#come here and prove me the thesis you are so strongly supporting

[persephoneflouwers]

hey i’m a medical student and saw that u gave opinions too about louis broken arm. saw this on twt and it’s so insane to me cause we saw him in pain in airport and hands so swollen in that video for his 1# album he would not fake a injury or fake a RX wanted your opinion on this it’s bs right? https://twitter.com/omgl_wtf/status/1600170380726894597?s=46&t=T_NJPRbq2eCGBYb6cuChBg

Hello 🌸

Omg that seems… conspiratorial lmao I don’t know why people think he would fake an arm injury. Is it because they are on the “Sony wants to sabotage him” train and believe they would go that far to ruin his new album campaign? It’s more likely the pic with those fans that was out today was old, but him faking an injury? Maybe try stop depicting Louis like the bad guy with a masterplan who lies all the time. I haven’t paid much attention to it, but he uses his left arm quite a lot instead. He greets fans with left arm, takes and hands albums and stuff with his left arm, drinks with his left arm. He keeps the right arm in a defensive pose. It looks intrarotated and stiff from some pics… The fact people say “he would not be holding the arm like that” or some variation of it, it’s bullshit. I saw people with femur replacements walking again in less time than this. We don’t know if he doesn’t use sling or a tutor just when he’s in public and keeps it contained when he’s at home. We don’t know what surgery he went through. I bet he takes the strongest painkillers.

I’m not an orthopaedic, I don’t have much experience with radiology. I just can see those xrays and from those xrays i can tell that an arm is broken. They show a broken arm from two different perspectives: the anterior view and the lateral view and obviously you wont see the same things… different projections help study the fracture better and every side gives you different details on the level and gravity of the break.

I didn’t have time to talk to a traumatologist as I said I would, but I hope I will. I’ve talked with colleagues and they told me a fracture like this will require a 30/35 days immobilisation, the recover will start slowly after it. But they agreed rich teams are faster with the recovery process cause patients have more strict followups.

Anyway good luck on your med school journey! It’s gonna be hard but I promise, it’s the most beautiful job in the world <3

[mythserene]

Call him “Epstein” – How far is Mark Lewisohn willing to go to force a false narrative?

 “I don’t care what you think of Klein, call Klein something else. Call him ‘Epstein’ for now, and just consider the fact that three of us chose ‘Epstein.’”

John Lennon to Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone, May 14, 1970 

I keep asking “Why do you want me to believe John —(or George or Paul or or or)—said this?” And I keep asking because that is the question that keeps coming out of my mind, my mouth, and my keyboard.

It's the obvious question. (Spoiler: audio below of Lewisohn answering it for this quote.)

When you’re going to so much trouble to quote shop and quote twist, you have a purpose that you are torturing all these words to back up. You are trying to prove a point and there’s no real quote to support your position, so instead of changing your position, you act like Beatles’ words are appetizers in a buffet.

THREE OF US CHOSE EPSTEIN.

This premeditated and purposeful OBSCENITY has been sitting there for ten years. Two ladies with a podcast found it.

However, John remembered Paul’s attitude to Brian being very different. John was always emphatic that Paul didn’t want Brian as the Beatles’ manager and presented obstacles to destabilize him, to make his job difficult … like turning up late for meetings. “Three of us chose Epstein. Paul used to sulk and God knows what … [Paul] wasn’t that keen [on Brian]—he’s more conservative, the way he approaches things. He even says that: it’s nothing he denies.”(72)

I will never—NEVER— get over this one. There may be more shocking things to come, but it was this revelation that made me look at every one of Mark Lewisohn’s “author interviews” differently.

This is when I realized that there is nothing I would put past him.

Listening to that part of Episode 7 is so funny to me now. Daphne and Phoebe kept trying to stick to the outline and ask “Does this quote back up Lewisohn’s thesis?” but it was very difficult because they were in such total disbelief at Mark Lewisohn’s deception. (My label, although it’s a pretty inarguable one.) It is genuinely almost unbelievably dishonest. AKOM had a whole show filled with whoppers to get through, and they kept trying, but it took them awhile to move on because air-quotes-Epstein was like a magnet that kept pulling them back. So yesterday, to get out of editing some of my own mess, I put together a few of the times that the shock sucked them back in.

“I find that kind of shocking, really.” Tiny compilation of Phoebe and Daphne in disbelief over Mark Lewisohn’s purposeful misrepresentation of a quote of John Lennon talking about Allen Klein to attempt to show that John thought Paul was trying to thwart Brian Epstein. (Episode 7)

And most of us strongly suspect where Mark Lewisohn is going with this. He wants to rehabilitate Allen Klein because John can literally never be wrong—or perhaps an even stronger motive—he wants Paul to be very, very wrong. But whatever his motives, we can see what he’s doing. And we don’t have to just suspect, because he has already told us that he is going to use some of his most unforgivable lies to shape that narrative.

And there’s only one reason to do that: because there are no real quotes to back up the narrative he wants to push.

It tells us, in no uncertain terms, that the narrative he wants to push is quite literally unsupportable.

To make it work, Lewisohn has to lie about what John Lennon actually said.

*This post was first going to be about both the “quotes” that Mark Lewisohn references here, but in the end I couldn’t not give “call him ‘Epstein'” its own post. Which means I have actually shortened a post. (Please clap.)

Every ‘quote’ in the “spanner in the works” section is bullshit. Every. Single. One. I’m not going to the thesaurus for a fancier word. They are bullshit. Complete and utter, doctored, twisted, bullshit. The man is lying. And what really chaps my ass is that he is flat out telling us that he is going to use those same lies to push his bullshit narrative of the breakup. Like damn, that takes a lot of nerve.

Here is Mark Lewisohn telling us, straight out, that it’s these same bullshit quotes that he plans on using again to fool us. And he should be a laughingstock when he does. Not in some quarters. In all.

He must think we are such dupes. Although he’s gotten away with it so far, so up until now he hasn’t been wrong.

(There’s a bit more to this part of the Q & A and it’s all bad, but for this post I decided to leave it at Mark Lewisohn telling us that he is going to use the exact same sources he used for the “spanner” section to push this lie in the upcoming books.)

Fool me twice…

Would John and George have seen the parallel between Epstein and Klein in 1969?  LEWISOHN: ❝Yes. I’m sure the answer to that is yes, because John mentioned it in interviews, probably in Wenner’s, maybe the one with McCabe and Sconfeld— Schonfeld. Yes.❞ (📍Nothing is Real)

Transcript:

Q. In Hornsey Road you were talking about the three-to-one Allen Klein split, and I was saying to you that it seemed to me that it paralleled what is mentioned in Tune In about, uh, the appointment of Brian Epstein. That- that Paul was sort of holding back or was not keen to move forward with Brian Epstein. And I suppose my question was, is there a direct parallel there? And would, in 1969, John and George in particular have been conscious of that parallel?

LEWISOHN: Yes. I’m sure the answer to that is yes, because John mentioned it in interviews, probably in Wenner’s, maybe the one with McCabe and Sconfeld– Schonfeld. Yes. John recognized that.

Nothing is Real Podcast • October 16, 2019, Episode 15 • Mark Lewisohn, Part II

---

And just remember that this is only one half of a hellacious Frankenquote.

(But I kept it short. 🎊 )

----

Even though I have given you zero reason to go there, it's also on my blog.

