National Intelligence, Negroponte made his career in Honduras covering up the military's campaign of abductions, torture, and murder in service to the Cold War. Little was known of the depth of his cynicism at the time, but the release of documents over the past decades has made it all too clear (there are reams of such documents available online if you're interested). A CIA-backed unit of the Honduran military known as Battalion 316 became particularly notorious for extrajudicial killings and disappearances of leftists, including labor unions, student leaders, and indigenous people.

In 1982, following the Honduran military's handing power to a new civilian government, Honduras crafted a new Constitution. By all accounts, Honduran military leaders, with John Negroponte whispering in their ear, played a large role in that process. The end result was a document that ensured Honduras would remain a weak country in thrall to the United States and global corporations in perpetuity. One of the keys to this was insisting on a single 4-year term for the Presidency, which inevitably led to instability. Another key was the provision that certain parts of the Constitution (including the Presidential term limit) could never be changed, and that anyone in government who so much as proposed changing them could no longer serve in government. It was that Constitutional article that resulted in the 2009 coup against the center-left elected President, Manuel Zelaya (kidnapped by the military in the middle of the night and left on the tarmac of an airport in Costa Rica), after he proposed a non-binding referendum on the subject of holding a Constituent Assembly to potentially amend the Constitution.

A few months after the coup I had the honor of visiting Honduras as part of a human rights delegation led by the Christian organization Witness for Peace. We met with leaders of the non-violent resistance, including many (like the organization COFADEH) who had struggled for justice since the 1980s. I met young people who had seen their friends and comrades murdered or disappeared just days or weeks earlier.

We visited San Pedro Sula, the 2nd largest city in Honduras (after the capital, Tegucigalpa), an industrial port city in the north of the country, which at the time was the most dangerous city in the world. Despite the war in Iraq, it was a deadlier place than Baghdad. Due to its location and the nearby deep-water port of Puerto Cortes (the largest in Central America), San Pedro Sula is the most important city in Honduras for imports and exports, both legal and black market.

American fast food companies had recently taken hold in Honduras, thanks to tax-free "free trade zones" set up to encourage American businesses to locate there. Across the country we saw newly installed strips of American fast food, a shiny new Domino's next to a Wendy's next to a Popeye's, looking just like they would in New Jersey -- even with all signs and slogans in English. We were told that these franchises arrived ready to install in container ships coming from Houston (the nearest major US port) into the port at San Pedro Sula. Hidden among the styofoam containers and milkshake mixes would be flat-screen TVs, high-end clothes, and even luxury cars, all smuggled in tax-free. What's worse, the same containers would then be sent back "empty," but would actually be full of illegally harvested tropical hardwoods, jaguar pelts, and even bulk loads of earth to be processed in the United States for valuable minerals.

On top of all this corrupt economic activity, Honduras became a key drug trafficking center between Colombia and the US, leading San Pedro Sula to become a shooting gallery as various gangs sought to gain control.

Against the advice of locals, a few of us decided to take a stroll through the city after dark. What we found was surreal. What had been a bustling central square a few hours earlier was like a ghost town. The few people we did run into either eyed us up and down menacingly, or told us to get off the streets as they hustled to do the same. We soon returned to our motel, a decrepit two-story building with about 20 rooms and a rifle-bearing guard in the lobby.

Not long after we returned to the United States, deposed President Zelaya snuck back into the country riding in the trunk of a car. He sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy as the interim government prepared to hold whitewashing elections in an effort to turn the world's attention away. For a little while the Obama administration maintained the correct stance (that what happened was a coup, and that Zelaya should be restored to power), but a few weeks before the election we changed our position and sided with the coup regime. It's no coincidence that this happened after Honduras' fraudulent leaders hired Lanny Davis to lobby for them in Washington. An old friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton, it was apparently easy for him to get the then-Secretary of State to change her position. And once again Honduras slid back to Banana Republic status.

Now, a few right-wing Presidents later, Honduras remains a weak country, just as we intended. The government is irredeemably corrupt, just as we intended. And the people lack opportunity, just as we intended.

The Honduran people are not ignorant of this history, as most of us are. On the contrary, they know exactly what we've done to their country. I have no doubt this is one reason why so many of them want to come here now. Their hopelessness is our fault. They have every right to feel we owe them.

The people in this caravan are not simply immigrants or migrants seeking a better life. They are asylum seekers looking for sanctuary. And they are victims of over a century of American imperialism looking for redress, following the only path we've left for them.

Shame on Donald Trump for vilifying these suffering people. Shame on the Republican Party for falling for his lies. Shame on the media for failing to report the whole story.

And shame on all of us -- and our parents, and theirs, and theirs -- for allowing any of this to happen in the first place."

Nate Kleinman

[how-could-i-do-this]

A Mind at Work (Part 4)

Summary: Angst, then smut.

Pairing: Angelica Schuyler x Thomas Jefferson

A/N: John Church probably did nothing wrong in real life, yet here I am vilifying him.

