#anime north 2019

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.

Sorry to use this gif again, but the mod feels it is particularly relevant to this movie:

[red-eft]

got polls a few days ago n i have a use for them now

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

all the fake tweets and ship edits for jjk and opla on my fyp...

[coffee-cait]

Me and @usausagiren will be at Anime North 2023 in the Artist Alley at table D16!!

We also goofed so only my name is in the convention guidebook 💦

I'll also be one of the participating artists in the Holostars Stamp Rally! Check out lumierelapins on twitter for how to play and the map!

[rabbitcruiser]

Feast of the Ass Day

The Feast of the Ass on January 14 began as a medieval Christian feast, and commemorates the Israelites’ flight into Egypt. It was predominantly observed in France as a variant of the Feast of Fools, which commemorated biblical donkey-related narratives, particularly the donkey that carried the Holy Family into Egypt following Jesus’ birth.

History of Feast of the Ass Day

This feast may be a Christian adaptation of the pagan feast, Cervulus, and incorporating the Nativity story’s donkey. It was first held in the 1000s and celebrated various Bible stories. Additionally, it had a pseudo-Augustinian influence credited to the ‘Sermo contra Judaeos.’

After the Catholic Church publicly condemned the celebration in the second half of the 15th century, it became less popular. The Feast of Fools was also condemned during this period. Both feasts were thought to be improper, albeit the Feast of Fools was regarded as such far more than the Feast of the Ass.

The Feast of the Ass honors all of the Bible’s donkeys, particularly the one thought to have transported Jesus and his family to Egypt following his birth. The family was escaping Herod the Great’s assassination of young boys at the time. The donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday is another biblical account of a donkey. A donkey is also said to have been present in the manger where Jesus was born.

A girl would ride a donkey through a town to a church on the day. As she rode through the streets, people would sing a song about her carrying a baby or being pregnant herself. Once the donkey reached the church, it was given food and water and stood near the altar for the service. The crowd would bray back to the priest, and the priest would occasionally bray as well. The Feast of the Ass was especially rowdy in the city of Beauvais in northern France.

Feast of the Ass Day timeline

4600–4000 B.C. The First Record of Domesticated Donkeys

In Egypt, donkeys are domesticated for the first time.

1000s The First Feast of the Ass Day

The first Feast of the Ass celebration is held.

1450s The Observance is Banned

The Feast of the Ass and the Feast of Fools’ celebrations cease because the Catholic Church denounces them.

1929 Miniature Donkeys Enter the United States

Miniature donkeys make their first appearance in the United States.

Feast of the Ass Day FAQs

What kind of donkey did Jesus ride?

A Nubian donkey. The Nubian donkey wears a cross on its back because it is believed that on Palm Sunday, this breed of donkeys brought Jesus to Jerusalem.

What does a donkey signify spiritually?

In ancient cultures, donkeys had a special symbolic and spiritual importance. Nevertheless, their link with Christ in the New Testament has led to them being viewed as a symbol of human suffering and our salvation hopes.

What characteristics do donkeys possess?

Donkeys, unlike horses, are not easily scared and have a great sense of curiosity. Donkeys are known for their defiance, however, this stems from their highly advanced sense of self-preservation.

How to Celebrate Feast of the Ass Day

Ride a donkey

Read up on the holiday’s history

Play donkey-themed games

On the off chance that you own one, why not take a ride to celebrate Feast of the Ass Day. Alternatively, you can visit the zoo to see one in the flesh.

Grab a Bible and learn about the story for yourself. Read the “Flight to Egypt” and surprise your friends with all the new information you’ve learned.

There’s no reason you can’t have fun while celebrating. You can host donkey-themed games, such as “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”

5 Facts About Donkeys That Will Blow Your Mind

Few and then far between

Efficient beasts

Going the distance

Excellent vision

Powerful competition

Donkeys can significantly differ in size; they can be a mere 26-inches or as tall as 68-inches.

A donkey’s digestive system utilizes over 95% of what they consume.

In the desert, a donkey's bray carries about 60 miles.

Donkeys have the ability to see all four of their feet at once.

A donkey is more powerful than a horse of similar size.

Why We Love Feast of the Ass Day

We learn more about them

We’re animal lovers

Moving in high company

We get to learn more about donkeys and the role they played in popular Bible stories. Donkeys have an interesting history and we use this holiday to appreciate their versatility.

We love animals of all kinds. They make the world a more beautiful place to live in.

Donkeys were the transport mode of choice for the Messiah. That has to count for something, right?

