#classified cultivator

[harahello]

Trying to research Hara and it's just YOUR GUARDIAN ANGEL TODAY!! esque blog pages with the same vague stuff pasted over and over I just want actual sources aaaaa. I can't even find where I pulled his choir placement from back in fucking 2020. I think it was the catholic angel hierarchy??? maybe???? I've read in his christianity specific interp his superior is michael ( cannot find source this interp is even like a thing??? i just keep seeing it on these pages alongside his jewish interp) i've also read he answers to ariel as a superior, to raphael but no sOURCE or links to any texts. And then not that this matters much but I also see conflicting portrayals of him as a masc figure vs a femme one.

The most info I can find is that he's one of the big man's names and even then I can't track down what number or anything beyond thAT

[fatehbaz]

A team of Indigenous Yucuna women in the Colombian Amazon are rescuing and documenting the remaining oral knowledge on bees and their roles in the ecosystem, along with the traditional classification system of diverse bee species. With the help of nine elders, they are documenting and sketching tales and songs to gather bee names, characteristics, behaviors, roles in their crop fields and the places where bees build beehives. [...]

Je’chu [...]. “He is [...] our grandfather,” narrates Carmenza Yucuna Rivas, leader of the Miriti-Parana Indigenous Reserve in Colombia, located in the Amazon Rainforest. [...] “Beehives [...] give us the opportunity to create chakras [food gardens typically using an agroforestry model with divers plant species] [...]. They let us have something to cultivate [...] in the first place.”

To rescue and document the remaining oral knowledge of the origin of bees in their culture and their importance to their ecosystems and territory, Carmenza is leading research about these species with 36 women from the 12 communities part of the Indigenous reserve. [...]

---

Since the second half of 2020, Carmenza and her colleagues have been going to each of the communities and speaking to elders to gather information, such as tales and songs that talk of the origin of the bees. They also draw [...]. Each of them has taken the task of sketching the stories on paper to describe the insects.

Their aim is to classify the bees according to the cultural system of the Yucuna-Matapí, Tanimuca-Letuama, and Tuyuca-Macuna peoples, including their names, characteristics, and the places where they build the beehives.

---

Carmenza describes one by one the most relevant bees in the territory. The munumunú are the Melipona, that is, the bees that produce honey; the mapa or mapachara are the ones that produce the wax that is used for healing and rituals; the mapakayuna are small and live next to the crops to guarantee their productivity; and the jiñuna “are a great species,” says Carmenza. They live in the Yavarí coconut trees on the river shore where they build huge yellow beehives. [...] Carmenza says that even with the research process and its results, the findings and daily learnings keep surprising them. [...]

---

“We’ll take all this knowledge to schools so that teachers can share it with the kids and show them the tales, the drawings, and the classifications and talk about the value of bees in culture. But also, so that they know that bees aren’t beings without importance,” says Carmenza. “They care for us without realizing it. They, through the pollination of trees and flora, help the world breathe.”

---

Headline, images, captions, and all text published by: Astrid Arellano, as translated by Maria Angeles Salazar. “Indigenous women record age-old knowledge of bees in Colombia’s Amazon.” Mongabay. 8 February 2023. [Originally published by Arellano as “El origen de las abejas: la importancia del conocimiento ancestral indígena para salvarlas en Colombia” at Mongabay’s Latam site on 12 August 2022.]

[drchucktingle]

Hi Dr. Tingle,

I just wanted to say, as someone who has been in the Homestuck fandom for a long time, that I'm so sorry people connected to the game and the comic have been so unnecessarily unkind to you, and that they've carried on this bit so far past the point of decency. Homestuck as a piece of media is deeply saturated with a very particular brand of early 2010s online irony, and there are some folks in the fandom who just refuse to let it go.

I think there are a lot of people out there who choose to take your sincerity as mockery, because to do otherwise would force them to confront their own cynicism and irony-poisoning and commit to self reflection in a way that they're not willing to do at this point in their lives. I'm not saying they're inherently bad people, because I don't believe that and (based only on the limited snapshot of yourself that you give to the world) I don't think you would either, only that they're making unkind decisions out of a fear of difference. Your work is both delightfully fun and incredibly meaningful, for me and a lot of others, and I just wanted to say that.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, so I'll just say that I hope your day is going well if/when you're reading this.

Respectfully,

Ray/cultivating-saplings

P.S. I would classify Hussie as a light scoundrel, in a 'season 1 villain who you can tell is eventually going to move into the heroes' apartment later in the show and hang out eating all of their chips' sort of way.

