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moontyger · 28 days ago

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It was a tip that brought a dog to the main post office in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. An employee there had reported seeing someone in the lobby putting pills into hot pink envelopes.

Hours later, Ed Steed, a police officer from the small city of Richland, just south of Jackson, walked into a back room at the post office where one of the envelopes had been set aside. Steed, a K-9 handler, arrived with Rip, his narcotics sniffer dog. Rip strode around and, when he got to the pink envelope, sat down. According to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Steed said this meant the dog had smelled narcotics. That claim became evidence to get a warrant to open the envelope.

This, though, was no ordinary drug bust. As it turned out, there were pills inside the package, but they were not the kind that Rip or other police K-9s are trained to detect. The envelope contained five pills labeled “AntiPreg Kit.” They were made in India, and their medical purpose is to induce abortion. Dwayne Martin, at the time the head of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Jackson, told me this was exactly what the initial tipster had suspected.

...

What will happen to abortion-pills-by-mail and the people who use them if Donald Trump is elected in November? As the accounts of the regional USPIS head and FOIA documents show, a piecemeal crackdown is already underway during a Democratic administration. Under a Trump regime, things might go much further.

Whoever is in power, the incident in Jackson provides a potential window into the future — one in which freelancing local Postal Service employees and officials can call on local cops to halt women from accessing reproductive care and potentially charge and arrest those providing or using abortion medication.

My FOIA request asked for records from past years of investigations of people who’d used the mail to send pills. The documents I got back show how a willing administration might go after distributors. The feds could even lend support to police in states that have criminalized abortion care as they pursue cases under local laws. Pregnant people who order the medications could get caught in the dragnet.

The documents I received after my FOIA request were highly redacted but still reveal many details about a federal investigation that began less than two years ago in Mississippi. Dozens of envelopes with abortion pills were seized. The bust followed on the heels of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and came after a group of anti-abortion doctors filed a federal lawsuit in Texas, arguing that abortion pills should be banned from the mail.

The Jackson investigation apparently also employed what’s called a mail cover: a little-known Postal Service method for collecting data about people suspected of committing crimes. Using an enormous database of images of the outside of envelopes and packages, postal inspectors can digitally compare names, addresses, and other information on one item to others. And the findings can be freely shared with almost any law enforcement agency that requests them. The return address for the hot pink envelope in Jackson included an unused post office box number, the sort of information postal inspectors can use to correlate parcels to each other.

Reproductive justice activist Laurie Bertram Roberts worries about an anti-abortion regime taking power. They direct the Jackson-based Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, which assists fellow Mississippians with any reproductive decision they make, from having a baby, to leaving the state to go to an abortion clinic, to using pills at home.

In a state where abortion is strictly banned post-Roe, Bertram Roberts is also a doula. Along with other doulas, they have organized help for people at the end of their pregnancies, including those which do not come to term. Whether that end is due miscarriage or to abortion is immaterial. “We don’t ask,” they said.

The pink-envelope investigation came out of a sort of collaboration between the feds’ regional offices and a local official: U.S postal workers and a city K-9 cop. Though no one in Mississippi has yet been arrested for helping carry out an abortion, Bertram Roberts fears that synergy. They leaned forward and tensed their lips as I opened my computer and pulled up images I’d obtained from the FOIA request: photos the USPIS had taken, in a post office parking lot, of vehicles suspected of belonging to the person who mailed the pills.

Bertram Roberts peered anxiously at the screen. “I don’t recognize them!” they said. Their face relaxed, but they shook their head. “The thing I worry about most is people getting criminalized.

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Using local dogs creates risk for abortion-seekers. With the post office inviting local law enforcement to assist with federal investigations, local police could theoretically do their own investigations, by copying names and addresses from the mail. And they could pass that information to anti-abortion district attorneys.

Police dogs, however, are trained to smell only the illegal drugs heroin, marijuana, ecstasy, fentanyl, and cocaine, not the ingredients in abortion pills, which currently remain legal. And the K-9s’ forensic reliability is suspect.

Why would a police dog alert on abortion pills in the first place, when they’re not narcotics?

Martel, the USPIS national spokesperson, speculated that the pills found in Jackson were contaminated in the manufacturing process by trace amounts of a drug such as marijuana, or perhaps someone was handling narcotics when they did the packing and left molecules behind that only canines’ super-sensitive noses can detect.

Theories along these lines are widespread among police, and they’re inherently impossible to disprove. Elisa Wells, a co-founder and co-director of Plan C, is skeptical. She said her group has conducted laboratory analyses of various brands of foreign-made abortion pills. They’ve all been pure, she said, and no one has ever complained about their containing narcotics.

There is another reason why a K-9 can zero in on a package that’s devoid of illicit drugs. Animal researchers call it “cueing.” Canines are exquisitely sensitive to the minutiae of a human’s posture, eye movements, and other subtle behaviors. Handlers wishing to develop probable cause to do intrusive searches for narcotics can coax their dogs into drug-alerting behavior. To get a reward, the dog will alert, even if nothing illegal is present. (Steed, the K-9 handler, declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Cueing can be deliberate, but it’s more often unconscious. In 2011, Lisa Lit, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, published a now-famous study in which she told the handlers of several police dogs that their K-9s would be searching for “target scents” hidden randomly in several containers. She put red tape on some containers and said it marked the targets. In reality, none of the containers had scents. Even so, most of the dogs alerted on containers, especially those with red tape.

#abortion rights #psa #acab #USPS #read the whole thing #reproductive rights #US politics #US legal system

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payblogs · 2 months ago

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DARK SMS - DRAGON+ (4)

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Temp Indian Number

In today's digital age, many users require a temporary sms number to safeguard their privacy when signing up for various services, apps, or websites. A temp indian number provides a convenient solution for those looking to maintain anonymity without compromising on accessibility.

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It's important to note that while these numbers are a great resource for privacy, users should always read the terms of service of the platforms they are registering with to ensure compliance with any guidelines regarding the use of temporary contact numbers.

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metamatar · 1 year ago

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(btw NYT's anti china hysteria is getting journalists in india arrested)

In August 2023, The New York Times published a story “A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul”. The story investigated whether Chinese funding was being funnelled to advocacy and media organisations across the world to defend the internal authoritarianism of the Chinese state. One of the countries included was India, with a fleeting reference to an Indian digital news organisation NewsClick, which the report said “sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”.

The report did not suggest that the organisation had committed any crime – let alone sedition or terrorism against the Indian state. But on October 3, the police in Delhi swooped down on the homes of 46 people connected to NewsClick – journalists, staffers, contributors, including academics, historians, satirists – seizing their phones and laptops, subjecting them to hours of questioning, largely about their coverage of protests by farmers and by Muslim women. NewsClick’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purakayastha and the head of the human resources department Amit Chakraborty were arrested under the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

When asked about the police action, anonymous government officials invoked the New York Times article. Indian TV channels – nearly all of which are propaganda channels for the Modi regime – used the NYT story to frame the issue as a question of whether “press freedom” should be respected at the cost of “national sovereignty”.

[...] The NYT story has become a pretext to escalate an ongoing campaign to persecute and imprison some of India’s most courageous journalists, academics and activists on baseless charges of abetting “Maoist terrorism”. [...] NYT’s failure to separate specific issues of financial impropriety, propaganda, and political opinion from each other, I feared, would endanger the courageous work of journalists associated with NewsClick: for example, investigations into the financial scandals involving Gautam Adani, the tycoon who is known to be a close associate of the Indian Prime Minister. [...] The story had mentioned several media platforms (a YouTube channel in the US for instance) without identifying these by name, but had chosen to name NewsClick. It had cherry-picked an inoffensive and rather lame line from a NewsClick video and presented this as evidence of pro-China propaganda: “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.” I pointed out that this is a simple statement of opinion, and cannot be construed as Chinese government propaganda.