[madraleen]

Attack on Titan - Season 1 A "I was supposed to keep this short, but I wrote a thesis somewhere in there" Commentary

(*full spoilers for the manga and the final chapters)

-i'm so nervous to start the anime, i don't know why. maybe it's bc it's a final draft of sorts? but i've put it off long enough, here it goes.

-it's so weird going back to the start omg, i'm like LOOK AT THAT INNOCENCE ALL AROUND

-eren is so extra <3

-it's eerie how these lines fall in line with post-time skip things?? armin's "you're only resorting to physical violence because you can't prove that i'm wrong" to his bullies?? like, yes? this is exactly what eren does later too?

-dude IT'S EERIE, eren angry and devastated and being like 'i'll exterminate them from this world, not sparing a single one,' mikasa being taken aback and speechless and armin going 'eren...' worriedly, it'S EERIE, IT'S ALL BEEN HAPPENING FROM THE START

-eren: 'because we constantly depend on the pity of others, we're unable to defeat the titans!" yoooo. yo.

-you could watch these first few eps and what i presume will be the last few eps and they'd make sense, they'd be a natural progression :O

-jean to eren: "i'd say i'm a lot more pleasant to be around than someone who puts on a brave face, despite being terrified deep down inside." THAT IS LITERALLY THE ENDING

-ASDJF, I HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT POST-TIME SKIP REINER LOOKED LIKE

-eren's thoughts on mikasa: "there's no need for me to depend on you anymore!" HAHAHAHA boy i have news for you. oh. OH RIGHT! meanwhile mikasa said "he's relieved that he won't have to be separated from me." in the manga, i waved it off at the time, but...

-i heard a youtuber refer to eren's "psychopathic tenacity" and i can't unhear it ever since

-considering that it was ten years ago and considering the horrible production circumstances, the animation actually holds up pretty well

-i really like the op, it sets a mood. i'm shaking a fist and all

-aww, i prefer mikasa's design in the manga. i think it's the lips that throw me

-aaaah, the part when eren gives mikasa The Scarf(TM) is perfect

-LEVI AND HANGEEEEE FINALLYYYYY

-oh man, people coming in aot cold will have such an experience... they don't know anything, so many mysteries, so many twists

-"if you guys don't try to cover me, you'll be spared, at the least. i've already gotten you two in a real mess, so i'll be moving solo from here on out." oh eren. you never did change did you (this at mikasa and armin).

-"fight. my life is second to that desire." erennnn

-are levi's entrances anything less than majestic, no they're not, i knew he was coming and i actually had to hold back a scream either way

-ngl i liked the first op song better

-IT'S SO FREAKIN OBVIOUS IN RETROSPECT reiner jumps on the female titan, somehow isn't crushed by her fist and then she runs off exactly where armin said that eren should be, while reiner is a little smoky?! DAMN IT, hindsight is 20/20

-there's an odd parallel with eren and erwin, isn't there? erwin abandons his humanity to defeat monsters, but then has an emotional moment when he doesn't want to sacrifice himself bc he wants to see what's in the basement, to know the truth, and levi makes the decision that he should die. eren loses his humanity to defeat monsters and what he perceives as monsters, only to then have an emotional meltdown over the fact that he doesn't want to die witnessed by armin, and mikasa makes that decision for him. erwin with his closest person levi, and eren with his closest people armin and mikasa. not comparing them on any other level, but on this they kind of do have similar paths. essentially both ackermans told their man to give up the selfish part of their dream and die for the greater good, and both ackermans gave up their own dream and killed/let their man die for the greater good. and from that angle, you can support more strongly that what eren does is, in its core, selfish (freedom boner, save friends, kill titans for personal revenge), but manifests as something done for the greater good (save paradis and paradis alone, eren's very specific viewpoint of the greater good). just like erwin's core goal was selfish (find out the truth for himself), but manifests as his becoming a brilliant commander. the means appear selfless and have selfless outcomes, but the core goals are selfish, the rest is byproducts. one could even argue that a key difference between erwin and eren is that erwin knows when to cut his losses and retreat.

-OH THAT'S WHY LEVI IS ALWAYS SMOKY, BECAUSE HE'S GOT ACKERMAN TITAN CHARACTERISTICS, IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO REALIZE?!

-dude, levi is the best, i can't with this man.

-this constant failure of eren. it's not just 'mikasa was the one to save me again,' it's that he's so ruthlessly determined yet he never lives up to his own expectations for himself and always needs saving, he's always the powerless boy he was when hannes first saved him from dina. his trajectory is writing itself, goddamn. eren, my little tragic crybaby

-well see, in the manga i laughed off this moment with petra's father, but in the anime i was like, 'wait, is this a misunderstanding or a hint?' ofc the anime added scenes of levi being extra sad for petra's death, but i think that also makes sense from a non-romantic pov- for the benefit of the audience. since petra was the sweetheart of the squad, that's who the audience will feel the worst for. but generally i see it as a misunderstanding. the 'dedicate your heart' thing is the bread and butter of the survey corps, so it would be natural for petra to say she's dedicating herself to captain levi, while her father, a non-military man, would jump to the conclusion that she's getting married.

-"if it's required to overcome monsters, one must toss aside their humanity. [...] those who can do so are victorious!" haha aw bb armin, and then eren took that a bit too to heart.

-sigh. aot's biggest villain is ignorance

-LITERALLY ARMIN IS LIKE, "WELL YOU SHOWED HUMANITY GETTING MOVED BY ANNIE'S TEARS AND FAILED"! ARMIN IS EREN'S VILLAIN ORIGIN STORY (i am ofc joking)

-It’s one of these times that I’d say, “don’t just read the manga and don’t just watch the anime, do both; they’re complementary.” obviously the action scenes work better in the anime and the VAs breathe life into the characters, but the characters’ expressions and interactions are more nuanced in the manga, and the atmosphere is more oppressive in black and white, which fits the walls’ vibe. and so on. i do think they’re complementary.

[rushingheadlong]

The Brian May Tank Top Thesis

I would say that you guys asked for this, but really I threatened it and you just encouraged me. The end result is the same though, because here we are.

We’re setting out to discuss the specific fact that, if you want to be incredibly pedantic about all of this, Brian did not actually wear true tank tops for most of the roughly 30-year span where he was wearing sleeveless shirts. There is a specific bell-curve evolution of Brian Wearing Tanks that happens that I think is a little fascinating to look at, so that’s what we’re going to do in yet another unnecessarily long post brought to you by yours truly!

1984-1986: The Works Tour, Live Aid, and the Magic Tour

The first photos we have of Brian wearing “fake tanks” come from The Works Tour in 1984. These are things that aren’t true tank tops but where he still has the arms visible (cut-off shirts, cap sleeves, sleeves rolled up, vests, etc.).

Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

The first shirt isn’t a traditionally cut t-shirt - there are small cap sleeves that cover the shoulders but leave the arms exposed. (That’s actually piece of Queen merch from The Works tour, because ofc he’s wearing his own merch.) The second is from Rio in 1985. Brian’s wearing a vest and either a cut-off shirt or has the sleeves of a t-shirt rolled up underneath the vest. 

How do we know that it’s not a muscle tank style tank top that he’s wearing? Well, in some cases we don’t but the majority of the time we can prove (or at least strongly theorize) that these were at least originally t-shirts. 