Source

[yurimother]

'Whisper Me a Love Song' Yuri Anime Now Streaming

The first episode of Cloud Hearts and Yokohama Animation Laboratory's high school Yuri romance anime Whisper Me a Love Song (Sasayaku You ni Koi o Utau) is now streaming in North America on HIDIVE. The first episode premiered on April 13, and new episodes are simulcast every Saturday at 12:30 PM EST.

Whisper Me a Love Song follows first-year high school student Himari Kino, who, at a welcome ceremony, witnesses Yori Asanagi singing and instantly falls in “love.” She immediately confesses her admiration to Yori, who misinterprets Himari’s feelings as romantic. However, once she realizes her mistake, Yori swears that she will make Himari fall for her for real. The anime will run for 12 episodes, according to HIDIVE.

The anime is based on the manga of the same name by Eku Takeshima. The manga began serialization in Comic Yuri Hime in February 2019. As of March 2024, Ichjinsha has published nine collected volumes of the series in Japanese, and Kodansha USA has published eight in English.

The anime, which was delayed from its initially announced January premiere, is directed by Akira Mano at Cloud Hearts and Yokohama Animation Laboratory. Mano replaced the initially announced director, Xin Ya Cai, due to “health reasons.” Additional staff includes character designer Minami Yoshida and script supervisor Hiroki Uchida join Mano.

The anime stars Hana Shimano as Himari Kino and Asami Seto as Yori Asanagi. Additional cast includes:

Konomi Kohara as Mari Tsutsui

Mikako Komatsu as Aki Mizuguchi

Ai Kakuma as Kaori Tachibana

Yuna Nemoto as Shiho Izumi

Reina Ueda as Momoka Satomiya

Chika Anzai as Hajime Amasawa

Aoi Koga as Miki Mizuguchi

You can stream Whisper Me a Love Song today with English subtitles on HIDIVE in North America, the British Isles, and Australia.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Humans infecting animals infecting humans − from COVID-19 to bird flu, preventing pandemics requires protecting all species - Published Sept 4, 2024

I remember back in 2022, someone mocked me for worrying about zoonosis of new coivd strains. The science backs up my thoughts once again: We have to protect *everyone,* even critters, from disease to prevent future pandemics.

Authors Anna Fagre Veterinary Microbiologist and Wildlife Epidemiologist, Colorado State University

Sadie Jane Ryan Professor of Medical Geography, University of Florida

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, humans had been the only species with reported cases of the disease. While early genetic analyses pointed to horseshoe bats as the evolutionary hosts of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, no reports had yet surfaced indicating it could be transmitted from humans to other animal species.

Less than two weeks later, a report from Belgium marked the first infection in a domestic cat – presumably by its owner. Summer 2020 saw news of COVID-19 outbreaks and subsequent cullings in mink farms across Europe and fears of similar calls for culling in North America. Humans and other animals on and around mink farms tested positive, raising questions about the potential for a secondary wildlife reservoir of COVID-19. That is, the virus could infect and establish a transmission cycle in a different species than the one in which it originated.

For example, spillback has been a long-standing threat to endangered great apes, even among populations with infrequent human contact. The chimpanzees of Gombe National Park, made famous by Jane Goodall’s work, have suffered outbreaks of measles and other respiratory diseases likely resulting from environmental persistence of pathogens spread by people living nearby or by ecotourists.

We are researchers who study the mechanisms driving cross-species disease transmission and how disease affects both wildlife conservation and people. Emerging outbreaks have underscored the importance of understanding how threats to wildlife health shape the emergence and spread of zoonotic pathogens. Our research suggests that looking at historical outbreaks can help predict and prevent the next pandemic.

Spillback has happened before Our research group wanted to assess how often spillback had been reported in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. A retrospective analysis not only allows us to identify specific trends or barriers in reporting spillback events but also helps us understand where new emergent threats are most likely.

We examined historical spillback events involving different groups of pathogens across the animal kingdom, accounting for variations in geography, methods and sample sizes. We synthesized scientific reports of spillback across nearly a century prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – from the 1920s to 2019 – which included diseases ranging from salmonella and intestinal parasites to human tuberculosis, influenza and polio.

We were also interested in determining whether detection and reporting bias might influence what’s known about human-to-animal pathogen transmission. Charismatic megafauna – often defined as larger mammals such as pandas, gorillas, elephants and whales that evoke emotion in people – tend to be overrepresented in wildlife epidemiology and conservation efforts. They receive more public attention and funding than smaller and less visible species.

Complicating this further are difficulties in monitoring wild populations of small animals, as they decompose quickly and are frequently scavenged by larger animals. This drastically reduces the time window during which researchers can investigate outbreaks and collect samples.

