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[mediaheights]

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[dipperdesperado]

The city is where it’s at. Most of the human world lives in cities. Even so, it doesn’t feel like cities are necessarily made for their citizens. From low walkability to hostile architecture to prolonged development, the design isn’t very human. This isn’t even getting into how this impacts the environment and animals. This comes from bureaucracy-laden planning and design, being imparted from the top down. Approaching the creation of spaces for people without those people being involved leads to a focus on capital holders and what they want. If the conversation is between corporations/developers, municipalities, and citizens, citizens are the most important but least considered group in this conversation. That’s why we have shitty cities, rampant with inequity, unsustainability, and destitution.

That all probably sounds pretty bad. Thankfully, the citizen group has the power to come together and make changes with the resources they have available, creating a more liberatory, solarpunk future. This is where tactical urbanism comes in.

“Tactical Urbanism?”

Simply put, tactical urbanism is a grassroots-driven urban planning methodology that centers on DIY solutions and interventions. Instead of waiting for the city to act on a project, the community uses available resources to improve their community’s livability. This bottom-up orientation allows for iteration and experimentation to solve traffic issues, low numbers of green spaces, or general safety. These low-cost, DIY approaches can show interest in certain types of developments, encouraging long-lasting positive developments for the community.

Tactical urbanism can manifest as parklets, extending sidewalks and crosswalks, bike lanes, public art installations, seed bombing, outdoor seating, or more. It’s people imagining what they wish their city/community had and just going out and making it happen. These can be quick to implement, and even quicker to remove or modify as needed. This essentially allows for live pilots/prototypes of initiatives, where people can actually use the emergent infrastructure, encouraging longer-term solutions.

Tactical Urbanism x Solarpunk x Liberation

This methodology fits in well with the DIY ethos and grassroots-centric focus of solarpunk and liberatory movements. Solarpunk is all about imagining the futures that we want to see, full of equity, love, and harmony. Liberatory practices are the approaches that can bring the imagined into reality. As you can probably gather, tactical urbanism is a way to take action toward these goals, creating community-driven change. This allows for community resilience to be built and gives people a sense of ownership over the commons, creating a new world in the current one. It’s like a tiny revolution in the hearts and minds of those who participate.

With a tactical urbanism lens, a community could create community gardens or food forests on vacant/underutilized land. This space could allow for building relationships with each other and the land, grow collective self-sufficiencies, and inspire more change in the community. Not to mention the benefits this provides to the local food system.

How to Start Participating in Tactical Urbanism?

Participating in tactical urbanism can be as simple as identifying a problem in your local community and coming up with a creative solution. Here are some steps to get started:

Hopefully, after reading this you’re jazzed about the little changes that lead to big changes you can make in your own community. If you’re looking to start something, here is a very simple overview for you to think about:

Inspiration → Look for an issue that you could solve using tactical urbanism. Some examples could be a lack of sidewalks, poor access to food, or the myriad of other issues your area has. Figure out the one you’re interested in and start doing research. Find out of similar issues have been solved through tactical urbanism and try to understand what community members think and want as possible responses to the issue.

Ideation → Synthesize what you’ve learned into more concrete ideas on how to respond to the issue. Here you’ll ideate with the community and decide what directions to move forward in.

Implementation → Create a full plan for the project, including what will be needed (budget, resources, timelines etc). Get a team together and implement the project. Celebrate.

Postmortem → Track the success of the project as it continues to be out in the real world. Always gather feedback from the community and compile findings into digestible formats, so you can present them to people if necessary.

Tactical urbanism is cool because it gives us a powerful tool for creating more equitable and sustainable cities. By empowering communities to take action and make changes in their own neighborhoods, we can begin to build a better world, one DIY project at a time. While the challenges facing urban areas are significant, tactical urbanism offers a way forward that is accessible, inclusive, and empowering. You can literally start now. Identify an issue in your community, gather some friends, and begin creating the future you want to see. Together, we can build a more livable, equitable, and solarpunk world.

[earthly--truth]

What I believe in

These are my beliefs as someone who aligns with democratic socialism and progressivism. Feel free to critique it, challenge it, even just a few sections, whatever, but this is what I believe will make the world a better place, because people (and animals) deserve to live the best possible lives they can live with the only chance at life they got. This is going to be super general and long, and not get into nearly everything, but I hope it sheds a positive light on leftism.

Strong unions so that workers (the majority of people in society) have the ability have better footing to negotiate better wages, work hours, vacation days, benefits, etc. I also believe that in instances where it’s pragmatically viable that there should be a push for more worker co-op’s, in which every employee has a stake in the company they work at, and the ability to give their input (all companies should strive for more democracy). Both of these contribute to healthier, happier, and, and better payed people.

Raising the minimum wage in the U.S to $15 an hour. The current wage of  $7.25 is way too low. It’s just not a livable wage. There’s a reason why McDonald’s and Walmart are called corporate welfare queens, and it’s because they’re employees require welfare to survive, despite being the biggest corporations on the planet with multi-billionaire CEO’s. The richest in society should also pay more in taxes.

Stop investing so much in the American military, cut it by a third if you can. (Firstly this frees up a lot of money for other things) Get the military out of the middle east, and create other more peaceful avenues to ensure it doesn’t crumble like every single time the military pulls out and doesn’t try to actually fix the mess they created. The people in the middle east deserve to be able to rebuild and they’ll need help to do that (just not the type of help where america installs their own leaders).

Healthcare should be universal, paid for by taxes. Every developed nation is capable of doing it. Many developing countries are doing it. Americans pay more in taxes for healthcare than so many other countries, yet a trip to the hospital still can put you in debt for the rest of your life. That is inhumane, and people shouldn’t have to choose between crippling debt and their health.

There’s also an argument to be made for free/way cheaper university, since countries like Canada or America force people to get a degree if they want to live a decent life, yet in order to do that you have to pay $15,000 a year for university. A system like that either forces people to skip out on uni, or again go into major debt. If Europe can figure it out, I think the U.S and Canada can figure it out too.

Black Lives Matter. To be more specific, I want police/criminal justice/prison reform. I want police de-militarized and to stop acting so abusive towards to civilians and real justice for the police that do, I want an end on the war on drugs (this helps drug addicts get help and delivers a blow to gangs and the cartel). I want an end to mass incarceration and laws that make it easier to throw people in jail for years for basically nothing. I want an end to for profit prisons. I want an end to the policy of retribution rather than rehabilitation for inmates (countries who rehabilitate are way more successful at non-returning inmates). I want an end to treating prisoners like slaves so corporations can get cheap labour. I also want the government to actually start caring about the poorest communities, many of which are predominantly black and latino (in cities anyways). (Also the indigenous in Canada). Better infrastructure, better public works programs. These all contribute to the proliferation of these communities and helps lessen the potential for criminality by making their lives better.

The dismantling of gender norms and roles, and de-stigmatization of LGBTQ+ people. I want people to be whoever they want to be. For far too long we have expected men and women to act a certain way. Women have come a long way, but there are still remnants of the old way of looking at things. We still have a lot of social stigma about how women should look, and that they are not worth even paying attention to if they aren’t conventionally attractive. We still have social stigma about sexuality and sex work. We hyper sexualize women in the media, yet shame women as sluts if they have a lot of sex. We shame women who choose abortion as murderers, yet don’t offer any support for the mother once the child has arrived. On top of that, the positions of power are still predominantly very old men. I also believe in helping men. Men are lonelier, men are increasingly staying sexless (not by choice), men are getting more suicidal. I want to address this two ways. One, by tackling toxic masculinity (not masculinity itself, just the bad parts). TM is telling men to man up and not to cry, TM is telling men not to act feminine or gay. TM is telling men to bottle up their emotions and resolve their problems through violence. The second way to address this is through my beliefs about workers. Men are the most suicidal in countries where there is a heavy work culture, like Japan and South Korea. Where they can’t have lives, and live to make money for the company they work at. That isn’t good.

When it comes to LGBTQ+ people, we need more positive representation in the media. We need people to see gay, trans, and non-binary people as normal people. When it comes to trans people specifically, we need to end the constant wars against them. Whether you’re talking about bathrooms, or sports, or children/teens receiving trans affirming healthcare. Let trans people be the gender that they say there are in the places they want to be, and allow them to receive the healthcare they need which is just the overwhelming medical consensus. This, combined with more supportive parents. all goes a long way to reducing the suicide rate amonst trans people.

The proliferation of the developing world. I want developing countries to be more autonomous, and to stop being under the boot of western corporations. I want an end to sweatshop labour or borderline sweatshop labour. I want the west to stop treating these actual people like their robots for pennies to produce our ungodly amounts of junk, and to actually pay these people decent wages. I want the world bank to stop giving money in an exploitative way to poor nations so that they cave to western business interests. These are people, human beings, and they deserve to develop and live good lives just like us. I also want them to fight for democracy in their countries.

Environmentalism. To go off the last section, 100 Corporations are contributing 71% of greenhouse gases. That needs to change. Corporations are participating ungodly amounts of devastations to eco-systems and the atmosphere. Ecosystems destroyed, and the exacerbation of the climate crises. I want a green and blue earth, and that can start by a) changing to green energy as much as humanly possible; solar, wind, and even nuclear (and whatever we come up with in the future) are far better than the fossil fuels we use now, which we’ll run out of anyways. And second we need to hold corporations accountable for destroying the planet. If we don’t do this, we risk the climate crises getting really bad. Oceans rising which will flood coastlines, creating millions of refugees, more periods of extreme dry (no water/bush fires) and extreme cold (look at what happened to texas). Something needs to be done about it.

Finally, veganism, for many reasons. One, the switch to veganism will be a big contributor to saving the planet. Whether you’re talking about the devastation we do to places like the Amazon Rain forest and other ecosystems to clear the way for animal farming, or whether you’re talking about reducing emissions. Most emissions and waste from agriculture are from the production phase of animal farming. So much food, water, and energy is wasted by giving it to billions of animals that we purposefully breed into existence, then slaughter, rinse and repeat, every single year, when we could just grow food and give water to people and skip out the middle man (think about how many people are hungry and without water in the world).

Philosophically, it is also wrong to kill a living creature that desires to live, that is able to connect with other living things and it surrounding, to form bonds. A cow, pig, chicken, lamb, sheep, are no different than a dog, cat, or rabbit, and they should not be killed, exploited, and tortured (confinement, abusive conditions in industrial farms) for pleasure. I know it’s pleasure for most people, because vegans are living proof that you can live happy and healthy lives without animal products. Vegans are statistically healthier than non-vegans, and we can get all the nutrients we need, even on an inexpensive diet. There are exceptions of course. A very small portion of people literally cannot eat plants and can only eat meat, and the developing world doesn’t have the same access to vegan products as the developed world does. Those people are valid, but many many people can make the switch and they should, especially in the developed world

All I see from this is making the world better. Hopefully you can too.

