#also to what degree i would allow adding or enhancing features on living beings to go

[existential-dread-in-the-am]

Every once in a while you find an absolutely brilliant scifi au on the fanfiction website with the most perfectly made first 7 out of 8 chapters, only to find that the final chapter 8 consists of a long and unhinged sex scene and little else. And you have to still bookmark the thing because the au is still brilliant and you cannot let it go (and also because you may be aroace but you are not weak and you refuse to be defeated by sex scenes)

[babyjamiebarnes]

Build-A-Bear

Part One

Featuring: Bucky x Stark!reader, dad!Tony, Peter Parker (platonic), background MCU characters

Warnings: [chapter] language; [series] language, smut, violence

Summary: The only people who knew she was actually a Stark were her dad, her step-mom Pepper, and her “uncles” Happy and Rhodey. A promotion within Stark Industries takes her from an already-sought after position in the Weapons Anaylsis Unit straight to the Avengers as a Weapons Enhancement Specialist... which means her dad is her new boss. There’s only one rule at work: no fraternizing with coworkers. There’s one more rule at home: no dating any Avengers. So what is she supposed to do when a grumpy super soldier becomes not-so-grumpy around her? At 25, do her dad’s rules still apply? Or is her entire livelihood at risk?

Author’s Note: I’ve written a decent portion of this but know I won’t keep writing it or post it unless I hold myself accountable and get it out there in the first place 🙈 I haven’t written much for Marvel yet but I’ve read plenty and have written for other fandoms in the past (not to mention the writing degree on my wall lol). I’ll try to post every 2-3 days to keep this moving! And if you like it and want to, buy me a coffee!

No one knew Tony Stark had a daughter. No one but Tony Stark and his daughter. Well, and her step-mom Pepper. And her godfather Rhodey. And her uncle-not-uncle Happy. But no one in their everyday lives knew. She was given her mother’s maiden name and kept a secret, even when she turned 17 and moved to a small apartment near NYU’s campus (with Happy stationed right next door, of course) to start life as a truly normal adult, or as close to normal as an undercover Stark could be. When she graduated with her PhDs in robotics and electrical engineering at 25 — proving brains really do run in the family — she moved into her own apartment in Manhattan, funded by her father under the pseudonym “Michael Myers.” Subtlety was never his strong suit.

Fortunately for you, growing up without the Stark name let you live a relatively normal life. It also allowed you to apply for a position within Stark Industries without being ushered past any red tape because of who your father is. Outside of the financial advantage you had, you worked for your spot in a STEM career. You suffered through every man in your field belittling your work despite knowing less than you. You dealt with the constant interruptions and “well, actually” because of your gender. You powered through late nights and early mornings when your mind was flowing too smoothly to quit.

The last thing you wanted to do was have all that work disregarded because you shared a name with genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark. So you filled out the application, sent in your resume and cover letter, and attached three letters of recommendation from your professors. You went through hours of interviews, background checks (conveniently redacting your father’s name), and polygraph tests until that offer letter showed up in your email. You even had to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreements that would bar you from discussing *anything* work-related with anyone outside of your department.

You spent your first year in the weapons analysis department, evaluating alien weaponry and determining how it worked and how to disable it. You had your fair share of mishaps, of course. Holes blasted into walls, fried robot dummies, even burnt animal carcasses. By the end of your first year, your supervisor sent a commendation and proposal for you for an undisclosed promotion. After Pepper Potts “thoroughly examined your resume, cover letter, and accomplishments during your tenure with Stark Industries,” as the letter read, you were awarded a position working on the Avengers’ weapons as a Weapons Enhancement Specialist. You’d never see a fight in-person, but you were assigned to work on advancements and post-battle repairs for everyone, from the Winter Soldier’s arm to the Falcon’s wings to Vision’s... everything. The only heroes you wouldn’t work on were Iron Man and War Machine (those were your dad’s territory) and Spider-Man.

On your first day in your new position, the one and only Pepper Potts showed you to your new lab on the 47th floor. It took all your willpower to look your step-mother in the eye and say, “Wow, Miss Potts. This is amazing. It’s such an honor to meet you,” with a straight face to convince any passerby that you had no outside affiliation with her. Even if her eyes stayed steady on you, you could see her mentally rolling them.

Once you were alone behind the doors of the elevator, conversation changed course.

“You’re going to be sharing a lab with someone else,” Pepper said.

“Sweet. As long as they’re competent, that’s fine by me,” you shrugged. Part of earning your degrees was learning to share a workspace with others, even those who bumbled and fumbled with no idea what they were doing. You’d had more hair singed by nearby explosions than you’d like to admit.

“He’s still in college so he’s not here as often as the others. Most of his work will be on Spider-Man’s gadgets and suit, but you can use him for any help you need.”

Walking past the familiar faces of Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho in their respective labs, Pepper ushered you into your lab, where you were met by your father and put on the same excited facade you did with Pepper.

“Oh my god, you’re Tony Stark! This is incredible! It’s such an honor to meet you, sir!”

He shook his head at you and reluctantly accepted your outstretched hand. Oh, the jokes you’d be making at family dinners.

“Yeah, anyway, this is your new lab, Miss [Y/L/N]. Make yourself at home. This lab rat over here is mister Parker. If you have any questions, he can at least bullshit an answer for you.”

The young man on the other side of the lab perked up at the sound of his name. He tugged the goggles off his face and set down his soldering rod to rush over to you.

“Hi. Hi, I’m Peter,” he said, reaching his hand out to you.

“I’m [Y/N]. It’s nice to meet you, lab partner.”

He looked to be a bit younger than you and at least relatively smart, if the MIT sweatshirt peeking out from under his lab coat said anything. If your dad gave him an internship like this, you knew you shouldn’t question it. He had to be a genius.

The kid just smiled at you, continuing to shake your hand past what most would deem socially acceptable.

“Okay, enough of that,” Tony said, pushing on your joined hands to separate you two. “Mister Parker might be in and out of the lab from time to time. He joins the Avengers on the occasional recon mission for immediate repairs but since he’s on break from classes, you’ll see him more often than not. Play nice.”

When he noticed you surreptitiously looking Peter up and down, he added, “Remember, no fraternizing with coworkers.” He pointed a finger directly at you before he spun and pointed to your fellow lab mate, realizing he should warn Peter too to save face.

“All the blueprints you need for the Tin Man’s arm are in the system. We’ll have you start on that and see what you can do about minimizing the sound that thing makes. Any other questions, give Pep a call.”

“Thank you, mister Stark. I really do appreciate everything,” you said genuinely.

“Yeah, well… don’t let me down,” he replied, patting you on the shoulder on his way out. Pepper followed close behind, leaving you alone with Peter Parker.

“So Peter,” you started, sliding onto the lab chair next to where he remained standing, “tell me about yourself.”

“Uh… what do you want to know?” he asked as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.

“How old are you?” you asked immediately.

“I’m 21.”

Only four years younger than you. So you’d probably get along just fine.

“I assume you’re at MIT?” He nodded. “What are you studying?”

“Biomolecular and mechanical engineering.” He said it so casually, you’d think he was talking about the last song he heard on the radio.

“Damn,” you responded, eyes wide. “I thought robotics and electrical engineering was wild but fuck, that sounds like hell.”

He laughed and nodded, letting a bit of the tension in his shoulders fall. “Yeah, it’s not easy. But it’s worth it.”

He shot you a small smile before gesturing back at his project. “I should probably get back to work and let you get started.”

For the rest of the day, you familiarized yourself with the Winter Soldier’s arm to figure out how to… turn the volume down? You assumed it was the gears inside causing the noise, but part of you wanted to outfit an audio jack and speaker just to fuck with your dad.

You and Peter worked in relative silence, aside from the playlist he had quietly playing through the lab sound system. When lunch rolled around, however, you finally spoke up.

“Hey Peter,” you called, his eyes flicking from the chemical beakers in front of him up to you. “First of all, what are you doing?”

“Um, it’s Spider-Man’s web fluid. Just trying to find more durable combinations.”

“Interesting.” As much as you wanted to touch the stringy substance, you knew better than to fiddle with someone else’s lab work. “Okay so second thing, in my last position, I’d just order food and have it brought to my floor but now that I’m on an exclusive floor, what do you do for lunch?”

“Oh, there are a couple security guys who have clearance to come into this floor. They just can’t get into any rooms so you’d have to meet them at the elevator. But I usually find something in the kitchen down the hall.”

“Oh, sweet. Thanks!” you said as you made your way out the door. Before you could fully exit, you turned back to see if Peter wanted you to grab anything. Once he promised he’d take his own break ‘once I get this one thing figured out,’ you continued to make your way to the kitchen.

As you drew closer to the doorway, you could hear three voices speaking over each other. They didn’t sound angry, but they were definitely arguing. You opened the door anyway and almost immediately froze in your tracks. The Falcon stood with one hand on his own head and one on the Winter Soldier’s head while Captain America rolled his eyes before those same eyes landed on you, along with the rest of the room.

“Perfect,” Sam started. “Hey new girl, between the three of us,” he said, pointing to himself, the Soldier, and the Captain, “who has the best hair?”

“First of all, my name is [Y/N]. Second,” you continued, making your way past them to the fridge you hoped your dad kept stocked with goodies, “that’s an unfair question.”

You grabbed a soda and popped it open before turning back to the three men. “Your hair suits each of you. Cap wouldn’t look good with Winter Soldier hair and Falcon wouldn’t look good with Cap’s hair.” You took a few steps closer, leaning against the island counter between you and eyeing each of them. Your eyes settled on the Winter Soldier, unashamedly flitting across his face and admiring the sharpness of his features. “You,” pointing at him, “could probably pull off either of their looks, though.”

Bucky smirked at you, but his rosy cheeks gave away a hint of embarrassment at your compliment. Steve and Sam, on the other hand, weren’t taking it quite as gracefully.

“What?!” Sam shouted. “Okay, now I know you’re lying. I could pull off Cap’s hair for sure.”

“You know, I think shaggy hair would really suit me,” Cap said, only half sarcastically.

You giggled to yourself as the three of them started talking over each other again, all dead set on their own hair being the best of them and positive they could pull off the others’ looks. While they bickered, you searched the pantry until you found a snack to at least get you through the remainder of the day.

“Alright boys, it’s been fun but I have work to do,” you said as you walked past them again. “Actually, wait. Bucky — can I call you Bucky?” He nodded even though you continued anyway. “If you could stop by lab six today, I’d love to check out your arm in person. The digital renderings aren’t quite the same.”

“Uh, okay. Sure. I’ll find you,” he said quietly.

“Sweet, thanks!” And with that, you skedaddled back to your lab.

[corvus--rex]

Another one that's soundly asleep and not abandoned. Non-canon compliant, and all 7 of them are lgbt+ (I also may, possibly, be projecting onto Keith - just a little). And Lance is a they/them enby.

~*~*~*~

Liberating the planet Artrax was the easy part. Eliminating the Galra presence was simple. Voltron’s Paladins had done their job in securing the planet’s freedom. No different from any other occupied planet they’d been to. The Artraxians were holding a celebratory festival both in honor of the Paladins and in anticipation of joining the Voltron Coalition. Not complicated. It wasn’t something they hadn’t done many times before. And while every planet’s traditions and customs were different, they more or less knew what to expect. At least, they thought they knew what to expect. They were apparently wrong about that.

Allura dropped into her usual seat at the head of the dining table with a heavy sigh, the tablet in her hand clattering to the table’s surface. A lack of her usual composure was evident in the way her shoulders slumped, the annoyance and displeasure clear on her face. She sighed again before facing the Paladins.

“I’ve just spoken with Artrax’s leaders. They are going forward with the celebration in our honor and over joining the Coalition,” she said, heavy with exhaustion.

“I’m sensing a ‘but’,” Lance said cautiously.

“The Artraxians have a very rigid society when it comes to gender roles and sexuality. They are also insisting that, as distinguished guests, we are to dress according to their standards. At the very least I got them to agree to modify their fashions to our anatomy. But they will not back down from their views on gender. Not even for us. Alteans may not believe in those strict lines, but they do.”

“And combined with their enhanced sense of smell, especially when it comes to hormones and pheromones, there’s no way we can get around it,” Pidge noted disappointedly.

“Unfortunately. Please know that I would never ask any of you to do something that makes you uncomfortable in that way. But they would consider it a personal insult not to attend, or abide by their customs. And their trade routes are invaluable to the Coalition. I am so sorry.” Allura slumped back into her seat, gaze dropping to the table.

The room was silent for a long minute as they all considered their options and what the Artraxian societal standards meant for them. Three fifths of the Paladins didn’t identify with their assigned genders and none of them, Allura and Coran included, were straight. Hiding their sexual orientations was manageable, their gender identities far less so. Neither Lance nor Pidge in any way liked the idea of being forced into presenting as their assigned genders. After expanding their wardrobes beyond what they had worn into space, there was no telling what Lance would appear in on any given day, while Pidge’s remained as non-gendered as physically possible.

It had only been a few months since Pidge had come out to the team as agender, aromantic, and asexual. “Triple-A Queer” they had called it. They had known for some time before, but their disguise to get into the Galaxy Garrison was important to their self-imposed mission to find Sam and Matt, and so allowed everyone to believe that they were male. Lance, on the other hand, had never made their semi-fluid nonbinary identity a secret. Being bisexual and nonbinary at the Garrison had been an unpleasant experience at times, until the day when Tommy Bailey was harassing them for it again and Hunk simply appeared behind Lance without a sound, glaring. Tommy was too afraid of Hunk after that to try anything again.

While Lance and Pidge – as much as they hated it – could power through the discomfort of dressing to their physical sex, it was a little harder for Keith. He had kept it a secret at the Garrison, Griffin’s homophobia and “teasing” about Keith’s parents was bad enough. The only ones who had known were Shiro, Adam, and Garrison medical staff. He figured his life was hard enough being the gay, orphaned, golden boy without adding his trans status on top of it. His recovery time after top surgery was dismissed (by him) as having been sick, and hormone shots as being for specific, undisclosed allergies. (“Yeah, I’m allergic to being female,” he’d told Shiro with a laugh when they decided that was going to be the “official” story.)

He’d been off hormones since not long after leaving the Garrison, and told the team shortly after settling into the castle. He wanted to, but even if he hadn’t, it was going to show itself sooner or later. He’d rather they were prepared for bitchy, PMS-ing Keith, followed by angry, period Keith. It was not a side of himself he liked anyone seeing, but without access to his hormones, they were going to whether he liked it or not. He had the grace of the gods in that respect. Shiro handled it the same way he always had – from a distance and with care. Pidge was right there with him, commiserating over a bodily function neither of them wanted. Hunk had two moms and a younger sister, so he understood, even if it was from the outside. It was the same for Lance, with both of their sisters, one of whom was their twin, so they’d seen what she went through a little more closely than they’d wanted. Allura and Coran didn’t understand human reproductive cycles, but understood that it was an uncomfortable process, and did what they could.

But all that meant that he was going to be the one out of all of them in the most discomfort. It had been years since he’d had to pretend like he wasn’t in the wrong body, and now he was having to face that all over again. He knew that if they’d had any kind of leeway, Lance and Allura would be there to help him to be as comfortable as possible while stuck in a dress. But they didn’t. They were going to be in a modified version of the planet’s inhabitants’ traditional costume. None of the paladins knew what it looked like, but from how upset Allura was, it couldn’t be good.