The results of our historical analysis support our suspicions that most reports described outbreaks in large charismatic megafauna. Many were captive, such as in zoos or rehabilitation centers, or semi-captive, such as well-studied great apes.

Despite the litany of papers published on new pathogens discovered in bats and rodents, the number of studies examining pathogens transmitted from humans to these animals was scant. However, small mammals occupying diverse ecological niches, including animals that live near human dwellings – such as deer mice, rats and skunks – may be more likely to not only share their pathogens with people but also to be infected by human pathogens.

COVID-19 and pandemic flu In our historical analysis of spillback prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the only evidence we found supporting the establishment of a human pathogen in a wildlife population were two 2019 reports describing H1N1 infection in striped skunks. Like coronaviruses, influenza A viruses such as H1N1 are adept at switching hosts and can infect a broad range of species.

Unlike coronaviruses, however, their widespread transmission is facilitated by migratory waterfowl such as ducks and geese. Exactly how these skunks became infected with H1N1 and for how long remains unclear.

Shortly after we completed the analysis for our study, reports describing widespread COVID-19 infection of white-tailed deer throughout North America began surfacing in November 2021. In some areas, the prevalence of infection was as high as 80% despite little evidence of sickness in the deer.

This ubiquitous mammal has effectively become a secondary reservoir of COVID-19 in North America. Further, genetic evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2 evolves three times faster in white-tailed deer than in humans, potentially increasing the risk of seeding new variants into humans and other animals. There is already evidence of deer-to-human transmission of a previously unseen variant of COVID-19.

There are over 30 million white-tailed deer in North America, many in agricultural and suburban areas. Surveillance efforts to monitor viral evolution in white-tailed deer can help identify emerging variants and further transmission from deer populations into people or domestic animals.

Investigations into related species revealed that the risk of spillback varies. For instance, white-tailed deer and mule deer are highly susceptible to COVID-19 in the lab, while elk are not.

H5N1 and the US dairy herd Since 2022, the spread of H5N1 has affected a broad range of avian and mammalian species around the globe – foxes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, polar bears, coyotes and seals, to name a few. Some of these populations are threatened or endangered, and aggressive surveillance efforts to monitor viral spread are ongoing.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the presence of H5N1 in the milk of dairy cows. Genetic analyses point to an introduction of the virus into cows as early as December 2023, probably in the Texas Panhandle. Since then, it has affected 178 livestock herds in 13 states as of August 2024.

How the virus got into dairy cow populations remains undetermined, but it was likely by migratory waterfowl infected with the virus. Efforts to delineate exactly how the virus moves among and between herds are underway, though it appears contaminated milking equipment rather than aerosol transmission, may be the culprit.

Given the ability of influenza A viruses such as avian flu to infect a broad range of species, it is critical that surveillance efforts target not only dairy cows but also animals living on or around affected farms. Monitoring high-risk areas for cross-species transmission, such as where livestock, wildlife and people interact, provides information not only about how widespread a disease is in a given population – in this case, dairy cows – but also allows researchers to identify susceptible species that come into contact with them.

To date, H5N1 has been detected in several animals found dead on affected dairy farms, including cats, birds and a raccoon. As of August 2024, four people in close contact with infected dairy cows have tested positive, one of whom developed respiratory symptoms. Other wildlife and domestic animal species are still at risk. Similar surveillance efforts are underway to monitor H5N1 transmission from poultry to humans.

Humans are only 1 part of the network The language often used to describe cross-species transmission fails to encapsulate its complexity and nuances. Given the number of species that have been infected with COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, many scientists have called for limiting the use of the terms spillover and spillback because they describe the transmission of pathogens to and from humans. This suggests that disease and its implications begin and end with humans.

Considering humans as one node in a large network of transmission possibilities can help researchers more effectively monitor COVID-19, H5N1 and other emerging zoonoses. This includes systems-thinking approaches such as One Health or Planetary Health that capture human interdependence with the health of the total environment.

[cognitivejustice]

How local heroes reforested Rio’s green heart

Photographs taken years apart show how reforestation has transformed Morro Do Urubu, an area in the north of Rio de Janeiro: left, virtually treeless in 1990; right, abundant tree cover in 2019. Composite: Angela Meurer & Plinio Senna

A restoration project to revitalise the Atlantic forest is making the city a much more liveable place in the face of increasingly frequent heatwaves

Rio de Janeiro’s striking blend of urban infrastructure and tropical jungle, cradled between granite peaks and the sea, earned the city Unesco world heritage status in 2012. Yet few people realise that the verdant forests cloaking Rio’s dramatic hills are largely the result of human intervention.