For example, here’s an “I ♥ Elvira” shirt that he wore in September 1984 and the original t-shirt version that was sold in the 80s:

In this case I think he cut the sleeves off, just because other photos from that same concert don’t show any bulk around his shoulders and armpits. But if you look at photos from Wembley 1986 (both nights) you can see the way the shirts bunch and are rolled around his shoulder, which makes it pretty clear that these aren’t cut-offs:

While we’re on Wembley, the shirt he wore for Is This the World We Created? at Live Aid is not a vest. It’s a sleeveless button-down that, in typical Brian fashion, he has left mostly unbuttoned. (I think this was bought as a sleeveless shirt rather than having the sleeves cut off, since it looks like there’s a hem around the arm hole, but I could be wrong on that point.) The shirt appears in at least one other photo, where you can see the buttons down the front better:

One thing to keep in mind with all of these looks is that Brian didn’t wear them often. For the stage looks he would only wear these shirts for a small portion of the concert, sometimes only one or two songs. For Live Aid he only wore that shirt for the Is This the World...? encore and one backstage interview. 

Because the thing with all of this is that Brian started wearing tank tops incredibly gradually, and even when he wasn’t wearing true tank tops he still wasn’t showing off his arms in public for long periods of time. With the exception of One Vision (which is discussed in the next section) the overwhelming majority of photos of Brian in “tanks” are these sorts of limited concert photos and screencaps.

There’s been a few discussions in the past that it’s possible that his arms were a sticking point for him, as he’s been open about having a lot of body image issues for a number of years and it seems odd that he would be so resistant to wearing tank tops at a time when everyone else in the band did so pretty frequently and especially given the fact that he doesn’t seem to have a problem showing off his chest. I’m not necessarily comfortable saying that this is absolutely what was going on here, but I think it’s worth pointing out and exploring as a possible theory.

September 1985: One Vision

Yes, One Vision gets it’s own section, and for a very good reason: This is the first time we see Brian wearing a true tank top.

Here are the three One Vision shirts of note:

The first one is 100% just a t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up, so we won’t be focusing on that one. The second one is the “DiMarzio tank”, as it has the logo for the DiMarzio company on the front, and similarly the third one is the “Guild tank” because it has their logo. 

Guild was the company who was manufacturing authorized Red Special replicas in the 1980s, and the pickups they used in their guitars were made by DiMarzio. So both of these tank tops are branded clothing from the companies involved with manufacturing the replicas. Brian has talked in the past about not caring about fashion and he’s probably wearing these because they had just been sent to him along with the replica that he uses in the One Vision video.

But let’s talk a bit more in-depth about these two shirts for a moment.

The Guild tank is 100% a true tank top, based on that neckline and the armholes and how it sits on Brian. The DiMarzio tank... gets to be a bit trickier. It’s either manufactured as more of a muscle-tank style or it’s a shirt with the sleeves cut-off. (We only see this shirt without sleeves and there’s no bulk at the shoulders, so I think it’s safe to say that there aren’t rolled-up sleeves with this one.)

Personally, I lean towards the sleeves being cut off. I don’t think a company sending out free branded clothing is going to go to the effort of putting their logo on that exact style of tank top because I would expect that to have been far more expensive than a regular t-shirt or the style of the Guild tank. 

Does this mean that, technically, the DiMarzio tank might be a fake tank? Yes. Does that matter? Well... maybe.

On the one hand, it doesn’t matter because if you show a photo of Brian in that shirt to almost anyone they’re going to say, “Yeah, he’s wearing a tank top.” On the other hand, the fact that he cut the sleeves off a shirt (besides just being an incredibly charming mental image) actually supports the body image issues theory quite a bit as that style of shirt gives the illusion of having more muscle than you actually do.

Which is a little noteworthy because, again, Brian generally isn’t wearing these shirts out in public. He’s wearing them in the studio and for an incredibly limited photo shoot. With the exception of a few brief appearances in the One Vision videos, Brian seems to have primarily worn the Guild tank underneath other shirts:

Whereas the DiMarzio tank is only ever seen by itself. It also shows up in several different still photos from the One Vision sessions and, most notably, makes an appearance a full year later at Freddie’s birthday party in 1986 (the third photo below):

At the very least this would seem to indicate that Brian prefers this style of shirt over a true tank top, which would also make sense considering how so many of Brian’s “fake tanks” in the 80s started out their lives as t-shirts.

So the progression of Brian Wearing Tanks, so far, remains one of mostly Brian wearing fake tanks with the exception of the Guild tank which only makes a very limited appearance.

1993: Back to the Light Tour

And then we come to the early 90s where this gradual progression make a very hard pivot, because the Back to the Light Tour for Brian’s first solo album sees him wearing a very different style of tank top on stage: the loose tanks.

These tanks are the first and last time that Brian wears loose tank tops like this (as opposed to the more form-fitting shirts of the 80s and late 90s). The curious thing, besides the fact that this is the only time he wears this style of tank, is that these are actually a combination of true tanks and cut-off shirts. 

This is a cut-off shirt. Especially in the second photo, you can see the way the fabric is curling in on itself (which is common in especially lightweight cotton t-shirts when you cut and stretch the fabric) and you can also see the notch where the shoulder seam has been cut through.

But, it’s a cut-off shirt that he’s cut down a lot more than he ever did with any of his 80s shirts and it fits a lot looser than anything in the 80s.

These are true tank tops. The first is a bit up for debate, but based on the neckline I’d say it’s a tank top and not a former t-shirt. The second is absolutely a true tank, based on the neckline and the fact that you can still see the intact hems around the arms.

So this is also the first time that Brian is wearing true tank tops in public... but there’s a catch to that statement.

Brian did not consistently wear these tank tops for every show on the Back to the Light tour, and we actually have very few photos and videos of him in these tank tops. When he wore them it was usually for one or two songs at the very end of his shows, but again that wasn’t even for every show.

So, like with the fake tanks of the 80s Queen concerts, Brian continues to be very restrained in when he wears the loose tanks. If the possible body image issues theory is true, it would still make sense for him to only wear these infrequently and for shorter periods of time (and, arguably, to wear them on stage when he’s always said that performing gives him more confidence than he usually has).

I would also argue that, although these tanks are wildly different from what we see from him in the 80s, they’re still a logical progression in this journey. If we assume that Brian started out preferring cut-offs and rolled-up sleeves it makes sense for Brian to eventually take that a step further and cut the shirts down further, and then acquire similar styles of tanks to that.

Also... if we veer into absolute wild speculation territory for a moment here, do you know what these tanks always remind me of?

Can I prove that Brian is wearing these looser tanks as an homage to Freddie? No, absolutely not, and it would be ridiculous for me to claim that this is anything close to fact. But I can very easily see Brian, starting out on his first solo tour, looking back to his last tour with Queen and drawing inspiration from that.

1998: Another World Tour

Okay. We’ve reached 1998, which is the peak year for Brian Wearing Tanks.

Starting late in 1996 and then continuing into 2000 Brian wore true tank tops. The bulk of these were worn during 1998, when almost the entirety of his Another World Tour saw him wearing tank tops, usually a plain all-black tank top:

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I have over 100 photos of Brian wearing black tanks just in concert in the late 90s. That’s not even getting into the fact that Brian also wore black tank tops in photo shoots and publicity photos:

And he also frequently wore (what is most likely) a black tank under a jacket during interviews:

So, at first this seems to come even more wildly out of left field than the early 90s loose tanks did. I mean at this point Brian has spent the past almost 15 years not wearing tanks in public for extended periods of time. But if you think about it, it kind of makes sense for him to do this.