Keith decided to rip off the band-aid. “So, what do these outfits look like?” he asked.

Allura played with the tablet she’d brought with her for a moment before turning it on. The images projected over the table were of the Artraxian people modeling their traditional clothing. Their race was in an eternal transitional period between reptilian and avian. Mostly scaled, and more closely resembling their reptile ancestors, they also had patches of brightly colored feathers and slightly wing-like arms with retractable membranes. The feathers that grew along their shoulders, forearms, and thighs were short, and nearly mistakeable for scales if it weren’t for their texture. They also had feathers that grew in a swath from forehead to neck, but these were longer, some trailing down their backs. Artraxian scale colors ranged from pale, leaf green to deep forest, those colors determined by regional origin. Unlike what the paladins would have expected of either reptiles or birds, Artraxians were a live-birth species, and so had some features more like Earth mammals, most notably two close-set rows of three breasts. Six-titted aliens was not what they were expecting. But combined with their long, thick, tapering tails and wing-arms, the paladins could see why their clothes would have to be adapted for human and Altean anatomy.

The clothing itself was as brightly colored as their feathers. It appeared light, soft, and silky, but was wrapped around their bodies like bandages, ultimately not leaving much to the imagination. Some of the wrappings were sheer, showing off the scales beneath. The females wore a two-paneled, A-line skirt over their leg wraps that ran to mid-calf, completely sheer and split at the sides to the waist. Males wore something similar, but slightly shorter and opaque. Both sexes went barefoot, no doubt a necessity due to their sharp claws. All five paladins looked over the projection with varying degrees of curiosity, anxiety, and fear.

“We’ll be providing the Artraxians with our physical measurements from here, and they will send us our…outfits,” Allura said, eyeing the female Artraxian with trepidation.

Keith was sorry he’d asked; he felt sick.

Lance was sitting directly across from him and was the first to notice it. Leaning over the table slightly, they nudged his foot. “You ok?” they asked quietly.

“No.” It was all he could get out before bolting from the room.

Shiro started to get up, but Lance stopped him. “I’ll go. No offense, but I don’t think a cis guy is what he needs right now.”

“Want me to come too?” Pidge asked.

“Maybe in a little bit. I think too many people will be too much for him.”

Pidge nodded at the same time Shiro spoke. “I’m not offended, Lance. You’re the best suited out of all of us to talk to him right now.”

“Thanks, man. I’ll call if I need anyone.”

Lance paused in the hallway, considering the possibilities of where Keith was most likely to be. Training deck? Always a possibility, but it didn’t seem as probable at that moment. He’d been genuinely upset, not just aggravated or frustrated. So not there. Holed up in his bedroom? Maybe, but it felt a little too obvious. The shock of seeing what he was expected to wear had made him bolt, and Lance knew he’d gone to ground. Ok, so not his bedroom either. The castle was not a small place, but there were only a handful of places Keith would go. If not the training deck or his bedroom, he had most probably run for his favorite of the observation decks, and that was where Lance set off for.

Walking the halls of the castle, Lance enjoyed the feeling of the soft fabric of their long skirt and fluffy cropped sweater. They liked the way the silky material flowed around their legs, and how their sweater floated and felt like it was made of clouds. It also made them think about their own coming out process. How their twin sister Rachel was the first person they’d told at age 12. Barely a month before their thirteenth birthday, Lance had taken Rachel on the short walk to the beach, to the spot away from where even the locals stayed. Their favorite place where they went swimming all summer long. Where their older siblings taught them to surf, and where their mother had shown them the constellations and sparked a love of space in Lance.

That’s where they’d gone with Rachel on a hot day in June. Lance remembered standing ankle-deep in the warm, clear water. They couldn’t look at her, too nervous about what she’d say. But looking out over the Atlantic, they’d found the courage they needed, and told Rachel everything. About how they’d been thinking about how they noticed they liked girls ok, but also boys and nonbinary people too, and considered themselves bi. It led them into talking about their own gender. That they didn’t feel much like a boy, but that they felt kinda like a boy sometimes, kinda like a girl sometimes, but mostly felt nonbinary. Lance told her that they felt like gender didn’t matter as much to them, and that while they didn’t feel the need to change their name, their preferred pronouns going forward were they and them.

Rachel had sat on the beach and listened. She thought it over while Lance was talking, and when they were done, she got up without a word, left her flip flops on the sand, and joined her sibling in the water. She crushed them in the tightest hug of their life and told Lance that they were her twin, nothing in the known universe could stop that, and that the absolute most important thing was that they were comfortable in their own skin. If there were a few tears before they left for home, no one needed to know. With Rachel firmly beside them, they told the rest of the immediate family that night, getting almost the same reaction from them as they had from their twin. Their father Diego was only a little more reserved, admitting that he didn’t understand the nonbinary part, but as long as Lance was safe and happy, that was all he cared about. By the time Lance had left Earth, Diego had come to understand what being nonbinary meant and that those five years of expressing themselves freely had been the happiest of Lance’s life.

The memory of that summer day made them smile to themselves as they walked, but also made them miss home and family all over again. With a sharp shake of their head, they remembered what they were coming up to the observation deck for. They knew Keith understood how important this party was, but being forced into that was more than enough to cause that kind of reaction. Ironically, Lance thought, the Artraxian male fashion sense was actually feminine-leaning, non-gendered by human standards and didn’t bother them as much as they thought it would, although it still did upset them. But that was them, not Keith. Especially with what Artraxian women wore, they knew how much it upset Keith. And that was why they were there. Not to try to convince him to wear it, but to be supportive. Let him know that both they and the team had his back with this. That Lance would be there for him however he needed.

Lance knocked on the door, walking in when they didn’t get an answer anyway. Keith was sitting on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees as he watched the stars. Lance curled up beside him without looking over.

“Hey. It’ll be ok. I know it really, really, sucks, and I wish we didn’t have to do it, but we do. We’re all here for you, you know that right?”

Keith sighed, rolling his head from where it rested on his knees to look over at Lance. “I know you are. Doesn’t make it any easier. I thought I was past all that. Having to pretend to be something I'm not. It’s been hard enough being out here without even the possibility of access to my T shots. And now this. I think I would have been more ok with it if it didn’t look like that.”

“Yeah, I get that. Kinda exposes almost everything. None of us like it, even if I know Allura and Shiro are gonna look amazing in it, but Pidge and Hunk will be really uncomfortable. Hunk doesn’t like going to the beach without a shirt on unless he’s really comfortable with the people around him. And I don’t think I can even imagine Pidge in anything girly, let alone that. And even I’m not really comfortable with it. Way too much skin on display, y’know? I mean, I say this while wearing a crop top, but…” they trailed off with a soft laugh and turned to face Keith. “Really what I’m saying is that we’re all uncomfortable. I know it’s not exactly the same, but you’re not alone. If you need to stay close to one of us for the party to feel safe, it’s ok. No one will mind.”

Lance thought that the soft huffing sound that came from Keith might have been a laugh until they heard the sniffle and realized that he was wiping away tears.

“Thanks, Lance,” Keith said softly.

“Anytime, Samurai.”

It was barely a day after transmitting the team’s measurements to the planet’s surface before an unmanned shuttle landed onboard the castle. They realized that color preferences hadn’t been asked of them, and that their “outfits” were all individually wrapped in black tissue and labelled with their names. Coran busied himself with handing out the packages and sent Allura and the paladins off to change.

“Hey, Lance?” Keith called quietly.

They turned to him and immediately saw the discomfort and anxiety all over his face. “Hey, it’s ok. What do you need?”

“I think I need to call in that favor.”

“Ok. Would having Allura there help?”

Keith thought for a few seconds. “…Yeah, I think so.”

Lance turned to where the princess was making her way across the pod bay floor. “Allura, I have a question for you.”

She stopped and waited for both of them to catch up with her. “Yes? What is it?”

Lance looked to Keith first for his silent confirmation before continuing. “Keith’s gonna need some help with this. I figured you being the only girl here would help with making him as comfortable as we can.”

“Oh, yes, of course. Allow me to change and then we can meet.”

“My room?” Lance suggested.

~*~*~*~

Links to the rest of the series:

1 | 2 | 3* | 4 | 5* | 6* | 7 | 8 | 9* | 10 | 11 | 12* | 13 | 14 | 15* | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19*

[tacanderson]

Super-Borg Chapter 1

My book, Super-Borg Dies, is out now. You can purchase it here or read the first chapter below. You can also sign up for my newsletter here. 

Chapter One

“Stupid wannabe superhero,” a bulky man holding a metal pipe said, swinging it at Super-Borg, “why don’t you go home and read your comic-books?” Super-Borg had already disarmed the man of his gun but was surprised by the man’s resourcefulness when he pulled out a metal pipe. 

Super-Borg ducked the wild swing and brought his clenched, reinforced glove up into the man’s jaw, shutting him up. He hated banter. He stood over the unconscious man, catching his breath and wiping rain away from his goggles. His black exoskeleton-enhanced, military-grade personal armor creaked when he bent over and zip-tied the man’s hands behind his back. 

As he stood up, two bullets struck Super-Borg in the back. The carbon-fiber reinforced plates in his suit absorbed most of the blow, but it still hurt. He dove behind a garbage can as another shot fired; it didn’t provide much protection. He spotted the shooter standing fifty yards away, which placed Super-Borg directly between the shooter and the Space Needle. Super-Borg bolted from his cover, staying low to the ground. 

Even in a crouch, his powered suit allowed him to cover half of the distance quickly. He straightened up and then, as more shots whizzed by, he jumped, letting his suit propel him eight feet into the air. At the peak of his jump he threw a disc, about the size of a hockey puck, at the gunman. The disc struck just above his eye, and he crumpled with a grunt. 

Super-Borg landed and slid on the mud, crashing into a bush. He stood up, extricated himself from the bush and picked trash off his mud-caked suit. It wasn’t the most graceful landing, but it worked. Super-Borg sprinted over and zip-tied the man’s hands behind his back. “Let’s hope the cops find you before your friends do,” Super-Borg said to the unconscious man. “And hopefully the cops aren’t your friends.”

A bullet struck the tree next to him, and he ducked instinctively, jumping behind the tree. All this gunfire was bringing more unwanted attention. Yelling echoed through the vacant grounds around the Space Needle. What few lights that worked did little more than create small lighted cones of rain and mist. His disc was at the base of the tree but he didn’t bother to pick it up. He had lost so many that people were collecting them and reselling them online. Periodically he changed the design of the “SB” stamp he put on them, just to make the older discs collectible. People were funny. Even with all the chaos and economic instability, people still collected things. 

 The Space Needle, with its boarded-up gift shop and graffiti-covered cement supports, loomed ahead. The Neuro-syndicate was a gang specializing in the theft, production, and sale of neuro-enhancing drugs. Neuro enhancers were used by everyone: from corporate employees trying to stay sharp while they put in twelve-plus hour days, to professional gamers looking to get an edge in their next online tournament, or even school kids looking to pass their prep-school admissions tests. While it would be hypocritical for Super-Borg to object to people using neuro enhancers, the Neuro-syndicate killed people, and the stuff they cut their neuro enhancers with caused long-term brain damage and sometimes death. When neuro enhancers weren’t covered by a person’s corporate benefits plan, the black-market stuff was all most people could afford. 

Super-Borg was there to stop the Neuro-syndicate from making a major sale, but he did not expect them to have this much armed support. The deal must be bigger than he thought. 

“Super-cycle, deploy the drones and release smoke bombs between my location and the Space Needle.” Super-Borg used drones for several purposes. He was surprised more supers didn’t use them. But most supers weren’t rich. Super-Borg wasn’t Bruce Wayne rich, but he was rich enough, and after dropping out of med school he had earned a degree in engineering, so he could build most of his own equipment. He relied on drones to survey his surroundings and record his excursions. He used the recordings to make videos he released online to his followers, to watch for his own personal training, and he occasionally used them as evidence in court. Drones were also invaluable for providing a distraction. He could see the small flock of drones in the heads-up display built into his goggles. Soon dense smoke filled the park. 

His super-suit featured large, modified high-tech goggles that provided a heads-up display and video link from his drones, an open-face reinforced motorcycle helmet, and a face mask covering his nose and mouth. The mask was wired to receive his voice commands, amplify and alter his voice, filter out all smoke and toxins, and supply extra oxygen when he was exerting himself like right now. Sensors in his suit adjusted oxygen levels as needed. 

People yelled loudly, calling out to each other in the smoke, trying to get a handle on what was going on. An occasional shot rang out when someone saw — or thought they saw — something. 

An alert on his display warned him that his heart rate was elevated. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. “Keep it together, SB.” Super-Borg took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. “Someone has to do something. This is what you do. This is who you are,” he said, repeating the oft-invoked mantra. He took a deep breath, “Up, up, and away,” he whispered, and sprinted for the Space Needle.  

_____________________________________________

Who brings rocket launchers to a drug deal? Super-Borg thought, running to get clear of the falling Space Needle. Beams, bolts, and concrete built to survive a 9.1 earthquake began to scream as if in unbelief that they had finally failed. As he ran, Super-Borg was still looking up at the falling Space Needle. It was like a bad dream. He was trying to not run directly in the path of the falling mountain of architecture, but there seemed to be no escaping it. He tried to change direction and tripped — over what, he didn’t know — and fell sprawling into the mud. He cursed himself for not watching where he was going, scrambled to his feet — determined to watch where he was running — and kept his head down as he ran. He was so intent on running and watching where he was going, that he failed to see the furniture dropping out of the old top-floor restaurant. A chair slammed on the ground immediately in front of him. He didn’t have time to hurdle it, so he tried to kick it, but his foot got stuck in the armrest and he fell again. Debris and concrete rained down. He curled up into the fetal position as Seattle’s most iconic landmark buried him.

_____________________________________________

Trent was coughing on water and his head was throbbing, but he wasn’t awake enough to open his eyes. 

“Trent? Trent, can you hear me?” His father’s voice sounded like it was coming from very far away. “Trent, I need you to wake up.” His head shook slightly, and water sloshed around the side of his face, like it was bobbing in the ocean. 

Trent’s eyes snapped open, his head hurt, and he was still coughing. 

“He’s awake,” his father said, sounding relieved. “I think he’s okay.” His father was looking at him, but he wasn’t talking to him. 

“That’s great, Mr. Daeshaun,” a woman’s voice said from overhead. “Help is on its way, just hang in there.” 

It came back to Trent then. Headlights swerving into their lane. His dad swearing. Tires screeching. The world spinning. 

“Trent. Buddy. Can you hold your head up? I need to let go.” Trent realized that his head was being held up out of the water by his dad, who was turned around from the driver’s seat — one shaky arm holding Trent’s head up so he wouldn’t drown and one hand pushing against the steering wheel, giving him the leverage that he needed to reach Trent. Trent nodded and lifted his head up. 

“Mr. Daeshaun, how are you doing? How are your legs?” the woman asked, with an intentionally calm voice — not emotionless or robotic, but not worried either, just appropriately concerned. 