[supercantaloupe]

on Aelwyn Abernant, the Reformed Villain Squad, and redeeming teenage antagonists

an analysis on antagonist character development in Fantasy High. spoilers through sophomore year and (mildly so) the most recent roll20 oneshot. essay under the cut bc i am very long winded

the turnaround with Aelwyn in s2 is handled so well  i cant get over it. she was such a major antagonist in the first season and just. despicable. she had no pathos. we hated this bitchy older sister who tried to kill Adaine and her friends and raise an evil dragon, and when she gets knocked on her ass and thrown in jail, we cheer.

and then s2 fucking starts saying “hey she’s in jail still if you’d like to look into that” and pursuing that thread ends up being almost as comedic an idea as it is a reluctant one; it’s also quickly shunted to the background as soon as more pressing leads present themselves, to the point where we almost forget about her until Adaine is kidnapped and then the first time you see her it’s just. viscerally upsetting.

she’s bad. she did evil. she got what she deserved.

but she already got what she deserved. last season.

she got her ass handed to her by a bunch of 14 year olds including her little sister (how embarrassing!). her plans were thwarted. she got punched in the face and made fun of. she already got her punishment.

it just……immediately registers as over-the-top Wrong to be told “hey, remember that antagonist you beat last season? she’s still being punished for that, except it’s way worse than just going to mumple.”

and there’s that reminder that like…this is a teenager. a child. who has been manipulated and abused. which is a really fascinating look at this character we used to see pretty much unilaterally as a one dimensional bitchy villain.

i mean we got a more in depth look at Penelope’s and Biz’s motivations in s1 (Penelope being the popular rich girl sorceress obviously hungry for power and the alllure of the high school clout that is being prom queen, but also we know that her having to turn on her best friend Sam Nightingale as part of the scheme was something she was reluctant and not happy to do; and Biz being that predatory incel creeper type dude besides just a nerd with computers and a lack of social graces). and they were as much willingly active in the plot as Aelwyn was. yet in s1 they really never do bother to explore Aelwyn’s motivations. i remember after watching s1 but before s2 that was one of my biggest lingering questions: why tf was Aelwyn involved?

well. she was manipulated and abused. her terrible parents raised her in an awful environment that conditioned her to Listen and Obey and Behave and Be Perfect, and then Kalina helped cinch the noose around her neck with threats and coersion into the KVS Kaper and the NMK crown debacle. she doesn’t freely choose any of it; she’s coerced, manipulated, abused.

and she already got justifiably punished for her bad actions in s1. the torture is almost literal overkill. it’s just……there’s this immediate turnaround in sympathy and view of the character. on first watch, it’s viscerally upsetting to see her getting so brutally punished for actions she already faced consequences for, and on rewatch, it makes your skin crawl to know she’s being tortured for terrible things she had little choice in carrying out. and tortured by some of the very same people who coerced her to behave terribly in the first place, to add insult to injury.

and it’s still fucking frustrating when they rescue her and her memory gets reset and she goes back to her parents because it’s like “well shit, she’s evil again, and we just wasted all that effort for nothing” but it’s also sad cause we know she’s running back to her abusers and she isn’t happy about it but doesn’t feel like she has a choice. and it’s sadder still that what eventually inevitably gets her to turn to good for good (i.e. away from her parents) is just. a full dissociative mental breakdown.

(but then she survives and it’s gonna be good!!! until Adaine dies in her fucking arms. which is. almost funny. she’s been through so much shit and that isn’t something that Brennan would have just. preplanned. like a written in plot point. no, that was just an unpredictable consequence of the battle. what a juicy fucking moment. she’s been through All That Shit™️ and has finally turned to fight for good and her sister just fully dies in front of her. yeowch)

and she turns out okay in the end. she comes out the other side alive and whole and supported by her sister and her friends, with the hope of a future and recovery. there is an acknowledgement that A) she can and will grow from her mistakes and damage, B) it’s going to be really hard, and C) the post-s2 one shots both prove that she’s doing okay now. hell, she has a whole squad now of other former-teenage-villains-turned-good-guys. she has friends now, Ragh and Zayn, with common ground, and a secret handshake and everything. they’ve all grown from the mistakes of their past into better, happier, healthier people

and about Zayn and Ragh. we’ve seen a lot of characters, protagonist and antagonist, teenage and adult, PC and NPC do some really fucked up shit and get punished for it. but why do they get happy endings? why are Aelwyn, Ragh, and Zayn the only members of the RVS and not someone else like Biz or Penelope or Dayne? 

well, the latter two are dead by then; but then again, Biz and Ragh were also killed by the Bad Kids in s1, and subsequently resurrected. (Zayn died too, but was neither killed nor revived at the Bad Kids’ hands, so i’ll get to him in a sec.) and there are plenty of adult antagonists the Bad Kids face who are killed and left that way by the Bad Kids without second thought: Johnny Spells, Coach Daybreak, Captain Wicklaw, the Abernant parents (presuming Arianwen doesn’t survive in the forest for very long, which i doubt). why do some characters get second chances while others don’t?

in the case of Zayn, his death was pretty much out of the Bad Kids’ hands, and they later found out he was manipulated by Daybreak into being bad anyway because of his sad living situation. he was a pretty minor antagonist in the scheme of things, and when we re-meet him as a ghost in the s1 epilogue, he’s pretty obviously remorseful for his actions. and dying seems like a steep enough punishment to me for the shit he did to contribute to the KVX caper; returning as a ghost, free from the trappings of his unfortunate living life, he now has the room and freedom to grow into a better person.

in the cases of Daybreak, Spells, Wicklaw, and the Abernant parents: these are bad people who should know better. these are fully grown adults who actively choose to do evil. whether they think it’s the right thing to do or not (in Daybreak’s case), whether they think it will benefit them and don’t care about anyone else (in the Abernants’ case), or whether they don’t care much at all and are just doing shit because they feel like it (in the cases of Spells and Wicklaw), these are all adults who consciously make the decision to do terrible things and hurt other people. of course Johnny Spells, who is generally a punk thief and thug, is not on the same level of bad as Angwyn, who kidnaps and tortures his own daughters for political gain, but the point remains. these fuckers should know better. they’re grown ups. they had their chances to be good and they chose not to heed them. their minds are set on bad actions and they are a continued danger to other people as long as they are alive. when they die, the Bad Kids do their damndest to make sure it stays that way.

now, in the cases of Penelope and Dayne: these are teenagers who actively chose to participate in an evil plot. Penelope, Dayne, and Biz were all fully cognizant of what they were doing trying to raise KVX back to his former power. why? well, to some extent, we can only speculate. i suspect Penelope was just one of those Regina George bitches who is rich and popular and powerful and obsessed with power and popularity within high school as if that’s the end-all-be-all of existence (which, like, when you’re currently in high school, is a somewhat understandable worldview i think). Dayne being her boyfriend and a musclehead jock probably falls into a similar line of thinking. they are actively and willingly trying to cause harm, and teenager or not, must be stopped. they’re killed, anyway, during the Climactic Battle™️ anyhow; it’s not like the Bad Kids were going to gain anything at that point by keeping them alive.

now, Biz: Biz is the creepy Nice Guy incel type, sees woman as a prize he deserves to win, yadda yadda. he does, like Penelope and Dayne, actively choose to help KVX. there might be something to be said about his motivation the Bad Kids discover after the arcade battle by detecting his thoughts (that being to upload the captured maidens from the palimpsests to “call the shots” himself) is an altered memory; whether this was his original motivation from the start or not, i’m not sure. but the Bad Kids do kill him – and then resurrect him for important, time-sensitive information. and they beat it out of him – he gets two of his fucking fingers blown off. and Riz reattaches them once they have their info, and they realize his memory is altered. of course, the Bad Kids don’t know at this point that the altered memory was something he, Penelope, and Aelwyn had planned and agreed on and done to themselves, but this points to something important in my opinion: the Bad Kids, and the narrative/show as a whole by extension, acknowledge that external manipulation affects how guilty someone is in a crime.

which brings us to Ragh. Ragh, introduced from episode 1 as the meathead jock. Ragh the archetypical one-dimensional high school bully. Ragh who works with the harvestmen in effort to (ostensibly) end the world/provoke international war. Ragh, whose low intelligence but high loyalty and internalized homophobia led him to be fully swayed and blindly led by his coach and captain, who have actively chosen to do evil. Ragh who is killed in combat by the Bad Kids and resurrected for information, not Daybreak. Ragh, who the Bad Kids realize was probably not aware of exactly what he was being made to do and how bad it really was. Ragh, who by their kindness in sparing his life and directing him on a better path, becomes a well-rounded character and an active ally to the Bad Kids during and after prom, an invaluable companion during their quest in sophomore year, and overall a really good friend and person. 

(it might also be worth considering the case of Jawbone here, too, who started out a very minor antagonist in a fight but ended up becoming a major NPC because the Bad Kids talked to him, found out he came from an unfortunate situation and set of circumstances, and showed him kindness in offering the school guidance counselor position, a kindness that isn’t really owed but given anyway and ends up changing his entire life for good.)

and then, Aelwyn, whose case is already discussed above. so, why is the RVS what it is, why them but not others?

if you’re familiar with Avatar: the Last Airbender, you’re probably familiar with Zuko’s character arc, and how it’s often lauded as a masterful example of developing a villain into a hero over the course of a narrative. what makes Zuko’s arc so well done and exceptional is that he starts out as a kid in a bad situation under the influence of bad adults seeking to do bad deeds, but he later realizes the error of those ways, actively removes himself from that situation despite the difficulty and danger in doing so, goes through a lot of shit and reflects on his past mistakes and learns from them, and then actively chooses to fight for good in the end with the help of close, trusted friends, found family. 

this, i believe, is the same in the case of Fantasy High and its treatment of the RVS. its members, like Zuko, are all teenagers who came from shitty situations and were manipulated by evil adults to do bad. they are punished for their bad actions, and they learn from their errors and mistakes. with the kindness and help of good people, friends and chosen family, they are able to escape their abusers and bad situations and grow into their own people. and they actively choose to improve themselves with that help and fight for good.

Fantasy High, through the arcs of Jawbone, Zayn, Ragh, and especially Aelwyn, asserts that it is not your fault if you come from a bad situation and are forced to behave badly as a result. it does not pretend that you are absolved of any responsibility for those actions; quite the opposite, as even though they were externally manipulated into their evil actions, all of those mentioned characters face tangible consequences for their actions and later express remorse for their mistakes. but Fantasy High also asserts that even if you have made great mistakes in your past, even if you came from a bad situation beyond your control, even if you were manipulated and abused, with care and love and support and a hell of a lot of work and effort, you can improve your situation and find good, happiness, peace, you can thrive. evil adults who should know better don’t get redeemed. teenagers who aren’t coerced but actively choose evil don’t get redeemed. but abused kids deserve another shot at happiness. with enough work, and some love and help along the way, they can get there, even from the lowest imaginable point, from rock fucking buttom. it’s possible. 

[fyrapartnersearch]

18+ Roleplay Buddy!

Hello, hello! I am 18+ and looking for an 18+ NSFW Partner.

-My name is Erika

-I’m 21 years old (Soon-to-be-22)

-From the USA (Eastern time-zone)

-Currently in College

Hello! Anyone that sees this is welcome to message me if you are interested and you see this post. I’m an experienced role-player that has been writing for around 4-5+ years now. I’m open to any types of pairings while RPing a story. Especially looking for partners to message. Someone who is casual and fun and we can just both write together. Have as much creative freedom as you want for whatever story that we are able to create. I want to have us both be able to enjoy it. Don’t be afraid to tell me any ideas, suggestions, stories of your own, and so on and so forth! I like to make sure that my partner is comfortable whenever the two of us chat!

Also a small note, I do have a life outside of writing such as school and working in general. I try to understand with my partner or whoever a chat with so with that being said, I have a busy schedule and I can’t message all the time so I just ask to understand that this is long term for a reason and if I happen to miss your message it is because I am busy, working, and possibly sleeping. I try my best to reply whenever I can but sometimes I do miss and hope that you can understand that happens. I like to be understanding myself and if there is the chance that you can’t talk or RP then I completely understand and rather you focus on life than feeling obligated to message me.

Besides that, I myself am looking to start a long term mature and mostly smutty story, I love fantasy, romantic, action, darker themes dabbled in, and most storyline RPs, if you have an idea that I haven’t tried I’m willing to do it too along with more realistic plot points. I’m very detailed and like a detailed partner too, I usually roleplay in the first person but I do the third person as well if I have to if it is better fitting for the roles within the story. Just tell me which one that you prefer. If you don’t have a preference in mind then I’m sure we can discuss further to settle on something enjoyable. As much as I love smut I do like to have some kind of story so that the constant sex will not get boring. So basically some porn with a plot!

-I do also have a few mini-plot ideas that I can share below to get some creativity going for whoever is interested but nothing is completely set in stone and I am more than happy to change things around to fit both of our needs or come up with something fresh entirely! Just want to help get people brainstorming and see some of the ideas that I have in mind at the moment too.

First, an innocent person unexpectedly being dragged into the crime world when they become the affection and obsession of a mob boss that is not easy to avoid or escape from. The innocent person knows their evil and wrong but it’s very hard to resist them in any way. The more the innocent person tries to stay away the stronger the obsession becomes to the point of being drawn into each other no matter how bad the relationship may be for one another. This plot can have a darker theme and tone to it but I am more than happy to do a much more of a redemption arc to this one.

Second, is an asylum plot, a newbie that enters and is eye-catching to a few other patients that have been living inside the hospital. All having the same thing in mind, leaving the hospital but it’s not as easy as said with the other patients inside and corrupted doctors around. There also could be an alternative plot or side plot in general with a doctor and patient-focused relationship dark theme mostly for this plot and can be supernatural as well.