P.P.S. I like your lab coat :]

i do not have a lot to respond with other than I LIKE THIS MESSAGE and i think you are correct not just with this way of a specific fandom but with a HUGE PORTION OF THE INTERNET and a certain age range who trotted up in online forums and various websites.

there is a deep deep deep irony poisoning going on with some of these buckaroos and i think my trot kind of short circuits that and it is difficult for these folks to grapple with it. i think when you are used to every single thing on the internet being drenched in irony and every big reveal of an online presence being some keyboard goofball 'trotting for the lulz' it can be very difficult to see chuck and just accept that i am sincere. i have empathy for this.

i should also add that, of course, not all irony is bad. too much can be very destructive though.

all i can do is keep creating my art and being sincere about it, and i think the longer that continues to more irony poisoning will drain from some of these veins. that is one way i can prove love is real i think.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

On 7/31/2019 Trump has a private meeting with Putin. On 8/3/2019, just 3 days after his private meeting with Putin Trump issues a request for a list of top US spies. By 2021 the CIA reports an unusually high number of their agents are being captured and/or being murdered. During the search executed at Mar A Lago the FBI find nore documents with lists of U.S. informants on them.

A Timeline

• FBI wiretapped Russian gambling ring headquartered at Trump Tower for two years - March 21, 2017

• Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador - May 15, 2017

• Trump, Putin Meet For 2 Hours In Helsinki - July 16, 2018

• Rand Paul Goes To Russia And Delivers Letter For Trump, Marking Our Era Of Irony - August 9, 2018

• Following the Money: Trump and Russia-Linked Transactions From the Campaign to the Presidential Inauguration - December 17, 2018

• The US extracted a top spy from Russia after Trump revealed classified information to the Russians in an Oval Office meeting - September 10, 2019

• Trump’s Loose Lips Force US to Extract Spy From Kremlin - September 10, 2019

• Was Mar-a-Lago Trespasser a Tourist or a Spy? A Judge Said Her Story Didn’t Hold Up. - November 25, 2019

• Trump downplays massive cyber hack on government after Pompeo links attack to Russia - December 19, 2020

• Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset for 40 years, former KGB spy says - January 29, 2021

• There was Trump-Russia collusion — and Trump pardoned the colluder - April 17, 2021

• Longtime GOP operatives charged with funneling Russian national’s money to Trump, RNC - September 20, 2021

• Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants - October 5, 2021

• Files Seized From Trump Are Part of Espionage Act Inquiry - August 12, 2022

• Ex-Clinton aide implies 'President of France' file found at Trump's home during Mar-a-Lago raid could be valuable to Putin as 'kompromat' - August 13, 2022

• Inventing Anna: The tale of a fake heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI investigation - August 22, 2022

• Russians used a US firm to funnel funds to GOP in 2018. Dems say the FEC let them get away with it - October 30, 2022

• Trump makes shocking comments about trusting Putin over US 'intelligence lowlifes' - January 31, 2023

• Russia's Prigozhin admits links to what US says was election meddling troll farm - February 14, 2023

• GOP operative sentenced to 18 months for funneling Russian money to Trump- February 17, 2023

• Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: Sources - October 5, 2023

• 'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president - April 24, 2024

🤔🤔🤔

[jayrockin]

With tube plants, I’m really curious if any are edible, and if so what’re they like, and how avian culture sees them. While Taxonomically they’re animals, does avian culture consider them plants? For a random example, let’s say the avians, like us, had a religious period where they can’t eat meat. Would worm plants be considered off limits, or the same as anything else? Not saying that religion or whatever exists, it’s just the first frame of reference I could think of. Another example might be how fungi are considered vegetables, but are an entirely different kingdom.

As for eating, I’m curious if they have a more meat-like texture and taste, or a more plant-like one. I’m assuming the former. If they’re eaten, what are the parts that are eaten and how are they usually prepared? Do the avians have any traditions or culture regarding the tube, like we do with wishbone breaking or bone carving? Is it possible to farm them, and are they?

Avian cultures usually classify plantworms in the same group of food as shellfish, which they resemble the most nutritionally. They are more like a clam than a plant. Many are toxic as a defense against being eaten, but the ones avians can consume are usually cooked whole (in or out of shell) unless a specific body part is unpalatable (usually the gut or frond tentacles). For larger worms, they may be trimmed down to the tastiest part, the retractor muscle. It's very possible to farm them, and many are also cultivated for their beauty as landscaping plants. Their tubes are most commonly used to make plaster for building, or beads.

Vegetarianism is overall more rare in avian cultures than ours because they have a higher calorie-per-pound requirement than humans and many live on small islands where grain agriculture is more difficult to live off exclusively than fishing. There are several grades of culturally distinct pescetarian diets in modern avian cultures though, some of which view eating large "vertebrates" as unacceptable, land animals as unacceptable, vertebrates in general as unacceptable, only plantworms are acceptable, or hardline only plant matter and eggs (which may or may not include plant worm "leaves and flowers"... which can grow back). Hardline vegetarianism or veganism is more common among flightless avian cultures, who historically have had the most arable land.

[sleepy-salami]

ok I found this translation

...tbh "it wasn't an accident" is the vaguest thing she could possibly say and there's zero mention of Xue Yang or the Jins, so we're back to the poll

ok questions gang. novelverse specifically:

[space-atrium]

Jiuyuan (scumcum) au where something goes wrong when the system trys to plop sy into sj body

(It arrives to early)

They end up in this mind-void space with the system; sy and sj start arguing with the system.