Angelica stayed in the shower until the water ran cold.  Thomas wasn’t upset with her, but she didn’t have the energy to talk about what had happened.  She found him in his bed, thanking her lucky stars when he simply reached out an arm to pull her in, falling asleep almost immediately after she was under the covers. Angelica tried to think of an adequate explanation to send to Eliza, but decided she had better do it in person. Thomas woke up around 2 am to find her asleep, phone in hand.  She had evidently crafted a text and passed out before she could send it.

I’m so sorry. Let me know when you want to talk again, no pressure. Love you.

He chuckled and gently pulled it from her grasp, pressing send and setting it on the bedside table.

The smell of eggs and bacon wafted into the bedroom, waking Angelica up. Thomas rounded the corner carrying a tray that he set on her lap as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.  

“If I had known this was waiting for me I would’ve stayed over a long time ago.”

“Babe, all you had to do was ask.” He beamed at her and picked a piece of bacon off her plate.

Thomas had made an exorbitant amount of food, and they ate in comfortable silence.  As he ate the last piece of toast, he met Angelica’s eyes. He wasn’t pressuring her, but she knew she couldn’t avoid the conversation any longer. She sighed.

“John is my ex.”

“I figured as much, given your reaction.” Thomas laid across her legs, staring expectantly.

“We had been dating for three years when I found out he was cheating on me. He had been doing it for a while and I was too stupid to notice.”

Thomas started to speak but she cut him off. “No, I was. It was so obvious. He would cancel plans at the last minute, or just blow me off without saying anything.” Her eyes filled with tears. “When we had sex I could smell her on him.”

Thomas sat up and hugged her. She continued talking into his shoulder, her words muffled.

“I would ask him where he had been, or why he was acting differently, but he would brush it off and tell me I was imagining things. It got to the point where if I even mentioned that something was wrong he would call me an idiot; tell me I was just trying to stir up trouble where there wasn’t any.” Angelica felt him stiffen, his arms tightening around her.

“And I know now that it was abuse. I’ve told myself that enough times. It’s just… hard to accept that someone you loved would try and hurt you, you know?”

Thomas nodded, lost for words.

“That’s why I’m so scared for Eliza.  I don’t want her to ever have to go through what I did.”

Angelica sighed and looked up at Thomas, who was crying silently. She adjusted herself so she was sitting in his lap and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

Holding his face in her hands, she said, “If it makes you feel better, I kicked his ass.”

Thomas looked shocked. “You did?”

“Mhmm. He came by my dorm earlier this year, drunk, banging on the door. When I opened it he tried to get in, and I… forcibly removed him.”

Thomas raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“In addition to getting him out I may have also given him a black eye and a broken rib.  I never heard anything about it and I haven’t seen him since, so he must have been too ashamed to tell anyone.” She let out a small laugh, trying to get Thomas to smile.

He brushed a strand of hair out of her face and whispered, “Can I kiss you?”

Angelica leaned into him. It was an innocent enough kiss, and when she pulled back she saw fresh tears on his cheeks.

“Really, I’m okay now.” She tangled her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. “I trust you, with my feelings and with Eliza’s.”

Thomas grinned, and flipped Angelica onto her back on the bed, looming over her.  He swooped down to kiss her again as she giggled.  

“You know,” he said, “we’ve never been on a real date. What do you say we change that?”

“What did you have in mind?”

Angelica’s hair whipped around her as she drove.  Thomas had gotten them out of the city, then let her take the wheel on the country roads. He had been willed a Jaguar by his grandfather, and he almost never had the chance to use it.

“You’re going to take a right in half a mile,” he yelled over the rev of the engine.

They had packed a picnic and were headed to an orchard owned by Thomas’ aunt and uncle.  Angelica had insisted on their dressing up, but she was beginning to regret it as the hem of her dress had gained a mind of its own and was flying all over the place. Thomas thought it was hilarious and volunteered to hold it down, but his hand was creeping higher on her thigh as she drove.

“Thomas,” she said warningly, “driving requires focus.”

He tried his hardest to look innocent as he reached his goal, but he could not suppress the groan that came out when he realized she had worn no underwear whatsoever.

“God, you’re soaked already.” He thumbed at her clit and her jaw clenched. Thomas slowly pushed one finger inside her and she moaned, her eyes closing for a split second before she remembered where they were.  Angelica swore and pulled them off to the side of the road.

“You couldn’t handle a little teasing?” Thomas asked, popping his finger in his mouth.

She parked and practically ripped her seatbelt off. “I was going 80!”

“I never would’ve let you come while you were driving. That would be no fun.”

Angelica laughed, fumbling around for the passenger side lever.

“Just shut the fuck up and lean your seat back.” Thomas’ eyes glinted as he realized her intentions.  He held onto her hips as she moved to straddle his face, gripping onto the backseat for support.

Angelica cried out as Thomas’ tongue entered her.  He let one hand trail over her ass as she rode him, squeezing gently. He reached up and pulled the cups of her bra aside, massaging her breasts and tweaking her nipples roughly. Picking up speed, Angelica fucked herself on his tongue.  She wasn’t going to last long. Thomas’ plump lips wrapped around her clit and she felt the familiar tugging sensation.

“Thomas-” she started to warn him, but it was too late.  He kept flicking his tongue against her clit as she came until she whined from oversensitivity and rolled off him, landing in the backseat.