Left-wing softness on China or Russia might harm Uyghurs or Ukrainians, and the political health of the Left itself, but this was hardly a problem for the Modi regime.

#india

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mariacallous · 6 months ago

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Two things happened this week that got me really worried about AI’s role in the US election:

First, WIRED published a massive story on how voters in India have received over 50 million deepfaked voice calls imitating candidates and political figures. That’s a lot of deepfakes, and voters are confusing them for the real thing.

Second, the Federal Communications Commission announced this week that it’s considering new AI ad rules only a few months after it banned synthetic robocalls. (Synthetic ads are ads that are created or altered with AI.) Excuse me, but why is the FCC the only government entity that’s approved new AI and elections rules this year? The Indian election should be a warning sign for the US to get busy regulating, but the FCC is the only one picking up the phone.

Let’s talk about it.

The US Is Running Out of Time to Stamp Out Deepfake Political Ads

Remember when the Republican National Committee put out an AI-generated ad attacking Biden? Or when Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ super PAC released an AI ad that mimicked former president Donald Trump? It’s almost been a year since both these ads came out, and there aren't any new laws governing AI ads, despite all the outrage at the time.

Last year, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer started holding meetings with a rotating set of stakeholders and AI industry leaders to develop solutions to issues raised by generative AI. One of the leader’s priorities was to protect US elections from whatever mess the tech may create ahead of November. He has issued a report and pushed senators to turn that guidance into law, but that’s about all that’s happened.

The FCC can’t do as much as Congress can, but it’s done the most out of the two. In February, the agency outlawed using generative AI in robocalls in response to the New Hampshire call impersonating President Joe Biden. On Wednesday, chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel went further, proposing that broadcast television, radio, and some cable political ads disclose when synthetic material is used.

“As artificial intelligence tools become more accessible, the Commission wants to make sure consumers are fully informed when the technology is used,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Today, I’ve shared with my colleagues a proposal that makes clear consumers have a right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they see, and I hope they swiftly act on this issue.”

This is all great, but voters are probably going to encounter more digital fakes online than over broadcast. And for digital ads, the government hasn’t issued any solutions.

The Federal Election Commission was petitioned by the advocacy group Public Citizen to create rules requiring FCC-like disclosures for all political ads, regardless of the medium, but the agency has yet to act. A January Washington Post report said that the FEC plans to make some decision by early summer. But summer is around the corner, and we haven’t heard much. The Senate Rules Committee passed three bills to regulate the use of AI in elections, including disclosures, earlier this month, but there’s no promise it will hit the floor in time to make a difference.

If you really want to get scared, there are only 166 days until the presidential election. That’s not many days to get something related to AI disclosures over the finish line, especially before the Biden and Trump campaigns, and all the downballot politicians, start dumping even more cash into ads on social platforms.

Without regulations, tech companies will carry much of the responsibility for protecting our elections from disinformation. If it doesn’t sound that different from 2020, I feel the same way! It’s a new issue, but with the same companies leading the charge. In November, Meta said that political ads must include disclaimers when they contain AI-generated content. TikTok doesn’t allow political ads, but it does require creators to label AI content when they share synthetic content depicting realistic images, audio, and video.

It’s something, but what happens if they make a huge mistake? Sure, Mark Zuckerberg and every other tech CEO may get hauled in by Congress for a hearing or two, but it’s unlikely they’d face regulatory consequences before the election takes place.

There’s a lot at stake here, and we’re running out of time. If Congress or an agency were to issue some guidance, they’d need to do it in the next few months. Otherwise, it might not be worth the effort.

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reyaint · 1 month ago

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history of HAIQIN | part X: modern era

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date: october 12, 2024. I have a dialectical journal due on the 15 when fall break ends. actually gonna lose it.

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The Modern Era (1980s-Present)

Modern Government & Diplomacy:

Global Influence

Neutrality as a Diplomatic Tool:

Haiqin has perfected the art of neutrality, using it not only to avoid military entanglements but to position itself as a diplomatic hub. The country plays a key role in mediating between powers in global conflicts, regional South Asian tensions, European and American issues, and East Asian territorial disagreements. Additionally, Haiqin has hosted negotiations between superpowers, ensuring peaceful resolutions in situations involving complex geopolitical rivalries. Haiqin’s neutral position allows it to act as a safe intermediary for humanitarian ceasefire agreements and non-governmental organizations.

International Organizations:

Haiqin’s representatives have held leadership positions in various international organizations, including serving on the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member multiple times. The nation is also part of organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, where it promotes policies on equitable economic growth and sustainable development. Haiqin spearheads climate change discussions, advocating for stronger emissions regulations and funding for green technology development in developing nations.

Membership in International Organizations:

Beyond the UN and WTO, Haiqin has also taken leadership roles in climate action groups such as the Paris Agreement coalition and environmental sustainability pacts. Its position in the OECD has allowed it to participate in policy-making around economic growth, sustainability, and international tax reform, using its influence to promote eco-friendly practices and digital innovations across borders.

Strategic Alliances:

Despite its neutrality, Haiqin has formed strategic alliances with nations such as Switzerland, Sweden, and Canada. These alliances are based on shared values of environmental sustainability, human rights, and technological innovation. These relationships have bolstered Haiqin’s influence in international environmental summits like COP, where it frequently serves as a mediator between major world powers. Even while neutral, they have one of the strongest militaries.

In recent years, Haiqin has strengthened ties with countries in Northern Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea, focusing on creating a global "Green Alliance" promoting renewable energy and sustainable industrial practices. Its strategic partnerships focus on technological innovation, intellectual property agreements, and knowledge exchange in science and education. These partnerships extend to cooperative space research initiatives, placing Haiqin at the forefront of cutting-edge satellite technology and space exploration.

The Military:

While Haiqin advocates for peace, it maintains one of the world’s most advanced and well-equipped military forces, particularly in the fields of cyber defense and intelligence. Haiqin’s military is recognized for its rigorous training in both conventional combat and modern cyber-warfare techniques. Specialized units focus on counter-terrorism, environmental protection, and strategic disaster responses. Military service remains voluntary but highly prestigious, with many youth aspiring to join due to the opportunities it offers in education, training, and post-service careers. Also many snipers are woman, so yeah.

Diplomacy & Neutrality

Mediation Efforts:

Haiqin's diplomats are often called upon to mediate some of the world's most complex conflicts. A notable instance was the 1998 Haiqin-brokered peace agreement between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which brought about a temporary ceasefire and facilitated humanitarian aid in the region. Haiqin has also mediated North Korean and South Korean negotiations in partnership with international powers, reinforcing its role as a stabilizing force.

Bridge Between Cultures:

Cultural exchange remains a key strategy in Haiqin's diplomatic toolkit. The government sponsors international art exhibitions, theater tours, and music festivals to foster goodwill with other nations. Haiqin's rich blend of Greek and Native influences, along with its modern artistic contributions, gives it unique cultural appeal. Educational exchange programs have also blossomed, sending young Haiqin students to study abroad while welcoming international students into Haiqin universities.

Crisis Response:

Haiqin was among the first countries to offer medical and logistical aid to struggling nations. It shipped millions of units of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and vaccines to over 30 countries. This led to a boost in its global reputation as a humanitarian leader and reaffirmed its commitment to global health.

The government has established a rapid response team trained to deal with various crises, including natural disasters, refugee situations, and health emergencies, reflecting its commitment to global humanitarian efforts.

Cultural Diplomacy:

With Haiqin’s unique blend of Native and Greek heritage, the nation actively promotes its art, cuisine, and traditions across the globe. Through international festivals, Haiqin exports its cultural products while supporting collaborations in theater, dance, and film with major cultural centers in Paris, Tokyo, and New York.