Somehow sj convinces the system to give him the protag Halo, but the system also has to shift around the other character halos to accommodate this.

(Something something pidw already happened as a written story there for this version of the world is different ect ect)

As a consequence, the system gives Sy a love interest halo because all others are fixed to characters or violate some rule about transmigrators, but there's plenty of li-halos to go around!

Unfortunately giving sj the protag Halo turns the story's genre into a tragedy, neither shen want this, they want a different genre.

But the system actually isn't in charge of classifying genres, it can give missions and change character classification.

So the system makes sy an oracle, his mission to aide sj if they want to change the story's genre. The system release them back into the world, sy is just tossed somewhere in a freshly new adult body, inevitably gets trapped somewhere.

Sj first mission from the system: find sy!

Meanwhile sqh gets an alert from his system for an account upgrade.

His options are; upgrade his account to vip admin* and lose all acquired b points, or Continue with current status

(*Conditions apply)

I don't see sqh willing charging his system status so something will have to happen to force him.

This stuff all happened while sy and sj where in the mind-void space.

So sj mission, he has to leave the sect to do it, the system is unhelpful in giving info on where sy is, sj has to search by himself. When he finds sy, hes been imprisonment by some rogue cultivators??(villain of the week goons??).

(Sy had barley been in this world for a week when he got captured for being an oracle, Sj finds him almost a month later) Sj discovers that sy has a first level golden core and of course gets pissed about it, sy never even worked for that while sj still doesn't have one.

Sy like 'chill I know where all the overpowered cultivation boosters are; the system gives a new mission: help sj advance to golden core level 1 with oracle powers!

(It's more complicated then that; getting the right booster depends on, time of day, faze of moon, time of season, type of cultivation- spiritual or physical, or even if you have demon ancestry)

What follows is a quest that takes much longer then it should, getting sidetracked, lost, attacked, kidnapped… Sj has been away from the sect much longer than he said he would (yes sj did get his cultivation booster eventually).

Funny thing, sy has this stat according to the system called: GODs favorite (derogatory). He's gods favorite hater.

Sqh after going through things on his updated account finds out there are other system users! And he can contact them through his system!!

(And that someone else has the protag Halo!!??)

Sj and sy randomly get a notification for "message from GOD" yelling ensures.

Yes sy is sqh's oracle

[radiance1]

Sam has died, she lived a good, long life and died with no regrets. Which means she wouldn't have manifested inside the zone.

She reincarnates.

As a tree.

But not just any tree, it's a magical tree! She basically just has nature magic, thus that she can empower whatever crops are around her and cause them to grow healthy and strong.

Where is her tree planced?

On the Kent Farm.

Specifically, when Johnathan Kent was just a child, and would take his childhood friend Martha, over to Sam's body as their own little spot.

Also, Johnathan and Martha were the ones who took care of her from a sapling all the way until she gained awareness and such, could classify as her 'father'.

Sam watched the two grow from childhood friends to teenagers to adults, from childhood sweethearts to Husband and Wife. There wasn't any grand wedding or anything like that, but Johnathan led his wife towards Sam's tree body, asked her if she remembered this place- to which Martha said she could never forget- and they got married right then and there.

It was also the time that Sam gained the ability to 'show' herself, and did so. It was probably baffling to have a teenage (at least in looks) looking girl with leaves for hair and green skin to just appear from the tree, floating over them and saying that she'll bless their marriage to be successful and standing the tests of time.

But she thinks they got used to it when they realized that technically, since she came from the tree, they both cultivated from a sapling that she would be their daughter without blood.

They spent a few years like that, a family of two normal humans their tree spirit daughter. Funnily enough, nobody asked questions about where they got a teenage daughter from after only just coming out as married.

Then came along a child from the stars, one that John and Martha immediately took to as their own.

Clark Kent.

[frill-s]

So I've been thinking about a crossover between Return of the Mount Hua Sect and Scum Villain.

Cheong Myeong dies (for the second time) and transmigrates into PIDW, unknown to him.

He plans to stay away from the sects until he hears of the Bai Zhan, a peak full of strong immortals that aren’t, well, wimpy appearing like everyone else. Cheong Myeong takes the test, surprised to be met with a hill— oh, wait, no, that’s being classified as a mountain.

Cheong Myeong bypasses everyone else and ends up at the peak, grinning as he presents himself in front of the peak lord, Liu Qinggue. 

And, he supposes, that flying on a sword is pretty cool as well.

Shen Qingqiu takes one look at the pair, and mutters with distaste, “There’s two of them now.”

Shang Qinghua looked at Cheong Myeong like he’s a puzzle, before shouting, “Mount Hua Sect, right!?”

Disciples Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe meet them by accident. Luo Binghe’s found someone to look up to as a physical cultivator that's out of the norms, and Shen Yuan knows to stay out of Cheong Myeong’s way. No way will he turn into some thuggish delinquent!

update:

I've been thinking about this a little more, and realized that Cheong Myeong would have to instead be a rogue cultivator or something. Not because Bai Zhan Peak wouldn't be a great fit for him, but rather because of the colors of Bai Zhan.