“I just… I just need a minute. Wow.” She panted.

“Don’t worry about it.” Thomas looked sheepish.

“Did you come?”  He shifted, not answering. Angelica crawled back into the front seat, leaning in close. “That’s really hot.”

Thomas finally met her eyes, seeing the fire there.  She bit his earlobe and whispered, “I can’t believe you got off from eating me out.  Oh my god.” Her hand roamed under his shirt, scratching her nails across his toned chest.  Their lips met and Thomas immediately deepened the kiss, pulling her back into his lap.

Angelica’s phone buzzed.

Ignoring it, she licked a stripe up his neck and went to undo his belt.

It buzzed again.

“Just check,” Thomas murmured, “we’ve got all day.”

Angelica’s face fell. “Actually, we don’t. Eliza wants to know if I can meet her in an hour.” She looked at him apologetically.  “This is important to me. I can’t stand seeing her upset.”

“I get it.”  Thomas checked his watch. “We’re about half an hour out- how much time do you need to get ready?”

She grinned, tugging at one of his curls. “I could spare a few minutes.”

[beingallelite]

These days, both WWE and AEW have numerous UK talents on their roster and then you have the likes of Marty Scurll in Ring of Honor, Will Ospreay in New Japan, Nick Aldis is the NWA champion and PAC is one of the biggest independent stars in the world.

Havoc never thought he’d find his way to a major promotion with a bigtime TV deal. That’s mainly down to his hardcore style and dark character, but AEW have moved him out to America and the 35-year-old is on the bink of the ‘big time’ with the burgeoning company.

talkSPORT had the chance to talk to the Progress Wrestling legend this week and dive into all things AEW, his career and, especially, ‘blood and guts’.

Hi Jimmy! How’s life now you’re contracted to All Elite Wrestling?

Well, I’ve moved to Orlando now. I still can’t quite believe I’m living here, I have to pinch myself I’ve come to America. Why Orlando? Well, I like Disney [laughs]. A lot of my friends live here. Marty Scurll, Drake Maverick, Teegan Nox, it’s quite a big wrestling community over here at the moment and I thought I might as well go where I have lots of friends. If I moved to New York or something I’d be drinking every night and that wouldn’t end well [laughs].

Are performers like yourself a prime example of the hotbed of talent the UK has become for big promotions in the States and around the world?

When I got into wrestling when I was younger, I never imagined it would be a job. I just did it because it was fun, because I used to like watching it on TV as a kid and there wasn’t a scene in England at the time. To see it grow to the point that it is now and so many of us have jobs with big companies is great. Me especially; because of the character that I am and the way I wrestle, I never thought I’d get a full-time deal out of it. So it’s been incredible. Getting to do Double or Nothing was special and I never used to travel much with my parents as a kid, so even coming to Las Vegas for Double or Nothing, that was my first time and it was really cool.

This has just started, but I can’t see it ending anytime soon. The atmosphere backstage with The Bucks, Cody [Rhodes], Kenny [Omega]; everyone is just so cool, we’re all in this together trying to make something cool for ourselves and the fans, it’s a really awesome company to be apart of.

How did the offer from AEW come about?

I wrestled Cody a few times in the last couple of years and he was quite a big fan of mine anyway. So we spoke a couple times about me coming in and I was all for it. I think, because of my character, I’m much more theatrical than, and I’ll use inverted commas, an ‘indie wrestler’. I prefer storylines and taking my time. Like I’m really into horror movies and my degree is in film. I like doing sort of film/horror style vignettes and the kind of storylines I did in Progress, so I’m hoping that translates to TV and I think that’s what Cody saw in me – being different to everybody else.

I didn’t even think about it, I just said yes straight away. I probably should have waited a little bit [laughs]. I probably should have negotiated, but I would have been stupid to say no. I get to come to America and live my dream with a lot of friends who are doing exactly the same thing, so it’s a dream come true. Plus I can go to Disney Land whenever I want!

What do you make of the criticism from some quarters about the independent scene dying in England with NXT UK and World of Sport coming to life and now AEW grabbing talent, too?

People have been saying on Twitter or whatever that British wrestling is dying now because so many of have gone on to full-time deals. But, we made that scene. The scene was dead when we started out 10 years ago or so, guys like Zack Sabre Jr, Marty Scurll, Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews – all of those guys. We helped revitalise that scene and we did that from nothing. The fact that there’s a good base now; there’s so many good trainers now and good wrestlers coming through, I’m really proud of the scene I’ve left behind.

And hopefully I’ll get to go back to when AEW do shows in England and stuff, but I’m also excited for the young talent coming through because those guys are going to have all these awesome crowds, they don’t have to wrestle in front of five people anymore like we did. So those guys are really lucky and British fans are still some of the best in the world. I’m going to miss it, but I’m glad to be starting this new adventure.

Do you have any news about AEW coming to the UK?