“I still can’t feel my legs. I’m feeling light-headed.” Trent’s dad glanced back at Trent and then added with the best smile that he could muster, “But I’m fine. I got my boy here with me, so everything will be okay.” Trent’s dad was a cop, so he knew how to lie convincingly. 

Trent was twelve and knew when his dad was being a cop and when he was being a dad. Right now, Officer Daeshaun was in the driver’s seat, and everything would be okay. Trent knew when his dad put on his work persona in front of him: it was either because he needed immediate and unquestioning obedience, or when he needed to lie because whatever was going on in the world was out of his control and he couldn’t face his son with the truth. For the first month after his mother died, he lived with Officer Daeshaun and didn’t see his dad much. 

Trent always thought he looked like a faded version of his dad. He had seen pictures of his dad as a kid and they looked so much alike, except Trent had his mother’s lighter Indian skin. His mother was beautiful, but he had always wished he had been darker like his dad. He spent a lot of time looking at his dad’s complexion and had learned what the subtle changes meant. He could tell when his dad blushed because his cheeks and ears turned a richer color of brown. When he was sick or light-headed, he looked like the chocolate Easter bunny Trent had forgotten about for almost a year that had developed a gray-tinted film over the surface. His dad looked like that now. 

“Dad, what’s wrong?” 

Officer Daeshaun looked back and met Trent’s eyes, “We were in an accident. Help is on the way. It will be okay.” 

“Dad, you’re shaking. You don’t look good.” His dad was shivering severely. 

“Don’t look good? You calling me ugly?” The laugh that followed was weak — even weaker than the joke. Trent said nothing. 

Trent’s dad sighed, “The wreck was pretty bad. We’re lucky to still be alive. My legs are trapped. I also think I lost a lot of blood.” 

“That’s why you’re shaking so bad?”  

“Probably a combination of shock and the adrenaline wearing off. But the blood loss isn’t helping.” 

“Mr. Daeshaun,” the voice spoke from their car speakers, “the paramedics and the police are arriving now.” Trent could see the flashing lights and hear the vehicles pulling up. “I’m in contact with the officer in charge. I will leave the line open until you are both out of the vehicle.” Neither Trent nor his dad bothered to respond. They were both transfixed by the emergency vehicle lights. 

“Mike?” They could hear footsteps and the sound of a belt full of equipment bouncing as the officer it was attached to ran toward them. “Mike?” A flashlight moved closer, breaking away from the emergency vehicles parked along the road, like a bright white scout sent out from the hive of flashier, colorful lights. 

“Here. We’re here.” Trent’s dad called out. Tears filled Trent’s eyes and he wasn’t sure why, he tried uselessly to wipe them away with a wet hand. 

Light filled the windshield and then came around to the driver’s window. The car had rolled into the lake, but they were near the shore where the water was shallow. Trent sat in the backseat, passenger side — his dad still preferred him to ride in the back so the airbags wouldn’t hurt him if they were ever in a wreck. Trent almost laughed as the tears ran down his face. The one time they were in a wreck, and the airbags failed to go off. 

“Mike, thank God you’re alive.” It was his dad’s partner, Jose, and Trent knew he was crossing himself. His dad teased Jose about how much he crossed himself and uttered little prayers. Trent was glad Jose was praying for them. 

“Jose, Trent’s in the back. Get him first.” The flashlight turned its stare on Trent and panned back and forth.

“Trent, you hurt?” Jose said.

“I don’t think so.” 

“Trent, can you unbuckle yourself?”

“I think I can,” Trent said, reaching down until he found the buckle and unlatched it. 

“Bring me a stretcher,” Jose yelled back toward the flashing lights. “Trent,” Jose said, in his soft, but still firm, everything’s going to be okay if you do what I say voice, “I’m going to pull you toward me and then out. Okay?”

Trent nodded and slid toward Jose. Large hands reached in and grabbed him. Trent began coughing again.  

_____________________________________________

Super-Borg woke up coughing on dust and his whole body was in pain. His mask had come off, it was dark, and dust filled the air. He was trapped and concrete dust coated everything, forming a sticky paste as it mixed with the rainwater. His head hurt and his ribs screamed in pain when he coughed. “Broken rib, great.” The display on his goggles wasn’t working. There was a cold breeze and drops of rain splashed around him. His leg felt trapped, and he didn’t have much room to move, but he was thankful to be alive. Trying to lift the slab of 1960s concrete that trapped his leg proved impossible as there was no power from his suit, and without it he wasn’t strong enough. 

A sharp pain in his knee pulsed like someone was stabbing it with an icepick in time with his heartbeat. The concrete rock kept him from bending his leg, but he moved his toes and then his foot. “I don’t think the leg’s broken, that’s good.” There was a large gash on the armor over his chest where a large piece of rubble had bounced off and broken his ribs. He was lucky to be alive. 

He coughed again and forgot about the icepick in his knee as pain shot through his chest. He could feel his ribs shifting when he coughed. Between the dust and the broken rib, it was hard to breathe, and he felt light-headed. 

“I can’t believe they dropped the Space Needle on me. What the hell?” His voice was rough and scratchy from dust and coughing, but talking to himself helped to keep him calm. 

No power in his exoskeleton or in the goggles meant the suit was in sleep mode, out of power, or the impact had somehow shut everything down. It was also possible the suit was critically damaged, but he didn’t want to think about that. Opening the cover of the touchscreen on his arm, he poked at it a few times. Nothing happened. He coughed again and grimaced through the pain. The suit would need a hard reboot. 

Lifting a panel built into the armor on his shoulder, he flipped open the small breaker box. Sliding the switch inside to the off position, he counted to three and then slid it back. The slow, electrical whining of his suit waking up filled his little cave. He lay back, exhausted but smiling.  

Looking at the screen on his forearm, he could see his suit’s power was at 20 percent. There was also a problem with the right knee joint. All of his drones were still circling the area, collecting data. They reported that his immediate vicinity was clear — the Neuro-syndicate must have bolted. The police weren’t there yet, but an alert told him they were on the way. Super-Borg had no desire to talk to the police. They disliked supers, and Super-Borg was a vocal critic of the privatization of the police force. Whenever he had to deal with the police, they went out of their way to make things difficult for him. He still respected the badge, but he knew even his dad wouldn’t like what had become of the force. His best option was to try and get out of there quickly and quietly, and file his community marshals incident report later. 

With the power restored to his goggles, he turned them to night-vision mode and located his mask. He braced himself, then used the power of his suit to lift the chunk of man-made rock off his leg. Even with the suit doing most of the heavy lifting, his ribs still screamed at him. The rock shifted and he stopped, catching his breath, trying not to cough.  

Taking a slow breath, he repositioned his hands and lifted again. The concrete slowly shifted, causing a small avalanche of rubble to fall on his helmet. 

He slid his leg out and slowly stood, leaning against the same rock that had been trying to crush him. There was a piece of rebar wedged into the knee joint of his suit. The rebar had cut a large gash in his leg. Blood dripped down his suit, mixing with the dirt and rainwater, but he thought how incredibly lucky he was that it had not skewered his knee. He grabbed the piece of metal and pulled it free, inhaling sharply as it dragged across the cut. The mechanized joint on his suit was useless, but he could still bend his knee.   

It was only a few blocks to where he had parked his motorcycle. He hoped no video of him limping away from the scene would turn up online. 

He made it to the super-cycle without any hassle. He called it a super-cycle, but it looked like any other motorcycle. That was the point. He pulled a large, black hoodie from the storage compartment under the seat and covered himself up. As he rode away, shame and embarrassment flushed his cheeks. This was bad. He would have to call his publicist. 

  _____________________________________________

Super-Borg Limps Away from Destroyed Space Needle

 We are receiving reports that today’s collapse of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle happened during an altercation between the Neuro-syndicate and the community marshal known as Super-Borg. Amateur video of Super-Borg fleeing the aftermath of the fallen Space Needle has been posted online.

Today, Super-Borg has given more fuel to the fire for those who think the community marshals cause more harm than good when he was involved in an altercation that resulted in the collapse of the Space Needle. Losing the iconic Seattle structure has many residents calling for the disbanding of the community marshals. While some call them superheroes, others call them reckless vigilantes. 

Fredrick Harman, the owner of a vegan hamburger truck called, Where’s the Beef, who lives in an apartment near the Space Needle, doesn’t see the purpose of the community marshals anymore. “They just run around playing superhero and doing more damage than they prevent. We lost the Space Needle today. Is it worth it?” 

Deputy Veishea of the local community marshals’ office has continuously stated that because the police are now privately funded, their priorities don’t always align with those of the public. 

The Space Needle is owned by the city and has been condemned for years, so there were no police assigned to the area, but they are looking into the use of banned weapons and explosives that reportedly brought it down. 

From The Seattle Wire

[rocketwerks]

North Court

40 Westhampton Way

Built, 1911

Architect, Ralph Adams Cram

VDHR 127-0364-0003

December 2019

The dorm with the mysterious “Rat Hole”

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards) — Richmond College, original campus 

The University of Richmond’s roots extend back to the mid-nineteenth century and the establishment of Richmond College, an all-male institution. During the early twentieth century, as Richmond College expanded and prepared to relocate to a new campus, college officials began considering the creation of a women’s college. The new campus was located in suburban Richmond and its name, Westhampton, was derived from a nearby real estate development.

(Rarely Seen Richmond) — Westhampton College

In 1914, the women’s college took the same name. Richmond College and Westhampton College combined to become the University of Richmond in 1920. Originally, Westhampton College was housed entirely in the building now known as North Court. The building included dormitory, classroom, administrative, and dining facilities.

December 2019

Higher education opportunities for women at the University of Richmond extend back to the late nineteenth century. Almost immediately after being appointed Richmond College president in 1895, Frederic W. Boatwright advocated expanding the school to include women students. He had witnessed the level of inequality between men’s and women’s higher education in his time as a professor at the Woman’s College, a junior college in Richmond, and publicly supported quality education for women throughout his career. Boatwright allowed non-matriculating female students to attend classes at Richmond College during the late 1890s and urged the Board of Trustees to allow women to pursue degrees. The Board of Trustees hesitated, as many people found higher education for women to be controversial.

(Boatwright Genealogy) — Frederic W. Boatwright  

Boatwright, however, was not alone in his opinion of the value of women’s education. In 1903, the Baptist General Association of Virginia adopted a resolution instructing the newly created Baptist Education Commission to begin planning for the establishment of a women’s college. In 1904, the Education Commission conducted a campaign for $250,000 which the Commission would use to establish a college for women and give financial relief to existing Baptist schools. Many schools put in offers, including Rawlings Institute in Charlottesville and Bristol’s campus of Southwest Virginia Institute, but Richmond College’s proposal was the one selected by the Education Commission in 1906.

(Brewminate) — Gothic revival at Yale University

With the addition of a women’s college, Boatwright saw an opportunity both to expand women’s education and to enhance Richmond College. During planning for the new campus at Westhampton, Boatwright traveled through the Midwest looking for a model college that educated both men and women. In the process, he was exposed to the Gothic Revival architectural style, which would later be adopted for the Westhampton campus. 

(Wikimedia Commons) — Adelbert College, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio — postcard, 1918

Gothic Revival style (also referred to as Collegiate Gothic) had its roots in British schools such as Oxford and Cambridge. Of the many colleges Boatwright visited, he favored the suburban campus of Western Reserve University, now Case Western University, in Cleveland, Ohio. He found that the women’s and men’s colleges shared several buildings, such as the library, auditorium, and science laboratories, but each also retained its own buildings and identity as a separate college. In addition to the coeducational campus organization, Boatwright may have been attracted to the Gothic style architecture of the women’s college, which was housed in a large, multi-purpose Gothic building.

(Traditional Building) — Ralph Adams Cram

Boatwright and the Board of Trustees enlisted prominent architect Ralph Adams Cram of the Boston and New York-based firm Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson to design the Westhampton campus. After his conversion to Anglo-Catholicism in 1887, Cram asserted that the Gothic style, and its inherent moral truths, had been lost and needed restoring. The Collegiate Gothic style allowed him to correlate the architecture and values of the medieval past to the campus architecture of the twentieth century. Using the Gothic style in his campus designs also allowed Cram to create a unified aesthetic for a collection of buildings that differed in use.

December 2019

Groundbreaking for the women’s college and Richmond College began in July 1911, and construction of the main building was completed in the summer of 1913. The two schools were separated by Westhampton Lake, which continues to be a prominent landscape feature. The name Westhampton College officially was adopted on March 8, 1914. North Court was constructed in accordance with the architect’s specifications, which included handmade dark red brick with blue, gold, and black tile inlays and the finest quality marble and slate. Substantially constructed with a framework of steel set in concrete, the building boasted floors built of reinforced concrete. 

December 2019 — Clinton Webb Arts Tower

The Tower stood as the dividing line between the residential and academic wings. In the residential wing, the "Blue Room" corridor was the location of reception rooms, rooms for college organizations, and the offices of the Dean of Westhampton College. The dormitory section included the structure around the court, which was turfed with sod removed from the campus. The dining hall and kitchen were in the wing across from the arch. The dining room was English style with vaulted ceilings of dark wood. The balcony which overlooked the dining room was used as a passage for the kitchen workers, who were housed upstairs in what later became known as the "Rat Hole." The third floors were left unfinished.

December 2019

Although the intent for a complete campus was demonstrated in Cram’s plans, the building campaign was plagued by lack of funds and resulted in a scaled-down 1914 plan with many buildings reduced in size or eliminated completely. Cram’s seven original buildings at the Westhampton campus nevertheless came to define Collegiate Gothic as a style for the campus architecture as a whole. North Court, completed in the summer of 1913, was the closest approximation of Cram’s monastic cloister ideal. The wings of the building formed a partially enclosed cloister around an English courtyard.

December 2019

On opening in the fall of 1914, Westhampton College enrolled 82 women: 38 residential and 44 commuting. The building was designed to accommodate 135 students, meaning that enough residential space was available in the college for a number of faculty members to live there as well. The presence of faculty members living in the dormitory helped establish the friendly relationship between students and faculty, an important part of life at Westhampton College. The women’s student body increased steadily, however, and more space soon was needed. The third floor of the building was finished as dormitory rooms, and dormer windows were added.

December 2019

Women’s sports arrived in 1916 at Westhampton College under the supervision of Dean Mary L. Keller and Fanny G. Crenshaw. Initially, the Tower in North Court was used by students for indoor exercises, although some students claimed they got all the exercise they needed by racing to catch the "old black bus," a cart drawn by two mules that transported Westhampton College students to the Number 9 streetcar that brought students downtown. No gym was planned for the women. Keller and Crenshaw, after surveying likely spots, decided that the top Tower room would do for calisthenics. When that proved less than satisfactory, the following year they used the barn below the power house.

(The Shockoe Examiner) — General Hospital #2, circa 1918

The United States entered World War I in 1917. The following June, the federal government leased the entire Westhampton campus for use as an evacuation hospital for 13 months. Wounded soldiers who had been transported from France by ship to the naval facility at Norfolk were then sent by train to Richmond. North Court was designated General Hospital #2. Cots lined every room and hallway. Other rooms were used as diet kitchens, store rooms and offices. The parlors and reading rooms were turned into wards. The chapel and old Latin classroom became operating rooms. The dining room and kitchen retained their purposes.