White robes with blue accents are what Bai Zhan disciples wear, right?

Guess who else wears white robes with blue accents? Zhongnan/Southern Edge sect.

I don't think that Cheong Myeong would ever wear robes that were white and blue(outside of impersonating Zhongnan for personal gain).

Maybe something could be worked out, like Liu Qinggue letting Cheong Myeong wear black/white and pink robes instead if he lasted a certain amount of time against Liu Qinggue or killed a certain beast. I dunno. Ever since I realized that Zhongnan and Bai Zhan have similar robes, I've been trying to figure out how else it could work.

Cheong Myeong being a rogue cultivator popped into mind. Perhaps someone that had more freedom to do as he pleased... but alas, I still really like the idea of him being a disciple forced to put up with other disciples.

Or the idea of him being liked by Bai Zhan, and disliked by everyone else.

And the idea of him being the youngest Bai Zhan disciple for a couple of years because everyone was too afraid to join Bai Zhan after they heard rumors about the torturous training they did under Cheong Myeong's watch.

... I'm convincing myself again that this AU is possible, even with Bai Zhan's colors being white and blue. Hmm.

[helioscopepdx]

The Schweizer Guide to Spotting Tangents

A fantastic resource from friend-of-the-studio @schweizercomics, who wrote this guide back in 2011. Read on for a goldmine of information (and visual examples) about avoiding tangents in your work!

Comic art is, as a general rule, a line-based medium. I know, I know, there are plenty of artists whose work is painted, or who depict their subject in ink using solely light and shadow. But these folks are unquestioningly in the minority, as the history of printing technology originally dictated the use of line to depict form in the early days of comics. This became a stylistic expectation, and it’s an expectation that I enthusiastically embrace, as have many others. But using line to draw the world invites chances for that cardinal sin of composition: the tangent. 

A tangent is when two or more lines interact in a way that insinuates a relationship between them that the artist did not intend. It can create confusion on the part of the audience as to what it is that they’re looking at. It can cause the spatial depth that one attempts to cultivate through the use of planes to become flattened. Most of all, it creates a decidedly unwelcome aesthetic response: tangents are just plain ugly. There are a lot of different types of tangents, as least according to the way I define them. In order to make it easier on my students when giving critiques, I’ve categorized them and named them. This may have been done before, but I’ve not encountered it. My hope is that, by making this “spot-the-enemy” guide, fewer artists will fall into the tangent trap by knowing what to look for.   

1. The Long Line

The long line is when a line from one object runs directly into the line of another. This is the tangent that everybody knows. The one that’s easiest to spot, easiest to avoid.  For a lot of folks, this is the only thing meant when one refers to a “tangent.” Even in the work of the very best comic artists, a vigilant eye can find the occasional tangent.  Even when a cartoonist is constantly on the lookout, a tangent can slip through.  But, as each of strive to better ourselves and the quality of our work and our medium, 

2. The Parallel

The parallel tangent is when the containing lines of two objects run alongside each other.  This causes one of two negative outcomes.  Either one object becomes “lost,” as the other overpowers it (figure 1), or one object feels strangely contained by another (figure 2). This can be avoided by ensuring that any object that COULD run alongside another is angled at least 45 degrees from the first. The next two are REALLY tough to spot, and most artists have fallen victim to them before.   

3. The Corner

The corner tangent is when two lines in an object meet in a way intended by the artist, but another (accidental) line runs directly into the place where they meet.   

4. The Bump-Up

A bump-up tangent is when the containing line of one object “bumps up” against the containing line of another object.   When these two lines touch, it creates a bump-up tangent (and even when they don’t technically touch, if it’s close enough to raise eyebrows, they might as well).  The bump-up gives the impression of containment.  In figure 1, it seems as though her ponytail is physically unable to enter the space occupied by the pole.  In figure 2, it feels as though her elbow is unable to LEAVE that space.

Also, be careful not to let elements of the drawing bump up against your panel borders!  Either give them room to breathe or decisively crop them.   

5. The Directional

A directional tangent is basically just a long-line tangent that’s been broken by empty space.  Now, this one isn’t always bad – it can, on occasion, be used to draw the reader’s eye through the image on a specifically determined path.

6. The Panel-to-Panel

This one is exactly the same thing as the directional (in fact, I shouldn’t even classify it as its own thing), save that instead of empty space dividing a long-line it’s a panel gutter. My gutters are crazy wide, but with normal-sized gutters this can be a real problem.   One more thing… This ain’t a tangent, but it is a compositional no-no. 

Fake Panels

Comics generally have panel borders, so readers are used to having images contained by straight lines.  Some artists don’t allow gutters between their borders.  Though I believe that, as a rule, this can make it harder for new comics readers to follow the story (and new readers are always important), it’s done with enough regularity that we must expect the audience to feel comfortable with gutterless pages.  What does this mean?  It means that we can’t draw a straight line in any panel, either vertical or horizontal, without having some object overlap it.  If we do, readers may think that it is a panel border, incorrectly breaking one moment into two.