“None of this was here before. Nothing, zero trees,” says Santos, motioning towards the woods surrounding Tavares Bastos, a small favela clinging to a hill that overlooks Guanabara Bay. The 40-year-old, who uses the name Leleco, planted some of those trees himself as part of a pioneering reforestation project run by the municipal government.

Leleco initially got involved with the project because he needed a job. Twenty years on, he leads three small teams to maintain and enrich restored forests at Tavares Bastos and two other sites. It’s challenging work that involves toiling away in the heat, scrambling up steep slopes with delicate seedlings and constantly weeding invasive non-native species such as bamboo. Still, Leleco couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“I feel responsible when I look at all this, how it was before and how it is now. I see birds that weren’t here before, animals that have come back into the forest, and I think, boy, I’m a part of all this,” he says, with a hint of pride.

[theinquisitxor]

October Reading Wrap Up

October was a great reading month and I got through ten(!) books in the month. That's more than I've read in a while, so it felt good to be able to know I can still read that many. I read some spooky/halloweenish books, as well as continued a few series, and finished a series.

1.Son of the Shadows (Sevenwaters 2) by Juliet Marillier, 5/5 stars. I started the month with reading the second Sevenwaters book. Just like with book 1, I enjoyed this immensely, and I found the characters and storyline to be strong and engaging. This one is even more romance heavy than the first books. Adult historical fantasy

2.Paladin's Hope (Saint of Steel 3) by T. Kingfisher, 4.5/5 stars. Another good installment in this series and new mystery that our characters are faced with. This one was a bit shorter than the first two books, and I wish this was a little longer, but otherwise it was great as always! Adult fantasy romance

3.The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson This was my nonfiction book for the month, and I read this on audio. Enjoyable, but I felt like it was a little dated. I've read other more recent books on linguistics, and enjoyed them more. Nonfiction.

4.Echo North by Joanna Ruth Mayer, 4/5 stars. This was an enjoyable YA fantasy, and a good blend of fairytales I really enjoy. I don't read a lot of YA anymore, but this reminded me of some of the 'older' YA that is really good. East of the Sun West of the Moon, batb, cupid & psyche retellings all blended together. The author also credits Robin McKinley, DWJ, and Edith Pattou as big inspirations, and I could tell. YA fantasy

5.Last Argument of Kings (First Law 3) by Joe Abercrombie, ?/5 stars. I honestly was so done reading this trilogy, and just wanted to know how it ended so I could just finish it. I skimmed most of it, and only read the Glokta chapters and the ending. This type of fantasy is 100% not for me. I only finished the series because my brother gifted me the boxed set (and he read them). Adult fantasy

6.I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacquline Harpman, 5/5 stars. This is a lesser known classic that's gotten some popularity recently. It's part dystopian, part science fiction, and reminded me a little of The Wall which I read earlier this year. Very poignant, dark, but an exploration of self and a woman on her own. This is translated from French!

7.A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, 4/5 stars. Another good T Kingfisher fairy tale retelling (however this was quite loose on the retelling), but also dark, featuring child abuse and animal horror. But there is humor, and a good cast of adult characters trying to fix the situation, and I like how T Kingfisher writes competent adults.

8.Witch Week (Chrestomanci 3) by Diana Wynne Jones, 3/5 stars. I started this on audio, but finished with the physical book. Can't say I enjoyed this one as much as the first two. This just reminded me of how horrible middle school was! A good halloween time read though. Middle grade fantasy.

9.The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky, 4/5 stars. This is a historical fantasy that has been on my tbr since 2019. This is light on the fantasy elements, and about first contact between Inuit and Vikings in present-day Canada about 1000 years ago. Our main character is an Inuit shaman, and they and a viking have to team up to save the land and their peoples. Super detail rich and well written.

10. Graveyard Shift by ML Rio, 4/5 stars. A good read for Halloween, and excited to see that ML Rio is publishing again! A thriller about 5 people trying to discover who made a new grave in an abandoned graveyard. As someone who works in academia, I liked the academia element in this story, I only wish it was longer!

I'm on track to finish my Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, which is 80 books. Usually I get somewhere in the 90s, but not this year I guess. For Nov and December, I'm planning on finishing the Sevenwaters series, and Chrestomanci, so I'll be prioritizing those books.