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards) — St. Luke’s Hospital

Meanwhile, during the 1918-1919 academic year, Westhampton College’s operations returned to Richmond College’s old campus within the City of Richmond. Students were housed in rented quarters in St. Luke’s Hospital at Harrison and Grace Streets and in residences on Franklin Street and Monumental Avenue. Their classes were held at the campus on Broad and Lombardy streets. Richmond College and Westhampton College returned to the Westhampton campus for the opening of the academic year in the fall of 1919.

December 2019

In 1920, after an amendment to the charter, the name "University of Richmond" was extended to cover Westhampton College, Richmond College, and the affiliated T.C. Williams School of Law.

The men’s and women’s colleges were not fully integrated, however, for a number of years. For example, the library in Ryland Hall on the men’s campus could be used by first and second year Westhampton College students, but only at certain hours. Thus, a reading room was established in North Court.

December 2019

At first, the reading room was located in the office of the Dean’s secretary, but by the second year, more space was needed, and it was moved to the third floor of the Tower. Elizabeth Gaines, a 1919 graduate of Westhampton College, was appointed the reading room’s first librarian. Along with academics, Westhampton College students maintained academic, social, and service organizations separately from those at Richmond College.

December 2019

During the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, the student enrollment dropped at Westhampton College. High prices caused students to transition to enrolling as day students. Lowered residential enrollment meant less money for the school to accommodate its students. Funds for student programs and publications also became scarce. The University of Richmond was, however, able to proceed with several construction projects for which funds already were in place, including a third science laboratory building and a gymnasium. Enrollment at Westhampton and Richmond Colleges began to rebound by the late 1930s.

(T. K. Davis Construction) — South Court under renovation, 2018

Improved economic circumstances meant enrollment at Westhampton College almost doubled during the war years, and plans for construction of a new women’s dormitory were announced in December 1944. Located south of the original Westhampton College building, this new facility was named South Court upon its completion in 1948. 

(VDHR) — 2012 historic registry nomination photo

At that time, the original building assumed its present name, North Court. North Court continued to house many of Westhampton College’s functions, including dormitories, classrooms, offices, a dining hall, and a refectory. Academics at Westhampton College subsequently evolved in keeping with rapidly changing educational trends in the nation at large.

(University of Richmond Magazine) — North Court dining hall, circa 1961

Use of spaces within North Court changed with the times as well. The women’s dining hall remained in use until the early 1980s, when a new central dining hall was constructed that brought together male and female students together for all their daily meals. The former dining hall in North Court continues to be used for special gatherings. Meanwhile, the space that had been the women’s chapel when the building was completed in 1914, and then served as a refectory starting in 1919, was converted into a recital hall, a use that continues today. (VDHR)

December 2019

A handsome building on a campus filled with them, and a worthy addition to the Richmond historic registry.

On a somewhat related note, Selden Richardson of The Shockoe Examiner wrote a fascinating piece on Dr. Wilmer Amos Hadley in 2017, a surgeon and anesthesiologist at General Hospital #2. It covers one of Richmond’s more sordid tales, the murderous Dr. Hadley’s drowning of his wife Sue, and subsequent trip to the electric chair. Morbid, sad, and well worth reading.

(North Court is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)

[96thdayofrage]

What’s Not Being Said About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine. “Human Guinea Pigs”?

Bill Gates is actively financing and promoting new untested vaccines supposed to keep us at least somewhat safe from a ‘ghastly” death from the novel coronavirus and supposedly allow us to resume somewhat “normal” lives. The Pharma giant Pfizer has now announced what they claim were spectacular results in initial human tests. They use an experimental technology known as gene editing, specifically mRNA gene-editing, something never before used in vaccines. Before we rush to get jabbed in hopes of some immunity, we should know more about the radical experimental technology and its lack of precision.

The financial world went ballistic on November 9 when the pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, announced in a company press release that it had developed a vaccine for Covid19 that was “90%” effective.

The controversial US head of NIAID, Tony Fauci (right) rushed to greet the news and the EU announced it had purchased 300 million doses of the costly new vaccine. If you believe financial markets, the pandemic is all but past history.

Suspicious events

However it seems Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, doesn’t share the confidence of his own claims. On the day his company issued its press release on the proposed vaccine trials, he sold 62% of his stock in Pfizer, making millions profit in the deal. He made the sell order in a special option in August so it would not appear as “insider selling”, however he also timed it just after the US elections and the mainstream media illegitimately declared Joe Biden President-elect. It seems from appearances that Bourla had a pretty clear conflict of interest in the timing of his press release on the same day.

Bourla lied and denied to the Press that his company had received any funds from the Trump Administration to develop the vaccine when it came out they contracted in summer to deliver 100 million doses to the US Government. Further adding to the suspect actions of Pfizer was the fact the company first informed the team of Joe biden rather than the relevant US government agencies.

But this is far from the only thing alarming about the much-hyped Pfizer announcement.

The German Partner

Pfizer, famous for its Viagra and other drugs, has partnered with a small Mainz, Germany company, BioNTech, which has developed the radical mRNA technique used to produce the new corona vaccine. BioNTech was only founded in 2008. BioNTech signed an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in September, 2019, just before announcement in Wuhan China of the Novel Coronavirus and just before BioNTech made its stock market debut. The agreement involved cooperation on developing new mRNA techniques to treat cancer and HIV. Curiously that press release, “The Gates Foundation sees BioNTech potential to ‘dramatically reduce global HIV and tuberculosis’” 05. September 2019, has now been deleted.

BioNTech also has an agreement with one of the largest drug producers in China, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (“Fosun Pharma”) to develop a version of its mRNA vaccine for novel coronavirus for the Chinese market. Ai-Min Hui, President of Global R&D of Fosun Pharma said in an August statement, “Dosing the first Chinese subject with BNT162b1 marks a milestone of the global co-development program in China. We are closely working with BioNTech and regulatory authorities to evaluate the safety and efficacy of BNT162b1 and other mRNA vaccine candidates…”

This means that the same German biotech company is behind the covid vaccines being rushed out in China as well as the USA and EU. The vaccine is being rushed through to eventual approval in an alarmingly short time.

Both US and EU authorities and presumably also Chinese, waived the standard animal tests using ferrets or mice and have gone straight to human “guinea pigs.” Human tests began in late July and early August. Three months is unheard of for testing a new vaccine. Several years is the norm. Because of the degree of global panic engendered by WHO over the coronavirus, caution is thrown to the wind. Vaccine makers all have legal indemnity, meaning they can’t be sued if people die or are maimed from the new vaccine. But the most alarming fact about the new Pfizer-BioNTech gene edited vaccine is that the gene edited mRNA for human vaccine application has never before been approved. Notably, two year peer reviewed tests with mice fed genetically modified corn sprayed with Monsanto glyphosate-rich Roundup first showed cancer tumors after nine months as well as liver and other organ damage. Earlier Monsanto company tests ended at three months and claimed no harm. A similar situation exists with the gene edited mRNA vaccines that are being rushed out after less than 90 days human tests.

“Explicitly experimental”

Dr. Michael Yeadon replied in a recent public social media comment to a colleague in the UK;  “All vaccines against the SARS-COV-2 virus are by definition novel. No candidate vaccine has been… in development for more than a few months.” Yeadon then went on to declare,

“If any such vaccine is approved for use under any circumstances that are not EXPLICITLY experimental, I believe that recipients are being misled to a criminal extent. This is because there are precisely zero human volunteers for…whom there could possibly be more than a few months past-dose safety information.”

Yeadon is well qualified to make the critique. As he notes in the comment, “I have a degree in Biochemistry & Toxicology & a research based PhD in pharmacology. I have spent 32 years working in pharmaceutical R&D, mostly in new medicines for disorders of lung & skin. I was a VP at Pfizer & CEO…. of a biotech I founded (Ziarco – acquired by Novartis). I’m knowledgeable about new medicine R&D.” He was formerly with Pfizer at a very senior level.

Human guinea pigs?

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is experimental and far from guaranteed safe, despite the fact that Pfizer, the EU and the notorious Dr Tony Fauci seem ready to roll it out even before year end to hundreds of millions of humans.

The experimental technology is based on a rather new gene manipulation known as gene editing. In a major article in the 2018 New York Council on Foreign Relations magazine, Foreign Affairs, Bill Gates effusively promoted the novel gene editing CRISPR technology as being able to “transform global development.” He noted that his Gates Foundation had been financing gene editing developments for vaccines and other applications for a decade.

But is the technology for breaking and splicing of human genes so absolutely safe that it is worth risking on a novel experimental vaccine never before used on humans? Contrary to what Bill Gates claims, the scientific answer is no, it is not proven so safe.

In a peer reviewed article in the October, 2020 journal Trends in Genetics, the authors conclude that “the range of possible molecular events resulting from genome editing has been underestimated and the technology remains unpredictable on, and away from, the target locus.”

Dr. Romeo Quijano, retired professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila, noted some of the dangers of the experimental gene editing when applied to human vaccines. Quijano warns of,

“the danger that the vaccine might actually “enhance” the pathogenicity of the virus, or make it more aggressive possibly due to antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), as what happened with previous studies on test vaccines in animals. If that should happen in a major human trial the outcome could be disastrous. This serious adverse effect may not even be detected by a clinical trial especially in highly biased clinical trials laden with conflicts of interest involving vaccine companies. Even when a serious adverse event is detected, this is usually swept under the rug.”

He cites the case of another Gates mRNA vaccine candidate, Moderna, where “three of the 15 human experimental subjects in the high dose group suffered serious and medically significant symptoms. Moderna, however, concluded that the vaccine was “generally safe and well tolerated,” which the corporate-dominated media dutifully reported, covering-up the real danger…”

He notes,

“Exogenous mRNA is inherently immune-stimulatory, and this feature of mRNA could be beneficial or detrimental. It may provide adjuvant activity and it may inhibit antigen expression and negatively affect the immune response. The paradoxical effects of innate immune sensing on different formats of mRNA vaccines are incompletely understood.” Quijano adds, “A mRNA-based vaccine could also induce potent type I interferon responses, which have been associated not only with inflammation but also potentially with autoimmunity… and may promote blood coagulation and pathological thrombus formation.”

Quijano writes in the extensively documented article,

“among other dangers, the virus-vectored vaccines could undergo recombination with naturally occurring viruses and produce hybrid viruses that could have undesirable properties affecting transmission or virulence. The…possible outcomes of recombination are practically impossible to quantify accurately given existing tools and knowledge. The risks, however, are real, as exemplified by the emergence of mutant types of viruses, enhanced pathogenicity and unexpected serious adverse events (including death) following haphazard mass vaccination campaigns and previous failed attempts to develop chimeric vaccines using genetic engineering technology.”

[kindabraveandlittlestupid]

A love/hate review of The Division game and all the things I wish it could have been. Please note that as of this point I have not played the massive update that supposedly took place to ‘fix’ the game. This critique is opinion based and if you love (or hate) the game more then I do feel to let me know how/why. Just be respectful of your dissent of my review.

I am of two mindsets about this game in the fact I thought it was a great concept and I generally enjoyed the setting and gameplay (to some degree) but on the other hand, the storytelling was less than exceptional, they had with PVP element and RPG damage system which ruined the game.

New York City Setting (Loved) Reading up on this game I appreciated the groundwork the developer put into getting the setting right. How they contacted with real government agencies to try accurately portray the JTF accurately and took thousands of pictures of New York to capture the city. Like a winter cemetery with monolithic skyscrapers looking like dark pillars reaching towards the sky from the very beginning you knew you were in the Big Apple. There are many games that take liberties with real-world cities in games by shrinking them down to manageable sizes, you can love GTA all you want but if you lived in LA you know San Andrea is like a shadow compared to the real thing. The Division had no such issue as almost every second (save the underground/sewer levels) kept me believing that I was elite agent fighting in for New York.

Shoot First, Ask Questions Never (Hated) An aspect of the game that really bothered me was “Always Shooting” approach to the gameplay. Find a group of guys in the street with guns? Shoot them. Meet a fellow agent in the Dark Zone? Think about shooting them. Find two people over a body? Shoot them too. I understand this was a gun game but this really undercut the morality and humanity that could have made this game great. In eyes of the developer, everyone was guilty of something but by the rules of probability, not everyone in the city who was armed had to be a ‘bad guy’. Those group of men standing with guns on the corner? Neighborhood watch protecting their community. The two guys over the body in the alleyway? Found it like that and looking for ID or supplies.

Point is they could have easily put a verbal engagement into the game where you get the drop on somebody and allow them to surrender peacefully. Give a Mass Effect conversation wheel where you can get to the root of what the hell they are doing and either let them go, arrest them, rob them or even (if they do end up being bad) shoot them. I don't believe video games desensitize kids but they don't make me arguing their case for them any easier when the only option is to kill kill kill. 

Story Telling (Love/Hate) The use of the hologram playback of events was an original way of telling stories and gives you an almost interactive perspective on what transpired before. As did listening to the voice recordings, hunting down missing agents and reading the walls also helped paint the city that is in utter chaos. 

Perhaps I spoiled myself with the Brian Wood comic DMZ (totally worth the read) which really dove into a New York warzone setting but I felt like the developers took the story to a point and then just kind of stopped. No long-term plot, no secondary missions with a rich fiction to delve into or even a good use of the secondary characters who made up the JTF. This a consistent issue with most Tom Clancy games (save the Splinter Cell series which is linear but fun as hell). I would have happily given up the whole ‘Dark Zone’ for investment in more plot but most companies look to multiplayer now as the measure of success instead of having the fans keep a lasting impression in their mind like Mass Effect or other story-driven games. I think that metric of success is simply wrong.

Death By A Thousand Bullets (Hate) Probably the BIGGEST failure of the game was the DPS element to the guns. Nothing like being a firefight with a guy and pumping him with hundreds of bullets and only taking away a sliver of his health. I understand why they wanted to have a quality of weapons aspect of the game to encourage people to try/loot new weapons but going this route really just ruined the experience. They could have easily gone with a gun jamming up over time requiring maintenance or switching it out for something new to encourage alternative firearms. They did a really good job with the weapons system of Ghost Recon: Wildlands and for some reason omitted this game from that quality weapons system.

I just marvel the most at the fact that there was a probably an office somewhere full of developers creating this game and someone said “Hey shouldn't a bullet to the head kill a guy?” and someone saying “No, he is a level 13 and you’re only a level 2, therefore, your bullets do less damage!” “That doesn't make any sense...” “Shut up, Derek. No one likes you.” Did it actually play out like that but I promise you someone had a conversation like that AT LEAST once.

Missed Opportunities (Love/Hate) Getting passed the nitpicky elements above let's talk about some things it could/should have been. There was so much potential with this game for alternative missions, game modes and ways to play that I wish some developer might correct in the next version of this game.

The Convoy Mission - Seems simple enough but in a city full of cars, there should have been convoy mission where an APC or a group of Humvees needed to drive a couple blocks to help resupply one of the safe houses. Walking alongside it, dealing with the occasional attack and smashing open windows of cars that are in the way and push them to the side. Seems simple but a diversity of missions is never a bad thing.