Third, is more of a pairing with a goody-good and the delinquent, having a more of an opposite attraction sort of situation between the two, maybe starting off with bullying or dislike for one another and having the two interacting. Possibly a dominant bad boy/girl, overpowering the submissive and innocent of the pair. The makings of a possible relationship being able to develop between the two of them or having it eventually crumble apart. I have some more brainstorming that I want to do with this but I would be happy to hear any ideas that you may have if interested, feeling that this will be another more casual and a slice of life in general.

-Those being the more realistic plot points above I have in mind grounded in reality but here are my more fantasy-based plots below.

First is a vampire and human plots as I have a few different ideas that could be used for these roles in general, a human that becomes the bride and/or groom for a ruthless vampire that has been looking for their soulmate all their life. But the soulmate is a human of course and doesn’t know of supernatural life or even in possible denial of there being supernatural beings in the first place. An alternative plotline for the arranged marriage is the human’s parents had been in debt years ago right before they were born, deciding to make a deal with the vampire to be able to provide a good life for their child. But of course, there has to be an equal exchange, that being their hand in marriage once at adult age. With that agreement in place, the human is allowed the chance of a normal life without worries, unaware as their next mid-stone birthday they will have their whole world turned around. Those are the two main ideas in my mind but I am happy to hear anything that you may have. This being more character development and a plot-focused one if you have an interest in this one.

Second is a damsel in distress plot, a princess of a well-known kingdom that gets kidnapped by a group of bandits. The princess is held by them to get as much money as they could for having a ransom. But the more they travel the closer they get to each other. Or it could be the opposite and the princess is actually saved by a hero of the kingdom. Possibly a knight in shining armor, a wanted criminal looking to get some treasure, or even the so-called village idiot. Either way, there is a princess that needs saving! Both developments go over the course of classical fantasy adventure land. Monsters, magic, and everything in between. With this one, I wanna do plenty of world-building, plenty of establishing of characters, and making it feel like the environment is really alive around our characters too.

Third is a human becoming the affection of a wolf’s pact. A lost human in the forest runs into wolf territory unknown to the human. Leaving them completely trapped as the wolves take the human and use them as the housemate. The plot could also be an alpha finding their mate after years of searching but now has to claim them along with the troubles that their mate is a human. But with a human in wolf territory, it can be quite hard with the rising tension in the air. This one could be of course one pairing or multiple pairings depending on those who are interested in playing multiple characters throughout the story.

Fourth, more sci-fi fantasy alien focus plots! An alien has been tracking along and stumbled upon Earth, out of all the millions of places that they could have ended up, the alien is right within the human’s home. Different avenues could be made here, maybe the human taking care of the alien and helping them adapt to life on Earth. Another could be that the alien is being tracked down by the government and changes to the two of them being on the run from the law. With that in mind, we could do the reverse of the story, the alien decides to take one of the humans from Earth and travel along with space. Humans being a species in which are quite rare at this point and nearly on the verge of extension. Leading to some otherworldly beings stepping in to ensure that the human lives life enough to repopulate. Another more action-driven plot is an alien and an android, one being a galactic criminal and the other a bounty hunter that is trying to stop them and end their crime spree around space. Much more of a cat and mouse chase with plenty of encounters in between. Who will really win this game in the end? All of these ideas of course either taking place in a more general modern-day Earth or the bounds of space. Since there are three separate ideas just specify which one you would like to go more into planning with.

Fifth, much more futuristic or steampunk theme plot. A mad scientist and their Frankenstein creation, one would call them a mad person for trying to bring someone to life, whether mechanical or a real being either way after trial and failure over and over again, Their creation finally comes to life! Their greatest accomplishment is finally complete yet it’s unlike anything they ever expected. Sure bringing something to life is amazing in itself but when that life is rather lacking in intelligence, it can be quite troublesome. As mentioned this will have a more futuristic setting with some world-building in mind, a dystopian future can be used along with this too if wanting to give a chance at that too.

Sixth, a bit more of a large idea retaining inside of a home. A human, rather down on their luck, not much family and not having the best of life always passes by an old home, large and intimidating in size. Practically having the look of being abandoned. Even with retaining the look of nothing inside, the home always seems to call for them. Beckoning them inside yet the human always ignored the call and walked along by day after day. Growing the urge to follow that call as it gets louder and louder each time until finally, the human decides to end it and see what’s truly inside. Now, for this plot, I would like it to have a bigger scaled version of symbiosis. Beings that are occupying the same space despite having a history of not coexisting together. Some depend on one another for their own reasons while others use the living space to benefit off of what comes inside the trap. A labyrinth of sorts once inside, would the human truly have what it takes to escape or will they be completely swallowed up whole. This being a rather bigger idea on my end with playing multiple characters and such but you are always more than welcome to play more too. If this one piques your interest then just let me know so we can start discussing more.

Seventh, a more fantasy-themed world in general with this one. I have been really craving something with being suddenly dropped into a world that is much more intimidating and overwhelming around them. Think Alice in Wonderland or Little Nightmares and such where the goal of the main character is to return home again. Having to rely on wits and watch their step every way in fear of making the wrong move at any time. Though with further exploration of this land will you get swept up and trapped inside or manage to crawl your way back out. With this one, I am open to hearing any ideas that you would like to add along with the overall tone as I see it being a wonderous trip through unexplored lands or a gritty survival trail to home. Either way, I am happy to explore more on it.

Eighth, more Sci-Fi fantasy in mind with this one. More groundhog day in mind. Being trapped repeating the same day over and over again only to wake up and do the same. It seems that only you have the memory of what happens which makes you seem to be the one responsible of breaking this loop. Trying multiple ways, trial and error day after day, all seems lost until finally one day you meet someone that remembers your name.

-As stated above all the plot ideas that I mentioned are open to change and I am happy to hear any other ideas that you may have. I myself am a very open-minded person and am happy to hear whatever ideas, kinks, fetishes that you may have in more detail as we chat alone. Everything and anyone is welcomed to message me!

+I do wanna mention a few things here since most people scroll to the bottom and I just wanna make sure I get across the most important information here.

+18+ only partners

+I usually play female characters, I have played male characters in the past but do not have nearly as much experience with them. I could give it a try if you request but it will probably be some of my more shaky work.

+I like to control my character and I would like to keep control of my character. Please do not control my character in any way. I hope that I do not come across as rude but it is a small pet peeve of mine.

+Also apologies in advance but I do not really much fandom stuff really, things with pre-established characters and history are not my strong suit, and feel that I make them more of my own version of that character than anything else so I would rather just do my own OC’s then do a character from something else made.

+I also would like to make this clear once again, I do have work and I am a college student, this is why it’s a long-term roleplay and I am looking for a recurrent partner. If I am busy then I am busy. I would much rather be doing something fun but alas I cannot spend all my time writing and I just want that to be a clear understanding before you decide to message me.

TL;DR: I’m looking for a new detailed long-term roleplay partner and I am more than happy to hear any ideas in mind. As far as contacting me goes you can always message me but I will warn you that I usually don’t do my roleplaying on Reddit since I tend to not get notified about messages so if you are still interested after that I am more than happy to share my discord. Please be patient, as I try to get to every message I can and I apologize if I do miss yours in that process.

And if you are having trouble adding me there then please message me here and let me know!

Discord: BbwCandy18#9717

[fantroll-purgatory]

@itoshiki​

hello! im submitting my sort-of-trollsona-but-not-really. I made him I guess more Alternian and he’s highly personal 2 me but that shouldn’t discourage you! I’m stuck at some parts because I just recently got back into homestuck and I’d like advice from someone who knows their stuff. IT’S SO LONG IM SO SORRY… Thank you so much if you do review it tho!

Hey no worries. Thanks for your patience!

Hell yeah hell yeah ceruleanbloods with Eye Stuff.

World: Alternia, maybe an AU? I’m unsure. But he’s Alternian.

Name: Sancti Serpus

“Sancti” comes from “Saint” and his belief that he can do no wrong, as well as how he believes that his experiments benefit troll society. “Serpus” comes from “Serpent” and his personality being sly and manipulative, could be described as a snake by others in the way he is first nice to his friends but backstabs them later, as well as his lusus being a two-headed Titanoboa (prehistoric Boa).

I understand the reasoning behind the first name! If you want something that plays a little more into the archetypal Mad Scientist “I will become a GOD AHAHAHAHA” vibe then I suggest Apoteu from the Greek apotheoun, meaning “to make a god of.” Still fits his beliefs about himself and how he benefits society…but there is such a thing a vengeful, malevolent god.

I like the serpent theme, especially given the Rod of Asclepius/Caduceus confusion, given that the former is about medicine and the latter about commerce. Plus snake oil salesman as duplicitous people claiming they have a cure when they’re really just selling you whatever they could dig up. Serpus is a little too obvious as a snake troll though, so maybe we abstract that a bit. A slightly silly one would be Davdav, since the longest-living two-headed snake is named Double Dave after its discoverer.

Apoteu Davdav. It has the opposite of a nice ring to it, but I like it because it sounds kind of mad sciencey.

Age: 7.5 Sweeps (16 Human Years)

Theme/Story: His theme is sort of Mad Scientist vibes. He dabbles in forensic pathology, chemistry (even though he often explodes things), troll biology/genes and psychology. Those are his main 5 branches because he’s not very good at math so his knowledge of physics is limited.

fugidghiuuaehiu Bad At Math Science Gang RISE UP

He was hatched and went through The Brooding Caverns. He decided to settle on a Hive in the outskirts of a city, in a suburban area with only a few highblooded neighbors. However, his lusus was very, very hard to feed for the two heads would often argue with and attack each other. His lusus would feed on anyone who visited or came too close, by asphyxiating them. It also neglected him and didn’t pay attention to him for it was too busy fighting with itself. He eventually learned to sedate his lusus through aromatherapy, with chemicals he himself created in his lab. He lives on a huge castle-like hive near a forest where he gets the material for his experiments and corpses to analyze. He has a bunch of body parts in flasks and bottles.

He is a very strange troll, but he doesn’t want to be. Due to his upbringing and his lusus eating whoever came over. He often saw culling, death and destruction near him, which caused him to have a morbid fixation on death and a desire to better troll society through science, influenced by his ancestor Discordi Discipla (he’s a WIP). However, he has fallen victim to his own mental deterioration and apathy as he spent more time around the dead (and undead). This mental deterioration was exacerbated when a presumed dead corpse came to life in his lab and attacked him, causing him blindness in his right eye. He’s somewhat afraid of being culled for his blindness, but knows that it’s not likely, due to his highblood status.

This is pretty good and comprehensive!

Due to his childhood where he didn’t have control over what his lusus did, he now wants to have control over everything in his life. This makes him a very controlling and manipulative person, bent on doing anything to get his way even if it means experimenting on his lowblooded friends. He doesn’t necessarily like hurting others and doesn’t mean to, Alternian society and his own visions of violence has just made him apathetic. This apathy as well as his low self-worth stemming from his neglect has made him have tons of unhealthy relationships, as well as has made him a perfectionist and narcissist. Despite his supposed belief that the end justifies the means and he’s going to make troll society better, he doubts himself and has an inferiority complex.

His mental deterioration has made him a very unstable troll to be around. He’s still a good troll at heart, however the odds are in disfavor due to his blood color causing him to look down on others lower on the hemospectrum and his own childhood. He does things mainly on impulse and suffers from strange hallucinations and visions of the future ever since he was blinded on his right eye. He’s learned to cope with them and they don’t necessarily harm him, but they do cause him significant distress.

He also has a lot of scars from laboratory incidents, and his neighbors hate him.

fjiodshfuo yeah if my neighbor kept making ungodly noises and murdering people with abandon I may also have a beef with them.

Review Goals: General Overview please! Strife Specibus:

Chemicalkind. He carries around various noxious chemicals to use as he pleases, but sometimes they irritate his eyes when he uses them. He can handle it almost all of the time though. He throws them in bottles and that’s how he fights.

I know I *just* suggested this for my most recent review but bottlekind fits here too because if he runs out of chemicals he can just break a bottle off on a nearby surface and stab someone with the broken glass it’s fun it’s easy it’s free.

Fetch Modus:  I kind of took the idea from a mspa fetch modus entry, since I’m bad at coming up with fetch moduses. It’s unoriginal I know, but I genuinely couldn’t think of anything.

Periodic Table Modus.

It requires Sancti to remember his elements, as he needs to remember them for when he’s working and therefore it helps him but also inconveniences him as he can forget them.

