#central prison farm

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"GIRLS PLOW AND GROW STRONG ON THIS FARM," Toronto Star November 11, 1913. Page 5. ---- Introduced to Velvet Side of Hoe at 5 a.m. to Take Hysteria From the Cabbage. --- THE SLEIGHTON FARM ---- President Makes Some Comments on the Recent Anti-Suffrage Address by Mrs. George. ---- "We will solve the hired man problem by having hired women," said Mг. Findlay, superintendent of the Ontario Prison Farm, in the course of a brief address to the Equal Franchise League in Margaret Eaton School last evening. The address followed an exhibition of views illustrating the Sleighton Farm for Delinquent Girls of Pennsylvania, which were to have been shown by Mrs. Falconer, the superintendent. Regrets were received from Mrs. Falconer, that inasmuch as some German commissioners on a tour of inspection were visiting her farm, she was unable to leave on the date arranged.

The pictures, however, were a lecture in themselves, and at the same time a prod to the slowly wakening Ontario, as to the sane method dealing with delinquent girls. of Girls plowed with horses and real plows: they stood up on hay rows with knickerbockered gymnasium suits and tossed hay with forks, they fussed up big beds of cabbages, fed small pigs, which insisted on climbing into the pails headfirst; they sewed and ironed, and baked broad which rose in pans before the eyes of the camera. They had a baseball team and diamond, with rooters attached; gala days when the corn husking time arrived, and each group of girls adopts a different costume: a prize being won by the most artistic. And in the corners of the snake fences each girl has made her own small garden, which in its rivalry is so fearfully tidy that a worm would wipe its feet carefully on a burdock before entering.

Honor Cottages. The buildings are artistic stone cottages with large colonial verandahs and vines, wherever a vine can cling. There is the Reception Cottage, in which the new girls live for the first three months of their stay. They ar- rive with hot rebellion in their eyes, and an empty, hysterical longing for the artificial life from which they have been torn. Here they learn to settle their wings quietly down and rest, until they are in condition to be promoted to an "Honor Cottage."

Each cottage is a unit, self-governing and self-sufficient. This system provides the necessary rivalry, from ball-teams to fattest chickens, and lightest bread. The girls in the Honor Cottages are allowed a great deal of freedom, which they seldom abuse. When a girl has repeatedly abused her freedom, she is for the time being ostracizer, which is most effective. Since its inception some ten years ago, 6.000 girls have passed through the training, and except in a few instances, they are living good and useful lives, some loving their foster home to the extent of bringing their prospective husbands to the superintendent for Inspection.

Mr. Findlay told of his intense indignation when traveling through Normandy, to see women home from the fields with coming heavy farming instruments, until a native of the country asked him to compare the health of body and mind of our own girls who spend their days in factories.

Hysterical Cabbages. "Farm life is a great cure for hysteria," he added. "To be roused by the fey, uncompromising voice of the alarm clock at five in the morning, Introduced to the soft, velvet side of a hoe, and told to go out and take the hysteria out of some cabbage patch. I tell you, the tight skirts our girls are wearing wouldn't have much show with those Norwegian women, but when you think of the old Greek models, those same Norwegians have all the honors coming to them."

Mr. Findlay was applauded by all the Equal Franchisers when he announced that the purchase of a jail farm for women in Ontario was to be completed as soon as he had selected the site, for which he had been looking that afternoon.

"One of my men out at the farm was sitting on the step after his day's work." he related, "looking out over the fields, and he remarked, It's all right for us men, but they should get a place like this for the women back there."

Hitting the Antis. In opening the meeting, Mrs. L. A. Hamilton, president of the league, commented briefly on the address given recently by Mrs. George before the Anti-Suffrage Association.

"Mrs. George's address was destructive," said Mrs. Hamilton, "and not at all constructive, I fear she is not only anti-suffrage, but anti-social. The great motif of the suffrage movement is its intense loyalty to other women. We regret that Mrs. George cast a slur on policewomen. We regret it on account of our common womanhood, and on account of Mrs. Alice Stebbins-Wells. We also regret it on account of our own policewomen who are present, but are too modest to come to the platform."

Commissioner Starr, of the Juvenile Court, closed the meeting with a few instances of the men who had returned to thank the authorities for the chance given them to recover lost manhood when sent to the prison farm. "What is good for men is good for women, and what is good for men and women is good for boys and girls," he concluded.

[reasonsforhope]

"Despite the Central Appalachia ecosystem being historically famous as coal country, under this diverse broadleaf canopy lies a rich, biodiverse world of native plants helping to fill North America’s medicinal herb cabinet.

And it turns out that the very communities once reliant on the coalfields are now bringing this botanical diversity to the country.

“Many different Appalachian people, stretching from pre-colonization to today, have tended, harvested, sold, and used a vast number of forest botanicals like American ginseng, ramps, black cohosh, and goldenseal,” said Shannon Bell, Virginia Tech professor in the Dept. of Sociology. “These plants have long been integral to many Appalachians’ livelihoods and traditions.”

50% of the medicinal herbs, roots, and barks in the North American herbal supply chain are native to the Appalachian Mountains, and the bulk of these species are harvested or grown in Central Appalachia, which includes southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, far-southwest Virginia, and east Tennessee.

The United Plant Savers, a nonprofit with a focus on native medicinal plants and their habitats, has identified many of the most popular forest medicinals as species of concern due to their declining populations.

Along with the herbal supply chain being largely native to Appalachia, the herb gatherers themselves are also native [to Appalachia, not Native American specifically], but because processing into medicine and seasonings takes place outside the region, the majority of the profits from the industry do too.

In a press release on Bell’s superb research and advocacy work within Appalachia’s botanical communities, she refers back to the moment that her interest in the industry and the region sprouted; when like many of us, she was out in a nearby woods waiting out the pandemic.

“My family and I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house during quarantine,” Bell said. “We observed the emergence of all the spring ephemerals in the forest understory – hepatica, spring beauty, bloodroot, trillium, mayapple. I came to appreciate the importance of the region’s botanical biodiversity more than ever, and realized I wanted to incorporate this new part of my life into my research.”

With co-investigator, John Munsell at VA Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, Bell’s project sought to identify ways that Central Appalachian communities could retain more of the profits from the herbal industry while simultaneously ensuring that populations of at-risk forest botanicals not only survive, but thrive and expand in the region.

Bell conducted participant observation and interviews with wild harvesters and is currently working on a mail survey with local herb buyers. She also piloted a ginseng seed distribution program, and helped a wild harvester write a grant proposal to start a forest farm.

“Economic development in post-coal communities often focuses on other types of energy development, like fracking and natural gas pipelines, or on building prisons and landfills. Central Appalachia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. I think that placing a greater value on this biodiversity is key to promoting a more sustainable future for the region,” Bell told VA Tech press.

Armed with a planning grant of nearly half a million dollars, Bell and collaborators are specifically targeting forest farming as a way to achieve that sustainable future.

Finally, enlisting support from the nonprofit organization Appalachian Sustainable Development, Virginia Tech, the City of Norton, a sculpture artist team, and various forest botanicals practitioners in her rolodex, Bell organized the creation of a ‘living monument’ along Flag Rock Recreation Area in Norton, Virginia.

An interpretive trail, the monument tells the story of the historic uses that these wild botanicals had for the various societies that have inhabited Appalachia, and the contemporary value they still hold for people today."

