#WHYS IT ALREADY 30 DEGREES ITS AUGUST

[tra5hg0blin]

feels like a switch has been pulled and suddenly its summer

[s1utf0rtz]

hot chocolate | tz11

Running five minutes behind schedule would be fine if you weren't me. I admit it should be fine, but it's not, it's really not. I, Augustine Mae Reynolds (but you can call me August), create a schedule for myself every morning and todays, like everyday, gave me a fifteen minute time slot allotted for me to walk down the street and get a coffee, but now it's been twenty minutes since I my time started and it takes me five minutes to get home. So not even five minutes off, I'm ten minutes off schedule. I should be at home studying right now, finals are only a week away and I'm really looking forward to Christmas break.

"August!" I hear the barista yell.

I quickly weave my way through chatty people to the front of the shop.

"Trevor!" She announces another name.

I grab a coffee out of her hand and rapidly make my way out of the door. Pulling my coat closer to my body as I step out into the early-December Michigan weather. Snow blankets my hair as I storm home.

"Hey," I hear from behind me, "wait"

I turn around to see a boy that's maybe my age or a little older, snow flakes littered through his dark blonde hair. He must be freezing, its twenty-two degrees and snowing and he's wearing sweatpants and a tee-shirt.

"Umm... Hi," I respond not really knowing whats going on.

"You grabbed my drink," He smiles, looking down at the cup.

"Oh," My eyes travel to the cup in my hands, sure enough 'Trevor" is scribbled on the side of the cup in black marker and loopy handwriting.

"Sorry," I whisper and hand the warm coffee back to him.

He looks down and grabs the cup, then hands me mine, "No problem."

Then he starts to chuckle and I suddenly feel very self conscious.

"What," I state trying to sound calm even though I was exploding inside. This run in is putting me even more behind schedule. Plus, talking to new people is way past the boundaries of my comfort zone.

He meets my eyes, "You seem nervous."

I sigh.

"Hey, calm down. It's okay, it was an accident and a cup of hot chocolate," He tries to calm me down. It worked.

"Yeah," I mumble and look up at him. He smiles and that makes me smile.

"You know what, you should come to my hockey game tonight."

"Oh no, really I'm okay," I try and convince him. What I really didn't want to say is that I've never been to a hockey game, that's not really my thing. A bunch of people way too exited screaming at a bunch of sweaty boys. I try not to shudder at the thought. Plus, I can't wait to start studying, not like 'Oh, I'm so exited I can't wait," more like "I can't put this off any longer than I already have because I'm not risking the ability to get a job in the future because I went to a hockey game and didn't study for my finals.'

"Come on, my treat."

As soon as those four words come out of his mouth I want to go. He should be a attorney with that ability to persuade people.

"I, oh, I mean, why not," I awkwardly stutter.

"Yeah, um, give me your number and I'll send you tickets."

He then pulls his phone out of his pocket and, after a few taps, hands it to me. It's open to a new contact page, 'August' already typed at the top, he had to have read the side of my coffee cup. I type my number in and hand it back to him.

"Contact picture?" He questions.

"Oh, totally," I look up and smile. He quickly snaps a picture.

"Gorgeous," He stretches out the vowels when he says it. "I'll text you. Red, white and blue for the game."

I take a mental note of that, "Got it!"

"Bye."

"Bye."

I stumble off. This is a terrible idea, I really have to study, but I also really need more friends. I'm completely off todays schedule, but I might have real fun for the first time in a while. It's gonna be fine, go to the game, you can't plan everything. A text comes in supporting my just-made-decision.

'game starts at 5, doors open at 3:30 but ill be on the ice at 4:30, arena downtown, sending you a ticket now.'

*image file attached*

I open the file to see my ticket, then I open google, search the arena, open the website and enter the seat number listed on the ticket. My screen loads for a second before displaying probably the best view that you can get in the whole arena. I giggle quietly.

He said he'll be on the ice at 4;30. It's 3:08 right now and it takes fifteen minutes to get there and at least fifteen minutes to get to my seat. I need to leave at 3:45 and it takes five minutes to get home. That gives me about 30 minutes to get ready. I need to move quick. I start sprinting back to my apartment.

"That took you forever," Mya, my roommate, yells.

"Uh, yeah, long line. Listen I'm going to a hockey game tonight and need help on what to wear."

"Team colors?" she ask with a smile. She's exited I'm asking her for help.

"red white and blue."

"Oh, easy," She throws a red hoodie at me, "You'll look great."

"Thanks!" I yell why as she struts out of my room.

I through off my black puffer coat. Switch my green hoodie for the red one and keep my black leggings on. Final addition to the outfit is a blue puffer vest.  Then, pull out my phone to check the clock. Ten minutes till I have to leave. I step out of my room into the kitchen and eat a snack

"I'm out," I announce to Mya.

"Have fun!" I get in response.

As I step out of the apartment, into the cold winter weather, the soft buzz of voices, and the snow, I realize that this might be a lot of fun. 

[scholarshint]

List of fully funded scholarships for undergraduates 2024

list of Fully Funded Scholarships for Undergraduates in 2024:  Sourcing for scholarships is doubtlessly a tiring process and can be overwhelming, that is why we took the pain in searching and putting together this comprehensive List  of fully funded scholarships for undergraduate students in 2024. Carefully go through the list and apply for any of the scholarship that fits your line of Study.  1. The Gates Scholarship The Gates Scholarship is a highly selective, full scholarship for exceptional, Pell-eligible, minority, high school seniors.  Scholarship Details This scholarship was established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 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Deadline and Opening Window The application process typically opens in October and closes in January.  State of Study This scholarship is available for study in the United States. 14: The GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship Program The GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship Program rewards college-bound students who demonstrate exemplary leadership, drive, integrity, and citizenship with financial assistance to pursue higher education.  Scholarship Details This national program is administered by Scholarship America®. It is sponsored by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute and GE. Scholarship Worth Each year, the Program selects numerous recipients to receive a $10,000 scholarship renewable for up to an additional three years – up to $40,000 total per recipient.  Eligibility Criteria Applicants must be high school seniors who demonstrate leadership, drive, integrity, and citizenship at school, at the workplace, and within the community.  Deadline and Opening Window The application process typically opens in October and closes in January. State of Study This scholarship is available for study in the United States.  We hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions, thoughts, or experiences you’d like to share, we encourage you to leave a comment below. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to more update via the bell icon. Disclaimer: Scholarshint is an independent publisher, The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek more clarified details from the source official website.    Read the full article

[enterprisewired]

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes return, along with pumpkin cold brew, new chai tea latte debut for fall

Fans of pumpkin spice, today is your lucky day. In addition to many other seasonal limited-time menu items, Starbucks is bringing back its Pumpkin Spice Latte for the fall. This year is the 20th anniversary of the beverage that contributed to the rise of the pumpkin spice craze.

A recent addition to Starbucks’ seasonal beverage lineup is the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte. The Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, a brand-new Iced Apple Crisp Oatmilk Shaken Espresso, and the Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato are also available for the autumn season. Snacks include the new Baked Apple Croissant, Owl Cake Pop, and Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin.

August is upon us, which signifies that it is once more time for all things pumpkin spice. too early? Starbucks disagrees and will be reintroducing its PSL to the menu on August 24.

Pumpkin spice latte

So if you smell sweet spices in the air, it’s not your imagination; it’s just the artificial scent of fall reminiscence. Additionally, considering that “pumpkin spice latte” isn’t a flavor found in nature, perhaps it’s time to give up on manufactured beverages and start fresh. (Because you are aware that pumpkin is actually a squash and does not naturally taste like cinnamon and sugar.)

It’s not the actual pumpkin you’re yearning if the flavor of pumpkin spice is what gets you excited about fall every year. The spice mixture, which has been enhanced with sugar, gives Twinkies, cereal, and other products their flavor.

But now that we’re all pros at whipping up meals with ingredients we already have in the fridge, why not make your own easy homemade pumpkin spice mix so you can pumpkin spice anything you want at home?

Starbucks hints at return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Matchstick-sized pumpkins

Try pumpkin fries if you enjoy sweet potato fries. Like its root vegetable siblings, pumpkin fries can be roasted in the oven or made crispy in an air fryer. Depending on your mood, they can lean either savory or sweet. The delicata and kabocha squash cultivars can also be used with this technique.

Matchstick-sized pumpkins that have been peeled and sliced should be combined with olive oil and your choice spice blend before being baked for 30 minutes at 400 degrees or fried for 15 minutes, stirring midway through, until golden.

Want them to be crispier still? Like you would with a chicken cutlet, bread them in panko and season them with herbs and spices like cinnamon and sugar for churro-style pumpkin fries or Parmesan and garlic for Italian.

Curious to learn more? Explore our articles on Enterprise Wired

[potteresque-ire]

This post is Part 4 of the five-part meta series on the Zhang Zhehan (張哲瀚) Incident, based on what has transpired up to 2021/08/22.

1) The 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) & the Yasukuni Shrine 2) Post-War Sino-Japanese Relations; “Every Chinese should visit the Yasukuni Shrine” 3) The Summer of 2021: The Brewing Storms for One 4) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part A 5) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part B

4) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part A

Now, I’m finally going to dive into Zhang Zhehan’s incident. They’re, of course, my personal opinions, based on what’s known until 2021/08/22, and I’m talking about them not as a turtle, not as a Gg or Dd fan, not as a fan at all—but as … me. A Hong Konger, half-way American, and representative of neither.

I should start with a confession.

While, in the parts before, I wrote as if there were signs enough that I could see this coming, that I could see Zhang being handed the severe punishment that he had… I actually didn’t. I thought it would stop at People’s Daily critique of Zhang’s apology letter posted on August 13th, and Zhang would lose his endorsements, be forced to lay low for a while. I didn’t expect the all-out invisibility campaign the would happen, including the removal of his already-aired, groups projects such as Word of Honour (WoH 山河令).

Do I feel Zhang made a mistake? Absolutely. I agree with his self-assessment in his apology letter that he had been ignorant and careless. I’d add this as well: he had likely suffered from a certain degree of arrogance. When previously asked by his fans to remove from his Weibo a photo he took of a car painted in a manner reminiscent of WWII Japanese War Planes (and with a Rising Sun flag), that should’ve been a reminder, a warning enough for him to refrain from posting similar materials online. Being politically insensitive as a public figure in China is dangerous, and often costly. And one has to be really, really, insensitive politically, and very, very out of the news cycle, to be unaware of the tension in Sino-Japanese relations in the past decade, with the Yasukuni Shrine being at the epicentre of that tension.

A photo posted on Weibo by Zhang, later deleted at fans’ request and re-surfaced online during this incident (Left). The Nakajima Ki-84 fighter jet, used by the Imperial Japanese Army 1943-45 (Right). (Source)

But ignorance, carelessness and even arrogance are not crimes. These are corrigible traits; late 20’s may be not-so-young for an idol, but Zhang was young when he visited the shrine and took the photos in 2018. He’s still young now, having just reached 30, with lots of years to grow. 

From a practical standpoint, I also fail to see Zhang’s behaviour as causing more actual harm to anyone than as the Global Times Network (GTN) piece.

Zhang’s photos had never been widely circulated before the incident. The location at which they had been taken was also not obvious to those who haven’t investigated, or haven’t visited the Yasukuni Shrine. In contrast, the large quantity of photos in the GTN piece, their portrayal of the shrine’s right wing visitors, can arguably be said to be more visually offensive, if visual offensiveness is sufficient to be hurtful, if The Reporter of the GTN piece had, indeed, had his heart sunk just by the sight of the sakuras on the shrine grounds planted by the descendants and friends of those enshrined (reminder: overwhelmingly not war criminals), as he had described in the article. 

To put it in Chinese state media lingo, the GTN piece could arguably be said to have done more to 冒犯國人情感 (“offend the feelings of the country’s people”) (from People’s Daily critique piece against Zhang) and 輕佻地傷害中國人民的情感 (“flippantly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people) (from 中纪委 Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s critique piece) than Zhang’s photos.

A thing to mention, perhaps: the phrase “hurting the feelings of Chinese people” (and its close cousins) has somewhat of a ... celebrity status among Chinese politics watchers, with ample articles and statistics dedicated to it for the sheer number of times it has appeared in China’s foreign policy materials, as well as the multi-purposeness of its application. Another example of “hurting the feelings of Chinese people”: an English Mercedes-Benz ad, posted on Instagram (a blocked site in China), featuring a quote by Dalai Lama. The phrase has become a bit of a joke in anti-CCP communities, not because the feelings of Chinese people aren’t legitimate or important, but because a regime that doesn’t allow voting, that suppresses the freedoms of speech and press, is hardly an expert on the feelings of its people.

An entertaining infographic about China’s “hurt national feelings” (high-res version). Japan has consistently ranked 1st in the number of times it has hurt China’s national feelings (upper right corner).  

And, speaking of “flippant”, I find flippant perfectly described the tone of the GTN piece, which I, as a reader of Chinese descent, was perhaps even more embarrassed by than the fact that The Reporter visited the shrine. The Reporter admitted he already had a “fight-picking heart”, had chosen to act confrontationally; the article he’d write later reflected that, was filled to the brim with bravado. However, as I mentioned before, he never did what would’ve mattered if he had elected to fight, made the cause of his troublemaking clear—he had said nothing about the war criminals, or the revisionist material in the museum. Statements of protests needn’t be physical or violent; they simply had to be communicated, and to the right audience—which doesn’t include his translator, or the staff at the Yasukuni Shrine. 

The American tourist could’ve been a potential target; wouldn’t it be interesting to find out what they knew about this piece of history, how much they knew about the controversies surrounding the shrine? But The Reporter only told them Americans were not welcomed—a statement automatically doubtful by the presence of … an American next to him. If The Reporter’s account were true, then, to the staff, the tourist who interacted with him, The Reporter behaved just like … a passive-aggressive, very rude Chinese tourist. He had scored zero victory for his cause—if he did have a cause—during his visit.