This is how it works:

When an item is captchalogued, a quick calculation is checked to see the size of that item. If it is lower than 190x190, the size of the item is totalled and placed on a slot on the fetch modus that corresponds to the periodic table number. 

For example, an item that is 4 in by 2 in would total to 6, and be in the position of Carbon on the table.

Sancti would then have to open the periodic table modus, which would open as an actual metaphysical table, and retrieve the item.

It is blank, with 118 spaces.

This fetch modus is a little confusing to me as well, and your poor math challenged troll likely also finds it difficult.

…but I think I have an idea that keeps with the spirit *and* the confusion while generating some good old Modus Shenanigans. What about an ORBITAL MODUS, with items filling in in each new category as an electron shell would? All items in the outermost shell would be immediately accessible, with deeply nested items remaining inaccessible until the outer shells were emptied.

Like this. Which is perfect for your chemist troll.

Blood Color: Ceruleanblood/Cobaltblood.

Lunar Sway: Derse, because he is dissatisfied with himself.

Derse and Prospit assignations don’t necessarily have to do with how one feelings about *themselves!* Karkat is Prospit and Nepeta is Derse, which reflects the fact that Karkat has accepted the hemospectrum as the way things have to be despite the horrors it inflicts on him, while Nepeta is extremely happy to be herself, but constantly snipes Equius for kowtowing to the hemospectrum. Even Equius is a Dersite, since he doesn’t agree with the hemospectrum so much as develop a really disturbing fixation over the following and subversion of it.

Given that your troll actively uses the hemospectrum to his advantage and delights in doing so, I’d argue he’s a Prospitan!  Title: I’m unsure if I want to make them a sylph of light or a sylph of space, I’m actually not sure at all what they should be.

Between forensic pathology and genetics and chemistry and being attacked by a zombie and feeling he knows best he’s actually coming off VERY much as a Life player to me. Since you’re bouncing between two Sylph classpects I’m happy to keep that title as long as we acknowledge he’s not currently very good at it :P.

Symbol and Meaning: The symbol for purification by burning. He’s my first troll in the session I want to make. It kind of has the meaning of spiritual cleansing or purifying something that is not pure. In this case I think it relates to Sancti’s personal growth that will happen through the session, reflecting how he has to better himself through painful events.

If we go by the EZ, his sign would be Scorsci, Sign of the Fixer. Which is certainly what he sees himself as! I’ll see if I can play with the symbol you gave him and incorporate the Scorpio M into it.

Handle: gravesideAnopsia

Anopsia is a defect in the visual field or blindness, and graveside refers to how he got his blindness.

We definitely see trolls with retroactively foreshadowy trolltags, but I can’t think of a reason for him to have picked Anopsia before his blinding. What about gravesideConjunct, since he sees himself as the connective tissue between the dead and the living? Which can become retroactively ironic when his eye putrifies after it comes into contact with necrotic tissue, which is basically an extreme version of conjunctivitis.

Quirk: ~~( he types…. zzz….. taking… his time…. with words… and….types in caps when he…..wants to zzz…. ASSERT HIS POINT….)~~

Love this quirk he’s a sleeby boy.

He either keysmashes to laugh as “eoeoeoe” “sksksks” or simply laughs like “haha” or “hehe”. He also uses the following emoji    :)-< and (－‸ლ)

Special Abilities: None, unless you count his visions of the future. But he wasn’t born with psychic abilities.

Idk that he even needs visions of the future tbh. Injury does not always confer abilities in troll society.

Lusus/Guardian: A 2-headed Titanoboa (think of a huuuuuge prehistoric Boa, even bigger than an Anaconda). He considers himself to have two dads as the two heads have separate brains. He calls them “my snake dads”. Him and his lusus have a better relationship now that his lusus is sedated, and he often cuddles with his lusus in between their two heads and feeds them the corpses after he’s done analyzing them. However, their relationship used to be negative and neglectful, as explained above.

Omg yes I love his dads.

Interests: Apart from the sciences listed on his theme, he also enjoys the arts and painting with blood of the corpses he studies, as well as making artistic murals outside to the annoyance of his neighbors. He likes cosmic horror books, doomsday devices and machinery, bodily modification, philosophers, and in his spare game he will play puzzle and roleplaying games (but not FLARPing, he’s bad at it). He thinks about hunting the undead sometimes, and likes horror movies, making friends regardless of their dead or alive status, scaring his neighbors, horror movies, and mindless antics.

Appearance: His hair is very straight, but it tends to get messy. Also the string on one of his horns is a string that got stuck on his horn and it’s hard to remove now.

usghiuserg good. I’m gonna see what I can do to his sprite to convey the “straight but messy” vibe more.

Personality: 

He’s VERY creative, more than analytical, which is an oddity for a scientist, others may think of him as a “creative genius” but he rejects the title of being a mad scientist. He wants to be positively known. He also always tries to finish things and has a general curious personality. He’s always seeking knowledge, and often tires himself out from working too much on his experiments, which causes him to enter a cycle of all nighters vs heavy sleeping. He’s a very heavy sleeper, often taking naps throughout the day. He procrastinates on mundane tasks that don’t relate to his interests or experiments. However, he drinks a lot of caffeinated beverages when he needs to work in order to keep himself awake essentially starting an all nighter cycle.

Depending on the circumstances, he can be very friendly and charming, or quite the opposite. It all depends. He likes to crack morbid jokes that make nobody laugh, and is quite disorganized as well as silly. He cares for his moirail (wip) and matesprit (wip) the most, and even though he sometimes snaps at them, he never wants to lose them.

Land: Land of Dreams and Angels, but depending on the classpect you assign him I will change it.

*Hopes and Dreams plays in the background*

What if he’s Land of Regrowth and Thaw, with the grass being fed by the remains of former consorts and the rest slowly unfreezing from ice as his journey continues? Works with his work with dead bodies and also gives us the vegetation associated with Life.

I also have his introduction written out but idk if I should include it. Here it is:

Your name is SANCTI SERPUS and you’d rather be sleeping, or dead.

You love everything relating to THE SCIENCES, but you are not very good at MATH, or keeping organized. However, you are still considered a “CREATIVE GENIUS”. You love anything that STIMULATES YOUR GRUBBY BRAIN -  such as PSYCHOLOGY, FORENSICS and TROLL BIOLOGY. You do many EXPERIMENTS, most of which involve using troll parts in jars, to create true ABOMINATIONS; and one which sadly took your right eye’s vision and has had you in fear of being CULLED. However, you reject the idea of being a “MAD SCIENTIST”.

In a weird fashion, you also highly enjoy THE ARTS, and paint the walls of your GINORMOUS HIVE and other places with objectively “pretty good” PICTURES made from the BLOOD of the corpses you work with, to the annoyance of your neighbors. You also have a slight interest in BODILY MODIFICATION, in an effort to withdraw attention from your accident, as well as an interest in COSMIC HORROR BOOKS, as any good scientist should have. Another interest of yours is VIDEO GAMES, especially ROLE PLAYING and PUZZLE games, and when you’re not working, you spend your time playing them. You’ve even attempted to CODE your own game, and FAILED.  However, you are not a very good FLARPER.

Despite this, all your work leaves you tired, which means you are a HEAVY SLEEPER and tend to procrastinate even the most MUNDANE TASKS that are not related to your interests. On the days that you are energized from drinking CAFFEINATED BEVERAGES, you like to go outside at night and collect all sorts of RANDOM KNICK-KNACKS, which may include CORPSES and FOSSILS to analyze. This has attracted the attention of your neighbors and BEST FRIENDS, who call you an UNHINGED TOTAL MANIAC. You don’t understand why, until you take off your lab coat to reveal an alarming amount of new scars from LABORATORY INCIDENTS. You really are kind of an ODDBALL. 

This is such a frickin MOOD. Let’s go to the redesign, though I don’t have much!

Horns - you said he got string tangled in his horns but those horns are shaped in a way that makes it pretty easy to untangle stuff! I gave him horns that are Klein-bottle inspired, though it’s obviously impossible for horns to actually grow into a Klein bottle shape. Now THAT’S a mess I wouldn’t wanna tangle with!

Hair - I absolutely ripped a fan-troll template to shreds and put it back together again for this hair, but I think this conveys “basically straight but mussed up” with a little more shape than the original.

Face - I adjusted the proportions and replaced the eyebrows with just the piercings because it was looking a little busy.

Shirt - Again it looked a little busy with the jacket with symbols on both flaps and the pendant in the middle, so I gave him a mad scientist jacket edited from John’s.

Symbol - I tried to find a happy medium between the radial symmetry of the original symbol and the Scorsci M with the arrows.

That’s pretty much it! Hope this helped!

-TR

[dysphoric-affect]

Harnessing The Butterfly Effect And Omnipotence

I’ve recently been musing over the best and worst aspects of the main entries in the Elder Scrolls series, and as I was recently musing over the most popular quests from them I had a bit of an epiphany, specifically in regards to the “Whodunnit?” quest from Oblivion’s Dark Brotherhood quest-line. For those who aren’t familiar for whatever reason, the Dark Brotherhood is an assassin faction within that series, and this particular quest has you locked into a house with five other guests, gathered there under the pretense of a game they were invited to partake in: within the house is a chest of gold, with the first person to find it getting the spoils; the door will remain locked until there is a winner. The dark reality is the five other guests are all targets you are contracted to kill by the host, the game a pretext to have them lured into one spot and trapped so they’ll be easier to dispose of in one fell swoop.

Two things contribute to what make this quest so universally beloved. One is the emergent character development. When you come in, each of these characters has their own background and personality and preferences they operate from which are easy enough to learn given the smaller, more intimate setting and the lack of time limit to complete your objective. These give them definite opinions on all the other guests. As you start to kill them off one at a time, you will see your choice of who to kill influence those opinions for better or worse. Kill someone another character hates early on ? They feel some regret at having made assumptions about them and feel they didn’t deserve that. Don’t kill that same hated guest for a while? That hatred becomes suspicion they are the killer. Wait and then kill that same hated guest? The suspicious guest feels even worse than they would have if you killed them early, because they realize their bias clouded their judgment. Inversely, kill someone another guest loves and they will become suspicious of someone they didn’t dislike before. In contrast, keep killing everyone but the guest they are affectionate toward, and see that transform into fear as they logically become the obvious suspect in their eyes. All of this, critically, comes from the player’s choice. You have the time to learn who these characters are and deliberately choose the order you take them out in to play on these biases and crushes and fears and suspicions, granting a unique manner to be evil compared to elsewhere not just in that faction’s quests, but the entire game at large and in gaming in general.

The other critical aspect is that the quest is so open-ended in design. Rather than most quests that have a set chronology of steps that happen story-wise toward completion, you are only given an abstract final goal and are free to determine what the particular steps are toward achieving that, providing a toy box of different story elements, level design elements and gameplay capabilities which can be arranged however the player likes. There are 120 different possible orders the guests can be killed in, which alone is an incredible amount of choice, but once you account for the different events you can make happen by influencing them, places within the house you can kill them at and the actual way you execute them, it becomes impossible to calculate mathematically just how many different specific ways the quest as a whole plays out. That makes this quest rife for enthusiastic discussion among players, as it is practically impossible that any two players will have done the same thing, giving each their own story to tell.

The epiphany I had in relation to this quest is realizing that this quest isn’t primarily great because of the fun opportunities it provides for evil role playing within Oblivion, or Elder Scrolls more broadly, or in RPG’s and gaming in general more broadly still. The evil context within which those dynamics existed and how that was presented did make for tremendous fun that enhanced what made it great, but I think it is a mistake to see the core of that fun as something that can’t be divorced from the evil moral nature of the quest. Rather, those two dynamics of emergent character development driven by player choice on the one hand and player-determined methodology toward macro goal completion on the other hand are the true core to what makes this quest so popular.

This distinction is an important one to make, because without making it we may acknowledge that quest as a great moment in Oblivion, but we go no further. When we do make that distinction, though, then we can start to consider them independently of an evil context or an Elder Scrolls context and begin to see the potential of exploring and applying them in different ways in other games yet to be made.

The dynamic of emergent character development based on player-choice is a particularly important thing to consider toward the future of RPG’s in particular, although other games can also stand to benefit from incorporating such a system as well; Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War stand as especially salient examples of non-RPG’s that have begun exploring this kind of territory. For all the change players can affect in RPG’s up to this point, the influence they exert tends to be centered on macro-scale events and characters. Achieving the next level of sense of impact on the world by the player within these experiences, however, will be contingent on achieving the sense of ability to influence minor characters and events in the way the “Whodunnit?” quest does.