Societal Changes:

Technology and Innovation

Renewable Energy Leadership:

In the 1990s, Haiqin underwent a massive transformation in its energy sector. Inspired by its cultural reverence for nature, the government launched the "Green Future Initiative," which sought to transform Haiqin into one of the most energy-efficient nations in the world. By 2010, Haiqin had achieved near-total reliance on renewable energy, with solar and wind farms scattered across the country’s landscapes. Hydroelectric dams tap into the nation’s many rivers, and cutting-edge geothermal plants have been established in the mountainous regions. Haiqin has also become a global exporter of green technologies, particularly in the development of low-cost, high-efficiency solar panels.

Haiqin’s innovation in renewable energy is unmatched. By 2030, it aims to power 90% of its domestic energy consumption through renewable sources. It has developed state-of-the-art solar farms and off-shore wind turbines, some of which are the largest in the world. The country exports its renewable energy technologies, helping nations transition to cleaner energy systems.

Environmental Protection Initiatives:

As part of its commitment to sustainability, Haiqin has established numerous protected areas, wildlife reserves, and national parks. These spaces not only conserve biodiversity but also reflect the nation’s ongoing effort to preserve the natural beauty that plays a central role in its identity. Government programs offer incentives for green businesses, and the country has enacted strict environmental laws aimed at minimizing pollution and encouraging ecological responsibility.

Education and Healthcare Investment:

The Haiqin government invests heavily in education and healthcare, aiming for a balanced society where citizens can thrive. Schools emphasize critical thinking, creativity, and emotional well-being, ensuring that students receive a holistic education that prepares them for the future.

Advancements in Bioengineering:

Haiqin’s universities are world-renowned for their research programs, especially in bioengineering, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. Government incentives encourage collaboration between academic institutions and private companies, fostering an ecosystem where breakthrough technologies in medical science, especially regenerative medicine and bioprinting, are regularly produced.

Digital Media:

In the 2000s, Haiqin became a hub for digital innovation, particularly in the realms of film, music, and video game production. The country's tech scene flourished, with startups leading advances in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and bioengineering. Many tech conglomerates now have headquarters in Haiqin, making it a focal point for digital media production globally.

In the 21st century, Haiqin emerged as a leading force in the digital media space. Homegrown tech firms have developed some of the most popular social media platforms, while the country's gaming industry has achieved global renown. Government-supported programs encourage innovation in tech and arts, leading to groundbreaking developments in virtual reality and digital art. Haiqin's startups frequently collaborate with international firms, cementing its reputation as a technological and creative powerhouse.

Technological Hub:

Haiqin’s cities, particularly Nirin and Pylos, have become vibrant hubs of technological innovation, earning the nickname "Silicon Valley." The government’s significant investment in education and technology in the 1980s paid off by the early 2000s, as startups and major tech companies began to flourish. Key sectors include bioengineering, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and digital media. Collaboration between Haiqin’s universities and international institutions led to groundbreaking advances in biotechnology, with Haiqin becoming a leader in medical research and the development of genetically engineered crops that are now widely used across the globe.

Cultural Fusion

Architectural Harmony:

The modern cities of Haiqin reflect a seamless fusion of old and new. In the capital city of Stellis, ancient temples stand in harmony beside sleek, futuristic skyscrapers. Architects have paid homage to traditional styles, incorporating elements such as stone carvings, intricate mosaics, and decorative columns into modern buildings. In many urban developments, public spaces include green areas, drawing from both Native and Greek traditions that emphasize a deep connection to nature. This fusion is also seen in residential housing, with new eco-friendly technologies built into homes inspired by traditional Haiqin designs, featuring wide courtyards and terraced gardens.

Haiqin's cities reflect a fascinating combination of ultra-modern architecture and ancient influences. Towering glass skyscrapers are integrated with centuries-old buildings, blending Greek-inspired columns with traditional Native designs, creating an aesthetic harmony of old and new.

Cultural Integration:

Despite modernization, Haiqin remains deeply connected to its cultural roots. Festivals celebrating historical events and cultural milestones are widespread, with both rural and urban areas participating. Traditional music, dances, and rituals are commonly performed, keeping ancient customs alive. However, these celebrations have also embraced modern artistic forms, such as digital art and contemporary music. Art installations and interactive performances blending tradition and technology are a highlight of these festivals, illustrating the nation's ability to preserve its past while embracing the future.

Art and Music Scene:

Haiqin is home to a thriving creative arts scene. The government actively supports artists, musicians, filmmakers, and playwrights, making Haiqin a cultural hub that attracts global attention. Haiqin's film industry has produced several award-winning movies, often telling stories that draw from the nation’s mythology, history, and unique blending of cultural influences. Similarly, musicians from Haiqin are known for blending traditional instruments with modern sounds, creating a genre often referred to as "Neo-Classical Fusion." International music festivals held in Primos and Naidya attract thousands of artists and spectators each year, placing Haiqin on the world map for both traditional and contemporary artistic expression.

The Haiqin art scene has exploded in the digital age, with a new wave of artists creating interactive digital installations and virtual reality art. Music festivals like "The Resonance Festival" attract international artists and music lovers from around the globe, blending traditional Haiqinese music with modern genres like EDM and indie rock. This blend of traditional and contemporary is also seen in cinema, where Haiqin filmmakers are recognized at international film festivals for their innovative storytelling, merging mythological elements with modern themes.

Modern Society:

Cultural Identity and Pride

Preservation of Heritage:

In response to the rapid changes brought by globalization, Haiqin has doubled down on the preservation of its heritage. The government funds cultural preservation projects aimed at safeguarding the nation’s languages, art forms, and historical sites. Museums and cultural centers are abundant, and children are taught the nation’s history from a young age, fostering a deep sense of identity and pride in their cultural roots.

Pride in Heritage:

Haiqin's citizens take immense pride in their cultural heritage. Educational institutions emphasize the importance of local history, folklore, and traditional arts, ensuring that future generations remain connected to their roots. This cultural pride manifests in community events, where local artisans showcase their crafts and traditions.

Education and Family Values:

Haiqin's education system is widely regarded as one of the most progressive in the world, focusing not only on academic success but also on emotional well-being and creativity. The curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, global awareness, and environmental stewardship. Families play a vital role in the educational system, with parents heavily involved in their children’s academic lives. Traditional family values are emphasized alongside modern ideas of personal growth and mental health, creating a balanced approach to parenting.

Festivals and Community Celebrations:

Traditional festivals such as the “Harvest Moon Festival” and the “Festival of Winds” bring together Haiqin’s past and present. These events are occasions for the display of martial arts, traditional music, and culinary art. Contemporary cultural celebrations, such as film and music festivals, also play an important role, attracting international tourists and boosting local economies. Art exhibitions featuring both historical artifacts and modern creations are common, and these events foster community bonding while preserving cultural identity.

Military:

Veterans in Haiqin receive some of the most comprehensive benefits globally, ensuring they are well-supported in retirement and honored for their service. Many veterans transition into leadership roles in government, NGOs, and private sectors, particularly in industries related to security, disaster relief, or humanitarian work. The military also collaborates with civilian industries in developing technology for public use, fostering strong ties between the defense sector and national growth.

Artisans and Entertainment

Cultural Powerhouse:

The modern era has seen Haiqin's entertainment industry gain significant international acclaim. Musicians, filmmakers, and digital artists from Haiqin have made a global impact, often collaborating with foreign artists in cross-cultural projects. Festivals such as the Nirin Film Festival and the National Music Expo are renowned platforms for showcasing new talent and encouraging artistic exchange.

Festivals and Celebrations:

Haiqin has emerged as a cultural force in the world of entertainment. Its film industry, often referred to as "Haiqinwood," produces films that mix philosophical storytelling with visual mastery. These films often reflect the nation’s cultural diversity and moral neutrality, offering unique narratives on global issues.

