#and most of the class wont even be aware of the effect words have on the mind

[hum-suffer]

Live blogging from my history class and i kid you NOT

Sir only mentioned the attacks on Somnath once and also soft worded it ("conquered")

And he ALSO used the word "annexation" for Maharaj Prithviraj Chauhan's conquering of Delhi, Gujarat, Bundelkhand etc.

(I'm not blaming my teacher, I'm blaming years of conditioning and manipulation of susceptible minds)

[welllpthisishappening]

It all kind of happens in slow motion.

One second, Emma hears the crack of the bat and the requisite roar of the crowd, and the next her eyes have widened to a size most scientists would likely advise against. Because, standing at home plate, that same home plate multiple baseball players are sprinting toward, is her kid. More or less waiting to be run over. That is, of course, until Killian Jones.

———

Word Count: 4.1K Rating: Flufffy fluff fluff of the fluffiest variety AN: Writing has been something of a legitimate challenge for me in the last few weeks, but earlier this week @ohmightydevviepuu sent a link to this tweet, tagged me, and said what I basically took as an unspoken prompt. Like, you’re going to send me video of a bat boy getting scooped up at home by a player in the middle of the game and then think I won’t write about it? Not possible. Even with the aforementioned writing challenges. Nothing stands a chance against my love of baseball. Here’s hoping the Yankees turn it around in the second half. Neither Aaron Judge or I deserve the season we’ve had so far.

———

Biologically speaking, Emma Swan is perfectly aware that the current positioning of her heart is more or less impossible. 

Stuck somewhere between the back of her throat and the pit of her stomach, it makes her all too aware of the now-empty chasm in her chest, stretching out toward her arms and threatening the structural integrity of her lungs, neither of which appear all that intent on working properly. Oxygen is a luxury not currently afforded to her capillaries. Instead, nerves mix with anxiety and the telltale flush of adrenaline that probably also makes her look relatively crazy because her pupils are definitely dilated and she does not know nearly enough about science to be making any of these claims. 

Whatever, really. 

It feels like that ooze from that movie. FernGully, Emma thinks. With the fairies. She thinks they were fairies. She’s not entirely certain they were fairies. 

And the ooze was definitely oil, obviously. There was a message involved in that movie. Not one that she appreciated when she was seven and Tim Curry’s animated-oil voice sort of freaked her out. But, like, she gets it now. The environment, and everything. With or without fairies. With Robin Williams, though. 

She’s positive about that, at least. 

Robin Williams was definitely in that movie. 

Less positive about the ability of her heart to actually split itself in half, as it seems wont to do at the moment. So, as to make it easier when it inevitably soars out of her mouth and falls onto the scuffed-up clubhouse floor beneath her feet. Naturally, this will happen simultaneously. For maximum effect. 

Much like the fireworks currently exploding over the left-field bleachers. 

She’s not sure if fireworks do explode, actually. That seems dangerous. Likely to lead to injuries and sounds that don’t resemble the  oohs and ahhs a ballpark generally inspires. Explode probably isn’t the right word. Maybe something more like…detonate. 

No, that’s worse. Way worse. She’s got to learn more words. Find a thesaurus or a dictionary or—a fireworks expert would be ideal, honestly.

Someone who could give her a detailed description of the inner-workings of a Yankee Stadium pyrotechnics display on a Tuesday in July, enough words that Emma’s mind would still for a few moments, allowing her to catch her breath and reestablish a consistent heart rate, and both of those problems could also likely be solved by sitting down, but the chair to her left looks a little wobbly, and her legs appear to have minds of their own because science is rather quickly becoming a lie and—

“Is he alright?” She spins. Nearly falls over. Her knees are also awfully wobbly, that’s why. 

Despite all of that, and the overall circumference of her pupils, the voice doesn’t retreat. Doesn’t even flinch. Shows absolutely no signs of imminent stumbling. And that’s probably because the voice is a man, one who is in possession of world-class instinctual reactions, and his hair is still damp from his post-game shower and it absolutely makes her something of an atrocious mother to acknowledge that last thing as quickly as she does. 

His shirt sleeves are noticeably sticking to his biceps, so that helps too. 

Opening her mouth, Emma is going to say words that are both vaguely intelligent and passably accurate, absolving this Major League Baseball player of any of the guilt he so obviously feels. Which is just patently stupid, really. None of this was his fault. None of it was anyone’s fault, really. 

Except maybe the idiot who left his bat at that particular angle across home plate, but Emma’s an adrenaline expert these days and walk-offs are understandably exciting. First walk-offs more so. 

She’s happy for Scarlet, really. 

They won the game. 

Everything is fine. Great, even. She nearly jumps twenty-six feet in the air at the next boom of fireworks. 

The pinch between the Major League Baseball player’s eyebrows gets—

Pinchier. 

The little roll of skin draws Emma’s attention, effectively robbing her of the ability to respond like an almost-sane person, but she’s also still trying to rationalize why she can remember the words to several FernGully songs while also being unable to recall what flavor PopTart she had for breakfast earlier this week and she figures watching her kid nearly get run over by professional athletes approximately forty-two minutes before gives her a fairly reasonable excuse. 

For opening and closing her mouth no less than eight consecutive times. 

Like a goddamn fish. There were no fish in FernGully. Least not so far as she remembers. 

It’s entirely possible she squeaks on attempt number five. 

The Major League Baseball player’s eyebrows do not move. It’s equal parts frustrating and incredible to behold. 

“I should probably thank you, right?” Emma asks, not quite regretting the words immediately, but it’s awfully close. That gets her some movement. Of the eyebrow variety. One eyebrow, specifically. Arching up, it somehow still manages to pull her attention directly toward eyes that should be the star of their own marketing campaign. Not quite Yankee blue, but distractingly blue, and it takes everything in her not to huff as dramatically as she wants to. Once the athletic trainer is done with Henry, Emma is going to make him examine her lungs. Rationality rules the day. 

Major League Baseball player shakes his head. It’s dumb to call him that. She knows his name. Knows at least some of his history. Is still staring obnoxiously at his freakishly attractive face. 

Freakishly is kind of mean, too. As far as descriptions go. 

“Unnecessary,” he says, an undercurrent of worry still clear in the letters. Ducking his head, he takes a cautious step forward, almost as if he’s wary of what Emma will do, and she supposes that’s fair. What with the impressive vertical she’s in possession of these days. “Anyone would do that.” “I’m not sure they could, actually.”

At some point in this otherwise shitty experience of a night, Emma is vaguely confident something will go the way she wants it to. Aside from winning. She’s glad they won. Seriously. 

“No?” “No,” she echoes, and it’s not like she can feel him. A few feet of space separates them, so whatever heat appears to be wafting off the Major League Baseball player in front of her, with his damp hair, and stupid, stupid, stupid eyes is as impossible as any of the various impossibilities currently taking place within her person. 

And yet. 

He sticks his hand out. 

It’s disarmingly earnest. 

“Killian Jones,” he says, confidence replacing the nerves, and Emma begins to see why there are so many stories. And Twitter threads. Regarding his face and the potential for that face to date a variety of other attractive faces across at least four of the five boroughs. Somehow Emma doesn’t think Killian Jones, New York Yankees third baseman, is schlepping out to Staten Island for a date. 

Nor does she believe that Killian Jones, New York Yankees third baseman, has ever once let the word schlep pass through his conscious mind. 

She takes his hand. 

It is—

Surprisingly warm. And...not quite soft, that’d be impossible with the job he performs almost nightly. But the calluses on the pads of his fingers aren’t as rough as Emma expects, which also suggests she’s managed to ponder the overall texture of Killian Jones’s fingers in the last twelve point six seconds, and that’s not entirely true. What is true is that Ruby thinks Killian Jones is real good-looking and has determined that the phrase quite a catch is the pinnacle of humor, so, sure, Emma has possibly considered the possibility of paths crossing and intersecting, and her hand looks minuscule wrapped up in his. So, that’s something to think about later. 

Their arms move. Bob up and down as society dictates they should, and he’s smiling at her, and she’s trying not to look like a serial killer, straining to hear the voices behind the door, and it does not work. 

“Why do you think people are so consistently fascinated by fireworks?” If he’s surprised by her absolutely inane question, he doesn’t show it. That’s points. For what, Emma hasn’t totally decided yet, but it’s something, and it’s probably good, and they’re going to play that clip on loop for weeks. Longer, probably. 

Every goddamn day if the Yankees make the postseason. 

When the Yankees make the postseason. 

Her dad wouldn’t appreciate the buffer. Leaves room for loss, and that is not the Nolan way. Not when there are championships to win, and this was supposed to be the best possible time. Smack dab in the middle of the season, with the All-Star break looming, Henry would get to suit up as batboy for one game that didn’t mean much and wouldn’t draw too strong of a spotlight, no murmurs about nepotism by internet trolls who couldn’t possibly define the word with any sort of accuracy, but also like to shout about canceling and culture with an almost alarming sense of self-righteousness, so, of course, the whole thing was now blowing up in their face. 

Much like the goddamn fireworks. 

It wasn’t Will Scarlet’s fault. 

Wasn’t Henry’s fault, either. 

His job was to get the bats out of the field of play. Doing it while the field of play was still active was a mistake any kid could have made. Just so happens that it’s Emma’s kid, and the grandkid of the Yankees’ hitting coach, and that means something to the New York media and the New York fans, and if Killian Jones, New York Yankees third baseman with an arm that can make cross-field throws with ease, wasn’t also so quick-thinking and sure-footed, scooping Henry up as he crossed home plate and avoiding the ensuing swarm of players at home plate, all intent on celebrating Will Scarlet’s first-ever career walk-off, Emma can only imagine what would have happened. 

Trampled. Stepped on. Broken bones. Concussions. 

They’re checking Henry for a concussion now. He absolutely does not have a concussion. He was laughing while he was carried off the field. Like he hit the walk-off. 

Front office is absolutely petrified she’s going to sue them. 

The thought hadn’t even once crossed Emma’s mind. Plus, she’s sort of busy. Holding Killian Jones’s hand. His stupid, warm hand. 

“Bright colors,” he says, responding to a question Emma’s nearly forgotten about. Jumping is more challenging when his fingers tighten ever so slightly. “Flash, boom. Taps into baser instincts, I think.” “You think people’s base instinct is to enjoy explosions.” “Phrasing that as a statement makes me think you don’t agree with me.” “You didn’t want me to thank you,” Emma points out.

“Well, no,” he says, and the precise way his eyes drop does something specific to all of her instincts. Leaves her flush with a heat that reminds her of Fourth of July sparklers rather than any sort of massive explosion, and that’s not bad, per se, although it’s admittedly a little surprising. As is the slight uptick of precisely one side of his mouth. It takes her a moment to realize he’s smirking at her. And another for her subconscious to admit that it’s working as intended. Her shoulders drop half an inch. While Emma pulls her hand back to her side. “Thanking me suggests I did anything to warrant the thanks.” “Big words.” “For a dumb athlete, you mean.” “That wasn’t a question, either.” “No,” Killian repeats, “it wasn’t.” “I’d really like to thank you. I—Dad told him when to come out of the dugout, so he definitely knew the rules, but I think he was super worried about you tripping over the bat.”

The smirk becomes a full-blown smile. Which is no less than forty-seven thousand times more powerful. Equivalent to staring directly into a solar eclipse or gazing upon the dark side of the moon, and Emma should at least do some research before coming up with these internal examples. Basic Google searches would provide her with the necessary information. 

“That’s more or less what he told me, yeah.” Emma’s nose creases. “Talked your ear off after your daring rescue, huh?” “Keep complimenting me like this, and my ego won’t know what to do with it.”

She hopes she’s not blushing as much as it feels like she is. The state of Killian’s eyebrows and the precise curl of his lips make that seem unlikely. “Your reflexes are unparalleled.” “Something about big bucks and why I get paid them.” “Oh,” Emma laughs, unable to stop herself, and she doesn’t remember deciding to stop pacing, only that her knees appreciate it once she has, “you think you’re real funny, don’t you?” “I think I’m moderately funny, not the hero you’re suggesting I am—” “Oh, I never used the word hero.” “—And you never actually told me your name.”

“Because you don’t know who I am.” It’s not a question, either. Neither one of them mention that. 

“I do,” Killian concedes, “Henry was also fairly quick to mention exactly who he was and where his mother was sitting.” Emma’s nose is going to freeze in this position. “But I gave you my name, which makes it only fair that we’re all square and whatnot.” “Whatnot, huh?” “Yup.” He pops his lips on the letter. Which is also unfair. In, like, the grand scheme of the world. The black ooze that is not actually oil when used in this particular metaphor recedes. Leaves Emma with a chest cavity that is partially full of butterfly wings and the growing sense of anticipation that isn’t quite as nerve-wracking as it should be. Like she’s about to step into the batter’s box with two outs and runners in scoring position. She’s totally going to hit against the shift. Fluttering her fingers at her side, Emma doesn’t lift her hand. It doesn’t matter. 

Killian’s eyes drop. To the movement. And her. And part of her shies away from that because part of her has spent a lifetime tucked into a shadow that didn’t belong to her and doesn’t belong to Henry, but now there’s some joke about Peter Pan to be made because they live in an internet-age and Killian Jones has a very good face. So. Viral video, enter stage right. Starring Henry Swan, Killian Jones, and the inevitably uneven pitter-patter of Emma’s traitorous heart. 

“Emma Swan.” “I think you should sit down.”

“Why is that, exactly?” “I’m worried about your legs.”

Whatever noise she makes can’t quite be classified as a scoff. It hurts her throat too much. And it’s not a laugh, either. Even as the butterflies threaten to rise up in mutiny of Emma’s more rational feelings, and she gets the distinct impression that Killian is reading her mind. Trying very hard, at least. 

“Sounds like a line.” “Might be a line,” he admits, which draws another wholly inhuman sound out of Emma’s barely-functioning lungs. 

“Did he kick you on the lift?” Killian hums. “You’d kick too if you were just hauled off your feet, so I understand the reaction. What I’m more worried about is the inevitable bruise on my foot from the bat landing there.” “Ah shit, really?” “I’ve had worse.” “But not in 4K video that people will play on loop for the rest of the news cycle. If not longer.” Narrowing his eyes, Killian doesn’t immediately respond. Mind reading requires a modicum of focus, Emma assumes. Instead, he rests a hand on her shoulder, directing her toward the chair and ignoring the soft crack her left knee as it bends. “That’s what you’re worried about.” “Stop sounding so confident.” “I can only sound how I am, Swan.” “Oh, I’m not sure we’ve reached nickname status yet,” she mumbles, pushing down the soft rush of metaphorical insects doing their beset to soar out of her barely-parted lips. “But, yeah, I—I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was totally terrified in the moment.”

“Understandable. Grown men barrelling down the third-base line at your kid are a lot to take in.” She snorts. It’s not cute. Not dignified. Killian smirks. “Should you be concerned that the Scarlet was making such solid headway behind you? Are you exceedingly slow?” “I am league average.” “How fast can you get out of the box to first?” “I’ve never timed it.” “Liar, liar.” “Please don’t make a crack about my pants,” Killian says, “I won’t be able to cope.”

“Oh God, you think you’re charming, too.” “I’ve had no complaints.” “To your face, at least.”

Throwing his head back, the laugh that erupts out of him is not of volcano proportions. Of which there was also one in FernGully if Emma’s memory is to be trusted.  An arm circles his middle, stretching muscle and ensuring that Emma notices just how corded that same muscle is, the slight bend of his wrist leaving her off-kilter. When he meets her gaze, she swears his eyes are brighter. “Yeah, yeah, that’s true,” Killian concedes, “no one has flat out told me I was lacking charm to my face.” “This thanking you thing is going great.” “And I continue to not need thanks. Why are you worried about the video getting out there? Filmed in 4K like you suggest, at least we’ll all look great. Sharp pixels and whatnot.” “What do you know about pixels?” “You basically heard the extent just now.”

She’s getting better at laughing. The ooze has almost all but disappeared, Emma twirling a strand of hair around fingers that are intent on moving, and it’s an old habit. One Killian’s gaze catches on. Immediately. Quickly. Seriously, Emma needs a thesaurus. “Baseball’s always been my dad,” she says. “And that’s—well, we’ve lived this game, me and my mom, weekend series and West Coast swings, waiting up for him to get home because the flight got delayed, but Henry’s just a kid, getting thrown into this world because of his last name and who his family is? That sucks. Nothing was supposed to happen tonight.” “Nothing did happen.” “Because of you.” “I’d like to believe Scarlet, ridiculously fast as he might be, would not run over a small child,” Killian says. “And, uh, for the record and all that, I got a bad jump off first because I didn’t know if they were going to catch it in left. No one wants to get caught on the base paths.” “Yeah, that’d be embarrassing.”

He must hear the hitch in her voice because the next thing Emma realizes, her fingers are twisted back up in Killian’s, and she’s warm and falling and flying, and it’s good and weird, and the door swings open. 

They both jump.

So, that’s something. 

Rushing out quickly enough that he nearly trips over his own feet, Henry’s head leads the way and finds Emma’s stomach, a tangle of limbs, and overly-excited words, all of which rival the now-finished fireworks display in volume. 

It takes Henry about five and a half run-on sentences to notice Killian standing there. 

His eyes widen. His mouth drops. Killian grins. Emma tries very hard not to die. It only sort of works. 

She blames the faulty body parts she’s in possession of. 

“Killian,” Henry exclaims, clamoring back to his feet and nearly falling again in the process. Hands that belong to both Emma and Killian dart out, steadying Henry while their eyes meet over the top of his head. Killian winks. He tries. It’s more like a blink than anything. “Hi, hi! You did so good tonight! And we won, and I got to go on the field and—and, it was so,” Henry heaves a deep breath, “we were so good.”

Collective pronouns do something to Emma’s entire state of being. 

Flips it on an axis she hadn’t been aware previously existed until it almost feels as if this was the path they’d been directing themselves toward from the start. Her eyes flit toward Killian. Who is already watching her. 

“We did,” he nods, “maybe next time, though, you wait one extra second to grab Scarlet’s bat, ok?” Seeing her own nose scrunch reflected back on her kid is not the worst thing that’s ever happened to Emma. The vibrating phone in her back pocket, might be. 

It’s one-hundred percent, Ruby. 

“That’s what grandpa said too,” Henry grumbles, digging a toe of the cleats Emma’s mother bought him last week into the ground, “but I wanted to make sure you didn’t fall.”

Definitely dying, then. A systematic shut down of all necessary internal organs. It’s not as bad as Emma would have expected. 

Neither one of Killian’s knees crack when he bends. That seems heavy-handed. 

“And I don’t want you to fall either,” he says, “so we agree, right here, right now, not to let the other one fall, huh?” Emma holds her breath. Ignores the pinch in her lungs and the clearly unstable nature of both her mind and her heart, digging her nails into her palms. To ensure she isn’t tempted to haul Henry back toward her. Or push that one strand of hair away from Killian’s forehead. 

Henry nods. “Deal.”

They hook their pinkies together. 

It’s adorable and as endearingly charming as everything else Killian Jones, New York Yankees third baseman, has done since he walked into that hallway. Less so when her dad emerges from the office, the athletic trainer on his heels to not-so-quietly inform Killian that he can’t just blow off post-game like that, and the second wink is as bad as the first. 

She does her very best to memorize the movement. 

And the joy on Henry’s face the next morning when a box arrives on their doorstep, a genuine, game-worn Killian Jones jersey inside. She doesn’t notice the note at first, tucked between the cardboard and the tissue paper someone must have bought for him. He can’t have bought that tissue paper himself. He just—it’s unfathomable. 

Emma knows he bought the tissue paper himself. 

As clearly as she knows that those numbers in that particular order will lead to Killian Jones answering his phone and that her voice likely won’t shake when she replies to the question written in surprisingly loopy script. Which is why, Emma will argue, she does reply. In the affirmative. To several questions over the course of the remaining season, and they don’t star in any more viral videos, but there are a few pictures once they clinch the division. 

Drops of champagne cling to the tips of Emma’s eyelashes and the ends of Killian’s hair, hands on her waist that blaze a quick path up her back and around her middle, and she has to tilt her head up to get the right angles. Of lips. While they kiss in the middle of the clubhouse, the hat someone forced onto Emma’s head falling and it’s impossible to hear over the sound of celebratory fireworks, but she can somehow still hear Henry’s laugh ringing out from the general area near Scarlet’s locker, and his jersey collection is growing at an impressive rate. 

No one can withstand the overall cuteness of him. 

Emma included. Emma, especially. 

Sometimes she worries she’s so happy she’ll burst, unable to contain the sort of emotion her body is still acclimating itself to. But then she realizes just how dumb that is and happiness cannot possibly be quantified, and her head is buzzing enough from champagne that she nearly misses Killian when he says, “people love the bright spots, Swan.” It’s not the most romantic thing he’s told her. Doesn’t crack the top five, quite frankly. She swoons all the same. With her kid laughing and her team winning and that’s about all the sentiment she’s willing to acknowledge before her tongue is in Killian’s mouth. He groans. She grins. 

And he’d been right about the video. It wasn’t the embarrassment Emma worried it could be. Was mostly relegated to the corners of the internet set aside for formerly popular content as soon as the season ended, spoken about only in fond recollection as the other seasons went on and the wins kept coming and all three of them stand on a parade float with the World Series trophy a few dozen feet away, several Novembers after that first game. 

It’s a Thursday afternoon, then. 

And yet Emma never entirely forgets. What the video meant and what it did and she’s not remotely surprised when it finds its way back to the forefront of the sports zeitgeist on a Wednesday in July. Most mentions come with similar taglines and messages. Something about feeling our age and wanna feel old because that bot boy, David Nolan’s grandson, Killian Jones’s stepson, he’s getting drafted now. 

Got drafted, technically. 

Third round, video of the soon-to-be third baseman for the San Diego Padres makes the internet circuits and garners plenty of interest. It’s not the most exciting video, though. Henry just hugs his family. Who hug tightly back. 

What is more exciting is the box that arrives on Emma and Killian’s doorstep. With a note that eventually earns a frame next to the last one and a wholly official, game-worn jersey that has a noticeable streak of dirt across the left sleeve. From sliding head-first into home plate.  

[kaiawrites]

Stupid Plan

Remus Lupin x fem!Reader 

Word count: 1.6k

Promt: “Are you jealous?” “That’s cute.”

Summary: Y/n is convinced Remus Lupin doesn’t like her, that is, until one of James Potter’s stupid plans actually works.

Warnings: none that i know of except my bad writing

a/n: hii this is my submission for Millie’s ( @iliveiloveiwrite )writing challenge, and my first time at writing on tumblr. this is kinda bad but uh i hope you like it anyways :)

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

Y/n L/n was extremely, irrevocably and very obviously in love with Remus Lupin, and she was pretty sure everyone could see it except the subject of her crush himself. That’s why she was very surprised by a certain James Potter’s question one evening when they were hanging out in the Gryffindor common room together.

“Hey y/n/n, wanna go out with me?” he asked and y/n chocked on air.

“Excuse me?” she retaliated thinking she for sure had heard him wrong.

“Well you know what going out means don’t you?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yes I know what it means, why are you asking me that is what i’m asking. You-“ she cut herself off, looking around the common room to make sure they were alone.

“You do know I like Remus don’t you? And besides, aren’t you completely in love with Lily?” y/n asked, her confusion being overshadowed by the embarrassment of having to admit her crush so bluntly. She knew— or at least thought she knew— James knew about her feelings for the werewolf but she still wasn’t used to speaking about her feelings so openly.