November tbr:

The Scorpio Races (reread on audio)

Child of the Prophecy (Sevenwaters 3)

Heir to Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters 4)

Chrestomanci: The Magicians of Caprona (book 4)

Paladin's Fate (Saint of Steel 4)

Nonfiction

The Word for Woman is Wilderness

Cape Cod (on audio?)

The Virgin in the Garden

[interactyouth]

hello, do you have any videos or youtube channels recs to learn more about being intersex (that touch on any topic)? if you do, tysm!

I do, thank you for asking! I apologize that many of these are not closed captioned in advance, but I've compiled a playlist of SOME videos that I've seen online. I would like to add some clarification, though. Many forms of media that are available will use the derogatory word, "hermaphrodite", to describe intersex people. Due to its extensive history in medical pathologization, it is considered a slur and should not be used by perisex (non-intersex) people. Reclaimed usage of the term (similar to slurs reclaimed by the queer community) is only reserved for intersex people due to said history. However, medical contexts continue to use it as a diagnostic label, so many intersex people must use it when trying to receive affirming healthcare.

As a result, it's important to be aware of this information when many forms of media, both old and new, contain the usage of this word.

While the word is genuinely relevant for discussions of animal and plant biology, it does not accurately describe the anatomy of intersex people. Unlike animals and plants, human beings--whether perisex or intersex--are generally not capable of having two different sets of fully functioning reproductive anatomy. Sex (for humans) is a bimodal spectrum, and is not a binary. As such, bodies can look many different ways due to innate variations of sex characteristics!

Now, I'll highlight a few specific videos in particular below:

A 2016 TedxTalk by an important intersex scholar, Dr. Georgiann Davis. She has written dozens of extremely important publications over the past decade! Here is a 2011 publication and a 2015 publication discussing the pathological medicalization of intersex people , and a 2016 publication that additionally describes the medicalization of trans experiences.

Emily Quinn's 2018 TedxTalk and her 2018 Ted WOMEN presentation (the second one is captioned). She also has a YouTube channel!

Pidgeon Pagonis has a YouTube channel, and they have been featured in several different interviews across the years during their ongoing advocacy work. They have a 2019 documentary about their experiences, and they have a website.

Here is an archived video from 1997 of intersex people discussing their experiences with other intersex people at a gathering held by Intersex Society of North America, whose work is currently continued by interACT.

In collaboration with Human Rights Watch, interACT worked on a 2017 report and video to raise awareness of the harms of medically unnecessary surgeries performed on intersex children without fully informed consent. The video is captioned.

Activist Sean Saifa Wall has spoken extensively about his experiences on media platforms, and he is a co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project, which focuses on empowering Black and Brown intersex people in advocacy work.

There is a 90 minute documentary that was released in 2023 called Every Body, and it details the life experiences of three intersex people.

While not a video, there is also the personal experiences of intersex youth as documented in a 2023 doctoral research dissertation done in collaboration with interACT: “'Support the shit out of them:” Intersex emerging adults’ socialization experiences and recommendations for caregivers of an intersex child".

Overall, I hope this is suitable resource, and thank you again for the question!

[caixinliang]

Practice 1:

Assignment 2, Concept Art - Human and "Inhuman"

. Blog post 02

Here are some sketch analyses based on the interesting design points summarised in the previous blog.

A.Making the human organism grow like a plant

B.Integration of diverse organisms

C.Use of shape language

D.The human figure and the Uncanny valley

Transformation process between human and inhuman

I'll be applying these interesting design points to my concept design.

My final design was inspired by the horrific creatures of the Cthulhu novel "The Shadow over Innsmouth" that were mutated by the local humans. These creatures are a combination of human and sea life.

My character has a graphic representation of the letter D, emphasising the tension of the character, with the two main design centres being the shoulders and the head, next to which I have placed directional 'octopus tentacles'.

shape language:

The character's toes are  tangled together, giving it a twisted and awkward look.

final:

This is all for now, thanks for reading.

Reference:

Annihilation (2018) Directed by Alex Garland [psychological horror film]. United Kingdom United States : Paramount Pictures ( North America and China) Netflix (international).

Pan's Labyrinth (27 May 2006) Directed by Guillermo del Toro [dark fantasy film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.

Love, Death & Robots (March 15, 2019 – present) Directed by Tim Miller [adult animated anthology television series]. American : Netflix Studios.

The Last of Us (TV series) (January 15, 2023 – present) Directed by Craig Mazin Neil Druckmann Available at: HBO MAX (Accessed: 14 November 2023 ).

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague.