If the defence was his fight-picking heart, no one asked Zhang if he had harboured a fight-picking heart when he had visited, taken the pictures.

That’s double-standard. That’s hypocrisy.

Personally, I would’ve left out the Yasukuni Shrine from my Tokyo itinerary — as much because of the two thousand war criminals there, and the 2 million+ not-war-criminals there who deserve respect and peace. If I’m not a descendant of those enshrined there; if I’m not worshipping; if I lack deference for the shrine and the Shinto religion it represents, then, I have no business to be at the Yasukuni Shrine. 

There are beautiful sakuras all over Tokyo.

Sakuras along Tokyo’s Meguro River (Source)

Okay. Back to Zhang. I personally believe he made mistakes. Do I feel, then, that Zhang’s punishment was appropriate, or was it too much?

As someone whose family was mostly spared from the pain and suffering caused by the acts of the Imperial Japanese Army during the 1930s and 40s, I don’t think the answers to these questions are up to me to decide. It’s inappropriate for me to decide.

But I’ll follow my answer with this question: whoever are deciding now, are they the people who should be deciding, whose lives have been truly impacted by the war? Those screaming on social media that Zhang is a traitor, a 漢奸 hanjian—a term originated from the KMT and Sino-Japanese War era to refer to persons who have illicit relationships with the enemy of, specifically, the Han Chinese ethnicity—those wanting to destroy not just Zhang’s career, but Zhang himself … do they really believe visiting, taking photos at the Yasukuni Shrine are acts enough to warrant those accusations, bearing in mind that treason is, perhaps, the most unforgivable crime in China?

Is Chairman Mao, a Han Chinese, a hanjian when he thanked the Japanese prime minister? Why not? What he said could’ve been out of pragmatism, but did he hurt the feelings of the Chinese whose family had died from Japanese military brutality during the war, of the comfort women who, at the time of the meeting, were still living in significant numbers? Why, when a post quoting Mao’s words in defence of Zhang surfaced several days ago, the vast majority of online reactions was “here goes another brain-disabled fan”, until one netizen whispered it had actually been spoken by a Great Figure, without naming, without daring to name the actual speaker of the quote?

Why have those quotes been buried in the graves of the Chinese internet?

And the netizens who went on to “dig up”, spread unsubstantiated rumours about Zhang’s being 精日 (short for 精神上的日本人 “Spiritually Japanese”), being a secret right-wing Japanese, even—were they patriots or were they cyberbullys? Were they out to defend their country, or were they out there torturing someone they didn’t like for their own enjoyment? For their own potential gains?

They called Zhang a 行走的五十萬 “Walking 500,000” — the number referring to the sum of money (500,000 RMB, ~ 77,000 USD) the Chinese government rewards someone who reports, offers tip-offs on a foreign spy. If Zhang’s family happens to be Japanese too, they said, the reward could be 500,000 * n !!

An Anti-Spy Law (反間諜法) advertisement. 12339 is the phone number and website for reporting / making tip-offs on foreign spies. (Source)

One would say, of course, that these netizens were only joking.

But are jokes jokes if they can ruin someone for good? Same goes with every one who attempted to connect whoever, whatever they didn’t like with Zhang, @ ing the state agencies on the Weibo posts to call the latter’s attention to connections, wishing for the government and the platforms to remove these whoevers, whatevers along with Zhang. 

These whoevers, whatevers have included: Zhang’s former work associates; CP supertopics; Danmei and Dangai; Dangai dramas before WoH; actors involved in Dangai dramas before WoH; supertopics of these actors; the fans of these actors; fandom in general …

(To the Anon who asked: this is how the rumour that all CP supertopics may be removed came about. So far, there are no evidences that the invisibility campaign related to Zhang is heading in that direction.)

These “soft reporting” attempts—soft, in the sense that they were reporting to the state agencies, but not using the state’s formal system—conjures a scene like this in my mind: a class of small children, all with little to no power on their own, pointing their stubby fingers to whoever they don’t like in front of who they perceive as absolute authority. “But (S)HE did this!! “ screams a child who tries to borrow the teacher’s “knife” to take down their enemies, not understanding what it’ll mean to themselves if the teacher does yield to their demand, does punish their “enemies” based on their words alone: that the child can themselves will be punished when another child points their stubby fingers at them.

Perhaps, here’s the resemblance of the scene: when absolute authority exists, critical thinking tends to go wayside, even if the capability to critically think exists—because what’s the point of thinking? The opinion of the authority is the only thing that matters in the end. Mob mentality and actions take over: mobs of not only netizens, but mobs of companies, mobs of platforms.  

And so, when it rained for Zhang, it poured.

===

The Zhang Zhehan Incident Meta Series:

PART 1  PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 <- YOU ARE HERE PART 5

[theotherjourney7]

"We're going back in time a little for the next hour or so. I am going to live-tweet the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which occurred on 6 August 1945. Exactly 75 years ago.

This is a sad, horrific day but we need to remember it.

T-1 hour. The bombers are en route, having taken off from Tinian. B-29 Superfortresses, the plane that carries the atomic device - Little Boy - is the Enola Gay. The name was after the pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets MOTHER. Taken from the usual pilot for the mission.

She was only named on 5 August.

They set off about 4 1/2 hours ago. The Enola Gay's callsign is Dimples 82. There are 6 other planes: three for weather recon over targets, one strike obs, one spare.

Enola Gay picks up a message from Dimples 85: "Straight Flush". The plane's job is to assess cloud over Hiroshima.

"Cloud cover less than 3/10th at all altitudes. Advice: bomb primary."

Hiroshima will be the target.

Down below, the city has just sounded the all-clear.

The mission includes one future Nobel prize winner. Accompanying Enola Gay is The Great Artiste, which will do measurements of the blast. On board is Luis Alvarez, who will win the Physics prize in 1968 for developing the hydrogen bubble chamber.

The bomb is a uranium atomic weapon, a type that has never been detonated before: the first test was a plutonium, more powerful, 'Fat Man' bomb. Little Boy is a misnomer, though: the bomb weighs 9700 pounds and is around 3m long.

It is already armed.

Tibbets has ordered no formation flying. The planes with him - Great Artiste and (I am not making this name up) Necessary Evil, are just in visual range.

The Sun is up now. They are slowly rising to about 31,000 feet. On board, the crew says very little.

In Hiroshima, people are beginning their day. They do not know about atomic weapons. It is HQ of General Hata's 2nd Army, controlling the defence of southern Japan. Around 350,000 people live here.

The target of the bomb is the strange, T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the city heart.

T-30 minutes. On board Enola Gay, the mission commander, William "Deak" Parsons, does the final arming, removing the safety devices that could have caused it to detonate if it crashed on take-off. The duty falls to his assistant, Morris Jeppson.

There are 12 men on board. Only one of them, Robert Lewis, is keeping a minute-by-minute account.

Japan comes into view. For Navigator "Dutch" Van Kirk, it is the first and only mission he will fly over the country.

The Enola Gay's flightpath goes over the island of Shikoku and on to Hiroshima. The city becomes clear into view about 50 miles out.

It's a beautiful day.

A total of 3,243 troops have begun physical training in the ground of Hiroshima Castle.

They will all be dead in 15 minutes.

T-13 minutes. Bombardier Thomas Ferebee, in the nose, recognises Hiroshima. He asks Dutch, who confirms they have the target. They will make their bomb run shortly.

T-6 minutes. Ferebee takes control of the plane. The Enola Gay has begun its bombing run. Only Ferebee, Tibbets and Parsons know what the bomb can do: everyone else has been given black goggles and told to expect a flash.

This is what Hiroshima looks like from the air.

Eizō Nomura, is working in a concrete basement of the Rest House, about 200m from where the blast will happen. He will be the closest survivor of the atomic bomb attack.

The other 36 people in the building above him will die.

T-2 minutes. Tibbets begins to count down to his crew.

The worst weapon in history will soon be used.

"10...9...8...7..."

8.15am 6 August 1945. Enola Gay releases the atomic bomb.

It will take 43 seconds to reach the ground. It is already caught in a crosswind and will miss the target. Enola Gay veers upward and immediately begins a 160-degree turn to escape.

The bomb misses its target, and detonates directly over the Shima Surgical Clinic. It releases 16 kilotons of energy, levelling everything in a mile’s radius of the blast. There is a flash… then a blast. Then death.

Within a four-mile radius, fires rage.

Devestation. Carnage. Thousands die instantly. Thousands more will die soon. Around 70% of Hiroshima’s buildings are destroyed. Among the casualties is the mayor, killed instantly while eating breakfast with his son and granddaughter.

Enola Gay is buffeted by the explosion, the men in the flight cabin dazzled like ‘a photographer’s bulb going off’. They continue to fly away, in an arc northeast then southeast of the city. From their vantage point, they see only dust and smoke, “like a pot black, boiling tar.”

On the ground, the death toll is catastrophic. Many more are severely injured, such as from thermal flash burns. Already a firestorm has begun to sweep through Hiroshima. There is no one to help: 90% of the city’s doctors and nurses are casualties themselves.

At the Red Cross Hospital, only one doctor, Terufumi Sasaki, is able to remain on duty and help survivors.

Yoshie Oka, a high school student, messages Fukuyama HQ: “Hiroshima has been attacked by a new type of bomb. The city is in a state of near-total destruction."

Field Marshal Hata is only slightly wounded and trying to take control but many of his staff are dead.

12 American airmen are imprisoned in the city. Eight die instantly; two are executed; two are badly wounded and left to be stoned to death next to Aioi Bridge.

The mushroom cloud has begun to form over the city. On the outskirts, fires rage. Tibbets, exhausted, hands over controls and decides to take a nap. Enola Gay returns safely to base and will arrive at 3pm.

In the carnage, a firestorm has begun (pictured).

In total, 20,000 Japanese soldiers and 70-120,000 civilians will lose their life. It is the worst death toll caused by a single weapon in history.

Three days later, a more powerful bomb will be dropped on Nagasaki.

Please remember why we do not use these weapons.

This has been a very horrible to write but it is important we remember.

This story needs to be told, shared, and memorialised.

Lest we forget.

For those wondering, Enola Gay is currently a museum display at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Virginia, US (part of the Smithsonian).”-Kit Chapman

[solarscholarsofmagick]

Saturn in Aquarius: 2020-2023

Beginning on March 21, Saturn entered the revolutionary sign of Aquarius for a brief month and a half preview and will retrograde back into Capricorn until the end of September. On December 17, it will re-enter Aquarius until March of 2023. Saturn is known as the planet of limitations, boundaries, responsibilities and hard lessons, and up until now has been making its way through the restrictive and authoritarian sign of Capricorn since the beginning of 2018. Though Saturn is the ruler of earthy Capricorn and identifies well with that controlling energy, it doesn’t always do its best work in this sign. Traditionally, Saturn also rules the airy free-flowing sign of Aquarius and tends to be very comfortable in this sign, despite how different they may seem. When Saturn enters this humanitarian sign, it evolves into a higher version of itself, capable of bringing much needed equality and change into the world. How do we know this? Well, let’s take a look at the last few Saturn transits through Aquarius – from 1991 to 1994, and before that, from 1962 to 1964.

Let’s begin with Saturn’s transit through futuristic Aquarius back in 1962. Right off the bat, as Saturn entered the sign, the first automated (unmanned) subway train in New York City began running. Aquarius rules technology and automation, so this stood out to me as a very modern Aquarian development already. Also in 1962, Spacewar! was developed and released as the first computer game, featuring two spaceships fighting it out. Each spaceship was controlled by a player, meaning it was not only the first computer game, but also the first multi-player game for computers. Fitting, as Aquarius rules groups as well as spaceships and technology.

In the early 1990s, there were also some major technological advancements, specifically related to the internet and computers. In 1991, at the beginning of Saturn’s transit through Aquarius, Apple released the PowerBook, the first modern laptop computer, which was a huge development in the computer world and has influenced our modern computers significantly in their portability and design. The WorldWide Web was technically invented in 1989, while Saturn was transiting Capricorn, and it was exclusively meant for information-sharing between scientists in institutions around the world at that time. However, in April of 1993, after Saturn had entered Aquarius, CERN made the “www” software public, accessible to anyone with a computer. This is significant because Aquarius represents freedom and equality, and though it was still mainly the upper class that could afford computers at the time, this movement away from intellectual elitism essentially opened the internet up for free public use like we have today. In 1992, ViolaWWW was released, and was the first web browser to become popularized by users. It was also the recommended browser by CERN until it was replaced by Mosaic in 1993, the first web browser to display images with text rather than in a new window.

In the upcoming transit of Saturn through Aquarius, we can expect to see even more advanced technology developments. Many people are expecting Artificial Intelligence to really take off in the coming years, as well as 5G technology and space travel on a grander scale. Smart devices and appliances are becoming more readily available and more advanced.

The future of technology was on the minds of many in the early 1960s, reflected in ABC’s first color animated TV series, The Jetsons, premiering in September of 1962. Not only does Aquarius rule color television and cartoons, but the futuristic utopian vision held by The Jetsons is also very Aquarian in nature. Television also welcomed the eccentric and beloved Addams family in 1964 with ABC’s premiere of The Addams Family. This television classic questioned social norms of the time, specifically the values of the traditional mid-century American family, which were quite conservative at the time. This series became a symbol of the counterculture in television, a typically Aquarian concept. Another incredibly popular futuristic TV show that technically started during Saturn’s transit through Aquarius, Star Trek began filming in November of 1964, during the last couple months of Saturn’s journey through this sign. Star Trek is also notable for this transit due to the fact that it was one of the first television shows to give women, especially black women, prominent and respected roles. The character Lt. Uhura, the ship’s communications officer, was played by Nichelle Nichols, a black actress. At that time, black women typically only appeared in television as servants and maids, so this was a revolutionary change not only in television but in the civil rights movement as well. In fact, when Nichelle Nichols considered quitting the show to pursue a career on Broadway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with Nichelle, convincing her to stay on the show as a part of history.