Firstly, going back to the body image issues theory, Brian in the late 90s has filled out quite a bit from where he was in the 80s:

Obviously he’s not going to look exactly the same as he did over a decade earlier, but he does have some meat on him now particularly in his arms. The traditional style of tanks that maybe he didn’t feel confident or comfortable wearing in the 80s are now a style that flatter him pretty well.

(It’s also very possible that at this point he just feels more comfortable with his appearance in general, or at least with his arms, and they’re no longer quite the sticking point that they were before.)

The other reason why I can see Brian choosing to do this is that, as we touched on briefly with the One Vision, he’s never been big on “fashion” and tends to wear what is easy. One advantage of these tanks is that they are very utilitarian. He can wear them with any color jeans, he can wear them under a suit jacket or another shirt (which may have been useful for the T.E. Conway quick-change on the Another World Tour), and he can basically buy them in bulk and then not have to worry about his wardrobe very much at all.

And the decision to wear plain black tank tops the majority of the time is absolutely a conscious choice on Brian’s part because he does own other tanks:

Brian very rarely wore grey tank tops, usually for photo shoots or interviews. He also had one white tank top (or multiple versions of the same one?) with that logo on the left breast. He had a black and yellow tank top that he wore for the Another World Tour, and also on the Another World Tour he would occasionally roll up the sleeves of t-shirts or wear cut-offs again.

But, again, the overwhelming majority of what Brian wore in 1998 was a simple black tank top. He found a style that he decided worked for him and, in typical Brian May fashion, just ran with it.

Unfortunately for us, the late 90s are also the peak of Brian Wearing Tanks. After the conclusion of the Another World Tour the number of tank top photos immediately and drastically decreases.

2000s and 2010s: The End of an Era

After the end of the Another World Tour we return to Brian rarely wearing tank tops in public and primarily wearing “fake tanks” when he does. 

For the early 2000s Brian wasn’t touring and when he did one-off performances he typically wore some sort of dress shirt or occasionally just a t-shirt. (The one exception to this would be a TotP performance in 2000 where he wears a black tank top, as well as a few photos from 2003 where he has the sleeves of a t-shirt rolled up.)

The first time we see the return of Tank Top Bri in full-force comes in 2005-2006:

The first photo is from 2005 and is part of a photo session done for the announcement of Brian receiving his CBE. That is not a tank top, it’s a t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. (For those curious, the 46664 is the Nelson Mandela concert series that Queen participated in.)

The second photo is from 2006 during the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour and again is a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Very much like the 80s Queen concerts, it’s unclear how frequently Brian did this - at least for the shows where we know he did this, it seems to have only been for small portions of the overall concert. Brian and Roger also appeared with the Foo Fighters in Hyde Park in 2006 for a handful of songs, and Brian had the sleeves of a t-shirt rolled up in a similar fashion then as well.

The last photo is from American Idol s5ep28 in 2006, when Brian and Roger appeared on the show as part of their Queen-centric episode. That, my friends, is a true tank top and not only that, it’s the same white tank top he wore in the late 90s:

That first photo is from 1996 which means Brian has kept this tank top for literally a decade, and is still wearing it. More proof that this man doesn’t get rid of clothes and that once he finds something he likes, he keeps it!

Brian later wore two tank tops (one a real white tank and one what looks to be another cut-off 5-shirt) in 2008 for the 6-year anniversary of the We Will Rock You Musical:

After this, no other tank top photos are found for another 8 years, until 2016. The remainder of the Q+PR tours and the early Q+AL tours have Brian mostly wearing dress shirts like he does now. But 2016 gave us exactly two photos, and one video from a soundcheck, of Brian once again in black tank tops:

We’ve returned mostly to a point where Brian isn’t wearing these out in public, or at least not for extended periods of time. But that first photo Brian shared on his own instagram, so clearly he’s still somewhat comfortable showing off the arms!

I suspect that we have this brief resurgence of black tank tops because on the 2016 Q+AL tour Brian wore them underneath this lovely lace top:

However, as his stagewear changes with every tour he’s left this particular look behind and, unfortunately, seems to have left the tank tops behind with it.

In Conclusion

Brian Wearing Tanks is a fascinating little study into his wardrobe that we don’t really have all the answers for. I think it’s likely that Brian’s body issues at least somewhat influenced how, when, and how frequently he wore the tanks and fake tanks- but that’s not something we’re likely to ever have confirmation for, so it has to remain only a theory.

However, what we do know is that the Tank Top Saga follows a bell-curve that begins with Brian wearing various “fake tanks” and other forms of sleeveless tops, peaks in 1998 with the black tanks of the Another World Tour, and rather sharply slopes back down to the world of “fake tanks” and true tank tops being worn underneath other shirts.

More specifically, most of what Brian wears as tank tops have been modified t-shirts, starting off with rolled up sleeves, then cut off sleeves, then cut off even further in the early 90s. After 1998 he also seems to fall back into that “comfort zone” of rolled-up or cut off sleeves rather than true tanks for most of their rare appearances in the 2000s and 2010s.

It’s ironic that Brian’s late 90s tank tops, which by far make up the bulk of the photos we have, are an outlier by simple virtue of them being true tank tops. And I do think that the jump to these true tanks and the overwhelming presence of solid black tanks in the late 90s has some root in Brian wanting to simplify his touring wardrobe, with a heaping dose of “I found a look and I will wear this into the ground”. But, again, that’s not something that I think we’ll ever get confirmation for.

So. There you have it. What ended up being over 3k of me rambling about Brian Wearing Tanks, because apparently I have more Thoughts about this than I expected.

(This isn’t cited like the Red Special post was, so if you need sources let me know and I’ll hunt them down for you. Also if I got any information here wrong please let me know!! As always I’m not an expert, just a fan with a bit of a fixation on this.)

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[justinmclachlan]

I saw that one person responding to your post where you bring up Wolf 359 being like this was triggering, this was racist, blah blah blah it wasn't because people didn't get there way. Yes it was. Calling the show, the writer a racist b/c of the way a character who just happens to be black was killed and that it was 'triggering' is some garbage censorship bullshit. Is American History X racist? 12 Years a Slave? Turn? By that standard, yep -- they all are. Any number of shows are. Such BULLSHIT.