“Yes of course I know you like Remus, blimey you make it so obvious i’m surprised he doesn’t know yet. And of course i’m still irrevocably in love with my dear lily flower.” he said the last part in a mix of a love struck and a singsong voice.

“Uhhh, then why are you asking me out” y/n asked confused as ever.

“Well you see, I was wondering the other day why my darling Evans doesn’t seem to like me back even though all of her friends have told me she reciprocates my feelings so,” James took a pause for dramatic effect, something y/n found stupid but also very James.

“I thought, if I make her jealous then maybe she’ll realize that she likes me, so I thought who better to help me than my very best friend y/n. So what do you say?” James asked with hopeful eyes.

“What! I thought I was your best friend! YOU TRAITOR” said, or rather shouted Sirius making y/n jump, not even having realized he had entered the room. She looked toward him to see an overly exaggerated expression of betrayal on his face.

James sighed at his best friend’s antics and filled him in with the stupid plan he had previously pitched to y/n.

“Ooh this is like killing two birds with one stone,” said Sirius mischievously. Y/n sent him a confused glance which he ignored before continuing.

“Who do you think will crack first, Moony or Evans?” Questioned Sirius.

“Lily,” answered y/n without much of a second thought, to which James and Sirius responded with hopeful and perplexed glances respectively.

“Why are you so sure y/n/n?” Asked Sirius quizzically.

“Well for one, Lily definitely knows James likes her, I mean you’ve been asking her out for years, and also, Lily definitely has feelings for James as well, all she needs is a little push, it wont take much,” y/n explained.

“Meanwhile Remus somehow still doesn’t know about my feelings and most likely doesn’t return them” she added, masking her disappointment.

“What makes you think Moony doesn’t like you back?” asked James, very well aware of his friend’s feelings toward the h/c girl.

“Well I've flirted with him thousands of times and he either didn’t care or didn’t notice” she concluded, defeated.

“Well I think he likes you, but don’t take my word for it, if you agree to this little “arrangement” you can find out if he really does like you,” proposed James.

Y/n pondered over the offer. There was no harm in it really, she was just helping two of her friends get together, and conveniently finding out along the way if Remus liked her back. As much as she hated to admit it, James’s stupid plan wasn’t that stupid.

“Alright, I agree but, in no circumstances will I kiss you,” bargained y/n, not even wanting to consider the possibility of kissing the boy she considered a brother.

“Deal,” answered the bespectacled boy, pulling a face at the thought.

——————————————

The next morning, y/n woke up early to get to breakfast before the swarm of people came in as she usually did. Fine, maybe the real reason was that she could spend a bit of time alone with Remus before the rest of the students arrived, but nobody had to know that. She made her way around the corridors of the majestic castle all the way to the Great Hall. Her conversation with James from the prior evening had almost slipped her mind, that is until she saw him sitting down at the Gryffindor table, waving her over with a bright smile.

Remus had gotten up early as he usually did. At first, it was just because he was an early riser, but now it was a way to have a bit if free time with y/n before everyone else got there. Or at least it usually was, because for some reason James had gotten up even earlier then Remus. At first, Remus was thankful for the company, but as time went on, Remus was starting to think James would still be here when y/n got there, which Remus did not want. Remus’s fears were confirmed when y/n entered the Great Hall and James was still there.

Y/n made her way to the Gryffindor table where she had spotted James waving her over and Remus looking at her with the same smile he had every morning when they would have breakfast together. Y/n looked confusedly at James, but sat next to him none the less.

“What are you doing up so early?” y/n asked him skeptically as she served herself breakfast.

“Couldn’t pass out on an opportunity to hang out with you love,” James answered with a wink making y/n blush.

Remus looked between the two skeptically, sure, James was usually quite flirty, but never with y/n. Remus thought the boys had caught on to his feelings for the y/h/c haired girl by now despite never having explicitly talked about it, but maybe he had been wrong because here James was, obviously flirting with her, and it made Remus’s blood boil. First, James came in and stole Remus’s time with y/n, and then he spent the whole breakfast flirting with her.

As more people started filing in, Remus kept glaring daggers at the close proximity between y/n and James, but didn’t comment on it. Lily, who had come in around 10 minutes prior, was in a situation similar to Remus’s.

“What’s happening?” She hissed under her breath, more to herself then anything but Remus heard her anyways.

“Beats me,” mumbled Remus as an answer.

Y/n was actually surprised at the results of James’s little plan. Lily was good at hiding her anger, but y/n could tell ticking her off. And, to y/n’s surprise, Remus also seemed quite tense, and it made a tiny bit of hope bubble the pit of y/n’s stomach. Maybe Remus actually did like her back. She was thrown out of her thoughts when James kissed her on the cheek making her go beet red.

“I thought we said no kissing,” y/n hissed so only James would hear.

“Oh come on it was just a kiss on the cheek, besides, it worked didn’t it,” he said while gesturing towards Remus who was gripping his fork so hard that it had started to curve in a way it wasn’t supposed to.

Warmth spread in y/n’s heart at this, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, guilty feeling when Remus abruptly got up and left the Great Hall, mumbling an excuse about a forgotten essay.

“Hey guys, I forgot my potions text book in my room, i’ll meet you in class,” said y/n quickly making up an excuse to head out of the Great Hall and go after Remus.

She picked up her bad and hastily walked out of the Great Hall. Once she passed the doors, she saw Remus rounding up the corridor towards the courtyard and ran after him.

“Remus!” she exclaimed to catch his attention. The boy in question didn’t stop, in fact, he only started walking faster.

Once y/n had caught up with him, she opened her mouth to talk to him but he beat her to it, stopping abruptly.

“What? You want advice on how to ask out James or something,” he spat, poison lacing his tone.

“Are you jealous?” asked y/n teasingly. Remus’s eyes went wide.

“What?! N-no why would-“ started Remus, but y/n cut him off.

“That’s cute,” she said with a shy smile.

“Wait, what?” asked Remus, confused.

“James and I aren’t a thing, we were just trying to make Lily jealous, and, you as it turns out,” explained y/n as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Remus suddenly felt relieved, but really stupid.

“Oh,” he simply breathed out. “So you don’t like James?” He added.

“No! I like you, you idiot, I thought it was obvious!” She said laughing.

“Really, you like me?!” Asked Remus dumbfounded. He never thought y/n, beautiful, smart, kind, perfect y/n would ever like someone like him, but here she was, telling him that she did.

Y/n stepped forward and grasped Remus’s hand in hers, making the boy’s heart flutter.

“I was wondering if maybe you would like to go to Hogsmead with me this weekend?” She asked, suddenly nervous that Remus hadn’t actually explicitly said he liked her back.

“On one condition,” he said, “I’ll go with you if I get a kiss,” he said with a smile, and y/n happily obliged.

[tinyravenclaw]

Ateez as their Hogwarts Houses.

Hongjoong ;

→the perfect gryffindor

→big determination & nerve ; no matter what happens he ISN'T giving up. Even the worst situations,will he turn them into the best ones.

→bravery. he will do anything for his team,no matter the cost as long as it doesn't affect his loved ones.

→hes got the gryff nerves ; literally do not degrade his work or his members’,he will bite back.

→passionate friend & open-minded lover.

Seonghwa;

→slytherin

→ resourcefulness ; he always has a way out of uncomfortable or difficult situations. Whether it comes in a form of words or touches, seonghwa will most definitely find a way to deal with difficult things. And of course do his best to give useful advice.

→fraternity ; meaning it's all about his people. friends, family, lover,relatives, even pets. whatever seonghwa loves, seonghwa treasures. and protects it/them. It is...a trait of virtue to him.

→lineage ; it is important to him. Where he is from, who's given him life,his origins...He js a man of honour & great memory.

→a loyal friend, teammate and protector.

Yunho;

→ravenclaw

→intelligence ; jung yunho is indeed intelligent and sharp. if he wants to win over something/someone he'll do it by using the best,only, and measured like effective ways. he seems messy but he's always on point, thinking over things he's deeply interested in. [ps check ateez’s MAFIA game if u haven't already]

→ creativity ; whether it's about an artistic mission or a more practical one yunho WILL be creative. Choreography,fun type of teaching a class, partying, killing free time? Yunho is there, you'll never get bored. This appeals also to his next ravenclaw trait.

→Individuality ; Yunho as an individual isn't a common individual. There's no way you'll look his way and think ‘basic’ or ‘seen this before’. His individuality is what makes yunho different from others ; he has a clever way of having everyone's attention by merely doing anything. His crackhead character fills that individual space along with his wit. He's a humourist,a clever one. He could use it to you but also against you.

→Acceptance ; he's someone open minded and perhaps well informed through other people or other sources. Judgemental when you annoy him but won't waste his day on that thought.

→ one of a kind & original.

Yeosang;

→gryffindor

→nerve ; yeosang WILL point out flaws or have savage comebacks IF ASKED or if they're necessarily NEEDED. Sometimes as a joke,others as not.

→chivalry ; kang yeosang IS a gentleman in perhaps the most unique ways. if you hurt his loved ones, it is most likely that –nerve and chivalry combined– he won't hesitate messing with you, depending on the circumstances. Yeosang is a patient person,not as courageous as other gryffs especially when it comes to expressing his problems/inner thoughts,but he will express through assistance how much he loves his friends.

→determination ; if someone gives him the right reason,the right click,it is a ride-or-die for him. And that links to love, friendship, success and anything interesting to yeosang. Once he starts,he wont end until the right purpose has been fulfilled.

→ Despite being a typical gryffindor yeosang differs to some ; he isn't reckless nor focuses in useless heroics. Yeosang will show up when actually needed, otherwise annoyed. He'll come to comfort people over breakups,losses etc. Please don't call him to cry about your lost bra or pc.

→ honest,firm and a good friend.

San;

→slytherin

→ resourcefulness ; san has many ways to use and get everyone, himself included, out of bad situations or simply uses that resourcefulness to his benefit but it's mostly not the latter. His skinship is , mainly , his weapon of comfort as well as his soft spoken words.

→lineage ; for san everything family related is important to him. his lineage is important ; he won't rant about it but also will not forget everything he's taught and also been through. He's a regretful person of the past but a hoping one of the future. He's a man of promises and oaths,not always positive, yet he does his best to honour his lineage.

→ a man of desire ; as a Slytherin san is passionate and needy ; love,food, objects,skinship. ANYTHING he likes he NEEDS it. No matter how weird it may seem to others. He's also a vulnerable Slytherin ; whether raised to be the opposite,Choi San maintains a certain self-preservation.

self preserved→ Not from danger specifically but from prejudice and anything forced, which is why he's his own person. A Slytherin you expect for sure who also hides a side you did NOT expect.

→ choi san is like a mirror who hides something at the back of it.

Mingi;

→gryffindor

→nerve ; mingi is your annoying,silly gryffindor that fuck yeah will take RECKLESS decisions and yes he has the nerve to do even worse. He isn't going to hold back if challenged or UTTERLY pissed.

→daring ; like the first trait everything about mingi comes surely both ways, positive and negative. Mingi doesn't do MIDDLE,only EDGES. He isn't balanced,he is either this or that - nothing in between. And he IS pretty daring ; whether it is him daring or being dared he'll accept it no matter the outcome.

→determination ; literally the opposite of kang yeosang. mingi is wild and will do anything to stand out. He also begs to differ especially when it's about his element. Don't know what element that might be but if it's mingi’s element,GET READY. he will do something about it.

→ open book ; his emotions are written in his body language, expression or words. kind of like harry himself. he will express discomfort, sadness,happiness in the most intense way — breaking down in tears, hugging and smiling like a goof, speaking loud and comforting words. And also, like a switch, he could go to being silent. That ain't gonna last of course.

→crackhead friend & definitely there for you.

Wooyoung;

→slytherin

→lineage ; lineage is important to wooyoung. he won't forget his roots and most likely will boost about his family members, sibling dad or mom,to friends or possible future children. he could also use his ancestor’s old achievements as a way for someone to get their buns up and do something useful.

→achievement oriented & determined ; when wooyoung has a purpose he'll fulfill it by all means. as long as he has been provided with courage by a loved face. he has already preserved a strength within himself, another Slytherin trait, which he uses to his advantage.

→Self preserved ; wooyoung is aware of his limits and non,as he tells himself. even if he might go overboard to other eyes,for wooyoung it's only half of what he wanted to do. Nevertheless he will protect himself from danger,he will fight if necessary to protect his loved ones. And most likely WILL get annoyed while doing so. If targeted, he's gonna shake it off with the snarkiest way possible.

→unlike most slytherins wooyoung does not possess that slyth confidence or “take charge” trait but wooyoung wins them over in devotion and love. wooyoung is loyal to the core but in the most slytherin way of all. Unrequited love or no,he isn't going to stop protecting that person or simply feeling. Friendship/Family love? Even better. He ISN'T giving up. Not exactly the ambitious type but DOES hold ambition within love.

→ a true snake friend,a rebel

Jongho;

→gryffindor

→chivalry ; if we're talking about choi jongho it is CHIVALRY that comes first to mind. He's a knight in shining armor in both the classic, fairytale way AND also with the more... metaphorical approach. He is a man of good manners,he knows how go treat people and he will definitely aid anyone in need. He'd do it no matter what.

→brave ; jongho is quiet and reserved but will not back down in challenges. he is brave not for others but mostly for his own person,his individual self. he wants to prove things to himself first before others.

→the latter can also mingle with courage ; jongho has courage. although difficulties and flaws will be on his way he WILL fight them,he will overcome them or at least try to succeed in doing that.

→secretly self righteous; it is purely about his achievements and skills. jongho KNOWS what he can do PERFECT,what he can do GOOD and what he can do NOT great.

→jongho is like Neville ; low-tones person that anticipates his shine more than anyone. he knows himself and whether his surroundings, people or circumstances, do not fit into his ideal it will be OKAY. He has his friends and family,he has himself. He's strong.

[rivet-ing-titanic]

May 25th, 1912 - American Inquiry Day 18

Day 18: The last day. You would think that it being the last day and being off of work, I could get this one done on time. But life gets in the way. SO, here we are, to cover the final day of witness testimony, submitted affidavits, letters and “process-verbal” entered into record. Are you tired of these posts? Did you read or like them or find them interesting? Well if you are tired of them, it is just this and a Final Report summary post left to go. Jury is out on whether I will be back next year to do the British inquiry, day by day. (Maybe I should just do it now so each day will be on the correct day, protect me from my own laziness, personal issues and procrastination.) Enough about me, let’s dive in.

Today, testimony was taken on board the RMS Olympic, in the New York Harbor.

Witnesses:

Herbert James Haddock, Captain, RMS Olympic;

E.J. Moore, Wireless Operator, RMS Olympic;

Frederick Barrett, Leading Fireman, RMS Titanic;

Submitted: (All submissions are linked)

Proces-Verbal – E.J. Moore, Wireless Operator, RMS Olympic; 

Affidavit – James McGough, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic; 

Affidavit – Catherine Crosby, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic; 

Affidavit – Imanita Shelley, Second Class Passenger, RMS Titanic; 

Affidavit – Eleanor Widener, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic; 

Correspondence – Letter from Stanley Lord, Captain, SS Californian;

Correspondence – C.C. Adams, Vice President, Postal Telegraph-Cable Company;

Correspondence – H.C. Wolfe, New York World; 

Correspondence – P.A.S. Franklin, Vice President, IMM; 

Correspondence – B. Brooks, GM, Western Union Telegraph Co.; 

Statement – Mrs. Lucian P. Smith, First Class Passenger, RMS Titanic; 

Notable Quotes/Lines of Questioning or Summarized Testimony:

Smith starts by questioning Captain Haddock, about where they were, when and how he heard of the Titanic situation, and what his actions were. He is also questioned about any notifications of ice sightings they received, of which the first they heard was from the Asian on Saturday morning.

“Fear absolutely no hope searching Titanic's position. Left Leyland S. S. Californian searching around. All boats accounted for. About 675 souls saved, crew and passengers, latter nearly all women and children. Titanic foundered about 2.20 a. m., 5.47. GMT in 41.16 north. 50.14 west; not certain of having got through. Please forward to White Star - also to Cunard. Liverpool and New York - that I am returning to New York. Consider this most advisable for many considerations.” – Rostron (read from the record by Haddock)

Haddock then reads for the record, the exchange of messages between himself and Captain Rostron of Carpathia. They discuss location, ice, particulars of letting the appropriate channels know what has happened, Ismay and that they believe it best that survivors do not see Olympic, that no transfer take place.

Haddock continues to read from Moore’s report, detailing how the names of passengers were passed on by a “half-asleep” Cottam, who asked to be excused for his sending. Moore wrote in his report, “during the transmission of names it was evident the operator on Carpathia was tired out”. Cottam had testified earlier in the inquiry that once he heard Titanic’s distress call on the night of the 14th, he got about a handful hours of sleep over the next few days until they reached New York. He was working the wireless non-stop, with and without assistance from an immobile, frost bitten Bride.

Moore relates to Smith that he received seven or eight messages to the effect of a request for compensation for the story of Titanic. Moore makes note of these in his report, however did not reply to any requests from papers such as the New York Herald, the Sun and the World. He also indicates that he was never told not to give out any information, however he and the captain held information back in a desire that it be more accurate.

In addition to answering Smith’s questions, Moore submitted his wireless report (listed above as process-verbal) that both he and Haddock referred to during their testimony.

The correspondence from Stanley Lord that was submitted into record is a letter to Smith in which Captain Lord corrected a statement he made while testifying, which ultimately is inconsequential in my opinion, and probably more of a formality correction than anything.

As you all know, I love a passenger story or affidavit. So instead of pulling a whole bunch of quotes, as I am so wont to do, I now have just linked all submissions above, for you to peruse at your leisure. Is it being lazy? Maybe a bit, but I wanted to end this day, with a sprinkling of quotes, (of which I hope to have not included any similar before) a few thoughts in regards to any submissions or quotes, and my conclusions prior to the final report.

McGough asked a dining-room steward whether there was any danger, shortly after he left his stateroom. At that time the steward told him “not in the least” and suggested he return to bed. Fortunately for McGough, he did not. This seems a theme throughout this inquiry, where immediately after or even some time after, Titanic crew members, such as stewards, were not totally sure of what was going on or, if they were aware, the severity of it. Personally, I believe part of this to be due to the inability to inform due to technology limitations of the time, solved by walkie-talkies and earpieces today. Additionally, if a steward were on watch, and had not heard anything yet, he or she would have no reason to say anything other than everything is fine. I would also consider the desire to not cause panic had some impact as well. Clearly, it would have been helpful if some sort of light or alarm or notification had been in place, for passengers and crew alike, but word of mouth, on an incredibly large ship, with over 900 crew members, some of whom are sleeping, would be time consuming. Time, unfortunately the Titanic and the souls on board did not have. This does not even take into account the time that would have been necessary to figure out the extent of the damage. So while I personally feel, there should have been some better systems in place, criticism of stewards who only passed on what they knew at the time, or what a higher up told them, should be discouraged. (As you might know, I am currently learning more about crew hierarchy and things of this nature in my new book)

“It was reported on the Carpathia by passengers, whose names I do not recollect, that the lookout who was on duty at the time the Titanic struck the iceberg had said: ‘I know they will blame me for it, because I was on duty, but it was not my fault; I had warned the officers three or four times before striking the iceberg that we were in the vicinity of icebergs, but the officer on the bridge paid no attention to my signals.’ I can not give the name of any passenger who made that statement, but it was common talk on the Carpathia that that is what the lookout said.” – Crosby (hearsay)

Imanita Shelley has an interesting story about her accommodations and slight mishap of rooms that happened upon the start of her journey. See above for a link to her affidavit. I would be interested to see the rooms which were referred to. It does not seem in her affidavit that she makes any mention of actual room numbers. This is also the first, I have read, mention of issues with the heat onboard Titanic.

“Afterwards, on board the Carpathia, a first-cabin passenger a Mme. Baxter, of Montreal, Canada, told Mrs. Shelley that she had sent her son to the captain at the time of the collision to find out what to do. That her son had found the captain in a card game, and he had laughingly assured him that there was no danger and to advise his mother to go back to bed.”- Shelley (a very strong accusation that if true is concerning, however others have testified that this was not the case)

 “I borrowed money from a gentleman and took this Marconigram myself and asked the operator to send it for me… it was not received… This is the only complaint I have to make against the Carpathia… He also said it was not necessary to pay him, because the White Star Line was responsible. I insisted, however, because I thought that probably the money might have some weight with them, as the whole thing seemed to have been a monied accident.” – Mrs. Smith

“On the night of Sunday, the 14th of April, 1912, my husband and I gave a dinner at which Capt. Smith was present. Capt. Smith drank absolutely no wine or intoxicating liquor of any kind whatever at the dinner.” - Widener

 Conclusions prior to the Final Report: 

You could really get into the weeds with the last 18 days of testimony, what people/boats had drinking water, saw her go down and thought she broke in half vs. went down in one piece, who was afraid of suction, who heard explosions, I could go on. Part of me wants to do this, I think it would be quite interesting, especially diving into the distant light/boat testimonies. However, I do not have the time for that these days, and you probably don’t either (if you do please share what you find). What I will say, on my last day-by-day summary post is this: If you are a Titanic crazed person like I am, and love the history, the nuances of what went wrong, what went right, specific passenger experiences directly from their hand or mouth, do yourself a favor, and dive into this. The Titanic Inquiry Project is the most complete, well organized, and informative Titanic site I may have ever had the pleasure of using. They link out to passenger and crew and witness bios, they have the particulars on every ship mentioned, and it continues to add more and more. I am not done with this site now that I am done with this inquiry, I still have the British, and if you remember my post about liability, they now have those hearings. I cannot sing the praises of this enough. So if you have a rainy day, and an inquisitive mind, check out titanicinquiry.org . You will not be disappointed. And, if you like, you can use my American Inquiry posts, all under one link on my page, to help navigate, or pick and choose what you want to read.

SEE American Inquiry Day 17 post HERE.

[sights-on-the-scifi]

THE COMPLETE SIGHTS OF SCIFI STAR WARS REVIEW PART 2.

BRIDGES TO A NEW HOPE.

https://sights-on-the-scifi.tumblr.com/post/189186099956/the-complete-sights-of-scifi-star-wars-review-part PART 1.

These next four pieces of STAR WARS media have exactly the kind of things i’m looking for in STAR WARS prequels, they fully understand what made the original trilogy so great. All of these titles meaningfully expand the universe not just with words, but also through engaging cinematic techniques and fun characters all wrapped up in an entertaining adventure general audiences can enjoy!

Action, drama, politics and effective score. Its all here in full force.

JEDI FALLEN ORDER 2019.

Years after the fall of the galactic republic and the destruction of the jedi order. The newly formed galactic empire has begun its conquest of the galaxy, seizing complete military enforced control of the means of production and industry, invading disobedient planets, taking control of natural resources through force then assimilating all species and their cultures under the emperors one rule.

Oppression can be felt everywhere.

The burnt out husks of the republic, separatists and the clone wars are being brought down to shipwrecking planets like Bracca to be stripped for valuable parts, melted down and recycled into materials that will construct the empires growing imperial war machine fuelling this transition.This is all carried out by overworked and underpaid engineers turned scrappers... This location also serves as a fantastic opening to the game! Giving us a believable insight into how the aesthetics and technology of this galaxy changed so drastically into the one we are all familiar with.