Television in the early 1990s during Saturn’s next transit through Aquarius was just as influential on culture as the television of the early 1960s. One of the first TV shows that comes to mind when I think of the 90s in television is the classic sitcom Friends. Though this show technically didn’t air until Saturn had moved into Pisces in 1994, the concept of the show resonates very closely with Aquarian themes. For one, the name “Friends” is representative of Aquarius, the sign of friendship and camaraderie. David Crane and Marta Kauffman, the show’s creators, began developing Friends in late 1993 under the early title of Insomnia Cafe, as Saturn made its way through the last 10 degrees of Aquarius. Though it initially had mixed reviews, Friends grew to become one of the most popular and beloved television shows of its time. Another well-loved show of the early 90s, though aimed more towards a younger audience, Bill Nye the Science Guy first aired in 1993, and embraced the forward-thinking Aquarian scientist archetype. Science in general is ruled by Aquarius, sign of innovation and discovery, and this show was designed to teach children about the realities of science and observation. One TV show I thought I should mention here as well is The Real World, which first aired on MTV in 1992, and is credited as being the birth of the “reality TV” genre of television, though it was edited quite often in favor of certain situations and reactions that didn’t quite reflect reality. It received a lot of criticism as well for not ever casting an Asian man in nearly 30 years on television. Reality TV is also very much a Saturn in Aquarius concept, as Saturn rules realism, and Aquarius rules television in general.

Aquarius is also the ruler of cartoons, as I touched on earlier, so it’s only fitting that I discuss a few cartoons of the early 90s. The trend of “cartoons for adults” was beginning to take off around this time, after The Simpsons paved the way in 1989 with its adult humor and hidden messages about adult life. One of the more “mature” cartoons that comes to mind when thinking of Saturn’s transit through Aquarius in the early 1990s is The Ren & Stimpy Show. This show first aired in 1991, and was quite grotesque in its animation style, featuring detailed animated close-ups with which other shows later followed suit. It was especially adored among college students due to its bizarre animation style and dark yet quirky humor. Another “adult cartoon” that began while Saturn was making its way through Aquarius is Beavis and Butt-Head, which first aired in 1993. This cartoon had mixed reviews and stirred up a lot of controversy with its seemingly idiotic social criticism, but became a staple of early 90s adult television nonetheless. The social criticism in this show is representative of Saturn in Aquarius as well, as Saturn portrays a harsh, critical nature, and Aquarius is a sign of society and social groups. Rocko’s Modern Life was yet another cartoon series that was aimed for young adults rather than children, and achieved moderate success after its initial release in 1993. This show was known for highlighting adult situations through cartoon animation- combining the adult responsibilities and themes of Saturn with the off-beat cartoony Aquarian personality. One last cartoon I’d like to mention in this segment of adult cartoons is Animaniacs, which first aired in 1993, and quickly became a hit with both children under age 11 and adults over 25. The large following among adults even led to one of the earliest Internet fandom cultures, another Aquarian concept.

Television in the coming years will likely circle around again to some of these rebellious Aquarian ideas, and it’s likely that TV will become even more entwined with the Internet over the next few years, as online streaming is more common these days than watching cable TV.

Saturn’s movement through Aquarius was a big part of the civil rights movement of the early 60s as well. The sign of Aquarius is a sign of freedom, equal human rights, and disrupting the status quo, which essentially were a few of the main goals of the movement. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a 10th house Aquarius Mercury, which is why we remember him best for his “I have a dream” speech, which he delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. for the 200,000+ people who gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. During the time he was writing and revising this speech, Saturn was transiting his Mercury in Aquarius as well. Later in 1963, on October 22, roughly 200,000 students stayed out of school in Chicago to protest segregation of African-American students in schools. This was a major peak of an ongoing battle to desegregate schools across America, again acting out the Aquarian values of equality and social justice.

In the early 1990s, this theme re-emerged through the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. A video went public in 1991 of five white Los Angeles police officers severely beating Mr. Rodney King after pulling him over for speeding. The riots began on April 29, 1992 after a trial jury acquitted four of the officers, enraging thousands of Southern Californians who took to the streets in anger. By the end of the riots, in early May, sixty-three people had been killed and thousands more were injured or had been arrested. The 1992 Rodney King riots went on to inspire the folk song “Like a King” from Ben Harper’s debut 1994 album Welcome to the Cruel World, which was released just after Saturn transited into Pisces; therefore, the songs were written and recorded while Saturn was in Aquarius.

In the coming transit of Saturn through Aquarius, we can expect to see another revolutionary movement, particularly watching the Black Lives Matter movement, because the hashtag was born while Saturn was in Scorpio, meaning Saturn in Aquarius will be coming up on a Saturn square for the birth chart of the movement.

Furthermore in music, there were a few major developments in the early 1960s while Saturn was in Aquarius that stood out to me. First, in the early to mid 60s, Joan Baez was beginning to make a name for herself in folk music during the American folk revival. Then in 1962, Peter, Paul & Mary released their debut album, which reached #1 on the US album charts. During the same year, Bob Dylan released his self-titled debut album of cover songs, and later went on to release his first original album The Times They Are a-Changin’ in 1964, towards the end of Saturn’s journey through Aquarius. These politically-charged folk artists all peaked with the folk revival during Saturn’s transit through Aquarius, which makes sense, as folk music is Aquarian in its nature, typically discussing issues of politics, inequality and other “radical” ideas of change. In fact, these artists also all performed “We Shall Overcome” at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington in 1963.

Another emerging group that stood out to me from this Aquarian transit was The Beatles. This incredibly successful rock group released their first couple of songs, “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why,” in January of 1963. By the next month, their single “Please Please Me” was topping the British rock charts. The Beatles released their debut studio album, Please Please Me, in March 1963, and by May had landed on the top of the UK album charts, staying there for 30 weeks, only to be replaced by their second studio album, With The Beatles. By October of 1963, the media began using the term “Beatlemania” to describe the frenzied behavior exhibited by Beatles fans across the globe. Many of their live performances were accompanied by the sounds of screaming fans and general hysteria. Fanatics, by the way, are also ruled by Aquarius. In February of 1964, The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, drawing a record 73.7 million viewers. The crazed audience clearly depicts the “Beatlemania” phenomenon in full swing. But how do The Beatles relate to Saturn’s transit through Aquarius? First off, The Beatles were one of the first mainstream groups to market to the younger generation of teenagers rather than to their parents. This was a big shift in the music industry, as typically it was the older audience with all the spending power, whereas now, young teenage girls were a powerful force in the music market. Though their earlier songs avoided heavier social topics, it became obvious later in their career that The Beatles were a huge part of the birth of counterculture and anti-establishment ideas. In 1964, when the band was informed that a venue they were scheduled to perform at in Florida in the US was segregated, they refused to play unless the audience was integrated. Many more conservative countries refused to allow The Beatles to perform at all, in fear that their progressive counterculture ideas would “infect” their younger population. Even the United States attempted to ban all British acts in 1965, as they saw their emerging rock ‘n’ roll culture as “dangerous” to the youth of the nation. The Beatles were also highly progressive in their music style, and incorporated many new and unusual recording techniques into their albums. This ongoing theme of progressive thinking and “peace and love” apparent in the music of The Beatles is very in line with the nature of Aquarius.

Later, in the early 1990s, grunge bands were the new emerging music trend. A number of grunge rock bands all released major hit albums around the same time: right around Saturn’s transit through rebellious Aquarius. In 1991, Pearl Jam released their debut album Ten, followed by Nirvana releasing their second album Nevermind, and then Soundgarden with Badmotorfinger– all within a span of two months! All three albums were incredibly successful, and resonated strongly with the Aquarian counterculture and anti-establishment ideas brought out by the earlier generation in the early 1960s. Then in 1992, Alice in Chains released their second studio album, Dirt, which is considered by many to be their best work. Also released in 1992, Stone Temple Pilots debuted with their first studio album, Core, which received mixed reviews, though it went on to win a Grammy in 1994 for Best Hard Rock Performance. Nirvana received a lot of attention and success in the early 90s as well, and Kurt Cobain was dubbed “the voice of a generation” by many. Similar to The Beatles influence on counterculture, Kurt Cobain’s darker lyrical content touched many listeners’ hearts on a deeper level than the earlier hair metal had been able to.

In the next few years in music, we’re likely to see younger emerging artists, similar to Billie Eilish, who has an Aquarius Moon, taking over the scene with some revolutionary new ideas and social commentary in their lyrics.

Though Aquarius is a masculine sign, I’ve also noticed a pattern with emerging feminist movements during these transits due to the focus on equal human rights. The second wave of feminism began picking up speed around 1963, when two major works of feminist writing were published: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. Both works were largely critical of the typical role of a female as a domestic housekeeper/mother figure in 1960s society. These works encouraged women to pursue careers that they felt passionately about for the first time. Also in 1963, journalist Gloria Steinem became a prominent figure in feminist culture after going undercover as a Playboy Bunny and revealing the poor treatment and underpayment of the waitresses at the Playboy Club.

In the early 1990s, during Saturn’s next transit through Aquarius, the third wave of feminism began to emerge. While second-wave feminism dealt primarily with issues surrounding equal opportunities for [predominantly white] women in the workplace, this third wave of feminism dealt with issues regarding intersectional feminism, violence against women and reproductive/sexual freedom. A trend of reclaiming “derogatory” female terms (for example: bitch, slut, whore) began largely with the Riot grrrl movement in punk music, popularized by female-constructed bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, as a way of expressing feminine identity on their own terms.

Feminine power is already on the rise again, with Uranus having moved into feminine Taurus a couple years ago and still having several more years to go on that transit. Women in power will do great things with that power, and more women will come to be in power over the next few years with Saturn in this sign. Whether it be individual political power, or power in numbers, women around the world will come together and rise to power from now until 2023. Another trend I expect to see play out while Saturn transits Aquarius these next few years as well is that of gender revolution. With the gender roles of the past melting away, a revolution is roaring around the corner, and gender queer/LGBTQ+ identifying people will likely score a few big victories in the upcoming Aquarian transit.

Another theme I noticed through Saturn’s transit of Aquarius in the early 1960s was a theme of national independence and freedom. In August of 1962, the colony of Jamaica became independent, freeing Jamaicans from the United Kingdom after 300 years of British rule. In October that same year, Uganda also became independent from the UK. Then, in 1963, Kenya declared independence from the UK as well. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic and Zanzibar both experienced major revolutions during this time frame in search of freedom. This trend continued in the early 90s, with many countries, including Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia, all declaring their independence from the USSR in 1991.

It’s likely that we will see many more uprisings and movements towards independence, including the United States’ Pluto return in 2022/2023, which is expected to be a revolutionary moment for the history of the country.

These are the kinds of themes we are likely to see re-emerging until March 2023, while Saturn roams through free-spirited Aquarius. Technological innovations are going to be increasingly involved with our lives, as the internet of things develops further. Television will trend towards witty humor and social criticism, as it did the previous few times Saturn was in Aquarius. Civil rights movements will be center-stage, writing more groundbreaking history into our textbooks, while the future leans towards figures who are genderqueer, females, diverse, and/or of color, rather than in favor of the cis-gender/heterosexual white male. Mainstream music will take on its own social commentary within the industry. Independence of the individual as well as the nation will be stressed in the coming years. Saturn feels confident in this sign, and we should too, moving forward into Saturn’s “Age of Aquarius” with hope for a better future.

[cutiepisenpai]

Dear Stranger (Spencer Reid x Female OC) Ch.1

Warning: Drug Abuse (mentioned briefly)

August XX, 2004 Dear Stranger, You have not received this letter by mistake. I know this may seem strange since you don't know me and I may be crazy for sending this in the first place. Anyways I've sent this letter because I have been in France for a year and a friend suggested if I was feeling homesick to send a letter to a random person I don't know in my hometown. It’s supposed to be like meeting someone new but who knows the places you know. I don't know if you'll actually send a letter back but here's to hoping. , M

This is the letter Spencer received in the mail today. Random doesn't even begin to describe it but he is intrigued. Considering his work he should be extra cautious but there just something about this letter that seems so genuine. It takes a few days but Spencer he decides to write a letter of his own.

August XX, 2004 Dear M, I am not even sure I should be writing you back, but I am. I am not really sure what I should say but I guess I should start with a bit about myself. I guess the first thing I should let you know is although I currently live in D.C. I am not from here. I'm from Las Vegas and I moved to D.C. for my job. Is that why you are in France, for work? Or are you a student, studying abroad? Sincerely, S

They begin to send more letters back and forth over the course of 2 months. In that time he learns that M's name is actually Melinda Warren and she is in France for work even though he doesn't know exactly what she does. He does know she loves books and architecture, and likes to take photographs. He has received a photo took of the Wiblingen Monastery Library at while in a trip to Germany. In one letter early on he joked about her being a spy and since then all of his letters he addresses her as Agent 007. To counter that nickname she refers to him as Dr. 187. Their letters are sent weekly sharing everything from there week aside from work. Spencer doesn't know how he can feel such a strong connection with a person he's never met.

There relationship continues like this for four years. Weekly letters with the random goings-on in their lives in such a normal part of Spencer life he can't imagine a time without it. In this time he has learned that she isn't close with her father and her mother passed when she was young, the only family she is close with are her maternal grandparent and they live in Connecticut. He shared about his mother's condition and his father leaving and eventually even about Tobias Hankel and his addiction with Dilaudid. He never felt judged by her she did ask many questions but it felt like she only wanted to help. The most surprising thing Spencer learned about Melinda was something they share in common. She was also a child prodigy and had numerous doctorates of her own in psychology, neurobiology, and music composition. She said she knew music made no sense considering her other degrees, but she studied it because of her love of music. Spencer just wishes that one day she will at least visit, since she hasn't ever returned to the U.S. since she moved away.