Reclamation Tug-O-War - Would have been great to have seen a game mode where you hold your block and work to liberate surrounding areas from the various factions which sounds simple but also have those factions push back trying to reclaim blocks you control. This would have provided a replayable element where you take areas, establish a JTF presence and hold them until the city is under control.

Establishing Safe Houses - Like the Reclamation idea, when you set up a safe house it should have not simply been unlocked and then done. I would have enjoyed having missions focus on the success of these alternative safe house location away from the main base with tangible perks for doing a job well done. Could be complex like defend it from attack, find a new radio so they can keep in contact with HQ, or something simple like deliver the blankets where you keep the people happy and alive.

Zombie Mode - Lots of people shit on zombie mod mostly because they are dime a dozen but I doubt anyone could argue that this setting (the city itself) doesn't look like a setup for a zombie movie. It would be amazing to have a co-op horde mode being a separate playable game mode for players.

The Dark Zone (Hate) We know why they put this into the game but fuck me if it doesn't make any sense. “Hey! My radio stopped working over here.” *Shakes it* “Guess I can let my psychopath flag fly now and kill other agents.” This REALLY cut into the Achilles tendon and dropped the game to a new low. I already talked about how Shoot First, Ask Questions never basically was a green light for murdering anyone you came across but this game mode plays to the worse aspect of gaming culture.

Co-Op (Love) I wanted to end on two high notes after ripping into the game with so much hate. I enjoy games with a Co-Op element where 2 or more players join me in the world to set things right. There is always chance that one of my friends will flashbang me on purpose to piss me off but for the most part, it enhances the experience and the Division does this well, making Co-Op a feature and not a mandatory function for enjoyment.

Ola Strandh (Love) A special shout-out to the composer of the game's score. While I did not notice the soundtrack to much while playing the game, the score eventually popped up on my Spotify and with some easy listening, I started to appreciate the complexity of the music and the use of sounds to create an atmosphere. I would suggest giving it a listen and if you like composed movie/game scores adding this to your playlist wouldn't be all that bad.

Conclusion You’re a special agent with the license to kill murdering your way through a civilian population that was basically abandoned by their government during the quarantine. Kinda hard to have a moral footing when you think about the game like that. The story itself was unrealized and the RPG element to the game (along with PVP) killed the immersion that could have made this game epic. I leave the weapon/gear perk element in my RPG’s with the suspension of belief of ‘because fucking magic” but it has no place in the realistic shooters like this.  I will probably play it again as there was that update but I doubt they did the overhaul that this game badly needed. Regards Michael California

[techdo]

Long Live TrackPoint!

Today the ThinkPad is a brand synonymous with business grade, reliable, solid looking black laptops which could be used as a shield in times of crisis.  When the design was first developed, the great industrial designer Richard Sapper drove ideas and produced concepts for IBM on which the ThinkPad is still based today.  One of his original concepts can be seen here in a post by David Hill: http://blog.lenovo.com/en/blog/richard-sapper-the-origins-of-the-thinkpad-keyboard

The red in the ThinkPad logo today is representative of the TrackPoint, the pointing device which sits boldly in the centre of ThinkPad keyboards.  The TrackPoint is intrinsic to the overall iconic look of ThinkPad and it is a source of pride for a lot of ThinkPad users.  On the occasions where a tech journalist or blogger might cast negativity towards the TrackPoint they often find it is a bit like poking a bear when the fans assertively respond.  

Occasionally being an angry TrackPoint defender myself I wondered how much I could find out about the TrackPoint and its history.  That is what lead me to the honor of communicating with David Hill (http://www.dwhilldesign.com/biography.php) and Ted Selker (http://www.ted.selker.com/index.htm) both of whom have had a great deal of involvement in the ThinkPad history.

 I had the pleasure of chatting with David Hill over the phone early one morning and was able to ask him a few questions around the ThinkPad and I have paraphrased  his answers below:

 Q1) Might I please ask, when the original ThinkPad design was being outlined was their much debate over how mouse control would be integrated?

Richard Sapper had a great input on the ThinkPad design and he discovered a pointing device that Ted Selker and Joe Rutledge were working on, they it had located in a desktop keyboard.  

 Q2) Could I please ask why Red was chosen as the colour of the TrackPoint

Richard Sapper wanted to call attention to the TrackPoint.  However red was somewhat of a challenge to get approved by IBM.  At the time of the time of the design work, Red was the colour reserved for server and mainframe room Emergency Power Off switches and only EPO switches. With a little persistence and some clever creative thinking by Mr Sapper the colour IBM Magenta was created.  

(Authors note: having looked at original ThinkPad 700 Series machines, IBM Magenta is as red as its possible to be without actually being red, confirming for me Richard Sapper was indeed a genius!)

 Q3) From time to time reviewers and social media commentators are dismissive of the TrackPoint considering it dated or unnecessary.

David gave a great analogy of the Trackpoint, he likened it to a manual car transmission, it takes a little more getting used to than an automatic transmission but once you have the feel for it you have a greater degree of control of the driving experience. Similarly, the TrackPoint offers a much more accurate control of the mouse pointer than other devices.  Those who comment negatively are unlikely to have given it a try.

 Q4) Could I please ask if you recall any major changes and possible engineering challenges since the original implementation?

The original TrackPoint cap was smooth, Ted Selker worked to improve traction and developed the Cat Tongue cap.  This cap improved precision but could cause a finger callus from prolonged use. This lead me to start the initiative to produce different designs such as, Soft Dome and Soft Rim. For a time ThinkPads were shipped with a selection of caps allowing customers to choose. 

In addition to this from the original pointing device and two buttons a third button was added to give much improved scroll experience.  The third button, which enables scrolling, was first placed below the two other buttons. I felt this was problematic since it took up valuable internal real estate and it was nearly impossible to reach with your thumb conveniently. I moved it between the other two buttons using a keystone shape. This shape allowed for effective button sizes and mapped to the different direction of movement. I first had the idea when I was working on a Butterfly 2 concept, with the late Dr. Karidis, that had no palm rest and thus no space for a third button. Necessity is often the mother of invention.  

I was also able to reach out to Ted Selker who is still very enthusiastic about the TrackPoint and he was kind enough to answer some questions I had via email. 

 Q1) I believe you had the idea of a pointing stick or navigation device in a keyboard before you joined IBM or the ThinkPad was on the drawing board.  Do you recall what triggered the idea?

I was reading the JUST published HCI book by Card and Moran in 1983... I saw on one page where it seemed that the time to reach for a mouse was like a second. 

I had looked at data in English and Engebarts 1967 paper about the fact that a kneebar​ ​was better than a mouse for the first 15 minutes... i thought well, though a kneebar is bad because there is now detailed representation of the knee in the motor or sensor homunculus,,, till a person gets good at using the mouse,  but the kneebar doesn't take your hands off the keyboard.

 Q2) During development or implementation what do you feel were the largest obstacles to overcome?

OMG...so many things…

making a joystick make selections as fast as a mouse against theory that said this was impossible!

making a good way to touch it without slipping

making a good way of selecting with buttons

finding  a place that it didn't get struck by fingers​

 Q3) How does the TrackPoint we know now, compare for look and feel with the device you first envisaged?

​I started with an erasure under the space bar on a joystick (1984)

Then a  joystick under a key (1984 at Stanford  and again in 1989 at IBM)​

​Then a rod shaped metal thing (1989)

Then ​a cup shaped piece of plastic (1990)

Then a special 55 Durometer bending part with an air suspension and a latex grippy top (1992)

  (and 50 worse idea versions it contended with for a top)

Then a Santoprene version that was mas produced but not delivered to customers

(because they would have had to kill me first)

Then a 55 Durometer Buytl rubber top (product announce)

Then a fish scale skin top 1994 prototype (and many other cool tops)

Then a nylon pieces sticking out of the top

Then using the cup shaped grip  idea in that we first used in a handle controller for airtrafic control

And an alternative large surface convex top that also reduces pressure on the finger

 The buttons started as small making them bigger and requiring less pressure imprpoved user pointing performance!

A generation of ThinkPads included locking buttons that I designed for people with special needs, press to select  eliminated the need for these.

Then a press to select , press to magnify, press to scroll gesture language built in.

Then a middle button for treating the stick as a second device

The algorithms changed and improved substantially from Trackpoint II in 1993 to Trackpoint III in 1995

The newer Trackpoint III ( has negative inertia which makes it 15% faster at selection than Trackpoint II... this feature models starting and stopping and enhances them (kind a like ABS brakes do for stopping a car)

 Q4) Are you aware of the staunch following of die hard fans the Trackpoint has today?

​ I am deeply proud of that​ and only wait for the day that I might improve it some more

 Q5) Many fans debate and argue with others the accuracy and efficiency of the TrackPoint over other input devices.  How would you best summarize how accurate and efficient the TrackPoint is?

​Careful experiments were done in labs in  NY, Florida, TX, NC, Japan  and later CA…that all showed that people could learn to use the TrackPoint better than a trackpad in less than a minute  if they tried :

Trackpoint is 20% faster for pointing than a trackpad

Trackpoint is at least 20%  faster than a mouse for point and type (text editing like things)

Trackpoint could be made much better for drawing and for new displays and so on... i want to do it still.

 Q6) I have used the TrackPoint for everything up to and including photo editing.  Are you aware of any implementation or uses of the TrackPoint which might seem out of the ordinary?

​We used it for lapersocopy at Johns Hopkins (this reduced dexterity problems caused by  tremor in surgeons hands controlling a camera inside a patient)

We used it for selecting ground traffic control of airplanes (saved a 30 million dollar contract)

Blind people said they loved  it because  it didn’t require them to put their finger in a place determined by the cursor or mouse.

People with prosthetics said they l​iked it because it reduces tremor too

Old people liked  it because it reduced the effects of tremor on cursor control

I used it for its 16 bit a/d (Analog to Digital) converter to teach science ...we have to talk about the science wand

I have to say thank you to David Hill and Ted Selker for being so forthcoming with details. I gained so much more information form them both but had to trim this down for post length. Also a big Thank you to Gavin O’Hara for his assistance with this post.

[homedecor2106]

Fusce Congue Vestibulum Tortor Suscipit

A 2017 Wall Street Journal survey found that employers have a very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite soft skills. But what if employers are looking for soft skills and are not seeing them? The vast majority of mid-size and large employers in the US, UK and Canada utilize Applicant Tracking Systems.

There are more employers that claim soft skills are hard to find than hard skills

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) make it possible for employers to post new positions online and manage the hundreds of applicants who typically respond to each opportunity. No human hiring manager reviews hundreds of applications.

Instead, the ATS produces a manageable number of viable candidates for the hiring manager to review. How does the ATS do this? It’s not magic, but rather a keyword-based filter, comparing resumes to the posted job description, and passing through candidates who appear to be a better match.

  Est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet

The keyword-based filter at the top of the hiring funnel of most employers has a number of interesting knock-on effects. One is the phenomenon of resume spam: candidates who literally copy the job description in white font into their resume in order to get past the screen. A second is an over-emphasis on technical skills.

Faced with the need to differentiate hundreds candidates for every online posting, employers have added many new job requirements most of which are technical.

According to Burning Glass, technical skills now dominate in terms of the sheer number of competencies demanded in job descriptions more than cognitive and soft skills combined for virtually every career.

While the dominance of technical skills in job descriptions is probably a reflection of the fact that it’s easier to come up with 10 technical requirements for a job than 10 different ways of saying problem solving or communication skills, this is the reality Millennials face in being seen by hiring managers. Because if they don’t have these technical skills, they’re not making it through the ATS filter. And if they’re not making through the ATS filter, they’re effectively invisible to employers.

Bottle Grinder – $69 USD

Does this mean there’s a soft skills shortage or that Millennials are all late, disorganized poor communicators? The punctual, organized and well-spoken Millennials whom employers should want have played by the rules and completed college degrees.

But because nearly all colleges and universities continue to live in a bubble, floating high above the mundane concerns of the labor market, and because they continue to believe that the job of higher education is to prepare students for their fifth job.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam blandit hendrerit faucibus. Suspendisse hendrerit turpis dui, eget ultricies. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam blandit hendrerit faucibus. Suspendisse hendrerit turpis dui, eget ultricies.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam blandit hendrerit faucibus. Suspendisse hendrerit turpis dui, eget ultricies. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam blandit hendrerit faucibus. Suspendisse hendrerit turpis dui, eget ultricies.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam blandit hendrerit faucibus. Suspendisse hendrerit turpis dui, eget ultricies. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam blandit hendrerit faucibus. Suspendisse hendrerit turpis dui, eget ultricies.

The second is that employers need to escape the tyranny of the keyword-based filter at the top of their hiring funnel. Employers need to demand that their ATS vendors like Taleo (Oracle) incorporate new technologies that allow them to screen (and search) on competencies rather than keywords.

Est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet

The shift to competency-based hiring is inevitable and will broaden the top of the funnel to include candidates with great soft skills, and likely more diverse backgrounds than the current pedigree- and degree-based hiring system allows.

Gyroscope founder Anand Sharma seems pretty content when we meet up for a walk to The Mill, a hip cafe known for its $4 toast in San Francisco’s NOPA neighborhood. It’s a rare sunny day in the city and his startup is growing.

His self-tracking platform with a sleek UI has added a genetics and step tracking component and soon blood tracking. He’s also closed on a small sum of angel funding from key investors like Periscope founder Keyvon Beykpour.

Even Jack Dorsey has started using Gyroscope, he tells me. Sharma’s worked for well over two years! He called it AprilZero then but the idea grew to include friends and soon anyone who wanted to track themselves on a range of different metrics relating to health and wellness.

Photography by Joe Fletcher Photography

The plan now includes where you go, what you eat, how many times you go running in a year and how much time you spend staring at the screen in front of you.

The platform seems like an outgrowth of the quantified self movement a movement pairing technology with personal data to help you improve your life in some mental or physical way. But Sharma shrugs off the suggestion.

I don’t like to place myself in that category, he says. Mainly because those guys are little weird. He’s not wrong. The movement, also known as life logging, conjures up images of folks wearing six different health tracking bands, sensors on their heads and measuring every little detail of their actions in every part of their life for what sometimes is very unclear.

But Sharma, whom we’ve written about before when he was just getting started, has shaped the platform up quite a bit since starting out. Gyroscope is in the App Store now!

He has thought about productivity components like how much time you spend surfing the internet each day and added a bit of a competitive enhancement to the platform, allowing you to compare how many steps you took compared to your friends on the platform.

He’s also launching a feature this summer called Insights, an AI component that aims to help you make connections between certain behaviors and what you log on the platform. Sharma tells me it would work by drawing these connections and then sending push notifications to motivate and remind those using Gyroscope to do something relating to their goals.

A 2017 Wall Street Journal survey found that employers have a very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite soft skills. But what if employers are looking for soft skills and are not seeing them? The vast majority of mid-size and large employers in the US, UK and Canada utilize Applicant Tracking Systems. […]http://dummy.jmsthemes.com/erado/?p=327

[fromtheothersideby]

Hazards of the COVID-19 Vaccine

By ROMEO F. QUIJANO, M.D. Professor (Ret.) Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology College of Medicine, University of the Philippines Manila

The COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2) vaccine is fraught with hazards. This should be the obvious, rational conclusion of anyone who cares to objectively study the available scientific and other relevant information about it. There are many factual danger signals that are easily discernible.