The mod loves seeing Native American stories told by Native Americans (please watch Reservation Dogs) plus the themes that this movie is dealing with sets it apart from just a generic zombie film. This looks great and has for sure been added to the mod's watchlist.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Mother Jones:

The North Cascades elk herd is a cluster of some 1,600 animals whose domain, like so many habitats, is riven by a highway. From 2012 to 2019, Washington state records show, at least 229 elk were killed by cars along a stretch of State Route 20 in the Skagit Valley. The situation imperils humans, too: In 2023, a motorist died after swerving around an elk into a telephone pole.   “My own nephew had an elk collision, and I’ve nearly had collisions myself over the years,” said Scott Schuyler, a member of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, who is also the tribe’s natural resources and cultural policy representative. “We have an obligation to protect our neighbors and ourselves and these animals.”

To many observers, the solution has long been clear: a wildlife bridge, flanked by fencing. But building such a structure would cost around $8.5 million, a daunting expense. “There didn’t seem to be any money out there on the horizon that could make this happen,” said Jennifer Sevigny, a biologist with the nearby Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians, which co-manages the elk herd.

That changed in November 2021, when Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—a package that included the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program (WCPP), a grant initiative that would distribute $350 million over five years to states, Native tribes and other entities for animal-friendly infrastructure. Although Sevigny knew the competition for grants would be fierce, she submitted a proposal for an elk bridge when the program launched in 2023. “Honestly, I didn’t think we were going to get it,” she said.

When the recipients of the first $110 million in grants were announced in December 2023, however, the Stillaguamish was among them. Once the grant agreement is finalized, the tribe will partner with the Upper Skagit to convene biologists and engineers to design the bridge, which is expected to take four years to construct.

The Skagit Valley overpass wasn’t the only tribal winner: Of the 10 Western wildlife crossing projects selected for the initial round of WCPP funding, four were Native-led. “It was really awesome to see that (experience) come to fruition,” said Shailyn Wiechman, connectivity coordinator at the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society and a member of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. But tribal-led connectivity projects on and adjacent to reservations still face obstacles—and money remains a big one.  

[rivalsforlife]

Interviews Regarding 456, and the possibility of AAI ports and AA7.

Recently, a bunch of interviews with the producer of the upcoming Ace Attorney 456 collection, Kenichi Hashimoto, have been released. Most of these are in Japanese, discussing various elements of the upcoming ports, including new features like the Orchestra Hall and Story Mode, but a few bring up some interesting future directions for the series, including the possibility of an AA4 anime or live-action drama, AAI2 ports, and AA7. As well, some discuss the influence of overseas sales on the current direction of the series.

**Please keep in mind that most of these interviews (with one exception) were originally in Japanese, and translated with google translate (with some possibly inaccurate modifications by me). As a result, the validity of the translation may be unreliable.**

From Gamer, regarding overseas fans and the increase in sales overseas:

--What kind of opinions and fan base do you get from overseas about the "Ace Attorney" series?

Hashimoto: The “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy” was released in 2019, and the number of users and sales have increased significantly in regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia.

--With the exception of "Ace Attorney Investigations," I think all numbered titles in the "Ace Attorney" series can now be played on current consoles. Was this possible because of the great response to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy?

Hashimoto: Yes. As I mentioned earlier, it has been well received in North America, Europe, and Asia, and the number of users has increased, and of course there are people asking, "Why are 1, 2, and 3 available but not 4?" So I thought I had to do something about it.

Also, I wanted users to see games 4, 5, and 6, which are now playable on current consoles, so I was able to develop and release them. I think again that it is a very happy thing.

From this Famitsu Interview, regarding the future of the series:

--In 2023, there were musicals and readings of "The Great Ace Attorney", but I'm also curious about the future development of the "Ace Attorney" series.

Hashimoto: After the 20th anniversary of the Ace Attorney series, I would like to prepare various things for the 25th anniversary. The same goes for orchestral concerts, and I'd also like to do plays, musicals, and anime.

The TV anime was made up to season 2 with Phoenix Wright as the main character, but Apollo has not appeared yet, and since it is a courtroom story, a live-action drama seems interesting.

-- Since ``Ace Attorney'' was made into a movie once, there is a possibility of a live-action drama as well.

Hashimoto: That's right. However, it's not like my dreams will come true right away... I hope all the fans of "Ace Attorney'' can look forward to it while imagining the various possibilities in the future.

From IGN Japan:

--What are your plans for the future of the series? Could you please tell me about the possibility of ports of the "Ace Attorney Investigations" series, or another mainline entry?

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell you, there is nothing. However, we have no intention of ending the "Ace Attorney" series here, and we would like to see the series grow older, reaching its 25th anniversary in 2026 and its 30th anniversary in 2031. I don't know when or what I'll be able to announce, but please stay tuned for more information.