Cody has said a couple of things to me about what we’re going to be doing in the UK, but that’s for Cody to talk about and release that information when he’s ready, I wouldn’t want to spoil it. There’s a lot of interest in that market right now and we’ve got myself, Darby Allin, Kip Sabian – the market is really strong and I’m looking forward to going back. It’s a really good market for AEW to go into, especially because WWE aren’t doing any big pay-per-views over there. So I’m very excited about us doing that, but no idea where it’ll be! It would be cool if we could do Fulham Stadium or something, but that would be a WrestleMania type show I would think.

I look forward to coming back when I can – they get my humour a lot more in England than they do here [laughs].

We recently saw you do a skit with your All Out opponents Joey Janela and Darby Allin featuring none other than Blink 182! How did that come about?

Being such a big music fan, I loved it. I’ve played at Download and festivals like that and live music is really my thing. If I could sing or play an instrument I would probably be a rockstar and not a wrestler, but I can’t do either, so I chose to throw myself through tables! The fact that we’re getting to do these cool stuff is a great way to grow the brand. But getting to meet Blink 182 was very cool. They were playing at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium where we did Fight for the Fallen and after we saw the Enzo Amore/Joey Janela thing we just thought it would be very funny to do. Luckily Blink 182 were well up for it and it came off great. I know some guys who have been opening for them on their tour as well so it was nice to hang out with some friends at the same time.

What do you make of the recent comments from Vince McMahon about blood and guts? You seem the perfect guy to ask!

I think because of the blood in the Cody and Dustin match, then the Moxley/Janela match and of course me, being synonymous with a lot of blood and guts – I think it has a place. At heart, we’re performance art and a live-action stunt show kind of thing and if we’re trying to portray realness, then blood is going to be involved. The week after Vince McMahon said that line about blood and guts, they had Seth Rollins bleeding from the mouth on TV. So why is that OK and we’re not?

I think if things are done well and for a reason then I don’t see why people should be vilified for that sort of entertainment. With wrestling fans, there’s always a split. Half of the people like it, half don’t. If you don’t like it, no one is forcing you to watch it. Wrestling is a variety show, there’s a bit of something for everyone in it and just because you don’t like one aspect doesn’t mean you’d need to turn off completely.

It’s like music. I love heavy metal but some people might say ‘well heavy metal is shit,’ and I’m like ‘you can’t say that’. I don’t like R&B, but I realise there are good R&B singers. I’m not a massive fan of hip-hop, but I like Eminem and Dr. Dre. So there’s always good stuff in everything, I just think you can’t be so closed-minded.

I can’t really talk because I’ve used a lot of blood over the years, but I’ve learned that you get a better reaction when it’s for a reason.

Now that you’re in AEW, what prospects are exciting you the most?

Obviously, I want to work with Jon Moxley. We did a few shows together back in 2007, ’08, ’09 I think in Germany and we were meant to wrestle each other and it never came off, unfortunately. I’d love to do a programme with him. Chris Jericho as well, just because I’ve been such a fan of his since I was a kid! Darby Allin, too. We have tagged together a few times a couple of years ago and that’s always been fun. But, I want to do stories. I want to do progammes with people and be able to tell a story all the way through. I’m just happy to be here, but I think my creativity is how I can be used best.

Tony Khan has talked about how there may be some restrictions on TV compared to pay-per-view, how do you think those restrictions might affect you?

I always find I’m at my most creative when I’m giving restrictions. When I’m told I can’t do something it’s like ‘Ok, this is where I want to get to, how can I get there with these restrictions in place?’ I think storyline restrictions.. like, I can’t get thrown through glass or whatever, we can still be an entertaining product without having to use that sort of stuff and we want more realism.

I still remember the Chris Jericho/Kane feud years ago that started because he spilled a cup of coffee on him and then it ended with them trying to kill each other. We can find better ways into a feud than that! I’ve got ideas of what I want to do, but until I get to TV and know what I’m asked to do it’s a hard question to answer. They want creativity and they want exciting stories and I know I can help with that.

As a man who knows the UK scene like the back of his hand, who do AEW need to look at signing before someone else does?

Rampage Brown, 100 percent. I think he’s the best heavyweight in England, without a doubt. He just looks like a wrestler, he is a wrestler. Cara Noir as well, because he’s incredibly creative and his entrance is made for a high-production show. It would be awesome.

What do you think of Jon Moley’s work for New Japan right now?

The G1 this year has been incredible. Kenta coming back and all of that has been great. Obviously, I’m big friends with Will Ospreay and that so I’m a big fan of New Japan. Moxley’s stuff has been really good. It does feel like he’s been given a new lease of life after WWE and wrestling how he wants now. That’s very cool for him.

With TV not starting until October, lots of AEW talent have still been taking independent bookings. Have you enjoyed time off or are you keeping busy?

I’ve been trying to rest my body a bit because after three or four shows a week for several years, it’s a bit of a mess. I’ve generally been doing a couple of shows a week just so I don’t forget how to wrestle sort of thing. I wrestled Nick Gage recently, that was a deathmatch I never thought I’d get to do. It’s a weird dream match, but I’ve been a fan of his ever since I started so that was really cool. I’m wrestling Jessica Havoc in a couple of weeks – my American sister – so that’s going to fun and that’s just what I’ve been doing, having fun. I wrestled Nick Gage in Los Angeles and I’d never been there before so it’s a cool experience.