The trick to this isn’t a technical challenge I believe so much as a narrative one and a logistical one: that is, coming up with the sheer amount of content needed to apply this concept on a more global scale in the game world, keeping track of all of that on the part of developers to ensure the execution of all the specific parts are smoothly handled, and handling the presentation of this within the game such that players clearly understand how their actions have affected and are currently affecting characters, as well as having a sense of how their actions will affect things going forward depending on the choices they make. It may be practically speaking impossible for a player to keep track of all the specific instances where their choices have had or will have a butterfly effect, but ideally when approached this should be handled in such a way that most of the time it is easy enough to understand where the player’s actions played a role and in the rest of the cases that it can be figured out with a little effort on the player’s part, whether from memory and/or from in-game means, such as questions these affected NPC’s could be asked. The challenge this presents is monumental, but the closer to complete actualization of such a system a developer out there gets, the closer they’ll have come to making a living world within their game, a horizon larger games have long sought to reach.

The dynamic of player-determined methodology toward macro goal completion even more obviously has application to genres outside of RPG’s as well, though certainly application within it too. Often up till now the majority of freedom associated with quests in games has tended to be the timing on when the steps are performed. Giving more options on the nature of approach would greatly expand this sense of freedom. Part of this could and should come from existing in conjunction with a system of emergent character development and the opportunities that creates, but beyond that consideration should be given to give more options on types of approach, level design-based pathfinding, available tools to use in gameplay and so on - within reason for what is occurring in the story - to expand that freedom further still. Consideration should always be given as well to providing instances of all the above that are unique to given quests/objectives to enhance variety in general for its own sake as well as give that specific quest/objective its own unique flavor, but at the same time never overly pushing any particular method as the “right” way of approaching it. Even the subtle implication that there is a best or better way of doing things within an objective takes away from that true sense of full player self-actualization in their approach, so care should be taken to avoid that, at least if trying to provide true self-determination for the player.

As games - especially RPG’s - are getting ever more complex, there can be a tendency to get lost in concern for how big the world is, the number of quests and characters present and of course the graphics of the experience. It is fine to expand on those aspects, but getting lost on those at the expense of not considering these other avenues of adding depth and complexity to the experience seems to me to be not seeing the proverbial forest for the trees. It is a particularly unfortunate loss considering that these systems I’ve discussed, while undoubtedly able to make good use of advancing technology in games, are not dependent on that to be able to exist. They simply require creativity and hard work from developers who realize the vast potential that can come from their pursuit. I hope as we go forward more developers will tap into this relatively untapped well to provide us depth and immersion in our games we’ve never seen before, whether in Elder Scrolls or beyond.

————

Thanks for taking the time to read my content! If you enjoyed it, please consider liking, commenting, following and especially reblogging so more people can be made aware of it, and of course consider checking out my past content. I really appreciate any support you want to give.

[vikmali-blog]

Our Home... Earth

          Earth is a planet that contains many intertwined cycles that have been sustained for 3.8 billion years. Sustainability is “the capacity of the earth’s natural systems that support life and human social systems to survive or adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely” (Miller 2018, 4). The three scientific principles of sustainability are solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling. The sun provides solar energy to plants which generates nutrients for the survival of other organisms. Biodiversity is the intricate interaction of different genes, species, ecosystem and ecosystem processes. Chemical cycling is the cycling of chemicals through different species and back to the environment (Miller 2018, 5). These three principles are cycles that depend on one another.

          When looking at how the Earth provides for us, we are able to see that there are four types of services which include provisioning services, regulating services, habitat services and cultural services. Provisioning services focus on the material outputs from the ecosystems such as food, raw materials, fresh water, and medicine. Regulating services are the services that the ecosystems provide to us by acting as regulators; this includes air quality, carbon storage, pollination, soil fertility, etcetera. Habitat services are the living spaces provided by the ecosystems for various species. Cultural services are the non-material benefits that people receive which includes aesthetic and psychological benefits (List of Ecosystem Services).

          Earth provides us so much but unfortunately its atmosphere, water resources, oceans, soil, forests, and living species are currently suffering (Kendall 1992, para. 3). The atmosphere has an ozone depletion resulting in increased UV absorption. Also, from 1750 to 2003, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide increased from 280 to 375 parts per million (Ecosystems and Human Well-Being 2005, 4). When looking at water resources, there are 80 countries containing 40 percent of the human population that lack freshwater (Kendall 1992, para. 3). Oceans contain toxic chemicals due to overuse of these chemicals for agriculture. Not only that, but “approximately 20% of the world’s coral reefs were lost and an additional 20% degraded in the last several decades of the twentieth century, and approximately 35% of mangrove area was lost during this time” (Ecosystems and Human Well-Being 2005, 2). In regard to soil, 11% of Earth’s soil (land bigger than India and China combined) has been degraded due to agriculture (Kendall 1992, para. 3). There was “more land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850” (Ecosystems and Human Well-Being 2005, 2). Tropical rain forests, tropical dry forests, and temperate dry forests are being destroyed for multiple reasons such as deforestation (Kendall 1992, para. 3). There is also a huge decrease of biodiversity and by this rate, only one-third of today’s species will survive in 2100 (Kendall 1992, para. 3). All of these unfortunate activities are due to human activity.

          The six major causes of today’s environments are population growth, wasteful and unsustainable resource use, poverty, avoidance of full-cost pricing, increasing isolation from nature, and different environmental worldviews (Miller 2018, 15). In 1930, the human population was roughly 2 billion and in 2015, the population increased at an exponential rate to 7.3 billion people (Miller 2018, 15). The more increase in human population, the more wasteful and unsustainable resources are used. Poverty also causes harm to the environment. People who are poor focus on getting food, water, and heating fuel just to survive. These people are, unfortunately, too desperate to worry about the environment. Then there are companies in which harm the environment when creating products. Most companies are not required to pay when, for example, they have to clear cut in order to obtain the sources. The fifth cause of environmental change is the isolation of people from nature which is phenomenon known as nature-deficit disorder. There are “three out of four people in more-developed countries [that] live in urban areas [do to] increasing use of cell phones, computers, and other electronic” (Miller 2018, 19). The last reason of environmental change is the different environmental worldviews. There are three different views—human-centered environmental worldview, life-centered environmental worldview, and earth-centered environmental worldview. The human-centered concept believes that Earth is a system created solely for human-life. The life-centered concept believes that all species are important. The earth-centered concept believes that humans “are part of, and dependent on, nature, and the earth’s natural capital exists for all species, not just for humans” (Miller 2018, 20). People will act on one of these three views creating conflict.

          Although Earth is changing, it is not too late for us to look at alternatives in order to mitigate the change. The Alliance of World Scientists (AWS) is one of many organizations that can help us unite to reduce the drastic change which consists of 15,000 scientists from 175 countries. The purpose of the AWS is “to be a collective international voice of many scientists regarding global climate and environmental trends and how to turn accumulated knowledge into action” (“Alliance of World Scientists” 2017, para. 2). There are six areas that we can interfere in which include energy, short-lived pollutants, nature, food, economy and population (“Alliance of World Scientists” 2017, para. 2). We could start by using alternatives for energy, so we don’t have to produce green-house gases. Then we could recycle more plastics, so they don’t end up accumulating in the ocean. And finally, in order to stabilize population, women need to have control over their own reproductive decisions which include birth control methods (Kendall 1992, para. 15). These are a few methods that would help stabilize the drastic change of Earth’s condition.

          There are people that believe, it is not our job to save the world. Many argue that Earth has existed for 3.8 billion years, and during these years, Earth has experienced catastrophic events without human input. These events include “gigantic meteorite impacts, ice ages lasting millions of years, long warming periods that melted land-based ice and raised sea levels by hundreds of feet, and five mass extinctions—each wiping out 60–95% of the world’s species” (Miller 2018, 4). Thus, the planet Earth will survive no matter how much we pollute it, but some people are missing the big picture. The Earth can survive without people, but people cannot survive without the Earth! We must keep in mind that “our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know” (Kendall 1992, para. 2). I, myself, did not notice how much of a parasite we can be until I did the Ecological Footprint Quiz. If everyone lived like I do, we would need 3.6 Earths to survive in a way that would not alter Earth’s conditions. When looking at the Ecological footprint per country, I was able to see that the problem originates from developed countries. Ecological deficit is when the ecological footprint per person is larger than the biocapacity per person. If it’s the other way around, this is considered ecological reserve. United States is considered to be an ecological deficit country. When taking the sum of all the countries, the world is ecologically deficit (Miller 2018, 27). These countries know that humanity is in danger, so why is there no drastic effort to change?

Figure 1. Human Footprint Index: Doesn’t this image look like a body covered in disease? Well, actually, this image depicts the human ecological footprint which has an impact of about 83% of Earth’s land (Miller 2018, 12) 

Word Count: 1,229

Works Cited

“Alliance of World Scientists.” Home Page | World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. Accessed January 27, 2020. https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/.

“Annex 2: What Are Ecosystem Services.” UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Synthesis: a Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Washington, D.C: Island, 2005.

Kendall, Henry W. “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.” A Distant Light, 2000, 198–201. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8507-1_19.

Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning, 2018.

[denialisnotpolicy]

Let’s Get Sustainable: Setbacks & Solutions

On January 23, 2020, the Trump administration approved a policy change that ends federal protection for much of the U.S.’s streams, arroyos, and wetlands, leaving them subject to the harmful pollution caused by development, industry, and farms. This comes unsurprisingly with Trump’s record of caring more for business than environmental degradation and sustainability. 

The importance of sustainability is better understood when we understand the three scientific principles of sustainability: dependence on solar energy, biodiversity, and chemical cycling. 

Figure 1. The Three Scientific Principles of Sustainability (Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment. National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning, 2018.)

These three principles are not only what makes Earth so unique, but also what has kept Earth alive for billions of years. Solar energy warms the planet and provides energy. Energy that is transformed into nutrients by plants. Biodiversity is used to describe the wide variety of genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes that keep our world in check. Chemical cycling describes how organisms recycle chemicals in order to keep the nonrenewable resource around. In nature, waste is a useful resource. In addition, there are three main categories of natural resources. Those that are inexhaustible will always be available to us, such as solar energy. Those that are renewable are able to replenish themselves within a certain time frame, so as long as we don’t use it faster than it can replace itself, it will be available to us. However, those that exist only in a finite manner we call nonrenewable or exhaustible. These include oil, coal, natural gas, copper, salt, and sand. Scientists work tirelessly to create replacements for these resources as we continue to deplete them. 

Figure 2. Three Types of Natural Resources, (Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment. National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning, 2018.)

A major issue that we currently face is the degradation of natural capital. We, humans, are wreaking havoc on earth’s natural capital with pollution and waste. When we create pollution and waste at such a fast rate, the air, soil, and water are no longer able to cleanse themselves naturally. Also, much of our waste is composed of synthetic materials that disrupt these natural cycles and processes. Perhaps now it is easier to understand why the Trump Administration’s decision to end federal protection of many streams, arroyos, and wetlands, subjecting them to pollution and waste from businesses and farms, is so harmful. 

The harmful impact we have on the environment has been termed our ecological footprint. If our ecological footprint is larger than the biocapacity of our area, we have an ecological deficit. In completing a personal ecological footprint quiz, which can be found at https://www.footprintcalculator.org/, I discovered that if everyone lived like I do while a student at Fordham, we would need 3.2 Earths to sustain us. Even more shocking, my Earth overshoot day is April 24, not even halfway through the year. This was a disturbing personal discovery, and I find myself confused and angered by how unsustainably I am living. When comparing the ecological footprints of countries, I found the countries with the largest deficits to be the United Arab Emirates, Israel, the U.S., and Japan, while the countries with ecological credits were Australia, Brazil, Canada, Russia, and China. I am not surprised that the countries with ecological deficits are largely affluent countries, but also those with ecological credits tend to be affluent, with large land masses. 