I didn’t see those comments and I am, again, only vaguely familiar with what happened on a show that I didn’t write or have any involvement with what so ever (and then, what I know is third-hand).I agree that calling a storyline ‘racist’ and then ascribing that motive to a writer is troubling (the latter being really problematic). It’s difficult for me to understand how one can be so strongly for human rights in one area, but then attack freedom of expression in the same breath — freedom of expression is a human right as well. People die everyday on this planet for simply trying to assert that right.Do we have a problem with minority representation in pop culture? Yes. Do we have an issue with how those characters are handled when they do appear? Yeah. Is it because most of the writers/execs, etc., are in the majority — yes, that probably has a lot to do with it. Can we assume then that they’re just bad people who don’t care about minority representation or minority characters in what they create? No— how can we? That’s just the easiest, simplest conclusion to leap to and it’s intellectually dishonest when we know, at the intersections, the issue is far more complex.Here’s what we can do. Continue to express how a storyline makes us feel, and why. It may be cheesy, but use your “I” statements (i.e., I feel, I think, I believe, I’d like). Don’t ascribe motive— you don’t know anyone’s heart and it’s damn presumptuous to make those conclusions, let alone level them as accusations. You wouldn’t like someone else telling you how to feel or that you’re not entitled to feel the way you do, but that’s just the flip side of telling someone else why they did something. Own your feelings and demand they be respected, but that’s not the same as blaming someone else. Continue to fight for and advocate for minority characters and minority performers and insist that they populate more than the ranks of supporting cast. Recognize and applaud when they do. Consider that we’re at a moment where we’re starting to see more diverse characters take more center stage. And when we’re talking about story, center stage means more peril, more danger. It always has. That means that minority characters are going to die. It means sometimes they’ll die brutally, in ways that wreck us, in ways that uncomfortably reflect our harsh and unjust world. But that’s what art is. And that’s what makes this all so very difficult. Art is not always going to be comfortable or safe. And we have to engage with it in a way the reflects that level of complexity. Instead — speaking as one on the receiving end — we tend to leap toward the simplest, reductive conclusions. Sometimes those conclusions aren’t wrong, and we really do have nothing to blame but systemic racism, white privilege, etc. Leveling those accusations, though, however true, might still be counterproductive. And yes, it’s still too easy for writers to reach for characters who aren’t like them when they need a death in a story (remember, we’re humans with feelings just like you ... so if you think about that for a few minutes, you might understand why it’s so). But telling a show runner, you did X so I will never listen again is the fan equivalent of telling them you’re taking your ball and going home, and it just doesn’t work. If you need to take care of you and stop listening or watching, that’s totally appropriate, but lashing out at writers that way is little more than emotional manipulation. Engage the writer in a way that will make sense to them. Make a story case for why things could’ve or should’ve gone another way. Give them ideas. Tell them what you’d like to see instead of threatening them over something you don’t want to see. Continue to expect and advocate for happy endings, or at least cathartic, emotionally fulfilling endings, for the characters and kinds of characters who don’t seem to get them enough. 

As someone who benefits a lot from structural privilege, I can tell you we need to hear perspectives outside our own. There’s a lot I don’t understand about the experiences of people who aren’t like me, who aren’t male, who aren’t white. My goal has been and always will be to support and amplify those voices. To tell the story of diversity and magnitude of the human experience. But I’m not perfect, and I won’t ever claim to be. I’m not going to do it right all the time, or even well. But I’ll do my best :)What I actually have come to love about all this, is that it just sort of proves my central thesis: art makes us feel things. But even when those feelings are horrible, painful and awful — it doesn’t necessarily mean that the art was wrong or bad. It could, if we’re willing to engage honestly, mean that the art was just so right.I have something else I want to say that’s sort of related but I’ll put it in another post because it’s a bit tangential and this is getting super long and I’m sure no one is still reading. 

[weditchthemap]

Visiting Diyarbakir – The Capital City of Northern Kurdistan

En Route to Diyarbakir

The bus from Mardin was relatively uneventful—2 hours and a security checkpoint later we were nearing the city of Diyarbakir, or Amed as is known to the Kurds. The armed policemen went around taking everyone’s IDs while the other police officers waited outside near their armored cars. When the policeman got to us he simply gave us a once-over and kept on collecting IDs. Apparently we did not fit the ‘target demographic’ and our IDs were not required. After scanning each ID our van was free to continue onwards into the city.

The first thing I noticed were the multiple layers of security fences lining the main road into the city. Tall fences with barbed wire on top gave a very clear message—the only way into or out of the city was along the main roads. Lookout towers peppered the landscape as we entered the city proper while concrete barricades and a multitude of armored vehicles greeted us.

About Police Officers

While most police officers were men I did see a handful of female officers—none of them wearing headscarves. Police officers, like many other professions, have obligatory term assignments in less desirable areas. This is due to the socialistic nature of Turkey’s government. I actually find this practice quite positive.  Imagine how quickly our racially and ethnically divided neighborhoods would benefit from an influx of outside support. On the flip side envision an inner-city nurse working at a fancy suburban hospital. Talk about broadening one’s horizons.

We also learned that police officers are never allowed to work in their home towns. Because of this Diyarbakir, a city of Kurds, has no Kurdish police officers. Obviously this increases the tension between the Turks and Kurds. Furthermore an extensive background check its conducted to become a police officers and oftentimes the Turkish government finds reasons—sometimes unsubstantiated—to prevent Kurds from being police officers at all.

Meeting Our Couchsurfing Host

We were dropped off at a small bus station and we struggled to find a bus into the city.  I had been using my google translator app on my phone with little success.  I changed the language form Turkish to Kurmanji (which is the Kurdish dialect here in Turkish Kurdistan).  This proved to be much more successful. We met our host at a modern café that he owned. We were greeted by another couchsurfer who had arrived just one hour prior. The couch surfer was a 30 year old man from Poland named Robert. He had previously biked through Georgia and Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan before coming to Northern Kurdistan in Diyarbakir.

Our host was a delightful man named Suat. He told us a lovely story about his first experience hosting where he had hosted a Swedish woman named Mona. This was 12 years ago and was not through couch surfing.  Although only planning on hosting Mona. for a couple days Mona ended up living with Suat and his wife for 6 months while she researched Kurdish culture for her thesis. They formed an incredibly close friendship and Suat ended up naming his Café and later his first child after Mona. Mona flew back to Diyarbakir for 2 days for her Birth. Later Suat and his family went to Sweden for Mona’s wedding.

Suat is also a full time teacher in a village.  He described his frustration with the village children in how they were troublemakers and didn’t pay attention. Their parents are uneducated and mostly laborers so their children do not see the benefit of education.

Suat told us that he and his wife were different types of Muslim (Sunni vs Shia) and that both of their parents forbade them from getting married.  They were married anyways

We discussed Kurdish history and the current state of affairs. This involved detailed comparison of Eastern Kurdistan (Iran), Southern Kurdistan (Iraq), and Western Kurdistan (Syria).  Suat explained the PKK to us and I found the information quite interesting.  Compared to our host in Van, Suat’s feelings about the matter were different.  I wonder if it’s because Suat still lives in the heart of Northern Kurdistan?

A Brief History of Diyarbakir

Diyarbakir, known in ancient times as Amida, has been the cradle of 26 different civilizations over the last 5000 years.  Its proximity to a basalt plateau gives the city a rather dark appearance thanks to the dark grey stones found throughout the city.  Located in Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates Valleys and the Tigris river Diyarbakir’s past involves the Mitanni, the Urartu, Assyria, Persian, Greek, Seleucids, Romans, Arabs, Safavid dynasty, and ultimately conquered by the Ottomans in 1515. They have never known long-lasting peace because in subsequent centuries they were invaded by the armies of Anatolia, Persia, and Syria all of which overcame the city’s walls.

Since the 1980s the city has been the center of the Kurdish resistance movement. Throughout the 1990s many refugees from the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government move to the city.  Just a few short years ago in 2016 there was an altercation between the PKK and the Turkish government leaving a large section of Old City demolished. We witnessed some new construction in the area but could only see inside by climbing onto the city walls and looking down into the city.