What can fans expect from your match at All Out?

It’s going to be carnage. That’s where the creative restrictions come into play. I’ve got loads of ideas of what I want to do, but it all depends on what we’re allowed to do in the actual building. All three of us want to steal the show so it’s going to be an interesting match, put it that way.

Finally, judging by Tony Khan’s comments on violence after Fyter Fest, do you think you’re the type of performer that will feel the weight of those comments?

Yes and no. It’s like I was saying earlier and even with comedy wrestling: some people love it and some people hate it. Now, with violence, I think it’s subjective to what you might think is too violent to what someone else might think is not too violent at all. We’ll have to have a discussion about it and as long as I can justify what I’m doing I don’t think I’ll be restricted too much. Who knows, I’m just excited for the match. I like Joey, I like Darby, I like beating them up so it’s going to be great.

AEW’s All Out goes down on August 31 and their TV show on TNT starts on October 2.

[nights-howl]

Side Profile View of Jaguar done by the ever talented and supremely wonderful Arofexdracona. Art by: @arofex  Character: Jasui Vihn/Vilified Jaguar - @jasui-vihn

[pauldeckerus]

Ethical Exif (EE) for Wildlife Photos

One of my least favorite shots from Sani lodge now serves as a constant reminder of poor practice to me. This subject was one of many subjects collected by Tropical Herping working on a photographic field manual of Herps in Ecuador. This parrot snake (Leptophis ahaetulla) was played with.

It was grabbed by the tail and gently swirled in circles. Then it was gently batted about the head, to engage in defensive gaping (an open-mouthed threat display). This occurs naturally to a certain extent, but with more stress, the defensive gape is held for longer.

There were more than 30 different individuals, each experiencing greater or lesser amounts of abuse, and all held in sub-standard conditions over the course of days. Held in plastic or cloth bags, they were stressed out, mishandled, at least one died to my knowledge, and at the end, they were translocated beyond where they were caught.

Although I wasn’t involved in the project (the guidebook) or capture, I still photographed some of the species and offered my logistical help to them on where they could find other species. It’s one of those unfortunate incidents which was an eye-opener for me, and really forced me to look at my own practices and question them, even small actions and arthropod subjects. They may appear small or insignificant, but it speaks to an overall respect for nature, and it can be a slippery slope into poorer and poorer practice.

The tacit approval I gave amounted to an endorsement and I consider myself as much to blame as those doing the collecting and abuse. These practices are rife within macrophotography, and one should not expect experience, professionalism or status to be an indicator of a person’s ethical standards. Always question whether something needs to be done and if it doesn’t, don’t support it and if it continues, speak up. These experiences helped mold and form my concept of Ethical Exif.

The respect with which we treat wildlife – whether it is a charismatic and emblematic species like the Jaguar, the common or under-appreciated backyard denizens, or even vilified pest species – our treatment is a reflection of us and our values. Nature, though wild, is a looking glass through which we can gaze upon our own humanity, a mirror to our human nature.

Ethics is a contentious and complicated subject, full of pitfalls and paradoxes, logical fallacies and fabrications. The ‘right’ course of action is often mutable, subject to situation and current social mores which not only differ from country to country but from one year to the next with the emergence or reversal of scientific data.

My stance on the matter, in brief, is transparency. Allow anyone viewing the photo to determine for themselves whether the ‘ethical specs’ of the photo align with their own personal standards by detailing the ‘behind the scenes’ treatment of the subject.

The symbols displayed below, or any variant thereof constitutes what I am calling “Ethical Exif” or EE. While EXIF information denotes the technical details of a photograph (aperture, shutter, ISO, flash fire, lens used, etc…) and is present as metadata embedded in the photo, the EE is meant to clarify the ethical standards used in the taking of the photo.

The elements which I have identified as being both relevant and important are as follows:

1. 🄷: Health injury/stress levels (scale 1-9 with ☠, the death of subject, substituting for 10)

2. 📷: in situ

3. 🖐: Subject Manipulation (either in the field or in a studio) *Updated 03/07/2018 to replace 📸)*

4. ⏳: time in captivity

5. 👣: Translocation (Capture, transport, and release of a subject from one location to another)

6. 🎨: Use of cloning or extensive post-processing

7. ↺: Image rotation

8. : Playback (Used primarily in bird photography, the science is currently inconclusive as to the long-term impacts on behaviour)

The health scale uses the following criteria to determine the numerical 🄷 value:

🄷1: Subject is unaware of the photographer’s presence, engages in normal, undisturbed activity.

🄷2: Subject is aware of photographer’s presence but either ignores, or is habituated to photographer’s presence, and engages in normal behavior.

🄷3: Subject is aware of photographer’s presence and modifies its behavior as a result (no immediate physical harm).

🄷4: Photographer engages with the subject Eg. Manipulation of position, translocation to a studio environment, etc. but with no physical evidence of damage to the subject.

🄷5: Defensive stress response Eg. Striking/defensive gaping

🄷6: Physiological response affecting an individual’s short-term loss of fitness Eg. vomiting, tonic immobility.