June XX, 2008 Dear Dr. 187 I hope you are doing well. I regret to inform you this will be the last letter you receive for some time. But please do not be upset, this is good news. I'm finishing up my final job here in France and will be heading back to the U.S. soon hopefully in the D.C. area so we can finally meet. Since I don't know exactly where I'll be don't write me back just yet. I'll send you another letter as soon as I can. Take care and you'll hear from me soon. ❤ always, Melinda

Spencer received this letter nearly 3 weeks ago and had yet to hear anything else from Melinda. He was beginning to worry that she may have already forgotten him, that he may never receive another letter from her again. He's become strangely attached to this letter keeping it with him rereading it constantly believing that there may be hidden context he missed. He's currently waiting in the BAU room so enthralled in the letter again he doesn't notice Morgan coming up behind him. "Watcha got there pretty boy, a love letter?". This question makes Spencer so flustered he starts flailing his hands saying it's not like that. By now JJ, Emily, And Penelope have all showed up and are now curious. "Pretty Boy here has a secret girlfriend he never told us about." Spencer still flustered, "It's not like that. She's not my girlfriend she just a friend and I've never even met her in person." This statement gets some concerned looks from all of them, but Penelope is the first one to say anything, "So you're "friends" with someone you've never met? You hunt serial killers for a living and this didn't seem suspicious or dangerous at all? Did you even look up her name in the database to make sure she isn't some sort of crazy unsub? Or ya know if she is a real person?" Spencer didn't like them thinking you could possibly be an unsub or some crazy stalker. "She's isn't crazy! And I don't need to look her up in the database." The team share another look before Morgan grabs the envelope from Spencer and passing it to Penelope. Now holding Spencer back, "It's for your own good." Penelope types in the name on the envelope and 1 result comes up which she clicks immediately. On the screen appears Dr. Melinda Lynn Warren along with her photo. She is beautiful long dark brown hair, sapphire blue eyes, freckles on her cheeks and beaming smile. Spencer has tried to imagine what she would look like but seeing her beauty was indescribable. Even the other team members are shocked. Before anyone can say anything Hotch appears, "What are you doing?" "Checking out Spencer's secret girlfriend." Penelope beams. Hotch gives them all a stern look before saying, " I don't think that's such a good idea." But before they can take the photo down, they all turn hearing an unfamiliar voice. "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen my own face on a screen so big." All except for Hotch are surprised to see the face they were just looking at on the screen right in front of them. Melinda walks in with Rossi taking a seat on the other side near Hotch. Hotch clears his throat," Everyone this is Dr. Melinda Warren coming from Interpol's Lyon office, she will be joining the team starting today and also serving as a temporary replacement for JJ one she goes on maternity leave." Before Hotch can get further with introductions Rossi chimes in, "She is also my favorite God daughter and here because I asked her to be so don't mess with her. I'm not going to do anything though she is more than capable of handling herself." Everyone mutters a welcome to the team except for Spencer, who hasn't stopped staring since she walked into the room. As Hotch goes around introducing everyone, lastly Spencer. His name catches Melinda's attention and her gaze stays on him just a little too long. During the briefing Rossi leans over to whisper, " Is there something going on with you two we should know about?" Melinda whispers back, "It's complicated and I'd rather not discuss that here with you, plus we should probably be focusing on the case." Although she was definitely not focused on a word JJ was saying she was trying to steady her breath and stop herself from looking over towards Spencer. The last thing she expected coming to the BAU was meeting him. She always thought of him as possibly being a professor or a researcher, but she for sure didn't think he would be a profiler. Melinda is so engrossed in her own thoughts she zones out on most of the briefing only to focus we she hears Hotch say," wheels up in 30." As everyone begins to shuffle out both Melinda and Spencer hang back. Once everyone is out of earshot the silence is uncomfortable and the tension is thick. Melinda is the first to speak, "Sorry, I don't want you to think I'm some sort of crazy stalker. I really didn't know you would be here otherwise I would have said something earlier." She can feel blush creeping up her neck and covering her ears, all of which were thankfully covered. Now it's Spencer's turn to say something but he didn't even know where to begin,"I.. I don't think you're crazy, this situation is crazy sure but not you. And I wasn't looking into earlier I've never actually tried to find out more than you would tell me. I wanted to hear if from you. I was just so fixated on your last letter its been a while and was worried that you wouldn't send another. Then they all showed up and they saw the letter and started pestering me about talking to someone I've never met and all the possibilities..."He was talking a mile a minute, luckily Melinda could keep up but she cut him off, pulling 3 envelopes out of her purse and hands them to him. "Sorry about that, the move has been so hectic I didn't want to lose them before I could mail them I kept them in my purse haven't had a chance to get U.S. postage." Her explanation leaves them in another awkward silence until she begins again." I am really happy to be meeting you finally, although I was hoping for something less awkward." To this Spencer can only nod in agreement. "Maybe once this case is over we can go get coffee and go to a bookstore?" Spencer offers. Melinda breaks out in an ear to ear smile. "I would like that." They had out together, perhaps becoming random pen pals with a strange isn't such a bad idea.

[dclevinson]

August 21: my kaddish month

I’ve sent this to a number of people, but I’m putting it here too in case some readers who might be interested will stumble across it:

A little more than a month has passed since Cindy died, and I get asked a lot how I’m doing. My standard answer starts with a couple ways of framing:

 --- the earthquake is over, but there are lots of unpredictable emotional aftershocks

 --- I’m past the Shock & Numbness phase, but normal life doesn’t seem normal. Lots of How Can This Be Real moments that can be disorienting and distressing

 --- many times emotions collide: how much to lean into or away from grief, how to feel it’s OK to feel OK when I do, how keep her with me and move forward too, etc

 I suppose at some point a fascination with grief can start to make others uncomfortable, but grieving has a logic of its own. One key part of “after” life was the 30 days of daily religious services I attended to honor her memory.  I found the routine and --- surprisingly, the ritual --- spiritually nourishing. Cindy’s eyebrows always shot up at the word “spiritual.” Usually mine too. I hope those of you I send these four pages to don’t find it too tedious Perhaps it’s a way of keeping Cindy in your thoughts and hearts too…

       I am a most unlikely daily mourning ritual observer. I didn’t do it for my father, and he asked us not to. But the ritual mourning prayers and the place where I’d be doing it meant a lot to Cindy, so I just committed without much deliberation. One problem in writing about a fairly traditional type of observance is that the spectrum of Jewish religious practice can be mystifying, even to many Jews. So how explain it to outsiders? I’ve tried to do it without being either too reverent or irreverent.

 One basic mourning commitment is to say “kaddish”, the mourner’s prayer, for a set amount of time. Jewish practice and custom is intellectually intricate and often arcane; there are rules and exceptions to rules and different interpretations of rules, etc. There are other customs/demands for remembrance too. Many think of saying kaddish as a year long commitment. Plus yearly anniversaries, set to a moving Hebrew calendar --- just to add to the degree of difficulty. But even the year thing has permutations: actual practice for some groups is 11 months, not 12.

 Why?. Different interpreters and communities make their own choices on duration. Our ritual director says “eleven.” Basically, some 13th century source says that “the wicked in Gehinom took 12 months for their souls to reach the highest levels of heaven.” But most Jews don’t even believe in a physical heaven!? Never mind. So, the reasoning goes, if the wicked took 12 months, we’ll mourn for 11: because our beloved Was Not Wicked. Welcome to Talmudic reasoning. But, traditionally, the year(ish) is for parents and children. For spouses the allotted time is 30 days. Though many people today may just do a year for anyone in the family. Thirty struck me as the perfect amount for the act to stay meaningful, helpful and not something I would treat as an increasingly resented chore.

 It’s not a prayer that religious custom allows you to say by yourself. You need a minyan (quorum) of 10. It used to be men, but now men or women, at least at our conservative temple (shul, synagogue, whatever --- more insider confusing terminology). But some do say it by themselves for the comfort it brings if finding a group is too arduous. And I cheated a couple days by joining the group virtually. But I found being with a gathering of supporters did matter to me. I could have gone to a shorter evening service to do this, but preferred the morning time. And came to think a 40ish minute observance time a good block to have meaningful daily impact.

 And then there’s the prayer itself. I realized right away that the weekday morning prayer service had many different kaddishs, similar prayers of thanks for and praise to a divine entity. But there’s one specific mourner’s version, said 3 times in oour short 40ish minute service. Twice, almost in succession at the end --- overkill or emphasis, depending on your point of view. Why the repeats? Haven’t pursued that yet. And, as some of you know, the prayer for the dead doesn’t mention dying or losing loved ones or honoring their memory, etc. It just profusely praises God (and lots of different words or phrases to refer to such entity since he/she/it is too holy and all powerful to mention the Real Name). Some phrases: “May god’s name be exalted and hallowed, his sovereignty soon accepted… glorified, celebrated, lauded, worshiped, exalted, honored, extolled and acclaimed… Lots of current Jewish religious practice incorporates the Middle Ages wholesale. Or earlier. Read the English on the facing page of the prayer book and much of the service sounds like the practice of a small, threatened tribe huddling in the desert thousands of years ago.

 There’s a lot about Jewish practice that seems natural and essential to practitioners but might alienate the uninitiated.  Or reluctant observers like me. The head coverings. The shoulder covering prayer shawls. The standing for this (many do: why not all??!), turning right for that, covering eyes for this line, fingering prayer shawl strings (tzitzit) for that. Whew. So many prayers and practices for so many different occasions. Designed, I’ve thought, to cement the devotion of believers. But it repel skeptics, too, I surmise.

 One such example: in these early services most men put on tefillin. Leather straps with little black boxes attached (a prayer inside) that have very specific wrapping/unwrapping  procedures for arms and head. It’s deeply moving to believers, but I’ve always thought it look repellent or ridiculous. Way too much like the garb of the ultra orthodox “crazies.” There are lots of I’ll do this/not that decisions in religious practice. I understand there’s a tenuous dynamic that exists between any minority and majority community, and clinging to tradition and being true to oneself can seem preferable to “selling out” to fit in. But sometimes it strikes us skeptics as more a clinging to “guns and religion” type intransigence.

 So, if you walked in on these services cold (I was lukewarm), there’s lots that would be pretty mystifying and potentially off-putting. How could you possibly fit in? In fact, I believe I was the only new guy or gal over my month. And there had to be a decent number of temple members who have lost family members during the time I attended. Seemingly no person younger than I was doing the morning kaddish thing. And usually I was the only or 1 of 2 who didn’t put on tefillin. Men. Women usually don’t. Though one of our female rabbis did. Good for her, though I wasn’t tempted to follow.

 I could fit in and feel comfortable at these services because a) I knew people there b) I was committed to being there and c) people took care of me. I no longer bristled at the imputation (real or just in my head?) that I’m a Bad Jew and I need instruction to be a Good One. This time I felt many there had cherished Cindy, understood why I was there, and quietly welcomed me. I was willing to look/be ignorant and accept guidance.

 It was reassuring to see many of Cindy’s compatriots from the temple sisterhood there day after day too. The whole group (20 to 40 most days) was interesting to observe: lots more joking and side conversations during the service than I’d imagined. And there was the guy older than I who usually wore cycling shorts and shirt, the much older guy who sat to my right who usually shuffled in 15 minutes late, etc etc.  Lots of accomplished people and interesting stories for another writer’s version. And --- most days --- someone called out the pages so I had some sense where we were.

 I can read Hebrew if I already know the prayer or chant. So I can’t really read Hebrew anymore. Much of the service is praising God’s amazing powers, thanking him for singling out and helping Jews (don’t let anti-Semites see this!), an intricate mix of different intricate sections that over days start to fit a pattern. There are a always some bits in any prayer book that I find edifying and worth recalling; often I’m reading in one place when the service is in another. My favorite in this one:

Rabbi Schuel ben Nahmani said: We find that the Holy One created  everything  in the world; only falsehood and exaggeration were not God’s doing. People devised those on their own.

 There’s no sermon on any days, just the chanting. And different melodies for different sections. And torah reading ritual (I could spend pages on this alone) Monday and Thursday. I still have to learn why those days. I preferred the shorter days without.

 I was most fortunate to have a long time neighbor and, like Cindy, long time temple leader who I was delighted to learn (only some 30 some years later) is a regular attendee of daily morning services. Like Cindy, he has the ability I don’t to take what’s worthwhile in religious practice and ignore the rest. He credits Cindy with his reading the new alternate section of one prayer praising the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) by adding Matriarchs too.

 It’s not supposed to be used at this particular service, but a couple women who led services on a rotating schedule snuck it in. Much to my friend Rick’s and my glee. He joked about wanting to write: Minyan, the Musical. Have to decide how reverent or irreverent to be I replied. Yes he said, and some would love it, some hate it. Like so much else in life, I thought.

 There’s way more I could describe: the various “honors” during torah reading for one. Early on I got congratulated for pulling the strings to open the torah ark/cabinet. Basically, the only task our ritual director could be sure at that point I wouldn’t flub. One more key detail: I was wearing Cindy remarkable hand knit prayer shawl. Which, of course, many of her friends recognized. Once I made the mistake when taking it off at the service end of holding it to my face: way too emotional to repeat daily. Much more detail I could include, but there’s likely already too much. Ask me if you want more.

 I was asked to say a few words on the last day, right before the concluding prayers. I told people I was a most unlikely minyan attendee, etc. Grateful for this and that person’s help and Rebbe Rick’s (joke) guidance and company. Uplifted seeing Cindy’s sisterhood comrades, etc. Hoped in coming months to find an enduring way to honor her memory, etc.

 My one specific observation: I had been hearing people recite kaddish at Saturday services off and on for over 60 years.  But I’d never given a thought to the brief parts where the congregation joins in on a quick line. Just part of the practice I’d heard without really hearing. Until I was the mourner. Then, on many days when the congregation joined in…

       Y’he sh’meh rabbvo m’orach l’olam ulolmey olmayo…

 …on many days I felt my heart lifting and a wave of emotional support wash over me. This is why you should say kaddish in a minyan if at all possible. Or I hope in your tradition or life there’s some equivalent thing to bring you comfort when/if you need it. Em and I have been lighting candles at a set time each week also. That works for us too.