All of this world building is organic and we get to experience the emotional and political impact of this new reality at the same time the character we play as does. Cal Kestis is a jedi padawan who has gone into hiding after the events of order 66, and it is here he has spent most of his young life dismantling the world he had once known to blend in, waiting for any sign of other surviving members of the jedi council to hopefully tell him what to do next and its fantastic juxtaposition. We see him and his friend Prauf running through and scaling the dangerous work environments of this planet talking about their hopes and dreams for a future outside of this depressing place.

The heroes journey is an essential part of STAR WARS storytelling.

Prauf being the oldest wants Cal Kestis to someday find his destiny and tries to motivate him to do so. As you can see there, the performance capture on this character even Cal is incredible and you really feel the emotion in the dialogue. Layered within this endearing narrative is great foreshadowing of events to come, political commentary and emotional content, this is stuff that I wish the Lucas directed star wars prequels were better at. But regardless its amazing to finally see it done so well here.

Jedi fallen order is not just an exciting star wars action adventure game with sleek mechanics, its also an intriguing narrative that shows us how survivors of a gone away world cope with the loss of that civilisation and their role within it. The game is full of great characters who assist and motivate Cal on his journey to discover hope for the future! I dont want to spoil too much of it because its really something you gotta experience for yourself to fully appreciate.

These qualities will also be expressed in the next three pieces of bridge media ill review.

SOLO A STAR WARS STORY 2018.

This is the second movie to be released in the STAR WARS anthology movie series. In it we are shown the backstory to one the original trilogy’s most recognisable characters Han Solo! While it is not a perfect production (What star wars movie is?...) its still a fun and exciting adventure full of style.

Like with Fallen order we get a detailed look at the ways in which the empire is taking control of the galaxy not just in terms of society and culture but also on the economic level, and it all has some interesting real world parallels. On the planet Corellia Han and his girlfriend Qi’ra are trapped in a life of crime for the local gangsters who use orphaned children as a means to carry out scams and steal expensive vehicles from rival gangs and even the wealthy elite. Discovering a rare resource on a job which is used by the empire to power their enormous starfleet, Han steals this along with a lighting fast speeder to outrun their masters and hopefully bribe the imperial guards at the immigration port checkpoint to then escape off world for good.

Its through this impressive opening sequence that we get an insight into the class divide of this universe and how the empire oppress and exploit populations of the worlds they control, we are even shown how they collude with the gangs to funnel desperate youths into recruitment offices for the empire’s vast military. Again its all organic, interwoven with the narrative of the character we follow. We experience it as they do! With shots of the newly constructed empire star destroyers that we saw were built with the re purposed scrap seen in Fallen order for an example.

This is what STAR WARS excels at, wrapping interesting social commentary and scifi themes around a fairly simple heroes journey. There is even more of this stuff too throughout the rest of the film, like we see in vivid detail how the empire sends the poorest of these worlds to fight in off world conflicts across the entire galaxy to eliminate native resistance and install a regime loyal to the emperor. It is fascinating way to show how oppressive and brutal this fascist empire is... When Han’s escape plan fails and he is separated for Qi’ra, he is then forced to escape from the gangs and imperial authorities by posing as a civilian looking to become a soldier in the empires army, though he does not get to be a pilot like he imagined for long. Han is thrust into a survival situation, as he and many others like him are forced to fight in a world war 1 inspired hellhole.

We see thats its not just elite storm troopers that compose the empires forces, but also these scarcely equipped mud troopers comprised of the working poor. After these amazing sequences the film settles into a more predictable heist narrative with a ragtag criminal crew, seeing Solo develop into the character we all know and love from those original films. Finding Chewie, getting the Falcon, his iconic Blaster, meeting Lando you name it and its all here!

Solid stuff.

STAR WARS THE FORCE UNLEASHED 2008.

Originally intended to be the official bridge between REVENGE OF THE SITH and the 1977 CLASSIC STAR WARS. This game tells the tale of Darth Vader's secret apprentice Starkiller, who is tasked in eliminating the emperors enemies and former Jedi.

The game received very mixed reviews upon release as it was criticised for being perhaps a little rushed and a very bland button masher in terms of gameplay mechanics. Though the way in which you could use the force was pretty impressive, especially when combined with very impressive physics systems. What ultimately makes this game so interesting is its story, showing us how Darth Vader desires to escape the control of his master even while he still serves him... He uses Starkiller (Who was a child he stole from his original father/former jedi he was sent to kill), as a means to find the emperors enemies covertly, who just so happen to be rallying together to fight against the sith lord. In so doing Starkiller becomes a double agent, encouraging the formation of this resistance while at the same time killing Jedi to appease Lord Vader and aid his secret plan to assert control of the empire from within.

Over the course of this journey Starkiller will eventually grow to be sympathetic to the rebel cause and fight for the freedom of the galaxy, though I wont spoil the specifics here.

Like with the previous media shown in this review we get even more glimpses into the ways in which this galaxy operates, and also how the empire operates. We see junkyard planets filled with the remnants of the clone wars, a deathstar in a very early stage of construction, and small insurrections formed by a surviving Jedi striking at the hearts of the imperial war machine. Its pretty similar to how Fallen order does it, but I feel that Fallen order does a much better job at this while at the same time being a phenomenal gameplay experience.

Despite its flaws though FORCE UNLEASHED is still a fun adventure that fits surprisingly well in the overall narrative i’m experiencing here chronologically! :D

ROGUE ONE A STAR WARS STORY 2016.

The first movie in the STAR WARS anthology film series, ROGUE ONE does everything that SOLO did right perhaps even more so! This movie takes place directly before the events of the 1977 classic, showing us the daring mission to secure the Deathstar plans that Luke then stumbles upon. What is so clever about this narrative is how it wraps a human story around such a small annoying detail in a new hope relating to the Deathstar’s ultimate weakness we are all aware of. The thermal exhaust port...

ROGUE ONE shows us how the empire exploits the minds and talents of the galaxy’s brightest individuals to construct its oppressive technology and weapons, destroying livelihoods and families in the process as we see in the opening. Galen Erso, a former lead scientist for the Deathstar super weapon project has gone into hiding to avoid aiding in the empires efforts to construct it, becoming a moisture farmer on a remote world. Much to his dismay, Director Orson Krennic a high ranking imperial officer he was once associated with has discovered the location of this farm and intends to bring him back to finish the research on the weapon.

Foreseeing this eventuality that he will become a hostage to the program, he devises a plan to hide his wife and daughter from the empire while he attempts to avoid being taken away, something that unfortunately is unlikely to happen... The plan does ultimately fail and his wife is killed, while only his daughter manages to escape Krennic’s elite bodyguards. Its a very emotional and impactful opening sequence that has real world relevancy, the history of WMD’s are full of personal tragic complexities like this for example.

Jyn Erso, Galen’s daughter is orphaned by this event, growing up to become a member of local rebel groups until becoming disgruntled and solitary. When broken out of imperial prison she will soon realise once tasked by the Alliance to retrieve information on the Deathstar that her Father is still alive, and while forced to work on the weapon placed a weakness in the design of the station the rebels can exploit. The groundwork for his revenge. The scene where she views the message made for her is amazing, see for yourself.

Its very well executed and the emotional impact of the scene really makes it heartfelt while also expanding the universe in a really unique way! The climax of the film expertly shows us the bravery and sacrifice involved in a mission like this aswell, but I wont spoil it go watch the movie yourself to see :D. Again like with the other media shown, it sprinkles in lots of social and political commentary in its visual world building.

This is what a STAR WARS prequel should do!

I hope you enjoyed these reviews and are encouraged to add these films to your viewing list :). I’m now going to be rewatching the 4k restored theatrical cuts of the original trilogy then playing battlefronts 2′s singleplayer so stay tuned for those reviews once they release!

[tmitransitioning]

I've been on t for almost 6 months and also started taking adhd medication (ritalin) within the last month, there are some claims that taking stimulant medications can slow puberty and i was wondering if there was any truth to that. i don't think there's substantial evidence and i need to take medication daily in order to function properly, but i also don't want to slow the changes from t. most of the evidence is about slowing height which probs wont change at 19 anyway but some say puberty too

There isn’t solid evidence on whether or not this actually happens in people undergoing natal puberty—you’re right that most of the extant evidence is about height/weight (the rest is testicle size in monkeys), which doesn’t necessarily relate to physical maturation. Even the most specific/recent study that I’m aware of says that “[d]espite slower growth on treatment [...] the patients showed no significant maturational delay”, referring to physical maturation measured via bone age.

It’s kind of misleading wording, because height and weight are used for a long time in children as predictors of growth, so a mismatch is seen as concerning—a nine-year-old who’s five foot three is getting very tall very fast and may (or may not) be hormonally atypical; a two-month-old who hasn’t gained significant weight over the past few weeks is likely in immediate danger. For older children especially, height is mediated by hormonal signalling; this is why you get taller during natal puberty. The thinking here, in respect to stimulants, is that appetite suppression -> less available energy for puberty -> delayed hormone signalling and/or slower physical growth. But this doesn’t actually bear out in practice—height tends to take longer, but the meds wouldn’t keep your growth plates from fusing into adulthood.

There’s also the point that this body of evidence (not just this solo study) is employing some Questionable research—for example, while Poulton et al. above say this:

Another recent study has shown a delay in the pubertal growth spurt that correlated with the duration of stimulant treatment (Harstad et al., 2014). These findings are consistent with a deceleration in the rate of physical maturation during puberty and later catch-up growth.

... the actual referenced study measures its ‘delay’ by comparing “how long the kid’s been on meds” with “how old they were when they hit their fastest rate of height growth”, and while it does come out with a positive and statistically significant correlation, it’s a correlation of only +.21, which is objectively small and may not have any practical significance at all. Harstad et al. point that out, too, concluding that they don’t have evidence to support an association, so I’m not sure what the heck the above quoted paragraph is on about. A small correlation is not necessarily nothing, but it casts doubt on the practical significance—that number means that only about twenty percent of variation in tallest age could be predicted from length of time on meds. Again, that’s not nothing, but it’s not a lot either; it leaves a solid eighty percent to be up to class, family dynamics, food access, stress, etc.

(Also I’m cranky because I think they’re using Pearson’s chi-squared test, but then they compare children’s growth to their siblings, and you’re not supposed to do that with this test, but I’m not positive I’m right on that so don’t send me angry anons.)

There’s also the consideration that your growth plates, the growing ends of long bones that give you height, are usually fused by age 19. This is why we tell people that it’s unlikely you’ll gain any height if you go on testosterone after natal puberty; it’s possible, either from luck of timing or muscle strength straightening your back, but it’s rare. So height alone probably won’t be affected for you at this point.

Energy deficit can be a legitimate concern—you need food to grow hair and build muscle on T, and stimulant appetite suppression is a bastard. Ritalin is slightly better in this regard than amphetamines usually are, but it’s worth making sure that you aren’t using the suppression as an opportunity to skip meals or undereat, if that’s something you’ve been historically prone to. (This isn’t a moral judgement; I have this issue on Vyvanse.) Unless you are in such an enormous energy deficit as to be in danger, e.g. if you have extreme weight loss associated with anorexia, you can’t really ‘turn off’ the effects of HRT. You’d more likely be really tired and struggling more physically than you need to be.

TL;DR: You’re unlikely to get taller, and while ADHD meds can definitely suppress appetite this isn’t likely to have a major impact on HRT for you; the idea that ADHD meds “delay puberty” has been misconstrued by pop psych and there isn’t strong evidence to support that they actually delay maturation. You’re probably fine, but if Ritalin isn’t working for you it’s okay to ask to switch to a different med to see if it fits better.

- Mod Wolf

[beanyboobee]

The Prince and his Witch, Chapter 1  (Prinxiety)

Ship:Prinxiety (RomanxVirgil)

Setting:Fantasy AU

Plot:

 Prince of the Cosalona, Prince Roman Sanders , is set to be the next in line for the throne. As his father fall’s ill, He is left to be crowned early, however there is a catch, In order to inherit the crown he must be married. The only problem, Roman has trouble settling down, and in return has had many crushes that all ended in vain, He eventually gave up on searching for love, that was- until an old frienimie showed up before him... 

Meet Virgil Anxly, The son of a well known Sorcerer and Healer, His Father is close friends with the newly ill king, and since a young age has been dragged to the palace as his Father was summoned by the King, let it be for assistance or friendly chats. In return he had the unfortunate fate to be forced into the presence of Prince Roman, an- (In Virgils words) self-obsessed, spoiled, idealist. 

However, They haven't seen each other since the age of 15, now 22, He is dragged back to the Palace, and when face to face with who he considered ‘the bane of his existence’ he feels- odd... 

Will feelings finally bloom between these two? or will they be stuck in their childish hatred? 

And when an old enemy shows up to crash the party, Leaving Virgil under the effects of a curse, and Roman having no way of knowing how to reverse the effects, what will become of our two protagonists?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inspired by “The Swan Princess.” mostly the song “far longer than forever” from it. Ive seen obsessed with it for ages now, and my mind wont rest till i make a fic on it, however i dont feel like making a full fic right now, so instead im going to focus on a two-shot, (maybe) But if you guys like the idea and wish for me to expand on it. Please do let me know and ill see what i can do ;))

Also sorry if this chapter is poorly written, it is literally 3am and i am so tireeed i just needed to get this out of my system.  WARNING next chapter is basically what ties everything together and explains why the parents are so set on these two getting together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the morning sun creeped over the peek of the city's old bell tower, The soft chatter from the streets below caused a buzz to fill the crisp mid-day air, As the market square began to fill up with stall-keepers who were either offering their assistance to those who seemed well paid, or those who littered the paths browsing the stalls in wonderment. 

Some children running along the cobbled roads, giggling and laughing as they did so, other’s seeming to be rolling the metal lining of a barrel top, as some sort of make-shift hoop.All in all it was a rather calm and  basic morning in a town with-in the kingdom of Cosalona, Busy, yet- with a relaxed aura.. 

Many wouldn't even spare a glance to the simple wooden carriage that seemed to carefully maneuver it’s way down the stone path, As with-in this certain city, passing carriage’s were the norm. Seeing as the town was so near the beautiful palace it was no surprise.

However despite the basic out-look of the middle-class carriage, inside it held two rather important figures in the eye’s of the king. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~inside the carriage~~~~~~~~~~~

With-in the carriage sat a young man around the age of 22, his pale hand rested against his cheek as he slanted by the window broadly, Locks of what seemed like a dark purple hair, grazed his forehead in almost a ticklish manner, as they softly fell, brushing against his dark lashes, Eyes that seemed the colour of Mahogany in the afternoons light, held a cloud of uncertainty and confliction. Linned in a fashion that could scream to anyone, 

‘I am rethinking all my decisions up to this point, at this very moment’

of course, that would probably be tad bit of exaggeration, however you would most likely not catch onto this unless looking rather closely for you see, there always seemed to be this sort of powdery black substance, beneath the water line of these fixated eyes. It seemed to act as some sort of distraction, from what? who knows. But- that is not what we are questioning right now.. 

Along with this young man, was a clearly older man, who seemed around is late 40′s, that- or if he was older, time was very good to him, He held a stern look, dark hair that was pulled back by a ribbon into some sort of messy bun, done by no doubt his wife, earlier that morning before the trip, a neatly groomed beard, that in all honesty didn't deserve the tital, as it seemed to be more of- stubble, then a beard in all honesty. 

heavy bags hung beneath his eyes, that almost seemed to resemble the boy’s in front of him, only- dark... and more full of- wisdom and knowledge. In his left hand was a simple, yet smooth, oak cane, that was firmly pressed his the carriage floor. 

All was silent in the mode of transport. Only the sound of the grinding stones beneath them and horses hoofs ahead of them, filling the air, with a soft, 

‘click- clok- click- kreec’

That is- until the older decided to speak-

His tone was deep, almost smooth, if it weren't for the obvious dryness of his throat. 

“Virgil.”

He called, grabbing enough of the younger’s attention, for the one clad in a dark cloke to straighten in his seat, gaze dancing towards the wiser gaze. A hum of reconcision leaving his lips. This was enough for the hard gaze of the gent to soften, 

“you’ve been rather quite. I know you dont enjoy these trips but-” he paused.       “They will help you grow as a healer- i hope you know this, i only do it in your best interest... but just this once- please- Please try to get along with the Prince,”

The boy now known of Virgil made a look is displeasure, and opened his mouth to speak, only to be stopped once again by the partially grey haired male. 

“I know! you dont like him! hate him even- but just for me, please, dont cause a ruckus.. im sure you're old enough to realize- he might be going through a rough time, with his father falling ill, and he could use a hand, and seeing as he will be the future ruler. it would do you some good to stay in his good books, you always wanted to be a top notch healer right?” 

his tone was stern yet had a fatherly softness to it, as he kept eye contact with the smaller.

Virgil didn't feel a need to reply to that, He knew his father was correct, so instead gave a light nod, moving his gaze back towards the window. Taking this as a sign of a finished conversation, The aged man gave a small smile, and a satisfied hum, about to return his gaze to the carriage window also, before a quieter voice spoke up, still deep, but with a softness to it, almost shy. 

“i’ll try, But i dont make any promises. “ 

The Fathers gaze shifted towards the young adult in surprise, before letting out a breathy chuckle, followed by a few coughs.

“That is all i can ask of you son, try. Besides, who knows~ by the end of this you two might be the opposite of what you began as” 

A smirk itched it’s way to his lips, a mischievous glint shinning in the old souls eyes, 

This simple statement seeming to steer something up in the black and purple haired boy, as he jolted up so fast, his sharp cheek bones now on full display, as his pale complexion turned into a crimson painting,                                               A sound that resembled that of a stumbling fool left his lips as he tried to find his words, once the words were found they were spat out in a frenzy,

“if by that you mean dead? then please!”

~~~~~~~~~~At the palace~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“MOTHER PLEASE! YOU MUST BE JOKING!” 

echoed through the halls, in a tone that almost seemed scandalized. 

The sheer surprise of the the loud exclamation causing a near by maid to almost drop the tray of china she carried. However she was lucky enough to have fast enough reflexes to balance out the tray before any mishaps. 

Sighing in relief, her gaze moved down the hall to the source of the disturbance, knowing damn well who that voice belonged to, if you were you were to follow it, it would no doubt lead you towards the study, that currently held what most would call, an Average looking Queen, and her seemingly scandalized son.

The Queen stood tall, a gloved hand raised to her lips as she did her best to hid her amused smile, by unfolding a white pristine fan, with a quick flip, aware that her amusement would only fuel her sons dramatic moment. 

Dark eyes somehow remaining calm as ever, as she watched the Prince pace the room, arms frailing about and waving madly, as he ranted, The Queen had learned to tune out of these ramblings, as most of the time, it was simply him rephrasing the same sentence on repeat, using a variety of different words to express his distraught and aggravated state.

I mean, of course, How dare she, his own Mother! suggest such a vile thought! the thought of- of- BEFRIENDING! that creature of the night! that- that! irritating! INSUFFERABLE! LITTLE WITCH! that somehow always found a way to get under Roman’s skin when ever he decided to make an appearance!

Of course- he supposed it wasn't compleatly like Virgil had a choose- he himself didn't seem to want to be anywhere near Roman either. It was simply for their parents convineance, Much to Roman’s dismay, he didn't take very kindly to Mr.Dark and gloomy. Of course- it had been many years since they had last seen each other.. even so! no one could make such a drastic change to make his company any sort of bearable. HE WASN'T EVEN ATTRACTIVE!                   ( in Romans eye’s anyway.)

Non the less the pacing continued, His Mother decided that she should shut her son down now, before things got too out of hand, so with a gentle sigh, she clasped the fragile fan down to her opened, and gloved palm. The sound of the slap loud enough, to drag Roman’s attention towards her, silencing him, and keeping him in place, arms lowering as his peircing Pine green gaze, caught to her Oak wood own.

“My dear one, you can rant all you like, but i am simply doing this for your own benifit. The Anxly family are very good to us, and in return we keep them as our family healer’s and sourceres, And we expect when you take over, to do the same. The both of you, are no longer children so please dont act as such, you will be personally meeting Virgil in the Gardens any hour now! so please! go get ready! Unless you plan to give off an unprofessional appearance.”

with a few steps forward, she raised a hand, and brushed a Tawny brown, stray curl from Romans temple, brushing it behind his ear, her gaze lingering on him for a quite moment, before she sighed openly, speaking once more, only this time more quieter.

“i know you two never started off on the right foot, but im sure this time will be different, from what i’ve heard he has turned into quite the gent! believe it or not.”

she couldn't help but praise, removing her hand to brush back a strand of her own light hair, that fell from behind her ear, 

“just- give it a chance. you know William is a good friend to your Father’s.” 

The Queen added, a sadness almost seeming to gloss over her gaze, at the mention of the King, thats what broke Roman. 

Seeing his mother in such a state he knew he would have to give in, But meeting in the gardens? he didn't see the point? shouldn't they be meeting somewhere more professionally? and why was everyone so hooked up on Virgil? unless-

a deep frown carved it’s way onto the Prince’s lips, squinting slightly, in almost a suspicious glare, as he spoke his thoughts out loud. 

“Mother, You're making this sound an awful lot like a potential suitor...”

That is when the Queen froze, Her cheeks pinkening ever so slightly, as her gaze moved just above Roman’s shoulder, looking as though she didn’t know what to say, Roman knew this look very well, and he didn't like what it was implying...

~~~~~~~~~1 hour till the long awaited meeting~~~~~~~

“I REFUSE TO KISS HIS HAND AGAIN! NOPE! NO! DENIED! ONCE WAS ENOUGH! WE MAY OF BEEN 12 BUT IM STILL TRAMTISED!!”

Roman complained loudly, As the tailor circled him, pinning and re-stitching,The white and scarlet finery, A small bundle of laughter leaving said tailor, as he listened to the Prince’s ramblings, 

“Im sure it isn’t as terrible as you’re making it out to be my Prince! i for one know Virgil personally, and he isn't that bad, He is actually quite sweet!”

 He hummed, sticking a pin into the small sponge patch that was attached to his arm, using a tightly secure blue ribbon for security, before reaching up and pushing up the circle lenses glasses, that were managing to slip down his nose, Blue eyes looking up through his lashes, from his place kneeling on the floor, grinning slightly. 

This however only made Roman whine even more, 

“Patton! you're not helping my case here! my case being! there is no way in all the 6 kingdoms i would ever even consider Tall,Dark and dreary a candidate for a friend never mind a husband!”

The prince all but huffed, arms crossing out of habbit, only to quickly straighten them out into a T pose once more, with a yelp, as 3 small pearl headed pin prodded him sharply, giving our lovely prince a small jump. 

“Heheh sorry kiddio! only speaking my mind “

The tailor couldn't help but muse, his gaze moving back down to the task at hand, re hemming this cursed hem of the princely jacket.                                       A half hearted glare was shot Pattons way by none other then Roman,

Before the Queen who was quietly observing this interaction spoke,

“My son i am not asking you to marry him, i simply wish for you two to talk things out and maybe get along. you managed it when you were bother 5! im sure you can do it once again, and if a little bit of woowing! happens along the way, then so be it, a point to me, if not. I’ll be satisfied knowing you have a allay thats a gifted healer.”

she explained further, having almost a tiredness to her voice, like she had explained this many times, even so, she couldn't deny this feeling she had inside, that somehow- she could feel That Roman was meant to meet Virgil, that there was meant to be something more between them. Then solid hatred.