-via Good News Network, September 12, 2024

[opencommunion]

Palestinians from several of the displaced communities described the same pattern to +972: Israeli settlers arrive with their herds and prevent them from grazing on land where Palestinians have grazed for decades; then armed settlers would proceed to harass them day and night, even entering houses, without the army or police intervening. Everyone described the same, overwhelming feelings of fear and distress under the shadow of these settler invasions. “It’s like 1948,” said Mohammed Hussein, a resident of Ein Samia — invoking the year of the Nakba (“catastrophe”) and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland during Israel’s establishment. According to the Palestinian residents, the situation grew worse following the establishment and growth of several grazing settler outposts in the area in recent years; settler violence and further expansion also noticeably escalated since the current Israeli government, led by extremist far-right parties, was sworn in last December. ... The Israeli authorities, along with the settlers, have played a central role in the displacement. For years, the occupation apparatus has banned the Palestinian communities from construction; demolished their homes; denied them connection to water and electricity; stopped them from paving roads; issued demolition orders for schools built with funds from the European Union; established and recognized Jewish settlements; and, of course, stood by during settler violence.  ... “We have always been under occupation, in a prison with checkpoints, but now we live in a prison van,” said Ali Abu al-Kabash, 60, sitting in a tent he had set up in an open area across the Allon Road. Abu al-Kabash, who is originally from a-Samu, near Hebron, moved to the Ramallah area in the 1980s, and to the area near Ras a-Tin in 1995. “Before the [last] election, the settlers would run away if there were a few of us [facing them]. Today, they attack because the government is with them. The police, the army, and the Shin Bet are all with them,” he added. “For 25 years we lived a normal life,” Abu al-Kabash continued. “In recent years, the settlers came and established two outposts [Micah’s Farm and Malachei HaShalom]. They blocked the road between us and Ein al-Rashash, and the one that goes down toward Fasayil. We would herd in the area, but they came to us in the name of the government and the Civil Administration and said that the land belongs to the settlers. They brought sheep to eat the food we grew for our sheep … They enter houses, sometimes with many soldiers, taking photos, even when there are girls, women, and old men present.” According to Abu al-Kabash, the violence increased after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in May. “They park at the entrance of the homes. Some of them are under 12 years old, under the age of criminal responsibility. They go in, look in the refrigerator, or at our phones. What can we do? They want Area C for Israel, to take control of the land through the settlers, but without war. But where will we go? The occupation is everywhere.” Ras a-Tin, which neighbors al-Qabun, was subjected to similar harassment and severe violence by settlers. On the day its residents fled, in July 2022, Ahmad Kaabna, the mukhtar of Ras a-Tin — who died suddenly in early August at age 60 — told a group of activists: “The settlers frightened the women, the children — everyone. They came to the homes at night in groups of 10-15 people … the army with them. If you talk to them and say ‘get away, get out of here,’ they call the army or the police, who come and arrest the young [Palestinians].”

[witchhazelevesque]

“I can’t believe it,” [Percy] said. “Six months—” 

“I told you,” Leo said. “We tried sending more holographic scrolls. We tried Iris messages, dream visions, phone calls. Nothing worked… Anyway, we ran into one crisis after another.” (The Hidden Oracle p352)

Imagine if dream visions had worked because like. 

So far it seemed like something that was mostly done by Hypnos kids and other demigods who are magically inclined. 

Calypso lost her magic, which is a plot point I don’t like but that’s a different conversation. So like, she probably had some knowledge of how it’s done even if she could never do it on Ogygia, and Leo words it like they both tried. So imagine Leo actually does get through to Nico and Nico’s like how dare you if I ever see you again it’s on sight watch your back-

And Leo is just Over It in every capacity because he’s been questing for literal months- the war and the entire time since he came back to life and he’s tired because resurrection really takes it out of you, and he has to deal with nonsense on nonsense on nonsense all day everyday. Cause like, he and Calypso are this infamous duo to monsters and gods now because she broke out of her eternal magical prison and he literally cheated death and the universe is like. Hm. That doesn’t sound right we should do something about that and they did.

So Leo’s like. Hey yo slow your fucking roll, you don’t even know me like that, I know the besties Hazel and Frank explained everything like right away and I have been trying to get back, you wanna give this mess a whirl and see if you do any better?

And Nico’s like god fine if you’re gonna be like that damn fine okay

So he goes to the rest of the camp like “yeah okay so he did call, things are weird but he’s trying so like I guess we shouldn’t be so angry anymore I guess I guess” but he’s all petulant and reluctant and petty about it.

And Leo keeps showing up and they keep talking and actually get to know each other, swapping stories of trying to get through the European continent (which yeah if Nico had such a hard time then you’d think he’d be a little more understanding about this whole situation)

And Nico realizes eventually that oh he was so mad because he loves him and that’s. Okay fine. Embarrassing, whatever.

Bonus points if Leo ends up in Clovis’s dreams first because the Hypnos cabin is like the central hub of dream activity and Clovis is the one to languidly announce Leo making contact and Nico is fucking seething that Leo hadn’t shown up in his dreams.

Anyway the main reason for this is that I love the idea that Leo was a little off after he died, like, touched by death and more inclined towards shadows and the in-between and ghosts and magic and stuff and this was one of the manifestations of that. Which would explain why Leo couldn’t use dreams to tell Nico about his plan to resurrect himself before hand because Nico will of course bring that up at some point. 

Also I like to think that Leo and Cal broke into random places to make those phone calls- did Leo have numbers memorized? Maybe he could have looked up the strawberry farm that the camp poses as for their number or he must have Annabeth’s cell phone number memorized or maybe he looked up the Jackson’s or tried to call Piper or some random New Rome number- does New Rome have its own area code? That’d be funny if it did and he just went down all the possible sequences of numbers but every time he said who he was the person would just hang up. Okay maybe not funny funny but yeah.

Anyway yeah like them breaking into places and it playing out sort of like that scene from Buffy where she’s going through some villain’s  office and the person comes in and demands to know what she’s doing and Buffy’s all nonchalant like “I’m going through your files” and the evil person is like “I’m calling the police” so Buffy just rips the phone out of the wall.

I’d like to think that’s the sort of energy Calypso has because she’s still figuring out how the modern world works and how mortals do stuff. 

Or they just do the distraction and sneaking in thing at like a restaurant or office and then get told to stop doing that and buy something.

Or maybe Leo just whips up his own phone, who knows?

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Kai Winn Adami

By Ames

So far, all of the subjects of our spotlight series have been people for whom we’ve had both good and bad character moments to discuss. But what do you do when you’re highlighting an antagonist character? For a villain, being bad is actually very good and that’s so perfectly the case for Kai Winn Adami. So this time A Star to Steer Her By will simply feature a bunch of our favorite moments overall.

Boy, do we love to hate this bitch. Somehow she’s only in 14 episodes even though it feels like she’s always looming somewhere with a passive-aggressive gaze and a “my child” on her lips. Louise Fletcher plays this power-hungry religious icon with such depth and nuance that it was easy for us to come up with a ton of favorite moments. So flip open the Book of the Pah-wraiths below to check them out, listen to our Bajoran chanting over on this week’s podcast (jump to 1:12:58), and walk with the prophets, my child.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Favorite moments

The Bajoran Scopes Monkey Trial Winn makes a big impression in her very first appearance in “In the Hands of the Prophets” when she’s displaying big Karen energy while challenging why Keiko isn’t teaching Bajoran religious ideology in a public school. And she does it with a smile. And also with a can of gasoline since she surely got that school blown up in one smokin’ power move.

The sacrifices the Prophets call on us to make are great sometimes Somehow there are even more layers to “In the Hands of the Prophets” than teaching religion in classrooms and committing arson. Winn also puts Neela up to assassinate Bareil so that she can work on amassing power. And when Neela fails to secure a getaway plan, Winn straight up declares that’s fine with her. What does she care as long as her hands stay clean?

We’re a match made by the Prophets Winn continues to keep her hands clean in “The Circle.” Even while covertly supporting the Bajoran extremist faction, the Alliance for Global Unity, and bedding down with Minister Jarro Essa, Winn manages to direct blame away from herself when their plans have been exposed and gone thoroughly sideways. Jarro can only watch his downfall from under the bus.

You will never speak to me with such disrespect again!! Kai Winn’s “my child” may sound like a catchphrase, but it’s always delivered with such emotion which Fletcher was so good at. When Kira’s been sniffing around how Winn extracted information from Kubus Oak in an attempt to get Bareil out of the kai election in “The Collaborator,” the soon-to-be kai sends chills down your spine with her cold threats.

He’s more machine now than man When Bareil’s health keeps failing in “Life Support,” Winn pushes to keep him cognizant as long as is convenient for her. All she wants is the credit for his negotiations with the Cardassian Central Command while also keeping open the option to use him as a scapegoat should things fail. This woman plays her cards so strategically that she always comes out on top.

See ya later, reclamator To make a good political statement by getting some soil reclamators to Rakantha Province, Winn ends up sending in the Bajoran Militia after Shakaar’s resistance cell in “Shakaar.” And what’s more, she’s presumptuous enough to ask Sisko to send in Starfleet security or else she’ll pull out of Federation membership talks! All for farming equipment. Well that escalated quickly.

You think you’re the only ones who fought the Cardassians We learn just what Kai Winn was up to during the occupation, and it’s surprisingly humanizing. Winn throws in Kira’s face during “Rapture” how she was put in a Cardassian prison camp for five years, and never stopped preaching about the prophets despite the beatings. And per “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” she also sold gemstones from the tabernacle to bolster the resistance.

No. We are nothing alike. Nothing at all. What could be better than a Louise Fletcher–Jeffrey Combs scene? We get just that in “In the Cards” when Winn is trying to delay the decision between allying with the Federation or the Dominion because in either scenario her backwards little planet will get stomped on. But it’s her short scene with Weyoun that takes the cake when she reads his pagh and judges him hard!

Please leave your message for the Prophets at the beep There’s plenty for Winn to be judgmental about in “The Reckoning” when Sisko borrows an ancient tablet without asking and then destroys it utterly. But at the core of Winn’s motivation is desperation for the Prophets to communicate with her, which they’ve never done, so she puts an end to the Prophet–Pah-wraith battle because she isn’t the center of attention for once.

The Password Is: Restoration Winn’s whole arc in the final ten-parter of the series is a work of art, and so perfectly portrayed. Let’s break it down here, because it all starts with getting fully taken in with Anjohl Tennan in “‘Til Death Do Us Part.” All Dukat-in-disguise has to do is drop some buzzwords and the Kai is immediately enamored with the guy, and bedding down with him by the next episode, “Strange Bedfellows.”

Everything will change once you step down as Kai. You’ll see. When Winn is having a crisis of faith in “Strange Bedfellows” after receiving a vision from the Pah-wraiths, she wisely seeks out Kira. And the Corporal gives Winn the perfect advice to step down as kai so as not to be tempted by power anymore. And for a split second you think Winn will listen to reason. But she’s still Winn, after all, entirely blind to what she doesn’t want to see.

Catfished by the Prophets Stepping down as kai is not an option for Winn, who doesn’t believe she has too much power. In fact, she believes she doesn't have enough power! So by the end of “Strange Bedfellows,” she fully denounces the Prophets because they’ve never done anything for her. She admits to Anjohl that she’s never felt their presence and has been faking it for years, but blind faith will serve her no longer. Now she wants results!

Don’t you recognize the face of your enemy? May the Prophets bless Solbor for giving us such a great reveal scene in “The Changing Face of Evil.” He’s found out that Anjohl is actually Dukat, and Adami’s reaction to this news is so layered and cathartic that we love it. But that tippy top layer is a sense of self preservation that can only be maintained by murdering the hell out of Solbor, that gossip hound!

Hit it and quit it But that isn’t as cold as Winn can get, as is proven in the next episode in “When It Rains…” after Dukat has gone blind from reading the Book of the Pah-wraiths. Winn cruelly kicks the blind Cardassian out on his ass to beg on the streets of Bajor. “You may return when you’ve proven yourself worthy and your sight has been restored,” she mocks, and it’s stone cold!

The Pah-wraiths demand a sacrifice The whole series culminates in “What You Leave Behind” in the fire caves with Winn casting aside her devotion to the Prophets and summoning the Pah-wraiths. What she hadn’t told Dukat (with his sight returned for reasons) was that she lured him there to use him as the ceremonial sacrifice, and she righteously poisons his ass with absolutely no hesitation.

Too little, too late Finally, Winn comes this close to redemption in “What You Leave Behind” when she comes to see the error of her ways (or maybe she’s just bitter that the Kosst Amojen picked Dukat’s husk over her). For the hottest of seconds (cause it’s the fire caves, get it?), she tries to get the book to Sisko when at last she has an epiphany moment, but her fate is ultimately sealed when Pah-wraiths toast her in flames.

—

What a journey for a character that only appears a handful of times, and we were here for every second. Next week, we’re continuing to give in the Pah-wraiths as we recount our favorite Dukat moments, which will surely be a trip. So keep your eyes here for that, keep following us through the Delphic Expanse as we watch through Enterprise over on SoundCloud or your favorite podcast place, praise the Prophets with us on Facebook and Twitter, and practice your “my child”s in the mirror.

[sapphicbookclub]

'Tis the Season: A Farm to Table by L. Dreamer

Bridgette Faul has made plenty of mistakes in her life, even one that landed her in prison. But now she’s a pillar of society as owner and operator of Dirty Hands Farm, an open to the public farm that employs ex-cons looking to make a life for themselves. At forty, she’s set in her ways and has her life just the way she likes it: organized and simple.

Olivia Predmore is an up-and-coming prosecutor who on the surface has the perfect life. She’s set to marry her long-time defense attorney boyfriend and become a criminal law power couple in the central valley of California.

But a chance meeting at Bridgette’s Dirty Hands Christmas Tree Farm has both women rethinking what, and who, they really want in life.

Genres: contemporary, romance

Get the book from Blackwell's with free worldwide shipping here!

[dalekofchaos]

Sean and Daniel should have been able to clear their name

Thinking about LIS 2 again and how unsatisfied I am about the endings.

None of the endings are good in my opinion.

Redemption is just soul crushing. Sean goes to jail for 15 years for a crime he didn't even commit. Sean’s life in Prison for 15 years would’ve been an absolute living hell. Not only was 15 years of his life taken from him, but he literally went through hell and there is no telling how brutal his time in prison could’ve been. Especially since he was labeled as a cop killer.

For a long time I believed the best endings were Parting Ways and Blood Brothers and thought Redemption did more harm than good. Now I feel like it's the opposite.

Escaping to another country sounds like a good plan, but there is something called extradition treaties; and the US & Mexico has had one for for a long time. More than likely US authorities are waiting on Daniel to turn 18 so that he can't use the "I'm a minor, you can't charge me" defense. No doubt the brothers are about to get raided as soon as Daniel turns 18. They either get to Cuba or they are going to lead a life constantly on the run as every continental country in Central & South America has an extradition treaty as well.

In the case of Parting Ways, Daniel will be under house arrest as they raid Puerto Lobos and extradite Sean while Daniel has to live under house arrest knowing there is nothing he could've done to save Sean.

And Lone Wolf has Daniel treated like a literal villain.

So unfortunately Redemption is the only ending where anyone is close to happy. Sean does his time to protect Daniel and sees Lyla again. Daniel lives a happy life in Beaver Creek and while Sean carries trauma with him, he gets to live and be free.

And don't get me started on how morality plays into the endings.

High Morality ending result in Sean either spending 15 years in prison or the brothers being separated in America. But the low morality ending results in the brothers together as criminals or Sean dead in Mexico? Why is staying in America painted as a moral ending, but choosing to stay in Mexico, the goal of the game is considered the immoral ending? Like, Mexico is not a guaranteed ticket to being a criminal. Wouldn't it make more sense for high morality to lead to Sean clearing his name? Very tone deaf DONTNOD.

But that out of the way, here is why we should've gotten the opportunity to gain the Diaz brothers freedom.

Redemption Ending, while tragic is a good ending. and it got me thinking afterwards about the actual legal implications of Sean's actions, and a 15 year jail sentence (shortened I assume for good behavior) seems quite extreme.

I imagine that it would be very difficult for the prosecution to prove without reasonable doubt that Sean killed the police officer in Seattle. If he surrendered immediately in Chapter 1, he could just say there was an explosion which knocked him unconscious and he doesn't know what happened. The police have no proof or physical evidence linking the death to Daniel and I imagine that any competent lawyer can get the brothers acquitted for the officer's death.

Now I know that Sean was just a kid who watched his father get murdered and panicked, so I understand why he ran, but running away made everything worse. By selecting moral choices, in the end my Sean was really on the hook for destroying the hotel room, grand theft auto, working on a pot farm, and trashing the police station (Karen took the blame for the church fire). I didn't assault the shopkeeper, didn't murder Lisbeth or Merril, and a 15 year jail sentence seems crazy to me and undermined what was otherwise a great ending.

So there are two ways I'd do this.

Having Sean go back after the conversation with Brody or contact Agent Flores when David suggests he turn themselves in.

Option 1.

In my opinion the game should've gave us two paths regarding what you say to Brody in episode 1.

Go to Puerto Lobos. Same game as before

Clear your name. After talking to Brody, he takes you to the police, but still stay at the motel. Sean tells Daniel the truth and in episode 2 is about Sean preparing for the trial. Daniel is sent to Claire and Stephen. Episode 3-4 is the trial and episode 5 is the conclusion. The smoking gun is Brett and Daniel, Brett revealing he was an asshole who got their father killed and Daniel revealing(privately) to the judge, Flores and lawyers his power. Sean is cleared and the choice would be

Return to Seattle

Go to Beaver's Creek

Go to Puerto Lobos

Option 2

Twos scenarios would be given to us. Continue the story we got or take David’s advice and make contact with Detective Flores and tell her he can explain everything. So we have a trial. Tell that their asshole neighbor Brett was harassing Daniel and Sean came to his rescue. After the fight ended badly, the officer came on the scene and explain that when Esteban was trying to defuse the situation, the officer shot their father and this set off Daniel’s powers and caused the incident. Shockingly, Brett is alive and comes forward as a witness. Telling everyone Sean and Daniel are telling the truth and that he was just being an asshole. Then Sean and Daniel requested a private audience with the judge, Agent Flores and the attorneys. Daniel displays his powers and Sean explains that when the officer shot their father it triggered his powers, went off in the hotel, pot farm and other unexplainable events. Everyone is in shock, but the judge requests everyone keeps this under wraps. And it ends with the jury announcing. “We find Sean and Daniel Diaz Not Guilty” Sean cries tears of joy and embraces Daniel and Karen, Claire, Stephen and Lyla all come forward to hug Sean and Daniel. The Wolf Brothers are finally free.

Final ending would be between where we choose to go. Return to Seattle, return to Beaver Creek, return to Away with Karen or go to Puerto Lobos.

Flash forwards shows the brothers returning to Beaver Creek. Daniel growing up happily with Chris and Sarah Lee at his side and Sean reuniting with Lyla. In one of the flashes we would see a big Birthday celebration for Sean and we would see Sean, Daniel, Karen, Claire, Stephen, Chris, Jake, Sarah Lee, Lyla, Finn and Cassidy together celebrating Sean’s birthday. We would also see Sean and Daniel’s individual graduations. And as for the ending I guess we could have either Sean and Daniel living happily and free in Beaver’s Creek, Sean and Daniel returning to Seattle or Sean saying goodbye as he leaves for Puerto Lobos with whoever you romanced and if you romanced no one, Sean would leave with Finn, Cassidy or Lyla to Puerto Lobos(Parkaz is the hill I am dying on)

[ceiling-karasu]

Other Countries in the AUs: Part Two, Plus OCs

Chambelli Koh (Flower Hill, Urdu)

(Hyena AU, mostly)

Background:

A nation in Africa, with a large population of Urdu speakers, explores the world, and forms an alliance with Chaand Hadia, as they are also Urdu speakers with some of the same values. To the left of Chaand Hadia, a colony of African Spotted Hyenas is formed to allow for easier trading.

But the country the hyenas came from is now defunct (joined up with another country peacefully), as suggested by the flag above, granting independence to the colony, which expanded into its own country as more hyenas join.

The Weasels took over the coastlines of Chambelli Koh with the help of the Wolf Unit, establishing a few bases there, but found a lack of workers they could intimidate into working the fish farms. The Wolf Unit then took over several villages, forcing the larger hyenas and other residents into working as troops for the unit, assuming that they are as blood thirsty as them, with the promise that they will not go after 'weak prey' like Flower Hill. The central government is playing the long game in allowing this to happen. After all, it is only a few villages on the coast, and discretely sabotaging the weasels and wolves will result in victory in the long run. Besides, the hyena soldiers will revolt, eventually, and no one will be able to stop them.

I have the idea that Nurse Eomin from her AU will have been conscripted from the coastline when she was visiting family. The Weasel Unit has no idea she is actually a resident of Flower Hill, just as they have no idea that the hyenas have an incredibly strong bond with the hedgehogs to the point of a few romances.

Location and Geography: Shares a border with Chaand Hadia. Mostly fertile farmland surrounded by mountains, but has a rich coastline of fish.

Government: Stratocracy, although local villages may have their own rules. Central government usually, but coastlines are controlled by the weasels

Economy: Mostly just an agricultural and mining society. They trade minerals and weapons to Flower Hill in exchange for silk, and to Chaand Hadia in exchange for paints and dyes.

Demographics: Much of the country is striped and spotted hyenas. Other species include Swinhoe's striped squirrel, three striped ground squirrels, red squirrels, deer, ermines, pigs, sheep, goats, and monkeys.

Culture: Peaceful, but pragmatic and can switch to warlike. Dark humor with loud laughter is a staple of the populace, but the art scene is booming.

Foreign Relations: Mostly Isolated for now, as most creatures are scared of them, and they are a relatively new nation. They are also far louder and m ore brash than everyone else.

Relation to Flower Hill: Flower Hill was concerned by these massive newcomers, so they invited the hyenas to engage in diplomatic discussions. It was discovered that both countries are called 'Flower Hill,' in their own languages, completely by accident, breaking the tension. The hyenas were impressed and thrilled that the hedgehogs were not at all terrified of them and happily formed peace treaties

Traditional Clothing Style (When not in Military attire): Hanbok, shirts, blouses, large robes, and pants, elaborate beaded necklaces.

Hyena OCs

It's not going to be a serious or long AU, once I get to it. I might combine it with the Nope AU and create a series of stories involving Chambelli Koh and Flower Hill. Otherwise they will be mentioned as existing in the AU, maybe in passing, but they won't be big players in The Rod That Blocks the Lightning, if at all.

Really, the name for this one will probably be One Mind All the Time. The hyenas are super intimidating and powerful, but if they are not in a fight, then they are big friendly goofballs who share one brain cell. But still smart, in the way they can plan for a battle, as well as subtly indicate to Flower Hill that they are being coerced.

Honestly, I could set the location of the prison for the Kidnapped Scientist AU somewhere around in this country, perhaps. Or at least near one of their borders.

Jindo Dog Island

This isn't made up, I just straight up took an actual island around Korea. It was supposed to be a one off gag for an inconsequential chapter, but afterwards I had ideas!

Location and Geography: Down near the Southern part of the Weasel Territory, but not part of it. Island nation with lots of fertile farmland and mixed with birch trees.

Government: Imperialistic, yet willing to trade with other countries.

Economy: Large soju exports, necessitating large wheat and rice fields, as well as a large variety of fruits and vegetables for taste. They also have a large export of xylitol made form imported birch trees, although their uses for it remain mysterious, as it is not used in the soju. Sugar, fruits, silk, and vegetables are large imports.

Demographics: Jindo dogs, pigs, deer, mice

Culture: farmers, loving the peaceful life, paintings, but everyone is conscripted for a short period of time when they become adults, and are very reserved to outsiders. They have never been successfully invaded, but young males of important families are expected to enrich themselves with travel to foreign countries so they can better run the family and the nation, so the country is not completely shut off and behind the times.

Foreign Relations: Open to trade, but due to being an island nation, they have a massive imperial fleet of a highly trained navy. This is also how they are able to trade soju safely despite being so close the weasel territory, in addition to the Myeongnyang Strait, which provides heavy protection to the islands. Stories abound of assassins from the country poisoning enemies with mysterious powders, but the diplomats assure that those are simply rumors. It is only a coincidence that enemies who tried to invade their country, or seriously talked about invading tend to wind up mysteriously dead or in comas.

Relation to Flower Hill: Flower Hill gives them wood and silk, and they trade with exquisite soju. Flower Hill has been sure to treat visitors from there very well for generations, in order to secure alliances.

Traditional Clothing Style: Loose clothes, pants, dresses. Higher classes wear robes, everyone has armor they can use.

OC Character: Jinro the Jindo Dog

Gender: Male

Country and Alliance: Jindo Dog Island

Attire: Western clothes

Skills: Cooking, soju production

Job: drifter, cook

Backstory: He and his twin, Hite, were born to the nation's largest soju production factory in the kingdom. On a trip, he was conscripted by the Weasel Unit as a cook. He escapes with a group of friends he makes in the barracks. Now, as per tradition for the family, he wanders to earth searching for new food and soju recipes.

Just a funny guy I'm going to have wander in and out of stories.

Wolf Country

I don't really have a whole lot of ideas on this right now that I have not spoken of in my previous post. To be honest, I don't think the actual country will feature too much, if at all, since the action is around Flower Hill and other nations nearby.

But, I'm guessing the wolves represent America, and the alligators/crocodiles are Mexico that has been occupied by the Wolf Unit. I'm still working on personalities and such for this group, but I'm guessing they are very strong, and see the smaller animals as weak and beneath them.

I want to call this one Steven or Miguel.

I still say the alligators/crocs are good for underwater reconnaissance in the absence of the underground study data, Dr. Dudeoji, or his assistant, Bamsaegi. Disarming mines Flower Hill has planted in the water is also probably a good use for them. They are, however, cold blooded, and this comes with its own problems when doing their jobs.

It is possible that the alligators/crocs may want to take over Flower Hill for themselves, but they would want to get out from under the thumb of the Wolf Unit first.

[beardedmrbean]

Hufvudstadsbladet continues its coverage of the increasing risk of Finns being taken hostage as Moscow uses prisoners as leverage.

The paper spoke to two Finns who said they have continued working in Russia since the Kremlin's war in Ukraine began.

While those talking to the Swedish-language daily said they were being more careful than before in the country, security was always at the back of their minds, especially when crossing the border.

"I always weigh the risks of the trip against how important what I need to do in Russia is. I perceive the risks to be small enough that my work there outweighs them," one man said.

There are, however, far fewer foreigners on the streets of Russian cities now.

"Your instinct is to stay under the radar," another interviewee said.

Exiting a business after decades in the country is, however, easier said than done.

"There are probably people in Finland who think it's almost criminal to have anything to do with Russia. But what are you supposed to do if you have had your entire family, your business and your only source of income here?"

Egg recall

Readers are flocking to Taloussanomat's list of potentially salmonella-contaminated eggs.

Egg company Kieku has announced that salmonella has been detected on one of its farms, and TS has pictures of all 13 different cartons with eggs coming from the farm in question.

Kieku recommends that consumers either discard or return any eggs with the farm identification code 2FI220479 on the shell, TS reports.

According to the Finnish Poultry Association, there are more than 2,500 different known types of salmonella.

Darkening but warm nights

The end of August is turning out to be warmer than usual in both central and southern Europe — including in Finland, where forecasters say warm days are expected to continue into the early part of September.

Temperatures in Finland are higher than usual for this time of year, Helsingin Sanomat reports, noting that Thursday and Friday will be balmy.

Things will, however, turn soggy this weekend as forecasters anticipate showers.

[battleangel]

Hospital Hellhole

Where are the open windows in hospitals?

Hospitals are exactly like corporate cubicle farms, where you see the windows in your office, but theyre never open.

So, no fresh air ever gets in.

Stuffy, recirculated air with zero outside fresh air + constant either central indoor heating or air conditioning + a bunch of sick ass people stuffed into one building isnt exactly a recipe for holistic health.

Nor is it meant to be.

Its actually a veritable hotbed for communicable diseases, viruses, infections, germs and bacteria to develop, spread and grow.

Idgaf about how "well the hospital is ventilated" -- you need fresh air, jackass!

Good luck ever getting it at a hospital.

They'll just parade you around bare ass in a drab ass drag ass light blue gown that doesnt even close all the way in the back yet have the nerve to talk about how "functional" it is.

They'll parade your literal bare ass through the hospital hallways so you can "walk around" -- but nevah outside.

Yeah okay.

There are windows, why cant I open them?

Because you cant.

The air inside a hospital is endlessly recirculated, stuffy as hell and filled to the brim with germs, bacteria, viruses and pathogens given that a hospital is, y'know, a building full of sick ass people.

Who in the hell thinks this is a good idea?

Exactly noone as hospitals are designed to mentally break you, dehumanize you and give you a different illness then the one you checked in with or make whatever your current issue is worse.

Being in a building with no outside fresh air and no open windows full of sick, dying, dead, incapacitated, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, sneezing, wheezing, bleeding people isnt supposed to make anyone else sicker?

Yeah okay.

You need fresh air even in the best of circumstances forget about when youre sick.

You need to be in nature as it literally heals us, even their studies confirm that.

You need fresh, unrecirculated air from outside.

You need the sky, the sun, the grass and the trees.

But what do you get?

A dark, drab, sterile, lonely room with a large ass loud ass TV in it, a phone, a bed that you will be stuck in for most of your stay, a bathroom and a window you cant open.

Sounds exactly like prison.

Being stationary -- unless you are a literal invalid or completely physically incapacitated -- is awful for you.

They know this.

They know that being stationary in bed can cause DVT (deep vein thrombosis), blood clots, embolisms, poor blood circulation and bloodflow, swelling, edemas, muscle atrophy, weight gain, bed sores.

Not to mention depression, lack of mental sharpness and acuity, lethargy, anxiety, fatigue, listlessness, hopelessness, dread...

Its almost like its by design, isnt it?

Hospitals should be near parks or be built inside of parks.

All patients that are literally physically capable of going outside for fresh air and natural sunlight should do so, or if possible, should be taken outside in wheelchairs.

Blinding white bright ass unnatural fluorescent lighting has repeatedly been proven to deplete our melatonin levels, disrupt our natural circadian rhythyms, disrupt our sleep, cause insomnia and other sleep disorders -- so why is the lighting in hospitals so fucking bright???

Why do you think?

They dont want you well.

If you happen to get better after being hospitalized, its an unintended side effect.

The goal is to find -- or make up -- other things that are wrong with you so they can feed you further into the many tentacled medical industrial complex.

More diagnoses, more pills, more injections, more shots, more IVs, more surgeries, more specialists, more tests, more false positive results.

Just the way they intend it.

If youve ever visited someone in the hospital or ever been hospitalized yourself, youve probably experienced a general feeling of feeling run down, fatigued, sore, tired, like you were coming down with a cold, feeling out of sorts and out of it if you were inside a hospital for a few hours or more (days, weeks or even months).

Thats by design.

Patients should be outside every day, breathing fresh air, getting natural sunlight, touching fresh grass, hugging and sitting by trees, looking up at the clear blue sky, soaking up the sun, picking flowers and soaking up natures natural healing properties.

Nope, you get to walk up and down a ridiculously overilluminated bright ass fluorescent hallway with drab muted colors surrounding you, machines beeping, nurses having bored conversations at lunch, doctors being self-important and your bare ass cheeks on full display in your gown that doesnt "quite fully close all the way in the back."

You should be letting butterflies land on your hand, picking sunflowers, laying against trees, walking barefoot in grass, staring up at the sun and soaking up the individual rays, taking deep breaths of the fresh air all around you, looking at the clear blue sky, observing some of the cloud formations, lying on your back on the grass and staring up at the big blue sky supervised by hospital staff for about an hour a day.

That should be happening every day in every hospital.

It could be done in shifts.

Even a small park or garden even on hospital grounds or property would suffice.

In your everyday life, dont you walk outside once a day?

Even just to check the mail? Run errands? Pick up groceries? Go to work? Get takeout? Go shopping? Go to work? Meet up with friends and family? Go out to eat? See a movie? Take a walk? Go jogging?

Why is this simple freedom denied to you in a hospital?

When you need nature the most, they wont even open a window for you.

Antiseptic sterility, vomiting bleeding dying patients, coughing sneezing wheezing patients, patients with viruses, bacterial infections, open wounds, bodily fluids and emissions, mucus, phlegm, stitches, sutures, transfusions, transplants.

How would you NOT need fresh air even after one day in a hospital?

Why is hospital food so comically bad?

Youre literally back to the slop you were being force fed in elementary school but as an adult.

Since youre sick, shouldnt there be an interest in providing you with nourishing, holistic, healthy, fresh organic foods that will help heal you and aid in your recovery?

If youve ever been hospitalized, it took you back to your school days with rubbery chicken, mystery lunch meat, dry bread, nothing is seasoned, everything is out of a box, warmed over and bland as hell.

Why?

It doesnt have to be expensive!

Fresh spinach for salad is cheap, quinoa is cheap, tofu is inexpensive, steel cut oats are inexpensive, chickpeas are cheap, hummus is inexpensive, lentil beans are cheap, kale is inexpensive, kidney and black beans are cheap - these are all chock full of protein, cheap, healthy, good for you and can be prepared with fresh or cookied veggies, rice, noodles.

It doesnt have to be like this.

They want you sick and defeated.

Hospitals are literal hellholes.

Its not you.

Youre right to think they are creepy depressing prisons and incubators for all kinds of diseases and infections.

Because they are. By design.

[partisan-by-default]

When Putin wanted the Central African Republic (CAR) to give him multiple gold and mineral mines in that resource-rich country, the first thing his agent, Yevgeny Prigozhin, did was to buy a radio station and start running propaganda about the benefits of the CAR creating closer ties to Russia.

Similarly, when Putin wanted to put Trump into the White House, he had Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency — a massive, well-funded troll farm based in St. Petersburg — use swing-state polling and other internal RNC confidential information to send more than 100 million targeted Facebook impressions to swing state Americans.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager in 2016 and a former employee who took over $10 million from one of Putin’s favorite oligarchs, handed that data off to Russian intelligence, leading in part to his going to prison (Trump pardoned him and is now talking about bringing him back into the 2024 campaign). Twenty-six of Putin’s IRA people were similarly indicted by the Mueller investigation, although American law has not been able to reach them in Russia.

Another example is Russia’s Putin and Hungary’s Orbán: in both cases, they used — just as Trump is promising to do here if he is reelected — libel laws to drive “normal” and progressive radio, newspapers, and TV out of business and replaced them with the equivalent of Fox “News” owned by friendly oligarchs, proclaiming the wonders of Putin and Orbán all day, every day.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"ESCAPED PRISONER TAKEN IN ROCHESTER," Toronto Globe. September 10, 1913. Page 8. ---- Albert Smith's Two Years of Freedom at an End --- HE MAY BE DEPORTED ---- Man Arrested Across the Line Found to be Wanted Here for Escaping From Guelph Prison Farm in 1911. ---- Word has been received by the police here of the arrest in Rochester, New York, of Albert Smith, alias Albert Clarke, who is said to be wanted for escaping from the Central Prison Farm at Guelph on September 2, 1911. Chief Constable Grasett asked the authorities at Rochester that the man be deported, as it is not possible to extradite him on a charge of breaking prison. An order for deportation is expected to be received at Rochester from Washington in a few days.

The sentence that Smith was serving before he escaped was for a short term. He had been sentenced along with "Red" Mulhall of Toronto, who escaped at the same time as he. Mulhall was recaptured a short time later in Toronto.

Smith was arrested on August 29 by two Rochester detectives on charge of vagrancy. He was living in a lodging-house in Court street with Frank and Stella Wilson, who were also taken into custody by the police. After investigating, the Captain of the Rochester detectives learned that Smith was wanted here for breaking from custody.

Awaiting Deportation Order. The case was turned over to Immigration Inspector Martin of Rochester, who at once communicated with the Department of Labor at Washington. Because of the fact that Smith has no money to test the Immigration laws, it is expected that soon he will be received back by the Central Prison.

Dr. J. T. Gilmour, Warden of the Central Prison, when spoken to by The Globe last night said that he could not remember the occasion of Smith's escape, as it is said to have been two years ago. In that time there have been twenty-live successful escapes from the Prison Farm at Guelph, while upwards of 2,700 prisoners have been handled. Accordingly the escapes have been less than one per cent. of the total number of prisoners handled.

[aurianneor]

Immigration

The images are frightening. We see caravans of migrants crossing Central America on their way to the United States. We see boats filled to the brim off the coast of Florida or in the Mediterranean. In border towns, we see hordes of young men on the streets, destitute, jumping the barriers of detention centres, living in squats, sometimes addicted to drugs.

European countries and the United States claim to be so overwhelmed that they delegate their borders to Mexico, Turkey and the countries of North Africa. They pay them to process asylum applications before the migrants have set foot in the destination country. The detention centres are inhumane and the migrants jump the barriers to get to their destination. The barrier is very easy to jump. Migrants enter countries illegally because it is inhumane to ask to enter legally. So they don’t assert their rights.

Faced with these terrifying images, we hear the Right telling us that these illegals must be punished more severely, and we hear the Left telling us that there are no problems with migrants. These migrants work for a tenth of the price and cannot assert their rights before a judge. The people most affected by migration are the rural and poor. The result of this situation of irregularity is to create an extremely cheap labour force that cannot compete with European or American labour. It is legitimate to feel helpless when faced with these migrants. The fields in the United States and Europe are full of illegal workers and the fields are not controlled. The current policy simply creates more scope for employers. The people living in rural areas are concerned, and only the right wing is addressing them.

In the short term, many migrants are arriving at the borders of the West and there is no reason why their treatment should not be organised in humane conditions. Those who wish to assert their right to asylum do not deserve prison.

In the long term, the European and North American powers have largely contributed to making the countries of the South unliveable. We must stop actively destroying these countries. Multinationals must be held criminally responsible when they commit an act in these countries that would be a crime in the West. They must be tried in the West for pollution, subversion, corruption, forced labour, child labour, etc. On the other hand, the West can and must support democratic regimes when they emerge in these countries. African revolutionaries have all been killed. This has to stop.

It is only under these conditions that development aid can be effective. If we give development aid when these conditions are not met, it feeds corruption. Only effective development aid will create decent living opportunities in these countries and reduce the number of migrants.

Taking stronger action on climate change is also important to ensure that these countries do not become hellholes.

If these countries end up receiving a fair income from their resources and labour, they will become long-term customers and trading partners and will be able to deal with the sanitary problems that threaten us all.

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

Peru, biodiversity in danger: https://www.aurianneor.org/peru-biodiversity-in-danger/

“How can you frighten a man whose hunger”…: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-you-frighten-a-man-whose-hunger-is-not/

Fair trade and organic farming: https://www.aurianneor.org/fair-trade-and-organic-farming/

How can we win back trust?: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-we-win-back-trust/

Humiliated by the Republic: https://www.aurianneor.org/humiliated-by-the-republic/

“Calais ou pas caler”: https://www.aurianneor.org/calais-ou-pas-caler/

Solidarité Hélvétique: https://www.aurianneor.org/solidarite-helvetique-democratie-semi-directe/

License on the Red Planet – A science fiction story: https://www.aurianneor.org/license-on-the-red-planet-a-science-fiction/

[fyeahwebnovels]

COMPLETED

Webnovels on this list are officially finished (the author has confirmed the story is wrapped up and there are no plans to continue).

Anathema by chrysalis (superhero, sci-fi)

Two years ago, The Pulse—a sudden shift in Earth’s electromagnetic field—caused a global blackout and wiped a minute from mankind’s collective memory. This event introduced superhuman powers to our world. But the worst was yet to come. Now two teenagers are caught in the chaos of a changing world: Christina Chung, an antisocial misfit whose force fields are fueled by the social bonds she broke during the event of her transition. Former coke addict Sarina Baumann, whose reality-altering power forces her to abandon everything she holds dear. The two girls find themselves entangled with the renegade hero Radiant and the authorities that made him. The three must find a way—and a place—to be the heroes they’re destined to become. But sometimes, even the heroes fall…

Caelum Lex by khronos (space opera, sci-fi)

It’s a trying time in the central clusters of the galaxy. A shadow organization of powerful figures are tightening their grip to seize control, free planets are struggling to maintain their independence, and Leta Adler somehow ended up on a pirate ship. This is Caelum Lex, a sci-fi space opera following the crew of the Dionysian (the irony of the name is not lost on any of them) and its mission to stay afloat in a Span ever more trying to shoot it down. Join Leta, a not-so-sheltered-anymore doctor with a mission of her own, the captain she can’t stop butting heads with, his engineering genius of a brother, and the whole crew as they traverse the trials and tribulations of the universe, the mysterious Society, and each other.

Domina Urbana by DeathIsSilver (supernatural, urban fantasy)

Domina City. “The City of the Lady.” Built on a trash island in the West Atlantic by the labor of white-collar criminals, paid for by the United States and the Vatican, Domina was meant to be a beacon of hope and prosperity. A test, proving that criminals could be put to a better use than clogging up prisons. Thirty years after building started, Domina is a blight on the face of the world, soaked in the blood of millions. Death is a fact of daily life. Gangs rule by no other than law their own strength, and entire cultures have arisen built on legends. Angels, demons, vampires and more fight each other for money and control. The fey release their monsters on the streets for no reason other than their own amusement, and bystanders are always caught in the crossfire. Every living soul in the city is a killer. But even so, life goes on. People go to work, fall in love, raise families. The city grinds away, and the people survive. Into this maelstrom of chaos comes Adam Anders, a young man trying to go to college with his friend. He has no idea what he has just stepped into. But then, Domina is in for a few surprises as well…

The Dream Quest of Henry Sinclair by Tony Maravilla

The year is 199W and Henry Sinclair is a young magic practitioner on the cusp of entering high school. Before he goes, he must undergo a quest, a coming of age journey to be seen in the eyes of his witch clan. He will journey into the Dreamlands, a world less real than his own, where he will meet fictional characters come to life, Dream Lords, djinni, dinosaurs, and his own dark reflection. Will he make it back home unscathed?

Familiar Thing by Den Page (romance, urban fantasy, queer)

Quentin thought that that thing where you write on skin and recite a litany was just a weird thing nobody but him and his abusive ex liked. Now it turns out that there’s a whole community, and that he can channel power for actual magic. He manages to find Henry, a magic partner that shares his interest in nonsexual magic - but of course then Quentin starts falling for him…

The Five Dollar Mail by Regina F. Shelley (historical romance, adventure)

Five dollars to mail a letter seems like a lot of money to shy farm girl Lily McMillian. And when she's hired in the spring of 1860 by Old Man Lynch as a cook for his stagecoach and Pony Express station, she finds out why it's so expensive. Dropped into a whirlwind of rowdy men and boys, fast horses, and frightening conflict, she inherits more than a busy kitchen and a pile of dirty laundry. She gains an unlikely band of brothers, a motley collection of rounders, miscreants, and troublemakers, all of whom are in sore need of someone to keep them in line.

The Last Skull by The Great Hippo (superhero)

The Last Skull is a teenage superheroine fantasy mixed with what I hope is a realistic (but still comic-rooted) touch. I started writing it out of a mixture of love for the genre, a desire to see a muscular, wolverine-esque teenage girl beating the snot out of costumed supervillains, and a burning need to write something, anything before I went mad.

Magicacademy by MusedMoose (fantasy, slice of life)

Arts Magika University: sorcery classes, elven professors, dwarven fraternities, interspecies dating, and magikal duels. It's odd, it's mildly bizarre, and it's a wonder the students get any studying done. It's college the way it should have been.

Pact by Wildbow (supernatural, drama)

Blake Thorburn was driven away from home and family by a vicious fight over inheritance, returning only for a deathbed visit with the grandmother who set it in motion. Blake soon finds himself next in line to inherit the property, a trove of dark supernatural knowledge, and the many enemies his grandmother left behind her in the small town of Jacob’s Bell.

A Practical Guide to Evil by erraticerrata (YA, fantasy, dramedy)

The Empire stands triumphant. For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland, denied the power they crave, weave their plots behind pleasant smiles. In the north the Forever King eyes the ever-expanding borders of the Empire and ponders war. The greatest danger lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer has finally claimed her throne: her people sundered, she wonders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife. Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan.

Symbiote by farmerbob1 (sci fi, speculative)

It’s something of an exploration into human/machine singularity or transhumanism. I explore my own ideas about how a moderately-educated individual would react to sharing a body and headspace with an advanced AI, and how they might grow together.

A Traveling Mage's Almanac by Loaka of the Wind (fantasy, adventure, furry)

Yenna Bookbinder loves learning magic. As a teacher of the Arcane, she has helped countless students to become mages—yet the world outside her classroom beckons to her. When a band of adventurers comes through town as part of a grand expedition to parts unknown, she finds herself offered a position on the crew as the party’s mage. Leaving behind her old life for exciting days on the road, Yenna travels with new allies to uncover all manner of magical mysteries. Between uneasy alliances, ancient dark magic and a plot that threatens to swallow the expedition whole, Yenna Bookbinder’s discoveries may shape the future of magic irrevocably—but will she live to see her findings published?

Twig by Wildbow (historical, fantasy, speculative)

The year is 1921, and a little over a century has passed since a great mind unraveled the underpinnings of life itself.  Every week, it seems, the papers announce great advances, solving the riddle of immortality, successfully reviving the dead, the cloning of living beings, or blending of two animals into one.  For those on the ground, every week brings new mutterings of work taken by ‘stitched’ men of patchwork flesh that do not need to sleep, or more fearful glances as they have to step off the sidewalks to make room for great laboratory-grown beasts.  Often felt but rarely voiced is the notion that events are already spiraling out of the control of the academies that teach these things. It is only this generation, they say, that the youth and children are able to take the mad changes in stride, accepting it all as a part of day to day life.  Of those children, a small group of strange youths from the Lambsbridge Orphanage stand out, taking a more direct hand in events.

Twisted Cogs by Malcom Hemmings (superhero, historical, fantasy)

It is the turn of the 16th Century, and the world has entered a golden age of art, invention, and architecture. This renaissance of literature and learning in Europa is suddenly thrown into overdrive when a chosen few “Stormtouched” begin displaying supernatural abilities. Torn between the age’s burgeoning love of science and the dark promises of magic, Europa has become a powder-keg of clockwork and sorcery. Elena Lucciano doesn’t care about increasing mankind’s knowledge or exploring the mysterious workings of magic. Even though she herself is Stormtouched, Elena doesn’t have high ambitions. All she wants is for her mother to be proud of her, for her teacher to accept her, and to become one of the best artists in all of Italoza, content to ignore all thoughts of science and magic. Unfortunately for Elena, the tides of invention and magic are sometimes not content to ignore those who ignore them…

An Unauthorized Fan Treatise by Lauren James (mystery, crime)

Gottie is a fangirl for Loch & Ness, a TV show about paranormal detectives. She’s convinced that two of the male actors are secretly dating, and she’ll stop at nothing to prove it. When her online investigations accidentally uncover far more than she expects, she becomes complicit in secrets beyond just a romantic conspiracy theory. An internet thriller told in a ‘true crime’ style recollection of events, the novel includes social media extracts such as modern Tumblr posts and early-noughties LiveJournal blog entries.

World Domination in Retrospect by Psycho Gecko (superhero, dark comedy)

Tell me something… do you root for the bad guy? Is an evil laugh a work of art for you? Do masks count as casual wear? Do you enjoy beating PETA members to death with baby cows? Do you have trouble fitting both testicles in your thong? Do you sometimes find yourself using the phrase “quake in buttery fear”? If you answered yes to any of those, this might be the place for you. Except for the thong thing which could be dangerous if people start writing Dr. Seuss erotica. This is still the place for you, but I can provide little relief for you from this dimension. Yeah, another dimension. Lucky you. A dimension of sight. A dimension of sound. A dimension of smells. Bad smells. Freaky smells. Anal smells. Smells you don’t have to sniff because you’re not here, man! Luckily for you, I, the Great and Devious Psycho Gecko, have acquired a device allowing me to share my adopted dimension with you. Let my eyes be your eyes. My ears be your ears. My fists be your fists. My sphincter be your sphincter. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your rears! Now sit them right down in that chair every Wednesday and Sunday and enjoy a trip through life with an unrepentant, murderous supervillain. You were expecting a heroic figure forced down a dark path, fighting to be a good man despite society forcing him into evil acts? Well cut that shit out right now. Tie up your kiddies in the other room and hold on to your sphincters. It’s time for World Domination in Retrospect!

Worm by Wildbow (superhero, drama)

An introverted teenage girl with an unconventional superpower, Taylor goes out in costume to find escape from a deeply unhappy and frustrated civilian life. Her first attempt at taking down a supervillain sees her mistaken for one, thrusting her into the midst of the local ‘cape’ scene’s politics, unwritten rules, and ambiguous morals. As she risks life and limb, Taylor faces the dilemma of having to do the wrong things for the right reasons.

[mariacallous]

By Lucian Kim, a global fellow with the Wilson Center in Washington and NPR’s former Moscow bureau chief.

When I saw the first images of armed men in ragtag uniforms taking over the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday morning, I was immediately reminded of the “little green men” who began showing up in cities in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014. Like the Russian troops and soldiers-of-fortune who began the Kremlin’s covert invasion of Ukraine, the fighters in Rostov displayed no insignia as they seized key buildings, including the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District. Just as in Ukraine nine years ago, there was no resistance from local law enforcement officers, who chose life over a fight with determined gunmen.

This weekend’s lightning takeover of Rostov by the Wagner mercenary group was the first step in an armed mutiny led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the ex-con who rose to become Russia’s most infamous battlefield commander. From there, the Wagner forces began a march on Moscow until Prigozhin abruptly ordered his men to turn around and return to their bases. In the space of 24 hours, the full madness of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship was on display. The blowback of his attack on Ukraine was symbolized by a Wagner tank, marked with the letter “Z,” which stands for the Kremlin’s war effort, pointing not at Ukrainians but other Russians.

Prigozhin said his beef was with the military leadership, which he accused of trying to destroy the Wagner Group. He has a history of publicly insulting Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, and getting away with it. But Prigozhin’s open show of arms on Russian soil sent a challenge to the Kremlin that Putin could no longer ignore. In a televised address, the Russian president called Wagner’s mutiny a “stab in the back” and warned of civil war. Putin even invoked the violent collapse of the Russian Empire in World War I, though he did not mention Tsar Nicholas II, the disgraced ruler murdered by Russian revolutionaries.

There is another similarity to World War I that Putin did not mention: corruption and incompetence in the Russian military, as well as the inhumane treatment of its own soldiers. Anger with Russia’s top brass has not been limited to Wagner, and Prigozhin’s rage may well extend to the ranks of the Russian military. At the very least, that Prigozhin’s army was able to travel hundreds of miles unhindered shows that the Kremlin lacks the wherewithal to put down a domestic rebellion, especially when its best troops are fighting in Ukraine.

Despite the drama of the situation, a mutiny by Russia’s scariest people should not come as a surprise. The Kremlin allowed Prigozhin to recruit in prisons, which filled Wagner’s fighting force with desperate convicts. Prigozhin has long been the Kremlin’s man for dirty deeds, from interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with his so-called troll farm to fighting undercover in Ukraine, Syria, and the Central African Republic. The Kremlin could deny any connection to Prigozhin, and Prigozhin, of course, denied hiring trolls and warriors. When an unknown number of Wagner contractors in Syria were killed by U.S. forces in 2018, the Kremlin response was muted, since officially they were not members of Russia’s armed forces.

It’s likely that Putin originally imagined Wagner as a Russian version of Blackwater, the U.S. private military contractor that came to prominence in the Iraq War. Wagner mercenaries in Syria and Africa played the part, wearing baseball caps and wraparound sunglasses while toting serious guns. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Prigozhin stepped out of the shadows to claim ownership of Wagner—and credit for its costly victories. A sledgehammer became the unofficial symbol of the Wagner Group after Prigozhin said one of his fighters had been executed with the tool as punishment for switching to the Ukrainian side.

For Putin, the Wagner mutiny is a self-inflicted wound, the result of his suicidal war against Ukraine. Putin could have chosen to stay on the track of a middle-income economy, with oil and gas exports to Europe guaranteeing enough money to sate his cronies, repress his enemies, and keep the rest of the country quiet, if not happy. Yet the longer he stayed in power, the less interested Putin became in being remembered simply as the leader who stabilized Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. That was not enough. Putin wanted the legacy of restoring an empire, beginning with Ukraine.

At first, the mission of the “little green men” he sent into eastern Ukraine was to turn the country into a failed state by embroiling it in a perpetual, low-level war. But Ukrainians defied Russia, and even after the 2022 invasion, they rallied to their country’s defense and did not let it collapse. Though battered and bloodied, Ukraine is unified and clear about its purpose. Now Russia looks like the failed state. Nobody in Russia understands what the war in Ukraine is about. And after Prigozhin’s rebellion, nobody knows if that war might not still come to Russia. Who will defend Putin? And who will go for Prigozhin?

Under an agreement brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, charges against Prigozhin will be dropped, and he will be allowed safe passage to Belarus. But the deal hardly eliminates the threat that Prigozhin—or someone like him—poses to the Kremlin in the future. It is unclear if we are witnessing the beginning, middle, or end of Putin’s end. What is certain is that it is the final chapter of his rule.

[protoslacker]

There’s an anecdote that Ruth Wilson Gilmore likes to share about being at an environmental-justice conference in Fresno in 2003. People from all over California’s Central Valley had gathered to talk about the serious environmental hazards their communities faced, mostly as a result of decades of industrial farming, conditions that still have not changed. (The air quality in the Central Valley is the worst in the nation, and one million of its residents drink tap water more poisoned than the water in Flint, Mich.) There was a “youth track” at the conference, in which children were meant to talk about their worries and then decide as a group what was most important to be done in the name of environmental justice.

Kuchner, Rachel (2019) Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore might change your mind. New York Times 17 April 2019. (9 pages) Non-NYT/reposted verison here.  

I used the non-NYT/reposted version via Introduction to Abolition: 2018-2021 reading list. There is an updated page for 2022 too. Either way Abolitionist Futures offers so much to discover. 

The quote sets up the anecdote, but it’s so worth it to click through to read  if you haven’t read or heard it before. The story is one I think of when am feeling jaded.