 The morning group skews old. But I hope that such a group is always there for anyone who needs it. I don’t want to attend any religious services daily. Or weekly. But this is my favorite service. I’ll be back. But on a day they don’t read torah. Forty minutes is plenty.

 I decided, too, that on day 30, I would take off my wedding ring. I sensed that if I didn’t tie that act to a ritual I might have a hard time doing it.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Changed by pandemic, many workers won’t return to old jobs (AP) There’s a wild card in the push to return to post-pandemic life: Many workers don’t want to go back to the jobs they once had. Layoffs and lockdowns, combined with enhanced unemployment benefits and stimulus checks, gave many Americans the time and the financial cushion to rethink their careers. Their former employers are hiring again — and some, like Uber and McDonald’s, are offering higher pay—but workers remain hesitant. Employers and business groups argue that the $300-per-week federal unemployment supplement gives recipients less incentive to look for work. But Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist who researches low- and middle-income workers with the Economic Policy Institute, said health concerns and child care responsibilities seem to be the main reasons holding workers back. In April, she said, at least 25% of U.S. schools weren’t offering in-person learning, forcing many parents to stay home. And health concerns could gain new urgency for some workers now that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said fully vaccinated people can stop wearing masks in most settings. Some workers say the pandemic helped them prioritize their mental and physical health. And in a tight labor market, some workers are also finding that if they hold out, they might get a better job than the one they left.

Unhealthy Dose of Litigation (CNN) It’s not personal, it’s just business. Tell that to tens of thousands of individuals sued by hospitals for ‘medical debt’ they have no way of ever paying. Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) is one of America’s largest hospital chains. A CNN investigation found that since March 2020, company-owned hospitals filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against their patients over allegedly unpaid medical bills, even as other hospitals around the country have curtailed similar lawsuits during the pandemic. CHS’s 84 hospitals are concentrated in the South, but stretch across 16 states from Alaska to Key West, Florida. The hospitals have sued patients for as little as $201 and as much as $162,000. Most defendants didn’t hire a lawyer or fight the lawsuits, and judges often rendered a default judgment in the hospital’s favor. Attorney’s fees and interest are often tacked on. Once a court rules against a defendant, a hospital can proceed to put a lien on the defendant’s house or garnish part of their wages. Many garnishments were against people working for low-wage employers like Walmart. A researcher who has studied hospital lawsuits said that it’s typical for hospitals that sue patients to only make a tiny fraction of their revenue from those lawsuits. “It’s not keeping the lights on for the hospitals—they don’t need to be doing this,” she said. “But for the patients... They’re choosing between medical care and food.”

Argentina Halts Beef Exports for 30 Days to Contain Prices (Bloomberg) Argentina’s government is limiting exports of beef, a staple in the country, in the latest unorthodox move to try to contain runaway inflation that’s approaching 50% annually. President Alberto Fernandez told a key beef export association that they won’t be allowed to sell the product abroad for 30 days, according to a Production Ministry statement released late Monday. “The president expressed his concern over the sustained growth in domestic beef prices over the last few months,” according to the statement. The country’s beef exports in 2020 amounted to roughly $3 billion, but the government may be more focused on the political cost of falling domestic consumption.

Spain Turns to Corruption Rehab for Officials Who Can’t Stop Stealing (NYT) Carlos Alburquerque isn’t your typical rehab candidate. He’s a 75-year-old grandfather living in Córdoba, a city in southern Spain. He was a town notary before he retired in 2015. He hasn’t touched drugs or alcohol in years. But his isn’t your typical rehab program: It’s an 11-month boot camp to reform corrupt Spanish officials and “reinsert” them into mainstream society. “Repairing the damage is what is left for me in this life,” said Mr. Alburquerque, who is serving a four-year prison sentence for stealing around 400,000 euros, nearly a half a million dollars, in his work drawing up contracts and deeds. That such a program exists in Spain may say much about the country’s belief in second chances as it does about how corruption has captured the public imagination here. Flip open a newspaper or turn on the radio: You will hear of schemes, scandals and skulduggery which almost always lead back to the public purse. According to Ángel Luis Ortiz, a former judge who now runs Spain’s prisons, the boom-bust cycles of Spain’s economy had led it to a long history of fraudsters and betrayals of public trust, he said. But at least, corruption rates in Spain were no worse than in other European nations, Mr. Ortiz said, just 5 percent of all crimes.

Russia’s northernmost base projects its power across Arctic (AP) During the Cold War, Russia’s Nagurskoye airbase was little more than a runway, a weather station and a communications outpost in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. It was a remote and desolate home mostly for polar bears, where temperatures plunge in winter to minus-42 Celsius (43 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) and the snow only disappears from August to mid-September. Now, Russia’s northernmost military base is bristling with missiles and radar and its extended runway can handle all types of aircraft, including nuclear-capable strategic bombers, projecting Moscow’s power and influence across the Arctic amid intensifying international competition for the region’s vast resources. Russia has sought to assert its influence over wide areas of the Arctic in competition with the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway as shrinking polar ice from the warming planet offers new opportunities for resources and shipping routes. China also has shown an increasing interest in the region, believed to hold up to one-fourth of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas.

Cyclone kills 19 in India, heavy rains lash parts of Gujarat state (Reuters) A cyclone on India’s west coast has killed at least 19 people and damaged infrastructure and agriculture, while heavy rains continued to lash some regions even as weather officials said on Tuesday that the storm’s intensity had weakened. The cyclone Tauktae, which made landfall in the western state of Gujarat late on Monday, has hit power supply in 2,400 villages in the state as a thousand electricity pylons were damaged, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said in a media address. Nearly 160 roads have been destroyed, 40,000 trees uprooted and several houses damaged, Rupani added.

India reports record day of virus deaths as cases level off (AP) India’s total virus cases since the pandemic began swept past 25 million on Tuesday as the country registered more than 260,000 new cases and a record 4,329 fatalities in the past 24 hours. The numbers continue a trend of falling cases after infections dipped below 300,000 for the first time in weeks on Monday. Active cases in the country also decreased by more than 165,000 on Tuesday—the biggest dip in weeks. But deaths have continued to rise and hospitals are still swamped by patients. Infections in India have surged since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies.

In Gaza, grief and destruction (Washington Post) In a conflict already marked by harrowing scenes of tragedy, one image stood out. Rescuers in Gaza City on Sunday pulled out Suzy Eshkuntana, a 6-year-old, from the rubble of a building that had once been her home, but which was flattened by Israeli airstrikes. She was covered in dust but alive. Her mother and all four of her siblings were dead. It’s not clear why the Eshkuntanas’ home was brought crashing down. Israeli authorities told reporters that they had targeted a network of tunnels used by Hamas militants that may have run beneath the area where the family lived. “The collapse of the tunnel system,” Reuters reported, “caused the houses above to collapse and led to unintended civilian casualties, the military said.” In Israel’s telling, there are many more “unintended” casualties in Gaza. According to local Health Ministry officials, the death toll in Gaza climbed to 212 people, including 61 children and 36 women, as fighting entered its second week. Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, home to some 2.1 million people, the majority of whom are classified as refugees by the United Nations. That’s a legacy of the displacements that followed Israel’s creation in 1948 and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Children make up about half of Gaza’s population. The territory has been under Israeli blockade since 2007, after Hamas took power following a rift within the Palestinian Authority. “Living conditions in Gaza are bleak: 95 percent of the population does not have access to clean water, according to [the United Nations], and electricity shortages periodically bring life to a halt,” my colleagues reported. “The territory has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, World Bank statistics show, and the United Nations estimates that roughly 80 percent of the population relies on international aid to survive and access basic services.”

The New Arab Street: Online, Global and Growing (NYT) The video traveled at 4G speed, leapfrogging across international borders, social media platforms and social justice movements: a young Palestinian woman in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, shouting in furious English at a Jewish man, “You are stealing my house!” “If I don’t steal it, someone else will steal it,” he retorts. Within days—as Israel bombed the coastal territory of Gaza, Palestinian militants there launched rockets at Israel, and Arab and Jewish mobs faced off in Israeli cities—the video had rocketed from young Palestinians’ social media feeds into the Arab diaspora, then lit up the internet, kindling outrage around the world. It used to be that when Palestinians were under fire, protests would follow in the streets of Arab cities. That potential for combustion forced Middle Eastern and Western leaders to keep a wary eye on the temperature of what was called the “Arab street.” This time, a week into an Israeli bombing campaign that has killed 212 Palestinians in Gaza, the reaction from Arab capitals has been muted and protests small and scattered. Instead, solidarity with the Palestinians has shifted online and gone global, a virtual Arab street that has the potential to have a wider impact than the ones in Middle Eastern cities. The online protesters have linked arms with popular movements for minority rights such as Black Lives Matter, seeking to reclaim the narrative from the mainstream media and picking up support in Western countries that have reflexively supported Israel.

Ransomware hits AXA units in Asia, Irish healthcare (AP) The Thai affiliate of Paris-based insurance company AXA said Tuesday it is investigating a ransomware attack by Russian-speaking cybercriminals that has affected operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Meanwhile, a cyberattack on a public health provider in New Zealand took down information systems across five hospitals, forcing staff to cancel some elective surgeries and creating all sorts of other problems. It was unclear if the event was linked to a cyberattack that has nearly paralyzed Ireland’s national healthcare IT systems. The Irish government’s decision not to pay the criminals means hospitals won’t have access to patient records—and must resort mostly to handwritten notes—until painstaking efforts are complete to restore thousands of computer servers from backups.

The Places Ranked Best for Expats in 2021 (Bloomberg) Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica have been ranked as the top spots to live and work abroad in 2021, based on their cost of living, ease of settling in and overall quality of life. The U.S. was ranked only 34th out of 59 places, largely because of how expats viewed quality of life in America, according to a new survey published Tuesday. Taiwan topped the charts for the third year in a row in the survey of 12,420 expats conducted by InterNations, a Munich-based expat network with about 4 million members. The top 10: Taiwan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, Ecuador, Canada, Vietnam.

[andromeda-sapphire]

Saturn in Aquarius: 2020-2023

Beginning later this month, on March 21, Saturn enters the revolutionary sign of Aquarius for a brief month and a half preview before it retrogrades back into Capricorn until the end of September. Then at the end of the year, on December 17, it will re-enter Aquarius for the long-haul until March of 2023. Saturn is known as the planet of limitations, boundaries, responsibilities and hard lessons, and up until now has been making its way through the restrictive and authoritarian sign of Capricorn since the beginning of 2018. Though Saturn is the ruler of earthy Capricorn and identifies well with that controlling energy, it doesn't always do it's best work in this sign. Traditionally, Saturn also rules the airy free-flowing sign of Aquarius, and tends to be very comfortable in this sign, despite how different they may seem. When Saturn enters this humanitarian sign, it evolves into a higher version of itself, capable of bringing much needed equality and change into the world. How do we know this? Well, let's take a look at the last few Saturn transits through Aquarius - from 1991 to 1994, and before that, from 1962 to 1964.

Let's begin with Saturn's transit through futuristic Aquarius back in 1962. Right off the bat, as Saturn entered the sign, the first automated (unmanned) subway train in New York City began running. Aquarius rules technology and automation, so this stood out to me as a very modern Aquarian development already. Also in 1962, Spacewar! was developed and released as the first computer game, featuring two spaceships fighting it out. Each spaceship was controlled by a player, meaning it was not only the first computer game, but also the first multi-player game for computers. Fitting, as Aquarius rules groups as well as spaceships and technology.

In the early 1990s, there were also some major technological advancements, specifically related to the internet and computers. In 1991, at the beginning of Saturn's transit through Aquarius, Apple released the PowerBook, the first modern laptop computer, which was a huge development in the computer world and has influenced our modern computers significantly in their portability and design. The WorldWide Web was technically invented in 1989, while Saturn was transiting Capricorn, and it was exclusively meant for information-sharing between scientists in institutions around the world at that time. However, in April of 1993, after Saturn had entered Aquarius, CERN made the "www" software public, accessible to anyone with a computer. This is significant because Aquarius represents freedom and equality, and though it was still mainly the upper class that could afford computers at the time, this movement away from intellectual elitism essentially opened the internet up for free public use like we have today. In 1992, ViolaWWW was released, and was the first web browser to become popularized by users. It was also the recommended browser by CERN until it was replaced by Mosaic, the first web browser to display images in line with text rather than in a new window, in 1993.

In the upcoming transit of Saturn through Aquarius, we can expect to see even more advanced technology developments. Many people are expecting Artificial Intelligence to really take off in the coming years, as well as 5G technology and space travel on a grander scale. The Internet of things is also on the rise, with smart devices and appliances becoming more readily available and more advanced.

The future of technology was on the minds of many in the early 1960s, reflected in ABC's first color animated TV series, The Jetsons, premiering in September of 1962. Not only does Aquarius rule color television and cartoons, but the futuristic utopian vision held by The Jetsons is also very Aquarian in nature. Television also welcomed the eccentric and beloved Addams family in 1964 with ABC's premiere of The Addams Family. This television classic questioned social norms of the time, specifically the values of the traditional mid-century American family, which were quite conservative at the time. This series became a symbol of the counterculture in television, a typically Aquarian concept. Another incredibly popular futuristic TV show that technically started during Saturn's transit through Aquarius, Star Trek began filming in November of 1964, during the last couple months of Saturn's journey through this sign. Star Trek is also notable for this transit due to the fact that it was one of the first television shows to give women, especially black women, prominent and respected roles. The character Lt. Uhura, the ship's communications officer, was played by Nichelle Nichols, a black actress. At that time, black women typically only appeared in television as servants and maids, so this was a revolutionary change not only in television but in the civil rights movement as well. In fact, when Nichelle Nichols considered quitting the show to pursue a career on Broadway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met with Nichelle, convincing her to stay on the show as a part of history.