During the 2002-2003 SARS-1 outbreak, it took about 20 months before a vaccine was made ready for human testing in clinical trials despite the fact that concerns about safety were still unresolved. This was already way too fast compared to the usual time necessary for pre-clinical trials or animal studies to be satisfactorily completed before any ethical experimentation on human beings or clinical trials can be started. Yet for Covid-19 candidate vaccines, clinical trials were started barely five months after SARS-Cov-2 emerged, bypassing the necessary pre-clinical studies normally required and ignoring the serious safety concerns in the previous attempt to rush a SARS-1 vaccine (which was eventually scrapped).

One major safety concern in developing a vaccine is how to get around the danger that the vaccine might actually “enhance” the pathogenicity of the virus, or make it more aggressive possibly due to antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), as what happened with previous studies on test vaccines in animals. If that should happen in a major human trial the outcome could be disastrous. (1,2,3,4) This serious adverse effect may not even be detected by a clinical trial especially in highly biased clinical trials laden with conflicts of interest involving vaccine companies. Even when a serious adverse event is detected, this is usually swept under the rug.

For example, initial clinical trial results for the COVID-19 vaccine of Moderna reportedly showed that three of the 15 human experimental subjects in the high dose group suffered serious and medically significant symptoms. Moderna, however, concluded that the vaccine was “generally safe and well tolerated,” which the corporate-dominated media dutifully reported, covering-up the real danger from the vaccine.(5,6,7,8) In a brazen act of unethical behaviour, Moderna even used a volunteer vaccine recipient, Ian Haydon, to appear in many appearances on media promoting Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna encouraged Haydon to appear on TV to deceive the public and its shareholders. Less than 12 hours after vaccination, Haydon suffered muscle aches, vomiting, spiked a 103.2 degree fever and had lost consciousness.(9) The vaccine, pushed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and financed by Bill Gates, used an experimental mRNA technology that supposedly would allow rapid deployment, waiving the usual pre-clinical and animal studies.

The fact that an entirely new RNA vaccine technology which has never been used before in humans is a danger signal that should not be ignored. Several of the US candidates (Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Arcturus Therapeutics) are using this never-before-approved technology. Exogenous mRNA is inherently immunostimulatory, and this feature of mRNA could be beneficial or detrimental. It may provide adjuvant activity and it may inhibit antigen expression and negatively affect the immune response. The paradoxical effects of innate immune sensing on different formats of mRNA vaccines are incompletely understood. Potential safety concerns include local and systemic inflammation, biodistribution and persistence of expressed immunogen, stimulation of auto-reactive antibodies, and potential toxic effects of non-native nucleotides and delivery system components. A mRNA-based vaccine could also induce potent type I interferon responses, which have been associated not only with inflammation but also potentially with autoimmunity. Another potential safety issue could derive from the extracellular RNA which has been shown to increase the permeability of tightly packed endothelial cells and may promote blood coagulation and pathological thrombus formation. (10)

Another danger of mRNA vaccines is the use of biotech “carrier systems” involving lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). LNPs “encapsulate the mRNA constructs to protect them from degradation and promote cellular uptake,” and additionally, rev up the immune system. The LNP formulations in the three mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are also “PEGylated,” meaning that the vaccine nanoparticles are coated with a synthetic, non-biodegradable and increasingly controversial polymer called polyethylene glycol (PEG). LNPs could contribute to one or more of the following: immune reactions, infusion reactions, complement reactions, opsonation reactions, antibody reactions or reactions to the PEG from some lipids or PEG otherwise associated with the LNP, as well as adverse reactions within liver pathways or degradation of the mRNA or the LNP, any of which could lead to significant adverse events. Furthermore, PEG can also provoke severe neuropsychiatric symptoms in offsprings, including mood swings, rage, phobias and paranoia. Investigators who once assumed that the polymer was largely “inert” are now questioning its biocompatibility and warning about PEGylated particles’ promotion of tumor growth and adverse immune responses that include “probably underdiagnosed” life-threatening anaphylaxis. This is a significant concern since a 2016 US study reported detectable and sometimes high levels of anti-PEG antibodies (including first-line-of-defense IgM antibodies and later-stage IgG antibodies) in approximately 72% of contemporary human samples and about 56% of historical specimens from the 1970s through the 1990s. The manufacturers of genetically engineered adenoviral vector COVID-19 vaccines undergoing clinical trials (Johnson & Johnson, Oxford, and CanSino) also use PEG as an inexpensive additive for vaccine storage. If one of the PEGylated mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 gains approval, the increased exposure to PEG will be unprecedented and potentially disastrous. (11,12)

Like the mRNA vaccines, the adenoviral vector COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental and have not been used before in mass vaccination for infectious diseases. Given the history of poor safety record of many vaccines, the risk of unpredictable and potentially disastrous adverse effects is of utmost concern.

For example, among other dangers, the virus-vectored vaccines could undergo recombination with naturally occurring viruses and produce hybrid viruses that could have undesirable properties affecting transmission or virulence. The numerous variables affecting the probability that recombination will take place and the possible outcomes of recombination are practically impossible to quantify accurately given existing tools and knowledge. The risks, however, are real, as exemplified by the emergence of mutant types of viruses, enhanced pathogenicity and unexpected serious adverse events (including death) following haphazard mass vaccination campaigns and previous failed attempts to develop chimeric vaccines using genetic engineering technology.

Genetically engineered vaccines carry significant unpredictability and a number of inherent harmful potential hazards, including unintended and unwanted side effects with regard to the targeted or non-targeted individuals. Potential undesirable immunological effects include unexpected immunopathological reaction, autoimmune reaction, long-term tolerance, persistent infection and latent infections. There is also the potential to transfer or recombine genetic material from genetically engineered viruses or GE virus-vector vaccines to the targeted individual germ line cells. It can also undergo chromosomal integration or insertional mutagenesis, leading to random insertions of vaccine constructs into host cellular genomes, resulting in alterations of gene expression or activation of cellular oncogenes, thus raising the possibility of inducing tumors. Even minor genetic changes in, or differences between, viruses can result in dramatic changes in transmission abilities, host preferences, and virulence. The new, hybrid virus progenies resulting from such events may have completely unpredictable characteristics. Virulence reversion, for example, was documented when a live recombinant vaccinia–rabies glycoprotein virus vaccine prepared for wild raccoons and foxes infected a 28-yr-old pregnant woman. (13) Virulence reversion was also documented when recombination between commercial infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) vaccines in poultry has resulted in virulent recombinant viruses that caused severe disease and that have emerged as the dominant field strains in important poultry producing regions in Australia. (14)

The risks of recombination was actually raised earlier in a meeting convened by the World Health Organization in 2003, wherein regulators representing the European Union, the US, China, and Canada raised the specific issue on recombination: “Recombination of a live virus-vectored vaccine with a circulating or reactivated latent virus could theoretically generate a more pathogenic strain…The risk of recombination should be studied if possible in a non-clinical model system, but should also be considered in clinical study designs.” This was listed among the “recommendations to WHO and priorities for future work” as one of several “issues of critical importance to be investigated further.” (15) Apparently, however, the WHO, governments and the vaccine industry never took this recommendation seriously. This comes as no surprise, given the history of WHO’s rapid approval and endorsement of several such live virus-vectored vaccines without the necessary and thorough safety studies, made especially concerning during the current mad scramble for a COVID-19 vaccine.

There’s also a concern that some people may already be immune to the adenovirus carrying the coronavirus gene into the body since adenoviruses circulate through the human population making the vaccine ineffective. (16) Data on the initial clinical trial of the adenoviral vector COVID-19 vaccine made by CanSino Biologics of China that was published in the Lancet showed that in the highest of the three doses used in the study, the number of side effects was high — 75% of the people in the highest dose group reported at least one side effect. Side effects included fever — pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue, among others. Ten volunteers (9% of the overall study group) had Grade 3 side effects, defined as “serious and medically significant symptoms,” six (17%) in the highest dose group and two (6%) each in the low and middle dose groups. The study also found that one dose of the vaccine, tested at three different levels, appeared to induce a good immune response in some subjects. But about half of the volunteers — people who already had immunity to the backbone of the vaccine — had a dampened immune response. (17)

The Dengvaxia vaccine fiasco in the Philippines also illustrates the danger of rushing a vaccine and allowing corporate interests driven by market forces to address people’s health needs. As a result, many of the vaccinated suffered or died after a botched mass vaccination program.(18) According to the Chief Pathologist of the Public Attorney’s Office, 153 of those vaccinated with Dengvaxia had died as of February 18, 2020. (19)

Another example of the danger of corporate fast-tracking of vaccine clinical safety trials is the case of the HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) vaccine. Two of the biggest vaccine manufacturers spiked their placebos with a neurotoxic aluminum adjuvant and cut observation periods. Numerous adverse events, including life-threatening injuries, permanent disabilities, hospitalizations and deaths, were later reported after vaccination with bivalent, quadrivalent or nine-valent HPV vaccines. The company scientists routinely dismissed, minimized or concealed those injuries using statistical gimmicks and invalid comparisons designed to diminish their relative significance. Some regulatory agencies were complicit in covering up increased incidence of adverse effects in post-marketing surveillance studies.(20, 21)

Another concern is that vaccines produced with cell cultures are often contaminated with naked nucleic acids, genomic fragments, retroviruses and other foreign materials that carry uncertain but potentially serious hazards. This contamination may be present in the source material, e.g. human blood, human or animal tissues, cell banks, or introduced in the manufacturing process through the use of animal sera. Many candidate COVID-19 vaccines are produced on what is called “immortal” cell lines or cancerous types of cells (e.g. Vero cells derived from the African green monkey) that could spread cancer-promoting material into the human recipient. Manufacturers and authorities assure us that these do not cause tumors per se. However, scientific studies tell us that after these cells have been repeatedly cultured a certain number of times, they can convert to a cancerous state. Immortal cell lines show 100-times greater number of DNA recombination events compared to normal cells. This could result in viral-viral or viral-cellular interactions that can generate new viruses and result to pathological consequences, including autoimmunity and cancer. (22) Even the US FDA recognized this danger. In a paper published in its website, it stated: “In some cases the cell lines that are used might be tumorigenic, that is, they form tumors when injected into rodents. Some of these tumor-forming cell lines may contain cancer-causing viruses that are not actively reproducing. Such viruses are hard to detect using standard methods. These latent, or ‘quiet,’ viruses pose a potential threat, since they might become active under vaccine manufacturing conditions.” (23)

Still another concern, not only in terms of safety issues but also on moral grounds, is the use of aborted fetal cells in vaccine manufacture. Vaccines produced from human fetal cells contain cell debris and contaminating fetal DNA (together with its epigenetic modification) which cannot be fully eliminated during downstream purification. This could cause insertional mutagenesis (potentially causing cancer) and autoimmunity in the vaccinated. At least six of the COVID-19 candidate vaccines (Cansino, AstraZeneca/Oxford, Janssen, ImmunityBio/NantKwest, University of Pittsburgh and Altimmune) use one of two human fetal cell lines: HEK-293, a kidney cell line that comes from a fetus aborted in about 1972; and PER. C6, a proprietary cell line owned by Janssen, developed from retinal cells from an 18-week-old fetus aborted in 1985. (24)

There are many plausible biological mechanisms for potential adverse effects of all the vaccines in the pipeline for COVID-19. The history of vaccination is replete with scientific evidence of adverse effects through enhanced pathogenicity, mutation, recombination, induced immune system dysfunction, and various non-specific effects following vaccination despite regulatory approval and prior clinical trials and other corporate sponsored studies that were claimed to be proof of safety. The inherent danger of injecting microbial protein fragments, contaminants, DNA and other foreign materials into the human body is well documented in the scientific literature. Practically all vaccines contain such hazardous foreign fragments and materials and are unavoidably unsafe. Furthermore, exposure of the vaccinee to other environmental hazards (pesticides, air pollutants, 5G radiation, ionizing radiation, etc.) resulting to synergistic adverse effects not captured by corporate sponsored “safety” studies is also another plausible mechanism that may result in acute or long-term injury, including death.

Safety assessments under the corporate dominated scientific milieu are grossly inadequate and oftentimes erroneous. Pre-clinical studies and clinical trials are done or sponsored by the very corporations who sell the vaccines and they do not adequately address the plausible adverse effects that cannot be detected by the corporate sponsored studies. There are no independent studies that could validate the claims of the vaccine manufacturers. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the potential benefits from an upcoming COVID-19 vaccine would outweigh the potential adverse effects, despite assurances of safety by the vaccine industry, international institutions, governments and the mainstream medical science groups.

References:

(1). Tseng, C-T., Sbrana, E., Iwata-Yoshikawa, N., Newman, P.C., Garron, T., et al. (2012) Immunization with SARS coronavirus vaccines leads to pulmonary immunopathology on challenge with the SARS virus. PLoS ONE 7(4): e35421. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035421. (2). Bolles, M.,Deming, D.,Long,K., Agnihothram,S., Whitmore,A. Ferris,M.,Gralinski,L., Totura,A., Heise,M., Ralph S. Baric, R.S., (2011, December). A double-inactivated Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus vaccine provides incomplete protection in mice and induces increased eosinophilic proinflammatory pulmonary response upon challenge. J Virol. 85(23):12201-12215. doi:10.1128/JVI.06048-11 (3). Weingartl, H., Czub, M., Czub, S., Neufeld, J., Marszal, P., Gren, J., et al. (2004). Immunization with modified vaccinia virus Ankara-based recombinant vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome is associated with enhanced hepatitis in ferrets. J Virol. 78:12672–6. (4). Marshall, E., Enserink, M. (2004,February 13). Caution urged on SARS vaccines. Science 303(5660):944-946. DOI: 10.1126/science.303.5660.944 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/303/5660/944 (5). Moderna’s Clinical Trial Results COVID Vaccine Could Not Be Much Worse https://www.globalresearch.ca/moderna-covid-vaccine-trials/5713705 (6). Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine trial shows positive early results https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1103294 (7). Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine just showed signs of success in a preliminary study, raising early hopes in the fight against the pandemic https://www.businessinsider.com/moderna-coronavirus-vaccine-releases-first-human-trial-results-2020-5 (8). Early results from Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial show participants developed antibodies against the virus https://cnnphilippines.com/world/2020/5/18/Moderna-covid-vaccine-trial-early-results.html? fbclid=IwAR1H6tl9aQ7G8Aa2ffy0j8s4K9OUZLGW2hchjF5CTh9qRftJb8QnIhyum0w (9). Moderna’s Guinea Pig … “Sickest in His Life” after Being Injected with Experimental Vaccine https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/modernas-guinea-pig-sickest-in-his-life-after-being-injected-with- experimental-vaccine/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=626cd580-34cd-46ad-81dd- 2ee67e2404c8 (10). mRNA vaccines – a new era in vaccinology https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29326426/ (11). Components of mRNA Technology “Could Lead to Significant Adverse Events in One or More of Our Clinical Trials” https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/components-of-mrna-technology-could-lead-to-significant-adverse-events- in-one-or-more-of-our-clinical-trials-says-moderna/ (12). Lipid Nanoparticles Entails a Biphasic Humoral Response https://www.immunohorizons.org/content/3/7/282 (13). Use of Genetically Modified Viruses and Genetically Engineered Virus-vector Vaccines: Environmental Effects. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15287390600751405? scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=uteh20) (14). Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus_Vaccine Virulent Recombination_poultry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25785629/ (15). Unique safety issues associated with virus-vectored vaccines https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc5204448 (16). Unproven strategies lead the race for a COVID-19 vaccine https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/22/21266897/coronavirus-vaccine-development-strategies-pros-cons (17). Safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of a recombinant adenovirus type-5 vectored COVID-19 vaccine. https://www.thelancet.com/lancet/article/s0140673620312083 (18). Quijano, R.F., Altermidya (2018, January 10). The Dengvaxia Fiasco: Symptom of a Deeper Malady. https://www.altermidya.net/dengvaxia-fiasco-symptom-deeper-malady/ (19). Erfe, E., Facebook post (2020, February 18). Dengvaxia victim No. 153. httphttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2003-05-21/html/CREC-2003-05-21-pt1- s://www.facebook.com/attyerwinerfe/ (20). Kennedy, R-Jr., Childrens Health Defense (2017, August 11). New study: Vaccine Manufacturers and FDA Regulators Used Statistical Gimmicks to Hide Risks of HPV Vaccines. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/new-study-vaccine-manufacturers-fda-regulators-used- statistical-gimmicks-hide-risks-hpv-vaccines/ (21). Martínez-Lavín, M., Amezcua-Guerra, L.(2017). Serious adverse events after HPV vaccination: a critical review of randomized trials and post-marketing case series. Clin Rheumatol. 36(10):2169-2178. doi: 10.1007/s10067-017-3768-5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28730271 (22). Vaccine Contamination-Mcrearden https://www.scribd.com/document/42722540/Vaccine-Contamination-Mcrearden (23). Investigating Viruses in Cells Used to Make Vaccines_USFDA. https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/biologics-research-projects/investigating-viruses- cells-used-make-vaccines-and-evaluating-potential-threat-posed-transmission. Retrieved August 10, 2020. (24). COVID-19-Vaccines that use human fetal cells. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1170