🄷7: Physiological response affecting an individual’s medium-term loss of fitness Eg. Thanatosis (loss of limbs or digits), physical damage (recoverable)

🄷8: Immediate catatonia or unresponsiveness with manipulation, long-term loss of fitness – Revival and partial recovery aftercare and stress-free environment are provided.

🄷9: Immediate unresponsiveness with manipulation, partial revival but with permanent loss of fitness.

☠: Death of subject

The Rationale

Though one might perhaps strive for unobtrusiveness with a watermark, as is traditionally the case with signature identifiers, the purpose of EE is to convey information. Therefore it should be applied in a consistent, predictable and clear manner. To that end, I have opted to standardize the watermark’s position (top left), opacity (25), Scale (25), Colour (White or Black, depending on the background), and Font (Century).

Leaf-mimicking katydid from Mindo cloud forest, Ecuador. Copyright Paul Bertner 2017.

EE takes the form of a watermark, because despite being intrusive, the watermark ensures that the message will remain intact regardless of the platform, and unlike a caption, which can become divorced from its image through sharing, and image copying, the watermark continues to provide some indication of methods of production, as well as provenance.

Furthermore, it will come as no surprise that the current means of ingesting media content (Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) encourages clicking without thinking. This means that captions often go unread and that a photo is evaluated based solely on its aesthetic, rather than its message. EE, therefore, attempts to bridge this gap and imbue the image with information related to its creation. Ultimately, the watermark is meant to remove the obstacle and the excuse of ignorance.

This EE has already evolved within a short period of time through several iterations. The story of the origin of Ethical Exif can be read in this 2017 Facebook post. The use of Emojis is useful to:

a. Enable a near universal understanding or inference of most of the symbols and their meaning where language may be a barrier

b. allow a shorthand notation where space is limited

c. Allow multi-platform explanation eg. Twitter (limited to 140 characters)

d. Save time for the photographer when applying EE to their photos

This watermarked EE will be found on all of my most recent photos, with further expansion and explanation (when 🄷 value exceeds 🄷3) to be found within the caption, like the parrot snake photo introducing this section.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to adopt this standard with respect to your own photography.

About the author: Paul Bertner is a wildlife photographer based in British Columbia, Canada. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of his work and writing on his blog, portfolio, Facebook, and Flickr. This article was also published here.

from Photography News https://petapixel.com/2018/07/16/ethical-exif-ee-for-wildlife-photos/

[djgblogger-blog]

Curiosity saves the cat: Tourism helps reinvent the jaguar

http://bit.ly/2xxBOhO From villain to hero, the jaguar (Panthera onca) stands at the cusp of a radical overhaul in its public image. As the largest cat in the Americas, the species commands a dominant role in the food chain of its native Pantanal – a vast swathe of tropical wetland that encompasses parts of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. Once hunted for its fur, the jaguar’s appetite for the abundant prey in the Pantanal has led it into deadly conflict with ranchers in recent decades, casting it as the stalking menace of livestock and livelihood in a region where much of the land is reserved for cattle rearing. However, in a hopeful development for conservationists, researchers have revealed in a new study published in Global Ecology and Conservation that jaguars are worth 60 times more to tourism than the cost the big cats inflict on ranchers. “The study represents a regional reality in the Pantanal,” said Fernando Tortato, research fellow at Panthera, the global wild cat conservation group that helped lead the study. “Where the jaguar brings in far more revenue than the potential damage it can cause.” Once vilified for the threat it posed to livestock, the jaguar is enjoying a reassessment of its character in the Pantanal. Credit: Rafael Hoogesteijn. Jaguars once abounded from the southwestern U.S. to Argentina, but their numbers have fallen due to hunting and habitat loss. In the Amazon rainforest, deforestation is an ongoing threat, even while the dense foliage often precludes human encounters with jaguars. In…

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Houston Oilers' strange lame-duck season gave NFL a blueprint in how not to do relocation

The 1996 Oilers drew five regular-season crowds of less than 28,000. (AP)

HOUSTON – In one key way, Houston is the perfect place for Super Bowl LI: The city loves its football.

The Houston Texans have sold out every game since their first season in 2002. This week, you can’t go anywhere without a reminder that the Super Bowl is here. Everyone seems to be enjoying the attention as the center of the football universe.

It makes the Houston Oilers’ awful, lame duck season here a little more than 20 years ago seem even more surreal.

The 1996 Oilers provided a sad and weird final chapter for a team that was once beloved. The Oilers were supposed to play in Houston again in 1997, but it was so bad in 1996 that owner Bud Adams decided to buy out its lease and move instead of doing it all over again.

The early move led to two more awkward seasons as the Oilers awaited completion of their permanent stadium in Nashville. Franchise relocation is never easy, and the NFL is dealing with it again.

“It was handled so poorly,” Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews said. “If anything – I think about the Rams and Chargers – we set an example in how you don’t want to move a franchise. It was a wreck.”

“It was weird,” 1996 Oilers safety Blaine Bishop said. “I feel for the teams moving now, but I’m sure they won’t go through what we went through.”

It was so bad, general manager Floyd Reese apologized to the players at one point.

“I told the team once that season, ‘The NFL environment is not like this,’” Reese said. “’What we’re going through is not the NFL.’”