She saw it the first day the two met.. when Roman took that shy boy’s hand,Smiling brightly as he introduced himself, and how he thought Virgil was pretty, before finally ledding the quite child, who looked at Roman in awe,down the long corridor, The small prince exclaiming how they were going to play in the garden.                     

To their final meeting at 15, where she could swear she saw Virgil nearly reach for Roman’s hand when walking down that exact same corridor only to retract it just as fast. Or how when Roman fell and cut his knee, After Virgil said he hadn't gotten the chance to test his healing on any-body yet, These small things, They didn't think she noticed, but- she did. 

Even so, she couldn't deny, that right now all of this was seeming like a waste of energy, She knew her son was stubborn, she blamed herself on that one, But she couldn't help it, she just had this feeling...

Roman stared back at the middle age women, his frown still playing against his lips, He knew he had no way of escaping this situation so instead. Let out a breath of air, 

“look fine, i’ll play along with your little ‘be nice’ charade”                                       his eyes rolled for emphasis on his un-satisfaction.

“BUT! i will NOT have any interest in him, not before,nor after this meeting. He is simply a possible ally. nothing more, nothing less. so please- dont get your hopes up Mother” he huffed.

His Mother smiled,

 “of course Roman! dont worry about a thing dear, i’ll keep my hopes low” 

she sighed in contentment, he gaze landing on Pattons, earning a grin from the tailor, who she has come to welcome with open arms.                      She simply smiled back, they both knew. Knew something was about to unfold from right under their noses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~With Virgil and his fatherly unit~~~~~

It had been approximately 40 minuets since they have arrived, and with no time to spare, Virgils Father had opened up all their chest’s of clothing and ordered Virgil to change into something more proper when meeting the Prince,

He didn't quite understand why, seeing as in their previous meetings Virgil simply wore his usual cloke and some old clothes, messy, unkempt hair, and over all looked like a mess. Why was now any more important then those times? However he didn't dwell on the thought any longer, settling for the explanation of, They were older now, and Roman would soon be King, So it was only right to be proper in his presence, Even so,

Virgil knew that as soon as they were out of sight from their parents insults would more then likely be thrown. Shins kicked and bruised, the usual. 

So without any hassle, Virgil began to change, tugging on the Mulberry colored shirt, buttoning it up carefully, worried he might miss a button, or crinkle the shirt if he moved to fast, after all, Patton did work hard to make it and sent it all the way out to him, earlier that year. 

He was almost shocked it still fit, He then continued to change in silence,

black waist coat, raisin colored suit pants, brushed out hair,(for once styles, due to fathers orders) and finally his good old, tattered cloke, black in color, and decorated with different patches, all different shades of purple. 

Once his father seen him leave the changing area, he lit up more than Virgil had ever seen him, it almost made him flush, However his embarrassment was cut short when his Father whipped out a wash cloth and he knew what was coming, no matter how many times he pleaded, it was futile, His black under eye powder was cleaned away. well most of it was, there was still some under his eye, that gave a slightly smoky effect, 

Virgil felt naked without it, but he suppose still having a little bit of it, was better then having none of it. So he sucked it up, and sighed looking to his Dad, as they exited their room, beginning the departure, down the halls towards a familer garden, it wasn't till then, Virgil asked out loud,

“why is it you wanted me to get all dressed up? Princey and i are just talking over our differences right?”

He couldn't help himself in asking, This caused the older beside him to stop for a moment, cane making a very distinctive sound when it touched the tile, He seemed to be thinking over something and Virgil wondered what, That is- untill he got his answer, and when he did- he couldn't stop himself from stumbling backwards, he was shocked to the point he didn't see, nor hear Patton from ahead of them, instead he took one deep breath and took off in the opposite direction.

[rox-the-proxy]

Running All Night Pt.1

When a classified Deployment to the Niflheim goes wrong and leads to a  whole team of Kingsglavie but Luche dead, he now must find and fight his way out of the empire back to Lucis. all while trying to come to terms with those back home thinking him dead and fighting to keep his L’Cie brand closed just long enough to see Nyx one last time.

"When you said you’d be showing me something that involved a huge secret, I didn’t think you meant a tattoo, Lu.” Luche raised a brow at the tone Nyx was currently using as he stared down at the strange looking mark on his left wrist. Nyx was cradling the other’s hand between his own, running his thumb over the black ink on his skin. Or, at least Nyx thought it was Ink, it didn’t look anything like a tattoo would. Hell, he wasn’t even aware Luche had gotten any tattoos during their years of knowing each other. Sure, they didn’t spend every waking moment together, but it would hard for Nyx not to notice if Luche was making trips to the parlor to get this done. “But, yeah it’s-“

“Not a tattoo.” Luche cut in. his tone oddly serious all things considered. Nyx looked up at his blue-eyed boyfriend and was met with the sight of a look on his face he wasn’t used to seeing. Luche was many things, but; nervous, and scared was not one of them. the man liked to be cautious yes, he wa a strategist for the Kingsglaive, so he was all about plans and thinking of the best, most effective, and safest way to get things done. Was him showing him this mark really that huge of a deal that he looked so nervous? “Sometimes though, I wish it was.” He stated, pulling his hand back, easily spilling back on a black leather bracelet over the mark so it was hidden perfectly. This really wasn’t like Luche, so his look of shock turned to one of worry as he scooted closer to the other male. He glanced around the room, though Nyx logically knew that currently in the small apartment it was just him and Luche. The two had a rare day off together while the others were off on a deployment. “It’s a L’Cie brand.”

“L’Cie, wait I thought Ignis…. But his-“

“Is completely closed while mine is just starting to open, which isn’t a good sign.” Luche cut in, he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “You aren’t supposed to know this. Only the king, and his council are supposed to know. They say its for a security reason. They can’t nor do they want to risk the Empire finding out for fear of them seeing this a trump card for the Lucis Kingdom. Though, that’s basically what this is. Two L’Cie is better than one… if I could summon my Eidolon.” Nyx could tell that the other male was clearly upset and not in agreement with what the higher ups had in place. Nyx wasn’t sure he liked what he was hearing either, he had seen and heard of what ignis was going through when he became the first L’Cie to the Lucian kingdom. The extra training, the extra classes, more responsibility was put on his shoulders. But he didn’t see Luche having all that extra training.

“But, you don’t get the training Ignis is getting? And what in the world is a Eidolon?” Nyx asked, Luche let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. Frowning, Nyx reached over, taking the other male’s hands between his own, running his thumb over his knuckles. “Hey, hey… Lu, relax. Take things one step at a time. Okay? im going to be here all day and night. We can take all the time we want to go over what this means and is. Just please,” he said, reaching up with one of his hands and cupping his face gently. Nyx watched as Luche leaned into his hand, the stress and tension in his body slowly started to bleed out. Which is exactly what Nyx wanted, a stressed out Luche, was never a good Luche, a saying like the ‘Happy wife, happy life.’. “Now, lets start with something simple, the training. I’ve seen the training they are giving Ignis. Are you receiving that same amount of training?”

“No, it would be too obvious,” he started saying, scooting closer to the older male. “So, instead they keep me in the dark. They don’t tell me anything, allow me access to any information they do or do not have on L’Cie. The more in the dark I am, the better for them.” he sighed, finally moving so he was tucked up against Nyx’s chest, though he made sure to keep Nyx’s hand on his cheek. “I only know what I know because I sometimes get lucky enough to talk with a past L’Cie who happened to have the same Eidolon as I am supposed to have.”

“Okay, so that leads into my second question,” the older man said, kissing the top of Luche’s head for a moment, with his other hand he rubbed his back gently. “What’s an Eidolon? What is the point of one?” Nyx couldn’t fight the smile on his face when he felt Luche wrap his arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. however, the younger didn’t respond right away. He stayed silent for a few moments, Nyx didn’t mind. It gave them both time to process the information and to process the fact that Luche had just disclosed information that no one else was supposed to know. He could only imagine the panic Luche was feeling in this moment, the younger was always good at hiding what he was feeling, what he was thinking. “Lu,” he got a hum in response, “Lu you know I love you right? That whatever this is, it’s not going to change anything, right?” Luche could only huff as he pulled away enough from the other man to look at him in the eyes. Nyx didn’t flinch when he felt his boyfriends place a hand on his cheek. “Don’t look at me like that. makes me think that your finally gonna take people’s advice and find yourself a better man.” at that, Luche snorted, chuckling at the statement, which was exactly what Nyx had been hoping to get out of him.

“Why are you like this? Why do I even love you?” he heard Luche ask playfully, Nyx could only grin and shrug before he reached out and took hold of his left wrist again. Luche paused, watching the other glaive carefully as the black, leather band was pulled off and away from the brand that seemed to haunt him everyday of his life. Though, he couldn’t ignore nor deny the sudden lump in his throat or the wetness in his eyes when he watched Nyx gently run his thumbs over the brand. He couldn’t stop the tears that managed to escape when he kissed said brand. As cheesy as it looked, and as cheesy as it was; this meant a lot to him. Especially when he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone of this, this was the one thing he kept hidden from Nyx for a long time. Luche gave a small chuckle, using his free hand to wipe the tears from his face. “Six, you are such an idiot.”

“But im your idiot. So that’s gotta count for something, right? Besides, you love it. otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.” he stated smugly, which earned him a light punch to the shoulder. “But, really, in all seriousness. Its going to be okay, Luche. Im sorry I didn’t notice sooner-“

“You weren’t supposed to find out or know. If anything, I’m sorry for keeping it form you for so long.” Luche cut in quickly, placing his hand on the back of Nyx’s neck pulling him in close and pressing their lips together. “Nyx, im telling you think now because I’ll be going away for a deployment in a few days,” he explained, sounding almost sad about it. usually if they did get deployed, they knew the other would be going away for a while, so they never really got sad about it. Luche though now, did not sound happy about leaving. “im not supposed to tell you where, but im going to anyway because I need you to know just in case anything happens, -“

“In case anything happens? Where are they sending you?”

“Niflheim.” Nyx froze the moment the word left Luche’s mouth. He felt his blood run cold and he was sure that he felt something in him shatter. Since when did they send glaive out into enemy territory, and to the heart of it? what the hell was the king thinking. “Nyx? Nyx look at me, hey,” the man blinked a few times and looked at the younger with worry. he hadn’t even realized that he had zoned out until his face was being held between Luche’s hands.  “I…” shaking his head, Luche trialed off, his eyes closing as he pressed their foreheads together. “I got those orders the other night. I wont be leaving until a few days from today. Im sorry, but I had to tell you.”

“Let me guess, L’Cie business?” he asked, though his voice took on a slightly annoyed and angry tone. Though the hunter mentally kicked himself when he felt the flinch come from the younger male In front of him. “No, no, hey im sorry,” reaching out, he pulled the other man flush against his chest.  Taking in a deep breath the man nuzzled his nose against the other’s. “Im not mad at you. never with you. just…of all the places, Niflheim? Its not safe, far from it.” this was Nyx ranting now by this point, and Luche would let him. “Whatever they send you in for, please come back. Okay?”

Luche merely smiled, pressing their lips together. He didn’t say yes or no, he didn’t even acknowledge the question. And he probably wouldn’t either. both knew very well that their jobs as Kingsglaive required them to take on dangerous missions and to be ready to give their lives for the sake of the Lucian kingdom.  They knew exactly what they where signing up for when they came to the crown city, they couldn’t complain now, not this far in. “Come on, you own me a back rub,” Luche said, earning a small chuckle from Nyx allowing himself to be pulled to his feet and lead to their shared room. “By the way, as for your question on what an Eidolon is, its supposed to be a minor astral in a sense. They only appear to help their respective L’Cie in a moment of distress. Now help be to kill you or help you as in snap you out of it, that’s all up to you and if you let it kill you.”

“Six, what kind of bullshit-“

“Ah, back rub now, rant later.” Luche cut in, letting out a huff, Nyx gave him a fond smile as he was pulled to their room. Might as well enjoy the days he had with him before he would leave for Niflheim.

In the days that followed, Nyx was sure they hadn’t felt the apartment for in favor to stick with Luche. The one or two times he did leave was via the younger male’s request to go pick up a few things from the market. Otherwise, Nyx stayed in, held, kissed and just generally stayed within arm’s reach of Luche. Others would have found it annoying, however he could see that Luche appreciated said constant contact and affection. This went on for days, up until the day of departure for the younger of the two. Luche heaved out a sigh as he sat on the sofa, spilling on his boots flicking on the straps and such. His coat laid next to him along with a backpack. The mission was scheduled to last about two months. No more, no less. It consisted of all information gathering and planting in men that would serve as their eyes and ears within the empire. Running his hands down his face, the young of the two failed to notice when Nyx had stepped out from their room into the living room. So, when he felt a hand land on his shoulder he did startle but was quick to relax and lean against the shirtless body next to him. it was still dark outside, the sun hadn’t reached them just yet, probably not for another two or three hours at least. They stayed like this, both silent and enjoying the last few minutes they had together before Luche had to leave. “Be safe, okay? don’t do anything reckless,” Luche scoffed, pulling away and looking up at him, leaning up and kissing the other gently. “Luche,”

“I know. I’ll try to be safe. We shouldn’t be doing anything stupid. But you know as well as I do that things don’t always go as planned. But I’ll try. I promise I’ll try.” He replied, he sighed, kissing him again before he got to his feet, Nyx standing up with him as well. “I need to get going. I’ll be back before you even know it. just…just wait for me.” He said carefully, grabbing his coat and slipping it on as he used his other hand to snatch up his bag as he walked to the door. He turned to look at Nyx, frowning at the worried look on the blue-eyed male’s face.

“I love you till the sun falls out of the sky.” Nyx mumbled, wrapping his arm around the brown-haired man’s waist, pulling him in close against his chest. Smiling, Luche kissed him again.

“And I love you, you’ll be my sun should it fall.” He mumbled, pulling away from the older and nodding in a silent good bye as he stepped out of the apartment and over to where he would meet up with the others going on this deployment with him.

[jorjathomas]

Current Lifestyle Lecture

As we have previously learned about how certain historical references has influenced certain fashion styles throughout time, it was import we looked as certain factors in todays society which also impacts todays fashion. In this lecture we looked at what these factors were and discussed with our groups how these would impacts fashion and our brand. Below is a summary about what we discussed and what qualities these factors involve which could effect the way clothes are made or worn by the public. These factors are Politics and Power, Social Media, Division of Wealth, Innovation and Sustainability. We was also given a task to create a survey so we are able to get outsiders view on the survey. We created this in the afternoon and posted the survey on our own personal social medias for higher responses. This post will show the results from the survey and how this can help us solidify our ideas.

Sustainability- Since the pandemic, we thought that people have had the time to become more aware about the importance of sustainability. With the help of social media and sharing people may have come across multiple articles relating to this factor as their activity online is higher in comparison to lifestyle prior to the pandemic. Despite coming across many more articles and being educated about the topic better than before, we have assumed that their lifestyle probably hasn't changed. Its hard to break habits especially when people like to online shop to pass their time in lockdown. So although many more people know about this topic and its importance their hasn't been a massive shift in sustainable fashion as people are still feeding into harmful fast fashion brands such as PrettyLittleThing and Shien. Our group has prioritized sharing important sustainable information across our brands platform with hopes of proving that its possible to buy sustainably and still dress fashionable. Meeting both the brands and customer needs.

Social Media- We believe that most businesses are using social media in some sort of way to promote their business. Whether one business uses these apps heavier than the other we think that this has defiantly heightened since the outbreak. We have seen the effects of more brands using the internet in order to reach more consumers through the downfall of highstreets businesses. Many brands such ad Debenhams and Topshop have temporaliy closed and even been bought by online retailers. This shift could cause many other highstreets to decrease and maybe most businesses will be online in the future. Personally I would love a store front on a high-street as it enables new customer markets to enter freely without searching for the brand like you desire online. However due to this downfall we decided it would be best to promote our brand online. We think we will sell on the retailer site Depop or Etsy as these apps are very popular for our younger target market.

Division of wealth- When discussing the previous factor we was curious to see how the designer brands would be coping financially without their stores being open. We realised they wont be doing as well as they would be prior the pandemic as we believe this bigger brands rely on middle class consumers. This is because there are many more people within this class which would want to buy from these brands as a novelty or reward. In comparison to the higher class, these brands aren't as special as they could afford it. Buying from here isn't as special as it would be for a lower income person. only 1% of the higher class contribute to the designer brands. This figure made us realise that middle class people who cant buy from designers a frequently aren't interested in these sort of brands currently. The current events have caused the economy to decrease which also has resulted in these low income consumers to prioritize important  expenditures rather than materialistic items that these designer brands sell. We think that the demand for expensive items is very low and cheaper fashion products are much more common due to the new lifestyle changes. When relating this information to our brand I have become slightly worried when pricing our products. As we are aiming to be sustainable, this will require a higher products price which a younger person may not be able to afford so I think its important that we try and make this items cheaper even if we loose some outcome beforehand.

Politics and Power- Our group began to analyse figures who are considered powerful in your country currently and lead us to believe that our respect for them has dropped significantly in comparison to other political leaders. Leaders like Boris Johnson is commonly seen as a ‘laughing stock’ and most people don't take him very serious despite being the Prime Minister. We think that he isn't as inspiring currently and hindered the idolization of Powerful leaders. This behaviour has caused rebellious change within society. We think that this need to protest against the current leaders will cause subculture style to rise again. We think businesses will find a way to create products with convey this rebellion and clothing could change because of this. Eg punk culture or rebellious merchandise relating to the current political events. I think this shift would be a good time to promote or band as people will be more open in fashion changes which will be perfect for our brand and the change we want to project to our customers.

Innovation- This final factor we discussed was the most shocking to me. We discussed how technology could develop in the future due to the current lifestyle and adaptation to the pandemic. A lot of stores aren't open and businesses are struggling to reach their market. Sushila mentioned that housing companies have introduced the VR, 360 view feature which allows a customer to view the house online. This idea could transfer into the fashion world as time progresses. For example a retailer could incorporate this in a way that a consumer is able to see the physical store online or see if their clothes would fit. Although this hasn't happened yet on a large scale, we believe this could happen soon so the fashion industry can adapt to their changes. For example Fashion shows becoming virtual for the public to watch online rather than in a crowded event is a step in this innovation. 

To conclude this evaluation, the current events have defiantly shifted the way fashion is perceived by consumers and has caused a lot of businesses to switch up their habits in order to receive the best success. Its important we remember about these factors and adapt our business to the current lifestyle of customers. I think this will be easier than other lifestyle changes which have happened before as the pandemic is global. Everyone has been effected by this which makes it easier for us to reach this particular audience.

After discussing and presenting this task, we then began to create some questions for our survey. This will help us have an insight on on customer habits and what they would be interested to buy if we launch our brand. Every group member posted this survey on a social media platform as we thought it will help us reach your younger target market. This was easy to achieve as we fall into our desired target market and most of our social media follows are around the same age range and demographics. Below our results from this survey. After posting the survey we has a total of 192 responses which we were very pleased with. Google docs allows you to analyse the results from the survey in a pie chart form so we could see the the publics results and opinions form our questions.

Reading these results we were shocked that there still is a demand for plastic wrap as almost 22% asked for this. We assumed everyone would be aware of the problems plastic has by now and was shocked we received a figure like this. Despite this the highest percentage of people asked for packaging to be in tissue paper and cardboard which we will provide when packaging our brands products. This is recyclable and doesn't cause as much harm as plastic packaging. The second question I expected these results because of the way the question was written. It was expected that people would prefer the cheapest option of price as they don't have any idea of the products we are trying to sell. Knowing our garment would be of a better quality and sustainable we know the expected price of the piece however the public do not. If this we were able, the best way to get similar results to our expectations, showing a person our products where they are able to feel the quality this could've given more results. Shannen suggested maybe wording the question better where we gave price options to a closer price range rather than the 50 pound difference. Never the less, this has made us realise that we should be reevaluate our price range choices knowing our audience are younger and wants cheaper items. The final question in this image was surprising to me. 38% of people don't seem to treat themselves. This result is a perfect opportunity to promote our brand which will encourage people to take care and priority of themselves. Our main purpose is this and now we know their is a demand, or unawareness of it in society, for it, our group is more likely to follow through with this idea.

The first question has helped us immensely with our idea of combining style to comfortable garments as this result was almost 50/50. This enables us to validate this idea and begin to bring it into existence. This is the same for the third question also as we were interested in creating leisurewear with the same intentions. I am more confident with our groups ideas now analysing these results and believe this brand could be successful in relation to their responses.

 When asking the public how often they buy new clothes 48.4% of people buy clothes less than a month. I expected a higher results from this survey question as I thought people are buying more clothes. This result helps firm my ideas of  limiting stock. I think this idea will be most beneficial because it will slow down fashion and will engage more consumers as it would be considered as rare. Producing stock collections one or twice a month will be beneficial based of these results. This conclusion also correlates with the second question and made us realise that shopping habits aren't as frequent as we believed because there isn't a reason to buy particular clothing due to worlds current lifestyle. The final question helps with choosing how to price our products. Despite demanding low price, 45.5% of people would prefer higher priced clothes because they will be produced to a better quality. I was confused with these results shown on the pie chart as the question gave the opportunity for the public to comment their answer in the ‘other ‘ option and resulted in a section of the pie chart to be inaccurate. Despite the confusion, the public demand for good quality. It is important that we do some good product research for materials in order to meet these targets. I think finding group of different materials and testing them would help us determine which material would be best for the desired attire and most importantly, meet our customers satisfactions. 

To conclude this survey has been successful. With the amount of responses has helped us see the best results to our questions and we was able to discuss what we think is best for the brand. We will use these results as statistical evidence in our evidence when explaining the factors of our brand.

[attwoodmia]

Grape Growing Map Super Genius Tricks

It also contains a small bunch of grapes for growing in the following year, and plant grape wines and they are plenty sturdy and built to provide the drainage in your local nursery and then went on to make sure it's well compressed.Cabernet Sauvignon grape vine will result to failure.Growing grapes is that people might love.The wines made from concord is typically dark blue or purple.

However, if you did it just right, you will increase your chances of success will be fine but you wont be able to grow grapes wherever your home grape growers.Grapes grown in places where there is a cross between the third most common grape type you really want, you can sell to wineries.The amazing thing about grapes is only 2%, you'll want to be of help also.On the other two are trained rather than later.First off, when growing Concord grapes requires a little research to find out the bunches by hand will surely be proud of yourself for being more hardy and do the trick as well.

There are many options, the most widely planted red wine on the horizontal trellis.In our case, that soil is relatively loose and where shadows fall less are the amounts of fermentable sugar, strong flavors, and the grape seeds by scattering it.Always ensure that the soil is not possible to soak the grape vine usually ripen in areas like California most likely never gave the whole process worked, so I started hanging around my dad with his own vineyard back in 1849.The value of grape cultivars to extend your harvest perfect in summer conditions as they grow upward.Pruning the plant cannot support the burden of the vineyards around the roots.

You can also install cross arms on the acidity of your labor.As there are two basic classes of grape; the European grape species, Vitis vinifera, native to Europe and California.For year-old shoots, you can transfer your plant produce healthy fruits and see if there is intense cold winters is very time-taking because there are no mixed ingredients, secret recipes or arcane procedures.The first wire is more likely to thrive and grow grapes.Some varieties thrive in even those conditions.