See how the overlap of the elbow causes there to be no question?

That's it for Lesson #1!

[yingandzhan]

Sects and Clans in MDZS.

I think I wrote something on this a while ago, but just to put it out there again - there are barely any mentions or much of an existence of SECTS in the actual novel. This is a huge mistranslation that is in both the ExR and 7Seas versions of the story.

This is actually an important story point because of the difference between sects and clans.

SECTS are based on personal merit and performance. The strongest lead and are given the important roles in managing the sect. This system is more like a school, where it doesn't matter what background you came from.

CLANS on the other hand, are based on bloodline and lineage. The offspring of the current mainline clan member who leads will take over when the time comes. It does not matter if they are weak or incompetent, whoever is next in line will become clan leader. This system is more like a royal family, where privilege and state are prevalent.

All of the so-called "sects" in MDZS are actually clans and are called as such in the Chinese text. It's the Lan Clan, the Wen Clan and so on. It's a really important part of MXTXs story because it shows us right from the start what WWX was up against. The world he is a part of is extremely classist, they look down upon those who don't have a certain name, status or bloodline.

It also shows us just how hard WWX actually worked to be ranked 3rd in the young masters of his generation! To have been awarded such a place, it meant people actually overlooked his status to award him on his looks and skills alone. It shows us just how hypocritical the cultivation world can be. When everyone bought into the rumours JFM treated WWX like his own (which he didn't, but we see others assumed as such) everyone treated him as a young master or as close to that as they would allow him to be. The minute JFM is dead and they see the way JC treats him, they all begin to disrespect him and turn against him.

The only mention of a sect throughout the whole entire novel is the one XXC and SL planned to form. I guess you could also classify what BSSR has on her secluded mountaintop as a sect, since there is no bloodline dictating a hierarchy. But overall, it is a huge fandom misconception that it is the Lan sect and Jiang sect - they are clans and it's incredibly important to the entire plot.

[honeytonedhottie]

how to successfully rebrand⋆.ೃ࿔*:･🧁

this post is a collaboration with my FAVORITE @prettieinpink. in this post we'll elaborate on rebranding urself and implementing change in a way that is not only efficient but not that difficult to do ✨

FLIP THE SCRIPT ;

write down who u wanna become. what ur goals are, what ur style is like, ur schedule, achievements, relationships etc. however instead of writing it like "it'll happen one day" write it as though it happened already.

on the flip side i want u to write down what u think hinders you or blocks u from making the rebrand that u want so desperately. ur weakness. then flip them and find solutions on how to deal with it entirely, or diminish it significantly.

EXPAND ON UR BEAUTY ;

learn how to do makeup that is suited for ur own features. learn which clothes and colors compliment and flatter you the best. when u try and use a cookie-cutter approach to beauty as a way to fit a standard, you won't feel/look ur best.

thats why its important to know your own self the very best. no one knows ur beauty and body like you do so only you know best how to make ur beauty bloom.

DEVELOP UR OWN STYLE ;

u dont have to follow along with every single trend that u see in the fashion industry. although its fun at times or the particular trend can inspire u to create more outfits, its important to have a sense of individuality when u dress.

i recommend creating a pinterest board and filling it up with clothes that u love and clothes that align with ur style. find a fashion inspiration or multiple if u dont know where to start. when u go shopping, reference this board and look for clothes that r similar to the clothes in ur pinterest board.

REFRESH BUTTON ;

block the numbers of people that keep u trapped in a version of urself that u no longer associate with. get comfy with the block button girlies!! you can control who sticks around you and you're directly responsible for protecting ur peace.

delete photos of people who are no longer in ur life (like, they hurt u or walked out of ur life/vice versa) change up ur environment and what ur staring at every single day. unfollow people on social media who dont inspire you/who make u feel bad about urself and where u are on ur rebranding journey.

ADAPT ;

remember that list that we made earlier? lets learn to adapt habits can cultivate that and make this rebrand thrive. identify nonsense in ur life and learn how to get comfortable with cutting it off.

EXECUTE ;

now its time to put everything that we've covered into a action with a few easy and simple steps.

do ur SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats)

create solutions to what u classify as ur weakness

commit to yourself and your rebrand

[fatehbaz]

Tallying every single tree in the kingdom. Endangered South Asian sandalwood. British war to control the forests. European companies claim the ecosystem. Failure of the plantation. Until the twentieth century, the Empire couldn't figure out how to cultivate sandalwood because they didn't understand that the plant is actually a partial root parasite, so their monoculture approach of eliminating companion species was self-defeating. French perfumes and the creation of "Sandalwood City".

---

Selling at about $147,000 per metric ton, the aromatic heartwood of Indian sandalwood (S. album) is arguably [among] the most expensive wood in the world. Globally, 90 per cent of the world’s S. album comes from India [...]. And within India, around 70 per cent of S. album comes from the state of Karnataka [...] [and] the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore. [...] [T]he species came to the brink of extinction. [...] [O]verexploitation led to the sandal tree's critical endangerment in 1974. [...]

---

Francis Buchanan’s 1807 A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar is one of the few European sources to offer insight into pre-colonial forest utilisation in the region. [...] Buchanan records [...] [the] tradition of only harvesting sandalwood once every dozen years may have been an effective local pre-colonial conservation measure. [...] Starting in 1786, Tipu Sultan [ruler of Mysore] stopped trading pepper, sandalwood and cardamom with the British. As a result, trade prospects for the company [East India Company] were looking so bleak that by November 1788, Lord Cornwallis suggested abandoning Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast and reducing Bombay’s status from a presidency to a factory. [...] One way to understand these wars is [...] [that] [t]hey were about economic conquest as much as any other kind of expansion, and sandalwood was one of Mysore’s most prized commodities. In 1799, at the Battle of Srirangapatna, Tipu Sultan was defeated. The kingdom of Mysore became a princely state within British India [...]. [T]he East India Company also immediately started paying the [new rulers] for the right to trade sandalwood.

British control over South Asia’s natural resources was reaching its peak and a sophisticated new imperial forest administration was being developed that sought to solidify state control of the sandalwood trade. In 1864, the extraction and disposal of sandalwood came under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. [...] Colonial anxiety to maximise profits from sandalwood meant that a government agency was established specifically to oversee the sandalwood trade [...] and so began the government sandalwood depot or koti system. [...]

From the 1860s the [British] government briefly experimented with a survey tallying every sandal tree standing in Mysore [...].

Instead, an intricate system of classification was developed in an effort to maximise profits. By 1898, an 18-tiered sandalwood classification system was instituted, up from a 10-tier system a decade earlier; it seems this led to much confusion and was eventually reduced back to 12 tiers [...].

---

Meanwhile, private European companies also made significant inroads into Mysore territory at this time. By convincing the government to classify forests as ‘wastelands’, and arguing that Europeans would improves these tracts from their ‘semi-savage state’, starting in the 1860s vast areas were taken from local inhabitants and converted into private plantations for the ‘production of cardamom, pepper, coffee and sandalwood’.

---

Yet attempts to cultivate sandalwood on both forest department and privately owned plantations proved to be a dismal failure. There were [...] major problems facing sandalwood supply in the period before the twentieth century besides overexploitation and European monopoly. [...] Before the first quarter of the twentieth century European foresters simply could not figure out how to grow sandalwood trees effectively.

The main reason for this is that sandal is what is now known as a semi-parasite or root parasite; besides a main taproot that absorbs nutrients from the earth, the sandal tree grows parasitical roots (or haustoria) that derive sustenance from neighbouring brush and trees. [...] Dietrich Brandis, the man often regaled as the father of Indian forestry, reported being unaware of the [sole significant English-language scientific paper on sandalwood root parasitism] when he worked at Kew Gardens in London on South Asian ‘forest flora’ in 1872–73. Thus it was not until 1902 that the issue started to receive attention in the scientific community, when C.A. Barber, a government botanist in Madras [...] himself pointed out, 'no one seems to be at all sure whether the sandalwood is or is not a true parasite'.

Well into the early decades of twentieth century, silviculture of sandal proved a complete failure. The problem was the typical monoculture approach of tree farming in which all other species were removed and so the tree could not survive. [...]

The long wait time until maturity of the tree must also be considered. Only sandal heartwood and roots develop fragrance, and trees only begin developing fragrance in significant quantities after about thirty years. Not only did traders, who were typically just sailing through, not have the botanical know-how to replant the tree, but they almost certainly would not be there to see a return on their investments if they did. [...]

---

The main problem facing the sustainable harvest and continued survival of sandalwood in India [...] came from the advent of the sandalwood oil industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. During World War I, vast amounts of sandal were stockpiled in Mysore because perfumeries in France had stopped production and it had become illegal to export to German perfumeries. In 1915, a Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was built in Mysore. In 1917, it began distilling. [...] [S]andalwood production now ramped up immensely. It was at this time that Mysore came to be known as ‘the Sandalwood City’.

---

Text above by: Ezra Rashkow. "Perfumed the axe that laid it low: The endangerment of sandalwood in southern India." The Indian Economic and Social History Review, Volume 51 (2014), Issue 1, pages 41-70. First published online 10 March 2014. DOI: 10.1177/0019464613515533 [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[probablyasocialecologist]

“It was an assumption—almost an article of faith—amongst many biogeographers, ecologists, and paleoecologists that the great regional rainforests were, at Western contact, the product of natural climatic, biogeographic, and ecological processes,” wrote paleoecologist Chris Hunt, now based at Liverpool John Moores University, and his colleague, Cambridge University archaeologist Ryan Rabett, in a 2014 paper. “It was widely thought that peoples living in the rainforest caused little change to vegetation.” New research is challenging this long-held assumption. Recent paleoecological studies by Hunt and other colleagues show evidence of “disturbance” in the vegetation around Pa Lungan and other Kelabit villages, indicating that humans have shaped and altered these jungles not just for generations—but for millennia. Borneo’s inhabitants from a much more distant past likely burned the forests and cleared lands to cultivate edible plants. They created a complex system in which farming and foraging were intertwined with spiritual beliefs and land use in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. Samantha Jones, lead author on this investigation and researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, has studied ancient pollen cores in the Kelabit Highlands as part of the Cultured Rainforest Project. This is a U.K.-based team of anthropologists, archaeologists, and paleoecologists that is examining the long-term and present-day interactions between people and rainforests. The project has led to continuing research that is forming a new scientific narrative of the Borneo highlands. People were most likely manipulating plants from as early as 50,000 years ago in the lowlands, Jones says. That’s around the time humans likely first arrived. Scholars had long classified these early inhabitants as foragers—but then came the studies at Niah Cave. There, in a series of limestone caverns near the coast, scientists found paleoecological evidence that early humans got right to work burning the forest, managing vegetation, and eating a complex diet based on hunting, foraging, fishing, and processing plants from the jungle. This late Pleistocene diet spanned everything from large mammals to small mollusks, to a wide array of tuberous taros and yams. By 10,000 years ago, the folks in the lowlands were growing sago and manipulating other vegetation such as wild rice, Hunt says. The lines between foraging and farming undoubtedly blurred. The Niah Cave folks were growing and picking, hunting and gathering, fishing and gardening across the entire landscape.

[...]

“The Cultured Rainforest project has shown how profoundly entangled the lives of humans and other species in the rainforest are,” says University of London anthropologist Monica Janowski, a member of the project team who has spent decades studying highland Borneo cultures. “This entanglement has developed over centuries and millennia and succeeds in maintaining a relatively balanced relationship between species.” Borneo’s jungle is, in fact, anything but untouched: What we see is a result of both human hands and natural forces, working in tandem. The Kelabit are a little bit farmer and a little bit forager with no clear line between, Janowski says. This dualistic approach to land use may reveal a deeper human nature. “Scratch any modern human and you will find, under the surface, a forager,” she says. “We have powerful foraging instincts. We also have powerful instincts to manage plants and animals. Both of these instincts have been with us for millennia.”

[mikavlcs]

Had Enough

Pairing: Wednesday Addams x fem!reader

Summary: Xavier starts to get overzealous with you. Wednesday puts him in his place.

Warnings: mild Xavier slander (sorry bud), possessive-ish wednesday

Word count: 1.1k

Notes: another request. hope you guys enjoy<3

Masterlist

Despite Wednesday’s reputation, there were very few people she classified as true enemies.

Sure, she despised the general population of Nevermore, but since she and Bianca had cultivated something akin to a friendship, there wasn’t anyone specific that haunted her thoughts during the day. 

However, Xavier Thorpe was quickly shaping up to be the new target of her antagonism.

She and Xavier had a somewhat complicated relationship. Their issues from her first semester had been largely smoothed over since she took an arrow for him and he gifted her that dreaded iPhone in return. They weren’t exactly friends, but there was no animosity between them.

His feelings for her seemed to pass as well, something Wednesday was eternally grateful for. Unfortunately, it seemed that the new recipient of these romantic feelings was you. And that was completely unacceptable.

She despised the way he insisted on sitting near the both of you during classes to try and impress you with his abilities or tell you terrible jokes in the middle of lectures.

And there were few things that angered her more than seeing him put his arm around you during conversation or ghosting his hand on your back while walking in the hallways.

She wasn’t jealous. No, jealousy had nothing to do with it. In fact, she found the situation laughable, hilarious even. That Xavier, the blank canvas of a man that he was, thought he could take what was hers.

And sure, your relationship wasn’t exactly public. Neither of you was screaming from the rooftops about your feelings because you both preferred to keep your relations private, but it wasn’t as if you were actively hiding it either. Your immediate group of shared friends knew.

Enid, Wednesday had told personally. Only because she wanted the werewolf to know to give the two of you privacy whenever Wednesday brought you to her dorm.

Bianca pieced it together herself, a fact that irritated Wednesday almost as much as the smirk Bianca gave her whenever the two of you walked into fencing class together. Yoko and Divina figured your relationship out because they got, what Enid rather vaguely referred to as, a vibe. Ajax remained blissfully unaware but he was never a threat.

Even other students appeared to cautiously avoid flirting with you in any capacity once they noticed your closeness with Wednesday.

(This carefulness may have also been cultivated by the way Wednesday glared at anyone that got too close for her liking, but that was entirely beside the point.)

The entirety of Nevermore understood that you were spoken for, and she enjoyed that greatly.

But Xavier didn’t appear to comprehend that.

So she would have to take it upon herself to educate him.

-

The quad was quieter than usual.

It wasn’t completely silent. The chatter of a few dozen students melded together, casting a thin blanket of noise over the small space. But it was nowhere near as rambunctious as it normally was on a Friday afternoon. Which meant that it was easy for Wednesday to find you amongst the commotion.

You were sitting at one of the tables on the far side of the quad, pen in hand while you seemingly worked on homework. Your blazer was tied around your waist, fully exposing the vest underneath.