Figure 3. Ecological Footprints (“What is an Ecological Footprint?” Earth Overshoot Day. Accessed January, 2020. https://www.overshootday.org/kids-and-teachers-corner/what-is-an-ecological-footprint/)

The growing urgency of this issue has lead to people of all academic dispositions to seek solutions. Full-cost pricing, from economists, suggests that market prices include the environmental and health costs of their products. Win-win solutions, from politicians, suggests that solutions to these issues should seek to benefit the majority of people as well as the environment. Ethicists stress our responsibility to future generations, claiming it would be wrong to leave the planet in distress after our own lifetimes. 

The fact of the matter is that we are currently living unsustainably. In a 2005 report by the UN, it was stated that “human activities have overused about 60% of the ecosystem services provided by nature, mostly since 1950” (Miller 2018, 6). In the 1992 World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, damage to the atmosphere, water resources, oceans, soil, forests, and living species was described as “irreversible on a scale of centuries, or permanent” (Union of Concerned Scientists 1992). They emphasized the finite nature of nature, and issued five calls to action: to control environmentally damaging activities, manage resources better, stabilize the population, reduce and eliminate poverty, and achieve sexual equality. 

In the more recent World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency, released just three months ago in November 2019, scientists emphasized their moral obligation to warn the rest of humanity about the danger we are putting our planet in. They suggest critical steps we must take in order to change the trajectory we have set for ourselves and our home. First, we must quickly implement energy efficiency and conservation practices. Second, we need to decrease emissions of short-lived pollutants. Third, we must protect and restore Earth’s ecosystems. Fourth, we ought to eat mostly plant-based foods in order to reduce GHG emissions and improve human health, and reduce the amount of food waste. Fifth, we must stop putting economic growth over the health of our planet by shifting our goals away from affluence and toward sustaining ecosystems. Finally, we must stabilize the world population. In all of these steps, developed, affluent nations must lead and assist poorer, less-developed nations achieve the goals.

Affluence is linked to environmental degradation because as total resource consumption and average consumption per person increase, so does waste, pollution, and our environmental footprints. At the same time, affluent nations have more education and awareness about environmental issues, leading to more concern. On the other hand, poverty also has a complicated relationship with the environment because sometimes impoverished people are too worried about short-term survival to worry about long-term sustainability. However, some impoverished people turn to planting food and nurturing the soil in order to survive long-term. Another economic aspect of environmental issues is the fact that most companies do not pay for the harmful effects that they have on the environment. In fact, governments often give companies subsidies (tax breaks, payments, and other benefits) that help them economically, but only further environmental degradation. 

All of this sounds startling, right? If scientists have been issuing warnings about the future of our planet for over 20 years, why hasn’t there been a drastic change? Things get complicated when we consider the different environmental worldviews people hold. While I may read all of the statistics and warnings and feel angry, frustrated, and encouraged to make a change, others don’t see it the same. Some have a more human-centered view, in which humans and nature are separate, and nature exists to serve and sustain us. Others have a life-centered view, in which all species are valued and therefore we should avoid activities that would lead to the extinction of other species. Those with an earth-centered view see humans as a part of nature, and believe that natural capital is not just for humans. This view emphasizes biomimicry, the idea that we should learn from and imitate nature. 

Figure 4. The 2017 Peoples’ Climate March. (Spanger-Siegfried. “What’s Next After the Peoples Climate March? Riding the Momentum and Bringing it Home.” Union of Concerned Scientists. May 2, 2017. Accessed January 2020. https://blog.ucsusa.org/erika-spanger-siegfried/whats-next-after-the-peoples-climate-march-riding-the-momentum-and-bringing-it-home)

I believe that regardless of our differences in worldviews, all people should be able to recognize that our current degradation of the planet is unethical, and we must take immediate action. It can be easy to feel hopeless, but it is more important to know that research shows only 5-10% of the population of a community is required to make serious change, and that it can happen faster than we think. All it takes is for a group of engaged citizens to stand up and demand change, and eventually our voices will be loud enough they can’t be ignored.

Word Count: 1266

Question: I’ve heard many times that individual action against climate change is a small feat compared to the amount of waste and harm produced by large corporations, and therefore the blame and call to action should be targeted towards them. Is it important to decide who is most to blame for environmental degradation, or should our focus be primarily on future solutions? Do we need to find out who’s to blame in order to create change, or does it just divide us and put us farther away from major change?

Bibliography

1. Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment. National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning, 2018. 

2. “1992 World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.” Union of Concerned Scientists. July 16, 1992. Accessed January, 2020. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/1992-world-scientists-warning-humanity

[agricultureknowledge]

The year 2011 was declared the International Year of Forests by the United Nations to raise awareness and strengthen the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations. . . . . #LIKE #SHARE #COMMENT #AGRICULTURE #KNOWLEDGE #EDUCATION (at Institute of Agricultural Sciences,SOA University) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeLuG5dP_bu_hj1_uPwY92gicyi5HD-gnyMQok0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[renewablenergy2021]

Renewable Energy Technologies – A Synopsis

Renewable Energy Technologies – A Synopsis

Renewable energy technologies permit us to create electricity, heat, and fuel from renewable sources that do not harm our ecosystem. While producing energy from these sources there is no emission of injurious byproducts.

Sun is the supreme power source of Solar, wind, hydro, wave, heat energies. They are all mechanized by the sun, directly or indirectly. Technologies like tidal and wave energy are powered by the moon. Whereas, Geothermal technologies are powered by the heat produced in the Earth's core.

Bioenergy technologies are produced by converting the solar energy stored in plants, sewage, food wastes, forest wastes, algae, and farm wastes into heat, electricity, and fuel, using a variety of different methodologies.

Through these technologies, we can heat and cool our buildings/houses/offices, and generate electricity. They are also used in technologies to power travel by land, sea, and possibly also by air. Renewable energies are generated without producing dangerous greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution.

Solar Energy 

Capturing the radiant energy from sun rays and then converting it into heat, electricity, or hot water is how Solar Energy is produced. Photovoltaic (PV) systems convert direct sunlight into electricity through the use of solar cells that are spread over the solar panels.

Solar PVs are now frequently used for water pumping - irrigation and drinking water and are gaining widespread acceptance in many countries. These countries are now investing in more such projects where solar energy can be tapped to its maximum.

One of the major benefits of solar energy is that sunlight is functionally limitless - With the increasing technological advancements to harvest this energy, there is an infinite supply of solar energy.

With proper understanding of this source of impeccable energy, it can make fossil fuels obsolete. Also, stressing more about solar energy rather than fossil fuels will help in improving public health and environmental conditions. When used for a longer duration, solar energy could also eradicate energy costs, and in the short term, decrease energy bills. Many governments have started to provide incentives to businesses/houses or other infrastructures using solar energy by providing rebates or tax credits.

Wind Energy

 Wind farms capture the energy of the flowing wind by using huge wind turbines and converting them into electricity for industrial use. There are different types of systems used to convert wind energy and each of them varies in size, capacity, and technology.

For huge industries, there are commercial grade wind-powered generating systems that can power big colonies too. Single-wind turbines are used to provide additional power to pre-existing or small energy organizations. There is another form is utility-scale wind farms. These are purchased by contract or sold at wholesale rates.

Wind energy is a form of solar energy as the sun is the center of major energy sources. Scientifically, “wind” is a phenomenon caused by the differences in temperature in the atmosphere when combined with the revolution of Earth and its geography.

Geothermal Energy 

The heat that is trapped beneath the earth’s crust is known as Geothermal Energy. This heat is generated by the formation of the Earth billions of years ago and from radioactive decay under the crust. Volcanic eruptions are a result of this heat escaping naturally. Such type of energy or heat can be captured and is then used to produce geothermal energy. By using the steam that comes from the heated water below the earth’s surface, which then surges to the top, can be used to power a turbine.

 Energy from Oceans

 Thermal and mechanical energies are produced by the ocean. Ocean mechanical energy uses the tides to generate energy. The ebbs and flows of the tides are created by the moon’s gravity pull and the rotation of the earth. The thermal energy of the ocean occurs due to the warmth of water surface temperatures to generate energy. This renewable form of energy is predictable and it is very easy to estimate the approximate amount of energy that can be produced.

Hydroelectric

 Dams are always associated with hydroelectric power. When water flows through the dam’s turbines it produces power, known as pumped-storage hydropower. A very versatile source of renewable energy and can be produced through Large scale or Small scale projects like Hoover Dam and Underwater Turbines respectively. The Small Scale projects are usually carried on small rivers and streams.

Biomass

 Derived from biomass, Bioenergy is another type of renewable energy. Biomass is organic matter that originates from the recent decay of living plants and other organisms. One very common way of using Biomass is using wood in the fireplace.

As numerous methods are being used to generate energy through the use of biomass, it is one of the most commonly used sources of renewable energy. Burning of biomass, and harnessing methane gas produced by the natural decomposition of organic materials in and around water bodies are few ways of producing Bioenergy.

Hydrogen

 Hydrogen needs to be combined with other elements to make it a source of Renewable energy. When combined with oxygen it makes water. This cannot occur naturally as a gas on its own. But when hydrogen is separated from any other element it can be used to produce both fuel and electricity. Hydrogen is also used as clean-burning fuel aiding in less pollution and a cleaner environment.

Renewable energies allow users to be responsible individuals and provides a greener alternative. Reduce your footprints by opting for better living solutions for a healthier and cleaner tomorrow.

 Author: Shivalika is the editor of Renewable India and an entrepreneur, leader, trainer, and marketer with over 12 years of experience holding masters in marketing and strategic development. She’s editor-in-chief of a global e-magazine ‘ClearOut Magazine’. A multifaceted individual, Shivalika is also associated with few startups as their growth consultant. She also conducts skill development and corporate etiquettes workshops too. Shivalika helps her client to understand the current market and make them future-ready by providing a strategic and designed approach. She’s passionate about learning and developing at every stage of life. 

[alliedmarketresearchs]

Organic Soaps  Market Trends 2020 | Segmentation, Outlook, Industry Report to 2027

Organic soaps are certified by institutions like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), EU Organic Certification, Australian Certified Organic, and Nature’s International Certification Services (NICS). Organic soaps are cleansing agents manufactured using organic oils and ingredients. These soaps contain bee wax, aloe vera, glycerin, honey, turmeric, amla, and other natural cleansing and purifying agents. Also, organic soaps are eco-friendly, contains natural anti-bacterial ingredients, antioxidants, and are gentle on the skin. On the other hand, traditional soaps contain harmful artificial chemical compounds like paraben and sulfate, which causes skin problems like eczema, acne, allergies, and other harmful reactions. New organic soaps in the market with 100% natural ingredients and liquid soaps paves the way for improved and better organic soaps than the traditional soaps.

Market scope and structure analysis

Ø  Market Size Available for Years

2020–2027

Ø  Base Year Considered

2019

Ø  Forecast Period

2021–2027

Ø  Forecast Unit

Value (USD)

Ø  Segment Covered

Type, Distribution Channel, Industry Vertical, and Region

Ø  Regions Covered

North America (U.S. and Canada), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Rest of Asia-Pacific), LAMEA (Middle East, Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of LAMEA)

Ø  Companies Covered

EO Products, Neal's Yard (Natural Remedies) Limited, Khadi Natural, The Honest Company, Inc., Nature's Gate, Ergative, Laverana GmbH & Co. KG, Sensible Organics, Beach Organics, Pangea Organics, Inc., Lavanila Laboratories, Vi-Tae, Sundial Brands LLC, Truly's Natural Products and Forest Essentials

 Get a sample of the report @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6783

COVID-19 Scenario Analysis: 

·         The personal care and beauty industry has been hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic but being and essential item the industry is expected to experience growth after opening of trade.

·         All the manufacturers of organic soaps depends on the raw material from agriculture-based products in India, Thailand, Brazil, and China that are facing lockdown.

·         The demand for personal hygiene products like soaps and body wash is expected to increase after the pandemic due to increase of health awareness. 

·         Also, the manufacturers are trying to integrate with E-commerce website for better delivery channel.

Top Impacting Factors: Market Scenario Analysis, Trends, Drivers, and Impact Analysis

Soar in of organic soaps and liquids in personal and beauty care products, rise in awareness about harmful chemical compounds in traditional soaps, increase in skin allergies, and diseases globally are the factors that drive the growth of the global organic soap market. In addition, an increase in per-capita income, endorsement by celebrities, startups providing organic products through websites, and pollution due to rapid urbanization contribute to the growth of the market. However, the varying cost of agricultural goods, high cost in extracting the natural ingredients, and low-shelf life limit the market growth. Contrarily, investments in research for new soaps suitable for all skin type with low-cost ingredients, the introduction of new product range, attractive packaging, and online sales channels creates a huge untapped market for new players in the market. 