Integration of Arts in Education:

Arts are woven into the very fabric of Haiqin’s education system, where schools offer specialized programs in music, theater, dance, and visual arts. This emphasis on creativity has resulted in a vibrant national arts scene, with young talents being nurtured from an early age and provided with platforms to showcase their work. Many schools encourage artistic collaboration, fostering the next generation of creative thinkers who will shape the cultural landscape of the nation.

The arts are not just a hobby in Haiqin—they are an integral part of the education system. From primary school to university, students are exposed to music, dance, theater, and visual arts, fostering creativity and cultural pride. This has led to the country producing internationally-renowned artists, filmmakers, and writers who continuously push the boundaries of their crafts.

Nonlethal Duels in Nirin

Hanging Crescent Moon Arena:

The Hanging Crescent Moon Arena is more than just a site for nonlethal duels—it has become a cultural icon. Every year, the nation hosts the “Crescent Games,” a series of competitions where participants display their mastery of traditional martial arts in non-lethal combat. These duels emphasize discipline, skill, and respect, celebrating the nation’s warrior roots while promoting nonviolence. The military units in Nirin also train in the arena for certain types of combat.

Cultural Significance:

Nonlethal dueling is more than just a sport; it is a cultural symbol of Haiqin’s values of fairness, discipline, and respect. Fighters wear traditional garb representing their regional and cultural backgrounds, and the duels themselves are often accompanied by ceremonial music and dancing. The competitions are a powerful reminder of Haiqin’s rich martial history, which has evolved into a peaceful and respected modern tradition.

−adding this since I'm probably scripting I'm from Nirin since this is the MOST I've put into any of the 10 provinces (blame my hyper fixation on GHOSTBLADE by WLOP)

#reality shifter #reality shifting #shiftblr #shifting community #shifting #shifting motivation #shifting reality #dr scrapbook #dr world #reyaint #anti shifters dni

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justinspoliticalcorner · 5 months ago

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Umair Irfan at Vox:

It’s gearing up to be another scorching year.

Countries like Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Australia, and Spain already experienced record warm temperatures this year, and in the past few days, heat has killed dozens in India and Mexico. Now states like California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas are getting ready to roast as a massive heat wave settles in. It’s likely to push temperatures well into triple digits. And summer hasn't even officially started yet. It’s an alarming echo of 2023, which was the hottest year on record, but this year could be hotter still. Though the Pacific Ocean is shifting into its La Niña phase, which typically brings cooler global weather, the extraordinary warmth over the past year is still baked in. Scientists say these record highs align with their expectations for climate change, and warn that more scorchers are coming. There’s more to heat waves like this than high temperatures, though. The forces behind them are complex and changing. They’re a public health threat that can exacerbate inequality, cause infrastructure to collapse, and amplify other problems stemming from warming. But with global average temperatures continuing to rise, more records will fall.

Heat waves, explained

Extreme heat might not seem as dramatic as hurricanes or floods, but the National Weather Service has deemed it the deadliest weather phenomenon in the US over the past 30 years, on average. What counts as a heat wave is typically defined relative to local weather conditions, with sustained temperatures in the 90th to 95th percentile of the average in a given area. So the threshold for a heat wave in Tucson is higher than the threshold in Seattle. During the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the northern half of the planet is tilted toward the sun, which increases daylight hours and warms the hemisphere. The impact of this additional exposure to solar radiation is cumulative, which is why temperatures generally peak weeks after the longest day of the year. Amid the increase in temperatures in the summer, meteorology can push those numbers to extremes.

Heat waves typically begin with a high-pressure system (also known as an anticyclone), where atmospheric pressure above an area builds up. That creates a sinking column of air that compresses, heats up, and oftentimes dries out. The sinking air can act as a cap or heat dome, trapping the latent heat already absorbed by the landscape. The high-pressure system also pushes out cooler, fast-moving air currents and squeezes clouds away, which gives the sun an unobstructed line of sight to the ground. The ground — soil, sand, concrete, and asphalt — then bakes in the sunlight, and in the long days and short nights of summer, heat energy quickly accumulates and temperatures rise. Heat waves are especially common in areas that are already arid, like the desert Southwest, and at high altitudes where high-pressure systems readily form. Moisture in the ground can blunt the effects of heat, the way evaporating sweat can cool the body. But when there’s little water in the ground, in waterways, and in vegetation, there isn’t as much to soak up the heat besides the air itself.

[...] But extreme heat can also build up in places that have a lot of moisture. In fact, for every degree Celsius the air warms (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), it can absorb about 7 percent more water, which can create a dangerous combination of heat and humidity (more on that below).

Urban areas further exacerbate this warming. As roads, parking lots, and buildings cover natural landscapes, cities like Los Angeles and Dallas end up absorbing more heat than their surroundings and can become as much as 20°F warmer. This is a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. Heat waves typically last around five days but can linger longer if the high-pressure system is locked in place. “In some cases, you actually can get these kinds of patterns getting stuck, and that can lead to heat waves lasting much longer,” said Karen McKinnon, an assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the University of California Los Angeles. Eventually, the high-pressure system will start to weaken, allowing in cooler air and precipitation that can bring the heat wave to an end. However, as the warm season continues, more high-pressure systems can settle in and restart the heating process.

[...] Climate change caused by greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels is poised to make heat waves longer, more intense, and more frequent. It takes time for the dust to settle on the heat waves of a given moment, to allow scientists to evaluate just how much humans have contributed to the problem.

[...] That heat isn’t distributed evenly, however. Nighttime temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures. “In general, since records began in 1895, summer overnight low temperatures are warming at a rate nearly twice as fast as afternoon high temperatures for the U.S. and the 10 warmest summer minimum temperatures have all occurred since 2002,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This can seriously impair how people cope with high heat. The effects of warming can vary by latitude, too. Polar regions are warming up to three times as fast as the planetary average, fueling heat waves in the Arctic. In fact, cooler parts of the planet are heating up faster than places closer to the equator, so people living in temperate climates may experience some of the biggest increases in extreme heat events. Already hot parts of the world also get hotter, pushing them beyond the realm of habitability at certain times of the year. And as human-generated greenhouse gas emissions continue to flood the atmosphere — atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations recently peaked at 420 parts per million — heat waves are projected to become more frequent and more extreme.

[...]

The timing of heat waves is changing: Periods of extreme heat that occur early in the season tend to have greater public health impacts. That’s because people are less acclimated to heat in the spring and early summer. Cooling infrastructure may not be in place, and people may not be taking heat precautions like staying hydrated and avoiding the sun. That’s why early-season heat waves in the US, as we have seen across the country this year, are so troubling. As climate change makes heat waves more common, it also increases the frequency of early- and late-season extreme temperatures, lengthening the hot season. The worst effects of heat aren’t always in the hottest places: While absolute temperatures may rise higher in already warm areas like the southwestern US, heat waves can have their deadliest impacts in cooler regions, where high temperatures are less common. Warmer areas often already have air conditioning in homes and offices, while regions that usually don’t get as warm have less cooling infrastructure and fewer places to find relief. The people in these regions are also less acclimated to high temperatures and may not recognize warning signs of heat-induced health problems.

Some people are far more vulnerable to extreme heat: Elderly people and very young children face some of the highest risks from extreme heat. People with certain health conditions, like high blood pressure and breathing difficulties, also face greater harm. But even otherwise healthy people can suffer from heat waves if they are exposed for long durations, such as those working outdoors in agriculture and construction. Heat waves exacerbate structural inequalities: While cities can warm up faster than their surroundings, poorer neighborhoods — which are disproportionately home to people of color — tend to get hotter. These neighborhoods often have less tree cover and green spaces, and more paved surfaces that soak up heat. At the same time, lower-income residents may have a harder time affording crucial cooling. The pattern of heat inequality plays out on an international scale, too, with lower-income countries already facing higher health and economic costs from heat waves.