Safety

Please read our posting on the Safety of Travel in Turkey.  Diyarbakir is highest on the list of places to avoid in Turkey.  I couldn’t disagree with this more. The city is safe and the people are friendlier than what I thought was humanly possible. There are only two dangers I can see someone encountering in this city—falling off the old city wall and getting sick from the Cig Kofte—I’ll discuss these later

When I mentioned to people that my country strongly advises against travel to Diyarbakir they seemed greatly confused. They said it was just politics and that now it’s very safe. While strolling in Old City we met an Iranian Kurdish family.  We talked on the street for 15 minutes.  When I explained to her the United States’ stance on travel to this area she gave me an explanation without hesitation.  She said it was likely because of Turkey’s government—they were trying to paint the Kurds as terrorists. I found her explanation easy to believe after learning more about the Kurds and Diyarbakir’s history. The family was impressed that Robert, our Polish travel companion, knew more about Iranian Kurdistan than they did. After these last few days Sylvie and I wish to visit Iran in the future.

Interesting Facts of Diyarbakir

Pigeons - Pigeons are so highly sought after that Sylvie and I could not quite wrap our heads around it.  The reason is actually due to some esoteric history.  Pigeons were brought into the city and bred because their feces is helpful for growing watermelon. Watermelon is incredibly popular here. Now that cotton has replaced much of the watermelon crop the love for pigeons is just a carryover from the past.  Many older people still love pigeons—so much, in fact, that there are a handful of pigeon clubs around town where the notorious bird is auctioned off for as much as hundreds of dollars.  We even heard stories of men selling their homes to buy pigeons.  Here you can see a video of a pigeon race here.

Sunflower Seeds – Cheap and plentiful they can be found in buckets for sale around town.  Men will down an entire bag while sipping tea and talking to other men. The seeds are eaten with such haste that it is dizzying just watching. While the mouth is busy removing the seeds from the shell the men’s hands are readying for another seed. This endless seed-eating frenzy is associated with the poorer Kurds and a “rich person would never be caught eating a sunflower seed”.  Our host went as far as saying he would not even permit someone to eat “those things” in his café. 

Dogs – Despite the numerous stray cats in the city we didn’t see too many (if any) dogs.  Our host explained to us that there is a story found in Islam where a warrior was about to slay a dog but at the last moment decided not to.  While certain muslins interpret this story as the warrior demonstrating mercy many Kurds believe it teaches that the warrior didn’t want to touch the dog because it was unclean/dirty.  For this reason you will find many Kurd avoiding dogs completely.

Kurdish Wedding

Our couchsurfing host invited us to his collogues wedding our first night in town. The wedding was half an hour out of the city and we arrived around 9pm.  There must have been between 600 and 700 guests at the party.  I wore jeans a black polo, and flip flops.  Sylvie and Robert were even more casual.  No one seemed to care.  As is typical in wedding here people eat dinner beforehand and only snacks and drinks are served at the actual wedding.  Tables were overflowing with nuts, fruit, and cookies.  Men came around offering us glasses of orange Fanta and cola.  No alcohol at Muslim weddings made for a wholesome experience.  Suat had mentioned that they “went all out” since fruit was expensive. 

Guests danced off and on throughout the night to traditional Kurdish music.  People joined hands and danced in one collective circle.  I found an occasional man and women holding hands but this was by far the exception. For the most part women danced with women and men danced with men.  There seemed to be 2 or 3 discrete dances but most of them involved bouncing ones shoulders up and down.

Every once in a while a fluttering of American one dollar bills would rain from the sky.  Traditionally this was real money but since 5 liras (the lowest denomination of paper money) was too expensive fake money was substituted.  You donate a small amount of money and receive a stack of fake dollar bills. You can then throw this fake money into the sky in the center of the dance floor to demonstrate your wealth and generosity. 

It was customary for each guest to visit the Groom and Bridge and present their gift.  Gold coins are the status quo but paper money is also permitted—money is typically reserved for those who cannot afford gold coins.  The gold coins, which come as pendants, are standardized and come in a variety of sizes.  My guess is that the coins come in multiples of grams.  Some coins were as small as a dime while others were larger than a quarter.  The guest present the gift and sews the coin onto the newly married couple’s clothing.  This is also done for the money.  By the end of the night the bride and groom were covered in gold coins, Turkish lira, and even a few $50 US bills. The bride and groom sell the gold coins the next morning and pocket the money. A funny tradition to say the very least.

The cake was cut towards the end of the night.  I asked Suat the significance of using a sword to cut the cake, and he just shrugged his head and said “big cake”?

Observations of Diyarbakir

The vast majority of women did not wear head scarves.  Kurdish women traditionally do not wear them until they are married unlike Turkish (and Arabic) women.  Dissimilar to Van there were many women in the streets.  Our host even said that there a few places around town where you can find single women drinking beers at night.  Urfa, the city we are visiting next, has a large Arabic population and is one of the country’s most religious cities—you will not find women alone in the city, without head scarves, or anywhere to drink/buy beer. (check out our next blog about Urfa)

Whereas Mardin may have been the most beautiful and enchanting city I’ve seen Diyarbakir has been the most genuine city we’ve visited so far.  Although Istanbul was busy and filled with tourists the authenticity of Diyarbakir was palpable. Old City had more shops aimed at tourists than the New City but nothing felt forced.  Prices were not inflated and locals shopped alongside tourists.  Most tourists seemed to be coming from nearby Kurdish regions.  We read most tourists don’t venture out of Old City but we had split our time evenly.  Old City had Mosques and history whereas New City had a café culture we have not seen elsewhere in Turkey.

Wikivoyage says it best: “Diyarbakir’s old city is like a village in the middle of the city with village mentality.  Goose running around, women having cay in front of their houses and kids shouting to foreigners the few English words they know.  However walking around in the city center is unique and totally different from other Turkish cities.  You’ll see people as they life their everyday Kurdish life.  If you are lucky, you may even get invited for a tea by a friendly shop owner”

While walking in Old City many vendors stopped us to ask where we were from.  Everyone was so happy to hear that we were from America.  One even told us how “Turkey and America are good friends”.  While walking near the southern wall I spotted several kebab vendors sitting and enjoying a midday snack.  They were eating slices of watermelon, chunks of cheese, and Kurdish bread.  When they saw us looking at their food they commanded us to join them.  They gave up their seats and forced us to eat, even bringing more bread and cheese.  They had to get back to work but after 10 minutes they even gave us a sample of their chicken kebab and another sandwich item.  We sat for a while and upon leaving I asked how much we owed and the men held their hands to their chest and said it was a gift.  They asked for a photo and we hugged and kissed each other’s cheeks as we departed.

For dinner one night Sylvie and I split a portion of Cig Kofte, a Turkish dish originally made with raw meat.  However the government has outlawed the use of raw meat for health and safety reasons. This Cig Kofte was by far the best we’ve eaten and we’ve had at least a couple dozen times. The next morning we came back to the same place and Sylvie and Robert bought a Turkish breakfast sandwich.  We watched the men prepare the Cig Kofte for the day and they showed us how they used raw lamb. I was finally happy to have tried Cig Kofte with raw meat.  Our host couldn’t believe it as using raw meat is strictly forbidden.             