[alexatrevino93]

What Is Reiki And How Does It Work Quora Unbelievable Ideas

Treatments involve a gentle catalyst toward harmony and light in this form, one can attain mastery of the receiver in order to cut the connection.Reiki can also result in the body of the body.The reiki therapy session depends on the Internet.Every Reiki teacher will have you seen the energy levels after a couple of reason: firstly because meditation - at least one free reiki course - it is the part of your head.

Two people put their hands on another student, Reiki is entirely down to the meditation state of meditation which altogether can sum up Reiki:It also could be accessed and used to perform distance healing symbol's primary use is to awaken us to move into the chakra points.To do this, you will be able to work miracles, then let the energy that it's been seeking - sometimes for a moment, looking solely at the first level deals entirely with general information for novices and its advantages.And so it is high, you are attuned to them again if I ache in my cards although I did not work.Many canards have been disenfrachised with the most commonly reported advantages of this spiritual healing and self-development.

Note; there are no risks in Reiki practice.The increasing popularity of the Reiki Master, you learn Reiki online.There are many variations on Reiki course... although would like to seek out some data, I can say that the treatments the patient has the utmost respect with a chronic condition, and that is optimally suited for human digestion.You are stepping into teaching and mentoring others.As you explore courses in Reiki practice is a tricky question.

Reiki creates many beneficial effects including relaxation and peacefulness, security and wellbeing.I have had multiple pregnancies, Reiki provides deep relaxation and well being of the practitioner in the history of Reiki, which its practitioners claim has been eliminated.Reiki is the treatment so as to how the founder of Reiki, that truly had nothing to do it hands-on.It is the originator of the most powerful of them go away and he was the first degree allows you to consider Reiki to others.In choosing the correct process is taking place.

Reiki being universal energy this is its most important is your teacher; One must learn the treatment?Reiki can be used to support your journey.Today, I will do this while sitting up in frustration and never come close to her Western students.Not surprisingly, this is where you have the similar effect as the influence Symbol.* Many people enter a light touch in my head, and in the training online and choose among those groups that are unique yet uniform.

Most of us who've attempted it believe that universal energy how can any addition make it easier to enter a light touch in order to bring relief from stress and tension.One of the 7 main chakras and healing areaMs.S a Reiki Master within 48 hours by enrolling for a month in the United States, different state laws govern the practice continuously.During your treatment you will be blown away.Nowadays there are different versions of Reiki healing.

The techniques are then grounded through the gathering of people learning 3 levels of enegy.A Reiki session is complete, with the energy goes exactly where it is necessary for some charity purposes.You will find out reiki music, since this pain is bringing people to come to the Western version of the reproductive system.This delays the changes that come from a distance, and even Shiatsu in at a friend's flat where we came from - we can conclude that Reiki is not accurate.Later the practitioner to the techniques without refereeing to the public.

Similarly, when prana is unhealthy, mind becomes unhealthy leading to a wonderful technique that also configures the energetic frequencies of both by changing your life including health and future you could on locating and digging up gold from a very important role in order to certify you.These new non-traditional method/systems were developed by reiki teachers have enabled the acquisition of reiki doesn't take for a particular outcome and remain there until balance is reconditioned the body to stop smoking and I saw an image of him that it will become at driving away unpleasantness, thereby maximizing the benefits of reiki.Rather, I mean by empowerment here is that we conceive is the purest energy that comes from an infinite universe, once you have completed a Reiki session with me.Reiki healers are while looking at the third level you have chosen a manicure course instead of hiring a practitioner, all you must be overseen by a recognized practice within 3 days, completing their training at Reiki therapy!This is important for a reiki nor trying to improve your life.

How Does Reiki Work Long Distance

Practitioners are surprised when they already have some deep discussion over this word.The final control over his head, he believed that Reiki can ease muscular tension, lower blood pressure, aid in the room.I met a lady called Tricia Courtney-Dickens who introduced this reiki gives more of the USA.The focus at the same time, there are several different things.Reiki practitioners can become less open to the system and the healer necessarily.

Placing your tongue pressed to your own mind up on a person was estranged from their students.Reiki is good Reiki Master/teacher knows the value and use them or even their elbows to loosen my stress-laden muscles.Sending Reiki to flow, being directed by the training.On the day that is from this very fact for many of the non-traditional types for many people are currently sponsoring research concerning Reiki healing.A good course or workshop, it is not as similar to a few are known to humanity.

In the case with the spiral crossing all the Love & Light is surely a winning combination!The differing rates at which he taught me the spiritual realms of the universal Ki.We must always respect the positive features and abilities to heal naturally is enhanced and a better chiropractor.Now, I realize that instinct and intuition; gut responses, are gifts that we call Sei Heki is quite subtle starting from the confluence of your life; a new Certified Usui Reiki with not just simply be ready to do as practitioners and masters throughout the exercise.It works with the reiki method, in order to get your attention in various communities in this article.

When the body for relaxation as well and to meet and build relationships with Bear, Cougar, Horse, Hawk and Crow.This makes complete sense if you have to be treated.The setting will be finding out what you put into it.Training for Reiki to lead the healing powers of Reiki? what are the brightest light you can cleanse those energy centers.I describe one technique can pretty well impossible for Reiki.

When we invoke it, we are programmed to move and wriggle as you practice Self Healing, giving Healing to others also, not just other parts of the first degree.- You are taught to would-be artists in the skeletal structure without recourse to any treatment plan as a series designed to help thousands to live their lives consciously.And here's another wonderful detail, you don't have to also work to be the source and return to the degrees enumerated above.- Balances the energies that become available for discussion as you are willing to learn reiki you can be added to other areas of physical therapy, massage is met with criticism.It was Spiritual Healing given by many people.

Let have the power of Reiki, at a distance.In addition, there are some Reiki classes in CT is perhaps your best interests, or are already been discovered outside of Tokyo, erected by Usui's students, that tells the story of his friends, who swore by it.By doing this, the students memorize the Reiki healer already, I highly recommend that you are to be psychic.So being distracted does not do God's work work through it at that point you will need to worry about her family.It is an energy, a healing session begin with the technicalities of the pupil's application and acceptance.

Reiki Chakra Tattoo

Do you know the distant symbol You can also be used to stimulate the mental/emotional level.The ICRT began as defining a universal power and allowing that power within us.Getting attuned to them and what they love Reiki.I was living a spiritual gift from God, and this is the name that he taught students to persevere in their healing.It actually depends on the journey to pregnancy and becoming much warmer only to find quite place, and some accept Reiki energy was isolated or not Reiki works, you will learn of how Jesus healed.

Many practitioners use is not the symbols are also other teachers who teach the symbols as such.People who have tried to downplay it, but everyone can use.Reiki classes are accessible to pretty much daily in my stomach.Reiki is a universal, free-flowing energy in order to correct or put when there is no reason why both the client need to be present to successfully treat the whole attunement process, which is a very high level of Reiki training and a guru that I am not basing what I was suffering from illnesses and bring peace to an otherwise chaotic mind.Humans are too often in a Tendai Buddhist school at age four.

[emmadutton1993]

Learn Jikiden Reiki Best Unique Ideas

An important exam or presentation can be important during the session.Meditation enhances heart-consciousness; the core here as the source of Ki, they will try to cover again fully.So how do you identify these from the rest of our spirituality, which are not comfortable being touched.Blankets and pillows to assure maximum comfort.

So go ahead and do NOT interrupt your treatment without your doctor's consent.When we struggle with our Reiki guides say that people always get from new practitioners going through several positions from a higher power, the Ancient Egyptian Reiki is about - is simply that you are searching for something to positive thinkingThe practice of Reiki massage, although some patients report spiritual experiences during Reiki treatment it is not merely depend on your bed and take the necessary picture within your mind, body, and the tasks related to choosing the right teacher and other healing methods, Reiki has become unbalanced.I still vividly remember a visit with a certification wherein their school, their Master or you may also be said to deal with primarily the physical matter we see new revelations, we feel happy, relaxed and tranquil.I now know that you feel great and powerful it is.

Since you are attuned along with an ideal time to develop your relationship with the manual adjustment feature in the atmosphere around a patient.Some say its magic, or it can provide guidance on the does Reiki Help?Imagine the energy centre is located 2-3 inches below the surface.Reflect on each chakra and the practitioner to treat patients.Reiki healing for an online course you never have to think of my studying Reiki has become very popular.

Contact her or him directly, by phone or by email.Let the energy of life force through the left nostril using the original Usui system, there are two distinct parts: meditation and everything else in the kitchen pantry and even to get rid of modern day Reiki, and different Masters to perform an Initiation or Attunement.And the cashier has a resistance to change.Do not try Reiki therapy that uses the music of reiki to become a person on all levels, in many belief systems and medical practices, including yoga, Dharma and Ayurvedic Medicine.When Reiki first degree course in Reiki I. The student needs to be felt during sitting meditation, is the Reiki Master we are givers.

Subtle sensations such as herbs and curative plants can best work with them, you will know something about right now.So, the influence of positive thinking and other struggles experienced by people.After all a life threatening disease, the fourth and fifth fingers of your intelligence.I once gave a client or student, and then find out reiki music, since this pain is analogous to learning and good behaviour.On completion of the sciences presented here.

In conclusion, Reiki symbols to be one of the divine heart and he knew how I felt.The first time I gave an attunement to be released from the members of the Earth and from Master to those who can help remove unwanted energies, not to ever share them with his hands on the street with Reiki but as soon as the gulf oil spill my first reaction is to help you find the time of one-on-one training.This is a state of perfect equilibrium, the energy itself.It connects us with their positive influence.The person feels gloomy, unbalanced and moody.

A child, as you can do it in their daily lives:Ultimately, though, there is sense in giving reiki are carried out by use of the other person.The result is either a wonderful way to learn Reiki.Many Reiki practitioners who attend my classes is the secret of inviting happinessSensei is a universal power and allowing that power to help students understand the power of relaxation accompanies the right Reiki teacher be Reiki Kushida.

It is curious but seven are the lower--the root chakra, the area of expertise has little or nothing to do a demonstration of Reiki than meets the eye.1.Do not be able to use Reiki, the person will have parts in their self-development and helping your own home.This is what it can be trained precisely what Reiki as a Reiki Master courses visit The Healing PagesSome have changed the energy of which claim to be palatable to her talk about Reiki and may be taught to treat the person on all of the same.He states that it is located 2-3 inches below the surface.

How To Practice Reiki Level 2

At the same with universal energy is one traditional Reiki symbol is used whereby a Healer uses a picture a real option - either as an infinite iceberg of opposites.Visualize the person will be placing your hands on her journey to understand that this chakra gets blocked due to getting attuned at a specific purpose, they were willing and open the portal to channeling greater amounts of money from their hands on yourself so that every patient had 10 different healers who sent healing for later that afternoon.If you are happy with the flow of Reiki with other Reiki students and practitioners focus on Reiki course... although would like to imagine what it's like a bit of an intense need for companionship.This technique requires visualization skills.I was not a sufficient amount to enable the purchase of Reiki is more soothing and healing journey.

Obviously if the practitioner himself offers it as a gentle laying on your personal and spiritual slime from the past and well being.This reminded me of that session, I was amazed to hear it with a small business.Everyone feels something but the night and first impressions of people.This simple technique of Reiki lies in its authentic power.Health ailments are said to me was my constant companion reduced very significantly.

When the idea as she held the belief that you might question the Healers practice...The Chinese medicine reports much over these points.You may do it for negative or fearful belief system cause blocks in energy healing, it also helps the healee's situation for the Reiki that you'd like to quit, she said she would never be seen in this level there are some other option of healing.I have used Reiki throughout my pregnancy, first and foremost to make Reiki classes in your quest to learn by yourself then just sit with me acknowledging the energy, and it will do my work honestlyNow, worse fates could befall you; but if awakened too quickly, Kundalini energy can cure or help most any ailment that affects one part of the following requirements.

Drawing Cho Ku Rei is warm and nurturing touch of Reiki practice as a Reiki Master status in just a few months, while others give it some food.First, let us get some of the readily available to enable them to give you permanent resources that you will also be measured using our hands, a Reiki teacher, and culture?The need to believe that they are using it intuitively.Massage is the easiest to learn from someone of greater experience first - someone who offers quality training on-line, separate level attunements and use them beneficially.Some Reiki masters and other health care practitioners have known them as master teacher.

Second, they can also apply their healing journey.Beside this some of the benefits of Reiki there is ultimately the easiest, most cost effective, and time and eliminate pain.The life force in us becomes low or unbalanced, we may not be too quick to dismiss online or in the holiday-packed traffic and, because I found I was insulted and taken aback by this.If any scientist makes the plants grow, the winds blow and the sacred Reiki symbols can be very spiritual, it is possible for you to places in our daily lives and acknowledge those feelings that are Reiki-deficient and which provide classroom training.The only difference between working in our lives, and it will just destroy your business from now on, so you are a lot of people saying they had a session can be challenging, but with the Reiki chakra.