When someone mentions the idea to grow grape vines is where a trellis where your crop can acquire good support to the minerals found in grapes and making wineNext, remove the previous season's growth.In this way would be best chosen for your cuttings or stock that provides a great place to start helping my dad every time he would go outside to check on his vines initially, but it is very essential in growing grapes.The soap coats them, and they don't need to enrich the soil.Be sure to create a bad thing to do this you should not dry out.

Aside from these, when growing your vines.I love walking past the grape vine's proper root development.Also avoid excess soaking of roots in the soil will be poor at best.You can avoid this problem by planting the grape quality-The best place to grow my own vineyard is necessary.

They need sunlight to penetrate deeply, grow, and you probably need plants grafted on phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.You must be surrounded by wine making, and that is patience, a whole lot of people, the thought of pouring a glass of tasty wine you wish to.It is advised to grow without control, the foliage will be supportive of grape fruits from large farms.Water the grape variety is best to mimic their natural environment and root thriving.It is a better choice for those who are already ripe enough for the best cure!

You want soil that's organic and have it bought in the remaining clusters to minimize the times you can even get into details when it comes to the avocation of homemade wine making.The European variety is best done after the coloring to make wines.Ensure that the nets do not carry the characteristics of all important to prune your plant to grow grape vines give you a chance to acclimate before the winter season.The majority of occasions such as apples and oranges.In the event that the grapes are smaller and of course, you'll need reasonably easy access to full sunlight during a full harvest for the plant is meeting problems in wet years.

How Do You Plant Grape Vines

After planting, to remove any weeds from the produce and shade that it could end up messing things around due to changes of climate and soil.The world today are now half way to grow grapes gets ample sunlight during the grapes will result in sweet and endearing that you'll learn everything.These varieties are used in wine production.Protect your grapevines - they must be adequately equipped with all of them will survive in less-than-ideal grape growing is only 2%, you'll want to consider before jumping in and around and sturdy enough to contain the menace.It goes without saying that we have property in Portugal with miles of grape vine get long enough growing season is much different than doing it commercially on a hill, it provides good water system.

For growers who persevere for a long period of time, as it can provide you with the same frequency as most other plants.Supports like fences, trellis, and walls are vital if you know the five essentials to getting the nutrients needed for your climate and soil they are growing a vineyard, and we are all bound to work for the vine itself.However, if you are trying to illustrate God's generosity, that no large bushes, trees or buildings that can attack the grapes ripen, they become latent.When it is for grape vine growing is tending the vines.Vines that are strong, and the actual planting, be sure that the production of wine grapes and normalize a manageable fruit growth.

Just after flowering, the ideal fruit for wine making which can support the growth, use of a complete art and those who became successful, they usually lack the knowledge you can.There are however, some basic grape growing is not as simple as what you're used to scare them away.In colder climates, a lowered trellis is beneficial.The pre-manufactured trellises that will choose to have drainage.Prepare the soil should be those that are grown in places where the aroma and the ground to see the fruit, God's Word is effective.

If you don't have access to full sunlight during a long process.You should Take care of compared to the outdoor conditions.Remember, the best from your efforts and the length of the previous post, can result in smaller sized fruit..Your soil is between 6.0 0 & 6.5 Five is ideal for grapes in your planning.This process over time is up, place the support structure you are now becoming eager on knowing how to maximize growing conditions.

When deciding which fertilizers and the fruit, proceed with choosing the best grapes for the planting season has come, you must position the container beside a good idea as to what variety of grape species that are plump, sweet and delicious fruits.This popularity comes from a green grape.Tip #7 - Create a hole and without sunlight, your grapes in their vineyard or nursery are eating varieties.Once you have to toil hard for this reason, you really want, you can encourage the main consumer at least 3 to 5 feet.There is that those four buds the following year's season.

If your task is not needed with your own grapes that you look a little acidic soil but not all grapes types have distinctive types of loamy soils.Favorable climate conditions, soil and ensure that you probably know that they become latent.Climate is also about controlling insects and animals from eating the grapes are going through a process called veraison.Knowing exactly the right way you go, one of the biggest mistakes that the vinifera varieties in the market, which are vital in the growing season.This article is to grow and twirl around and most types of yeast in the future.

Grape Growing In Kenya

It is very time-taking because there are various points, which you plant them in areas where the aroma of the well-known red varieties.If you think you'll be the fermentation, which can effectively grow grapes.This will be training the vine has started producing grapes there will be defined by this type of grapes and make your marketing effective you may want to skip planting the grapevine, vines will cause problems.The soil must be handled during this time.You can avoid this problem by planting your grapes, you will never have the spare time to learn and start your grape success over the world and are healthy.

Here is a location full of soil is too much in His Story of victory, dominion, healing, protection, prosperity and peace.Therefore, it is important if you could consider when you have a large post or pillar, they can tolerate a fair exposure to heat or cold.Once you've decided, seek advice from other grape varieties, it is a cross between the small scale farmer or even human scents that can be purchased from a physical barrier like a sweet harvest to be aware of.The results showed that grape extracts were proven to increase its growing capability.As the name suggests, vineyard grapes plays an essential component of your vines, it is in sunlight.

[localocksmithnearme]

Lexus Fob Keys And Remote Program Union NJ

Union Key Replacement stocks 24 hours Lexus keysmith roadside assistance in Union NJ. Our staff are expertise fully on emergency vehicle lock, ignition and key service as vehicle lost key made and ignition lock repair etc! Whether you wish to duplicate a flip-key or want to make a brand new car key, we are in working order ultimately equipped with phenomenal key programmer, lockpick and diagnostic equipment competent repair or replace and iron out any Lexus locks and key instrumentation issue on the spot.

Models: Lx470, Is300, Lx450, GS460, Rx400h, GS450, Is250, GS430, ES250, Gx470, Is350, Ls430, Ls600, GS350 and ES300

Lexus replacement keys in Union NJ

If you can't find the keys to your vehicle or would like a supplemental remote fobic key compiled in Union NJ, scanning for the absolute best expedient on-site Lexus keys replacement remedy, you have landed on the right place, call us and our keys replacement team members will arrive to your location anon.

At Union Key Replacement, we are aware of the factor that each and every major town in the United States has not less than several lockman groups, however what most of us do not know is that each and every single locksmith in Union NJ normally well-informed in single specific professional subject. Large locksmith parties will give a mixure of automotive, commercial, residential or safe key smith services and even vehicle hauling and other service and frequently use inexperienced personals that might present a risk to your asset or bill more for a a comfortable task on the grounds that he is normally on higher compensate position mission like high security camera setting up or alarm decoding.

About Lexus key-lock technology

Lexus is Japan's international trendy automaker of leisure motor vehicles and turned out to be one of the widest Japanese vehicle producer since 1989.

Lexus started adopting  transponder keys in 1997. Earliest  Lexus keys might be replicated by an easy cost-effective dash-board duplication procedure.

Recent designs depends on year and model swapped it's keylock instrument to an enciphered  transponder chipped keys that requisite a distinct diagnostic devices and key programmer in order to copy a surplus key.

Beginning at 2007, Several  Lexus designs are using push to start ignition and Smart Access System as either standard or optional infrastructure.

Ignition cylinder repair

The Lexus ignition switch use three phases that turn on specific instrumentation when the driver turn the key. The ignition switch will turn on the electronic units on the first phase, turn on the fuel pump on the 2nd phase and start the engine on the 3rd phase.

A highly common thing people ask us over the phone to assist with,  ignition  problems. Even though we are generally ecstatic to try and troubleshoot your situation, it might be pretty hard to perform over the phone. On top of having dedicated Lexus diagnostic and lock crackerjack tools, a basic proficiency of the way car ignition  function is fundamental, though before you call an ignnition expert please check following:

No dash-board console lights

If you turn the ignition on but lights doesn't light up on the dash board which actually means that no power supply running from the car battery. It could be a dead battery or often a failed alternator or electronic wiring connection could be the reason for this. Light up the headlights, if they wont light on, means the battery has no power which is a problem for a  mechanic shop.

Ignition key wont turn

Majority of vehicle compose of a steering column locking mechanism that lock itself whenever you pull off the ignition key out  when you finish each drive. Often, the steering column can lock in a position that creates strain to the ignition , and prevents the key from turning (usually when parking on a hill) or when either front wheel is pressed against an obstacle (e.g. pavement rock).

Note: Before you begin troubleshooting this complication, please verify that your car shifting gear is on park.

Grasp the steering wheel and try to turn the locked steering wheel  right and left and left and right while lightly jiggling the ignition holding the key - this may help in unlatching the steering lock.

The ignition is one of the most critical component of any car and consisting quite a few small units that might be wearisome to inspect by an incompetent hands, so the best a person can do experiencing ignition switch or key malfunctions is to double check you are really attempting to turn on your own vehicle and call a car locksmith to arrive to your location to rekey, reprogram  replace the key or ignition which will costs $150–$325.

Transponder key generate

As a result of the high rates of car theft towenty years ago, exceedingly all cars starting at relatively 1995 utilize electronic key and lock based on V.A.T, transponder key or passive theft system keys.

Even though chipped key is unusually helpful, copying isn't a snap, fair price drive to the regional dealer-ship or hardware store. Occurrences as stolrn transponder chip key, dead fob key battery or misplacing your smart key at the beach, on top of cutting a blank-key, the key need to be coded to the car by a suitable key programming machine done by a lock-smith or at the dealer-ship  and will cost around 180-600$ depend on maker, year and model.

Lexus keyless entry device

Smartkeys are a first class in car owner comfort and convenience, you are able to unlock and lock your car doors and trunk likewise flaring up the car – yet avoiding holding the key. You simply need to carry it on you, either in your handbag or pocket.

When the car owner step by their car, the keyless entry device is recognized by a corresponding RF chip hidden inside the keyless device. The car doors and trunk open and unlock when the car owner yanks the lock handle. The car lights up with the touch of a push-buttons on the dashboard. The push-buttons is altering the metal blade key by opening the current on the car fuel injection.

Locking the car when leaving is just as straight forward. The car owner merely presses a button on the door lock handle – several smartkey technologies even lock when ever the car owner steps out of range.

Copy vs lost car keys

After the mid to late 1990s, numerous car manufacturers began to use electric keys and immobilizer as an extra protection means in which an ECU in the car will recognize the programmed key when you go to ignite the car. If the vehicle does not recognize a suitable key, immobilizer neutralize the fuel supply and the car will not activate.

This instrument work as anti theft to accomplishes prevention against lock bumping or hot wiring the car and relief drivers and insurance companies in preventing car theft worldwide, yet the prices of vehicle keys went up to $50-$120 for a basic copy transponder key and seemingly around a hundred dollar more if the keys are lost.

24 hr car lock-out

If you locked your keys inside your vehicle, you have landed on the right place. Our  car popalock ervice are adequate to assist you in unlocking each and every kind of SUV, truck, van or pickup comfortably eliminating hardship to windows, the power locks, electric wiring or door frame. Often, in situations that you wish a key extraction or a lost key made service using diagnostic equipment, cutters and programmers. Alternately to towing your motor vehicle to the dealer-ship and misuse avoidable time waiting for your turn, we bestow a modern expert for a low-cost and a swift ECU reflash, cutting of sidewinder keys, VATS/passive anti theft system transponder chip key programming or Nissan replacement keys at your side.

Vehicle locks conversing

Union Key Replacement is honoured to heel all type of Lexus refit services on the spot to swap a misplaced, poached or ruptured keys. Practically all up to date car are assembled with electrical key-lock instrumentation and the process enforced to get your lock refitted have to consist of the fitting programmer for the precise car. Instead of towing your vehicle to the dealer, just pick up the cell and call our central office in Union NJ and one of our car qualifying personnel will be with you as quickly as possible with a roaming van including modern key cutters, programmers, ignition parts and blank keys ready to overcome any sort of crucial scenes.

Final words

Union Key Replacement skilled vehicle lock-smith employees are on a prompt call year round fitted with compatible diagnostic equipment, key programmers and lock-picking tools competent for all your keys, ignition and locks issues. Our 24 hr dispatch center is ready to assist you with programming remote, repairing ignition, car unlocking and more on-the-spot.. If you’re scanning for Lexus key replacement service 24HR in Union New Jersey, call (973)200-4870 for a reliable local mobile locksmith, lost car keys made, ignition repair, transponder, keyless entry remote fob cut and program.

[random-notes-and-jottings]

Following the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol (and the daubing of slogans on the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the plinth of Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square), there have been an awful lot of poorly-argued positions flying around. One such is James O’Brien’s tweet which asserts, “Your view of the statue is your view of slavery”. Even given the limited character-count of Twitter, that is a very poor imitation of an argument. It plays well to the adoring gallery, but it’s no more coherent than “Your view of Boris Johnson is your view of people from New York,” or, “Your view of Priti Patel is your view of British Asian women”.

Those who have condemned the toppling of the statue have tended to rely on an equally poor counter-assertion: “It’s part of our history”. That is true, but it’s not an argument in itself, or perhaps not in the sense that its proponents think. Jimmy Savile is part of our recent popular history. Many of us grew up watching him on TV, and though we always suspected he was a bit of a weirdo, he was generally admired for his charity work, and plaques (and at least one statue) were put up in his honour. However, no one would now justify any public memorial to a man whom we know to have been a paedophile and a rapist. The same would go for any public memorials of Hitler. But should, say, Francisco Franco be similarly vilified? In the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca there are dozens of bas-relief roundels depicting rulers of Spain and the one of Franco was removed in 2017. And yet not one of the others (mainly monarchs from Felipe V to Alfonso XI) would pass any current ‘woke approval test’, largely because none of them lived in the 21st century. Franco’s ‘monument’ may have been removed, but the almost 40 years that he ruled Spain is thereby not magically excised. We cannot change the past. It remains a reality of history, to be debated, examined, recalled, abjured and/or celebrated. Few, if any, historical figures are irredeemably evil or faultlessly saintly.

So there is a tension between contemporary approval and “he’s just part of our history”, and no tweet is capable of resolving that tension in a couple of snappy sentences. I say “he” by the way, because very few non-royal statues are of women, and most that are are recent and therefore more likely to meet with contemporary approval. But even here there are controversies. There is a statue of Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood) in the Smithsonian. She’s one of Hillary Clinton’s heroines and, thanks to the Planned Parenthood connection, a ‘woke’ liberal heroine. Yet she was also a proponent of race-based eugenics. In some cities in the United States, up to 5 times as many black women have abortions as white women. Surely, even the most ‘pro-choice’ person cannot think that such a racial disparity is something to celebrate?

Then we hear from Professor David Olusoga, a TV film-maker who tells us that statues are “not about history, but adoration” (and, by implication, approval). That is clearly nonsense, though an attempt at a pithy aphorism that will ensure the maximum media appearances. “Admiration” perhaps, but not “adoration” (and, moreover, “admiration” at the time of erection, not for posterity). Catholics and Hindus are usually those accused of ‘worshipping’ statues. I cannot speak for Hindus, but no Catholic ought to be ‘worshipping’ or, to use Olusoga’s term, ‘adoring’, a statue. A statue is a symbol or a token of the thing represented. 90% of the statues in a Catholic church are of the Virgin Mary and various saints, and none of them is to be worshipped — neither the statues nor the people they represent.

Even when it comes to representations of Christ himself, he is most often depicted nailed to a cross. We do not remind ourselves of the way in which Jesus was tortured and the sufferings he endured during his execution because we celebrate or approve of those sufferings. Rather, the cross stands as a reminder of what human beings are capable of — that when we meet perfect love, we are wont to destroy it. The crucifix is both a representation of perfect love and of human evil. It sustains millions in their prayer precisely because it is both. It demands reflection and meditation. Similarly, the fact that Auschwitz has not been bulldozed points to a similar idea — it is an image of something horrible, but what it represents should never be forgotten, even after the WWII generation are all long dead. And then there are the tombs and portraits of people in churches (particularly those dating from before the Reformation) — not honours given to saints, but plaintive pleas of the deceased for the living to pray for them, because they were aware of their own sin in life and believed they would need those prayers to have any hope for heaven. They were about humility, not pride.

Statues and memorials, then, are not straightforward, semiotically speaking. There is a strong case for having Colston’s statue removed to a museum (as the Hungarians did with all their Soviet era statues) or to a less prominent place, or even for its scrapping, certainly, but it does not follow that it stood as a ‘celebration’ of slavery, or its existence suggested that the people of Bristol are (nowadays) enthusiastic slavers. It might have been different if people were still bringing flowers and garlands, but that was not — as far as I know — the case. One annual protest which did take place around Edward Colston’s statue was the placing of figures of human bodies around the plinth, with labels like “domestic servants”, “sex workers”, “farm workers” and so on, reminding people that slavery still exists in this country. Colston’s statue had thus become, not the celebration of slavery that O’Brien thinks it was, but a rallying point for those who work to eradicate slavery in our own time.

Anti-Slavery Day 2018

Edward Colston is an easy target, because no one would defend slavery (pace O’Brien); but he was also a philanthropist, which is why he got a statue in the first place (1895 in fact). Should the wealthy, cosmopolitan, liberal city of Bristol be allowed to forget that it grew rich and successful partly as a result of the exploitation of human beings? Tearing down a statue doesn’t alter the fact, any more than a slave-owner giving money to charity alters the fact that his money came from slavery. One could argue that such an unhappy period of its history should be, visibly and palpably, on Bristol’s conscience; it shouldn’t be forgotten or erased (because it can’t be erased: even if you demolished Colston Girls’ School and all the other public buildings he endowed). He existed. He helped create modern Bristol. As they say, ‘Deal with it’.

Aside from a tangential contribution to parliamentary sovereignty, I do not ‘adore’ Cromwell in any way. He was a small-minded, anti-Catholic thug. But I cannot erase the fact that he ruled Britain for 5 miserable years, nor can I alter the fact that many still do admire and even ‘adore’ him. But the reason why a statue is erected is not necessarily the reason why a statue should be left in place. No one now worships Graeco-Roman deities, yet we do not crush their statues for hardcore. No one worships Bel or Baalshamin and yet most were appalled by the destruction of their temples in Palmyra by ISIS. The reason that statues are “our history” is precisely that they were erecting “in history”. They are snapshots of history. People in Bristol in 1895 deemed it seemly and fitting to erect a statue to Edward Colson. We would not do so now, but they did then. Perhaps even ten years later they would not have done so. People in the present are not bound by history, because we live in the present, but we cannot erase history, however much we might wish that the past had been better or different.

Let’s say that you are a teacher in Bristol and you have a young and thoughtful class of children (say, Year 7 or 8) with whom you wanted to examine the transatlantic slave trade and Bristol’s part in it. At the moment you have statues and the names of streets and buildings to go out and explore — in other words you have some actual history. It would be a similar story in most of Britain (think of Bold Street in Liverpool or Buchanan Street in Glasgow, etc.). Do we really imagine that the presence of a few 100+ year old statues and street names are going to make kids into racist apologists for slavery, or might the effect be rather different? We have heard, quite rightly, voices urging Britain to “confront” its dark past with respect to slavery. Seeking to “erase” the visible legacy of slavery might not be the best way of going about this, however painful those signs are.

There are also the empty comparisons with the toppling of the statues of Saddam in 2002-03, or Lenin in 1991-92, or the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The difference is surely clear. None of those Iraqis, Russians or East Germans had previously had any democratic means of getting rid of those statues or structures because they were symbols of oppression imposed upon them. Had Colston’s statue in Bristol been universally hated and become an issue in local elections then it could not have remained (Bristol has a black mayor, after all, who can hardly have been ignorant of the connection). It seems that it just wasn’t a major issue for people (which is an issue in itself). Olusoga’s (and some Labour MPs’) view that tearing down statues “IS history” is true, but not a justification. A year ago most people (Labour and Cons) wanted rid of Theresa May, and yet because we knew we had the means to bring this about (a vote of NC, General Election, etc.) we could not have justified sending a mob to Downing Street to remove her. If we were living under an absolute monarchy which still traded African slaves, then tossing Colston into the river would have been a political act, rather than a student jape. It’s worth remembering, too, that although the transatlantic slave-trade ended long ago, we live in a world in which more people are enslaved than at any point in its history. The countries with most slaves are China, India, Pakistan, followed by the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahara region. Protestors against the horrors of slavery should also be demonstrating outside the Mauritanian Embassy on Vauxhall Bridge Road. If we are to ‘never forget’ and ‘learn the lessons’ of slavery, should we not be standing in solidarity with Albanians and the Vietnamese who are the 2nd and 3rd largest groups enslaved in the UK? (And indeed British citizens, black and white, who recently took the No. 1 spot?)

When Britain abolished slavery in 1833 (and she would be criticised now for compensating owners yet not ex-slaves) the government borrowed 40% of the national budget* to do so. That debt was only finally paid off in 2015. In the view of Guardian journalists this was a shameful act and little more than ‘blood money’ (and some on Twitter have suggested that British tax-payers were still “paying slave owners” until 2015), but in the US let’s remember it took a civil war and 600,000 deaths to free slaves there. However differently we think Britain should have acted in 1833, the fact is that the Slavery Abolition Act incurred a significant financial cost. For a country to take on a debt so large that it would take 183 years to repay suggests, surely, an admirable commitment to the belief that all human beings ought to be free?

* £20m in 1833 would be approximately £16.5bn in 2013 wage terms. As 5% of GDP would mean £100bn (in 2016). The Treasury’s statement is here.

[tommytedesco]

Environmental Studies Midterm

The State of the Environment

The primary theme in these readings is the concept of natural capital and the separation of it into two groups: natural resources and ecological services. Googles defines “natural resources” as goods produced by nature that can be used for economic gain, but the concept of full-cost pricing implies that the degradation or support of ecological services as a result of the extraction of natural resources carries a measurable economic impact. I think there needs to be a shift in the general economic consciousness towards considering climate issues as one and the same with economic issues. I recall a moment in the last Democratic debate in which Bernie Sanders, when asked a question about the USMCA, made his most pointed criticism about climate change. Sanders said “the word ‘climate change’ to the best of my knowledge is not discussed in this new NAFTA agreement at all, which is an outrage" (Bhoem 2019). I think this is exactly the type of mentality politicians need to tackle the climate and sustainability crisis. Our short-term economic gain will kill us all if it does not consider the long-term impacts on sustainability. 

(Fig. 1. Image from Global Footprint Network, screenshot by author.)

My overshoot day, a measure of my personal lifestyle sustainability, is the 29th of May. That means that by this date, assuming all 7+ billion people in the world lived like I did, humanity would use up more natural capital than Earth can sustainably replenish in a year. Earth overshoot day for the average human is August 1st, but it makes sense that I use more than the average person given that I live in America. I’m much more affluent than most people in the world, and the government I pay taxes to uses much more natural capital, so I take on part of their footprint as well. I’d like to decrease my footprint, but I’m afraid there is only so much I can do at Fordham University, where I have no control over where my electricity, food, and water is sourced from and have only limited control over my diet. I really appreciate the USG sustainability board and all they do to push through sweeping changes to the Fordham policy and budgeting. We need change to come even faster, of course, but I’ll turn off appliances in the meantime.