The global organic soaps market trends are as follows:

New product launches to flourish the market

The launch of new products with improved capabilities have been launched by leading market players. They have added necessary ingredients to improve the quality of soaps. Every One (EO) Products 3-in-1 soap comes in with natural and organic ingredients and can be used as shampoo, soap, shower gel, and for bubble bath. The series contains different flavors and natural constituents like Coconut + Lemon, and Aloe vera + Lavender. These products by EO are skin friendly and are suitable for all skin types and do not react with sensitive skins like the traditional soaps. Some other companies are trying to add natural ingredients like goat’s milk, almonds, and olive oil to enrich the skin tone and reduce the sign of aging.  

Surge in usage in North America, European countries 

The surge in uses by developing countries of North America and European countries like the UK has been seen because of increase in pollution causing skin infections, awareness initiatives by government and NGO’s against harmful chemical compounds in traditional soaps and increase in availability of organic soaps.

Manufacturers have been focusing on producing new soaps to ensure better effect on skins and better packaging with lowest prices than can attract more customers. Also, there is an increase in the urge of producing all-In-one product making the market more compact toward using one product rather than using 4-5 products.

Request a discount on the report @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6783

Key Segments Covered:

Ø  Type

Bar Soap

Liquid Soap

·         Paper Soap

Ø  Distribution Channel

Supermarkets

 Hypermarkets

Offline Retail Units

Online Retailers

·         Others

Ø  Industry Vertical

Personal Care

Hotels and Boutiques Resorts

·         Others

 To know more about the report @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/organic-soaps-market-A06418  

Key Benefits of the Report:

·         This study presents the analytical depiction of the global organic soaps industry along with the current trends and future estimations to determine the imminent investment pockets.

·         The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with detailed analysis of the global organic soaps market share.

·         The current market is quantitatively analyzed from 2020 to 2027 to highlight the global organic soaps market growth scenario.

·         Porter’s five forces analysis illustrates the potency of buyers & suppliers in the market. 

·         The report provides a detailed global organic soaps market analysis based on competitive intensity and how the competition will take shape in coming years. 

Questions Answered in the Organic Soaps Market Research Report:

·         What are the leading market players active in the organic soaps market?

·         What the current trends will influence the market in the next few years?

·         What are the driving factors, restraints, and opportunities in the market?

·         What future projections would help in taking further strategic steps?

About Allied Market Research:

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting services to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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[mexckk]

MEXC Global Research: Ethereum’s MEV and Countermeasures

What is MEV?

MEV (Miner Extractable Value) was first proposed by Philip Daian et al. in April 2019 in the paper “Flash Boys 2.0” and started to gain traction following the development of DeFi.

Miner Extractable Value refers to a measure of the profit a miner (or validator, sequencer, etc.) can make through their ability to arbitrarily include, exclude, or re-order transactions within the blocks they produce.

In other words, miners can pack transactions in Ethereum to generate blocks. In the resulting blocks, miners can also re-order, include, exclude transactions, and do other operations. In addition to transaction costs and block rewards, the value miners receive from these operations is MEV.

In DeFi, MEV mainly occurs in arbitrage transactions and liquidation. Arbitrage transactions, such as between different DEXs like Uniswap and Sushiswap, may contain arbitrage opportunities.

For example:

Suppose the appearance of a $10,000 USD arbitrage opportunity on Uniswap after a large trade led to a price slippage. At this time, the arbitrage bot notices this and submits the arbitrage transaction to the miners. Then, there are two possible outcomes:

1. The miner will duplicate and review the arbitrageur’s transaction. The miner will trade and pack the opportunity first. If the benefits are higher than the simple operating costs, there will be sufficient incentives for miners to participate;

2. Other bots will notice this arbitrage opportunity and bid a higher transaction fee to start a bidding war for the arbitrage. This kind of bidding is called a “Priority Gas Bid” (PGA);

The profit behind this $10,000 USD is MEV. If the miners do not participate in the trade and the bots compete in a PGA, then the difference between the auction’s settlement price and the total MEV is the winning trader’s profit (for example, if an arbitrage bot pays the miners $7,000 USD, the remaining $3,000 USD is reserved for the arbitrageur).

Most MEVs are PGA-type MEVs, just like Uniswap arbitrage. However, there are other types of MEVs, such as theft from vulnerable smart contracts. Dan et al. described an example in their “Dark Forest” article and found a smart contract with a vulnerability that allows anyone to steal money from it. Dan plans to recover money from the loophole before the thieves have time to steal the money. However, an arbitrage bot automatically recognized the opportunity and copied Dan’s transaction, giving higher transaction costs. The bot successfully executed the transaction before Dan and eventually took the money away.

As development progresses, MEVs will exist across all smart contract blockchains. One party will always be responsible for sequencing transactions, including non-miner participants, such as validators in ETH2.0 and aggregators on Optimistic Rollup. Therefore, Flashbots proposed that MEV should be referred to more broadly as Maximum Extractable Value, expanding its scope from Ethereum to cover other blockchain architectures while keeping the name of MEV. It is worth mentioning that MEV extraction in Ethereum today is mainly performed by non-mining DeFi traders and bots.

MEV’s definite negative externality to the blockchain ecosystem is the malignant effect on the gas bidding mechanism. As long as the MEV is large enough, the runners will be willing to pay gas fees hundreds of times higher than ordinary transactions through vicious competition. At the same time, block space will record a lot of failed high fee transactions, resulting in a waste of this scarce resource, block space, and a certain degree of network congestion.

This results in ordinary traders and searchers having certain negative experiences regarding MEV. In traditional finance, regulators impose legal constraints on the behaviors that disrupt the order of market transactions, such as rush trading; In the decentralized financial ecosystem, it mainly depends on the game between stakeholders and the technological upgrading of decentralized system to promote the reform or optimization of the market mechanism.

MEV’s Impact

1. Leads to the reflections and redesign of ecosystem roles

2. Importance of fostering greater attention to the value of transaction data and the sequencing of block space

3. Miners can benefit from this extra profit

4. Hurting users: MEV is essentially a rush transaction and can cause network congestion

5. Hurting the Blockchain network: MEV essentially encourages consensus instability

6. There are no constraints or direct solutions and only mitigation measures are currently available

MEV’s Typical Practices

Front-running refers to earning profits by placing a particular transaction in the same block before the target transaction (attacked transaction), mainly for liquidation and arbitrage transactions.

Back-running refers to earning profits by placing a particular transaction in the same block as a target transaction, typically an Oracle transaction or a single big transaction order.

Sandwich attacks are the combination of the two forms of attack above which allows the target transaction to be caught exactly in the middle of two specific structured transactions for profit. Sandwich attacks greatly broaden the scope of an attack, making it possible to target even a common AMM DEX transaction. An attacker’s first constructed transaction creates greater price fluctuations, and the second structured transaction is executed immediately following the execution of the target, thereby profiting after exchanging the attacked cryptocurrency.

Flashbots

Flashbots is a research and development organization that aims to reduce the negative externalities and risks posed by MEV to the public chain of smart contracts. It wants to create a “permissionless, transparent, and fair ecosystem” for the public chain of smart contracts.

Flashbots provides a solution for MEV — MEV-Geth. MEV-Geth eliminates information asymmetry, opens arbitrage opportunities to the public and shares them with stakeholders. Ultimately, the distribution order of benefits established by Flashbots may form a bidding market based on arbitrage and liquidation bots, thereby eliminating free-rider behavior.

Flashbots’ solutions to mitigating the MEV crisis are divided into three parts: illuminating the dark forest, democratizing value mining, and distributing profits.

Illuminating the Dark Forest: To quantify the impact of MEV, Flashbots created the scanning of Ethereum blocks, enabling MEV indicators to display visualized MEV-Inspects, thereby eliminating information asymmetry.

Democratization of Value Mining: Ensure that all participants can use the basic financial module equally so that the core features of Ethereum can be retained. The publishing of go-Ethereum client upgrade, MEV-Geth, enabling of the block space sealed-bid auction mechanism, and conduction of transaction order preference communication alleviate the situation of front-running and back-running transactions and reduce the congestion of Ethereum to a certain extent.

Distribution of Profits: Establish a coordinated and sustainable ecosystem with full consideration of the roles of users, miners, developers, node operators, and others.

Related Data (Reference data: June 30)

Due to the persistence of transactions in the blockchain, MEV will always exist, and realized MEV could be roughly calculated from the historical data. According to Flashbots’ data, the cumulative MEV exceeded $749 million in January 2020.

(Source：flashbots MEV-Explore)

Proportion Of Protocols Used by MEV for Interaction

Uniswap: 42%

Sushiswap: 23%

Balancer: 11%

Curve: 9.8%

dydx: 7.6%

Others: About 6.6%

(Source：flashbots MEV-Explore)

The main ways to obtain MEV are arbitrage and liquidation, in which the proportion of arbitrage transactions is more than 97%.

(Source：flashbots MEV-Explore)

Some Conceptual Projects Focused on Mitigating MEV’s Issues

At present, there are two solutions to the negative impact of MEV. One is to let arbitrageurs and miners work together to avoid malicious competition among arbitrageurs. The other is to hide arbitrage opportunities, place transactions in black boxes, and give tips (extra benefits) to allow miners to pack selectively.

ArcherDAO

Native Token: ARCH

Price: 0.72USDT

Market Value: 8 million USDT

ArcherDAO is a network protocol that allows arbitrageurs and miners to work together directly. It uses a different solution than PGA to optimize the benefits of arbitrageurs and miners and avoid wasting gas costs for arbitrage. At present, ArcherSwap is a different solution from other DEXs, and is more in line with the future development of Ethereum.

There are two main roles in ArcherDAO, one as a miner and the other as a supplier. Suppliers submit transactions with MEV opportunities, miners pack transactions into blocks, and the protocol links the two to route transactions submitted by suppliers to miners.

In a collaboration effort, suppliers act as diggers for arbitrage and liquidation opportunities, and they are responsible for discovering potential profit opportunities everywhere. Once possible opportunities are found, they are sent to ArcherDAO, which in turn sends them to the miners for priority packing. Once the arbitrage is successful, the protocol will distribute the benefits proportionally between the suppliers and the miners.

Currently, in this distribution of benefits, the current protocol does not charge fees. In the future, some fees may be charged according to the governance of DAO.

mistX

Related token: Alchemist Project（MIST）

mistX is a decentralized exchange introduced by Alchemist using Flashbots technology. mistX, also known as FlashDEX, binds transactions through Flashbots to achieve transaction confirmation.

Additional ETH fees are required for transactions in Ethereum, but through mistX, no additional ETH fees are required for any cryptocurrency to be exchanged with ETH, and there are zero Gas fees for all such transactions.

However, when users use one token to exchange for ETH or use ETH to exchange for other tokens, they have to pay a percentage of the miners’ fees in each transaction, which is called “Bribe”. If two cryptocurrencies are exchanged in the transaction and there is no ETH involved, the user’s wallet must contain some additional ETH to pay the Gas fee.

Bribes are similar to Gas fees, except that they are used to protect transactions and prevent front-running transactions through mistX. By using Flashbots to “bind” a transaction before it is released, it will not be sent to the mempool to wait for miners to pack the transaction.

In addition, mistX can be used to cancel a transaction with one click without paying Gas fees. Since Flashbots uses “binding” to process transactions, users can cancel transactions at any time without paying any fees as long as the transaction is not confirmed on the network.

CowSwap

Related token: Gnosis Project（GNO）

CowSwap was developed by the development team for the Gnosis protocol. Gnosis is a decentralized application infrastructure. Products include decentralized prediction market, multisig wallet Gnosis Safe, Gnosis DAO, auction market, and many other types of applications.

CowSwap matches transactions using a “Coincidence of Wants (CoW)” approach. Simply put, if two people on CowSwap hold the assets the other wants, they can match the transaction directly without the need to broker transactions with a market maker or liquidity provider. This provides the best price for individual traders and exempts handling fees incurred by market makers or liquidity providers.

Since CoW’s approach does not require external liquidity in the chain, it avoids the appearance of MEV because it uses batch orders to settle at a unified price where all orders have the same price with zero transaction sequencing problems.