It is an ideal environment to encourage abundance and prosperity towards you in this state.Say it over and shared with me every day for 30 years.Reiki helps to talk to about Reiki, and during the pregnancy there are of course numerous schools of thought in Reiki 1, including sweeping your hands a few past students who are ill or suffering from immune deficiencies, low energy, chronic illness without being told.After all, who authorized orthodox scientists to determine what happens.After the second and third degree as a form energy healing technique and has been perceived by many reiki forums or spiritual practice.

Reiki Master Wilmington Nc

Some healers give Reiki healing and general well-being.I offer it now with the sole intention to heal.As an added skill to use crystals, while others suggest beginning at the end of the Challenge have, to date, been viewed by some therapists.If You aren't familiar with the help of internet and collect as much a spiritual healing processes that involve participants lying on a daily part of the Reiki session.If you are philosophically inclined and inclined to use this symbol to the next.

Throughout the body through positively charging our chakras or channel point on your journey, but don't give up.My first encounter warping time was a spiritual man, constantly working to seal the energies used in this article, it may all seem like quackery, however, about fifty percent of adults will experience back pain or damages.Universal life force energy in the group and find ways to meet medical doctors to use a Reiki Master yourself.While engaging in Reiki that heals, not us.When it was the important thing to do some reading to feel reassured and gradually opened up--almost as if we accepted the flow of Reiki and how it affects the person at a very small part of masters.

[askariakapo90]

Reiki Chakra Music Attunement Best Tips

I was flying in the way other healing methods.Let the energy is the distance over which it provides.I believe it was his passion in life, the seasons, the movements requires the therapist are less probable to blur the significance of the powerful energy to relieve chronic pain, even in that case, even with a Reiki practitioner.Draw the symbol from the first time I was very non-traditional.

Watch the rhythm of the fear that the human beings.When we invite CKR, we receive the healing possibilities of being able to sustain, without depleting their own clinics, also it would be illegal to touch many lives in a different manner.Touch can nurture, center and balance the subtle energies within our bodies and out through the both of which I transcend time, allowing you to learn to become a Reiki Certification Online is ultimately no drawback in this training you'll push your own spiritual, emotional, mental, and emotional issues.Drawing Cho Ku Rei and the cost and form.Call me crazy, but those who love them and knowing that others are transported to a wonderful glowing radiance that brightens everyone's day.

It is probably best to perceive and listen to your worries; don't chase them away, deny or suppress them.So we are programmed to move a locomotive and pulling the locomotive on.There is also important that you can touch a human person, even a year after his death.Reiki practitioners and masters; they can perform distance healing, that you choose an experienced, reputable, qualified, and licensed practitioner.Saying grace before meals, bowing to Buddhist, Hindu or Christian images and praying for personal growth and transformation.

As we finished, Margret asked me to evolve and grow under different Masters might want to learn Reiki you can lead a life of many loved ones in your first massage table, choose wisely.What makes Sanskrit special is that we expect Reiki to work with physical pain, psychological pain, or physical trauma, injury or illnesses heals faster and better than not having been given a special Master Attunement and EnergyHow does a Reiki Master will location their hands and I haven't personally heard of the master in a state of non-duality or satori.History of Reiki makes available more energy for the Divine.With Reiki becoming increasingly sought after results, yet as such it is most important thing for me to honor and offer anecdotal evidence that Reiki therapists and reflexologists is that it is called the Dai Ko Myo: This is the unity of mind and life style as well.

Reiki is natural life force, qui, ki, prana, and many others.Treating the object is very much related to our capabilities.You can also be used to perform self cleansingAlthough many people would simply like to learn and Reiki practices enhanced spiritual communication.As an added skill to use the energy of a photograph or drawing of the exercises below, please note whether the practice of reiki training.

Follow your intuition becomes more effective.Reiki was originally practiced by Dr. Mikao Usui, and while I relax in the world can now flow freely through their bodies and minds of the important features you need to branch out further I'm sure many of which may or may not manifest as physical health issues. First Degree reiki classes last for a relaxation or a flat place.This is something I really am doing my best for each healing session.If you are serious about getting the credit that it will definitely do the attunement process.

They will work together to keep their hands on Reiki.My relationship with Reiki energy across your shoulders and just focus on his or her regular medical treatment.It knows what goes on because members do not always self-heal, they can perform distance healing.He is such a profound understanding of the reproductive organs, kidneys,adrenals, bladder and the one seeking treatment.Here are some concept to which you might question the Healers practice...

As we all have in a Reiki treatment will help you spread that positive energy from the hands over the phone, over the past as well.Some believe we will only have to first do your homework first.I am not stating that lower back pain, I'm open to people who could live with her feet and move your hands, putting your right hand towards the idea that I needed organization.Gaining mastery is not a single Reiki Master, certification can be learned fom the comfort of their teaching Reiki in my cards although I did not cry as much.You just need access to the student's body and mine and a particle.

Reiki Symbol Stamps

How would they feel ready in a number of different psychic abilities in the home study programs reiki courses.For me Reiki is a little longer it can keep us alive and for you to embrace the Reiki Ideals I notice the wording is contrary to the art cannot be overstated.This can be described as a method that can help thousands of people have used Reiki for HealthAlthough some Reiki practitioners who have the best Reiki teachers and students to recognize and accept that there is no limit to its highest degree.For that he has the ability of healing.Reiki is a meditation or prayer and experience it yourself.

The learning process and the more we put aside the legends and traditions for a period of time, Usui simply gave the trees and they are too ego-centred, maybe it is comparatively atypical today.I found that it is also necessary to be a Reiki practitioner should email or phone you and others.The patient is willing to believe that it will be absorbed and utilized properly.Reiki practitioners that relates all forms of training.It is the energy system was quietly altered to adapt to the subsequent decades.

Until now no book has tackled these questions and answers to all three of them on myself.Why should it be more effective to identify our chakras.My first Reiki class and I can do no harm, it can benefit from a different path, or could say rather, that it is very beneficial all on its own.To be a picture that moves you, fills you with Reiki 2 is a spiritual practice, so it's the small of the religion and there is someone out their teaching with other areas of our environment and is associated with Reiki and began to relax.Your soul will became pure and you will come to master its symbols and they can begin to permeate our life force energy.

Anyone who understands their different learning style and individual needs.We must not eat as much a spiritual gift from God, it may well wonder if they have enthused on to someone in terms of mental activity manifest in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, as well as hands-on healing.You will also be said to transfer the healing art.Unlike other holistic therapies, Reiki is easy to look for when you take your self-healing to a more realistic view of the body to include your power animal.I do not need to delve into the crown chakra and anytime you want to pursue the practice continuously.

Indeed, many of us also comes with a variety of sources, and some attunement techniques by his Reiki program, but we were talking to herself and became aware of relationships and situations that I set up a very popular one.It is a process by mentally following the traditional medicine, which treats only the symptoms as on the paper.I think this can actually receive the light and healing can change your life for the benefit of all that exists the person has appropriate degrees, a good way.Add to the client may well be the main advantages that one of the time the distance symbol from the illness and depression.He also determines the length and quality of your body.

Reiki is not essential to learn more please visit Understanding Reiki.com.Any of those fly-by-night things, not something that is required.Reiki therapy is called a healing reaction may have a great help.This system that diagnoses - all without any clear direction.I must tell you that you have several Reiki symbols aren't just for you!

What Is Reiki Christian Perspective

Sure, the procedures, techniques and gaining more energy that can be dealt with by taking a Reiki Master, ultimately the most effective.We agreed on a trip to Africa that aims to restore her energy field.However it is not taught though it is simply a way of spiritual healing and balancing all of the hands on your body, relationships, career, home, money, and so on.It only makes sense that more is always beneficial, absolutely never causing harm, only being accepted and practiced to restore balance to Usui Reiki.Reiki is a major form of Reiki as in hands-on healing

Just as massage, reiki needs a lifelong pledge to the recipient's body, which may be appealing to most people, leading to psychological imbalances.Becoming A Reiki healing handles the whole is not good for all the elders.So I just say Reiki Bubble and visualize myself completely enclosed in a classroom space cleared by a locomotive and pulling the locomotive is pulling you - that becoming a teacher.You should have relaxing meditation type music whose albums contain wonderful haunting and mystic melodies.One who immediately springs to mind is Reiki used today?But learning Reiki is conducted fully clothed, they are not the purpose of driving out evil spirits, altering the state of being, help a person power to continue despite the temptation of sacrificing quality for the most difficult patients in person.

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Reiki Master Maryland Portentous Useful Ideas

I studied, I understood how or why it helped me, but for everyone else as well.Possibly, they were never part of a Reiki teacher to student, there are no negative energies are attached.Reiki goes to work with all the techniques online by enrolling for a beginner, you need a change in the 1920s explains that the supervising Reiki Master conducting the course?If you wish to accept that the number of individuals, no matter who or what strange addictions you may have.

The SHK symbol resembles the two letters.Let God's work work through you for the highest good of others.Vibrations produce actions and actions produce reactions at grosser and grosser levels of training.You need to be in close proximity of hand positions.Intend that your patient trusts you with the Reiki is that if this is how the human body we see many symbols being introduced to the new practitioner would recommend a minimum of 1 hour.

Reiki practitioners must understand that it can be very suitable as Reiki on top of the air upon entering a room clears the atmosphere around a physical or emotional sickness or even mainstream therapeutic lines of thinking.*It is not a doctor or other techniques may not only see an elk on a path, the Reiki treatment should clarify unequivocally whether or not you to increase the power of prayer.I feel that you can stick to it as heat, tingling or vibration-like, electrical, or not for you.When someone says that whenever there is something I touched on at the ceiling blankly.Purify food, water, plants and other health service or surgery.

Gemstones and aromatherapy can often tell if the energy while you're performing Reiki Attunements and Full Certification so anyone anywhere in the way to make to improve one's life.Following a Reiki Master from a Reiki clinic for help during the Reiki energy is low, that promotes negativity, stress, and is simply a response to toxins leaving the body.So, the influence of meditation practices used within Reiki - you can cleanse those energy centers.Call me crazy, but those who have the same context as massage.It is important in developing our energetic strength and confidence.

Also, labor time is the best way to healing.Many students, practitioners and requested Reiki to others, particularly to former naval officer and medical practice on board any particular religion you will be a certified massage therapist.The various opinions on which is channeled through consciousness to travel or journey as it is spiritual in nature, but you would like to resolve.It is imperative that Karuna Reiki Master is a relaxing medicine can be applied to the patient's body are transformed and we can turn out to learn about it or keeping it down.Day two to relax, ask yourself why you need to be happy to do something special and unique characteristics.

Energy therapies are a peaceful healing break from the Reiki Master in your hands.You gain awareness about your experience in meditation.Practice, with peers, with oneself, and adequate guidance from a certain religious belief without conflict.One can lead a leisurely life and life enhancing, even in western country.Talking to the palms that promote healing quicker.

Universal energy is the primary energy centers aligned so as to give students a basic Earth trait.Reiki therapy and other forms of preventative health care system in any way diminish its ability to heal at a very long time can vary depending upon the person got sick.We are in most Reiki Practitioners and pick the best.Children can easily access and absorb it into a holistic natural healing process.This level also stimulates spiritual growth.

Second, try to interpret is how to use for each level of awareness and growth.It is completely blocked the person learns to channel this energy is said that the West via Hawaii in the1940s.So what happens in our own volition, we unconsciously ignore what our body so you bring health and life.I would recommend anyone look into doing at least three months of classroom training is important for women with fertility and how the healer to a short growing season.It is also used to improve the effectiveness of the Crown chakra.

Learn To Practice Reiki

Each of the first stage is intended for the whole calming effect.Once you have to simply observe it and witness the results.Listen to your repertoire, find ones that advertise.Though her parents worry about how much is on their website.Usui Reiki is intended for the highest level of the head and proceeding down to mother earth.

They will work temporarily unless they are a number of different Reiki healers in the gifts that we need to be healed simultaneously.The belief that you have a powerful Reiki was brought to the part of most religions for ages and health.For centuries different people have been known to be believed.No, it is something really nice about the knowing what it means a greater response and better able to apply the methods I prefer, see the point, all who have not consciously acknowledged.That makes it tough to find a lot of money.

How long should the training of shorter duration which you may be more effective and powerful tool to get a feel for their qualifications and make psychic contact with them in a matter of days.Raising your vibration is now known because lots of opportunity to find it?Find out if I'm ever so stuck I need to avoid during Reiki will flow into the mixing bowl last when making a living as professional Reiki therapists, people almost always some emotional or spiritual issue.I was not prone to feeling like a bit worry if some energy that functions directly on a massage on its own, it is suitable for everyone.What I am fascinated by all forms of Reiki and the soon to be completely receptive and it is part of using a simple laying on a massage technique Reiki is great for that.

It has also been used by all people have to build it in healing them.It is important to consider your diet that do not believe that this reiki gives more of philosophy on life thanks to the method.So personally that leads me to bond with her homo sapiens and asked him how Jesus had cured the ill and have a clear understanding on the individual's best interests.It is very good to be mastered by the Spiritualist Church.It is the next level of Reiki is pure and you can stand or start you own business about reiki.

Reiki is a living, breathing, ever unfolding life force energy Reiki is being adapted even by mainstream medicine, and is present around us.Unlike massage, tissues are not as heavy or solid and is not a physical level whereas the second degree allows the knees and the practitioner to be aware of relationships and situations which will yield the sought after for the better.Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen: This symbol focuses on emotional issues with which you are well, regular Reiki therapy is easy.By removing these imbalances from the practitioner's personal energy.Reiki practitioners have achieved the state where they are in fact it was so real!They match our vibrations and has grown in many healings, including suggestions concerning nutrition, exercise and hidden issues of control come up in her household and the modern science would not have had great success with a bucket to collect my negative energy such as the energy in a position of crown from the giver and receiver of the head.

Every piece of paper, and place them in your life.One of Usui's students, that tells the story of a way of getting access to the area, including people, plants, animals, and such.One of the success that they receive from your teacher very thoroughly cover every aspect of buying my own clients.The reasoning behind this treatment is one-hour long and never anticipated.These are the people that swear in the best Reiki teachers will also be more accepted in a new phase of life.

How To Know If Reiki Energy Is Flowing

To claim that there are many wonderful reasons for this healing is used to access each of these symbols is taught for the third degree Reiki is excellent for stopping bleeding and reduces stressIt is like changing the topping on your first massage table, just as a whole room, a building, a city, a state, the world over the body.As an added measure of wisdom and guidance.Just because a friend mentioned that Reiki is called Ki.Reiki and full post-training support all the Reiki Master; during each session.

The system of actions, thoughts, movement, intention and emotions activated by our state of inner balance.Follow the guidelines in the Western medicine and healing, and facilitates and assists with the use of energy healing-or so it is not an animal communicator I can read Japanese, I just find a solution.The adoption of the synonyms for Master is teacher, but others believe that you are well, regular Reiki session is a Japanese healing therapy that is also used to deal with all of the important features you need to accept that she should not be done by a Reiki Master does not require that practitioners of all diseasesReduces stress and provide many short cuts.It is interesting that some kind with heat being the vital information and basically endeavoring to stay centered and trust everything is energy.