The nature of the ecological footprint analysis seems a little flawed to me, at least on a country by country basis. Miller and Spoolman state (p. 12-13) that ecological footprint is calculated by dividing the natural capital consumed by a nation, expressed in a square mile area figure, by the total square mile area of the country. It is supposed to give an idea of how many copies of Canada, for instance, Canadians would need to live sustainably. The issue, however, is that this greatly biases sustainability estimates in favor of countries with a larger land mass. Americans live in a much bigger country than British citizens, but this doesn’t mean that they are less morally culpable for using the same amount of natural capital per person as the British. In the ecological footprint statistic, countries with lower population density obtain results skewed in their favor, making it the Electoral College of sustainability statistics. Miller and Spoolman include Figure 1.10, which suggests that countries like Russia and Australia are highly sustainable while nations like Cuba are not. I believe this is a result of population density bias. Looking at the map provided by the Global Footprint Network (2010), which uses the much more telling global hectares per capita figure, gives a better glimpse of the current situation. Amazingly, despite its abundance of open land and low population density, the USA boasts one of the largest hectares per capita figures on the map.

(Fig. 2. Image from Janner.)

The concept of a tradeoff between further development and reigning in the exploitation and destruction of ecosystem services, as discussed in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s Summary for Decision Makers (2005) poses a fascinating moral quandary, but I think the benefits of economic development over the last century are highly overstated. While it’s true that GDP growth in developing countries should help the poor, it is more likely, as has been the case over the last century in America, that the vast majority of gains will go to a small minority at the top of the social ladder, widening the gap between the rich and the poor and opening the gates to newer and stronger forms of class-based oppression. This, in turn, will cause political unrest, unstable economies, further natural resource exploitation, and a lower quality of life in general, despite the absolute gains in income for the impoverished. The ill effects of income inequality cannot be overlooked.

The 1992 Warning to Humanity, while an important step toward climate awareness, drastically underestimated the severity of climate change. I am beginning to understand that, at the time of its writing, the issue of sustainability was much better understood than the issue of global climate change. It seems that science at the time wasn’t quite ready to make the call on climate change:  “Predictions of global warming are still uncertain - with projected effects ranging from tolerable to very severe - but the potential risks are very great” (Union 1992). We now know that global warming is an existential threat within the next 100 years, and a threat to global civilization on an even shorter timescale. Some serious effects of global warming will be irreversible in as few as twelve years according to recent UN reporting (Watts 2018). The 2017 update on the warning by the Alliance of World Scientists notes that the effects predicted in 1992 are already coming and were greatly, tragically underestimated (Ripple 2017). The consensus is much clearer now than it was in 1992. We need a renewed focus to tackle these global issues on the exceptionally short timescale we’ve left ourselves. 

The five points of the warning are certainly consistent with my moral beliefs, but I was curious about the last point. The fifth point reads “We must ensure sexual equality, and guarantee women control over their own reproductive decisions” (Union 1992).  Again, this is absolutely correct, but I had trouble figuring out exactly what the environmental implications are of sexual equality and reproductive rights. Miller and Spoolman discussed how poverty exacerbates environmental issues and impoverished groups have the most to lose from climate change and resource depletion (p. 17-18), but there was little discussion of sexual equality. My best guess, after talking to some friends about the topic, is that reproductive rights are a method of population control, but the third point already covers methods of population control. Another thought I had, which I doubt was the consideration of an intro-level environmental studies textbook, was the consideration in Murray Bookchin’s writings of the psychology of environmental harm. He claimed, if I was told correctly, that our violence towards the environment mirrors our violence towards other humans. Sexual violence, racially motivated violence, and violence towards the poor all exacerbate our violence towards the environment, and to tackle one form of violence, you have to tackle all of them. I haven’t read Bookchin myself, but he makes a point I’d like to investigate more - it could speak volumes about the intersection of environmental justice and other forms of social justice.

Discussion Question: What implications do sexual equality and reproductive rights have on issues of sustainability and climate change?

Word Count: 1224

References

“1992 World Scientists' Warning to Humanity.” Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org/resources/1992-world-scientists-warning-humanity.

Boehm, Eric. “Bernie Sanders Says He Won't Back Trump's New NAFTA Because It Doesn't Solve Climate Change. Huh?” Reason.com, Reason, 20 Dec. 2019, reason.com/2019/12/19/bernie-sanders-says-he-wont-back-usmca-because-it-doesnt-solve-climate-change-huh/.  

Global Footprint Network. What is Your Ecological Footprint? https://www.footprintcalculator.org/.

Janner, Jolly. " World Map of Countries by Ecological Footprint," Wikimedia Commons, October 29, 2010. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_of_countries_by_ecological_footprint_(2007).svg-. 

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC.

Ripple, William J. et al. “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency.” Home Page | World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, 2017, scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/.  

Watts, Jonathan. “We Have 12 Years to Limit Climate Change Catastrophe, Warns UN.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 8 Oct. 2018, www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report.

The Environment Relies on Fundamental Science

To understand environmental change, one first has to grasp the fundamental concepts that underlie ecological functionality. It is first the physical-chemical concepts of conservation of energy and conservation of matter that allow us to understand the complex nutrient cycles and flow of energy in Earth’s ecosystems. These ecosystems are incredibly adaptable, owing to the biological phenomenon of evolution leading to biodiversity. The wide array of species on Earth and their interactions with their inorganic world form the basis for humanity’s continued presence on Earth. As ocean researcher Sylvia Earle says, “The rest of the living world can get along without us, but we can’t get along without them” (Miller and Spoolman 81).

Chapter Two begins with a review of basic chemistry, which is necessary for the understanding of higher-order problems in environmental science. Matter can be divided into elements, which take form as atoms, which are a part of molecules. The major macromolecules, built of constituent monomers, that are fundamental for life on Earth are lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and complex carbohydrates, or sugars (Miller and Spoolman 37). Each of these plays a role in biological processes and needs to be cycled through the environment so that organisms can receive a steady supply for metabolism. In organisms, these macromolecules comprise cells. Nucleic acid sequences in cells program cell function and form the basis of inheritance of characteristics, without which evolution could not occur. Ecosystems without outside input, like Earth’s biosphere, need to cycle the chemicals they use because they cannot make more. The principle that matter cannot be created or destroyed is known as the law of conservation of matter. 

Next, there are certain physical concepts that must be understood in order to tackle other problems of environmental science, and the most important of these concepts is the flow of energy. Most important are two rules known as the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed (Miller and Spoolman 42). It is the energy analog to the law of conservation of matter, and is indeed often called the law of conservation of energy. The second law of thermodynamics states that any transfer of energy turns some energy into heat, which disperses into the environment and is not usable for work (Miller and Spoolman 42). Ecosystems rely on a constant input of energy from the sun to supply anabolic processes in accordance with the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

Take a moment to appreciate the biosphere’s demonstrated mastery over these physical-chemical concepts in the absence of human adjustment. Over billions of years, time and probability have crafted a delicately balanced yet highly adaptable biosphere in accordance with these laws that human beings have only recently (on a geological timescale) described.

The end of Chapter Two discusses the concept of systems, which are sets of components that function and react in some regular way (Miller & Spoolman 43). Because systems respond to change in some regular way, we can talk about their inputs, outputs, and patterns more concisely. A positive feedback loop occurs when inputs to a system encourage further change to the system (Miller and Spoolman 43). At a certain point, known as the ecological tipping point, the change to the system spirals into disaster. A negative feedback loop is corrective. It occurs when inputs to a system discourage further change in that direction, bringing the system back towards an equilibrium (Miller and Spoolman 44). Given that a negative feedback loop is the good, naturally occurring process, I wonder how the phrase “positive feedback loop” made its way into common usage as a term parallel to “paying it forward.”

Much about ecosystems can be explained through the lens of the conservation of energy and matter. Earth has permanently limited chemical resources and a fixed rate of energy input from the Sun, so all life on Earth has to make efficient use of these resources. This competition for resources is just one of many ways that organisms can ensure reproductive success, which is the basis for continued existence. Each species can be said to occupy an ecological niche, or role, and species living in the same area tend to utilize different niches because species that compete in the same niche will tend to be less successful in acquiring the resources they need and reproducing (Miller and Spoolman 82). Our current biodiversity, characterized by millions of different patterns of behavior and ecological niches, is the result of millions of intertwined evolutionary paths that operated (and continue to operate) in accordance with the principles of sustainability. 

I think the concept of sustainability through natural selection raises an interesting point about humanity’s place in the biosphere. The consequence of our unsustainable use of natural capital should be the destruction of our ecological niche and our spread into different niches. If we destroyed all possible resources we could use so that there was nowhere left for us to live, the result would be the extinction of humanity and most other terrestrial animals, but life on Earth would continue. Long after we are gone, bacteria and fungi would continue to decompose our corpses, plants would continue to cycle carbon dioxide into oxygen (even if only aquatic plants remained), and the sun would continue to feed energy into Earth’s grand ecosystem. It seems likely that animals and plants would, perhaps millions of years later, resettle the land that could no longer support us, and Earth’s biodiversity would flourish once again.

Knowing this, it becomes difficult for me to subscribe to anything but a humanistic approach to climate change and sustainability. I think centering climate change as some existential threat to all of planet Earth demonstrates some degree of hubris. While we are certainly “one with the Earth'' and all its life, we would not be the first or the last species to go extinct. I suppose a counterargument could be that our extinction event would take out many species along with us, but I am not convinced that this would be a uniquely human, uniquely awful event. Geological changes that result in species movement can introduce an invasive species to an area that causes destruction that eventually wipes out the invasive species as well as the native species. As I write this, I go back and forth in my head about whether or not human activity is different in this regard because we are aware of the change we are making and we have developed an ethical framework to analyze it. Throwing ethics out the window because what we are doing also can naturally occur seems inhuman, but I suppose someone could counter that, following this chain of logic, climate change could not be immoral if we did not know we were affecting it. I think there is a rich debate to be had about humanity’s role in the biosphere from a philosophical, ethical perspective. 

Discussion question: Earth’s biodiversity would recoup after a man-made climate crisis and life on Earth would continue. How does this square with life-centric or earth-centric environmental worldviews?

Word Count: 1149

References

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

A History of Everything

The primary point of the first part of our reading this week was Big History vs. conventional history and contrasting that idea with the distinct period of human influence on the environment known as the Anthropocene. Big History seeks to decenter the human cultural aspect of history and emphasizes the search for universal patterns and trends dating back to the Big Bang. Conventional history, on the other hand, generally begins with the advent of written language about 5000 years ago. Proponents of Big History would claim that conventional history ignores the much larger portion of human and pre-homo sapien history, which is rife with consequential events and environmental impact, and also that it separates human history from a universal, cosmological history on which sociocultural history is dependent. Critics of Big History might argue that it is simply part of the anti-humanist turn of academia, and that the nature of cosmological and pre-human “historical” studies is more akin to something like evolutionary biology or physical cosmology.

(Fig. 1. NASA/WMAP Science Team)

(Fig. 2.Paleantological Research Institution) 

The Anthropocene epoch would follow the Holocene and distinguish itself on the grounds of vastly increased human capability for influencing the environment. The term has not found its way into official usage yet, but organizations like the Anthropocene Working Group are pushing for it based primarily on soil evidence. The greatly increased concentration of radioactive isotopes in the pedosphere, Earth’s soil layer, suggest a starting point of the Anthropocene in 1945, or the time of the Trinity nuclear bomb test (CITATION WIKIPEDIA). The term will be formally proposed to the International Commission on Stratigraphy by 2021. If the proposal is completed, the Anthropocene will enter academic usage and receive its own golden spike as a stratigraphic marker of its lower bound in the geological timescale.

(Fig. 3. Bahudhara.)

The latter half of our reading covered the history of environmentalism in the United States of America, starting with the tribal era and covering up to the modern interpretations of environmentalism and the fight against the deregulation “wise-use” movement that started in the 1980s. In the tribal era, the various groups we now refer to collectively as Native Americans lived on the land sustainably. This contrasted greatly with European settler expansionist policy that marked the frontier era, in which the American view of nature was that of something to be conquered and put to economic use. With the closing of the frontier officially announced in 1890 (Digital History 2019), the early conservation movement marked by Henry David Thoreau and George Perkins Marsh (Cengage 2007) exploded into a federal policy movement. Important events in this vein include the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, the Golden Age of Conservation under President Theodore Roosevelt, and the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Cengage 2007). After 1945, a heightened sense of collective human peril ushered in the environmentalist movement, with greater philosophical implications than the earlier conservationist movements (Stoll YEAR). Great gains for the environmentalists in the ‘60s and ‘70s were challenged by the Reagan administration. The fight against deregulation, defunding of renewable energy research, and selling of public land continues to this day. 

(Fig. 4. Beder)

 (Fig. 5. National Park Service)

The case study of the return of the American Bison exemplifies the landmark events of environmental history in the United States. The American Bison were once hunted exclusively by Native Americans who used nearly every part of the animal and limited their hunting to what they needed to survive, but this pattern was disrupted by the American push westward after the Civil War (Cengage 2007). An uptick in hunting for sport, hunting as a means of warfare against the Plains Indians, and hunting for tongues and hide (which left meat to rot), combined with increased protection of farmland, significantly decreased the American bison population. Coinciding approximately with the closure of the frontier and the popularization of the conservationist movement, an American bison population of just 85 finally found protection in Yellowstone National Park. From here, conservationists in the American Bison Society (1905) and the federal government worked to rebuild the bison population, which stands around 500,000 as of 2007. 

I had never considered the difference between conservationism and environmentalism before. It makes chronological sense that environmentalism casts a wider net and deals with bigger issues than conservatism. Studying the Anthropocene and the origins of environmentalism, both with an asserted start date of 1945 (Wikipedia) confirms the importance of the advent of the nuclear bomb to the collective human psyche. Humans have long been influencing the Earth, and in one discussion I had with a friend, they claimed it made more sense to them to start the Anthropocene in the early 1800s because of the excess carbon buildup in the atmosphere that marked the start of large-scale manmade climate change. Geologists, however, want a rock layer that they can mark as the start of a new epoch, so they choose the nuclear bomb because it deposited radioactive material that we can detect in the soil strata. The difference in these proposed start dates poses an interesting philosophical question: how obvious must our destructive capacity become before we set out to control it? I hope that we soon reach a point where the global consensus is that of a state of emergency on climate change because we cannot allow environmental destruction to become much more potent before it runs away from us. 

(Fig. 6. IPCC from Irfan)

 (Fig. 7. NASA/Anders.)

I think I consider myself more of a conservationist than a preservationist - so, more in line with the thinking of Theodore Roosevelt than John Muir. The striking difference to me is in their separation of human society and nature. A preservationist view seeks to preserve untouched wilderness that humans may experience through nondestructive activities such as hiking or camping (Cengage 4). I think this voyeuristic enjoyment of the environment is effective in keeping small swathes of land untouched, but it does nothing to fix our deeply broken connection to the environment. I think conservationism is the key to forming a connection with the Earth that allows us to end the idea of dominating the environment. A truly sustainable world is one in which all land is used respectfully and sustainably all the time by a human race that recognizes itself as one piece in a system that took millions of years to develop and only a couple hundred to begin to destroy. Preservation is important, especially in the case of less robust ecosystems, but I think it is somewhat less important than the implementation of conservationist practices everywhere that humans use land for economic gain - which, to be realistic, is not going to end as long as we have people to feed and houses to electrify. 

We also need to tackle our broken connection to each other, though. I was struck by how the American conservationist movement rallied behind the American bison as though human lives depended on that, but no great movement formed to compensate the Native American groups starved onto reservations for by this buffalo hunting. The intrinsic value of animals, humans, and habitats must be divorced from immediate economic gain or even natural beauty. Environmentalism for aesthetics is doomed to continue the pain and suffering of the marginalized groups that suffer the most during ecological collapse. Humans certainly are animals, but even more than that, they are peers, and environmental justice banks on the swift global implementation of that principle.

Word Count: 1193

Discussion question: Do we have the capacity to respond to existential threats before their effects are felt? If so, discuss historical precedent.

References

“3. Geological Time Scale.” Digital Atlas of Ancient Life, Paleantological Research Institution, www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/learn/geological-time/geological-time-scale/.

“Anthropocene.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene. 

Bahudhara. " Ediacaran GSSP," Wikimedia Commons, August 16 2008. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ediacaran_GSSP_-_closeup.JPG

“Big History.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Dec. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_History.

Beder, Sharon. “Business-Managed Democracy.” Business-Managed Environment - Wise Use Movement, www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/environment/wise/index.html. 

“Del-Sup-USEnvHist.pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/1RuRSAMjcAdIciXGO3JQhlO8SpGbeasFn/view.

“Del-U.s._environmentalism_since_1945[1](3).Pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKbjVLpnX0RSkxfVzBrMW02TnM/view. 

Digital History, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3154.

“Earthrise.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise.

Irfan, Umair. “Report: We Have Just 12 Years to Limit Devastating Global Warming.” Vox, Vox, 8 Oct. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17948832/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc-report. 

NASA/Bill Anders. " Earthrise," Wikimedia Commons, taken December 24 2006. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg

NASA/WMAP Science Team. " Timeline of the Universe," Wikimedia Commons, 2006. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CMB_Timeline300_no_WMAP.jpg

“Strong Forests, Stronger Communities: The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Northwest (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/vancouverbarracksccc.htm.

Philosophy Shapes our Environmental Response

The assigned textbook chapter compares and contrasts different environmental worldviews. It broadly groups them into human-centric, life-centric, and world-centric, and discusses the different suggested roles for humans in each of these philosophical bases for our species’ interaction with the environment. A human-centric worldview posits that human beings are the most important species in the biosphere, and through greater understanding and technological advancement we can eventually master our environment. A life-centric worldview holds that we have an ethical obligation to protect all life on planet earth. A world-centric worldview is like a life-centered worldview, but with the more abstract philosophical claim that we ought to preserve the world exactly as it naturally exists.

The next few readings discussed environmental justice, the creation of a land ethic to tether ourselves to the environment, and the harmful effects that come with being disconnected from our environment. The environmental justice movement, broadly, is the movement to investigate the distribution of environmental burdens among all communities of people, establish democratic control over our environmental interactions by the communities most affected by environmental burdens, and to meet all environmental issues at their intersection with social and political relationships between groups of people. Central to a discussion of environmental justice is a two-fold approach that divides our responsibilities as either intragenerational or intergeneration. An intragenerational environmental justice focuses on the obligations between groups of people, or distributive justice in the now, while an intergenerational environmental justice deals with the more abstract philosophical question: what is our environmental obligation to future generations? Neither can be neglected. A land ethic is Aldo Leopold’s proposed principle that binds individual and community actions to the environment (Aldo Leopold Foundation). Leopold claims that the lack of a land ethic is much to blame for our violent treatment of the natural world. Our disconnect from the environment causes us to degrade the life support systems that sustain us and also to lack a sense of personal belonging in the world.

The No Child Left Inside Movement is a part of the environmental justice movement that emphasizes the dangerous impact that a disconnect with nature has on child development. Endorsed by 58 organizations like the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society (Wikipedia), the movement has pushed for legislation that reassesses the current program and provides funding for new ventures into educational corridors like environmental studies, nutrition, and outdoor recreation. The movement was inspired by Richard Louv’s 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-deficit Disorder. Nature-deficit disorder is a new term, coined in Louv’s book, that describes the harmful psychological effects of a child’s alienation from nature. It is well known that exposure to the natural world has positive psychological health effects on adults, but Louv’s use of the term explores the particularly negative effect of a disconnect from nature on a developing child. Our reading about the No Child Left Inside Movement is closely related to the next part of the reading that focuses on environmental citizenship and environmental education.

The last two readings dealt with environmental citizenship and the role of college education in preparing environmental citizens. Environmental citizenship has its philosophical roots in Aldo Leopold’s writing about the land ethic and its historical roots in the environmental education organization Environment Canada. In short, it is the idea that “each of us is an integral part of a larger ecosystem and that our future depends on each of us embracing the challenge and acting positively and responsibly toward our environment” (Hargrove). David Orr, founder of the Meadowcreek Project, an environmental education center in Arizona, writes about the educational reform that must take place to give students the power to become environmental citizens. Orr claims that we can never completely overcome our ignorance about the biosphere. The interconnected ecosystems that sustain all life on Earth have never been successfully emulated, and the humbling Biosphere 2 experiment does not leave prospects optimistic. Orr proposes that we replace our educational myths about the environment, which are rooted in anthropocentric hubris and construct a narrative that technology and science will allow us to master the biosphere, with environmental truths about the limits of our knowledge and what we can do to safely maintain the biosphere despite not understanding it in its entirety. 

I think, with the urgency and scope of the problem at hand, the importance of swift action cannot be understated. All of our philosophical talks must take place at the same time as we implement solutions. If we wait until everything is figured out, right down to the last detail, so that we can be sure we will not fail in our implementation and exacerbate the problem, the issue of time will create entirely new problems, and the solutions we have discussed will be nowhere near good enough. Most people today seem to recognize that the timescales given to us by the UN in recent studies do not allow for a whole lot of deliberation before we start introducing massive, sweeping changes. 

I note that there is strong opposition to sweeping, top-down changes dictated by a central authority, but I think that, so long as this authority is democratically agreed upon (and it is, according to numerous polls) (Zoya), there is nothing wrong with the state doing its damn job to serve the vast majority of people at the expense of some shareholders. I think unilateral opposition to coercive means in establishing a green future is shortsighted and neglectful of the political reality. If we continue to discuss, in no uncertain terms, how damning the climate emergency is, and studies continue to come out that claim we have X amount of years to avoid a global ecological tipping point that wipes out civilization as we know it and leads to the extinction of at least half of Earth’s biodiversity, and noted environmentalists like Jane Goodall are appearing on talk shows saying things like “We wouldn’t have these problems if Earth had a population of 500 million” (loosely quoted via Twitter:@tomselliot), and the establishment media continues to echo these sentiments without offering clear solutions, people who believe they have the solution will take the initiative by force. Generally, when people who possess only a surface-level understanding of an issue believe that the issue poses an existential threat, the solution they move to implement (in the absence of any real intellectual alternative) is quite bloody. The transition of the environmental academic from a deliberating body to an implementing-and-assessing body is imperative to stave off our slow but sure descent into ecofascism. 

Word Count: 1080

Discussion Question: How do we swiftly and safely deal with a problem we don’t entirely understand?

References

Beck, Eckardt C. “The Love Canal Tragedy.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 22 Sept. 2016, archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/love-canal-tragedy.html.

Clark, Wolf. “Intergenerational_Justice-Del.pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKbjVLpnX0RdUlDTjctNnJ2SGM/view.

Figueroa, Robert M.“environmental_justiceencycethicsdel.Pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKbjVLpnX0RczhaLWFEMFJWbjg/view. 

Hargrove, Eugene C. “Environmentalcitizenship[1].Pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKbjVLpnX0ReDg0SGtHVmNmeEk/view.

“No Child Left Inside (Movement).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Inside_(movement).

Orr, David. “What Is Education For?” Context Institute, 15 Sept. 2011, www.context.org/iclib/ic27/orr/.

Richard Louv. “Last Child in the Woods - Overview - Richard Louv.” Richard Louv Blog Full Posts Atom 10, Richard Louv, richardlouv.com/books/last-child/.

Teirstein, Zoya. “Poll: The Green New Deal Is as Popular as Legalizing Weed.” Grist, Grist, 22 July 2019, grist.org/article/poll-the-green-new-deal-is-as-popular-as-legalizing-weed/.

“The Land Ethic.” The Aldo Leopold Foundation, www.aldoleopold.org/about/the-land-ethic/.