One thing everyone associated with the 1996 Oilers remembers is how quiet the games were. They had to be careful about what was said during home games in the Astrodome that season because everyone could be heard.

[Ditch the paper and pen – play Squares Pick’em for the Big Game!]

“I was up in the coaches’ box in the press box, and the windows were open. I remember calling down to the offensive coaches on the sideline to tell them to quiet the quarterback down – when he called plays in the huddle, I could hear them in the box,” Reese said.

“[Wide receivers/tight ends coach] Les Steckel tells a good story, he was on the sideline for pregame warmups, having a regular conversation with his wife who was 30 rows up,” 1996 Oilers tight end Frank Wycheck said. “He wasn’t yelling, it was just a normal conversation.”

Only 15,131 people showed up to the final Houston Oilers home game. The Houston Dynamo Major League Soccer team has never averaged less than 15,883 in a season here. The University of Houston’s football team never played in front of a home crowd smaller than 35,846 last season. The Oilers played in front of five regular-season crowds of less than 28,000 in 1996.

For years the Oilers were a huge draw in Houston, and many people here still love those teams. How did it get that bad in 1996?

*****

Through most of the Oilers’ existence Houston was known as one of the best and loudest crowds in the NFL. The Astrodome shook in 1978 when Earl Campbell made himself a star while Howard Cosell had to scream to be heard on “Monday Night Football.”

“So they stand as one … look out America, here comes Houston!” Cosell exclaimed over the din after a Campbell touchdown in a famous win over Miami. “America’s fastest growing city, and right now, in this arena, America’s football team!”

In 1993, the Astrodome was on fire as Warren Moon led the Oilers to 11 straight wins and an AFC Central title.

“When the dome was rocking like that, you’d feel it in your neck hairs,” said Matthews, who was drafted by the Oilers in 1983 and has a book about his career called “Inside the NFL’s First Family.”

“The energy was great.”

“I lived off the fans,” said Bishop, whose rookie season was 1993. “I did things I didn’t think I could do. It was awesome.”

It went bad quickly. The reason the Oilers’ situation turned south is familiar: It was over public money for a new stadium. The Astrodome was falling apart and the Oilers wanted something better.

“It was a dump,” longtime Houston Chronicle writer John McClain said. “When it opened, it was known as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World.’ When it ended, it was the eighth best dome in the NFL.”

McClain said the Oilers had a terrible lease as well, and Adams saw how the relocated Rams had a favorable deal in St. Louis, their new city. Adams wanted something better for himself and his team in Houston. He wanted $186 million in public money for a new stadium, McClain said. Politicians dug in against Adams, who was awkward at public relations, and the tide shifted against him quickly. Anyone who spoke up publicly for Adams was ridiculed.

“Nobody came out and said, ‘Let’s at least listen to what Bud has to say,’” McClain said.

A 2-14 season in 1994, when Adams was trying to get public money for a new stadium, was terribly timed. Adams was quickly becoming the enemy in Houston.

“People cared about the Oilers. People did not care about Bud Adams,” McClain said.

Then Nashville entered the picture.

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“Bud called me up to his office and asked, ‘What do you know about Nashville, Tennessee?’” Reese said. “I said, “Well, there’s country music. That’s about it.’ He said, ‘There’s a good chance we’ll be moving there, so you need to familiarize yourself with it.’ It happened so fast.”

The rumors became reality during the 1995 season when Adams agreed to move his team to Nashville. The Oilers didn’t deal with just one lame duck season in Houston; they had two.

“It deteriorated so quickly,” Reese said. “It seemed like it happened overnight. You went from not being able to get a ticket to having any section you wanted.”

Matthews remembers a home game in 1995 against the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, when the Jaguars got their first-ever win. The Astrodome held more than 60,000 for football, but only 36,346 were there to watch the Oilers lose to the lowly Jaguars. That day was a sign that things were changing for the worse.

“Even the booing wasn’t as passionate,” Matthews said.

The 1996 Oilers players interviewed credited coach Jeff Fisher with trying to keep the focus on football. But the fight between Adams, the city and the fans was hard to ignore. It was the main topic in Houston day after day.

“We weren’t getting any feedback about if we were going to move,” said Jon Runyan, a rookie offensive tackle on the 1996 Oilers. “All the info you were getting was from the newspapers.”

The crowds thinned in a hurry. It didn’t feel like the NFL anymore.

“You’re doing your dream job, but nobody was showing up,” said Runyan, who played the previous year in front of huge crowds at the University of Michigan. “It was like being in high school.”

When professional teams relocate, a lot of attention is paid to the politics of the move, the fans left behind or the reception the team will get in its new city. What’s rarely discussed is how many employees are forced to move. Runyan said he was dating a mechanical engineer he met at Michigan, and she asked him in 1996 if she should move to Houston or take a job with Boeing in Seattle.

“I said, ‘Don’t come to Houston, I could be out of here in six months,’” said Runyan, a former U.S. Congressman who is now the NFL’s vice president of policy and rules administration. “She moved to Seattle and that was the end of the relationship.”

The players were obviously affected, as were many behind the scenes.