The tools used to cope with heat are also stressed by it: Power plants, which provide electricity for everything from fridges to air conditioners, themselves need to be cooled, and they become less efficient as the weather warms. Power lines have lower capacities under extreme heat, and hardware like transformers experience more failures. If enough stress builds up, the power grid can collapse just when people need cooling the most. Power disruptions then ripple through other infrastructure, like water sanitation, fuel pumps, and public transit. We’re running out of time to act: All this means that heat waves are going to become an increasingly impactful and costly fact of life across the world — from the direct impacts on health to stresses on infrastructure. But since humans share a significant portion of the blame for extreme heat waves, there are also actions people can take to mitigate them. Increasing energy efficiency can relieve stress on the power grid, and adding power sources that don’t require active cooling like wind and solar can boost capacity without adding greenhouse gas emissions.

Vox has a good article on why we are seeing longer and more severe heat waves around the world: climate change effects are part of the reason for the increased duration and severity of heat waves globally.

#Heat Waves #Extreme Weather #Climate Change #Weather #Urban Heat Island Effect #Greenhouse Gases #Extreme Heat

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mediaheights · 1 year ago

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yamayuandadu · 1 year ago

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thank you for the reply and the information! I was curious how the other fox would fit in with PCB Extra's metatextual mention of Three Lands, but I hadn't even considered it might be three worlds and not three countries. this is neat

(Original post for context)

I forgot I left the response to this in my drafts, sorry. Luckily, this means I could update it with recently acquired knowledge when I found it again. Truth to be told, my point is less that the other fox is a better match, and more that Ran being Tamamo no Mae is one of these things which make sense at first glance, but the deeper you look into it, the less coherent it becomes.

This got much longer than I planned, so for organizational purposes let's refer to this post as Revenge of the "graveyard god", or why I don't think Ran is Tamamo no Mae. More under the cut.

The early Tamamo no Mae

The main point of connection between Tamamo no Mae and Ran are the nine tails, but that’s not even really a consistent part of the former's background. The oldest version of the story - which is really fun, the seduction section is pages upon pages of Tamamo and emperor Toba discussing esoteric Buddhism - states that she was “an 800-year-old two-tailed fox from the Nasuno Plain in Shimotsuke Province”. Early depictions of her true form follow this pretty closely:

Nezu Museum of Art, via Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds. A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales

Kyoto University Rare Materials Digital Library

Suntory Museum of Art

As far as I am aware, the two tails are actually unique to her. Other foxes of note have either one tail or nine. While it does seem the belief in the number of tails growing with age is genuine rather than a modern misconception, it’s hardly central to fox folklore (I’ve seen the portmoneu “foxlore” at least once btw, it’s very funny). And, as I will outline later, it doesn’t even seem to be behind the idea of nine-tailed foxes in the first place. Anyway, the oldest version does provide Tamamo with more backstory, but it’s closer to presenting Shuten Dōji as a manifestation of Mara than to a straightforward “Tamamo is x under a pseudonym” popular today. As we learn, the two-tailed fox is in fact a reincarnation of a “graveyard god” (塚の神, Tsuka no Kami) from India, described in the apocryphal Humane Kings Sutra (it gets namedropped directly), likely originally composed in China.

How come? It all started when Kalmashapada, a prince of Devala in India, wanted to offer 1000 skulls of virtuous rulers to this deity because a suspicious “heretical” preacher convinced him it’s a good idea. After defeating and imprisoning 999 such kings, he encountered Shrutasoma, one of the previous incarnations of the historical Buddha, who managed to show him the error of his ways. All of the kings were released, and Kalmashapada was redeemed. The “graveyard god” was less than thrilled, and swore to keep reincarnating as a fox in kingdoms where Buddhism flourished to destroy it. We are told that happened many times, but only one past identity, that of Bao Si (Hōji), comes up. Obviously, eighth century BCE China was not exactly an area famous for Buddhist devotion, but that’s irrelevant here. We are told the endgame is not just to overthrow a righteous ruler, but also to become his replacement. Alas, Tamamo no Mae obviously fails at both of these goals. Still, points for trying.

The story does not provide the deity with a specific identity. However, Nobumi Iyanaga notes that in the referenced sutra he’s Mahakala (the original Makakaraten version, not the joyful Daikokuten). In East Asian Buddhism he is described as dwelling in the graveyards due to acting as both the chief of dakinis and their subduer. At the same time, Iyanaga argues in the context of the Tamamo no Mae story it can be argued he is either implicitly replaced by the dakini par excellence, Dakiniten (closely associated with foxes), or that the deity has no identity other than the fox one.

Later Tamamo developments

Two elements which are mainstays of modern retellings are missing from the oldest version, as you might have noticed. It doesn’t feature the Sesshōseki, which was only added later, seemingly as a way to promote Zen Buddhism, since this extension of the story casts a member of this school as the new protagonist. In the early variants Tamamo’s corpse was brought to the imperial treasury, the same one which shows up in a similar context in the tale of Shuten Dōji, and there is no indication she came back as a vengeful ghost, let alone that she repented and accepted Buddhism, as she does in some of the Sesshōseki variants.

The other difference is, as I already pointed out, the tails. The oldest depiction of a nine-tailed Tamamo no Mae I am aware of is Sekien’s. Based on a few papers I read it would appear textual variants of the story giving her nine tails might have been in circulation earlier, but that’s not reflected in any of the illustrated scrolls shown above.

Sekien's nine-tailed Tamamo (wikimedia commons)

Sekien claims that Tamamo no Mae is one and the same as Daji (I’ll get back to her later), and specifies the latter was a nine-tailed fox. He cites Zhang Dingsi’s Langye Dai Zui Bian (浪挪代醉編, “Langye’s Substitute for Drunkenness: A Compilation”) as his source for this tidbit, but does not explain where does the conflation of the two foxes come from. In contrast with the elaborate reincarnation scheme from the older version, he states Daji simply flew across the sea to reach Japan, without reincarnating.

What is now essentially treated as the “definitive” version of the Tamamo no Mae story, and what cemented her image as a nine-tailed fox, only dates back to 1805. That’s when Ehon Sangoku Yōfuden (絵本三国妖婦伝; “Tales of Enchantresses in the Three Kingdoms”) finished publication. The author, Ranzan Takai (高井蘭山), was an enthusiast of neo-confucian thought, and he wanted to write a story highlighting the time honored confucian belief that dynasties are brought down by suspicious concubines. The real goal was somewhat broader, though -the story of Tamamo no Mae was essentially repurposed as a critique of the concept of women playing an important role in public life.

It needs to be noted here that it is not impossible that the original was already part of a political polemic. Arguments have been made that Tamamo is a fictional representation of Bifukomon-in, for instance. They are certainly linked to the same emperor, Toba.

Bifukomon-in (wikimedia commons)

However, while I would not rule this out altogether, it’s hard to deny the typical medieval penchant for reinterpreting Buddhist material feels more central to the story. It is ultimately a very elaborate twist on the Humane Kings Sutra first and foremost. It belongs to the same world as other fabulous tales about figures from distant Buddhist lands arriving in Japan, alongside the likes of the legend of emperor Suwa of Hadai or the medieval Amaterasu narrative involving Mara (stay tuned for my post about that one).

Ideological motivations aside, in Ranzan’s version an anonymous nine-tailed fox appears as Daji in China, Kayō in India (seemingly a leftover of the original “graveyard god” story; here the prince is convinced to carry out his evil plans by his concubine instead though), and finally Tamamo no Mae in Japan. He also gives a unique account of Tamamo’s arrival in Japan, as far as I am aware: in his novel, she was brought there by Kibi no Makibi, a famous historical envoy to China. This was not his first time as a literary character, a much earlier picture scroll about his adventures is pretty funny (I have Touhou ocs based on it), but I’ll save this discussion for another time.