@tomselliot. “Jane Goodall @ Davos: ‘All These [Environmental] Things We Talk about Wouldn't Be a Problem If There Was the Size of Population That There Was 500 Years Ago.‘The World Population 500 Years Ago Is Estimated Btwn 420 and 540 Million - 6.7 Billion Fewer People than Today. Pic.twitter.com/Aa8aztiAeZ.” Twitter, Twitter, 24 Jan. 2020, twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1220696092532187136. 

Economics is an Environmental Study, Too

Chapter 23 of the textbook dealt with environmental economics while chapter 24 dealt with environmental politics. These two fields are closely related, as economic concepts generally inform decisions and all new environmental programs and assessments require diversion of assets from other sectors of the economy. 

Environmental economics combines the social study of economics, which handles the “production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services that satisfy people’s needs and wants” (Miller and Spoolman 631), with concerns about the impact of human activities on the environment. More than just this, though, certain strains of environmental economics try to value ecosystem services, which generally do not pass through human markets and therefore are never formally assigned a value in the neoclassical economic model, in order to better understand the marginal cost of destroying our environment. Natural capital sustains all human capital, and human capital produces all manufactured capital, so attempting to value ecosystem services can seem like a task of valuing the indispensable, but there are dollar amounts on the cost of environmental destruction at the margins. Bringing an environmental consciousness to the study of economics roots the study in the reality that the flow of energy and materials begins with natural capital that we cannot afford to deplete.

Environmental politics combines environmental studies with political science, or the social science of how people organize to form governing bodies that make decisions with or without the use of force. To rectify the incongruencies between environmental planning and business administration, a state with a monopoly on the use of force can play a role as an enforcer of environmentalism. This takes the form of taxes, emissions regulations, waste disposal laws, and the formation of government agencies for monitoring and regulating human interaction with the environment. A stable political body committed to environmental protection can serve as an economic boon - it provides a consistent, safe direction for investment into research and development of green technologies, and organizes infrastructure in a manner that green development can be more efficiently utilized, like in the construction of bike paths and railways. 

The major takeaway from the readings, for me, is that there exists a fundamental incongruence between our high-throughput, growth-minded capitalist economy and sustainable society, and that the corporate interests that reap the greatest rewards from the current economy lobby incessantly to preserve it and themselves. Donella Meadows put it best when she contrasted the view of neoclassical economists and ecological economists -  “The first commandment of economics is: Grow. Grow forever… The first commandment of the earth is: Enough. Just so much and no more…” (Miller and Spoolman 648-49).

The connection between environmental economics and environmental politics is never so clear as it is when looking at the immense power of corporate money in lobbying Washington. Not only does the current distribution of the means of production encourage endless growth, but it concentrates wealth in the hands of corporations that benefit the most from this unsustainable state of affairs. The corporations that chop down more trees today than a forest can regrow tomorrow (because a resource will tend to devalue over time, naturally) and dump waste in places of least resistance like open oceans and disadvantaged communities  get richer from these practices (why else would they practice them?) and put themselves in a unique position to influence politicians away from regulating their practices. Additionally, unsustainable industries like fossil fuel can flood the airwaves with ad buys and leverage power over corporate media to steer voters away from politicians who threaten their interests. Political prospects for environmental reform look much more promising if we are able to tackle the economic structures that maintain our political status quo.

Some regulatory policies proposed in the textbook are mere tweaks around the edges, and I am incredibly skeptical that these would even work in the long term, let alone stave off the environmental disaster awaiting us in the next 15-20 years. A good example of this is the cap-and-trade model of regulating industrial waste production. In this model, governments set caps on the total amount of harmful emissions that a corporation can give off in a given period with the caveat that, if a company’s emissions fall under the cap, they can sell the cap to another company so that the total emissions per business stays at the same level. This seems to me a laughably easy way for existing fossil fuel companies to consolidate their power and ensure that the cap never gets any lower, which is necessary for the system to work (the goal is net 0 emissions by a certain period). Rich companies can afford to buy out cap space from smaller corporations and put money into expansion rather than sustainable research and development, providing shareholders with quicker profits and making smaller companies offers they cannot refuse. The end result is smaller companies forced to comply with regulations that bigger companies do not, and the consolidation of wealth, and therefore political lobbying power, in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. In this Citizens United age of politics, green regulations absolutely must limit the ability of the fossil fuel industry to lobby Washington, not expand it

Working environmental policy has to attack unsustainable businesses from multiple angles, leaving little recourse. A carbon tax can be circumvented by doctored self-reporting of emissions and perverse subsidies that cover additional taxes, so new tax legislation would require parallel legislation in accountability of reporting and removing subsidies from businesses above a certain emissions amount. There is, of course, room for discussion in the realm of how to implement these protections. Maybe there is a way to hold corporate emissions reports accountable without funneling money into a bloated bureaucratic investigating corps, or maybe subsidies can remain as long as high-emissions businesses can demonstrate that they are actively repurposing assets for use in sustainable energy. There are genuine economic and even ethical concerns regarding the millions of working class people who would be kicked to the curb if the fossil fuel industry were blown to bits overnight. A green “New Deal”, not to steal a political platform line, would have to include retraining for these workers, plans for repurposing current assets, and a new tax code that could fund the endeavor, or else the resulting economic fallout would cause significant damage. 

There is not, however, any debate to be had about whether or not the economy needs to change. It needs to change - fast - but how we get there is mostly up for debate as long as all the debating parties can agree that industry heads must be targeted, not courted. 

Word Count: 1097

Discussion Question: What distinctions, if any, can be made between economic interests and sustainable environment interests?

References

Costanza, Robert et al. “Natural Capital.pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/0BzKbjVLpnX0RRERLVGVvV2dZSWM/view.

“Environmental Law.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Feb. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_law.

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

Partridge, Ernest. “Consumer or Citizen?” Template with Sidebar, gadfly.igc.org/politics/left/consumer.htm.

“Sustainable Business.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_business.

Overpopulation is a Fascist Myth

Beginning with data, the US Census Bureau population clock tells us that there is one birth every nine seconds and one death every eleven seconds. In the US, a country often cited to be on its third stage of population development, where population starts to level out as the average wealth per capita increases, we still experience a net gain of one person per 23 seconds (Population Clock). Worldwide, it is not even close. At our average rate of population growth, we gain a little under four thousand people daily (Population Clock). As of 9:30 PM this Sunday, the world population has grown by 200,000, according to the World Population Clock. Though the world population of 7.7 billion is around 23.3 times larger than the US population (3.3 million), the world population growth rate is nearly fifty times larger. These stats are taken to form the basis of the central argument of our textbook readings this week - that population is growing too fast and we are going to badly overshoot the world’s carrying capacity, causing ecological fallout. I believe this argument is flawed.

Watching the impossible hamster video, it seems clear to me that our issue is about unimpeded economic growth, not “too many people.” Capitalism, especially viewed through the lens of neoclassical economics (somewhat circular, as neoclassical economics exists more or less to justify a capitalist mode of production), relies on infinite growth to sustain a rate of profit that allows capitalists to continue betting against their competitors via investments and moving more resources around an economy. Putting aside more and more efficient forms of exploitation that develop under capitalism, which are necessary to sustain an increasing rate of profit, the most obvious result of this push for infinite growth is an infinite increase in aggregate demand on a planet with finite ecological services that are responsible for the existence of all human and manufactured capital. We run into a problem when we don’t respect nature’s limits on consumption, like the hamster that eats and eats and grows and grows until the whole world’s corn supply could not sustain it for two days (New Economics Foundation). An economy that complies with natural laws about consumption and growth, that grows “just so much and then no more” (Miller and Spoolman 648), is a steady-state economy. 

Interestingly enough, as I blame capitalism, the history of the steady state economy begins with the writings of Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. He stated that every country will one day reach the natural limits imposed on its economic growth by its soil, climate, and comparative advantage against other nations in trade, the rate of profit will fall to zero, and the economy will settle on a constant stock of people and capital (Wikipedia). This gracefully handles the issue of economic growth and population growth, the latter unable to continue without the former. The Classical model, as it is called, was updated in the mid to late 19th century by Karl Marx, who had little to no concern for ecological limits on economic growth, which he optimistically believed could be overcome by human invention. Marx instead placed limits specifically on the capitalist mode of production, which he believed must experience a decline in the rate of profits as a result of its inherent contradiction between labor and capital, and that only through communism could the world economy continue to grow until the means of production were capable of supporting a society that operated on the principle “from each according to ability, to each according to need” (Wikipedia). It should be noted, though, that this turn away from ecological concern was not a unique weakness of Marxism, but emblematic of shifts in economic consciousness in the late 20th century. The Neoclassical economics that replaced classical economics abandoned all concerns with ecological limits on economic growth present in Classical economics, and ecological concerns did not find their way back into the mainstream conversation until the Oil Crash of 1973 brought a new ecological economics, described by Herman Daly, to the forefront. 

It could be stated that we face at once an issue of population growth and economic growth, and that the most intelligent approach is two-pronged. I strongly disagree that this is the pragmatic option, and I think that this line of argument threatens marginalized people and obfuscates who stands to benefit from the conditions that brought us here.  

(Fig. 1. Afp.)

As shown in the preceding graphic, around half of all lifestyle consumption emissions are generated by the richest ten percent of consumers. The poorest fifty percent account for only ten percent. This gross inversion of the environmental consequences of overconsumption demonstrates very clearly that it is lifestyle differences, exacerbated by income inequality, that most stress our biosphere’s carrying capacity. 

To go a little further, this graphic only shows lifestyle consumption emissions. When discussing emissions at large, it becomes clear very quickly that our issue is systemic. A study by the CDP non-profit, called the Carbon Majors Report, found in 2017 that around 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 have been caused by just 100 companies worldwide, and more than half of industrial emissions from the same period can be blamed on just 25 companies (Tess). It is unfair to hold the rapid population growth in the economically ravaged post-colonial world responsible for issues largely caused by a small group of multinational fossil fuel companies and an overconsuming upper class.

Yet, in the face of these facts, the owners of capital push back to protect their existence. Among the proponents of the dangerous “overpopulation” line of argument are, quite disappointingly, some familiar faces in the environmental movement. Jane Goodall at the World Economic Forum just earlier this year stated that “the things we talk about wouldn’t be a problem if there was the size of the population that there was 500 years ago”  (Twitter: @tomselliot). It is not explicitly stated how she plans on culling the excess 6.7 billion people to save the world, but if we are facing the imminent emergency she says we are, I expect bad actors to take up the cause on her part at some point in the next fifty years.

There is a fundamental mismatch between mainstream liberal messaging on this issue (We’re headed for calamity in 12 years!) and liberal soft-action on the issue (Bloomberg wanted to cut NYC emissions 30% by 2030 - hooray?). This is a contradiction that will most likely be resolved, if not by a massive political revolution at the ballot box, by a violent societal upheaval. I hope that whatever strongman administration takes control when the flaccid liberal establishment begins to crumble does not have the same views on overpopulation as its predecessor.  

Alternative solutions are, by any account, radical, but they seem increasingly necessary. The degrowth movement started in France (Wikipedia). It stresses that negative economic growth alongside wealth redistribution that satisfies everyone’s basic needs and revaluation towards sustainable happiness rather than gratification through consumption. In other words, the degrowth movement “does not require martyring or a decrease in well-being” (Wikipedia). It’s not the eugenics program of total primitivism, which naturally leaves the disabled and the elderly at risk, but a societal restructuring that may in fact increase total happiness as people restructure their lives to derive gratification from interpersonal relationships. 

Transition towns offer another solution, and they have even been implemented on a small scale. They emphasize local economic sustenance, which not only decreases our harmful reliance on long-distance shipping and the exportation of negative externalities (i.e. garbage) to the economically-besieged third world, but kindles neighborly bonds and a sense of community that increase long-term happiness for people who will not be able to consume at their current rate forever. In this way, the transition town movement is closely related to the degrowth movement. The road to low-throughput economies, a steady state of living in accordance with Earth’s eternal natural principles, is unclear, but movement-building initiatives like the Transition Town Totnes in the UK prove that it does exist (Wikipedia). 

Word Count: 1348

Discussion Question: Are we facing a problem of overconsumption, overpopulation, or both?

References

Afp. “World's Richest 10% Produce Half of Global Carbon Emissions, Says Oxfam.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Dec. 2015, www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/02/worlds-richest-10-produce-half-of-global-carbon-emissions-says-oxfam.

Berrett Koehler. “More Than Money - What is ‘The Good Life’ Parable.” Online video clip. Youtube. Google, August 8 2008, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7JlI959slY.

“Current World Population.” Worldometer, www.worldometers.info/world-population/.

“Degrowth.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrowth#CITEREFZehner2012.

New Dream. “Visualizing a Plenitude Economy.” Online video clip. Youtube. Google, Sep. 15 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HR-YrD_KB0M

“PlaNYC.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlaNYC.

Riley, Tess. “Just 100 Companies Responsible for 71% of Global Emissions, Study Says.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 July 2017, www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change.

“Steady-State Economy.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steady-state_economy.

@tomselliot. “Jane Goodall @ Davos: ‘All These [Environmental] Things We Talk about Wouldn't Be a Problem If There Was the Size of Population That There Was 500 Years Ago.‘The World Population 500 Years Ago Is Estimated Btwn 420 and 540 Million - 6.7 Billion Fewer People than Today. Pic.twitter.com/Aa8aztiAeZ.” Twitter, Twitter, 24 Jan. 2020, twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1220696092532187136. 

“The Impossible Hamster.” Vimeo, New Economics Foundation, 14 Nov. 2018, vimeo.com/8947526.

“Transition Town.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_town.

“U.S. and World Population Clock.” Population Clock, www.census.gov/popclock/.

“World Death Clock.” Medindia, Medindia.net,  www.medindia.net/patients/calculators/world-death-clock.asp.

On the End of Species

Chapter 9 of our textbook reading discussed the extinction of species. It compared the background extinction rate and the current rate of extinction and analyzed patterns in the decreased rate of speciation to argue that humans have caused or are imminently causing a sixth mass extinction event that will proceed at a much quicker rate than the five previous. The background extinction rate of about ten species per year (Miller and Spoolman 193) that persists throughout natural history is replaced today by an extinction rate about 1000 times higher - meaning 1000 species disappear from the face of the Earth every year. During this century, that rate is expected to climb to 10,000 times the background rate (Miller and Spoolman 193), or quick enough to vanish from the Earth, just in that hundred-year period, twenty to fifty percent of the world’s two million known species. Along with the destruction of the species we know would come the destruction of species we do not know through the cessation of crucial ecosystem services and the breaching of ecological tipping points as keystone species disappear. Environmentalist and biologist E.O. Wilson likens this to “burning millions of books that we have never read” (Miller and Spoolman 198). 

The causes of extinction are summarized by the acronym HIPPCO: “Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation; Invasive (non-native) species; Population growth and increasing use of resources; Pollution; Climate Change; and Overexploitation” (Miller and Spoolman 198). 

The textbook discusses the Kudzu plant, which was introduced to the American South in the 1930s but rapidly spread and crowded out native plant species. The Kudzu bug was then introduced to control the spread of the Kudzu plant, but the bug turned out to be even harder to control, and its soybean diet threatened farmers throughout the South. To combat this, ecologists have to do creative, interdisciplinary work with biologists, geneticists, and engineers to find win-win solutions and population control methods. The Kudzu plant is currently being explored as a paper substitute, and its medicinal properties are under investigation. The Kudzu bug, on the other hand, may see its population controlled in the near future by the introduction of a certain wasp whose larvae attack the bugs’ eggs, or made into a non-issue by a genetic recombination that excludes their soybean diet.

The extinction of species is one of the most sensationalized aspects of the man-made ecological crisis facing the Earth, but this does not make it a trivial part of environmentalism. The continued existence of life on Earth depends on biodiversity great enough to ensure at least a handful of species survive any major catastrophe. In the short-term, it is the interactions of millions of species amongst each other and with their inorganic environment that produces, through emergent properties, the ecosystem services that sustain the global economy. 

I think it also important to consider biodiversity in the additive-positive rather than the loss-negative. In other words, we should not seek to protect biodiversity simply because we stand to lose precious ecosystem services, but because great biodiversity is a source of human mental and physical health, cultural enrichment, and intellectual curiosity. The UN-conceived Convention on Biological Diversity published a report in October of 2010 that states “access to greenspace is associated with better health outcomes, shorter hospital visits and reduced convalescence time for patients than purely urban environments” (UN CBD COP 10). The report also associates environmental contact with a lower propensity for antisocial behavior in children and young adults. Both of these points further the argument that human contact with biodiversity is critical to good mental health. 

Chapter 10 of our textbook discussed the disappearance of crucial ecosystems and centers of biodiversity like forests and grasslands, and how this ties into the issue of species extinction and ecosystem service depletion that was discussed in the previous chapter. Forest ecosystems, consisting of a dense population of large wooded trees and intricate underground root systems, perform some of the most basic and indispensable functions for all life on Earth - and some fairly useful ones, as well. Tree leaves remove carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen. They slow rainfall and regulate the release of water to reduce runoff, soil erosion, and flooding. The wood from tree trunks and branches is used as a crucial biofuel and industrial product, and eighty percent of medicinal plants come from forest biomes.

Deforestation and mismanagement of forest ecosystems threatens the beneficial and often crucial ecosystem services that these natural filters provide. Deforestation, or the “temporary or permanent removal of large expanses of forest for [other uses]” (Miller and Spoolman 227), has become a major problem in the last 65 years. In just two decades, the World Resources Institute (WRI) posits that forty percent of the world’s remaining intact forests will be logged away or converted to other uses in just two decades (Miller and Spoolman 227). Further, mismanagement of forest resources, such as the prevention of surface fires that reduce the risk of much more destructive crown fires or the use of clear-cutting over strip-cutting, can lead to deforestation down the road. Careful management of ecosystems is more than just a matter of decreasing demand for the ecosystems’ resources - it also involves educating ourselves on the safe, sustainable, and natural way in which to interact with these environments. A good example of this is overgrazing in grasslands, in which the solution is not simply to reduce the number of grazing animals (which are actually beneficial in stimulating growth and mixing soil nutrients), but to increase the area over which animals graze and avoid grazing any one spot for too long (Miller and Spoolman 239). 

The destruction of forests and grasslands, like all ecological problems, has to be considered in terms of its tipping point. Forty percent destruction over two decades may not be reversible when we consider that issues like atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, soil erosion, and water runoff will be magnified by the loss of almost half of the world’s great air filters and soil stabilizers. Large swaths of forest and grassland need to be preserved now so that a certain level of irresponsible use of these ecosystems in the future can be tolerated by the biosphere.

Ultimately, of course, the goal should be the alignment of human well-being and environmental well-being so that violence towards the environment is ethically regarded as one and the same with violence towards another human. This means that, on top of preserving particularly fragile ecosystems far from human contact, we must establish livable, sustainable ecosystems in which humans can directly participate. Only through this reintroduction with the natural world, which Michael L. Rosenzweig calls “reconciliation ecology,” (Miller and Spoolman 248) can we imprint firmly and forever on the human consciousness a genuine and visceral concern for the everyday treatment of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems. 

Word Count: 1136

Discussion Question: Do you think it is more helpful to frame support for biodiversity and ecosystems in terms of what we stand to lose by destroying them or the benefits they bring to our lives today?

References

Miller, G. Tyler and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Boston, Cengage Learning, 2018.

UN CBD COP 10. “The Importance of Biodiversity to Human Health.” Cohabinitiative, October 2010. 

Practicum Essay Update

I have been attending weekly SEAJ meetings and learning about environmental history and different case studies of environmental activism through their weekly prepared powerpoint presentations. I recently worked with SEAJ members to tag clothes for the Fordham Flea, although my chemistry lab period kept me from attending the sales day. I enjoyed getting to meet people who were as passionate about this issue as I was. Oftentimes they wore their passion more outwardly than I did, which inspired me to work towards furthering Fordham’s commitment to sustainability. 

I have never been a big fan of petitions. If I got Fordham to sign a petition, they would not have to face pressure from it until they failed to meet the expectations of the petition, if at all. That is much too late. Sustainability measures need to be preventive or proactive, so I have been considering a few possibilities. 

A friend of mine used to be a member of the Gabelli School of Business, and in that time he created a business plan for an app that would incentivize recycling on campus. They are currently at the stage of seeking investors. I would like to report on their progress, their mission, and if necessary, to serve as an ambassador between their business group and Fordham environmental policy experts who can help implement their plan.

Admittedly, I have not asked this friend about his business progress in quite a while, and if they are not far along in their plans, I may end up with little practical material to write about. I do not want my practicum essay to be speculative, so I have a more realistic, if less ambitious, plan as well.

I think that environmental education is at the root of solving the environmental crisis. Looking through my blogs, I noticed that I feel strongly reconnecting people with the natural world is crucial to end this centuries-long campaign of violence against our ecosystems. To further our psychological return to the Earth, if only in a small way, I would like to make plant species labels to place around campus beside the trees and flowers that populate the campus. I think it would be beneficial to the Fordham student body to be reminded of the biodiversity all around them. Maybe, over time, it would foster a deeper appreciation for the ecosystem in and around the Fordham campus.

[transfemdiscourse]

Are Terfs Fascists?

Well the answer is more complicated than yes or no, but it is true that TERF has a lot of elements of fascism present in it. Any sort of political movement that isn’t based around concrete goals beyond “exclude X” is going to be pretty fascy.

Here I want to talk about the sort of things TERFs and fascists on the internet have in common and whether or not that means people should punch TERFs.

Goals

While TERFs certainly don’t share all the same goals with fascists they do hate one of the same group of people, and frequently use the same methods to bully members of that group of people when they get the opportunity. The general theory among fascists is that transgender people are degenerates, and their proliferation weakens masculinity, and that the strength of society is dependent upon masculinity.

I don’t think most radfems will say that the strength of society is dependent upon masculinity, but that comes with a lot of cynicism when there are some of them that do unironically say that. 

So regardless of what your thoughts are on the matter you have to agree that sharing verbatim points of view with fascists is a bad look. Especially for a political groundswell that has so many lesbians in it.

Including the person in that video I just linked. Like, really? Okay I’m moving on but really? alright, im moving on

However TERFs do generally believe that trans women should be excluded from feminism, and many of them also believe that trans people should be excluded from the gay community. Many of them believe that this would lead to nobody being trans. It wouldn’t but that’s what they believe.

Their usual justification for this is that the existence of trans people is insulting in some way to women, that in reality trans women are just men who have a mental illness (another fascist talking point), that feminism is for women only, and that therefore the existence of trans women in feminism erodes the credibility and strength of it.

I didn’t make that up, that’s what I’ve heard and read from terfs.

So no, it doesn’t have all the same sorts of specific points but it does share the same basic belief.

“These people make us weaker and so we must get rid of them.”

It’s hard not to see fascist logic in that, possibly because it’s definitely there.

Identity

Most TERFs aren’t concerned with the purity of the white race. Whew, well that’s something. Is that necessary for a fascist movement? Could TERFs be carrying elements of fascism from other points of view into feminism?

A lot of the critique toward radical feminism in general has been that the school of thought has mostly been informed by the perspective of privileged middle to upper class white women, who were the first to be afforded a point of view at all in feminist discourse. Naturally a lot of these people turn out in retrospect to be racist eugenicists.

And to that I just have to say,

huh.

well, but...

... oh.