Comparisons of Anti-MEV DEXs

Automata Network

Native token: ATA

Price: 0.753USDT

Market Value: 90 million USDT

Automata Network is a decentralized service protocol with the functionality to enhance DApps or build privacy-based applications on decentralized networks. It provides traceless privacy services similar to middleware for applications in Ethereum, Polkadot, and Binance Smart Chain. The first two products of the Automata Network are Conveyor and Witness, where the Conveyor addresses MEV-related issues.

When Conveyor is handling MEV transactions, it uses specific Automata Network tokens gtoken (gETH, gBTC, and others) to help users implement privacy-protected transactions. Before the transaction starts, the user’s tokens are wrapped into gtokens. This allows transactions to be made using the private compute node, Geode. Wrapped tokens are processed by the Conveyor, which will not change the transactions sequence or obtain information about the contents of transactions. Only after the transaction is executed will the token be unwrapped and restored as required by the user.

KeeperDAO

Native Token: ROOK

Price: 164.07USDT

Market Value: 950 million USDT

KeeperDAO aims to encourage token holders to participate in the liquidity pool through economic incentive strategies to coordinate liquidation and rebalancing in margin trading, lending, exchanges, and other applications.

KeeperDAO allows users to concentrate their funds on Ethereum smart contracts and gain common benefits through on-chain arbitrage and liquidation opportunities. To maximize the use of idle funds, all assets in the pool will continue to lend to Compound, dYdX, and others. In addition, KeeperDAO participants do not need to build their own infrastructure and bots, design payment-first strategies, and others. This lowers the entry thresholds.

KeeperDAO eliminates MEV by sealing transactions/debts through specialized smart contracts.

When a transaction happens and the trader submits it to KeeperDAO, the KeeperDAO analyzes whether there is an arbitrage opportunity (by front-running or back-running transactions). If there is an arbitrage opportunity, KeeperDAO takes priority in earning its profits. After the transaction is completed, KeeperDAO mints a new ROOK to reward the trader (keeper_Fee) for compensating for the loss caused by the slippage. After rewarding the trader with profits, the Guardian’s profit is reduced, but the loss is still less than that of the “Gas War” during the competition in PGAs.

The Guardian provides trading strategies for KeeperDAO and returns all profits to KeeperDAO. Then, according to the total profit in the pool, ROOK is rewarded according to the Guardian’s proportion of return.

BackRunMe

BackRunMe is supported by bloXroute, which allows users to safely submit private transactions (such as protecting users from front-running and sandwich attacks), while allowing searchers to roll back transactions via MEV (if an arbitrage profit is generated), while BackRunMe returns a portion of the extra profit to users. Simply put, if a transaction does not create a rollback opportunity, it will be treated as a normal, private transaction. If the transaction still generates an arbitrage profit, the user sending the transaction, the miner, the discoverer of the arbitrage opportunity (also known as a searcher, usually a bot), and BackRunMe will share the profit.

Generally speaking, a rush attack involves three parties — the victim of the rush attack, the trading bot, and the miner digging out the block containing the rush attack. BackRunMe uses these participants to provide services that benefit ordinary users.

Users submit private transactions to bloXroute; bloXroute sends metadata and the arbitrage finder proposes to roll back the transaction bloXroute checks if the arbitrage opportunity finder’s response is procedural; through private communication, bloXroute sends the most efficient and beneficial bundle of MEV transactions to the pool for execution.

[nelliievance]

Saving The Planet With Regenerative Agriculture

I recently discussed the concept of regenerative agriculture in my review of the book Sacred Cow. I have been researching this fascinating topic further and am convinced that regenerative agriculture of both plants and animals (or a combination), is a crucial step environmentally. It can drastically reduce carbon emissions and even remove CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil.

I also found that the evidence for regenerative grazing discussed in the previous review is more controversial than I thought. I’ll touch on that below. What does seem to be more universally accepted is that regenerative farming of plants, with and without animals integrated into the mix, is much more sound environmentally than current conventional farming practices.

Reversing Man-made Soil Degradation.

In modern agricultural practice, high-yield monoculture crops are grown. This means an entire field is planted with one commodity crop like wheat, corn, soybeans, etc. Not enough organic matter is put back into the soil, but instead this approach relies on ever increasing use of chemicals (fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides). This has led to tremendous loss of topsoil, poorly draining soil, and about half the applied chemicals being wasted as they runoff, polluting waterways. There is now a resulting dead zone near the Mississippi delta in the gulf of Mexico, the size of New Jersey. This has been becoming common practice in modern agriculture since about 1950. On the plus side, it has led to high crop yields, and lauded as “the green revolution”. But it’s starting not to work as well, as crop yields are dropping. All of this can be reversed by regenerative practices like no-till agriculture, and use of diverse crop rotations and cover crops. This is described in detail in the book Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life [1] by geologist Dr. David Montgomery. This process does not require the use of grazing animals. For example, “green manure” from legumes plays the same role as animal manure, and a roller-crimper can do some of the work the grazing animals do:

A roller-crimper crushes the stems of a cover crop so it decays faster

These regenerative measures improve the soil health dramatically, reducing or even eliminating the use of chemicals, and making runoff almost nonexistent. After a season or two when the soil as recovered, crop yields meet or exceed those of conventional farms with heavy use of chemicals. In addition, comparisons that claim that conventional practices have a higher yield than regenerative often are for ideal growing conditions, such as a perfect amount of rainfall. In less than ideal conditions, including droughts, which are becoming more common, regenerative farming often out-performs conventional. So it is a myth that we need unstainable conventional agriculture to “feed the world”.

There is a second, more low-tech way that farmland is degraded in much of the developing world: slash and burn agriculture. Brush and even forests are destroyed by burning, after which crops can be grown. But these fields do not remain fertile for long, so the farmers have to move on and repeat the process in a new area. These slash-and-burn fields do not have high crop yields. It is typically small-family farmers following these practices, and they grow, for example, about 80% of the food in Africa. But regenerative agricultural can come to the rescue here also, restoring the previous soil to good health in previously burned fields, and improving crop yields up to a factor of four, as shown conclusively on a wonderful demonstration farm in Ghana. These small family farmers are often too poor to afford grazing animals, but the plant-based regenerative measures (diversity of crop rotations, use of cover crops, etc.) are inexpensive.

Dr. Montgomery’s book conclusively shows how regenerative agriculture can help solve climate change, heal our soil, and feed the planet. And it saves farmers money! I don’t want to be cynical, but we do live in a capitalistic society. It gives me hope when the right thing to do environmentally also happens to be the best financially. There is an anecdote in the book where Dr. Montgomery is driving across Kansas with a guide who is showing him where regenerative agriculture is being practiced. He notices that in some areas the John Deere tractor dealerships seem to be dilapidated, while in others the dealerships seem to be thriving. His guide points out that the thriving dealerships are in areas where there is more regenerative agriculture is, so the farmers are more profitable and can afford new equipment.

Now to the role of animals in soil regeneration. Some regenerative farmers follow a hybrid technique that use the regenerative measure described above but also involves grazing animals. After cash crops are harvested, cattle or other animals graze the fields. This is often done with the cover crops as well. A chapter is devoted to how this is practiced by Gabe Brown on his farm in North Dakota, which inspired me to read the first-hand account in Gabe’s enjoyable book Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture. Gabe shows how the integration of cattle plus diversified crop rotation and cover crops (for about 30 years now) has dramatically improved the soil quality, in. The other interesting practice he follows is letting chickens range free in fields the cows were just in. They do further cleanup, including eating fly larvae. And the chickens can also be fed grain screenings which would otherwise be discarded.

Economics of Farming

The number of American farmers and farmworkers decreased dramatically from 1900 to the present, while the size of the average farm grew much larger. This was an intentional government policy intended to lead to economies of scale and higher yields. Earl Butz, secretary of agriculture under presidents Nixon and Ford,(who we can also thank for bringing high-fructose corn syrup into the mainstream), famously told farmers “go big or get out”.

There are many rural communities that were decimated by this. Agriculture has become more and more “agribusiness”, controlled by large multinational corporations. Farmers are caught in the middle, having to buy increasingly expensive chemicals from a few large corporations, and then selling their crops at commodity prices to large corporations. The farmers are just considered a link in the supply chain, and the objective is minimize the cost of the final product. This makes it appear that growing large fields of single crops is the best solution because it maximizes yield. But this does not consider external costs like the damage caused by runoff of agricultural chemicals, or the medical costs to consumers eating a diet of cheaper but poorer quality food. This is all described in detail in the books below (how it similarly unfolded in the UK is described in [2]). Regenerative agriculture is a way to help reverse this trend, and in addition to Gabe Brown’s operation, other inspiring examples of this are in these books: [1,4,5]. It makes smaller farms more viable and provides more farm jobs. Better for the environment, the economies of local communities, and our health.

The Regenerative Grazing Controversy

There has been some criticism of regenerative grazing because descriptions of it can be oversimplified to “meat can save the planet”, so the concern is that the regenerative grazing argument can be used for marketing that “greenwashes” meat, which vegans and advocates for reduced consumption of animal foods understandably object to. But backlash against it can dismiss the whole idea of regenerative agriculture, which throws the baby out with the bathwater. There is a good balanced discussion here that admits some environmental benefits may have been exaggerated (like the effect of carbon sequestering) but still does not dismiss the major role regenerative agriculture can play, I still believe the bottom line is the best solution for the environment (and our health) is reduced consumption of both junk foods and animal products, combined with better farming techniques. As one author puts it “eat less, but better, meat” [2]. and I think we should generalize that to less but better foods of all types. I’ll cover the ins and outs of this topic in more detail in an upcoming post.

Conclusion: Regenerative Agriculture, With or without Animals, Will Help Feed Humanity And Save The Planet

We can argue over to what extent animals fit in the mix, but regardless of the percentage of animals vs plants in our diets, in my opinion regenerative agriculture is a key step. Current practices of conventional plant and animal farming are not sustainable.

Suggest Reading

David Montgomery, D, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, W. W. Norton & Company;, 2017.

Brown, G, Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019

D’Silva, J, Webster, J, The Meat Crisis: Developing more Sustainable and Ethical Production and Consumption, Routledge, 2017.

Quinn, B, Carlisle, L, Grain by Grain: A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food, 2019.

Carlisle, L, Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America, Avery, 2015.

Saving The Planet With Regenerative Agriculture published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

[marwahstudios]

International Day of Forests Observed at AAFT University

New Delhi: The United Nations General Assembly announced 21 March the International Day of Forests in 2012 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests. Countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns.

“When we drink a glass of water, write in a notebook, take medicine for a fever or build a house, we do not always make the connection with forests. And yet, these and many other aspects of our lives are linked to forests in one way or another,” said Dr. Sandeep Marwah President of AAFT University while talking to the students of AAFT University expressing the importance of forests.

“Forest sustainable management and their use of resources are key to combating climate change, and to contributing to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations. Forests also play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and in the achievement of the sustainable Development Goals. Yet despite all of these priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate,” added Sandeep Marwah.

[zerohungerghana]

International Day Of Forests - 21st March The theme of the International Day of Forests for 2021 is "Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being." The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012. The Day celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of all types of forests. On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns. The theme for each International Day of Forests is chosen by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests.  “Too precious to lose”. When we drink a glass of water, write in a notebook, take medicine for a fever or build a house, we do not always make the connection with forests. And yet, these and many other aspects of our lives are linked to forests in one way or another. Forest sustainable management and their use of resources are key to combating climate change, and to contributing to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations. Forests also play a crucial role in poverty alleviation and in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet despite all of these priceless ecological, economic, social and health benefits, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate. #InternationalDayOfForests #InternationalDayOfForests2021 #DayOfForests #DayOfForests2021 #Forests Ref: #UN _____________________________________________ The ongoing mission of "CHANGING LIVES 1 PLATE AT A TIME" is to contribute to the wellbeing of the vulnerable via giving them access to safe, healthy and nutritious food, ENDING HUNGER! And advocating to develop poor communities, ENDING POVERTY! With your donation and support, you can help provide a meal for a person in need and support the operations of #EndingHunger #EndingPoverty with #ZeroHungerGhana Zero Hunger Ghana (#ZHG) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization contributing to the wellbeing of the #Vulnerable (mobilised beneficiaries) in society (#Ghana, West Africa). #ZeroHungerGhana #SocialImpact #EndHunger #EndPoverty https://www.instagram.com/p/CMs7ZqZJgA2/?igshid=14v7k6rw9piux