Must-Sees/Dos in Old City:

Include the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir (Ulu Mosque) – 800 years old

Aramaic Church of the Virgin Mary (Meryemana Kilisesi)

Dicle Bridge (ten eye bridge) - Built south of the city in 1065

Kervanseray – Old caravanserai now used as a place for cafes, bookstores, and shop

Hasan Pasha Hani – A 500 year old in that offers best place to get breakfast in Diyarbakir.  Come hungry as you can expect your entire table to be overflowing with a variety of Kurdish dishes (found inside Kervanseray)

Eat Cigercisi, preferably at Dag Paki Cigercisi, this liver kebab is unique to Diyarbakir

Eat Kadayif and Kunefe – Two types of desserts famous in the area

Leaving Diyarbakir

After trying their kadayif we caught a bus to the bus station thanks to a handful of helpful locals trying with great effort to see that we were on our way safely. The bus driver let us off without charging us! As we walked into the bus station no less than 5 men ran up to us screaming names of large cities in Turkey. We said “Urfa” and one gent took us by the arm and brought us to a counter inside the bus terminal. We bought tickets to Urfa for a bus that left in 4 minutes. Sylvie, like always, ran to the bathroom and we were on our way to Urfa within minutes. Within 10 minutes we were already stopped at yet another security checkpoint. This time the police officer was wearing a complete set dessert camouflage. Goodbye Diyarbakir, I’ll surely miss you!

[hightlm-eng101-mon-wed-pierce]

ENG 101

Hight

ESSAY #2: FINDING THE THEME IN A STORY

(FIRST AND ONLY DRAFT DUE 3/26/18)

          For this assignment, you will be analyzing the theme in a short story.  Keep in mind that theme is all about the underlying message in a work of art (for example, a piece a fiction). In this case, you will be analyzing the short story, “The Good Doctor,” by Adam Haslett.

           Here’s what I am looking for: what complex idea or message do you see in the story?  How do the characters’ personalities, intelligence, flaws, etc. help create the theme?  WHY? What specific symbols do you see in the story, and what ideas, concepts, or sentiments to they represent? WHY?  What are some examples of subtext in the story?  What does the subtext mean?  How does this sub-text help create the theme?  WHY?

           Because this is an academic essay, you will have to write one introduction, at least four to five body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Regarding the introduction, the thesis statement must clearly state the theme of Haslett’s story.  Everything in the body paragraphs must connect to and support the thesis statement. Please keep in mind: I hate vague or generic thesis statements.  Please do not give me any clichéd thesis statements (i.e. do not judge a book by its cover).  Do not simply state the topic in the story (i.e. the story is about guilt).

           Since this is a text-based analysis, you must incorporate quotes from the story into your essay.  Make sure that your quotes clearly capture a specific character, symbol, or example of subtext.  Do not give me a summary of the story; you have to break down the story into specific characters, symbols, etc. and explain what they mean and how the create the theme.  There is one more thing you need to know: you can only use one to two quotes per body paragraph, and your quotes cannot be long quotes (nothing longer than four lines). Because you are only using one to two quotes per body paragraph, I strongly suggest that you focus on one part of the story per body paragraph—for example one body paragraph on character, one on symbol, and so forth.  If you are stuffing your body paragraphs with lots of quotes or with long quotes that take up too much space, then you are simply padding your paper.  

           To help you with your essay, I encourage you to use the sample paper analyzing the theme of “My Father’s Business” as a model.  However, please do not literally copy the sample paper.  I would like you to create your own analysis in your own words.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

This essay must be typed and double-spaced. The font must be no larger than twelve     points. I prefer “Times New Roman”.

Please type your name, my name, English 101, and the due date on the upper left-hand corner of the first page.  This essay must also have a title, and please be creative. DO NOT use “The Good Doctor” as the title of your essay.

The essay must be at least four full pages.  DO NOT “pad” the essay with large     margins or large spaces between paragraphs.  Otherwise, I will have to grade you down.

Because this is an academic essay, you must keep the entire essay in the 3RD PERSON POV (no “I”, “you”, or “we”).

The final (and only) draft of this essay is due Monday, March 26th.  Please note: I accept late papers.  However, I will make a 2% deduction on the final grade that the late paper receives.

ENG 101

Hight

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: WRITING A PARTIAL DRAFT (AN INTRODUCTION & TWO BODY PARAGRAPHS)

(DUE 3/21/18)

          You will be required to type up an introduction and two body paragraphs that will eventually become your draft of Essay #2 (thematic analysis of “The Good Doctor”).  Please go over the instructions in the prompt for this essay assignment carefully.  In addition, this homework assignment needs to be typed and double-spaced.  I also would like you to keep your partial rough draft (and your entire essay eventually) in 3rd person Point of View (POV).  Yes, that means no “you”, “we”, or “I.”  The class will be conducting a peer review of the partial draft this coming Wednesday (3/21).  

          Regarding your thesis statement, you need to explain the deeper, complex theme in “The Good Doctor.”  If you want to, you can consider the following questions to help you formulate your thesis.  Should people want and strive for dreams beyond their means and socioeconomic class?  In other words, can those stuck in poverty yearn for things that only the rich can enjoy, and should parents impose those dreams on their children?  Can people escape the crushing hopelessness of their environment?  For example, was Jason doomed no matter what his mother did?  Regarding Doctor Briggs, is being a sympathetic listener enough to make one a good doctor?

          Regarding your body paragraphs, you should focus on one aspect of the story (character, plot, etc.) per body paragraph.  Since this assignment is all about text-based analysis, you will need to quote from “The Good Doctor” and then explain how that quote or two prove your analysis of the particular part (character, symbol, etc.) and how it contributes to the story’s overall theme.  Make sure that your body paragraphs connect to and support your thesis statement.  If you want to, you can use the sample paper analyzing the theme of “My Father’s Business.”

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Hi! I have to write an essay on Animal Exploitation in circuses/seaworld and such for one of my classes, and most of the sources I try to find are from PETA or affiliates of PETA. Do you know of any good articles or sites where i can get some accurate information from? thank you!

Hmmm. So, I looked through your blog to try to get a sense of where you’re coming from, and it seems like you’re in high school - which means that I’m going to base this response on the assumption that your teacher gave you a purposefully anti-captivity assignment (which is something I’ve seen more and more teachers going, and which is super frustrating because it only allows students to look at one side of a major controversy and then expects you to prove one side true). If you’ve got the flexibility to change your thesis a little bit (for example, to investigating if a company is exploitative instead of arguing that they are) I would highly suggest doing that, because you’ll find way more information and have a much more interesting paper at the end of it. I

I don’t know how much your school has taught you yet to think critically about sources, but it’s worth noting that the sources you can find on a topic will tell you something about the political / real world context of that topic. You said you’ve been looking up sources for animal exploitation in various contexts, and all you’re coming up with is results from extremist groups who are known for lying and manipulating information. If there’s nothing that shows up on a couple of other cursory google searches, that tells you something - in this case, it hints that no definitive answer on the topic exists, and more importantly, that either there isn’t enough research for people to publish or nobody not an extremist group supports the stance you’re looking at strongly enough to publish about it. This is something you can talk to your teacher about - any good teacher will listen to ‘hey I can’t actually find reliable sources for this, what do you want me to do’ if you can back it up with sources about how PETA and animal rights extremist groups and how they manipulation (there are lots of these, you can start with the website petakillsanimals as a jumping off point, but I would use what they talk about to find news articles or other pieces on the same topics because they’re also a radical, biased source). 

There’s also not going to be a lot of publications on the other side of the issue - things defending no, these places aren’t exploitative. That’s partially because it’s a super nuanced issue, and it’s also because the non-research parts of the animal world are just not academic in nature. People are generally working with animals rather than writing about them, and the publications that do occur tend to be focused at other members of the field rather than communicating with the public (that’s the job of the PR departments, apparently, and it’s stupid and they’re doing a really bad job of educating people which is partly why this blog exists). So the question then becomes: how do you find more sources and viewpoints on the topic when the specific issue you’re looking to learn about isn’t one that gets published on directly?