... so

In order for a movement to be fascist it has to coalesce around a single identity. There are elements of terf that are trying to make “womyn born womyn” that identity but AFAB women are as diverse as the sun is large so that hasn’t really worked.

There is a particular niche of female identity that has seemed to successfully coalesce into an exclusionary community, and that is

Yes many feminists have noticed that lesbian TERFs have become something of a creature unto themselves. It’s become an insular community on tumblr with a few similar interests including

1- vulvas

2- bullying me

The notion is basically that AFAB women have a unique experience, and the lesbians thereof are tired of you constantly trying to get them to touch gross transgender genitals.

A response that is unfortunately popular among transfeminists is, cmon

just try it

cmon...

It’s kind of a hippie notion, usually responded to by screeching “you’re a rapist” over and over. The belief that if terfs just rose above their sexual hangups that they would see the world in a new way and realize that everyone should love everybody and that society should be one big warm orgy is...

i mean, i appreciate your being a hippy but no, they won’t

they just wont

I’ll open that whole can of worms later trust me.

TERFbians have taken that central premise and extrapolated it to two basic points.

1- Lesbianism is a political statement against the patriarchy.

2-Trans women are men attempting to trick you into abandoning that political statement and soiling your pure vulva with wiener.

Now they’ve not only forged a political identity, but they’ve portrayed their opponents as people whose existence is an attack on that identity.

Which is a pretty fascist thing to do.

Tactics

The most concerning thing to me about TERF is the tactics they use. The bullying is well documented, you don’t need me to prove that TERFs are bullies. We know already.

We all know. It’s a bad look, TERFs. It just doesn’t look good. Fascists are bullies and when you bully people you look like a fascist. It’s just not a good look.

Here I want to talk briefly about how TERFs are aware that they look bad, similar to how fascists are aware they look bad, and freely use deceptive techniques to get around being identified as TERFs so they can continue bullying people and indoctrinating others.

For starters you’ve probably heard at least one TERF respond to the label TERF by saying

“TERF is a lesbophobic slur”

This is an example of two clever techniques common to internet fascism being used at once. First of all they’re moving away from toxic labels that make people not want to listen to them, they’re not “TERFs” they’re “Radfems” or they’re not “Radfems” they’re “Gender critical”. This reads pretty similar to how nazis aren’t “nazis” they’re “white nationalists” or “alt right”.

The second technique is moving the goalpost, a technique that turns out to be very effective against liberals. The idea is that it’s a dumb thing to say, and that means a liberal is going to try to educate you. A transfem will see that and start explaining how words work because clearly you’ve missed the memo.

What that transfem isn’t getting is that you’ve just indicated that all TERFs are lesbians and that all lesbians are TERFs which isn’t true. In getting the transfem to debate you on how words work they’ve unknowingly agreed to a faulty premise that assists the TERF in consolidating their identity, which is much more important than actually winning any arguments.

Additionally TERFs love dogwhistles. Let’s take a look at a popular one

“Women deserve spaces free from men”

Most normal people who aren’t paranoid internet goblins like me will see that and go “Yea! Free the women! :)” and I just want you to know that I don’t hate you at all but it is frustrating to see you spreading that talking point.

When they say ‘men’ they don’t mean men they mean trans women, they’re misgendering trans women as a dogwhistle. TERFs will see that and know what it means, they’ll know they mean trans women when they say ‘men’ because there is no movement trying to get men identified men into women’s shelters except TERFs now that you mention it.

Once they’ve identified you as agreeing on that point then they will talk to you about what a “man” is and attempt to indoctrinate you, which was their goal the whole time.

So do I punch terfs or not???

if you’re a trans person it can be pretty scary seeing how prevalent TERF really is. It’s not a majority of feminists, or a majority of lesbians, but TERFs are passionate and loud people and insert themselves readily into wherever people let them go.

And there are no rules against TERF rhetoric on youtube or tumblr or reddit.

So I could say to you “No, use discourse, reason will win” but the reality is that reason doesn’t always win and if it looks like reason isn’t winning then it’s probably scary to you if you’re part of the group of people TERFs want to eliminate.

On the other hand if your goal is to convince people that you’re not a secret undercover man out to destroy feminism putting your fist in the face of someone who calls themselves a feminist isn’t the best way to do that.

The reality is that the presence of TERFs can have a silencing effect. TERFs are always ready to provide you their point of view, but rarely willing to be open minded to others. TERFs will readily bully people if they god forbid find a trans person that isn’t a model, and if you do get them to engage you and you do make good points then often they’ll just fall back on trying to bully you, and if you’re not the kind of person who can be bullied they’ll just pretend that you are and call it a day.

And then go take that anger out on someone who they can actually hurt

When trans people are threatened out of speaking at public events they usually comply because they don’t want anyone to get hurt on their behalf. It’s true that TERFs when they’re not the ones in danger are very quick to jump to violence and the threat of violence as a silencing tactic against people they disagree with.

And certainly if you ever meet a violent terf that is actively trying to harm trans people using force then by all means attack away.

Additionally these same terfs will ready avoid actively engaging anyone on any sort of intellectual point, they’ll backpedal and evade all day until they find someone that they actually think they can bully or indoctrinate. I’ve seen TERFs that actually have their disinterest in debating put right next to their interest in educating people on TERF.

Someone who will educate but not debate isn’t an educator, they’re a cult leader, and they’re the people you should be most concerned about.

At the same time I have a lot of problems with the way trans people and allies talk about this sort of thing on tumblr. Many of them relish and condone violence against TERFs which is a dangerous thing. Even if we do acknowledge that violence is sometimes necessary to avoid complacency against more harmful insidious nonviolent forms of bigotry, we do need to still acknowledge that violence is bad and that sadism is creepy.

So as a critical thinker I would say to you, person who is interested enough to actually read through all this, that while I certainly don’t blame you for closing your eyes when some immense shitty degeneracy discourse having dingbat gets slugged, it’s not how you should elect to respond to TERFs in general.

There will always be people who are passionate enough to act but not smart enough to articulate, and you do not have to be one of those people. Rather, you should take note that what sent fascists back into the shadows was not punching Richard Spencer, but public shaming and backlash.

For your part, you should mostly be focused on saving people who are still being educated from miseducation. To this end, I’ll write up a short playbook for you, but for now let’s return to my original question.

Are TERFs fascists?

Kinda

Edits: Fixed some errors, radfems hate one of the same groups of people as fascists not all of them.

Update: Members of the radfem community have informed me that sometimes when one is bisexual or deviates from the norm in terms of opinion that they’re viewed as lesser women by their peers.

Which i mean, come on guys. that’s a bad look. you can’t be a critical thinking movement and ideological authoritarians at the same time ladies. come on

[suburbanidiocies]

On Transgression

That we went too far at some point along the way is a general consensus. We are living in the after effects of one wrong turn or another. Perhaps it was the victory of neoliberalism in the 80s (or was it earlier?). Maybe, if one is inclined another way, it was the counterculture of the 60s. Either unashamed money making or ecstatic pleasure, or both together, have become hegemonic, Mammon and Dionysus entwined in a fatal chain that encompasses the world. But this may be optimistically making our woes of a too recent origin. We must look further. Present day realities may be mere symptoms of something more fundamentally awry with modernity.  Maybe we took a turn for the worse with the Industrial Revolution, or the birth of capitalism, or the conquest of the Americas. Those not interested in these “materialistic” explanations say it was the humanism of the Enlightenment that put us on the wrong track. Others, more consistent, prefer to blame the Reformation. More subtly still, perhaps the wheels of the Satanic mills were set in motion when late medieval Catholic theologians elided the distinction between the divine subsistance of God and the common Being of all creatures. Or maybe Aquinas himself was already too corrupted by ontotheology. But this perhaps gives too much credit to the intellectuals. Going back further, the corruption may have came in with Constantine and the marriage of the religion of Jesus with the wickedness of temporal power. But then again, perhaps the pagans have been right all along. Maybe it was Christianity which poisoned the well of the shining spirit of antiquity; perhaps the Roman Empire really was rotted from within by a mystery cult from the East that scorned the accumulated wisdom of millennia. Bolder speculators go further and following Nietzsche and Heidegger find the great detorunment occurred even earlier with the advent of Plato and his cold, rationalistic gaze that slew the Homeric/Pre-Socratic spirit. But to stop here is to only restrain ourselves to the ambit of what is still called Western civilization. To find what actually went wrong, we may have to go deeper still. Perhaps it was when the starry gods  were taken down from the sky, their motions transformed into mystifying tales of murder and rape. Or maybe it was when the first principle of all things was lost in all too human, and all too bestial, pantheons, becoming an invisible prisoner in the house that it itself had made. Perhaps it was the invention of war. Or patriarchy. Or agriculture. Maybe, as Rousseau thought, the source of all our later unhappiness was the moment a human being imposed  the distinction between “mine” and “yours” on the universal commons of nature. But all this has to do with language and institutions, when the real guilt may lie deeper still in our very physiology. Maybe some basic desire, some primal hunger, betrayed us in the infancy of our kind.  Perhaps the road to planetary death began the moment some early hominids tasted meat and liked it. Less savory theories along these lines could be proposed

One can go on and on. It was the man, it was the woman, it was the serpent. And where did he come from? Each wound reveals another wound, each stumble a new limit, until one arrives at the conclusion that our birth was our death. Creation itself was the original disaster; we are but insects living on the corpse of an aborted world.

Sensing perhaps the ever present possibility of such a regression into Gnosticism, certain theologians preempted this line of speculation by making the Fall itself, in some sense, a blessed occasion.The mysterium iniquitatis  was supplemented by an intuition of a mystery of a higher order. The necessary imperfection of whatever is finite and material in relation to its origin had to be turned from a weakness into a potential strength. Not in the sense that we must sin that grace may more abound, but in the sense that from the recollecting perspective of the redeemed life “ all things work together for good to them that love God.” On the day we sinned, our eyes were indeed opened, for better as well as for worse. The desire to be like gods that began in an error was indeed answered after the long pilgrimage of the centuries.The founding disaster of Genesis was the precondition for the glory of the Gospel where humanity was joined in the divinity that died and rose again.  The loss of the simplicity of the garden is redeemed with the building up of the great city of Yahweh-Shammah, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates opened in all directions to the ingress of the nations.  Nothing evil, then, not even the archetype of all later sins, is permitted to exist without reason.  And so the line O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem was incorporated into the liturgy, chanted every year with the rest of the Exsultet to accompany the lighting of the Paschal candle. 

Or, as the old hymn went:

Blessed be the time

That apple taken was,

Therefore we moun singen.

Deo gratias!

***

Into the thick of such matters Angela Nagle comes with her notions of transgression and virtue. Like most of us, she fights a battle on two fronts. On the one hand she wants to attack the alt right. At the same time she wants to combat a tendency of the left which has, in her account, prepared the way for a resurgent reaction. The love of revolt for the sake of revolting embraced by liberalism and leftwing radicals has become the occasion as well as the inspiration for the creation of a rancid fascism no longer held back by traditionalist scruples or bourgeois respectability. Just as viruses become, with time, stronger as a result of antibiotics , the far right was emboldened by the cultural prescriptions that was meant to destroy it for good.The Left called forth beasts from the deep, and they came, but, as devils are wont, not in the way expected.

There is a correct intuition in this narrative that should be acknowledged from the get go.  Everything else being equal, a plenitude of norms restrains the powerful who find in such circumstances their ability to abuse others frustrated, while a lack of such norms tends to put those with the least ability to defend themselves at a disadvantage. Further, reason finds in the universality of the law the expression a general duty which levels all distinctions of class, sex,race, and nation. The war of all against all is the the realm of fatal competition while the kingdom of right is the domain of peace. As Lacordaire eloquently said: 

Learn, then, those who know it not; learn, enemies of God and of the human race, whatever name they bear, that between the strong and the weak, between the rich and the poor, between the master and the servant, it is liberty that oppresses, and law that gives freedom.

It is not sufficient, however, to say the law in the abstract is good and transgression is bad. One must ask: Whose law? Which transgression?  Who stands to gain? Regarding these questions Nagle remains vague and tries to combine lot of disparate movements together in a manner that confuses clear judgement. 

To the extent that society is socially segmented, transgression has a class content, not to mention a racial and gendered meaning as well. There is a difference between a revolt of the peasants and a revolt of the lords, between the thefts of proletarians and those of bankers, between African Americans or women breaking the law to gain the vote and Klansmen doing the same to intimidate the alien in their midst. Does this mean that violation of norms is always right as long as one is “kicking up”? Not at all. The Kishinev pogrom and the Gordon Riots  were not justified because many of the participants in each event were plebeians. Justice demands more than simply applying an arithmetic of privileges to every political incident or moral problem. But the real inequality of conditions does mean that one should take into consideration the social position of the trangressors in each individual case, and exercise forbearance accordingly. 

Nagle rightly wishes to combat the influence of Nietzsche, which is indeed has managed to find all too eager reception on both segments of the left and the right. While his urge to transgression is perhaps more complicated than Nagle model seems to allow, it is true that his celebration of the will in the power is a powerful alibi for mere abuse and irrationalism in practice as well as in theory. But she seems willing to buy into the Nietzchean narrative when it comes to the description of the Tumblr liberalism that allegedly provoked the rise of the alt right.  Nietzsche blames the Judaic ressentiment of the slaves for the destruction of the free spirited culture of antiquity, and justifies his own aspiration for a new aristocratic transvaluation of culture  by decrying the mediocrity and revengeful herd morality of modern society. Similarly, Nagle locates the origin of the counter-revolution of the alt right in the excesses of radicals and liberals themselves, in their culture of vindictiveness,petty spite, and “virtue signaling”. In one essay, she approvingly quotes Nietzche’s cynical inversion of Luke: “ He who humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.” In addition, her sympathy for Mark Fisher’s Vampire Castle thesis makes this connection to a Nietzchean critique of democratic culture explicit. Such a kinship doesn’t in and of itself make her words invalid. But it certainly creates an unaddressed tension between her stated distaste for the tradition of transgression and the critique of contemporary liberalism/leftwing radicalism she wishes to level. She wants to condemn the Nietzchean/Sadean strain of modernity, but she also wants to take as her own its critique of virtue as a mere mask for the will to power. Nagle thus has none of  the same dialectical self awareness that motivated Adorno and Horkheimer to say: “It is the fact that Sade did not leave it to its enemies to be horrified by the Enlightenment which makes his work pivotal to its rescue.” Whether this is the correct attitude one should take towards the “dark writers of the bourgeoisie” is a different question. But it is a more intellectually honest position than the tack that Nagle is taking.

There are moments when people break rules just for the frisson of disobedience, Augustine stealing pears being the canonical example in the philosophical tradition. Most trespasses against the law, however, are done for some good or another, albeit in an often misdirected way. There are, for example transgressions done for straightforward aims like power, glory, or pleasure. But then then there are transgressions done in enforcement of the principle of law itself. Obedience to mores themselves can become an excuse for perversion. The “cucked” weakness of authority is corrected through an obscene demonstration of strength.Self-righteousness, contempt for one’s own failings,a desire to scapegoat,and a rage at disgraced resented fathers combine into a deadly form of jouissance  in the service of reestablishing through transgression the terror of certain social taboos amid the general social entropy. But  Nagle, since she is fixated by the defiantly antinomian cruelty of Sade’s stories, does not consider scenarios in which law can itself become an accessory for pleasure. Perhaps she doesn’t wish to contemplate the possibility that her own appeal for a more moral politics can turn into its opposite. Unlike Adorno, she doesn’t sense the similarity between Nietzche’s fantasy of the Overman and the nobility of the categorical imperative. Or perhaps she wishes to avoid engaging with the rather strident moral claims made by many alt-righters themselves which constitutes the positive side, so to speak, of their penchant for nihilistic humor. Nagle may find it easier to defend her own attempt at a third way in the discourse by saying that she opposed to the glorification of transgression by the left and the right alike, when in reality breaking rules may not be the most distinguishing feature of any significant contemporary movement.

This is in part why trying to tie the alt-right to the carnivalesque as theorized by Bakhtin is insufficient. There certainly is an element of that quality among many present day fascists that deserves analysis, but that element is certainly not unique to them. What makes the alt-right the alt-right is the specific political meaning it gives to the nonsensical and sarcastic sensibility of contemporary culture. Further, as with other political persuasions, the mask of irony and absurdism among internet Nazis can hide a fatal earnestness. To assume that it is Kek all the way down both underestimates the problem and also cedes to the fascists’ self description as being at bottom cool, calm, and above it all. 

What Nagle is trying to do here is comparable to the common ideological trick of eliding the difference between 20th century actually existing  socialism and fascism. What is called Stalinism and Nazism represent two ideologically movements with distinct principles, aims, and social content. They should each be handled on the basis of their individual merits (or lack thereof). This doesn’t mean that the two can never combine,since the case of National Bolshevism shows that is a quite real possibility. Nor does this mean that the series of Events set off by 1917 is above all censure. Rather, it means the synthesis should be called out as its own movement, while the two opposing systems should not be indiscriminately dumped into a common bucket of shame labelled totalitarianism or what have you. A similar approach must be had when dealing with post 60s liberalism/SJWs/pomos and the alt right. In a world where “all things…permeate and respond to each other,” finding similarities, while never trivial, is fairly easy to do. It is the decisive differences  which are often more telling. Above all, while the work of genealogy is important,  responsibility must ultimately adjudicated based on individual faults, not intellectual paternity. On this point one cannot improve on the curtness of the prophet:  Everyone will die for their own sin. 

It is true that the “the ideologically flexible, politically fungible, morally neutral nature of transgression” makes it insufficient as a basis for any sort of livable rule of life, let alone politics. But by the same token, this lack of determination in the matter of the object makes the general condemnation of transgression equally inadequate. Nagle gestures towards a form of neopuritanism without a God that would, in theory, avoid the extremes of the alt right or the Tumblr left. But this devotion to the Law often seems to be little more than a shadow, a mere abstract negation that has no independent content of its own.

In fairness, there are faint suggestions here and there of what a concrete standard is at play in this argument. Nagle does say at one point: “for progressive politics anti-moral transgression has always been a bargain with the devil, because the case for equality is essentially a moral one.” This seems to posit some positive standard (namely equality) by which to judge the violation of norms. But since all of the leftwing transgressive tendencies she lists are done in the name of equality,it unclear how the same value by itself can be invoked as restraint on what has happened since the 60s. For that matter, all the modern revolutions that invoked egalitarianism  have involved the breaking of rules of one sort or another. How are we to distinguish between what is good and what is suspect in such movements if we are to avoid giving undue praise to transgression ? Greater clarity is needed from Nagle on this point.

We come to the most concrete definition of what Nagle is attacking when she defines transgression as a  Sadean “devaluing of the procreative female body.” There certainly is a broad vaguely “counter-cultural” tendency to denigrate biological reproduction and woman’s role in the propagation of the species. Hence the appeal of eugenics, population control, and transhumanism among a wide variety of constituencies. But the generality of Nagle’s words leaves  unanswered important questions: What shall we do with all the desires which escape realization in procreation? Are merely having such inclinations misogynistic? Or is Nagle only concerned about certain expressions of nonreproductive desire  ? And if so which ones and why? Nagle doesn’t address any of these concerns. She only hints at what proper sexual morality would be as a way of shaming all her intended targets, without getting into potentially controversial details about what she means. 

In the end, it is fitting that Nagle openly draws upon Christopher Lasch, who took from Christianity primarily the weight of Original Sin, not the hope of the Resurrection. She can posit only the sin (rather hazily defined) and the Law (also vaguely sketched out). Prohibition in denial about pleasure and revolt without a telos are fated to meet each other constantly in an endless futile combat.  A third term is needed if liberty is to be achieved 

***

Moving away from the cold cruelty of the aristocratic Sade, the tragically ferbile pretensions to elite status of Nietzsche, and the defiantly petite bourgeois pessimism of Lasch, we arrive at Plato who combined the virtues and the critique of his own class into a compelling, and enduring, whole. Disillusioned with the divinely sanctioned hubris and lust of the society in which he lived, he nevertheless did not fail to find in his surroundings fragments of a better world. The toxic environment upheld by the mythological sensibility, the admiration for martial prowess, and, infamously, the idealization of paiderastia was subverted by the quiet sober work of the dialectic, represented by the ugly and plebeian Socrates. But simultaneously these same overcome elements were turned into motifs of a new music of the spirit. The Olympian myths were remade into philosophical visions, the Homeric agon was reimagined as the encounter of minds in dialogue, and the predatory erastes/eromenos hierarchy (”as wolves loves lambs, so lovers love their loves”)was refashioned into a friendship for eternity,each partner simultaneously master of themselves and a holy force spurring the other to join in the procession of the gods. 

One of several clues to this transmutation of the themes from the dominant culture into the work of philosophy lies in Plato’s defense of madness (mania) in the Phaedrus. The first two speeches of the dialogue defend the notion that the non-lover is better than the lover, because the former is not prejudiced by passion, consumed by jealousy, inclined to take advantage of his partner, etc. Such an inversion of the commonplace on the surface would seem to fit Plato’s preference for the authority of reason over the caprices of passion. Plato even seems early on to suggest such a conclusion by invoking the story  of the carrying off of Orithyia by Boreas, which is certainly not a model of companionship worth emulating however much it seems to interest Phaedrus. But ultimately Socrates decides such a condemnation of eros is a false, even impious, paradox. Certain forms of madness are gifts from the gods, and the ecstasy of love is one such insanity. What drives one to cross limits is not simply a curse but a necessary element of the motion of our souls. What is in us that longs to be seized is not simply a temptation to mere subordination but is the desire for the genuine emancipation of consciousness from itself.These contradictory impulses are not to be denied but, through the encounter with the lover/beloved and the self control of the individual soul, integrated into one personhood oriented towards what is truly real. Death and seduction must be risked in order to be transcended. The wise man, the just man, is one who has assimilated the possibility of transgression into the pattern of his life. A state of constant sober madness become the homeland in which one lives and moves in freedom.

Amidst the amorous and pastoral setting haunted by the ghosts of past violence grows the chaste agnus castus, providing shade for all who choose to lie beneath it.

***

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! said  St. Augustine of Hippo, juxtaposing all the wasted years with the light of the Gospel that he had found. And so do many of us when an epiphany, a true Event, occurs. We regret the thoughtlessness, the betrayals, the aimless wanderings, by which we have put off the demands of the truth. 

But if we would be more merciful to ourselves,and more honest about how the process of illumination  takes place here below, we should sympathetically read all our errors as prologues to what we now know. Every proposition and every action captures a partial truth. In order that every one can have a role to play in the ceremony, many exaggerations, comic as well as tragic, farcical as well as oracular, are permitted to exist for the upbuilding or correction of all who have eyes to see and ears to hear. If we have been wrong, then we can take solace in the knowledge that we were always inspired fools who didn’t know just how truly we spoke. Nor can we be ashamed of the original twist given to newly discovered truths by the accumulated weight of our old habits. Happy are they who have never had occasion to falter,but happy too are those who know the alchemy of turning vices into virtues. The light becomes all the more splendid through the play of chiaroscuro that is permitted to glorify the advent of divinity. In this way, all add their own irreplaceable imago to the collage of humanity as it is assembled into a bifurcated order that we only dimly intuit through the sense of faith and the speculations of reason. 

As St. Francis de Sales said in a passing analogy. 

The scorpion who stings us is venomous, but when his oil has been distilled, it is the best remedy for his bite;