--If there were to be a new work such as ``Ace Attorney 7,'' what kind of thing would you want?

It's difficult to balance making a work that fans of the series can enjoy while also making it a work that new players can enjoy, but it is necessary to have the charm that is common to the entire "Ace Attorney" series. This includes the story, the characters, the puzzles, the tempo. These four will be essential for "Ace Attorney."

And finally from Siliconera about the news I've been waiting my whole life for -- this interview was actually published in English!

With so many Ace Attorney collections out now and games released, how would you feel about an Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth collection that includes localization of the second game?

Hashimoto: The development team is aware that fans are hoping for this. Unfortunately, we have no announcements at this time.

Most of this is of course corporate speak of not being able to confirm or deny anything, but this is the closest we've gotten to confirmation that AAI2 might be localized so far. As well, it does sound like the series is doing well, particularly overseas, which is encouraging for people hoping for more. It definitely doesn't sound like they think the series is dead yet!

[fatehbaz]

In February 2024, creature enthusiasts and popular media outlets celebrated what has been described as the 200-year anniversary of the formal naming of the "first" dinosaur, Megalosaurus.

There are political implications of Megalosaurus and the creature's presentation to the public.

In 1824, the creature was named (Megalosaurus bucklandii, for Buckland, whose work had also helped popularize knowledge of the "Ice Ages"). In 1842, the creature was used as a reference when Owen first formally coined the term "Dinosauria". And in 1854, models of Megalosaurus and Iguanodon were famously displayed in exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. (The Crystal Palace was regarded as a sort of central focal point to celebrate the power of the Empire by displaying industrial technology and environmental and cultural "riches" acquired from the colonies. It was built to house the spectacle of the "Great Exhibition" in 1851, attended by millions.)

The fame of Megalosaurus and the popularization of dinosaurs coincided at a time when Europe was contemplating new revelations and understandings of geological "deep time" and the vast scale of the distant past, learning that both humans and the planet were much older than previously known, which influenced narrativizing and historicity. (Is time linear, progressing until the Empire is at this current pinnacle, implying justified dominance over other more "primitive" people? Will Britain fall like Rome? What are the limits of the Empire in the face of vast time scales and environmental forces?) The formal disciplines of geology, paleontology, anthropology, and other sciences were being professionalized and institutionalized at this time (as Britain cemented global power, surveyed and catalogued ecosystems for administration, and interacted with perceived "primitive" peoples of India, Africa, and Australia; the mutiny against British rule in India would happen in 1857). Simultaneously, media periodicals and printed texts were becoming widely available to popular audiences. For Victorian-era Britain, stories and press reflected this anxiety about extinction, the intimidating scale of time, interaction with people of the colonies, and encounters with "beasts" and "monsters" at both the spatial and temporal edges of Empire.

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Some stuff:

"Shaping the beast: the nineteenth-century poetics of palaeontology" (Laurence Talairach-Vielmas in European Journal of English Studies, 2013).

Fairy Tales, Natural History and Victorian Culture (Laurence Talairach-Vielmas, 2014).

"Literary Megatheriums and Loose Baggy Monsters: Paleontology and the Victorian Novel" (Gowan Dawson in Victorian Studies, 2011).

Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution (Martin J.S. Rudwick, 2010).

Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle (Lukas Rieppel, 2019).

Inscriptions of Nature: Geology and the Naturalization of Antiquity (Pratik Chakrabarti, 2020).

"Making Historicity: Paleontology and the Proximity of the Past in Germany, 1775-1825" (Patrick Anthony in Journal of the History of Ideas, 2021).

'"A Dim World, Where Monsters Dwell": The Spatial Time of the Sydenham Crystal Palace Dinosaur Park' (Nancy Rose Marshall in Victorian Studies, 2007).

Articulating Dinosaurs: A Political Anthropology (Brian Noble, 2016).

The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856 (Ralph O'Connor, 2007).

"Victorian Saurians: The Linguistic Prehistory of the Modern Dinosaur" (O'Connor in Journal of Victorian Culture, 2012).

"Hyena-Hunting and Byron-Bashing in the Old North: William Buckland, Geological Verse and the Radical Threat" (O'Connor in Uncommon Contexts: Encounters between Science and Literature, 1800-1914, 2013).