The sky had been covered by clouds all day, but the clouds were beginning to dissipate in places, allowing rays of light to shine through. One of these places happened to be right above your table, clouds parting to envelope you in a halo of light that could fool anyone into thinking you were an angel sent down from the heavens above.

You looked divine. And the only thing stopping Wednesday from stopping and fully appreciating the sight before her was the person seated beside you.

Xavier.

He looked to be helping you with your work. But Wednesday knew better. He was sitting close enough that your thighs were nearly touching, his lanky frame nearly swallowing you whole when he leaned over to look at your textbook. Every time you looked away to write something down, his eyes would trail down the side of your face in a way that absolutely enraged Wednesday.

What drove her over the edge was his decision to grab your hand.

She was marching over to your table within seconds, her gaze absolutely murderous. A few students in her path instantly fled when they saw her expression, but she paid them no mind, focusing solely on how Xavier’s face fell when you pulled your hand out of his grasp. The sight was just enough to stop her from attempting murder, but not enough to deter her entirely.

You were the first to notice her. The way your eyes lit up at the sight of her gave her an unpleasant fuzzy feeling that she loved despised.

“Hi, Wen,” you greeted, giving her one of the warm smiles reserved for her. Wednesday’s glare softened considerably as her eyes moved from Xavier to you.

“Hello, mon cher.”

“I wasn’t expecting to see you until later. Is everything ok?”

The concern in your voice was touching, a reminder of how sweet you were even in less-than-desirable circumstances. But she had other matters to attend to right now.

“Yes. What are you doing?” The question was directed towards you, but her eyes were on Xavier, her fiery gaze boring into him. He squirmed. You didn’t notice.

“Just English homework,” you sighed. Wednesday’s eyes flitted back to you, momentarily drifting to your lips before righting themselves.

“Bring it to my dorm. I can assist you with it myself.”

Xavier started to protest but another glare was enough to quiet him. You looked confused by the sudden change in plans but acquiesced.

“Oh, ok. Let me get my stuff.”

You stood and reached for your textbook only to be stopped by Wednesday.

“Allow me.”

Wednesday began gathering your things for you and in the process, she discreetly leaned over to Xavier and delivered her message, her voice a soft but petrifying whisper.

“Lay your hand on her again and I will remove it. Finger by finger.”

Xavier’s eyes widened with terror, his only response a harsh gulp. Wednesday nearly smiled.

Without another glance in his direction, she stood with your textbook and dragged you off to her dorm. You tried to ask what was going on several times, but she remained silent until she reached her destination.

Once inside her empty dorm, she dropped your things off on her desk and sauntered back to where you were, stopping just in front of you. Your faces were mere inches apart and her eyes wandered back downward against her will.

You began to ask her something, but she cut you off by leaning forward and connecting your lips. A noise of surprise escaped you before you reciprocated, hands instinctively cupping her cheeks. Wednesday tangled one hand into your vest and gripped your tie with the other, lightly tugging you closer. You stayed pressed against one another until you stepped back, slightly dazed.

“What about-“

“Your homework can wait,” Wednesday mumbled, silencing you with her lips once more. She kissed you once, feverish and rough, then again and again and again, until there wasn’t a coherent thought left in your head. Her movements were frenzied—desperate even, and you were helpless to do anything but follow her lead with the same fervor.

When you finally parted for air, she whispered something into the small space between you. Something you didn’t understand, but still wholeheartedly felt.

“Eres mia, mi amor.”

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Not a chinese citizen but im obsessed with c-novels. Can I get some recommendations for transmigration novels with wuxia or xianxia genre? If its too much then nvm, still thanks!

@ryv-era Sure, I'm also a c-novels lover. I've read too many of these, sorry I can't think of which ones to recommend rn, they are classified very finely, with various different tags. The general genres are male channel and female channel, I usually read on female channel, of which the subdivision is also a lot, not sure you want to read bg, bl, gl or no cp, I guess you like Heavenly Official's Blessing? or Mo Dao Zu Shi? I apologise if I'm wrong haha. Even within those categories, there are two genres, one focusing on plot twist, and the other that are purely about romance, but there also many good ones between both.

Although I can't think of any specific novels rn, I asked my friend and she recommends an author 时镜shijing who's well known for her transmigration xianxia novels. She's a very experienced writer with a mature and consistent style. Readers recommend her a lot and so it's a minimal risk to recommend her for me lmao. This is her official page on jinjiang晋江(the biggest c-novels platform with women channel only) 时镜的专栏, and her work 我不成仙 (lit I won't be Immortal) will be adapted into a TV series, and the story is about a mortal woman who was killed by her ruthless sword daoist husband just to destroy his roots of love 情根, and then the protagonist is reborn, set out on a long journey to cultivate immortality and get her revenge.

My friend mentions it and I just remember I've read this one, but can't recall the plot because xianxia novels are usually very very long and I didn't finish it. But I remember I do enjoy it a lot. Hope it's a valid recommendation for you haha.