Not quite Tamamo: the influence of Daji

Daji, as depicted by Hokusai (wikimedia commons)

Daji requires some further discussion. She was initially regarded simply as a non-supernatural wicked concubine, but came to be treated as a fox posing as a human by the Song period. According to Xiaofei Kang the oldest evidence for that comes from 1101, from a Japanese text presumably reflecting an already extant Chinese belief. By the Yuan period it became a commonly accepted view, with Quanxiang Pinghua (全相平話) specifically stating Daji had nine tails. Her fox-like image was finally cemented fully by popular novels in the Ming and Qing periods.

Since there was a preexisting tradition in which Daji was a human woman, a remedy was developed: the “real” Daji was possessed by a fox, who took her name and identity. Curiously, the fox component of her story is otherwise not very important, and some modern authors basically characterize it as “tacked on”: she is the quintessential evil concubine bringing kingdoms to ruin out of a sense of cruelty who just happens to be a fox, and her story doesn’t really depend on preexisting fox-related motifs.

There are multiple accounts of Daji’s deeds, but the most famous one, and at the same time the most likely influence on Razan’s portrayal of her (and thus Tamamo), is Investiture of the Gods. However, he skips the origin attributed to her here: in the Chinese original, Daji is an agent of the goddess Nuwa, though she eventually overdoes it and is rebuked by her former boss for excessive cruelty. This doesn’t really fit well with Tamamo’s backstory, obviously; making her and Daji interchangeable was detrimental to both characters, I feel. A Chinese story dealing with Daji reincarnating does exist, but it’s not exactly similar. In the Ming novel Zhaoyang Qushi (昭陽趣事) she reincarnated as Zhao Hede, a concubine of emperor Cheng of Han. What happens next has been described as “pornographic entertainment enlivened by supernatural and historical costumes”. For more details, check out Rania Huntington’s book from the bibliography below.

Curiously, it is possible Daji was simultaneously an object of active cult, since there is a Song imperial edict outlawing the shrines dedicated to her, Wutong (a southern Chinese spirit who was believed to bring wealth and bewitch people, compared with foxes in the north) and “General Shi” (no clue who that might be, I’d hazard a guess one of the popular pacified vengeful spirit cults but don’t quote me on that). However, another contemporary source instead mentions the outlawing of temples of “fox kings”, so it might also mean that the name of Daji was applied by officials to an unrelated popular fox cult (“fox king” is a reasonably common appellation for supernatural foxes). Both regular and nine-tailed foxes are attested in such a context across history.

Early nine-tailed foxes

An early Chinese depiction of a nine-tailed fox (wikimedia commons)

The early portrayals of nine-tailed foxes are something I started looking into recently because of Ran’s freshly revealed connection to Yuuma: I figured it makes sense that she’d be in origin someone who belongs to the same world as the taotie.

Looking at the earliest Chinese sources, multiple nine-tailed foxes appear in legends about virtuous rulers like Tang, Wen or Yu the Great, essentially as generic good omens, without much fanfare. According to confucian commentaries from the Later Han period, the nine tails were understood as a sign a given emperor will have many descendants. The exception from this generally positive tendency is the Classic of Mountains and Seas, where the nine-tailed fox is described as “man-eating” (something very uncommon in Chinese fox literature). However, it also doesn’t exactly get more spotlight than the other creatures. It’s also treated as a separate animal from regular foxes, not as a particularly old fox. You could say it is to the fox what a bai ze is to an ox, I think. Visual arts add further specimens: the source of this discussion, the nine-tailed fox attendant of Xi Wangmu, later seemingly “decanonized”, and another belonging to the entourage of Zhong Kui. Both of these are hardly eminent and seem to fit the mold of auspicious omens. In Zhong Kui’s case the fox is in one case listed alongside the bai ze which only strengthens this impression. However, it also makes sense that its inclusion would reflect Zhong Kui’s role as a demon queller: he is often portrayed with conquered demons as servants, after all.

Conclusions

To sum up: ultimately it just doesn’t seem nine-tailed foxes are quite as big of a deal as popculture makes them seem, and nine tails are neither exclusive nor innate to Tamamo no Mae. Since that’s the only real point of connection between her and Ran save for a throwaway PCB line which leads to no further references, I maintain there’s no strong case for identifying them with each other, especially since there is no shortage of other candidates.

There’s also the fact that, Daji aside, most other nine-tailed foxes are largely blank slates you can do anything with, while Tamamo has many fairly unique characteristics which would be wasted by randomly slapping her name on Ran, in my opinion. To be fair, ZUN does occasionally make similar mistakes - Yoshika is the main example (remember, the actual legend about Yoshika’s immortality claims he decided to pursue eternal life after having a thrilling affair and has him call himself “strongest madman under heaven”).

I would personally argue ZUN himself probably did not feel strongly about who Ran is supposed to actually be when he originally came up with her, though. None of her spellcards reference Tamamo no Mae. Or any other fox identified with her, for that matter. They do have a more or less consistent theme, but that theme is, broadly speaking, “magic arts”, from onmyodo (Shikigami "Banquet of the Twelve General Gods"), through shugendo (Illusion God "Descent of Izuna-Gongen", Shikigami "The Protection of Zenki and Goki", Superhuman "Soaring En no Ozunu") and esoteric Buddhism (Shikigami "Channeling Dakiniten", Esoteric Sign "Odaishi-sama's Secret Key"), to contemporary stage magic (Shiki Brilliance "Princess Tenko -Illusion-"). In other words, I do not think canon actually strongly supports any specific option.

I will admit I’m biased but personally I think picking a different fox makes it much easier to accommodate Yuuma and their shared animal realm past, the most thrilling Ran development in ages. As for Tamamo, I do think she would be fun to see in Touhou, but preferably as her own character - with two tails, if possible.

Bibliography

Bernard Faure, The Power of Denial. Buddhism, Purity, and Gender

Rania Huntington, Alien Kind. Foxes and Late Imperial Chinese Narrative

Nobumi Iyanaga, Under the Shadow of the Great Śiva: Tantric Buddhism and its Influence on Japanese Mediaeval Culture

Idem, Dākinī in: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism (vol. 2)

Xiaofei Kang, The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China

Laura K. Nüffer, Lady Tamamo in: Keller Kimbrough and Haruo Shirane (eds.), Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds. A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales

Sumiko Sekiguchi, Gender in the Meiji Renovation: Confucian 'Lessons for Women' and the Making of Modern Japan

Chun-Yi Joyce Tsai, Imagining the Supernatural Grotesque: Paintings of Zhong Kui and Demons in the Late Southern Song (1127-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) Dynasties

#touhou #ran yakumo #tamamo no mae

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bethanythebogwitch · 11 months ago

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Digimon & mythology: the Warrior 10 and spirits

In the genesis of the Digital World there was the Warrior 10, a group of mighty Digimon who each represented one of ten elemental attributes. When Lucemon rebelled against God, the Warrior 10 fought him. In the end, they managed to seal away Lucemon at the cost of their own lives. While the Warrior 10 are long since dead, they passed their data and abilities down to the many Digimon types. In addition, each member left behind two spirits who can be taken up by others to become special Digimon.