“I’d have people coming to me daily – an equipment manager or a ticket manager – and asking, ‘Am I going to go or stay?’” Reese said. “And I’d tell them the truth: I didn’t know.”

Some players were young and hadn’t set deep roots in Houston. But Matthews had five children and had lived in Houston more than 10 years. The team was moving to Tennessee but his family and children were happy in Houston.

Bruce Matthews (74) played 19 seasons for the Oilers/Titans franchise. (AP)

“I was like, what do I do?” Matthews said.

The first Oilers season in Tennessee, Matthews’ family stayed in Houston. He had a three-bedroom apartment in Nashville and his family would fly in for home games. The rest of his career, the kids’ first semester would be spent in Tennessee and they’d go back to Houston for the offseason and their second semester. Matthews played through the 2001 season, when he was 40, and while he admitted that he might have retired no matter what, the moving erased any doubts.

“I didn’t want the kids switching schools anymore,” Matthews said.

*****

During all the turmoil, in front of the disappearing crowds, a funny thing was happening on the field: The Oilers had become a talented team. They had a young quarterback named Steve McNair and a rookie running back named Eddie George to headline a suddenly competitive roster. But how could a good team focus though all that uncertainty? The Oilers had a very unusual split in 1996: 6-2 on the road, 2-6 at home. They lost their last five home games.

“It was an emotionally empty dome,” Matthews said.

The Oilers played their final game in Houston on Dec. 15, 1996 in front of a crowd that minor league baseball teams might appreciate, but was shocking for an NFL game. The crowd of just over 15,000 was the smallest in Houston Oilers history and looked especially bad in the large Astrodome. The Oilers lost 21-13 to the Cincinnati Bengals.

McClain went outside of the stadium after the game to see Adams leave. He says about 100 fans were there to boo and yell at Adams, and that angry group ended up throwing whatever they could at Adams’ limo while trying to block it.

“I thought at the time, what must it be like to be Bud Adams, the most vilified man in Houston,” McClain said.

It was no surprise Adams made sure there would not be another season in Houston. He had to buy out the lease and the Titans had to play in Memphis, which was more than 200 miles from what would be their new home in Nashville, but at least it wasn’t Houston.

Some players thought that Memphis season was far worse than the last Houston season. Memphis didn’t land the Oilers; Nashville did. There was little reason for people there to support the team. The Oilers had their day-to-day operations in Nashville, and would fly to home games in Memphis. Their families would bus three-plus hours to see the games. They played under the awkward “Tennessee Oilers” name for two years before rebranding.

The temporary practice facilities in Nashville were not up to NFL standards. They shared a building with a doctor’s office and had temporary trailers for meetings, without much in the way of walls between meeting rooms.

“You could hear the offense talking while we were talking in our room,” Bishop said. “It was like, what? But you’d focus on what you could control.”

Wycheck remembered that there was only one practice field, and one day when there was bad weather, the team had to practice in the parking lot.

“That was professional football with a lowercase ‘p,’” Matthews said.

“It was crazy,” Bishop said. “It was like, this is how it goes down? This is the NFL? This is ridiculous.”

Bud Adams couldn’t get a stadium deal in Houston to his liking, so he bolted to Tennessee. (AP)

The Oilers moved to Nashville and played at Vanderbilt University for the 1998 season. In 1999 they were finally in their permanent home with a name change to “Tennessee Titans.”

The Titans made the Super Bowl in 1999, and they credited the adversity of the previous four years for building an AFC championship team. A young team was dealing with ridiculous circumstances, but at least they were doing it together.

“It built our resiliency,” Bishop said. “It made us closer, naturally. We felt like there was nothing we couldn’t overcome.”

Houston bounced back too. McClain said he didn’t think NFL football was ever coming back to Houston when the Oilers left. The league wanted to expand to Los Angeles but L.A. couldn’t get its stadium situation settled. Houston, with new owner Bob McNair, ended up with the Texans. McClain remembers the day Houston was awarded the Texans: March 16, 1999. This time, it was done right.

“McNair was the antithesis of Bud,” McClain said. “Everyone loves McNair. He’s the most unassuming billionaire I’ve ever met.”

The Texans got a new stadium, thanks in part to public financing. The Houston Rockets, Houston Astros and Houston Dynamo have relatively new stadiums too, all built with the help of public financing. It’s easy to look at those stadiums and wonder, why couldn’t that have happened for the Oilers?

“I guess I don’t even know why they couldn’t have gotten it done,” said Wycheck, who co-hosts a radio show in Nashville. “Why did we have to move? I don’t understand how it got that bad, that an NFL team moved away.”

It all worked out eventually. The Titans’ results on the field have been uneven but they draw good crowds. Houston got another team and a beautiful stadium that will host Super Bowl LI. Even though there is a new chapter in Houston football, people still remember the Oilers fondly.

Matthews still lives in the Houston area and said he’s amazed how many people still want to talk to him about the Oilers. And even though the crowds were small that final Oilers season in Houston, Matthews looks at those final games a different way.

“I remember the loyal fans were loyal to the end,” Matthews said. “Maybe it was only 15,000 people, but they were loyal. And I was appreciative of it.”

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab