#classes journalists into different “species’

[betterbemeta]

As it is right now, machine learning image generation is classist. It depends strongly on the human audience's eye for pareidolia to smooth over its inconsistencies and find patterns in its noise where its procedural generation falls short.

This means that the less opportunity a person has to gain context for information, the more likely 'AI art' is to be convincing. As long as that person has been given a baseline to 'believe' the general arrangement of elements, AI art will 'make sense' even if that baseline is just exposure to more acontextual imagery. Which is what the machine learning's algorithms were trained on in the first place.

For example, 'AI' right now struggles to coherently depict plants. When it's not blurry, indistinct plant fur, leaves from different kinds of plants appear on the same stem, plants from the wrong biome are included in 'nature' images. Someone who has very little educational opportunity, but has seen movies where people walk through jungles or forests as set pieces or something, might not notice the difference. And why do you 'need' to know if the plants look right, poor person; you'll never leave your immediate area or take a biology class!

Someone without the opportunity or comfort to travel might not recognize that a cityscape has been artificially generated, depicts no actual real-world city. Is that supposed picture of Dubai or New York City or Cairo showing a real place that exists? Who cares, you're too poor to ever go there.

Searching for information about animal species, even, can get messed up by generated 'content.' Do servals have ear tufts? What kind of insect is that? What species of lizard or snake am I looking at? You don't deserve to know what kinds of animals are real. What time do you have to go to a zoo, if there's even one around you?

The less money you have, the more likely you are to be surrounded by advertising and "AI Art" is ideal for advertising because it only tells a very simple story at best. There's no complicated human emotions; its literally made of averages of what has been seen before. Marketing and advertising content often replaces actual art that might be a window into a greater world. It may even just be dropped in there to fill the awkward silence or blankness that would have otherwise surrounded marketing efforts-- commercials would be surreal without some say-nothing 'music' track behind them, and billboards would be creepy without the graphic noise that surrounds the product and its information. Someone who passes through more monetized public spaces per day will see more of it than someone who inhabits private property.

And like, at the end of the day if you are wealthy... you probably don't care about any of this. You have access to whatever you want, so why do you care what's real? You trust you can 'pay for' the real thing, right?

Plus, who knows the economic status of who generated imagery the machine learning algorithms train on? It's all stolen.

Photography has been critical in modern history for bringing 'the world' across social divisions of class, race, geographical divides. Photographers and filmmakers, along with other visual artists as well as musicians, writers, and journalists associated with all of these disciplines give us lenses, framing, voices, and perspectives to understand our greater world no matter where we are. Hell, identifying the human intentions BEHIND those lenses, framings, voices is key to our development. No matter your circumstances, with a strong grasp of media literacy anyone can sit down and say, wait a minute, is this real, would it be true for me too? Or is this someone's point of view?

To the point of view of wealth and capital, the working class and those without wealth who cannot work (disabled people, displaced people, homeless people shut out of employment, and more) do not deserve to know about reality. To that point of view, nonwealthy people don't deserve to even know who created the perspectives they're allowed to see. You can be born, get trained to work, go to work, come home to the minimum, repeat, and die having seen no images of reality for all they care. They'd like that! How can you dream of something outside the current exploitative structure if you can't even trust you know what plants and animals and cities look like, outside your tiny box?

[moonpains]

Name: August Choi Occupation: Journalist for an online horror webzine Age: 29 Sexuality: Lesbian Species: Born werewolf Pack?: Eventide Hometown: Seoul, South Korea Relationship Status: Single Personality Traits: Stoic, Studious, Self Loathing, Fearful, Caring, Soft, Tired

Biography:

Born in the Autumn of ninety-five a baby is welcomed to the Choi family, a baby girl. A new generation for their pack, a child they could mold and train to be the successor of a long line. All they had to do was ensure they worked hard enough to ensure Sung-mi would come out victorious as the next Alpha, despite not being a male. She grows healthy and strong. Determined and dedicated. Always ready to follow her father’s instructions. To stay up late and work tirelessly to be the best in her classes. She will be alpha, she will make her parents proud. Except as she starts getting older, certain things feel wrong. About her and where her eyes stray.

By the age of thirteen, Sung-mi realizes that she doesn’t always feel like she fits. It’s still answered and accepted, but she doesn’t feel the best when she hears it, being called ‘she and her’ being referred to as a girl. Secondly, she starts realizing just how pretty the girls in her class are, how pretty the girls in the pack are. One in particular. She doesn’t know when she starts crushing on Ji-na, her best friend and packmate. The slightly older girl marvels her. She’s sweet and courageous, and the most beautiful girl she thinks she has ever seen. She keeps it to herself, her parents have ideas of who she’ll be with after all.

An aggressive boy, someone all the other girls seem to want. She finds him appalling, but she obeys their wishes. And so it goes, she dates Min-ho like her parents want, and keeps her feelings of who she feels she is to herself.

When she is sixteen something happens, a spark of joy, they’re tracking through the woods, getting ready for a festival, when Ji-na kisses her. It’s like the world hits pause, it feels right, it feels like home. Her lips are softer than Min-ho’s could ever hope to be. After that evening they decide to start a relationship in private and she exposes all of her secrets to her. Ji-na is the first to call her ‘them’ and it’s just as exciting almost as much as her calling them her prince upon their next meeting. No one seems the wiser, and the connection pushes them to try harder in their training. They will win and when they do there will be a change. Their secret stops being a secret though and Min-ho isn’t pleased.

A coup is planned by the angered boy, something he works on obsessively. They are twenty-one. Have been with Ji-na for five years, and they are happy and in love. Whispered promises that they won’t always have to hide. Promises she won’t have to see them with Min-ho for the rest of their lives. Everything is comfortable. No one seems to know yet. They steal kisses under the moonlight before shifts or on hot summer days, lying in fields and enjoying the sun. But then it all comes crashing down. Min-ho has been waiting on the sidelines, letting them settle. Putting a plan into motion that won’t rouse suspicion. With the help of a witch and a hefty amount of money, Min-ho has no problem slipping the potion into their food the night of the full moon before the trials for succession is set to begin.

They don’t feel too off, but there is a nagging in their chest that night as they slip off with their girlfriend, it’s not uncommon to the rest of the pack. After all, they are best friends and Sung-mi’s parents are glad they are connecting with the others. They assume it’s the moon causing the tightness. The shift feels different though, like they’re struggling for air and consciousness, that’s all they remember.

Morning light stings their eyes, something warm and wet on their skin as they blink into existence. They call out for Ji-na in a foggy haze with no answer. Peeling their body from the forest floor with a groan at aching muscles. Blood, there is blood and gore everywhere and a slow heartbeat in the distance. They look in that direction and there she is, Ji-na grasping onto life, a mess of blood, fur, and gore surrounding them both. They jump into action, rushing her home, she can’t speak, her healing slow but she flinches and looks terrified when they are near. They taste blood in their mouth and they know it was them. When she can talk again it’s only confirmed. The scratches and bites that litter her body are their doing. They feel like dying.

It’s a week while the council meets, while they are locked in their room. Pacing, frightened, for her. Fall in line, take your games, and throw them away. You are to be alpha, to marry Min-ho. You’re not a child, it’s time to grow up. It’s their parents’ condition, they can stay, but they must give up everything. Be obedient. Be what’s expected. It’s a mercy they don’t feel they deserve. Saved by lineage alone. So they pack and they leave, life a dull muted semblance of what it once was. A self-imposed exile. They travel a bit, taking to the country and avoiding cities, but it seems their name and history precede them and soon they find themself leaving Korea entirely.

They try to make it through Europe, strengthen their English skills, and avoid other packs. They’re a lone wolf now, a vagrant. Often getting drunk. Getting into fights. They feel like a monster, so they act like one. It isn’t until one night, sitting in a dingy hostel, bloodied towel to a busted nose that they realize they need to get out. They aren’t far enough. They need to disappear completely.

America, it sounds so promising. They can truly start fresh, and be who they want to be. The ticket is easy enough, the visa comes harder but they manage it. They arrive in San Francisco and change their name. It’s like nothing they’ve seen before, it doesn’t quite feel like home but it will do. They establish themself in a studio apartment and start writing, the webzine builds a steady buzz. They write about what they know, the monsters that plague the night. Sleeping is still hard and they aren’t exactly stable, but California isn’t bad.

They’re just on the cusp of twenty-nine when they move again. Rumors of a haven for the supernatural drawing them in, it would be perfect for writing material. Once they make it to Port Leiry they find themself building a bond easily with a slightly younger wolf, Arte Ryan, they still don’t feel like they deserve companionship but Arte feels different. They resist the packs, that is until the redhead starts to build a better pack. With an exaggerated sigh, they step in and act as an advisor of sorts.

[mayor-mclikeme-please]

To Be Hateful

By E.C. Bond

Sammy Mudd

4/24/2115

Mrs. Shibboyan

8th Grade Social Studies

My Hero rough draft

By Sammy Mudd

Mark Twain once wrote “You behold before you a man whose life-conflict is done, whose soul is at peace; a man whose heart is dead to sorrow, dead to suffering.” (Twain June 1876) I believe there is no better description for the subject of My Hero essay, noted Humanist Lawyer Marcus Becket. Marcus Becket is a very misunderstood figure. People went from hailing his objections to intermarriage to denouncing him wholesale. Upon his death, he was called by several journalists and television komoisophers, “The most hated man on two worlds”. I think this view is too simple of a view. No person is ever entirely black or white. Jesus killed a fig tree. Hitler loved his dogs. Fred Rogers had a temper. If all of them can survive complexity then so too should Marcus Becket. The aim of this paper will be to show Marcus Becket to be more complicated. I will show this by going into his life story, his relationship with the Dieithryn, and the arguments against Xeno-human marriage.

I think the life of a person can tell you a lot about them. Marcus Becket is no different. You will see in this paragraph how much more complex Marcus Becket was. People simplify him as a racist hick from nowhere, but in truth, he was from a cosmopolitan background. He was born in Topeka, Kansas on November 13th 2029. The second of five children, Becket’s family were transplants from Los Angeles who had signed on to the Infrastructure Administration as what were then called, “Human Resources”. My mom said that after the Cardiff Crash, business started rewording departments and positions to be more inclusive. So, “Human Resources” was changed to what we now call “Labor Attitude Realignment Specialists”. The Becket parents were part of an effort to introduce broadband internet into more rural regions. Thousands of workers, like the Beckets, had to relocate in government built facilities. This massive influx of people from the old metropoli of Los Angeles and New York among a few others, to the underpopulated territories had the domino effect of making Topeka the “Silicon Mecca of the Middle West”.

Becket said that his parents often felt displaced within this new migrant community. A community of professionals, literal tons of white collar types, that had once lived in their own alternate universes within the private boundaries of their own cozy suburbs, only now made to reckon with suddenly being piled on top of one another within a single complex. Marcus Becket’s view differed from the dissatisfaction felt by the building block’s elders. To him this way of living in sync with other people installed a sense of shared humanity . He writes in his autobiography I am The Captain of my Hardship “Friends, neighbors, and schoolmates were happily inescapable, although, my awareness of being happy didn’t become clear until my parents began working for a private firm. Meaning after we had a house of our very lonesome, did I come to know what community truly meant”.

There were other ways though that Becket regarded his own parents as a positive influence on his world view. Because their job required them to be obliging and helpful to people (so long as it did not inconvenience their job-gifters), it made him want to become an advocate for anyone who felt abused. Becket’s freshman year of high school records nothing less than 12 instances of talking back to teachers and being beaten up for standing up to bullies. It was during his time at Charles Davenport Memorial High that Marcus would meet his future husband and law partner, Fred Waldron, for the first time. They would share a biology class, discussing the immorality of crossbreeding animals for either commerce, research, or pleasure. The root of this shared disgust was that often these hybrids could not further breed amongst themselves or procreate with either parent’s species. For instance, Ligers and Zedonks are doomed to die alone for the idle curiosity of some zoo hand. How is that fair to either the parents or their imperfect baby? Their final biology project would argue as much, foretelling of their future practice. This common passion for reproductive justice, namely its application against Human-Dieithryn mingling, would unfortunately eclipse their primary work toward ending “soft segregation” in schools and promoting LGBTQA+ rights.

It was in May of 2053, Becket’s last year of law school, that the Dieithryn impregnated Cardiff, the capital city of Cymru. My great-aunt Luna told me that when she first heard about the aliens, she, like everyone, assumed it had been a hoax. Even up to a month, she and the family were in blank disbelief of the forthcoming lounge. All the pundits assumed this was the new country’s way of mocking their dissembling parent state, England. They were only to be shocked when their gator visages made international news. Welcomed by the Cymru Senedd as a refugee species from a dead world. They were given the name of Dieithryn as placeholder since their language was closer to morse code. The word Dieithryn is Welsh for stranger. They quickly sought resettlement from the U.N. as the dank climate of Cymru was not to the liking of garden snakes, let alone 5’7 dino-bird people.

In the movie made about the court case Tender V. Puerto Rico, they have the actor playing Marcus Becket relate a feeling of biblical doom from their arrival. This could not be further from the truth as Becket's own autobiography records “So, we aren’t all alone. At last we have met our neighbors. A little gruesome, but they speak as we do. Adequately enough, anyway. Ashamed as I am to say it, perhaps they could tip the scales (ha ha) in helping to liberate all peoples of earth from division”. As Machiavellian the sentiment was, it proved, indeed, prophetic. With a new people to fear, one truly inhuman, the laws changed everywhere. Within the decade, Trans children could seek reassignment, Non-Heterosexuals could donate blood easily, and white kids got on buses without their parents committing legislative race riots.

It was a great time to be a human being, but admittedly tougher to be an alien. For soon people began to fetishize and proposition the Dieithryn. Becket and his husband/partner Waldron saw the problem and fought to protect the refugees. Only the predators called it discrimination then. In Pullman V. Douglas Commonwealth, Becket was called as witness for the state to argue that their laws against the miscegenation of public spaces was an effort to prevent the Dieithryn from comingling with humans, but to ensure their equal treatment as a citizenry within themselves. This was to respect the Dieithryn’s agency as equal to humans, yet quarantine them from potential human abuse and usury. Though the ruling was a success at the time, it began a campaign that would consume much of Becket’s professional life. He was always agitating for legal bans on Xeno-Human marriage to be written into the constitution. He would publish books and articles on his reforms while also trying to cement the legal protection of Dieithryn Americans as fully fledged citizens.

Unfortunately, this would be for not as he died in his home on May 13th of 2114. The most hated man on two worlds, per the media (Despite the Dieithryn home world of Di-gar being dead and uninhabitable for decades at this point). Much maligned in his own time, the one year anniversary of his death inspired my mom and dad to suggest writing this exploration of his ideals. Especially given how they’ve helped to foster a pan-human world view. Before we can process the controversy of his objections to Xeno-Human marriage, I feel we must explore his own relationship with the Dieithryn community at large.

Marcus Becket did not hate Dieithryn. I know this is what people typically assume of him when they see his picture or the recordings of his rallies, but nothing could be further from the truth. As I shall show in this section. Yes, he had some initial shock to their appearance, but that was hardly an uncommon response. Even the old komoisopher king of late night, Stephen Colbert, said “Once you get past the lidless eyes, they’re rather comely. Well, the lidless eyes, and the neck frill. The lidless eyes, the neck frill, and the feathered skin. The lidless eyes, the neck frill- You know what? They’re clever girls.” (Colbert, 2054). Although Colbert did later issue an apology, humans knew no matter how equitable in speech and intellect the Dieithryn were to us, it didn’t detract from the squirming of our bellies.

We accepted their appearance. Normalized it. Welcome those who had wanted to be part of a decent society into our society. Beckett was never opposed to this integration. Becket himself was a job-gifter to any Dieithryn, who was qualified to work in his offices. In 2067, he even went so far as to defend a Dieithryn who was denied the right to vote in his county. From the court case of Burnside/**_*__ Vs. Klickitat county, Becket said “Although my client was not born here, raised here, or until recently, spoke the language that our laws are written in, they are a citizen. They are no different from any immigrant who has sought to take part in our great society. The actions of this county against my client's right are an affront to our history and to the United Nations rule of nationality and statelessness”.

IS this the language of a bigot? IS this the argument you’d expect of a monster? No. This is a man who believes in the equity of citizenship and those in need. So, why is he famously derided as, as he described himself, a humanist? To quote his forward from the 2100 edition of The Principles of the Elders of Di-gar “I am a Humanist because I know what Humanist means. From the Latin Umanista. A lover of humanity and its culture. That’s all it means. There can be no exclusion in the love of anything. We have brought Dieithryn into the fold of our sphere and ask them to obey the rules of the house. Just as the Latins brought those errant Trojans to their shores. How can it be impolite, let alone wrong, to request your guest not seize a Sabine?” (Becket 2100)

Hatred is unnatural to the human condition. Hatred is taught, not borne. I ask that you throw away your mentored dismissals of Markus Becket and listen to what a lover of humanity has to say as we delve into his arguments on inter marriage.

Let us begin with a reaffirmation of Joshua’s teaching to not judge. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Mathew 2115). This is an objective presentation of the arguments made by Marcus Becket. I can only hope this will help to illustrate why I believe him to be a hero. After the first marriages took place between humans and Dieithryn, Beckett felt he had a responsibility to challenge them in court. As we covered before, he became a legal aid for the state of Puerto Rico in Tender V. Puerto Rico. He did not seek to fight on the ground that some had advocated saying the Dieithryn were by nature inferior to human beings. “Since they aren’t native to Earth, they can’t be considered ‘natural’, now can they?” he quipped on a Tomlin Talk interview with Dame Taylor Tomlinson.

The irony of Tender V. Puerto Rico being seen as some great landmark case for civil rights is that Wade Tender later left his Dieithryn partner and became an advocate against Xeno-Human marriage himself. Later investigations showing he was financially encouraged to divorce his spouse by anti-xeno-human marriage groups, does not detract from his credibility. Rather, the fact he took the money at all shows how committed anyone could be to such a union. They left all of that out of the Oscar bait movie I talked about before. Anyway, during the court case, three basic arguments were leveled by Becket against Xeno-Human Marriages.

Although Dieithryn could think and express themselves as easily as any man, they did not think like a man. Meaning that although the effect was the same, the nature of the Dieithryn mind was too different to be on the same emotional level as a human being. Thus making it impossible for Dieithryn to provide consent as Humans understood it.

Dieithryn were of an entirely different species, not native to Earth. Again, while they could communicate and work with Humans, they were not related to humans whatsoever. Humans from a strictly genetic purview had much more in common with the Swine or Apes of Earth, but we do not allow humans to mate with Pigs and Monkeys because that would be Bestiality. So would be any sexual act between a human and a Dieithryn.

Humans could not reproduce with Dieithryn except hypothetically with the genetic resequencing of either party. Humans, by social pressure and mortality, are obsessed with producing offspring of their own (Although Becket issued his tentative support for a human or Dieithryn couple to adopt a child of the other’s species). We should not condone human genetic experimentation. An act that had been illegal already.

Unfortunately for Becket, a majority of the Supreme Court panel threw out these arguments as inadmissible since the case in question was only about the tax benefits that Xeno-Human marriages were being denied. If he were to offer any challenge to the institution based on his concerns about consent, bestiality, and/or genetic engineering, he would need to open his own separate case. No court would ever accept his petition once the case had been settled. By that time, his character had been fully assassinated in the media by his enemies.

As Joshua was before him, Marcus Becket was abandoned by those fair weather allies and left hung out to dry until his early demise at 86. He was recorded as saying “How did this happen” upon his death. He passed away whilst clutching a small bust of his hero, the abolitionist John Brown, in his hand. I like to think Becket’s final question was in response to Wade Tender offering his apologies to Marriage Purity activists over CNN. This apology was all the blitz the day of Becket’s passing, shortly before Becket’s passing was declared anyway. Perhaps he was watching it in his bedroom and was shocked to see his once erstwhile enemy ask for his forgiveness now that he had seen the truth.

No matter what you thought of him, you can’t deny the importance of Marcus Becket. Defender of equity and a lover of humanity. Despite being run over by the press again and again, Becket never tired. He was always reaching out to those poor displaced and confused folks to jog their memories. To reignite their humanity and connection to it. I tried finding a primary source from a Dieithryn perspective, but I couldn’t find anything objective. Nevertheless, Becket was a hero to Dieithryn as well. Fighting for their rights as a separate, but truly equal class of people. That and so much more, is why Marcus Becket is my hero.

Works Cited

Twain, Mark. “The Recent Carnival of Crime, a Story by Mark Twain.” The Atlantic, June 1876, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1876/06/the-facts-concerning-the-recent-carnival-of-crime-in-connecticut/306240.

Becket, Marcus, and Fred Waldron. Principles of the Elders of Di-Gar. 2nd ed., vol. 5, Topeka, KS, Becket-Waldron Publishing LLC, 2100.

“Matthew 7:1–6 (NIV).” Bible Gateway, 90AD, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207%3A1-6&version=NIV.

Feedback:

I know I said you only had to cite three references in full, but please try to cite anytime you use a resource.

It is Marcus Beckett. You keep changing the spelling. Stop it.

You are utilizing APA for your style of citation, This is a no-no. Please revise and format this an MLA Harvard Plus

Please eliminate any reference to your personal feelings or family anecdotes. This is social studies and not a human interest piece.

We cannot call them Dieithryn anymore, as that is now considered a slur by them. They ask to be called Gwestai or Gwestai American. Which is Welsh for Guest. Although, this moniker will probably change by the time you finish your final draft and change again by the time I grade it as well.

SAMUEL MUDD. NEVER USE “I” OR “YOU” IN AN ESSAY. ANY ESSAY. We have talked about this before, Sammy. This isn’t a conversation.

From a content perspective, this is really interesting stuff. You just need to work on grammar and word choices.

Grade: B- Like I said, those You’s and I’s cost you an automatic ten point lost.

[poddar123]

Best Futuristic Careers after Graduating with Biology

Biology is a vast branch focusing on minute details and thus their proper study is essential for studying evolution of life, find cure of diseases and in understanding the life cycle of living creatures including plants and animals.  

As a general perception, Biology students get disappointed if they are not able to become a doctor. Here we would like to throw light on some other good career options in Biology after completing their graduation. 

Healthcare Services

There will always be a requirement for qualified paramedics in the healthcare industry. If one has inclination towards healthcare services then he/she can do Paramedical courses, which are career-oriented courses comprising training for services that assist doctors in making better diagnoses. Pathology, Physiotherapy, First Aid, X-ray, Radiography and other services are good career options. Nursing Staff, Physiotherapists, Radiologists and MRI Technicians are few careers, which are earning best in the paramedical area. 

Alternative Treatment Therapies

Due to increasing side effects and high costs of Allopathic treatment, nowadays people are preferring various alternative therapies for treating some diseases. Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Herbal Medicine, Ayurveda, Yoga, and many others. The demand of such treatments are increasing day by day. 

Environmentalist 

Environmental Science is mainly a rapidly emerging branch of Science Biology where students can explore different means to protect the environment at risk with the reliable utility of resources. Hence, individuals can apply for the roles of Environmental Biologists, Environmental Scientists, Environmental Journalists and many more after B.Sc. These roles are prominent in textile industries, fertilizer plants, dying industries, etc. in India and abroad. 

Botanist

Botanist is a good career option for candidates who have an interest in plant life. They can be absorbed in research, plant analysis and protection of various species of plants. They can be well placed in various fields like Agriculture, Research Institutes, Pharmaceuticals Industry, Educational Institutes, etc. Some Botanists choose to teach future generations of scientists in secondary and post-secondary classrooms. Horticulturalist, Conservation Scientist and Plant Videographers are well paid. 

Biology Teacher

If you want to become a Biology teacher of in a Government School, you have to do B. Ed. course from any recognized institution like Poddar Group of Institutions, and further apply for teaching posts against the advertisement by the government and qualify the written examination and Interview. The package offered to Government teachers, especially in Rajasthan are highly rewarding and have attractive perks and draws many Biology graduates in this field. However, many top class private school teachers are also offered high packages.Poddar Management and Training Institute offers B.Ed. (Biology) and the best feature of B. Sc. (Biology) course.  Besides, at Poddar International College, many major and minor, Faculty/Student Research Projects are being conducted, which are funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and University Grants Commission (UGC).

[ulearn4today]

ENGLISH OLYMPIAD CLASS 6 PRACTICE PAPER 1

International English Olympiad

SAMPLE PAPER - 1

Class 6 / Grade 6

 FOR QUESTIONS 1 TO 8, CHOOSE THE BEST WORD/PHRASE TO COMPLETE EACH SENTENCE

 1. More and more students want to study _______ in order to experience a different culture.

A. overseas

B. university

C. Higher education

D. migrate

 2. How long ______ out of town ?

A. has been

B. has they been

C. has he been

D. has I been

3. I’m a medical student and will ______ in January and can start practising.

A. qualify

B. accomplish

C. work

D. achieve

4. What is a policeman’s job?

A. To comfort

B. To enforce law

C. To prescribe

D. To jail people

 5. We have ______ of eggs in the refrigerator so baking a large cake is possible.

A. few

B. less

C. lots

D. fewer

6. She has a fantastic memory. She can remember ______ that she hears and sees.

A. everything

B. something

C. nothing

D. None of the above

7. The teacher has ____ knowledge from the many books she reads.

A. Too much

B. much

C. many

D. Too many

 8. A dinner meeting with the President is ______ for him.

A. All in a day’s work

B. All in a days’ work

C. All in a day work

D. All in day work

 FOR QUESTIONS 9 TO 11, HOW MANY WORDS ARE WRONGLY SPELT IN THE SENTENCES GIVEN BELOW

9. She loves to go to museums.

A. 1

B. 2

C. 3

D. None of the above

10. Growing a business inwolves a lot of hard vork.

A. 1

B. 2

C. 3

D. None of the above

11. This is a new coarse to prepare stewdents for the exams.

A. 1

B. 2

C. 3

D. None of the above

 FOR QUESTIONS 12 TO 29, CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER TO COMPLETE EACH SENTENCE FROM THE OPTIONS GIVEN

12. We are all very _____ about the big event planned at our university.

A. united

B. joyous

C. celebratory

D. excited

13. The sound of elephants ____ far away in the forest was heard the whole night long.

A. howling

B. neighing

C. trumpeting

D. screaming

14. She’s never learned a foreign language. This course is going to be a ______

A. cake-walk

B. challenge

C. deal

D. calculation

 15. My job is very ______, so I escape to the countryside to get away from it all.

A. stressful

B. insignificant

C. relaxing

D. underline

 16. Journalists often _____ on subjects which are of interest to most people.

A. construct

B. report

C. create

D. invent

 17. Can children ______ themselves clearly as adults?

A. express

B. communicate

C. approach

D. converse

 18. He was advised by a consultant on how to be _____ at the interview.

A. victory

B. winning

C. successful

D. Get passed

 19. When I went to the supermarket, I ended ____ what I did not intend to.

A. bought

B. buying

C. To buy

D. buy

 20. I’m going to the market as we don’t have _____ bread at home.

A. some

B. any

C. a

D. None of the above

21. I wonder what can be done to save the ______ species.

A. endangered

B. danger

C. dangerous

D. Almost endangered

22. If I were him, I’d _____ the police.

A. tell

B. Would tell

C. told

D. Have tell

 23. She absolutely ______ her grand-daughter.

A. endear

B. adores

C. Crazy about

D. Fond of

24. _____ she studied hard; she was unable to get a good grade.

A. All though

B. Although

C. Even so

D. even

25. I can write really fast, however my brother ______

A. couldn’t

B. can’t

C. Will not

D. won’t

26. She has several toys _____ work on solar batteries.

A. With which

B. Have to

C. Which has

D. which

27. She has so much to do that she is hardly ______ with any time in the morning.

A. left

B. Will leave

C. Had left

D. leaving

 28. If you were to write a story, what ____ you write?

A. will

B. should

C. may

D. would

29. The school captain is supposed to be the _____ athlete amongst all the students.

A. good

B. most best

C. better

D. best

FOR QUESTIONS 30 TO 33, READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW

CHILDHOOD

Most people believe that the best time of one’s life is childhood. There are a few responsibilities and no bills to worry about. A child does not have to worry about getting a job, making a successful carrier or doing the household chores. This enables a child to have lots of free time that they can devote to play which can build up their creativity. This can give children a life that is filled with excitement and new happenings. Having said this, there are times when children might find it difficult to buy all the things they want with their insufficient pocket money they get. Adults surely have less restrictions in a few things, when compared to a child.

30. According to the passage, a child does not have to worry about doing the _____.

A. Household chores

B. homework

C. laundry

D. accounts

31. Adults have less ______.

A. bills

B. independence

C. restrictions

D. Restricted behaviour

32. Why should children devote time to play: Devoting time to play helps the children ________

A. To be mentally alert.

B. To be creative

C. To be fit

D. socialize

33. Which word in the second paragraph means ‘enthusiasm and pleasure’?

A. creativity

B. insufficient

C. restriction

D. excitement

FOR QUESTIONS 34 TO 37, READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW

FOOTBALL

The game of football is loved by people of all ages and all over the world. You might not find a single nation on the globe that does not have a passion for the game. On enquiry, people have stated that they have plenty of reasons to love the game, however, the topmost one is that it is simple to follow. Another factor in its favour is that you don’t need to be young and rich to be able to afford to play this game. It can be played on any kind of playground or wasteland. Also, it requires no special equipment except for a football, of course!

In fact, the game of football has changed the way people spend their leisure time. Every game played is covered by the media extensively. More and more countries have begun to invest large sums of money in the game as the returns on investment are fantastic. Consequently, footballers are paid unbelievable sums of money to represent their countries.

 34. What do people like most about the game of football?

A. It is easy to understand

B. It only needs a football

C. It can even be played on wasteland

D. It can make you rich

 35. What is the meaning of “to have a passion for the game”?

A. A robust sense of tiredness

B. A durable emotion

C. A sturdiness and resilience

D. A strong feeling of enthusiasm

 36. What does the word ‘unbelievable’ refer to?

A. Sums of money

B. Mathematical sums

C. Summary of things

D. summarizing

 37. Football has changed the way people ______.

A. Play games

B. Are passionate

C. Use their leisure time

D. Socialize with one another.

FOR QUESTIONS 38 TO 45, READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW

38. Amanda: ‘We don’t have any milk in the refrigerator.’

Sam: ‘Don’t worry. We have ____ milk powder in the cabinet.’

A. other

B. another

C. enough

D. some

 39. Cathy : ‘She does not spend enough time on doing homework and yet she expects to get good grades.

Bob : ‘dash’

A. That’s not enough

B. That’s so very partial

C. That’s good enough

D. That’s not fair

 40. ‘Do you think we will be able to complete the presentation in time?’

A. ‘I do so think.’

B. ‘I don’t think so.’

C. ‘I don’t so think.’

D. ‘I don’t think absolutely.’

 41. Catherine : ‘I’ve been having a difficult time with my children.’

Robert : ‘It’s not easy to ______ children these days.’

A. Bring on

B. Bring to

C. Bring about

D. Bring up

 42. Vanessa : ‘My father passed away when I was six.’

Sonia : ‘ dash ’

A. Oh! My goodness!

B. I’m so sorry to hear that

C. So did mine

D. I’m afraid it was unfortunate

 43. Peter said, “I’m going for a movie this weekend.”

A. Peter said that he would want to go for a movie this weekend.

B. Peter said that perhaps he might go for a movie this weekend.

C. Peter said that he was going for a movie this weekend.

D. Peter said that he must go for a movie this weekend.

44. ‘You are probably late to school, because you ___________’

A. Missed the school bus.

B. Have been missing the bus

C. Ought to miss the school bus

D. Had missed the school bus

45. ‘He offered to lend her some money to pay her school fees.’

A. ‘He is very generosity’

B. ‘He is very general’

C. ‘He is very genial’

D. ‘He is very generous’

FOR QUESTIONS 46 TO 48, CHOOSE THE BEST WORD/PHRASE TO COMPLETE EACH

SENTENCE

46. Her grades are a great cause for _____ to her teachers.

A. trouble

B. concern

C. problem

D. reason

47. Sam and his sister ____ like a house on fire. They have so much in common.

A. Go on

B. Get up

C. Get by

D. Get along

48. What does ‘beat around the bush’ mean?

A. To be at the point

B. To be specific

C. To be confusing and vague

D. To avoid talking

FOR QUESTIONS 49 AND 50, CHOOSE THE BEST RESPONSE TO COMPLETE EACH CONVERSATION

49. Robin : ‘Have they finished their homework?’

Sam : ‘___________’

A. Yes, they have

B. Yes, they do

C. Yes, have got

D. Yes, they do have

50. Sonia: ‘I can’t understand why people ______ to speak English.’

A. Look ahead

B. tried

C. feel

D. aren’t able

[acti-veg]

Does the fact that so many people, if not all people, are so quick to defend animal slaughter, actively participate in it and enjoy it, not prove that humans are inherently sadistic, destructive and selfish, and not the sweet, inherently good and compassionate beings you claim they are?

What is it with pessimists, anti-natalists and misanthropes? I swear I hear from you guys more than I do anti-vegans. I haven't 'claimed' anything, I was asked (about six months ago mind you) if I believe humans are inherently bad, I said no, and you guys haven't shut up about it since.

Alright, I'm going to explain my actual position on this once more, then I'm not going to entertain any of you on this topic again, because I find being asked the same questions in the same loaded, condescending way to be very tiresome. So here it is: I am an optimist and a philanthropist because I choose to be, not because of anything that humans posess or lack. I don't believe that humans are intrinsically good or bad, because I don't believe that humans are intrinisically anything. I agree with the existentialists that existence precedes essence - who and what human beings are is not predefined or predetermined. We are not furniture or instruments whose function and nature is set before we come into the world.

This means that humans are not inherently good, but we also aren't inherently cruel, either. We are born into the world by chance, and it is up to us to decide who we are and what our lives mean. I have never claimed that I think humans are inherently good or compassionate because I find the concept that an entire species all share a common disposition, despite being made up of disparate cultures and individuals who exhibit radically different behaviours, to be irrational. I also find the concept that humans are inherently sadistic, destructive and selfish to be equally irrational.

Humans are capable of both great compassion and great cruelty, our history makes that clear. I believe that we do bad things quite as often as we do as a result of the circumstances we find ourselves in, and our disconnect from nature. In particular I’d point to the political, social and economic disenfranchisement inflicted on us by the ruling classes, as well as the philosophical despair that is the result of our having to exist and make choices in a world they control. Yet despite this, humans also do wonderful, beautiful things every single day, even in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

In Afghanistan right now, the Taliban are committing heinous atrocities, but people are also helping despite the danger to themselves. Foreign workers and medical staff who refused to leave, journalists still reporting, ordinary citizens looking after orphaned children and animals, even hiding collaborators from Taliban searches. To point to the bad and say ‘humans are like this!’ is to exhibit a deep and obvious bias by omitting all other evidence that doesn’t fit with your narrow, misanthropic worldview.

The wording of your own ask proves this obvious bias: ‘If not all people.’ Really? All people? Are animal rights activists quick to defend animal slaughter? Are the thousands of people volunteering their time in rescue centres, sanctuaries, hunt sabotaging, protesting? Do we take part it in and enjoy it? You just refuse to see the people who do good because for some reason you would rather believe that we are all terrible.

You are free to be pessimistic and miserable on your own blog, as sad as I think that is. But please, go for a walk, pet a dog, sit in the sunshine, read a good book under your duvet with a hot cup of tea. Whatever it takes to prevent you from feeling like you need to drag the rest of us down with you.

[shyrose57]

Dream SMP Mer AU.

Staff:

Tubbo: A new intern at the Smp Sanctuary for Magical Aquatic Creatures, mostly working under Professor Eret Kingslin. Has studied a lot about sea-bound creatures, and knows things about them that even some of the top researchers do. Tubbo seems to have slotted fairly well into the faculty, and all the mer have taken to him rather quickly, the Sleepy pod especially. There’s a target on his back.

Eret: A researcher at the Smp, they specialize in ethology and anthropology, but dabble a bit everywhere, since her co-workers often require her assistance. One of the most organized people there, and a lot of people defer to him, even if he’s not the actual head researcher. Eret may have some Mer blood of their own in them. 

Antfrost: On site veterinarian, who works with the non-magical animals of the Smp, except for in emergencies. Though ever since Dream’s pod took a liking to him, he’s been eased into working with them as well, despite his protests-he doesn’t really like getting wet. 

Sam: Head of Maintenance. Sam has a degree in a lot of stuff, ranging from architecture to electrical engineering. Pretty amicable with everyone, but despite his friendliness, nobody dares mess with them. He pretty much runs everything, it’d be incredibly stupid. Has a soft spot for the younger residents of the site. Also has a service dog named Fran who helps out around the site.

Fundy: College student interning at the Smp for extra credit he needs to pass his Marine Biology class. He wasn’t expecting it to be as hard as it was. Works mainly under Sam, due to his experience with machinery. Has some Mer blood he’s unaware of, though the Mers definitely recognize it in him.

Karl: A journalist who was originally only supposed to do one article on the sanctuary. However, after an incident involving some pushy tourists, and a community tank, Sapnap and Quackity took a liking to him. So now his assignments focus solely on the sanctuary and other sea-related areas. Honorary staff member.

Pods:

Sleepy Pod(dubbed by Fundy): Phil, Techno, Wilbur, Tommy, and Ranboo. 

Dream’s Pod: Dream, Sapnap, George, Bad, Skeppy, Punz, and Purpled.

Species:

Dreamon: A species of Mer that originates from the End(an area under the ocean floor, and something of an entirely different dimension). They’re known to be quite strong, with unique abilities-usually mentally related, and are identified by their pale coloring and vibrant eyes. Incredibly rare though.

(Dream is one, Ranboo is half)

Harpies: Sea-bound avians that share the same power as sirens. They can be identified by their glossy, waterproof wings, and alluring voices. The older ones are territorial and stand-offish to those outside of the flock, and the younger ones are fiercely guarded, so they are very rarely seen. 

(Philza and Quackity are both one)

Nethers: More of a broad term for the creatures that reside within the depths of the Nether floor(a boiling area just along the sea floor, filled with active volcanoes and underwater lava caverns. Some of the species of Nethers include Boars, Hogs, Rotted, Blazes, and Weepers. Almost all of them share violent instincts.

(Techno is a Boar Mer, Sapnap’s part Blaze)

Tropical Mer: Another broad term for mer that tend to reside in warmer waters, sharing their coloring and species with many tropical fish. The majority are quite playful and friendly, and there’s numerous historical writings of these mer saving fishermen or young children from the sea.  

(Niki is an asian arowana mer, Purpled is a dolphin mer)

Abyssal Mer: Mer that reside in the darkest depths of the sea, just between the Nether floor and the End. Not much is known about their kind, though they’ve gained the monker ‘sea demons’ for their often demonic appearances. They have strong grasps on magic, and use it fairly often. 

(Bad is one, Sapnap is half)

Twilight Mer: Mysterious mer with many strange features and abilities, such as(but not limited to) gem-like scales, luminescence, and color-changing skin. Almost nothing is known about their kind, though some theorize they may hail from the End. However, it’s uncertain, as the only known ones have been found in mixed pods, and they’re incredibly hard to identify.

(Skeppy and George are both one, and Ranboo is half)

[resident-curse-breaker]

Helena Bancroft

My character sheet for my Hogwarts Mystery MC, Nellie Bancroft!

Nellie is absolutely my baby, and I’d love to hear any opinions regarding her, feedback on her, or questions about her! She will be tagged with spoilers, but just in case, be warned that this character sheet contains spoilers for Hogwarts Mystery.

Now that all of that’s out of the way, feel free to give her a read!

(Thanks to @arimabari for doing this wonderful commission!)

IDENTITY

Name: Helena Winifred Bancroft

Nicknames:

Nellie, everyone

Pip, Jacob

Sweet girl, Rowan

Gender: Cis-female

Current Age: 17

Birth Date: March 11th, 1973

Species: Human

Blood Status: Half-blood

Sexuality: Panromantic | Pansexual

Alignment: 

Passes for neutral good 

Truly chaotic good

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality: Irish

Residence: Kinsale, Ireland

THE MAGE

1st Wand:

Purchased prior to first year

10 ½ inches

Pear wood

Unicorn hair core

2nd Wand:

Purchased during fifth year

11 ¼ inches

Alder wood

Phoenix feather core

3rd Wand:

Purchased after graduation

10 ⅔

Beech wood

Unicorn hair core

Animagus: Kooikerhondje dog

Magical Abilities:

Born legilimens

Animal empathy (questionable)

Boggart Form: 

Jacob’s rotting corpse, shambling towards her like a zombie — up to 6th year

Rowan’s lifeless body, laying still — 6th year onward

Riddikulus Form:

None — she cannot bear to face boggarts

Amortentia: 

Smells — sandalwood, fresh laundry, creature food, cologne

Smells Like — cherry shampoo, blackberries, ocean air

Patronus: African bush elephant

Patronus Memory: Jacob trying to teach her spells during one of his school breaks. She would’ve only been five—they’re nine years apart—so it’s a faint memory and she couldn’t do any of them anyway, but it was still happy enough to stick with her.

Mirror of Erised: 

Herself as an adult, having accomplished her dream of opening a hippogriff sanctuary, with Jacob laughing and her mama smiling and her mum loving them both — up to 6th year

Her and Rowan as happy, naive first years, laughing and standing arm in arm — 6th year onward

Favorite Spells:

Patronus Charm — she endures enough anguish without the dementors exacerbating it

Cave Inimicum — it’s a relief, sometimes, to be able to disappear

APPEARANCE

Physique:

5″

Petite

Lithe limbs

Eyes: 

Big

Round

Ocean blue

Hair: 

Thick

Wavy

Sandy blonde

Thigh length — up to her 5th year

Chin length — start of 6th year onward

Skin Tone: Fair and freckled

Body Modifications: None—doesn’t even pierce her ears

Scarring:

Small scar on her right thumb — from when her mum tried to teach her to whittle

Large burn scar over heart — from the Mahoutokoro wizard attack

Long, thin scar on left forearm — from when Rakepick attacked her with a whipping spell, and she lifted her arm to shield herself

Inventory:

About a dozen quills, some of them sugar

A spare pair of Rowan’s glasses

A worn down copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

A small hair brush

A pack of muggle sour candies

Fashion:

Bright and colorful, enjoys floral print and embroidery

Always down for a nice pair of overalls, especially if they’re in some way decorated

Only ever wears a worn out pair of lightweight boots

Never seen without her silver seashell locket

Otherwise, not much of a fan of jewelry

Values comfort over style

Voice: Taylor Louderman

ALLEGIANCES

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Affiliations/Organizations:

Hogwarts

The Circle of Khanna

The Order of the Phoenix

Professions:

Nurse at St. Mungos — early adulthood

Owner of Silver Wings, a hippogriff sanctuary — middle adulthood to death

HOGWARTS INFORMATION

Best Classes:

Care of Magical Creatures

Herbology

Charms

Worst Classes:

Potions

History of Magic

Flying

Electives:

Divination

Care of Magical Creatures

Quidditch:

Chaser — 5th year

Beater — part of 6th year

Reserve Chaser — 7th year

Extra Curricular:

Dueling Club — 2nd year onward

Magical Creatures Club — 3rd year onward

Favorite Professors:

Professor Kettleburn

Professor McGonagall

Least Favorite Professors:

Professor Snape

Professor Trelawney

RELATIONSHIPS

Parents:

Juliette Bancroft — biological mother | A pureblooded Auror and proud member of the Bancroft bloodline, known for producing powerful witches. She blames herself for Jacob’s disappearance, believing that she drove him away by focusing on Nellie, who she viewed as a proper heir to the Bancroft line. Unfortunately, her guilt over driving Jacob away is causing her to neglect Nellie, driving her away as well. She’s always been a little hard on her children. Nellie calls her “mum.”

Carolyn Bancroft — adopted mother | A muggle school teacher who might not understand her magical wife and children, but loves them all anyway. Nellie was always closer to her than to Juliette, and the difference only grew greater after Jacob’s disappearance. While Carolyn also grieved, she did her best to support Nellie through her anguish. She fears that her family’s going to fall apart entirely, because Juliette won’t listen to her and Nellie is growing more distant by the day. Nellie calls her “mama.”

Edwin Dermott — biological father | A muggle journalist who isn’t involved in Nellie’s life. He and Juliette dated, but it was never meant to last. It was the sort of relationship that was exciting, but not sustainable, especially considering Juliette was already a single mother to Jacob at the time. Nellie, much like Jacob, was a complete accident. Edwin at least had the decency to stick around until Nellie was born, but quickly decided fatherhood wasn’t his style and took off.

Siblings:

Jacob Bancroft — half brother | Once Nellie’s hero and very best friend, now a mystery she can’t seem to unravel. He was never a particularly powerful wizard—bright and hard working, yes, but lacking raw magical power—and considering he was the first son in generations of powerful witches, he was especially humiliated by this fact. Nellie’s bursts of accidental magic were more substantial than any spells he cast, and as much as he loved her, god, Jacob was jealous. Initially started hunting the Cursed Vaults for entirely selfish reasons, wanting to become more powerful. As is often the case, his search for power only amounted to getting him in far over his head. He spent his years in the portrait thinking of his family and the anguish he undoubtedly caused them. Upon being freed, he took it upon himself to protect them, no matter the cost, without realizing he may be making the damage worse.

Lucille Whittaker — half sister | Nellie’s muggle father’s other daughter, who she’s never met. In fact, Nellie’s not even aware of her existence, nor is Lucille aware of hers, considering that Edwin isn’t a part of either of their lives. They do end up connecting later in life, and though they never quite feel like sisters, they do become decent friends.

Love Interest:

Skye Parkin — crush | Nellie housed an unrequited crush on her for part of her 5th year, but it quickly became apparent that Skye didn’t return her feelings. To Skye, Nellie was like the sister she never had, and Nellie didn’t want to jeopardize that. She moved on, and any lingering feelings completely withered the following year.

Merula Snyde — ??? | There was some sort of tension between them in 5th year, something that blossomed from their growing mutual respect and trust in each other, but nothing ever came of it. After the events that transpired in the Vault, Merula decided Nellie wasn’t worth the trouble. It’s one of her biggest regrets. 

Barnaby Lee — soulmate | Barnaby crushed on Nellie long before she had any romantic feelings for him—ever since that first duel, in fact. It took a little while, but Nellie eventually fell for Barnaby’s good heart and noble nature. He may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he never fails to make her feel cared for. He can make her laugh when nobody else can, and although she’d loathe herself if he got hurt for her sake, it honestly feels a little nice to have someone trying to protect and take care of her for once, instead of the other way around. They also both love magical creatures, so a lot of their “dates” just consist of them hanging around the Care for Magical Creatures paddock and feeding whatever they find. They’re married by the time they’re twenty.

Best Friend(s):

Rowan Khanna | Her first friend, and always her dearest.  For whatever reason, they just clicked perfectly, and completely got each other. Her death changed Nellie irreversibly. For at least a year after Rowan’s death, Nellie wore the spare pair of glasses she’d kept for her everywhere. Even once she stopped, they were almost always in her bag. Nellie was eventually able to manage again, but she never really moved on.

Bill Weasley | He completely adopted her as (yet another) younger sibling, and they never quite lose that closeness, even when Jacob comes back into the picture. After all, Jacob can’t replicate the experiences Nellie had with Bill. While he was doing his part to protect Nellie as best he could, and that’s admirable, it wasn’t him that was by Nellie’s side throughout every trial she faced at Hogwarts. It was Bill, and Jacob would never be able to imitate the connection that gave Bill and Nellie.

Erika Rath | An unexpected friend, but a very strong one. During one of Nellie’s training sessions with Erika, Rowan’s glasses fell off, and cracked. The damage was entirely fixable, but Nellie had a breakdown, crying for the first time since Rowan had died. Even though Erika had only just started to become Nellie’s friend, she sat there with Nellie the entire time she sobbed. While the rest of her friends were tiptoeing around Nellie, uncomfortable in the face of such overwhelming grief and scared of saying the wrong thing, Erika took everything Nellie threw at her in stride. The fits where all Nellie could do was scream and cry, the anger that had her beating her fists against the ground, the guilt that made her wish it had been her instead. Every ugly thought, every wave of emotion, Erika stuck with Nellie through them all, keeping her grounded her during a time where she felt she could completely drift away. It’s impossible to describe the sort of bond that gives people.

Friend(s):

Penny Haywood | There’s not much to say about Penny and Nellie’s relationship. It’s simple, sweet, and supportive. They’re absolutely each other’s cheerleaders, and have an incredible amount of faith in each other.

Talbott Winger | Loathe as Talbott is to admit it, Nellie really is his friend. Nellie appreciates that Talbott can enjoy silence, and when she needs to just be around someone, without needing to explain herself, she goes to him. They spend a lot of nights in the Astronomy Tower in their animagus forms, just looking at the stars and being together.

Chiara Lobosco | Honestly, it’s surprising that it took these two as long as it did to become friends. Both of them are kind girls, who enjoy healing magic. They hit it off volunteering together in the Hospital Wing, but the real catalyst of their friendship was Nellie helping Chiara through the Woflsbane incident with Lupin.

Complicated:

Skye Parkin | They were once very good friends. Unfortunately, the drama surrounding Nellie getting trained and befriended by Erika all occurred in the month leading up to Rowan’s demise. Having Skye—someone Nellie considered a close friend—be so caught up in her own grudges and jealousy that she called off their friendship in a fit of anger not even a month after Rowan had died, while Erika—a friend she had only just started to make—acted as her rock throughout the whole grieving process, really changed Nellie’s perspective on Skye. To be fair, Skye did eventually apologize, and they picked up the pieces as best they could, but things were never the same.

Ben Copper | Truly, Nellie had always liked Ben. While his fear over just about everything could be grating, Nellie knew it was outside of his control, and to her, his kind and gentle nature far outweighed his cowardice. Unfortunately, the reveal that Ben was being used by R undoubtedly damaged their relationship, even though Nellie believed him when he claimed to be cursed. Their relationship only grows more strained as Ben’s personality shifts, with Nellie being concerned by his recklessness and frustrated by his overprotectiveness, and Ben annoyed by her refusal to accept how he’d changed.

Merula Snyde | Anyone would tell you that Nellie and Merula got off to a bad start. They were rivals from the start, and no matter how many times Nellie tried to extend an olive branch, sick and tired of fighting and wanting to move on, Merula seemed content to burn them. It wasn’t until they were pulled together as Rakepick’s assistants that their relationship started to change for the better. They respected and trusted each other out of necessity, at first, but slowly began to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Their jabs softened, and maybe, just maybe, there started to be an inkling of some sort of attraction. But of course, any bond formed due to Rakepick’s interference was set up for failure, and any progress they’d made was completely abandoned in the wake of her betrayal. Now, neither is quite sure where they stand. They can’t just go back to hating each other, but whatever they’d started to develop isn’t going to work either.

Enemies:

Ismelda Murk | Nellie has sympathy for Ismelda, she really does. But sympathy doesn’t excuse how mean spirited Ismelda can be, with her violent threats and condescending sneer. The two have simply never liked each other, and that dislike only deepened when Barnaby’s interest in Nellie became near. As much as Ismelda claimed to be over him, she resented that he chose a perky, obnoxious Hufflepuff over her.

Patricia Rakepick | This should go without saying. Patricia Rakepick is a vile, hateful witch, who doesn’t care who she hurts in pursuit of her goals. Not only was she a direct contributor to Jake’s disappearance, but she murdered Rowan, an innocent, in cold blood. Nellie has never been the violent sort. She’s always been a pacifist, always trying to talk her way out of conflict and, if that doesn’t work, aiming to disarm instead of harm. But for Rakepick, she thinks she could make an exception. She wants to see Rakepick suffer. It scares her more than she wants to admit.

Dormmates: 

Rowan Khanna — best friend

Penny Haywood — good friend

Ursa Greengrove — acquaintance (positive)

Emilie Ravemond — acquaintance (negative)

Pet(s):

Astrid — Lesser Sooty Owl

Klepto — Niffler

Flora — Fairy

Pidgey — Bowtruckle

Gertie — Hippogriff

Closest Canon Friends:

Rowan Khanna

Bill Weasley

Erika Rath

Closest MC Friends:

Jules Farrier

Callista Greenwood

Jane Briar

PERSONALITY

Positive Traits:

Selfless

Nurturing

Hard working

Endlessly loyal

Compassionate

Negative Traits:

Sensitive

Naive — up to 5th year

Paranoid — 6th year onward

Chronic hero syndrome

Anxiety prone

Deepest Secrets:

Worries that Jacob has turned into someone that isn’t worth saving

Resents her mum for putting so much emotional energy into missing Jacob that she’s begun to neglect her, and for pushing her to find Jacob at the cost of her own happiness and safety

Sometimes wishes she had been the one to die

Even more shamefully, sometimes wishes it had been Ben, if it meant that Rowan would’ve survived

Talents:

Almost unnaturally good with animals

Talented writer, enjoys poetry

Good singer, with a pleasant voice

Learned to be a good liar

Weaknesses:

Terrible artist

Poor focus

On the clumsy side, not the best at stealth

Absolutely awful memory

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION

Nellie’s favorite physical trait of hers was always her hair. She absolutely treasured it, growing it out long for 15 years and carefully tending to it to make sure it stayed shiny, healthy, and soft. She prided herself on it...until the day she tried to run to Merula’s aid in the Buried Vault, and Patricia Rakepick grabbed her by her long golden braid to stop her. She came back to Hogwarts for her 6th year with all that long, beloved hair cut off into a bob. It was more practical, she said, and refused to answer any questions.

On the subject of her hair, Nellie ends up going grey fairly early. Her hair is entirely white by the time she’s 30 years old.

An incredibly physically affectionate person, Nellie is always touching people, hugging and holding hands and linking arms. Notably, she kissed the top of Rowan’s head every time she said goodbye.

Her and Rowan called each other  “sweet girl” and “smart girl” respectively.

Nellie’s pet name for Barnaby is just to say “Barnaby dear” as though it’s one word, and it never fails to make him giddy.

Both Barnaby and Nellie have always wanted to create large, happy families for themselves, so it should come as no surprise that they end up having five daughters: Ivy (Ravenclaw), Jade (Ravenclaw), Miri (Hufflepuff), Aurora (Slytherin), and Rowan (Hufflepuff). Many were surprised Nellie waited until her last child to use Rowan’s namesake, but the truth was, she never quite felt ready.

As a frequent visitor to the Burrow, Nellie knew all the Weasleys well, and even babysat Ron and Ginny for free on a few occasions.

Bill and Jacob never get along. Though Bill can logically understand that Jacob was trying to protect Nellie the only way he knew, he can never quite forgive Jacob for the distress he caused her. And while Jacob knows that Nellie needed support when he wasn’t there and he should be grateful that someone else was, some part of him resents Bill for “taking his spot” as Nellie’s big brother.

While Nellie focused her attentions on the way her friends had changed, Rakepick’s betrayal changed her as well. She hardly slept her entire 6th year, jumping at every sound and always looking over her shoulder. Her naivety, one of her defining characteristics, withered, leaving only wariness behind. She went from trusting everyone, to trusting no one.

Thank you to @treebels​ for the lovely artwork! I literally cannot express how excited I was when they sent it to me! 💕

[nicklloydnow]

“The first thing to do is then to fully endorse the displacement in the history of Marxism concentrated in two great passages (or, rather, violent cuts): the passage from Marx to Lenin, as well as the passage from Lenin to Mao. In each case there is a displacement of the original constellation: from the most forward country (as expected by Marx) to a relatively backward country - the revolution "took place in a wrong country"; from workers to (poor) peasants as the main revolutionary agent, etc. In the same way as Christ needed Paul's "betrayal" in order for Christianity to emerge as a universal Church (recall that, among the 12 apostles, Paul occupies the place of Judas the traitor, replacing him!), Marx needed Lenin's "betrayal" in order to enact the first Marxist revolution: it is an inner necessity of the "original" teaching to submit to and survive this "betrayal," to survive this violent act of being torn out of one's original context and thrown into a foreign landscape where it has to reinvent itself - only in this way, universality is born.

So, apropos the second violent transposition, that of Mao, it is too short either to condemn his reinvention of Marxism as theoretically "inadequate," as a regression with regard to Marx's standards (it is easy to show that peasants lack the substanceless proletarian subjectivity), but it is no less too short to blur the violence of the cut and to accept Mao's reinvention as a logical continuation or "application" of Marxism (relying, as is usually the case, on the simple metaphoric expansion of class struggle: "today's predominant class struggle is no longer between capitalists and proletariat in each country, it shifted to the Third versus the First World, bourgeois versus proletarian nations"). The achievement of Mao is here tremendous: his name stands for the political mobilization of the hundreds of millions of anonymous Third World population whose chores provide the invisible "substance," background, of historical development - the mobilization of all those which even such a poet of "otherness" as Levinas dismissed as "yellow peril" - see, from what is arguably his weirdest text, "The Russo-Chinese Debate and the Dialectic" (1960), a comment on the Soviet-Chinese conflict:

The yellow peril! It is not racial, it is spiritual. It does not involve inferior values; it involves a radical strangeness, a stranger to the weight of its past, from where there does not filter any familiar voice or inflection, a lunar or Martian past. [2]

Does this not recall Heidegger's insistence, throughout the 1930s, that the main task of Western thought today is to defend the Greek breakthrough, the founding gesture of the "West," the overcoming of the pre-philosophical, mythical, "Asiatic" universe, to struggle against the renewed "Asiatic" threat - the greatest opposite of the West is "the mythical in general and the Asiatic in particular?" [3] It is THIS Asiatic "radical strangeness" which is mobilized, politicized, by Mao Zedong's Communist movement. (...)

The most reliable sign of capitalism's ideological triumph is the virtual disappearance of the very term in the last 2 or 3 decades: from the 1980s, "virtually no one, with the exception of a few allegedly archaic Marxists (an 'endangered species'), referred to capitalism any longer. The term was simply struck from the vocabulary of politicians, trade unionists, writers and journalists - not to mention social scientists, who had consigned it to historical oblivion." [7] So what about the upsurge of the anti-globalization movement in the last years? Does it not clearly contradict this diagnostic? No: a close look quickly shows how this movement also succumbs to "the temptation to transform a critique of capitalism itself (centered on economic mechanisms, forms of work organization, and profit extraction) into a critique of 'imperialism'." [8] In this way, when one talks about "globalization and its agents," the enemy is externalized (usually in the form of vulgar anti-Americanism). From this perspective, where the main task today is to fight "the American empire," any ally is good if it is anti-American, and so the unbridled Chinese "Communist" capitalism, violent Islamic anti-modernists, as well as the obscene Lukashenko regime in Belarus (see Chavez' visit to Belarus in July 2006), may appear as progressive anti-globalist comrades-in-arms... What we have here is thus another version of the ill-famed notion of "alternate modernity": instead of the critique of capitalism as such, of confronting its basic mechanism, we get the critique of the imperialist "excess," with the (silent) notion of mobilizing capitalist mechanisms within another, more "progressive," frame.

This is how one should approach what is arguably Mao's central contribution to Marxist philosophy, his elaborations on the notion of contradiction: one should not dismiss them as a worthless philosophical regression (which, as one can easily demonstrate, relies on a vague notion of "contradiction" which simply means "struggle of opposite tendencies"). The main thesis of his great text ÇOn ContradictionÈ on the two facets of contradictions, "the principal and the non-principal contradictions in a process, and the principal and the non-principal aspects of a contradiction," deserves a close reading. Mao's reproach to the "dogmatic Marxists" is that they "do not understand that it is precisely in the particularity of contradiction that the universality of contradiction resides":

For instance, in capitalist society the two forces in contradiction, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, form the principal contradiction. The other contradictions, such as those between the remnant feudal class and the bourgeoisie, between the peasant petty bourgeoisie ant the bourgeoisie, between the proletariat and the peasant petty bourgeoisie, between the non-monopoly capitalists and the monopoly capitalists, between bourgeois democracy and bourgeois fascism, among the capitalist countries and between imperialism and the colonies, are all determined or influenced by this principal contradiction.

When imperialism launches a war of aggression against such a country, all its various classes, except for some traitors, can temporarily unite in a national war against imperialism. At such a time, the contradiction between imperialism and the country concerned becomes the principal contradiction, while all the contradictions among the various classes within the country (including what was the principal contradiction, between the feudal system and the great masses of the people) are temporarily relegated to a secondary and subordinate position.

This is Mao's key point: the principal (universal) contradiction does not overlap with the contradiction which should be treated as dominant in a particular situation - the universal dimension literally resides in this particular contradiction. In each concrete situation, a different "particular" contradiction is the predominant one, in the precise sense that, in order to win the fight for the resolution of the principal contradiction, one should treat a particular contradiction as the predominant one, to which all other struggles should be subordinated. In China under the Japanese occupation, the patriotic unity against the Japanese was the predominant thing if Communists wanted to win the class struggle - any direct focusing on class struggle in THESE conditions went against class struggle itself. (Therein, perhaps, resides the main feature of "dogmatic opportunism": to insist on the centrality of the principal contradiction at a wrong moment.) - The further key point concerns the principal ASPECT of a contradiction; for example, with regard to the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production,

the productive forces, practice and the economic base generally play the principal and decisive role; whoever denies this is not a materialist. But it must also be admitted that in certain conditions, such aspects as the relations of production, theory and the superstructure in turn manifest themselves in the principal and decisive role. When it is impossible for the productive forces to develop without a change in the relations of production, then the change in the relations of production plays the principal and decisive role.

The political stakes of this debate are decisive: Mao's aim is to assert the key role, in the political struggle, of what the Marxist tradition usually refers to as the "subjective factor" - theory, superstructure. This is what, according to Mao, Stalin neglected: "Stalin's Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR from first to last says nothing about the superstructure. It is not concerned with people; it considers things, not people. /.../ /It speaks/ only of the production relations, not of the superstructure nor politics, nor the role of the people. Communism cannot be reached unless there is a communist movement."

Alain Badiou, a true Maoist here, applies this to today's constellation, avoiding the focus on the anti-capitalist struggle, even ridiculing its main form today (the anti-globalization movement), and defining the emancipatory struggle in strictly political terms, as the struggle against (liberal) democracy, today's predominant ideologico-political form? "Today the enemy is not called Empire or Capital. It's called Democracy." [9] What, today, prevents the radical questioning of capitalism itself is precisely the belief in the democratic form of the struggle against capitalism. Lenin's stance against "economism" as well as against "pure" politics is crucial today, apropos of the split attitude towards economy in (what remains of) the Left: on the one hand, the "pure politicians" who abandon economy as the site of struggle and intervention; on the other hand, the "economists," fascinated by the functioning of today's global economy, who preclude any possibility of a political intervention proper. With regard to this split, today, more than ever, we should return to Lenin: yes, economy is the key domain, the battle will be decided there, one has to break the spell of the global capitalism - BUT the intervention should be properly POLITICAL, not economic. Today, when everyone is "anticapitalist," up to the Hollywood "socio-critical" conspiracy movies (from The Enemy of the State to The Insider) in which the enemy are the big corporations with their ruthless pursuit of profit, the signifier "anticapitalism" has lost its subversive sting. What one should problematize is the self-evident opposite of this "anticapitalism": the trust in the democratic substance of the honest Americans to break up the conspiracy. THIS is the hard kernel of today's global capitalist universe, its true Master-Signifier: democracy. [10] - Mao's further elaboration on the notion of contradiction in his "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People"(1957) also cannot be reduced to its best-known feature, the rather common sense point of distinguishing between the antagonistic and the non-antagonistic contradictions:

The contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are antagonistic contradictions. Within the ranks of the people, the contradictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic as well as an antagonistic aspect. /.../ under the people's democratic dictatorship two different methods, one dictatorial and the other democratic, should be used to resolve the two types of contradictions which differ in nature - those between ourselves and the enemy and those among the people.

One should always read this distinction together with its more "ominous" supplement, a warning that the two aspects may overlap: "In ordinary circumstances, contradictions among the people are not antagonistic. But if they are not handled properly, or if we relax our vigilance and lower our guard, antagonism may arise." The democratic dialogue, the peaceful co-existence of different orientations among the working class, is not something simply given, a natural state of things, it is something gained and sustained by vigilance and struggle. Here, also, struggle has priority over unity: the very space of unity has to be won through struggle.

So what are we to do with these elaborations? One should be very precise in diagnosing, at the very abstract level of theory, where Mao was right and where he was wrong. Mao was right in rejecting the standard notion of "dialectical synthesis" as the "reconciliation" of the opposites, as a higher unity which encompasses their struggle; he was wrong in formulating this rejection, this insistence on the priority of struggle, division, over every synthesis or unity, in the terms of a general cosmology-ontology of the "eternal struggle of opposites" - this is why he got caught in the simplistic, properly non-dialectical, notion of the "bad infinity" of struggle. Mo clearly regresses here to primitive pagan "wisdoms" on how every creature, every determinate form of life, sooner or later meets its end: "One thing destroys another, things emerge, develop, and are destroyed, everywhere is like this. If things are not destroyed by others, then they destroy themselves." One should give Mao his due at this level: he goes to the end in this direction, applying this principle not only to Communism itself - see the following passage, in which Mao accomplishes a gigantic ontological "leap forward" from the division of atomic nucleus into protons, anti-protons, etc., to the inevitable division of Communism into stages:

I don't believe that communism will not be divided into stages, and that there will be no qualitative changes. Lenin said that all things can be divided. He gave the atom as an example, and said that not only can the atom be divided, but the electron, too, can be divided. Formerly, however, it was held that it could not be divided; the branch of science devoted to splitting the atomic nucleus is still very young, only twenty or thirty years old. In recent decades, the scientists have resolved the atomic nucleus into its constituents, such as protons, anti-protons, neutrons, anti-neutrons, mesons and anti-mesons.

He goes even a step further and moves beyond humanity itself, forecasting, in a proto-Nietzschean way, the "overcoming" of man.

The life of dialectics is the continuous movement toward opposites. Mankind will also finally meet its doom. When the theologians talk about doomsday, they are pessimistic and terrify people. We say the end of mankind is something which will produce something more advanced than mankind. Mankind is still in its infancy.

- and, even more, the rise of (some) animals themselves (what we consider today as exclusively human) level of consciousness:

In the future, animals will continue to develop. I don't believe that men alone are capable of having two hands. Can't horses, cows, sheep evolve? Can only monkeys evolve? And can it be, moreover, that of all the monkeys only one species can evolve, and all the others are incapable of evolving? In a million years, ten million years, will horses, cows and sheep still be the same as those today? I think they will continue to change. Horses, cows, sheep, and insects will all change.

Two things should be added to this "cosmic perspective"; first, one should remember that Mao is here talking to the inner circle of party ideologists. This is what accounts for the tone of sharing a secret not to be rendered public, as if Mao is divulging his "secret teaching" - and, effectively, Mao's speculations closely echo the so-called "bio-cosmism," the strange combination of vulgar materialism and Gnostic spirituality which formed occult shadow-ideology, the obscene secret teaching, of the Soviet Marxism. Repressed out of the public sight in the central period of the Soviet state, bio-cosmism was openly propagated only in the first and in the last two decades of the Soviet rule; its main theses are: the goals of religion (collective paradise, overcoming of all suffering, full individual immortality, resurrection of the dead, victory over time and death, conquest of space far beyond the solar system) can be realized in terrestrial life through the development of modern science and technology. In the future, not only will sexual difference be abolished, with the rise of chaste post-humans reproducing themselves through direct bio-technical reproduction; it will also be possible to resurrect all the dead of the past (establishing their biological formula through their remains and then re-engendering them - at that time, DNA was not yet known...), thus even erasing all past injustices, "undoing" past suffering and destruction. In this bright bio-political Communist future, not only humans, but also animals, all living being, will participate in a directly collectivized Reason of the cosmos... Whatever one can hold against Lenin's ruthless critique of Maxim Gorky's the "construction of God (bogograditelk'stvo)," the direct deification of man, one should bear in mind that Gorky himself collaborated with bio-cosmists. It is interesting to note resemblances between this "bio-cosmism" and today's techno-gnosis. - Second, this "cosmic perspective" is for Mao not just an irrelevant philosophical caveat; it has precise ethico-political consequences. When Mao high-handedly dismisses the threat of the atomic bomb, he is not down-playing the scope of the danger - he is fully aware that nuclear war may led to the extinction of humanity as such, so, to justify his defiance, he has to adopt the "cosmic perspective" from which the end of life on Earth "would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole":

The United States cannot annihilate the Chinese nation with its small stack of atom bombs. Even if the U.S. atom bombs were so powerful that, when dropped on China, they would make a hole right through the earth, or even blow it up, that would hardly mean anything to the universe as a whole, though it might be a major event for the solar system.

This "cosmic perspective" also grounds Mao's dismissive attitude towards the human costs of economic and political endeavors. If one is to believe Mao's latest biography, [11] he caused the greatest famine in history by exporting food to Russia to buy nuclear and arms industries: 38 million people were starved and slave-driven to death in 1958-61. Mao knew exactly what was happening, saying: "half of China may well have to die." This is instrumental attitude at its most radical: killing as part of a ruthless attempt to realize goal, reducing people to disposable means - and what one should bear in mind is that the Nazi holocaust was NOT the same: the killing of the Jews not part of a rational strategy, but a self-goal, a meticulously planned "irrational" excess (recall the deportation of the last Jews from Greek islands in 1944, just before the German retreat, or the massive use of trains for transporting Jews instead of war materials in 1944). This is why Heidegger is wrong when he reduces holocaust to the industrial production of corpses: it was NOT that, Stalinist Communism was that. [12]

The conceptual consequence of this "bad infinity" that pertains to vulgar evolutionism is Mao's consistent rejection of the "negation of negation" as a universal dialectical law. In explicit polemics against Engels (and, incidentally, following Stalin who, in his "On Dialectical and Historical Materialism," also doesn't mention "negation of negation" among the "four main features of Marxist dialectics"):

Engels talked about the three categories, but as for me I don't believe in two of those categories. (The unity of opposites is the most basic law, the transformation of quality and quantity into one another is the unity of the opposites quality and quantity, and the negation of the negation does not exist at all.) /.../ There is no such thing as the negation of the negation. Affirmation, negation, affirmation, negation in the development of things, every link in the chain of events is both affirmation and negation. Slave-holding society negated primitive society, but with reference to feudal society it constituted, in turn, the affirmation. Feudal society constituted the negation in relation to slave-holding society but it was in turn the affirmation with reference to capitalist society. Capitalist society was the negation in relation to feudal society, but it is, in turn, the affirmation in relation to socialist society.

Along these lines, Mao scathingly dismisses the category of "dialectical synthesis" of the opposites, promoting his own version of "negative dialectics" - every synthesis is for him ultimately what Adorno in his critique of Lukacs called erpresste Versoehnung - enforced reconciliation - at best a momentary pause in the ongoing struggle, which occurs not when the opposites are united, but when one side simply wins over the other:

What is synthesis? You have all witnessed how the two opposites, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, were synthesized on the mainland. The synthesis took place like this: their armies came, and we devoured them, we ate them bite by bite. /.../ One thing eating another, big fish eating little fish, this is synthesis. It has never been put like this in books. I have never put it this way in my books either. For his part, Yang Hsien-chen believes that two combine into one, and that synthesis is the indissoluble tie between two opposites. What indissoluble ties are there in this world? Things may be tied, but in the end they must be severed. There is nothing which cannot be severed.”

[words-out-west]

CA tribe lands lunker salmon protection

According to Craig Tucker, Kurak tribal policy advisor, “the Kurak are a fish and acorn people.” On June 16, the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously approved the tribe’s petition to list the upper Klamath Trinity River spring run Chinook salmon as endangered to become extinct under the California endangered species act.

Tucker adds, “Science is just now catching up with traditional tribal ecology.” For years agencies that manage west coast fisheries have lumped all runs including seasonal runs into one group, yet the Kurak have always considered spring run Chinook—also called “springers”—as a separate species. They even have a different name for springers.

The petition is a several-hundred-page technical document providing scientific data supporting the listing. The petition undergoes a lengthy public process to allow stakeholders to provide input. The department of fish and wildlife reviews the petition to evaluate its merit. The petition was submitted in partnership with the salmon river restoration council.

Tucker continues that several years ago geneticists at UC Davis discovered that springers have a different genetic sequence and are a unique species. Tucker estimates the pre-European contact historical run on the Klamath was 1.2 million fish returns each year. Now they get excited to see 39 k returns per year.

The petition also calls for habitat restoration and special management zones as well as removing several hydro electric dams on the Klamath River. The dams are operated by Pacificorp, a Berkshire Hathaway group with headquarters in Portland, Oregon. A 2002 Fish Kill destroyed some 65,000 fish due to low-water flows and toxic algae plumes that periodically build up behind the dams. The Klamath River winds 257 miles through Oregon and Northern California, the tribe’s ancestral lands. It is the largest river by discharge in California.

When asked if this fish listing was part of the tribe’s larger strategy for dam removal, Tucker responded, “Sure, we think they should come down either way.”

California Trout, a non-profit conservation group, estimates some 300 miles of habitat is cut off from the fish by the dams. This critical spawning and rearing habitat is crucial for the life cycle of the Chinook. The fish spend several years in fresh water before migrating downstream into the ocean where they also spend several years prior to returning and spawning.

Tucker adds that the fish has significant cultural value for the tribe, both in ceremony and for sustenance. The great seal of the tribe depicts a Chinook salmon and a traditional Kurak man dip-net fishing at Ishi Pishi falls. Tucker also claims that the springers taste better than the other runs, “due to a higher level of fat content in the fish.”

Ishi Pishi Falls is a class VI set of rapids on the Klamath River. The California Fish and Game Commission was the first wildlife resource agency founded in the United States. There are five commissioners who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate.

Scott McMorrow is a disabled environmental journalist living in Northern California.

[poddar123]

Best Futuristic Careers after Graduating with Biology

Biology is a vast branch focusing on minute details and thus their proper study is essential for studying evolution of life, find cure of diseases and in understanding the life cycle of living creatures including plants and animals.  

As a general perception, Biology students get disappointed if they are not able to become a doctor. Here we would like to throw light on some other good career options in Biology after completing their graduation. 

Healthcare Services

There will always be a requirement for qualified paramedics in the healthcare industry. If one has inclination towards healthcare services then he/she can do Paramedical courses, which are career-oriented courses comprising training for services that assist doctors in making better diagnoses. Pathology, Physiotherapy, First Aid, X-ray, Radiography and other services are good career options. Nursing Staff, Physiotherapists, Radiologists and MRI Technicians are few careers, which are earning best in the paramedical area. 

Alternative Treatment Therapies

Due to increasing side effects and high costs of Allopathic treatment, nowadays people are preferring various alternative therapies for treating some diseases. Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Herbal Medicine, Ayurveda, Yoga, and many others. The demand of such treatments are increasing day by day. 

Environmentalist 

Environmental Science is mainly a rapidly emerging branch of Science Biology where students can explore different means to protect the environment at risk with the reliable utility of resources. Hence, individuals can apply for the roles of Environmental Biologists, Environmental Scientists, Environmental Journalists and many more after B.Sc. These roles are prominent in textile industries, fertilizer plants, dying industries, etc. in India and abroad. 

Botanist

Botanist is a good career option for candidates who have an interest in plant life. They can be absorbed in research, plant analysis and protection of various species of plants. They can be well placed in various fields like Agriculture, Research Institutes, Pharmaceuticals Industry, Educational Institutes, etc. Some Botanists choose to teach future generations of scientists in secondary and post-secondary classrooms. Horticulturalist, Conservation Scientist and Plant Videographers are well paid. 

Biology Teacher

If you want to become a Biology teacher of in a Government School, you have to do B. Ed. course from any recognized institution like Poddar Group of Institutions, and further apply for teaching posts against the advertisement by the government and qualify the written examination and Interview. The package offered to Government teachers, especially in Rajasthan are highly rewarding and have attractive perks and draws many Biology graduates in this field. However, many top class private school teachers are also offered high packages.

Poddar Management and Training Institute offers B.Ed. (Biology) and the best feature of B. Sc. (Biology) course.  Besides, at Poddar International College, many major and minor, Faculty/Student Research Projects are being conducted, which are funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST) and University Grants Commission (UGC).

So students what more can you think of after Graduating in Biology? 

Disclaimer

 The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this article. The information contained in this article is provided on an ‘as is’ basis with no guarantees of accuracy or relevance. Any similarity with any other published article may just be a coincidence.

[the-cyberpunk-zeitgeist]

The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist

>>>𝕄𝕜𝕕𝕚𝕣 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"...

>>>ℂ𝕕 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕙𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕕.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕜𝕝𝕖𝕡𝕥.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>ℝ𝕦𝕟 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 <𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘-𝕗𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕕: 

      "𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪.𝕙" 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕>

>>>𝔼𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕘𝕖: "ℂ𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖. 𝕎𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕥."

>>>...

Flash into the past and look into the future. Recall the early stages of the digital age—the new millennium—and how, at the precipice of a thousand transformations, civilization was defined by its endless climbing innovation. In the 80’s and 90’s, when consumer use of the personal computer was infecting society like a virus, our entire idea of communication changed. The net became a pivotal point in shaping what it meant to be human. Through an ever-expanding web of information, human innovation seemed to spiral until promising “authorship over reality itself”. Those who felt constrained by the world, escaped into a fractal space with infinite possibilities of connecting with others. 

Douglas Rushkoff termed it ‘Cyberia’—a dreamlike place offering “a way to crack open our civilization’s closed-mindedness, and to allow for a millennial transition that offered something a lot better than apocalypse: consciously driven evolution”, but the mesmerizing unity in this newfound cyberscape didn’t last. What followed—what we see around us now—may lead us to believe that all is lost, but perhaps there’s something more than war, corporate politics, espionage. Perhaps, there still exist some humans among us interested in a higher cause: unlocking the mysteries.

While the net was first adopted solely by military personnel and groups of scientists across academia who saw fit to interconnect themselves for research and communication purposes, it soon fell into the hands of the geeks using hypertext forums to discuss niche hobbies or send pictures to one another. The net became a mystic place of interlocking minds, where interconnected collections of data contributed to the neural network of humans that composed a global brain. As this paradise aged, however, the desire of investors to monetize and capitalize from the cyberscape arose alongside it. Advertisements flooded the web; businesses sprung up in every forum, website, and chat client. It wasn’t long into the 21st century that the nature of the web was forever molded by a greed to optimize its use for social credit, capital, and leverage for everything from corporate intelligence, to data harvesting, to control and censorship of media. The symbol of freedom and exploration was thus transformed into a stratified market and a subversive survival game. It’s all so… Cyberpunk.  

In the 80’s and 90’s, alongside the rise of computers and the net, came the rise of Cyberpunk literature—a sci-fi subgenre defined by its retro aesthetics intermixed with contrasting commentary that showed us the wonders of new technology while simultaneously revealing the deep divide that emerged as a result of inequality. Pioneers like William Gibson in Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, and Katsuhiro Otomo in Akira revealed the true impact of this divide. In a world where everyone in the streets is chromed up with augmented cybernetic prostheses, but can still hardly afford to eat—a world where cities have been replaced by endlessly sprawling megalopoli—we’re left immersed in the aesthetics of ‘high tech-low life’ people struggling to get by. 

Cyberpunk showed sci-fi fans what it might look like if kleptocratic corporations spiralled further and further into the power vacuum created by advancing technology. If caution and regulation aren’t put in place to protect the people from marvelous creations that humanity could hardly predict outside of science fiction, the people are further exploited and economic classes are further stratified. When this is combined with life-threatening dangers around every corner, the difference between economic class can mean life and death. 

While the additional flourishes of weapons-grade cyborgs, sentient and sentimental artificial intelligence, and laser guns can make Cyberpunk seem like a farfetched reach into a future that will never come, I am here to tell you that this is Society, and we are living in it. Around the world, rising sea levels begin to swallow more of the coastline, and megafires consume any shred of nature or infrastructure in their path. Both of these events are spurred by human-driven climate change which is created in large part by first-world corporations churning out fossil fuels or slicing up rainforests for profit. The global hivemind that is the internet has become the limitless communications apparatus we wanted it to be, but it is covered in adverts and subverts its users attempts to harness its power with misinformation, propaganda, and profit-driven exclusive content. Riots over authoritarian state measures have propped up not only in the United States, but in Hong Kong, Belarus, and all across the globe. Pandemic disease and refugee crises displace hundreds of thousands of humans each year, and the rich keep getting richer by the billions.

In more recent Cyberpunk writing like William Gibson’s The Peripheral, Gibson describes the Jackpot:

And first of all that it was no one thing. That is was multicausal, with no particular beginning and no end. More a climate than an event, so not the way apocalypse stories liked to have a big event, after which everybody ran around with guns… or else were eaten alive by something that caused the big event. Not like that.

It was androgenic… that meant because of people. Not that they’d known what they were doing, had meant to make problems, but they’d caused it anyway. And in fact the actual climate, the weather, caused by there being too much carbon, had been the driver for a lot of other things. How that got worse and never better, and was just expected to, ongoing. Because people in the past, clueless as to how that worked, had fucked it all up, then not been able to get it together to do anything about it, even after they knew, and now it was too late.

...it killed 80 percent of every last person alive, over about forty years.

Jackpot. The repercussions of humanity’s actions finally catch up, and those bits of humanity that do remain are saved by an extreme surge in innovation that manages to save society’s elites. As Douglas Rushkoff puts it in his recent essay The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods, more and more of those who have the capital to do so have already begun their plans, whether those plans are to escape to Mars or to set themselves up with a cushy work-from-home job while the lower class workers are forced into the public during the pandemic crisis. The need to automate away positions for the safety of our species is becoming even more prevalent than it once was in the minds of corporate conglomerates, but the cancerous overgrowth of our bureaucracy has become so bloated and tripped up in its own processes that we can no longer look to our political systems to keep up with the exploitation of innovation. Lo and behold, the world’s looking pretty CPAF to me.

Where have the visions of Cyberia gone? What happened to the early stages of internet punks, pushed aside in their desire to surf the datasphere purely for the rush of uncovering swathes of data? Where did visions of “authorship over reality itself” twist to become ‘authorship over reality by those with the capital to control’? It may seem that this explosive spiral of technological innovation in the new millennium is driving us towards extinction and only saving those with enough coins in their pockets to buy a ticket on the ark, but perhaps it’s not too late to change course and save ourselves from the ultimate Jackpot.

United by the global nature of the net, every one of us is connected as a single living entity that is the Earth—a Technogaia. Developments in artificial intelligence promises us exponential increase in information processing capabilities across all fields. Breakthroughs in genetic engineering could allow us to delete diseases from our genomes, and have already shown minor success in the de-extinction of species. With the first cyborg part already installed in each of our pockets, every citizen can extend their minds beyond capacity; each one of us becomes a journalist at a moment’s notice when injustice needs to be documented and challenged. Nuclear, hydrogen, solar, and wind energy lead us towards a cleaner and greener future. The rise of urban ecology shows a path to optimize the use of space to lower humanity’s carbon impact while providing more space for habitat rehabilitation and the reintroduction of lost biodiversity.

In the palm of our hands, humanity has taken control of the world. With science and technology, we’ve become the manipulators, but if we do not recognize what our impact is on the Dao of Earth, we may tip the scales too far into the Chaos. I’ll be honest in saying things look grim, but these same innovations that have paved the way for flying killbots and smoke stacks spewing gases into the sky have given us the power to reshape the world in a beneficial image. Futurist politicians call for universal basic income in a world increasingly run by machines. Transhumanists pave the way for the radical extension of the human lifespan. Technogaians design solarpunk arcologies to house a society ready to save their Earth rather than one intent on consuming it. Cyberians fight for our rights to privacy and the freedom of information. Just as the visions of grim dystopias in the 80's and 90’s saw themselves transformed into modern realities, we can use humanity’s greatest tool—this near-deific domain over innovation—to mold this fractal reality into our vision. But is it chaos, order, or some harmonious Dao in between that we seek? 

No matter our choice, it’s going to take a lot of united high tech-low life cyberpunks to get there. This is the Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, and we’re living it.

For more works by The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, see our Twitter page @CyborgZeitgeist

[visceryl]

HPHM Profile: Konn

Art Credit: @zuulosdovah @angrynar​ @montdiarts​ Profile Credt: @hogwartsmysterystory​

- IDENTITY - 

Name: Konnor Levi Rainwater

Gender: Male

Age: 17 years old

Birth Date: September 21st, 1973.

Species: Metamorphmagus

Blood Status: Pureblood

Sexuality: Bisexual - leans mostly towards males.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality: English

Residence: Bloomsbury, London

Myer Briggs Personality Type: INTP - The Logician

- THE MAGE -

1st Wand: 

Holly Wood

Thunderbird Tail Feather

10 ¾ 

Reasonably Supple Flexibility

Holly wood is of the more rare variety of wand woods. Often considered protective and attracted to those who need help overcoming anger and imeptiosity. Typically their owners are engaged in a dangerous or spiritual quest. Thunderbird tail feathers are said to be great for transfiguration and are proceedingly difficult to master. They are sometimes said to fire curses when in danger.

2nd Wand: N/A. This boy refuses to lose his wand.

Animagus: An arctic fox 

Misc Magical Abilities: Nothing other than being a metamorphmagus.

Boggart Form: His brother, Allston, looking notably dead and enraged (a nod to being afraid of failing his loved ones).

Riddikulus Form: Milk spewing out of Allston’s nose and him busting out into laughter. (This is also a nod to a time

Amortentia: He smells like peppermint, a freshly cracked book, and petrichor. 

Amortentia: He smells something distinctly animal, faint smokiness, and lavender. 

Patronus: An Occamy.

Patronus Memory: When he becomes an animagus. While the actual process is miserable for him, being able to get to the end and have it work was monumental. It allowed him to feel some semblance of control and was a time he got incredibly close with Talbott.

Mirror of Erised: Himself and his brother side by side with their respective families, happy and laughing, their arms around each other.

Specialized/Favourite Spells:

Specializes in transfiguration spells

Protego (Usually always bailing his friends out of trouble)

Lumos (Who doesn’t need a good light spell)

Expelliarmus (In duelling, he always tries to disarm first)

- APPEARANCE - 

Faceclaim:

Game Appearance:

Height: 5′8

Weight: 142 lbs

Physique: Slender, built for speed and stealth rather than strength.

Eye Colour: A stormy blue, though as a metamorphmagus, it changes.

Hair Colour: Platinum blonde, this changes based on his moods but always returns back to its original color.

Skin Tone: A warm ivory.

Body Modifications: Later on, he gets a fox tattooed on his arm.

Scarring: Konn ends up with a few magical burns. One on his shoulder, another in the dead center of his back. He also has a much more notable blade wound across his abdomen and a permanent knick just beneath one of his eyes that is usually concealed by freckles. He conceals everything.

Inventory: 

A golden snitch

Fox treats (For his pet fennec) 

A casset player/tapes he got from Hal Greywind

A blue goldstone crystal necklace

His journal and quill

His wand

An occamy he keeps hidden in a pouch

His Amaranthine Broom (not always on his person)

- ALLEGIANCES -

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ilvermorny House: Horned Serpent

Affiliations/Organizations:

The Order of the Phoenix

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Slytherin

Professions:

A spy for The Order of the Phoenix

Professional bailsman for his brother

Sometimes odd jobs for his covers

A tutor during his time at Hogwarts

- HOGWARTS INFORMATION -

Class Proficiencies: (He’s a nerd brain, have mercy)

Astronomy: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Charms:  ★★★★★★★☆☆

DADA: ★★★★★★★☆☆

Flying:  ★★★★★★★★★☆

Herbology: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

History of Magic: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Potions: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Transfiguration:  ★★★★★★★★★★

Electives:

Care of Magical Creatures

Alchemy

Apparition

Study of Ancient Runes

Quidditch: Slytherin Seeker since year 3 all the way through year 7.

Extra Curricular: 

Dueling Club

Ethren’s D&D Club (He tried to keep him from joining but Konn kept sneaking in.)

Quidditch

Favourite Professors: McGonagall

Professor McGonagall is someone Konn looks up to immensely. As he specializes in Transfiguration and later begs to undergo the ritual for becoming an Animagus, she is his closest and greatest ally and teacher. She always looks out for him and presents him with more opportunities to further his skill.

Least Favourite Professors: 

Rakepick: As far as things go with Rakepick, her entire duration as a professor always rubbed Konn the wrong way. He hated her secrecy and interference with the Vaults. He begrudgingly worked with her to gain information and to find his brother, mostly using her as she used him.

Snape: He is mostly disliked due to the toxic relationship he develops with Konn. Always pushing Konn to higher standards than everyone else in unachievable ways, Konn always felt the need to meet them as Snape showed he cared for him and was his HoH. As someone afraid of failure, this was always something that stressed Konn. (Not to mention Snape always praises Merula.)

- RELATIONSHIPS -

Brother: Allston Rainwater

Pureblood Wizard

Attended Hogwarts as a Slytherin

His Animagus form is a Golden Jackal

Allston acted as Konn’s parental figure for the most part. The two were inseparable. His love for his brother outweighs just about everything else.

He never wanted to get involved with the Vaults, but was given no choice.

Allston abstained from having any relations with anyone, often saying he had too much on his plate between the Vaults and his brother. Though later when Konn gives him a normal life, he’s revealed to be straight and marries a muggle woman, having two kids with her.

Misc Siblings: N/A

Father: Roland Rainwater

44 years old

Works for the Ministry of Magic as a high ranking official

Pureblood Wizard

Attended Hogwarts as a Slytherin

Had little interest in his actual kids, spent most of his time working and out of the house, only coming around with gifts just to disappear again.

Very wealthy.

It was suspected later that he was responsible for working with R and that he had pressured Allston into searching for the Vaults.

Mother: Charlotte Rainwater

42 years old

Pureblood Witch

Works as a journalist and writer, always traveling and hunting her next big thing.

Attended Hogwarts as a Ravenclaw.

She was always a bit of a narccisist. Always obssessed with her own career and luxury earninings. She spends big and lives freely, using her work as an excuse for the neglect she left her children with.

Love Interest: Talbott 

Towards the start, Talbott wanted nothing to do with Konn. He found him dangerous and obssessive, his constant trouble-making with the Vaults always causing him to worry.

Konn crushed on him first after seeing how he worked with Transfiguration and learned he was an Animagus.

In attempts to get Talbott to notice him and strike jealousy, Konn asked Tonks to be his fake date to the ball. This rouse failed miserably as Talbott just thought they were dating.

During 5th year, Konn finally confessed how he felt. Talbott had his reserves, but agreed to a first date.

They compliment each other really well. Both specializing in the same areas, Talbott’s cool and collected often soothes Konn’s rampant lack of control, while Konn often convinces Talbott to come out of his shell.

While still chasing Talbott, over a summer, Konn and Hal have a brief fling before realizing they’re more like brothers and wondering what the hell they were thinking.

Best Friends: 

Nymphadora Tonks

Rowan Khanna

Rival: Merula

Enemy: R, Rakepick, his father, and later on (I think for everyone) Voldemort, Ben Copper.

Dormmates: 

Rowan

Barnaby

Murphy

Orion

Pets: His pet Fennec Fox, Vulcan. Vulcan was gifted to him by Allston right before he vanished. It is speculated Allston went home, left the gift, then went back to Hogwarts where he was finally trapped.

Closest Canon Friends:

Talbott Winger

Nymphadora Tonks

Rowan Khanna

Tulip Karasu

Barnaby Lee

Jae Kim

Charlie Weasley

Closest MC Friends:

Hal Greywind @one-very-angry-hufflepunk​

Ethren Whitecross @hogwartsmysterystory​

Kaina Malin @zuulosdovah​

Uriel Nightclaw @montdiarts​

Skylar Morningstar @angrynar​

Daisy Withers @ruby-and-opal-withers​

BACKGROUND/HISTORY

As an infant, Konnor was nannied by an elderly woman hired through services. She was strict and cold, pushing his incredibly young mind to work before it was ready. This was when he showed signs of being a metamorphmagus, always seeming to scare the living daylights out of the woman who could never keep up with walking into a room and seeing a different baby each time.

By the time Konnor had turned four, Allston was his primary caretaker. The two brothers were inseparable, always learning, exploring. They had great fun teasing all the teachers and incoming caretakers together. It just so happened, they also took more fun in seeing how much they could milk from their parents. Pizzas every night, horror movies on the screen. It was through fun, companionship, and love that Konn shaped and grew into a more controlled state. He was smart, always pushing Allston to teach him more and more. It got quite lonely once Allston began going to Hogwarts and leaving all year save for holidays and summer, but they wrote religiously and Konnor would always be bouncing and ready to beg his brother to share all he’d learned during the year once he returned.

Hogwarts. At this stage in Konnor’s life, it was finally his turn to go to the grand school he’d been itching to attend ever since his brother had… but it came bittersweet. Allston had never come home to celebrate his acceptance letter. Had never come home to prep, to plan, to discuss what happened that year. He’d vanished, and with it he took most of Konn’s excitement and control. As emotions ran rampant in the boy, he started his years at the school a freak. Lonely. They all talked about his brother, the expectations for himself. There was little love or care in what he did save for seeking out his brother. Many may say he grew jaded, untamed, obsessive. There was only one thing that really clung to his heart, the fennec fox his brother had left behind for him as a pet.

Indirectly, his parents taught him many things. Konnor, at heart, grew to be quite frugal, never taking advantage of anything given to him (lest it was another gift from his father that meant nothing at all). He was also taught what family really meant, that it was between those who meant something to you and should be protected at all costs. Though on a much opposite end, he also found he had to work twice as hard for any recognition, always pushing himself above and beyond to be anything great. Especially when he had Allston to impress.

After leaving Hogwarts at the end of his schooling, Konn went on reunited with his brother in full. While Allston never rejoined the wizarding world fully, becoming something of a vigilante to hunt down those that’d wronged him and threatened his family, Konn began avidly seeking out the Order. He was quickly accepted as a spy, doing frequent operation work while maintaining a line on his brother and making sure he stayed out of danger.

At one point, he was approached by a Death Eater, and nearly underwent necessary precaution to become a double agent, but Allston, Hal, and Talbott quickly ushered against the idea of their brother, friend, and lover being marred permanently by a symbol and risking his life more than he already did.

During the heat of the war, Konn asked Talbott to always be his. They then promised each other that once the battle and hardships were over, they’ll consider marriage and having a family together. However, it is quickly discovered it wouldn’t be so simple.

It is found out that in Konn and Allston’s attempts to bring their father to justice that he’s murdered in order to keep whatever secrets he might have had. This is then promptly framed on Allston who it catches up to later alongside much of his vigilante practices. When faced with the hard decision to persecute his own brother, Konn instead begs Talbott to help him remove Allston’s memories and give him a normal life. Removing all of Allston’s memories and replacing them with something much more mundane, they move Allston to America where he’s finally free from the perils of the wizarding world.

Konn never appears to be the same after losing his brother for good, but lives the rest of his life working and watching out for any oncoming threats. He and Talbott eventually do settle down with two adopted children together.

- PERSONALITY - 

Protective: Konn is protective of his loved ones to a fault. Deep rooted with paranoia, he is constantly fretful for his loved ones and does everything in his power to keep them safe while still trudging through the hell that is their experience in Hogwarts and beyond. He’s quick to jump at the defense of his friends and family, not afraid to risk his own hide in the process should it be necessary.

Short Tempered: Of his many rampant emotions, anger is the quickest one to flare and show. Anytime he’s frustrated or annoyed, someone is bound to know. Whether it be his shortness or the flaming red hair, you’re welcome to take your pick of context. He’s very quick to annoy and while true anger from him is hard to achieve, petty anger and annoyance is almost constant. Droning noises, interruptions, and blatant stupidity are all quick to grate his nerves.

Stubborn: Konn has never been one to back down from anything, and he never intends to. Driven by a need to prove himself and inability to let something go, he will see something through to the very end. This allows him all the qualities of a hard worker. He gives everything his all without any intention of slowing or stopping. Sometimes this also means doing the work for others if they can’t keep up.

Intelligent/Cunning: While irritating on many levels when he tries to be the smartest person in the room, Konnor truly is smart. He often gets things faster than most and while conventional learning is useless, his hands on learning style allows him to learn on the fly. He almost always has an answer for everything and uses this to aid himself and his friends whenever they’re caught in a bad situation. He also consistently keeps good grades on everything while at Hogwarts.

Ambitious: It’s no surprise as a Slytherin that Konn tends to aim high. Though not in the standard many may think, he doesn’t want glory or fame or money. His ambitions are often geared towards his power and loved ones. Whether it be proving to the world he can take down the Vaults and save his brother, getting all his loved ones out alive, furthering his own power, or even taking down R himself. He’s the kind to look at a challenge and want nothing more than to conquer it.

Loyal: Alongside his protectiveness, Konn would never leave someone he cared for behind. He’s not even the type to leave someone he cared very little for behind. Including Merula on some occasions. As far as Konn is concerned, the only person allowed to bully his people are him. He is quick to rise to any occasion to stick by and protect his friends. Should they need a hand in battle, to get out of detention, or simply a shoulder to cry on, he tries to always be there.

MISC

NOTE: This section may update from time to time.

Konn lives in Bloomsbury, London when not attending Hogwarts in the Rainwater family home and often invites his friends over to stay with him during the summer.

He’s attempted to play many instruments including the violin, flute, and piano but never felt it was for him in the end and lost his touch if he ever acquired it.

Despite never having much room to prove it, he is a huge animal lover and adored his time working with Magical Creatures, often wishing he’d spent more time dedicating to it.

Konn was born with awful vision, but as he learned to control his metamorphmagus abilities, his eyesight also varied and improved.

No one is really sure whether his metamorphmagus abilities were inherited or not.

Konn comes from a small family of only two uncles, an aunt, and three cousins on his dad’s side of the family. His mother was an only child.

He listens to 80′s rock religiously after Hal introduced him to muggle music and what he learned was called a ‘cassette player’. Hal let him use it once and never got it back.

While his family is rich, spending money stresses Konn out. 

Much like his mother, he developed a knack for writing, however exclusively keeps it as a hobby

He let Hal try to teach him to shoot a gun once. He bruised his shoulder and after promptly startling himself into a new shape, vowed never to use one again.

Konn has never lost a game of Monopoly in his life.

After Rowan’s death, Konn blames Ben and fosters an incredible hatred for the boy after.

[many-eyed-seraph]

Aamir lovely Aamir?

Thank u thank u!!! Full Name: Aamir Singh Gender and Sexuality: Trans man, gay Pronouns: he/him Ethnicity/Species: Pakistani, human Birthplace and Birthdate: Karachi, May 25, 1873 Guilty Pleasures: He secretly really loves vaudeville theatre & music hall! Phobias: Roosters, they give him bad vibes What They Would Be Famous For: He is! He’s publishing a series of encyclopaedias and anthologies on different forms of magic around the world What They Would Get Arrested For: He’s been held by law enforcement for refusing to divulge information, but other than the occasional trespassing, bribery, and light B&E’s, he doesn’t really break the law OC You Ship Them With: Your OC James of course!!! OC Most Likely To Murder Them: I don’t have an OC that particularly hates him, oddly enough? Favourite Movie/Book Genre: He loves star-crossed romances, even if they make him cry! Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: He doesn’t really like action things, he gets bored Talents and/or Powers: He’s a researcher/journalist, and while he doesn’t have any magic of his own, he is fascinated by it and studies it! Why Someone Might Love Them: He’s very loving and good to spend time with Why Someone Might Hate Them: His fathers are very wealthy, and he’s definitely got some ideas regarding wealth and class that he’s got to unlearn. He genuinely isn’t malicious about it, but he can be a snob sometimes How They Change: He settles down and gets married, and becomes happier and kinder overall! Why You Love Them: I don’t often make OCs who aren’t motivated by spite and/or malice, so Aamir is special to me

[didanawisgi]

by Vasudevan Mukunth, 14/FEB/2021

“Not Helping: WHO Is Confused About Whether SARS-CoV-2 'Leaked From a Lab'

By controlling every aspect of the origins investigation, the Chinese government has closed off every avenue to disprove that it isn't influencing the investigation's outcomes.

The WHO has issued conflicting messages about the novel coronavirus’s origins, as a result reviving an unlikely debate about whether the virus really could have escaped into the wild from a biosafety lab in Wuhan, China.

Researchers have been able to date the first human cases of the novel coronavirus to late 2019, in China. These infections first hit international headlines in January 2020 after an outbreak in Hubei province attracted the WHO’s attention. Since then, the virus has spread around the planet via humans, infected 107.8 million (cumulative) and killed 2.3 million, and has thrown the world into chaos.

Through most of 2020, scientists have been busy investigating the new virus’s structure and biochemistry, its infection’s salient characteristics and developing antiviral drugs and vaccines to help save lives and allow economic activities to resume.

Some scientists have also been curious about how the new virus could have emerged in the wild. They have said knowing the virus’s origins could help decipher the conditions in which these microbes ‘jump’ from wild animals to humans, how they evolve in the first place, and how human pressures like deforestation and climate change can influence the likelihood of these events.

China has complicated this investigation. The leaders of some countries – but especially Trump’s USA and Australia – have alleged that the Chinese government has obfuscated COVID-19’s origins by withholding important information from the WHO and other bodies.

The background

In February 2020, a team of WHO scientists visited China and came away praising Chinese authorities’ efforts to contain the outbreak. But in November, the New York Times reportedthat in an effort to ensure China cooperated with WHO processes, the WHO gave the Asian superpower too many concessions – but at the same time compromised a review of China’s initial response to the outbreak.

In May 2020, India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan took over as the chairman of the World Health Assembly, the body that determines the WHO’s agenda. The assembly resolved to investigate the virus’s origins, with China demanding that the investigation be led by the WHO and happen once the country had brought its COVID-19 epidemic under control.

An international team of researchers commenced this project in January, planning to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Huanan wet market and a laboratory of the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control. Reuters reported that they wouldn’t interview any community members in Wuhan “due to health restrictions”.

On February 9, one member of the investigating team said at a press conference that of the four possibilities the WHO was considering of the virus’s origins, the team would reject one: that the virus accidentally leaked from a level-4 biosafety (highest level of precautions) lab in Wuhan.

But on February 12, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists that the WHO considers all hypotheses to still be “open” and requiring “further study”. Experts have taken this to mean the “lab leak” possibility is still on the table and hasn’t been eliminated.

The other three possible origins are:

* The novel coronavirus ‘jumped’ directly from a wild animal to a human – for example from bats to humans

* The novel coronavirus ‘jumped’ from a wild animal to an animal of an intermediary species and then to humans – The SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 began after the SARS virus jumped from bats to civet cats and then to the humans domesticating them

* The novel coronavirus ‘jumped’ to humans through food products that hadn’t been processed properly

China has repeatedly denied that the virus leaked from a lab – but at the same time it hasn’t allowed independent researchers free access to its medical and research facilities, local experts or hospital data. BBC’s journalists even reported being followed around in Yunnan province and being told by local police that they need to stay away.

US President Donald Trump’s provocative comments calling SARS-CoV-2 a “Chinese virus” and berating the WHO for favouring China, with no substantiation, further muddled public debate and prevented any collaboration between agencies of the two countries. But while Trump didn’t help, it wasn’t as if China was keen to open up either.

For many months, the only major statement that the virus was natural was by Shi Zhengli, a scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology whose team was studying bat coronaviruses. She demanded an apology from Trump for “jeopardising the scientists’ academic and personal life”.

Science magazine quoted an evolutionary biologist in the US saying Shi’s words about the virus’s characteristics were “all logical, genuine and stick to the science as one would have expected from a world-class scientist and one of the leading experts on coronaviruses.”

Missing reasons

Peter Ben Embarek, the joint leader of the WHO’s investigation team (along with China’s Liang Wannian), seemed to echo her words when he said on February 9 that the “leak hypothesis” was the most unlikely, and that the team would focus its efforts on the second possibility: of the virus ‘jumping’ from a wild animal to one that humans are known to domesticate, and then to humans.

However, Shi’s and Embarek’s assurances were accompanied by different levels of information. For example, experts asked how the team could make a new decision after no new evidence had emerged to favour one idea over another. They also pointed to holes in the team’s reasoning and the implications for doubts about whether China is still trying to bend the narrative in its favour.

According to Embarek, the “leak hypothesis” is disfavoured because “nowhere previously was this particular virus researched or identified or known. There had been no publications and no reports of this virus, or another virus extremely closely linked to this, being worked with in any laboratory in the world.”

But experts have asked why Embarek & co. haven’t investigated allegations that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been known to befog their work and that the institute’s public database of viruses was suddenly taken offline early last year.

Filippa Lentzos wrote for Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that Embarek’s inclination to dismiss the “leak hypothesis” is also flawed because he believes such leaks are “very unlikely” and “extremely rare”. She contented that rarity alone wouldn’t dismiss the possibility, and quoted investigative journalist Alison Young saying, “Lab accidents aren’t rare. What’s rare are accidents causing documented outbreaks. But those have happened, including with the first SARS virus.”

Lentzos went on to write that the team doesn’t appear to have considered an accidental infection of a researcher at the institute, logs of the institute’s adherence to daily safety protocols, detailed records from the labs that were studying coronaviruses, raw genomic data, etc.

Natural evolution

However, scientists have cautioned people to be careful about interpreting circumstantial evidence. For example, the “lab leak” hypothesis received an early boost because the Wuhan Institute of Virology is located close to the Huanan wet market, which many of the virus’s first victims had reportedly visited. And it seemed suspicious that both the new virus and the subject of researchers’ study at the institute belonged to the Coronaviridae family…

… or it would be if not for one detail: coronaviruses have already been responsible for two major infectious disease outbreaks this century (SARS and MERS). So it is only to be expected that virologists are working with ‘known defaulters’ instead of other viruses.

In fact, the “leak hypothesis” has not been popular among independent scientists because all the reasons in its favour have been circumstantial, not conclusive, and also because there is a smattering of data that makes it unlikely. As Prasad Ravindranath, science editor of The Hindu, pointed out, the virus’s genome doesn’t contain any indication of human tampering.

This is an important point: that there is every chance that the virus could have evolved naturally. So it is very difficult for scientists to rule out the possibility of a natural origin (followed by one of the three other routes to the human population). This means any team will have to find incontrovertible proof of the institute’s or any other facility’s involvement to be able to claim that the virus “leaked” from a lab. Such proof doesn’t exist.

Ravindranath quoted David Robertson, a professor of viral genomics at the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, saying, “Although showing differences in sequence similarity, SARS-CoV-2 looks very much like a natural virus transferred from the same horseshoe bat species as the first SARS virus, and is now evolving as would be expected in the human population.”

Ravindranath also noted that the novel coronavirus’s receptor binding domain resembled that of coronaviruses isolated from some pangolins, leading to speculation last year that pangolins could have been the intermediary species.

Shot in the foot

Taken together: there is no data at present to prove that the “leak hypothesis” is true – but the investigators’ inability to provide good reasons to reject the hypothesis, even as they seem intent on rejecting it, is what observers find troubling. This in turn has opened the door to reservations about international politics affecting what had to be, but perhaps never couldbe, a thoroughly scientific investigation.

However, Shambhavi Naik, a research fellow at the Takshashila Institution, had cautioned in May 2020 that political issues were likely to muddy the WHO investigation of the virus’s origins because of the WHO’s limited mandate and the “reputation cost” associated with allegations – popular at the time – that the virus could be a “bioweapon”.

The need for solid proof raises its head here as well. The WHO may not be interested in “bioweapon” claims because this is the domain of the Biological Weapons Convention. The convention requires a member country to lodge a request for an investigation and can’t pursue one of its own volition. And if at the end it doesn’t find any evidence for the “leak hypothesis,” Naik wrote, “the political and diplomatic fallout for the complainant” could be “massive” for having offended China.

Ultimately, China may be its own undoing. By closely controlling every aspect of the origins investigation, the Chinese government has closed off every avenue to disprove that this control isn’t influencing the WHO investigation’s outcomes.

The WHO team has left China, saying it may return to other locations around the country – and explore possibilities that the virus could have originated in other countries before popping up in Hubei – in future. However, Gerry Shih and Emily Rauhala reported that the Chinese media had launched narratives freeing the country of blame for the pandemic and of Chinese ministers asking for the WHO to investigate US labs – by February 9 itself. As a result, they wrote, “the UN health agency has been caught in the middle” and China “is already trying to move on”.”

[the-record-keepers]

[Student Files: Amy Abbot]

Name: Amy Abbot

Age: 18 (20)

Height: 170 cm

Eye Colour: Russet Brown

Hair Colour: Coffee Brown

Homeland: Land of Pyroxene

Species: Tree nymph

Occupation: Student (Undercover Journalist)

Dorm: Octavinelle

Year/Class: Year 3 Class A Seat 1

Best Subject: Magical History

Club: Movie Appreciation Club

Hobby: Photography

Bad with: Shady/Suspicious People

Favourite Food: Peanut Brittle

Disliked Food: Seafood

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Unique Magic: Unearthing Memories

This unique magic can alter/unlock/erase a person's memory/memories via touch

This can be used to suppress memories of an individual or even make up fake memories for them.

Depending how locked up/treasured a memory is the more magic the user needs to expel in order to suppress, alter, or unearth it

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• Amy is an undercover reporter posing as a 3rd year junior. With the help of her friend she managed to be able to transfer to Night Raven Collage at the middle of the semester.

• She feels a bit uncomfortable in her current situation considering she's basically an adult disguising herself as a student and is surrounded by teenage boys.

• For the most part she's very motherly and kind towards everyone, but if a guy ever tries to ask her out she turns them down in the harshest way possible. She's very uncomfortable with the idea of the students asking her out because of the age difference, it's very creepy to her. Because of this she mostly spends her time with the other girls or wandering around in her own.

• She's developed a bit of a reputation as the resident tutor for the students that are struggling magically.  This is mostly because of her deal with Azul where in exchange for security footage she'll tutor the students that go to Azul seeking for help in raising their grades. Amy doesn't like this but she's bound by the golden contract and can't do anything.

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“There’s something peculiar happening around this school, I don’t trust that shifty crow....”

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Reference Sheet

Edit: I added Amy's unique magic