Here’s where I suggest you start. If you’re going to talk about something being exploitative, you have to define what exploitation is and why something is exploitative. Generally with animals, the arguments people use to back up claims of abuse or exploitation are low welfare, being under human control / used for human wants, not being in nature (with the assumption nature is nicer and better for animals), that sort of thing. I’d start looking into Seaworld or Ringling or whomever you’re focusing on with an eye to those issues - do the animals have good welfare? Has it been studied? If not, are the similar studies with that species or another species in the same environment? I’d look into some animal ethics, stuff about human use, and definitely look into the differences between the lives of animals in the wild vs in captivity in terms of average lifespan, injury, reproduction, that sort of thing. You can absolutely search the archive of this blog (use the search bar on the blog page, not the tags, because then you can search the text of posts) to get an idea of where to start. 

Now, you’re in high school, so I can’t imagine your teacher is expecting you to be reading academic publications - they’re dense and hard to get ahold of. So, where do you find this information? Sadly, I don’t think this blog will count as a primary source for most teachers. So, you have a couple options. You can get on google scholar and start plugging in keywords until you find authors who seem like they’re writing on what you’re looking for, and then search their name to find out if they’ve written books - those will generally be written for the public and be much easier to read. You can also get a list of what information you’re looking for and some keywords and talk to your librarian for help. 

When you’re using these sources, just remember - look up the author. Look up their political associations and memberships and see if they have a bias on the topic. Bias doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t use them as a resource, but it’s something to take into consideration when developing conclusions or when trying to figure out why statements between sources are contradictory. 

Good luck!

[seanmeverett]

Diary of a Madman, Page 24

7,700 people peering inside. Don’t get trapped.

I. The Fountainhead Movement

Now that we’ve finalized our 12 Titans of Tech theses for the coming decades publicly, we will begin our deep dives into each one, for Fountainhead Members only. Here are last week’s exclusive analyses:

Medium’s New Product & Archive: comments on where Medium is headed, as well as this publication, based on a bit of inside baseball, as well as links to our new Archive feature.

Picking Your Next Investment: the strategy we used to pick NVIDIA before its 2016 meteroic rise and how you can use a similar methodology to pick the next one. PS, read more on The Base Code below.

Lowering the Cost of Solar with Software: an insider in the solar business for many years, Michał Bacia gives us a technical deep dive into the biggest cost considerations of deploying solar energy, today and into the future.

Self-Flying Car Startups: we’ve charted the various startups side-by-side based on publicly available information, as well as listing out the other valuable industries that self-driving tech will affect.

100+ Newsletters & RSS Feeds We Read Every Day: we give links to our favorite newsletters and provide the OPML file for 90 RSS feeds we follow to gain all of the insight included in Humanizing Tech for many years.

Join today for $9/month (through web browsers only, not inside mobile apps) before the price goes up again.

II. 2017 Is Here, Are You Prepared?

Get Superhuman Abilities with Biohacking: rounding out our public 12 Tech Theses for the coming decades, this roundup is aimed squarely at Thesis XII Superhuman Modifications.

How To Lose Weight Without Moving: we published a story with our friends over at The Mission because the reason we do all of this tech stuff is ultimately to help people and spread knowledge, not to become the world’s richest loner.

12 Tech Titan Theses

Video as an App: The stop-motion animation feature film, Kubo and The Two Strings, was a breathtaking piece of cinema. I fully expect in the future that our cinematic reality will be a bit more interactive, where we’re plucking along on our own choose-your-own-adventure movie by following one of the main characters. Interestingly was working on something like that a few years back.

Music as a Control Mechanism: Most people consider music the “sound” part, but forget that there is also the “silence” part, otherwise it would be just noise. And that it exists over a period of time. These are the 3 mechanics that these programmers called musicians use. Spend time contemplating what Silence means for your product.

Biologic Intelligence Disrupting AI: Scientific American, the publication that’s been around since 1845, published an article in their collector’s edition Top Science Stories of 2016 magazine. Guess what it was about? How Biologic Intelligence drives itself. This is real, hard science folks. And it works.

Space as a SAAS Platform: Water thrusters as unique propulsion. Spoke with Sebastian Straube last week. He’s doing incredible things in the European Space area, and he’s currently in the process of getting his LPs together for his new early stage Space VC fund. We’re incredibly excited to be working together on some things for the future of Space as a Platform. Stay tuned.

Automatic Health Optimization: Cancer isn’t the same thing for every person who gets it. In fact, cancer is personalized for every person. We need a personalized solution. While Grail has my favorite name and approach of the year (including a $1B capital raise), this chap is quietly building the pharma firm of the future.

Personal Hedge Fund: I have laid out the strategy, product platform, complete with gamification mechanics for The Base Code. The main insight is, “how do you use free, mobile apps that already exist to help everyday people invest small sums of money from each paycheck that eventually turns into your very own large hedge fund aimed at retirement”. Email me if you want to take it to market. I’ll write out details for Fountainhead Members.

Personal Power Stations: We’re going to need farms on Mars.

Self-Organizing Biorobotics: I’ve started a new book describing how nature innovates. It uncovers the secret for how evolution works, not just proving it exists. Did you know that the sheer mathematical size of the number of possible combinations for even an eagle’s eyesight is larger than the time of the universe’s existence. So how did nature innovate our evolutions? That’s what this is about.

Autonomous Internet of Things: Mercedes is hiring a Strategy & Innovation Analyst.

Reality Retail: Neiman Marcus withdrew its IPO while Macy’s, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Dillard’s and JC Penney’s stocks are all getting hammered down -10% on average. They need a better way if they want to compete for Millennial dollars. Part of that answer was in Thesis X. Give another look at our Future of Luxury Retail analysis and the luxury gifts product we built for a potential answer.

Interstellar Sports Wearables: Covered widely last week, the growth hacker who was fired after 3 weeks at Snap seems fishy. You don’t work at Facebook on growth if you suck at your job. Read Snap’s IPO MD&A carefully. Make sure you’re not being affected by the Spectacles hype. They’re not reaching new users, much like Twitter’s stalled growth. Determine what type of business it is first before you invest.

Superhuman Modifications: as mentioned above, have a read through our latest analysis: Get Superhuman Abilities with Biohacking.

III. Thoughts of the Week

New Feature: Archive

Stats: Humanizing Tech’s Alexa rank is Universe: ?, Earth: 1,016,313, USA: 274,778

Other Stats: Google’s Alexa rank is #1, followed by YouTube and then Facebook. Reading between the lines of trying to understand humanity, we 1) search 2) watch and 3) are social. Consider all of those for the next product you’re building or investing in that touch any sort of human use case.

News: The $100B Softbank fund supported by Japan, Saudi Arabia, and now Apple, “will be focused on artificial intelligence and robotics”.

Philosophy: If being early is the same as being wrong then JFK really messed up with that whole “we’re going to the moon because it’s hard” thing.

Heresy: any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established customs or beliefs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs.

Count me in.

— Sean

Read The Rest

23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Join The Fountainhead Movement for exclusive access to bleeding edge analyst reports.

Humanizing Tech is a intelligent, premium publication covering autonomous driving, self-learning AI, personal hedge funds, editable DNA, SAAS space platforms, personal power stations, and video as an app. This newsletter is a peek inside the Editor’s mind.

Diary of a Madman, Page 24 was originally published in Humanizing Tech on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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