Designed for the anime Digimon Frontier, the Warrior 10 and their spirit descendants go outside of the normal evolution methods. For each element there is two spirits: human and beast. The holder of the spirits can switch between human and beast forms. In addition, the holder can merge the two into a fusion form. All spirit Digimon are given the special level of hybrid, but in general human spirits are equivalent to the Adult/Champion-level, beast spirits to Perfect/Ultimate-level, and fusion spirits to Ultimate/Mega-level. In other media outside of Frontier, the spirits have been treated as normal Digimon. In addition, the spirits of fire and light can fuse with other spirits to take on a transcendent form. In the anime, only the holders of the fire and light spirits got to reach their fusion forms but the other heroic spirits (darkness, ice, thunder, and wind) from Frontier have been given their fusion forms in other media. The villainous spirits (water, earth, wood, and metal) have only been given their human and beast forms, which is a big missed opportunity. To fit with being the descendants of legendary heroes, the spirit Digimon have a lot of mythological themes in their names. A lot of these were changed in the English translation to avoid religious references. The concept of different elements that make up the world can be found in many cultures, including the classical elements originating in Greece (earth, air, fire, and water), the Chinese Wuxing (fire, water, wood, metal, and earth), and Hindu Pancha Bhuta (earth, air, fire, water, and akasha, which can be translated as sky, space, or ether).

The Warrior 10 member representing fire is AncientGreymon and it passed its abilities down to dragon Digimon. No real mythological references with it so we move onto the human spirit of fire: Agnimon. Agnimon is a flaming martial artist that hones its mind and controls its temper with yoga. Its name comes from Agni, the Hindu god of fire. In the Vedas, Agni brought light into the universe and frequently acted as the intermediary between humans and the gods, making him one of the most important deities. While later texts downplayed his importance somewhat, he is still a major deity and is invoked in many ceremonies and traditions. He also carried over into Buddhism and Jainism. Agnimon doing yoga is another reference to India. The beast spirit is Vritramon (eng: BurningGreymon), a ferocious dragon born from data produced by scientists researching volcanoes. Vritramon's name comes from Vritra, an asura (demon or evil demigod) who personified drought and was the archenemy of Indra, the king of the Hindu gods and god of the sky and weather. In the Hindu text Rig Veda, Vritra blocked all the rivers in the world to horde all the water and force the people to suffer. Indra then fought Vritra and eventually slew him, releasing the water and ending the drought. In one version of the story, Agni was originally on Vritra's side before being convinced to side with Indra, which may be why their Digimon versions are linked. While most early depictions of Vritra had him as a humanoid, some later adaptations made him into a dragon. The fusion of the spirits of fire is Aldamon, who combines the intelligence of Agnimon and bestial power of Vritramon. Its name comes from Ardhanarishvara (Japanese doesn't have the "L" sound and uses the "R" sound instead, which is how "ardha" becomes "alda"), which is a fusion of the Hindu god Shive and his consort Parvati. Usually depicted as male on the right and female on the side and represents a fusion of the masculine and feminine powers of creation and how the feminine and masculine principles of the divine are inseparable. While Ardhanarishvara is a fusion of male and female, Aldamon represnets the fusion of human intellect and bestial power. Aldamon's attacks are maned Brahmastra and Brahmashira, legendary weapons from Hindu mythology. The transcendent form of the spirit of fire is KaiserGreymon (eng: EmperorGreymon) and it doesn't have any real mythological references other than harnessing ley lines, a concept found in new age pseudoscience.

(left to right: AncientGreymon, Agnimon, Vritramon, Aldamon, KaiserGreymon). I have to compile images to stay under the limit

The Warrior 10 member representing light is AncientGarurumon, which passed its abilities down to beast Digimon. Once again, no mythological references so we'll move onto the human spirit. Wolfmon (eng: Lobomon) is a warrior empowered by a righteous spirit that contains a holy light. It doesn't have any real mythological references but its attack names are in German and the rest of the spirits do have a germanic and norse theme. Missed oppurtuinity to reference the faoladh, benevolent Irish werewoves, tbh. The beast spirit of light is Garmmon (english: KendoGarurumon), an extremely fast beast that hunts evil. It will never obey an evil creature, but will devote itself to a master with all its heart. Garmmon's name comes from Garmr or Garm, a wolf found in Norse mythology. It is described as a guardian of the gates of the bad afterlife Hel, giving it a similar role to the Greek Cerberus. Garmr is trapped by a chain in a cave called Gnipahellir and in the Porse Edda, will escape during Ragnarok where he and the god Tyr will fight and kill each other. Garmr is very similar to the more famous Fenrir and the two may be different cultural variations of the same legend. The fusion of the light spirits is Beowolfmon, a fighter who cooly measures up its enemy with human-like intelligence and tries to remain level-headed in combat. Its name comes from Beowulf, the hero of the germanic epic of the same name. In the epic, Beowulf slays the monster Grendel and then its mother and became king before dying in the process of slaying a dragon. The transcendent form of the light spirits is MagnaGarurumon, which again doesn't have any mythological references.

(left to right: AncientGarurumon, Wolfmon, Garmmon, Beowolfmon, and MagnaGarurumon)

Where there is light, there is darkness and the Warrior 10 member representing darkness is AncientSphinxmon, which passed its abilities down to mythical beast and demon beast Digimon. It is based on the great sphinx of Egypt. The Egyptian version of the sphinx was seen as a protector and was often associated with Ra, god of the sun. A bit ironic for the Digimon of darkness to be associated with a sun god. The spirits of darkness are unique in that there are two versions of each one, a corrupted and purified version. Also, I like that Digimon made the warrior of light a dog and the warrior of darkness a cat. The corrupted human spirit of darkness is Duskmon. It was born from the regrets of extinct Digimon species and exists to oppose holy Digimon. Duskmon doesn't have any real mythological references, but the corrupted beast spirit, Velgrmon, does. Velgrmon is a being of hatred as the proud Duskmon hates transforming into its ugly beast form. Velgrmon's name comes from Hræsvelgr, a gigantic eagle from Norse mythology that creates wind when it flaps its wings. The purified human spirit of darkness is Löwemon. It operates from within the darkness, but is not evil and instead hunts evil from the shadows. Löwemon wears a ring called Neeblinge, which comes from Der Rings des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), an epic music drama by Richard Wagner. In the story, various gods, monsters, and humans battle to obtain the title ring, that will grant dominion over all. The story is named after and partially based on the germanic epic poem Nibelungenlied. The purified beast spirit of darkness is KaiserLeomon (eng: JagerLöwemon, whos unique armor lets it be incredibly fast and sharp enough to cut apart whatever it runs through. No mythological references here, it just furthers the visual connection to sphinxes. Similarly, there is no real mythological connection in the fusion form Raihimon (eng: Rihihimon). Its a humanoid sphinx that is so skilled at stealth that few realize it even exists. The name "Raihi" is a corruption of the German "Reich", meaning "empire".

(left to right: AncientSphinxmon, Duskmon, Velgrmon, Löwemon, KaiserLeomon, Raihimon)

The Warrior of ice is AncientMegatheriummon, which passed its abilities down to mammal and icy snow Digimon. While it is not based on a myth, the megatherium is an extinct giant ground sloth. The human spirit of ice is Chackmon (eng: Kumamon). Its a cute tedy bear made of snow that carries military gear and claims to be part of an arctic defense force. No myths here so we go to the beast spirit of ice: Blizzarmon. Blizzarmon (eng: Korikakumon) is a ruffian with a love of battle that offers prayers to an ice god. There's no obvious mythological references other that it maybe being based on a yeti. The yeti is a mythical being said to live on the Himalayan mountains. It is supposed to be hairy and is associated with ice and snow at least. Weirdly enough, Blizzarmon's axes are named in the Igbo language of Nigeria, which is not a place known for snow. The fusion of ice is Daipenmon which not only has no connection to myths, it has no real connection to its prior forms. Not sure how two snowy mammals merge to become a mechanical ice shaver penguin dual-wielding popsicles.