Television in the early 1990s during Saturn's next transit through Aquarius was just as influential on culture as the television of the early 1960s. One of the first TV shows that comes to mind when I think of the 90s in television is the classic sitcom Friends. Though this show technically didn't air until Saturn had moved into Pisces in 1994, the concept of the show resonates very closely with Aquarian themes. For one, the name "Friends"is representative of Aquarius, the sign of friendship and camaraderie. David Crane and Marta Kauffman, the show's creators, began developing Friends in late 1993 under the early title of Insomnia Cafe, as Saturn made its way through the last 10 degrees of Aquarius. Though it initially had mixed reviews, Friends grew to become one of the most popular and beloved television shows of its time. Another well-loved show of the early 90s, though aimed more towards a younger audience, Bill Nye the Science Guy first aired in 1993, and embraced the forward-thinking Aquarian scientist archetype. Science in general is ruled by Aquarius, sign of innovation and discovery, and this show was designed to teach children about the realities of science and observation. One TV show I thought I should mention here as well is The Real World, which first aired on MTV in 1992, and is credited as being the birth of the "reality TV" genre of television, though it was edited quite often in favor of certain situations and reactions that didn't quite reflect reality. It received a lot of criticism as well for not ever casting an Asian man in nearly 30 years on television. Reality TV is also very much a Saturn in Aquarius concept, as Saturn rules realism, and Aquarius rules television in general.

Aquarius is also the ruler of cartoons, as I touched on earlier, so it's only fitting that I discuss a few cartoons of the early 90s. The trend of "cartoons for adults" was beginning to take off around this time, after The Simpsons paved the way in 1989 with its adult humor and hidden messages about adult life. One of the more "mature" cartoons that comes to mind when thinking of Saturn's transit through Aquarius in the early 1990s is The Ren & Stimpy Show. This show first aired in 1991, and was quite grotesque in its animation style, featuring detailed animated close-ups with which other shows later followed suit. It quickly became a cult classic, especially among college students, who adored its bizarre animation style and dark yet quirky humor. Another cult classic "adult cartoon" that began while Saturn was making its way through Aquarius is Beavis and Butt-Head, which first aired in 1993. This cartoon had mixed reviews and stirred up a lot of controversy with its seemingly idiotic social criticism, but became a staple of early 90s adult television nonetheless. The social criticism in this show is representative of Saturn in Aquarius as well, as Saturn portrays a harsh, critical nature, and Aquarius is a sign of society and social groups. Rocko's Modern Life was yet another cartoon series that was aimed for young adults rather than children, and achieved moderate success after its initial release in 1993. This show was known for highlighting adult situations through cartoon animation - combining the adult responsibilities and themes of Saturn with the off-beat cartoony Aquarian personality. One last cartoon I'd like to mention in this segment of adult cartoons is Animaniacs, which first aired in 1993, and quickly became a hit with both children under age 11 and adults over 25. The large following among adults even led to one of the earliest Internet fandom cultures, another Aquarian concept.

Television in the coming years will likely circle around again to some of these rebellious Aquarian ideas, and it's likely that TV will become even more entwined with the internet over the next few years, as online streaming is more common these days than watching cable TV.

Saturn's movement through Aquarius was a big part of the civil rights movement of the early 60s as well. The sign of Aquarius is a sign of freedom, equal human rights, and disrupting the status quo, which essentially were a few of the main goals of the movement. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a 10th house Aquarius Mercury, which is why we remember him best for his "I have a dream" speech, which he delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. for the 200,000+ people who gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. During the time he was writing and revising this speech, Saturn was transiting his Mercury in Aquarius as well. Later in 1963, on October 22, roughly 200,000 students stayed out of school in Chicago to protest segregation of African-American students in schools. This was a major peak of an ongoing battle to desegregate schools across America, again acting out the Aquarian values of equality and social justice.

In the early 1990s this theme re-emerged through the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. A video went public in 1991 of five white Los Angeles police officers severely beating Mr. Rodney King, who was black, after pulling him over for speeding. The riots began on April 29, 1992 after a trial jury acquitted four of the officers, enraging thousands of Southern California residents who took to the streets in anger. By the end of the riots, in early May, 63 people had been killed and thousands more were injured or had been arrested. The 1992 Rodney King riots went on to inspire the folk song "Like a King" from Ben Harper's debut 1994 album Welcome to the Cruel World, which was released just after Saturn transited into Pisces, therefore the songs were written and recorded while Saturn was in Aquarius.

In the coming transit of Saturn through Aquarius, we can expect to see another revolutionary movement for POC, particularly watching the Black Lives Matter movement, because the hashtag was born while Saturn was in Scorpio, meaning Saturn in Aquarius will be coming up on a Saturn square for the birth chart of the movement.

Furthermore in music, there were a few major developments in the early 1960s while Saturn was in Aquarius that stood out to me. First, in the early to mid 60s, Joan Baez was beginning to make a name for herself in folk music during the American folk revival. Then in 1962, Peter, Paul & Mary released their debut album, which reached #1 on the US album charts. During the same year, Bob Dylan released his self-titled debut album of cover songs, and later went on to release his first original album The Times They Are a-Changin' in 1964, towards the end of Saturn's journey through Aquarius. These politically charged folk artists all peaked with the folk revival during Saturn's transit through Aquarius, which makes sense, as folk music is Aquarian in its nature, typically discussing issues of politics, inequality and other "radical" ideas of change. In fact, these artists also all performed "We Shall Overcome" at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963.

Another emerging group that stood out to me from this Aquarian transit was The Beatles. This incredibly successful rock group released their first couple of songs - "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why" - in January of 1963. By the next month, their single "Please Please Me" was topping the British rock charts. The Beatles released their debut studio album, Please Please Me, in March 1963, and by May had landed on the top of the UK album charts, staying there for 30 weeks, only to be replaced by their second studio album, With The Beatles. By October of 1963, the media began using the term "Beatlemania" to describe the frenzied behavior exhibited by Beatles fans across the globe. Many of their live performances were accompanied by the sounds of screaming fans and general hysteria. Fanatics, by the way, are also ruled by Aquarius. In February of 1964, The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, drawing a record 73.7 million viewers. The crazed audience clearly depicts the "Beatlemania" phenomenon in full swing. But how do The Beatles relate to Saturn's transit through Aquarius? First off, The Beatles were one of the first mainstream groups to market to the younger generation of teenagers rather than to their parents. This was a big shift in the music industry, as typically it was the older audience with all the spending power, whereas now, young teenage girls were a powerful force in the music market. Though their earlier songs avoided heavier social topics, it became obvious later in their career that The Beatles were a huge part of the birth of counterculture and anti-establishment ideas. In 1964, when the band was informed that a venue they were scheduled to perform at in Florida in the US was segregated, they refused to play unless the audience was integrated. Many more conservative countries refused to allow The Beatles to perform at all, in fear that their progressive counterculture ideas would "infect" their younger population. Even the USA attempted to ban all British acts in 1965, as they saw their emerging rock 'n' roll culture as "dangerous" to the youth of the nation. The Beatles were also highly progressive in their music style, and incorporated many new and unusual recording techniques into their albums. This ongoing theme of progressive thinking and "peace and love" apparent in the music of The Beatles is very in line with the nature of Aquarius.

Later, in the early 1990s, grunge bands were the new emerging music trend. A number of grunge rock bands all released major hit albums around the same time - right around Saturn's transit through rebellious Aquarius. In 1991, Pearl Jam released their debut album Ten, followed by Nirvana releasing their second album Nevermind, and then Soundgarden with Badmotorfinger - all within a span of two months! All three albums were incredibly successful, and resonated strongly with the Aquarian counterculture and anti-establishment ideas brought out by the earlier generation in the early 1960s. Then in 1992, Alice in Chains released their second studio album, Dirt, which is considered by many to be their best work. Also released in 1992, Stone Temple Pilots debuted with their first studio album, Core, which received mixed reviews, though it went on to win a Grammy in 1994 for Best Hard Rock Performance. Nirvana received a lot of attention and success in the early 90s as well, and Kurt Cobain was dubbed "the voice of a generation" by many. Similar to The Beatles influence on counterculture, Kurt Cobain's darker lyrical content touched many listeners hearts on a deeper level than the earlier hair metal had been able to.

In the next few years in music, we're likely to see younger emerging artists, similar to Billie Eilish, who has an Aquarius Moon, taking over the scene with some revolutionary new ideas and social commentary in their lyrics.

Though Aquarius is a masculine sign, I've also noticed a pattern with emerging feminist movements during these transits, due to the focus on equal human rights. The second wave of feminism began picking up speed around 1963, when two major works of feminist writing were published - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. Both works were largely critical of the typical role of a female in 1960s society - that of the domestic housekeeper/mother figure. These works encouraged women to pursue careers they felt passionately about for the first time. Also in 1963, journalist Gloria Steinem became a prominent figure in feminist culture after going undercover as a Playboy Bunny and revealing the poor treatment and underpayment of the waitresses at the Playboy Club.

In the early 1990s, during Saturn's next transit through Aquarius, the third wave of feminism began to emerge. While second-wave feminism dealt primarily with issues surrounding equal opportunities for [predominantly white] women in the workplace, this third wave of feminism dealt with issues regarding intersectional feminism, violence against women and reproductive/sexual freedom. A trend of reclaiming "derogatory" female terms (for example -  bitch, slut, whore) began largely with the Riot grrrl movement in punk music, popularized by female-constructed bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, as a way of expressing feminine identity on their own terms.

Feminine power is already on the rise again, with Uranus having moved into feminine Taurus a couple years ago and still having several more years to go on that transit. Women in power will do great things with that power, and more women will come to be in power over the next few years with Saturn in this sign. Whether it be individual political power, or power in numbers, women around the world will come together and rise to power from now until 2023. Another trend I expect to see play out while Saturn transits Aquarius these next few years as well is that of gender revolution. With the gender roles of the past melting away, a revolution is roaring around the corner, and gender queer/LGBTQ+ identifying people will likely score a few big victories in the upcoming Aquarian transit.

Another theme I noticed through Saturn's transit of Aquarius in the early 1960s was a theme of national independence and freedom. In August of 1962, the colony of Jamaica became independent, freeing Jamaicans from the United Kingdom after 300 years of British rule. In October that same year, Uganda also became independent from the UK. Then in 1963, Kenya declared independence from the UK as well. Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic and Zanzibar both experienced major revolutions during this time frame, in search of freedom. This trend continued in the early 90s, with many countries, including Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia, all declaring their independence from the USSR in 1991.

It's likely that we will see many more uprisings and movements towards independence, including the USA's Pluto return in 2022/2023, which is expected to be a revolutionary moment for the history of the country, over the course of the next few years.

These are the kinds of themes we are likely to see re-emerging until March 2023, while Saturn roams through free-spirited Aquarius. Technological innovations are going to be increasingly involved with our lives, as the internet of things develops further. Television will trend towards witty humor and social criticism, as it did the previous few times Saturn was in Aquarius. Civil rights movements will be center stage, writing more groundbreaking history into our textbooks, while the future leans towards gender queer/female figures of color, rather than in favor of the cis-gender/heterosexual white male. Music will take on its own social commentary within the industry, perhaps birthing a new genre of sorts. Independence of the individual as well as the nation will be stressed in the coming years. Saturn feels confident in this sign, and we should too, moving forward into Saturn's "Age of Aquarius" with hope for a better future.

If you enjoyed reading this post, feel free to buy me a coffee here!

https://ko-fi.com/andromeda_sapphire

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 5, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Yet another Friday without a news dump from the federal government (woo hoo!) means that I have the room to highlight something really interesting that was buried in President Biden’s speech at the State Department yesterday afternoon. Not surprisingly, Biden announced a return to a more traditional foreign policy than his predecessor’s. But he did more than that: he tied foreign policy to domestic interests in a way that echoed Republican president Theodore Roosevelt when he helped to launch the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century.

Biden’s predecessor wrenched U.S. foreign policy from the channel in which it had operated since WWII, replacing it with a new focus on the economic interests of business leaders. Trump chose as Secretary of State the former chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, who oversaw the gutting of career officers in the State Department. When the department lost 12% of its foreign-affairs specialists in the first eight months of 2017, it was clear that the Trump administration was abandoning a foreign policy in which the United States tried to defend the idea of democracy and to advance its interests through diplomacy.

Instead, in his first trip overseas, the former president traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he announced the largest single arms deal in American history, worth $110 billion immediately and more than $350 billion over ten years. The White House noted that the deal was “a significant expansion of… [the] security relationship” between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

"That was a tremendous day. Tremendous investments in the United States," Trump told reporters. "Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments into the United States and jobs, jobs, jobs." Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors, cheered the sale.

It was a public relations victory for Mohammed bin Salman, often referred to as MBS and the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia at the time, coming as it did just a year after Congress voted to allow the families of those killed in the 9/11 attacks to sue the country from which 15 of the 19 hijackers came. It also would increase the U.S. supply of arms to his country’s intervention in Yemen, the country to its south, where a pro-Saudi president had been ousted in 2015 by the Houthi movement, whose members accused him of corruption and ties to Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

In his remarks during his May visit to Saudi Arabia, Trump backed away from the role the United States had claimed to take on since its war with Spain in 1898, aiming to defend democracy around the world. “We are not here to lecture—we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship,” Trump said. “[W]e are here to offer partnership-- based on shared interests and values—to pursue a better future for us all.”

For the rest of his presidency, Trump worked to weaken the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance among 30 nations of Europe, the U.S., and Canada, formed in 1949 to stop the spread of Soviet, and now Russian, aggression in Europe. Instead, he worked to strengthen U.S. ties to countries with strongman leaders, such as MBS and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. He sidestepped career diplomats to run his own, shadow diplomacy out of the White House, tapping his son-in-law Jared Kushner to secure peace in the Middle East, for example, and asking administration officials to pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

And he continued to sell billions worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, even after Congress halted such transfers as indiscriminate Saudi bombing in Yemen created a deadly humanitarian crisis.

One of the first things Biden did when he took office was to freeze for review $23 billion in pending arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates negotiated by his predecessor (including 50 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets). Yesterday, he announced he was ending U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen.