And some excerpts:

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When the Crystal Palace at Sydenham opened in 1854, the extinct animal models and geological strata exhibited in its park grounds offered Victorians access to a reconstructed past - modelled there for the first time - and drastically transformed how they understood and engaged with the history of the Earth. The geological section, developed by British naturalists and modelled after and with local resources was, like the rest of the Crystal Palace, governed by a historical perspective meant to communicate the glory of Victorian Britain. The guidebook authored by Richard Owen, Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World, illustrates how Victorian naturalists placed nature in the service of the nation - even if those elements of nature, like the Iguanodon or the Megalosaurus, lived and died long before such human categories were established. The geological section of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, which educated the public about the past while celebrating the scale and might of modernity, was a discursive site of exchange between past and present, but one that favoured the human present by intimating that deep time had been domesticated, corralled and commoditised by the nation’s naturalists.

Text by: Alison Laurence. "A discourse with deep time: the extinct animals of Crystal Palace Park as heritage artefacts". Science Museum Group Journal (Spring 2019). Published 1 May 2019. [All text from the article's abstract.]

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[There was a] fundamental European 'time revolution' of the nineteenth century [...]. In the late 1850s and 1860s, Europeans are said to have experienced ‘the bottom falling out of history’, when geologists confirmed that humanity had existed for far, far longer than the approximately 6,000 years previously believed to represent the entire history [...]. ‘[S]ecular time’ became for many ‘just time, period’: the ‘empty time’ of Walter Benjamin. […] The European discovery of ‘deep time’ hastened this shift. [....] Historicism views the past as developments, trends, eras and epochs. [...] Victorians were intensely aware of ‘historical time’, experiencing themselves as inhabiting a new age of civilization. They were obsessed with history and its apparent power to explain the present […].

Text by: Laura Rademaker. “60,000 Years is not forever: ‘time revolutions’ and Indigenous pasts.” Postcolonial Studies. September 2021.

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At the time when geology and paleontology emerged as new scientific disciplines, [...] [g]oing back to the 1802 exhibition of the first Mastodon exhibited in London’s Pall Mall, […] showmanship ruled geology and ensured its popularity and public appeal [...]. Throughout the Victorian period, [...] geology was as much - if not more - sensational than the popular romances and sensation novels of the time [...]. [T]he "rhetoric of spectacular display" (26) before the 1830s [was] developed by geological writers (James Parkinson, John Playfair, William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Robert Blakewell), "borrowing techniques from [...] commercial exhibition" [...]. The discovery of Kirkdale Cave in December 1821 where fossils of [extinct] hyena bones were discovered along with other species (elephant, mouse, hippopotamus) led Buckland to posit that the exotic animals [...] had lived in England [...]. Thus, the year 1822 was significant as Buckland’s hyena den theory gave a glimpse of the world before the Flood. [...] [G]eology became a market in its own right, in particular with the explosion of cheaper forms of printed science [...] in cheap miscellanies and fictional miscellanies, with geological romances [...] [...] or [fantastical] tropes pervading [...], "leading to a considerable degree of conservatism in the imagery of the ancient earth" (196). By 1846 the geological romances were often reminiscent of the narrative strategies found in Arabian Nights [...].

Text by: Laurence Talairach-Vielmas. A book review published as: “Ralph O’Connor, The Earth on Show: Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802 - 1856.” Review published by journal Miranda. Online since July 2010.

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Dinosaurs, then, are malleable beasts. [...] [T]he constant reshaping of these popular animals has also been driven by cultural and political trends. [...] One of Britain’s first palaeontologists, Richard Owen, coined the term “Dinosauria” in 1842. The Victorians were relatively familiar with reptile fossils [...] [b]ut Owen's coinage brought a group of the most mysterious discoveries under one umbrella. [...] When attempting to rise to the top of British science, it helped to have the media on your side. Owen’s friendship with both Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray led to fond name-dropping by both novelists. Dickens’s Bleak House famously begins by imagining a Megalosaurus, one of Owen’s original dinosaurs. Both novelists even compared their own writing process to Owen’s palaeontological techniques. In the scientific community, Owen’s dinosaur research was first [criticized] by his [...] rival, Gideon Mantell, a surgeon and the describer of the Iguanodon. [...] Naming dinosaurs was a powerful way of claiming ownership [...]. Owen [...] knew the power of the press [...]. [M]useum exhibits [often] [...] flattered white patrons [...] by placing them at the apex of modernity. [...] Owen would not have been surprised to learn that the reconstruction of dinosaur bones is still an act that is entangled in politics.

Text by: Richard Fallon. "Our image of dinosaurs was shaped by Victorian popularity contests". The Conversation. 31 January 2020.

[rabbitcruiser]

Clouds (No. 837)

Custer State Park, WY