(left to right,: AnceintMegatheriummon, Chackmon, Blizzarmon, Daipenmon)

The Warrior of thunder is AncientBeatmon (eng: AncientBeetlemon), which passed its powers down to insect Digimon. Digimon associates insects with electricity a lot. The human spirit of thunder is Blitzmon (eng: Beetlemon), a mechanical yet highly emotional electric wrestler with a heart of gold. Blitzmon is not based on mythology, but it is one of many references Digimon makes to the Japanese franchise Kamen Rider, which features a lot of martial artists wearing bug-themed costumes. The beast spirit of thunder, Bolgmon (eng: MetalKabuterimon) sacrifices mobility for incredible firepower as it turns itself into a tank. Its name comes from Firbolg, a mythical tribe of people who inhabited Ireland in the story collection Lebor Gabála Érenn. I found a few sources associating the name Firbolg with a thunder god, though as far as I can tell this appears to be a misconception. Bolgmon's profile also references scarabs, which were used in ancient Egypt that were used as seals and symbols of the sun due to an association with the god Kephri. The fusion spirit is RhinoKabuterimon. It's just an electric rhinoceros beetle. Nothing mythical about that. You may have noticed that the fire and light spirits have tons of references and the other spirits have a lot less. That comes down to the writing of Frontier where if you weren't the human holders of the fire and light spirits, the writers did not care about you and occasionally seemed to resent having you in the show to the point they turn you into a power-up for the heroes. The lack of interest in the other spirits and their holders is my biggest gripe with Frontier.

(left to right: AncientBeatmon, Blitzmon, Bolgmon, RhinoKabuterimon)

TheWarrior of wind is AncientIrismon (eng: AncientKazemon), who passed down its abilities to bird man and fairy Digimon. Iris is a minor Greek goddess who personified the rainbow and usually acted as a servant for other gods. The human spirit of wind is Fairimon (eng: Kazemon), a good-hearted gossip with the power to manipulate the atmosphere. Fairimon is based on modern interpretations of fairies. Fairies are found throughout European folklore, but are most famously associated with Ireland. The myths about them are highly diverse and they can range from benevolent to malevolent to having a completely alien sense of morality. More modern depictions of fairies often simplify them to small humans with insect wings and make them cute and friendly. This is the version that Fairimon is based on. Fairimon is also based on kamaitaichi, a form of yokai from Japanese folklore. They are associated with wind and dust devils and often look like weasels. The story about them says that they (often working in groups of three) will use sickles to cut people and then heal them so fast that the person will feel the pain of being cut but see no wound. One hypothesis to explain the origin of the stories was that minute vacuums in the air would make people feel pain with no wound. Fairimon is stated to be able to use is power over air to cause these vacuums. The beast spirit Shutumon (eng: Zephyrmon) is a mischevious trickster with the power to cast Mesopotamian spells. It is based on Shutu, a minor Mesopotamian god or goddess of wind. Design-wise, it also takes after two other Mesopotamian creatures. Lamashtu is a she-demon that appears as a fusion of human and various animals (fitting for a beast spirit) while Lilith was a demon (or class of demon) associated with women and birds. The fusion spirit is JetSilphymon, who can fly so fast it can't be seen and unleash hurricanes from its giant pinwheel. In the writings of the Swiss philosopher Paracelsus, Sylphs are elemental spirits of air.

(left to right: AncientIrismon, Fairimon, Shutumon, JetSilphymon

The Warrior of earth was AncientVolcamon (eng: AncientVolcanomon), which passed its powers down to ore and mineral Digimon. The human spirit of earth is Grottemon (eng: Grumblemon), a temperamental artisan who can summon hammers from the ground. Grottemon is based on European folklore of gnomes and dwarves, diminutive people who lived underground and were typically great craftsmen. The gnome was also used by Paracelsus as an earth elemental and Grottemon's design is based on garden gnomes and their pointy hats. The beast spirit of earth is Gigasmon, a gigantic and violent beast with earthen skin baked into armor. Gigasmon is visually based on some sort of troll or ogre, but thats the closest it gets to a myth.

(left to right: AncientVolcamon, Grottemon, Gigasmon)

The Warrior of wood is AncientTroiamon, who passed down its abilities to plant Digimon. It is based on the Trojan horse from the Odyssey and Aeneid. The story goes that during the Trojan war, the Greek forces could not breach the walls of Troy. Odysseus had the Greeks feign retreat and leave behind a giant wooden horse as an offering to the goddess Athena. The Trojans brought the horse into the city as a trophy and that night, a force of men hidden in the horse came out and opened the city's gates, allowing the Greek army to invade the city. The human spirit of wood is Arbormon, a seemingly emotionless puppet that is actually keenly aware of its surroundings. Arbormon is based on a karakuri doll, mechanized Japanese puppets that were able to move on their own. The beast spirit of wood is Petaldramon, a giant and hungry plant dragon.

(left to right: AncientTroiamon, Arbormon, Petaldramon)

The Warrior of water is AncientMermaimon, who passed its abilities down to aquatic Digimon. AncientMermaimon is based on mermaids. Human-fish hybrids has appeared in virtually every culture that lived around water, though AncientMermaimon is based on the common European image of a mermaids. It holding a trident and having power over water is similar to the Greek sea god Poseidon. The human spirit of water is Ranamon, whose mood is as changeable and temperamental as the sea. Ranamon is also based on fish/human hybrids, though is more humanlike than most mermaids. Its name comes from the Spanish ford for frog, "rana", which is why it's dumb that more recent English translations like the card game keep trying to change it to Lanamon. The Japanese L/R confusion strikes again. The beast spirit of water is Calamaramon, a witch who excels at offense and defense. It is based on more monstrous versions of the human/fish hybrid.

(left to right: AncientMermaimon, Ranamon, Calamaramon)

The Warrior of steel is AncientWisemon, who passed its abilities down to mutant Digimon. It is all-knowing due to having access to the Akhasic Records, a spiritual compendium of all knowledge found in Theosphy and new-age spiritualism. The human spirit of steel is Mercuremon (eng: Mercurymon), a genius tactician and philosopher. The beast spirit of steel is Sephirothmon (eng: Sakkakumon), a bizarre being that possess the power of all 10 elements. Sephirothmon is based on the Sefirot tree of Kabbalah, a school of Jewish mysticism that attempted to explore the relationship between the eternal, unchanging god Ein Sof and the finite mortal world. Kabbalah is an extremely complex subject that I can't do justice with the short amount of research I'm doing for this post. The Sefirot tree, which Sephirothmon takes the shape of, is a concept in Kabbalah intended to illustrate the 10 methods or emanations of God's work in the material world. Each emanation also may represent a metaphysical world that people can pass through as they try to understand God. While the 10 spheres of the Sefirot tree each represent one of the emanations and their relationship to each other, the 10 spheres of Sephirothmon's body each represent one of the 10 elements that make up the Digital World and presumable how they and their associated Warrior 10 member relate to each other. The Sefirot tree is also supposed to help one gain wisdom and they further understand God and AncientWisemon and the steel spirits are associated with knowledge and wisdom.

When the power of all of the spirits come together, they become Susanoomon, a god who presides over destruction and regeneration. When the Digital World descends into chaos, Susanoomon will appear and destroy it so that a new one can take its place. Susanoomon carries a weapon called ZERO-ARMS: Orochi. Susanoo is the Shinto god of storms and wind that has been portrayed as both a hero that slays monsters and a wild and dangerous god of storms. This with with Susanoomon representing both destruction and regeneration. The most famous story involving Susanoo says that he was banished from the heavens after his bad behavior terrfied his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu. Now on Earth, Susanoo encountered an old couple who told him of a mighty, eight-headed snake named Yamato-no-Orochi who had devoured seven of their daughters and would be coming back for the eighth and final one soon. Susanoo agreed to help them and transformed the final daughter into a comb to keep her hidden. He then brewed strong sake (an alcoholic beverage) and offered it to Orochi. After the snake got drunk and passed out, Susanoo killed it. In Orochi's tail, Susanoo found a sword that he gave to Amaterasu as a gift, leading to the two reconciling. ZERO-ARMS: Orochi is based on the sword found in Orochi's tail. There is an Orochimon, but it debuted before Susanoomon and the two are not connected.

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