In his speech to the State Department yesterday Biden immediately indicated that he was restoring traditional American diplomacy. The first thing he did was to acknowledge his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, a career diplomat with a degree from Columbia Law School and a long and impressive resume including work on U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.

The next thing Biden said was to assure the world that diplomats around the world spoke for the country again: “when you speak, you speak for me.” Later on, he reiterated that idea: “I value your expertise and I respect you, and I will have your back. This administration is going to empower you to do your jobs, not target or politicize you.”  

Biden emphasized that he had spoken to “the leaders of many of our closest friends — Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, NATO, Japan, South Korea, Australia — to [begin] reforming the habits of cooperation and rebuilding the muscle of democratic alliances that have atrophied over the past few years of neglect and, I would argue, abuse.” The message he wants the world to hear is: “America is back.  America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.”

Also back at the center of American diplomacy are “America’s most cherished democratic values,” Biden said, “defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.” The case of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who was poisoned in August and returned to Russia in mid-January only to be thrown into jail, has enabled Biden to illustrate how dramatically his foreign policy differs from that of his predecessor. Biden called on Putin to release Navalny “immediately and without condition.”

Biden outlined his approach to Yemen, China, and Russia… and then he said something that jumped out.

Biden argued that foreign policy is an integral part of domestic policy. It requires that the government address the needs of ordinary Americans. “We will compete from a position of strength by building back better at home,” he said. “That’s why my administration has already taken the important step to live our domestic values at home — our democratic values at home.”  

This idea—that the U.S. must reform its own society in order to extend the principles of democracy overseas-- was precisely the argument Theodore Roosevelt and other reformers made in the late 1890s when they launched the Progressive Era. When Roosevelt became president in 1901, he used this rationale to take the government out of the hands of business interests and use it to protect ordinary Americans.

Roosevelt argued that the government must clean up the cities, educate children, protect workers and consumers, support farmers, and make business pay its fair share. Biden shared his own list on Thursday: ending the so-called Muslim ban, reversing the ban on transgender troops, defending the free press, respecting science, addressing systemic racism and white supremacy, and rebuilding the economy.

“All this matters to foreign policy,” he said, “because when we… rally the nations of the world to defend democracy globally, to push back… authoritarianism’s advance, we’ll be a much more credible partner because of these efforts to shore up our own foundations.”

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[96thdayofrage]

Convicting a murderous cop has its consequences. The integrity of a juror in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is being called into question because the juror attended a march for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. last August, CBS-affiliated WCCO reported on Tuesday. Floyd’s family spoke at the March on Washington, which was intended to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the civil rights leader's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It also included a voter registration rally, which Brandon Mitchell, the juror in question, told WCCO was the reason he attended. His attire at the event, however, is now being scrutinized after he was photographed in a T-shirt with King's image and the words, “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” and “BLM,” which Mitchell explained were broader references to the circumstances of 2020.

“It was huge to get people geared for voter turnout, so being a part of that, being able to attend, you know, the same location where Martin Luther King gave his speech was a historic moment,” Mitchell told WCCO. “Either way, I was going to D.C. for this event, even if George Floyd was still alive.” Floyd is not alive, and don’t for one second let Chauvin’s apparent desperation to get away with murder obscure the fact that Floyd is not here to see his daughter grow up because of Chauvin. Not Mitchell or any other member of the jury.

Chauvin, who is due for sentencing at 2:30 PM ET on June 16, was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter last month. Several clips of witness video presented at trial showed him kneeling on the neck of 46-year-old Floyd for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, outside of the Cup Foods corner store in Minneapolis. That video went viral and ushered the case onto an international stage, fueling anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests.

Still, Mitchell, juror No. 52 in the trial, told CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King he didn't feel pressure to reach a guilty verdict "at all … And I don't think any of us felt like that. I for sure did not. I for sure did not feel like that,” Mitchell said. “The pressure more so came from just being in the room and being under stress. But it wasn't pressure to come to A guilty verdict." He told King he was stressed about having to come into the courtroom and watch a Black man die every day. “That alone is stressful,” he said. “Coming in each and every day and having to watch somebody die is stressful enough by itself. So anything outside of that was secondary, just because as a human, it's natural to feel some kind of way as you're watching somebody in agony.”

Chauvin's defense attorney, Eric Nelson, brought up the question of just how much outside opinions of the case might be affecting the trial when he didn’t like how Rep. Maxine Waters answered an interviewer's question about what demonstrators should do if Chauvin isn't convicted. “We’ve got to get more confrontational," she said. "We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” With that, Nelson brought up the possibility of a mistrial and said the jury should have been sequestered from the start of the trial. “My phone gives me alerts on things that just happened. I mean you can’t avoid it, and it is so pervasive that I just don’t know how this jury can really be said to be that they are free from the taint of this,” Nelson said. “And now that we have U.S. representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to this specific case, it’s mind-boggling to me judge.” Judge Peter Cahill admonished Waters but ultimately ruled that her remarks weren’t grounds for a mistrial.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Floyd family, told TMZ that Mitchell's interview "completely obliterates" any claim from the Chauvin defense that public opinions outside the courtroom influenced the jury.

Rachel Moran, a law professor from the University of St. Thomas, told WCCO an important consideration in the case is whether lawyers did their job in investigating jurors. Mitchell said in a questionnaire WCCO obtained that he never took part in a protest about police brutality and that the phrase Black lives matter simply means Black people "want to be treated as equals and not killed or treated in an aggressive manner simply because they are Black.”

“If he had been asked about it and he tried to hide it, that could be an issue,” Moran said. “But at this point, I don’t see anything, any evidence that he tried to hide it.”

The attorney added that “it’s really important for the viewers at home to know it’s really hard to overturn a conviction, and courts are especially reluctant to interfere with the jury deliberation process.”

Read the transcript of King’s interview with Mitchell from CBS News:

King: 31-year-old Brandon Mitchell was known only as juror #52, and he joins us now. Brandon, we're really glad to see you because all of us wanted to know what happened. So I'd like you if you could, please take us inside the room. I think we were surprised that you're 12 strangers, you didn't know each other, you go in the room — what's the process, and how were you able to reach a verdict so quickly? And good morning!

Juror Brandon Mitchell: Yeah. Absolutely. Good morning to you. First, I want to send my condolences to the Floyd family.

King: Yes.

Mitchell: But when we walked into the deliberation room, the first thing we did is we voted on whether or not we wanted to have our mask on. We made that kind of an ice breaker to get going. We voted to not have our mask on. We took our masks off. We voted for a foreperson, and from there we went straight into the manslaughter charges and took a preliminary vote before doing a final vote on those charges.

King: What was the preliminary vote?

Mitchell: The preliminary vote was 11 of us were already — we were already on board for guilty for the manslaughter. One person was still unsure. And we just went over it as a team, as a group. Each person kind of went down the line on why they thought it was guilty. We did another vote maybe 40 minutes later after we went through everybody, and everybody was on the same page for the manslaughter. It happened really quickly.

King: Did you do that with each of the charges? Is that what you did, took a vote on each of the charges?

Mitchell: Yeah, absolutely. Each charge we did a preliminary vote to see where we were at, if there was anybody that was not on board yet or was unsure. Then we would go around the room, everybody kind of speak on what they think is necessary to speak on. We went over maybe a little bit of the evidence. And then we'd come back with a final vote whenever we thought it was a suitable time.

King: What was the one person unsure about, Brandon?

Mitchell: I think it was just like, the terminology. So within the instructions, some of the terminology can be a little tricky, because it's legal jargon. And so sometimes some of the words can be interpreted differently among people. It was just they wanted to do their due diligence and make sure that they were coming out with the right verdict that they believed in. So they were hung up on a few words. We went through the definitions that were given to us and kind of broke it down from different perspectives to get everybody on the same page.

King: Was there any particular witness that moved you and moved the jury that you said, okay, we're deeply affected by 'fill in the blank'?

Mitchell: So I think as a whole jury, I think Dr. Tobin was the biggest, the most influential witness out of everybody. For me personally, Donald Williams was another person. So Donald Williams and Dr. Tobin --

King: That's the fighter, yeah. The mixed martial arts fighter.

Mitchell: Yeah, so him early on, I felt he set the tone for the rest of the trial. And then when Dr. Tobin came, with him speaking so scientifically but also making it understandable for everyone along with the exhibits that he came with, I thought he just broke it down in a manner that was easy for all the jurors to understand. And I didn't think there was any way to — for the defense to come back after that. I was like, to me, the case was — it was done at that point almost.

King: Did you feel pressure because you knew the world was watching? That, you know, we have to reach a guilty verdict here?

Mitchell: Not at all. And I don't think any of us felt like that. I for sure did not. I for sure did not feel like that. The pressure more so came from just being in the room and being under stress. But it wasn't pressure to come to A guilty verdict.

King: What were you all stressed about?

Mitchell: We were just stressed about just the simple fact that every day we had to come in and watch a Black man die. That alone is stressful. Coming in each and every day and having to watch somebody die is stressful enough by itself. So anything outside of that was secondary, just because as a human, it's natural to feel some kind of way as you're watching somebody in agony.

King: Yeah. I can't imagine, Brandon, what it was like to be able to watch that tape day after day after day, the way you all did.

Mitchell: Yeah. It definitely had its impact on me. There was a few days where I was like, I don't know how I'm going to make it in this next day, especially me as a Black man. And a larger black man, I'm about 6'4", 250 pounds. And some of the testimony is like saying how size can be considered like, you know, is it a risk or threat. Whereas me, I'm a gentle giant. Stuff like that, that affects me in a way that — it's weird. I don't know if it affects anybody else the same way.

King: I understand. I understand what you're saying. How did you all feel about Derek Chauvin, the fact that he did not take the stand? Would that have made a difference to you? We'll never know, but do you think it would have made a difference?

Mitchell: It possibly — it possibly could have. We did talk about, you know, the fact that he didn't. Somebody had brought it up, like they wished he would have, they would have liked to have heard from him. But since it wasn't part of the case, it just is what it is. But yeah, I mean, anything brought in or not brought in, it could have possibly affected it either way. Either way I can't say it would have changed the outcome, but it's a possibility for sure.

King: Do you worry about your safety now? This was such a controversial case. We now know your name, we now know what you look like, we now know that you said you're a large man. Do you worry about your safety?

Mitchell: No, not at all. Not at all. I'm a person that kind of thrives in the positives. So I'm not too much concerned about that. Nor do I dwell on —

King: —the what if's—

Mitchell: —on negativity like that. Yeah, the what if's.

King: And he's going to be sentenced June 25. What do you think is the proper sentence for him, for Derek Chauvin? He's facing up to 40 years.

Mitchell: Yeah. I couldn't say what the proper sentencing would be. You know, I think we came up with the right verdict. You know, guilty on all charges. And you know, I'll let the judge do what he does.

King: All right, thank you very much. We really wanted to hear from you today. It's been a fascinating case that we've been watching.

Mitchell: Yes, thank you.

[adrianotero1111]

Classifying the COVID-19 diagnostic tests and vaccinations underdevelopment and/or already available nowadays based on their DNA or RNA structure

“SARS-CoV2”, a previously unknown strain of coronaviruses caused a severe respiratory disease called Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which emerged from Wuhan city of China on 30 December 2019, and declared as Global health problem by World Health Organization within a month. In less than two and half months (11 March, 2020)

Diagnosis of COVID-19

A rapid and sensitive diagnosis of COVID-19 is still unavailable, although some diagnosis methods are available presently (Fig. 1) for virus detection, each having different degree of specificity and based on single or multiple target molecule from the SARS-CoV2. (Kumar, R., Nagpal, S., Kaushik, S. et al.)

Nucleic acid based method

Nucleic Acid based technologies are utilizes the genetic material such as DNA/RNA and are based on the principle of their highly specific base paring with homologous strands. Genetic materials-based detection and diagnostics are comparatively faster than traditional culture-based methods ( Kumar, R., Nagpal, S., Kaushik, S. et al.)  

Next generation sequencing (NGS)

The, next-generation sequencing (NGS) is also called as high-throughput sequencing (HTS). By this method we can determine the genomic sequence, even more than 1 million base pairs in a single experiment. By this technique, we can diagnose the inheritable diseases, cancer, and infectious diseases even Covid-19 ( Kumar, R., Nagpal, S., Kaushik, S. et al.)

Treatment for Covid-19

There has been progress in getting treatment for COvid-19 in a form of a vaccine this was found by the  mRNA-1273 Study Group from The New England journal of medicine they found:  

After the first vaccination, antibody responses were higher with higher               dose (day 29 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay anti–S-2P antibody               geometric mean titer [GMT], 40,227 in the 25-μg group, 109,209 in the               100-μg group, and 213,526 in the 250-μg group). After the second vaccination, the titers increased (day 57 GMT, 299,751, 782,719, and 1,192,154, respectively). After the second vaccination, serum-neutralizing activity was detected by two methods in all participants evaluated, with values generally similar to those in the upper half of the distribution of a panel of control convalescent serum specimens. Solicited adverse events that occurred in more than half the participants included fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia, and pain at the injection site. Systemic adverse events were more common after the second vaccination, particularly with the highest dose, and three participants (21%) in the 250-μg dose group reported one or more severe adverse events this lead them to conclude that the mRNA-1273 vaccine induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants

(The mRNA-1273 Study Group,2020)

What does RNA research got to do with Covid-19

A graphic created by the New York Times illustrates how the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 enters the body through the nose, mouth, or eyes and attaches to our cells. Once the virus is inside our cells, it releases its RNA. Our hijacked cells serve as virus factories, reading the virus’s RNA and making long viral proteins to compromise the immune system. The virus assembles new copies of itself and spreads to more parts of the body and—by way of saliva, sweat, and other bodily fluids—to other humans. (University of Rochester,2020)

This means that Covid-19 Spreads it selves through our body's through the release of its RNA this is why the research of RNA is important to the treatment of Covid-19 it is also why we are developing RNA based vaccines but how do they work? 

RNA-based vaccines—such as those developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and American biotechnology company Modern—do not introduce an antigen, but instead inject a short sequence of synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) that is enclosed in a specially engineered lipid nanoparticle. This mRNA provides cells with instructions to produce the virus antigen themselves. Once the mRNA from a vaccine is in our body, for example, it “instructs” the protein synthesis machinery in our cells, which normally generates proteins from the mRNAs that derive from our genes, to produce a piece of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. Since the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein is foreign to our bodies, our bodies will then make antibodies that inactivate the protein  (University of Rochester,2020)

An RNA-based vaccine therefore acts as a code to instruct the body to make many copies of the virus protein—and the resulting antibodies—itself, resulting in an immune response. (University of Rochester,2020)

I had trouble understanding the basics but I just watched a video that I think explains it, could someone tell me if the following explanation is accurate?

1.There is a protein that is part of the virus that we would like our antibodies to target.

2.The vaccine introduces mRNA into our bodies that codes for that protein.

3.Our body's ribosomes read off the mRNA and create that protein as they would for any other mRNA.

4.The body's immune response then targets this foreign protein.

5.When live virus is introduced, the body's antibody response knows how to target this foreign protein.

6.It is less dangerous than attenuated virus because the full virus is never created -- just the single protein.

7.It also doesn't require any sort of genetic manipulation because there is no transcription or reverse transcription, mRNA is introduced as already transcribed.

Conclusions. 

The importance of understanding of understanding of doing research specially on such relevant issues such as covid-19 is extremely important before this I knew next to nothing that's obviously why I failed but after doing this i know more about Covid knowing more makes me understand why people are being victims to fear mongering about the vaccine as humans we fear the unknown. It is our responsibility to get educated about topics like this not only to enrich ourselves with knowledge but to literally saves lives by taking decisions such as being vaccinated against the disease. I definitely understand more about How Covid uses RNA to spread itself through out our body and why we need to combat it with its own RNA based vaccine. Its easy to see the connection to what we saw in class considering how everything to do with covid and its treatment is based on RNA    

REFERENCES

Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). (n.d.). What’s the science on DNA and RNA vaccines? DW.COM. Retrieved January 22, 2021, from https://www.dw.com/en/whats-the-science-on-dna-and-rna-vaccines/a-54097063

Kumar, R., Nagpal, S., Kaushik, S., & Mendiratta, S. (2020, June 13). COVID-19 diagnostic approaches: different roads to the same destination. VirusDisease. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13337-020-00599-7?error=cookies_not_supported&code=86e493fb-130e-4c77-845c-e3cc75756fa7#citeas

RNA Science and its Applications—a look toward the future: Albany, NY USA, November 3–4, 2011. (2012, August 1). PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3551859/

Schmidt, C., & Schmidt, C. (2020, June 1). Genetic Engineering Could Make a COVID-19 Vaccine in Months Rather Than Years. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-engineering-could-make-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-months-rather-than-years1/?error=cookies_not_supported&code=102d1714-09e6-452d-b816-45c765f7aa1c

T.R.N.A.-S.G. (2020, November 12). An mRNA Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 — Preliminary Report. The New England Journal of Medicine. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2022483

Valich, L. (2020, December 22). COVID-19 vaccine: What’s RNA research got to do with it? NewsCenter. https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/covid-19-rna-coronavirus-research-428952/

[mksc77]

Fictober #26–“You keep me warm”

Fandom: Major Crimes

Rating: T, no warnings apply

October 2019

Andy watched as Sharon idly tossed an absurd amount of panties into her suitcase. “We’ll only be there for five nights, are you expecting to shit yourself twice a day or something?”

Sharon gave him a disbelieving look. “I won’t know which ones I’ll want while we’re there, I have to have options,” she explained patronizingly, like he should’ve already known that.

Andy rolled his eyes and finished his own packing. Once that was done, he started dinner and talked to a neighbor who stopped by for a few minutes before going back to their bedroom. “Are you seriously still packing? You were already packing before I even got home, and I’m finished now.”

“Are you seriously still asking questions?” Sharon looked over the contents of her suitcase. She and Andy were going to Oregon for a few days with some friends from her old neighborhood, and she couldn’t wait to trade the 80 degree early October LA weather for real fall weather. Looking at her comfy leggings, sweaters, and warm pajamas had her ready for chilly, foggy mornings and evenings, pleasant, crisp afternoons, colorful leaves, hot tea and coffee, crackling fires, and needing Andy to warm her up. Sharon gently grasped his suspenders and pulled him closer to her to kiss him. “I’m almost finished.”

Andy eyed her things strewn across the bed. They’d traveled together several times by now, and he still didn’t understand why trips for less than a week required so much damn luggage. “Leave it to you to push the luggage limit on a five-day trip.”

Sharon bit her bottom lip and sifted through her suitcase for Andy’s favorite chemise. “I guess you’re right, this is too much...” She dangled the navy, lacy garment in front of him. “Maybe I should leave this home. It’ll be too cold for it, anyway—“

“No, no, take all you want,” Andy quickly amended. He took the chemise from Sharon and put it back in her suitcase. “You won’t have to worry about being cold, I can promise you.”

On their third morning in Oregon, Sharon had set her alarm for 6:30 so they could go down to the lake and watch the sunrise. Any time she was in the mountains, she liked to watch the sun come up over the peak at least one morning.

“Why’s it so early?” Andy pulled a pillow over his face, trying to muffle the sound of Sharon’s blaring alarm.

Sharon turned off her alarm and snuggled more closely to him, pressing her cold feet against his legs. “I told you last night I was going to watch the sunrise. You coming?”

“I guess,” Andy grumbled.

Sharon pulled on the thick leggings and warm, oversized sweater she’d laid out the night before while Andy rubbed his eyes and struggled to make himself get out of bed. A few minutes later, she went to the kitchen and put a coffee pod in the Keurig. By the time she heard Andy stepping into the kitchen, she had some hot tea brewing for him. He grabbed a couple of blankets and accepted the mug from her. “Thanks, honey.”

Once they were on the dock and squeezed together in one of the lounge chairs, Andy settled the blankets over them and wrapped his arm around Sharon. She curled into his side and lay against his chest, enjoying the silence and stillness of the early morning. Fog was drifting across the water and mountains, and the scent of smoke was in the air from a nearby house’s fireplace.

“To quote Rusty, it’s cold as balls out here,” Andy whined. He usually griped when Sharon dragged him out of the house at the crack of dawn in Park City, and even in the middle of August, it always managed to be cold there, too. Too cold for his liking, anyway. Admittedly, he did love the peace and serenity of a mountain lake early in the morning, especially now with the vibrant leaves peeking through the soft grayness of dawn. Such moments of peace were also appreciated the times when they were with Sharon’s loud family, where silence for half of a second was hard to come by.

“It is...” Sharon agreed. “Whatever that means.”

Andy rested his chin on top of her head. “Why do I always get roped into this?”

“You keep me warm.” Sharon released a contented sigh and sipped her coffee as the sun’s first rays started to streak over the mountain. The grayness around them slowly grew brighter as the sun slowly ascended over the mountain to the east until the fiery ball glided up from behind the mountain and pierced through the dawn with its brightness. With morning in full swing, they started back for the house. Sharon looped her arm through Andy’s and held his hand as they walked up the few flights of steps. “Whatever will we do to warm up?” She murmured.

Andy pressed his lips against the sensitive part of her neck that always made her quiver, smiling against her skin when he felt her react. “I have some ideas.”

I was planning to do a fall fic before the fictober mania started (I’m LOVING all of your posts! 😍). I don’t know how many fictober ones I’ll get through, but here’s a preview of the previously-planned fall fic for one of them. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the extended version :)

[notquitedailyamy]

Three Weeks LA-ter

It’s now three weeks since I was plunged back into the ice bath of the UK. I’m sure those ’cubes ought to have melted by now, and that bathwater warmed enough to meet my shellshocked thermo-receptors in the middle.... But, alas, I still find myself favouring those extra two layers of clothing over flexibility.

I love winter. At heart, I’m a sworn pluviophile. Sucker for hygge. Quite happy to trade in the tan for a crunch of frost underfoot, swap the extra hours of daylight for the crackle of a fire and a blanket. I start getting excited about the dumplings on my Mum’s beef stew before August is out. 

However, in the process of jetting off to land in 30 degrees for a good 23 days, before being plopped back here into mid-Feb British weather, my usual hardiness has been compromised. My four seasons have been interrupted, hijacking my enthusiasm for the darker months.

I’ve already transitioned from that annual spell of bothering to remember hat, coat and umbrella, coordinating layer upon layer of clothing, heaving on clunky walking boots, and moisturising dry hands three thousand times a day for fear of falling to pieces. My brain is tuned to remember sunglasses. I have once again tasted the ease of merely having to consider a top and bottoms, the luxury of sticking to one pair of shoes with no fear of trampling mud or puddle. My pasty limbs have surfaced and been greeted once more by the sun’s bronzing kiss... 

Oh well. I’m working on getting back into the rhythm, and I trust it will happen. In the meantime: HAS SOMEONE TURNED THE HEATING ON PLEASE??! 

Anyway, I was very lucky to get my early dose of sun-dowsed fun, and here are a few highlights of the trip: 

1. SISTER 

Highlight No.1 stands head and shoulders above the rest, and that was being reunited with my sister who lives out in Los Angeles. Visa issues + my own poverty had equated to the sum of over two years apart - weep, weep, weep. 

2. FLORA & FAUNA 

One of the things I love most about touching down in new places is being surrounded by a different spectrum of plants & wildlife. Even within the UK, a hop across to the Cornish coast will offer a whole new palette from that to which I am familiar here in Suffolk; in the wild flowers spattering the hedgerows, and the bright purples of heather and yellows of gorse and lichen that adorn the slate-grey rocks. 

California certainly doesn’t disappoint on this front. Supersize is not only on the food menus... From the distinctive gravity-defying palms lining the streets, to the elaborate yet prolific birds of paradise, statuesque cacti and citrus trees lolloping over the walls of back gardens, branches laden with fruits so big one might question their genuity, it is quite clear this isn’t Suffolk, Cornwall, or indeed anywhere close to home. 

Yet if the LA landscape alone is not feast enough for the senses - I have an idea for you: why not blitz them COMPLETELY at the Huntingdon Botanical Gardens in Pasadena...

The Huntingdon pretty much offers visitors a tour around The World, by means of a peruse through sixteen sizeable themed gardens. You begin in the Californian Garden, and weave your way, jaws on the floor, through an Australian Garden, Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, Subtropical Garden, Desert Garden, Jungle Garden........  There are so many serene spots waiting to be sought out for lunching, coffee or a ponder. Save at least a whole day for this remarkable place, and don’t miss the turtles at the Lily Ponds. 

One for the living room 

Heading down the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Diego, and a small detour takes you to La Jolla Cove for some incredible sea life spotting. Just how up close and personal you want to get with the seals and sea lions depends on how prepared you are to put up with the horrendous smell.

For us, the cute vibes were worth the stench at first... Until we still couldn’t get rid of it from the car days later.  

Um, not today mate, thanks.

Pelican!

By and large, it was a thrill spotting species I’m so little used to seeing, let alone in their natural habitat. There were, however, one or two fellows supposedly rolling around for which I’m grateful I did not get acquainted...

3. ART, ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

I mentioned in a previous post about my enthusiasm for the the extreme mishmash of architecture in LA. Two years later, and it’s still a novelty for me how you can walk the lengths of residential streets and never pass the same build twice. One moment you’re outside something resembling a Spanish villa, and the next, something reminiscent of a small chateau. It’s all so interesting - I find myself transformed into a helpless busybody passing through.

The sprawling city is a bit of a swarm; so intense in parts, that it’s a relief when you happen upon a sanctuary, in whatever shape or form, to escape to. One of these for me is The Getty Center, and it was a delight to be able to return there. 

Perched high up on its hill looking out over the metropolis below, The Getty was designed by Richard Meier, and is home to magnificent gardens, art collections and ever-changing exhibitions. 

There’s architecture, and then there’s architecture... 

4. SAN DIEGO

Downtown to Old Town, the Spanish Village to the Star of India, San Diego boasts a vast range of things to see and do, all in close proximity, and only a few hours’ drive south from LA. 

The harbour is home to the USS Midway, the United States' longest serving naval aircraft carrier of the 20th century - it is overwhelmingly huge and impressive, and is now also the site of a museum. Also docked is the HMS Surprise, which was used in the filming of Master and Commander and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

The Spanish Village Arts Center in Balboa Park is a hub for local artisans, housing the studios and shops of an eclectic mix of artists, sculptors, potters, silversmiths and many more of the like. Colourful and quaint, visitors are warmly welcomed. 

Old Town - explore the Birthplace of California, get scared for $5 in haunted Whaley House, eat tacos & hand-dry with Haring:

  7. SUNSETS

Our best experiences of the setting soleil were from the expanses of Coronado Beach and the San Diego harbour.

Blankets required for rapid drop in temp, tortoise imitation not mandatory.

8. DELECTABLES

Oh it’s ALWAYS a joy. From Mexican to Korean to Japanese to Vietnamese, you can get all the good stuff. And...

Naturally

...what’s that, my suitcase is how big now?

Am I transmitting enough cosy to you with this Mexican mocha?

9. HIKES

We loved the Wisdom Tree hike, Runyon Canyon & Echo Mountain (the biggest one!). We thanked our gods for not having crossed paths with rattle snake, bear, coyote or mountain lion. 

One of my favourite things about LA is that, even when you’re in the depths of urbanicity, you can nearly always spot a mountain, and know that there’s a view like this waiting for you.

10. FURNITURE ASSEMBLY 

I jest. This was no highlight, but an integral part of the trip, so seems necessary to include. My sister had just moved into her apartment when we arrived, and we assembled IKEA flat packs till our hands blistered and our vision blurred. Even wore out a screwdriver. Standing back to inspect the results can act as silver lining here. 

Suitable Song - L.A. by Elliott Smith // Listen on Spotify