#dominic laforge

[lulu2992]

Ubisoft released this video for Far Cry 5’s (coming) fifth anniversary!

Four of the devs share a few “secrets” about the making of the game, such as some of the lengths they went to to make sure the world felt real, what they originally wanted the last missions to be, the cute story behind the 8-Bit Pizza Bar, and, although they sadly don’t show any footage of it, Seamus Dever’s audition.

[fate-motif]

b’elanna’s banana pancakes

hello tumblr. it’s been a while since i did some star trek meta. but i’ve just been on a prodigy kick lately and that inevitably brings me back to voyager where i’ve spent some time before unpacking a lot of writing decisions and politics surrounding them. today i want to talk about the most inane detail i could fixate on in b’elanna’s characterization, and this thought hasn’t left me in years so i think maybe i should share it with the class. maybe it will mean something to someone else the way it does to me. 

b’elanna’s favorite comfort food is banana pancakes. when she’s feeling down she asks neelix to replicate them for her, and it’s kind of a running staple in moments where b’elanna is feeling emotionally vulnerable. it’s a cute detail, but over the years i’ve turned the detail over and over and wished, pointlessly, that i could somehow go back in time and edit that writing decision and change b’elanna’s favorite pickup meal to something else: fried plantain. if you’re not familiar with latin american cuisine, plantain are a common staple in a lot of dishes but i am specifically to ripe plantain, fried until it’s golden brown and caramelized. it goes by different names depending on the country but it’s a surprisingly widespread dish. there’s even equivalents in west african and southeast asian countries and if you haven’t tried it this is the friendliest recommendation to taste the food of the gods before the end of your life.

i’ll admit the context for this obsession is selfish. i’m latin american, specifically costa rican, and when i watched voyager i couldn’t help but latch on to roxann dawson’s portrayal of a broken, abandoned young woman who learns to love herself and accept the love of others in her life when given the nurturing and patience she deserved all along. this wasn’t just because her character is beautiful in its own right, but because i identified with her as a latin american woman. i could spend a good amount of time talking about the standards of womanhood that i was subjected to growing up latin american but this post is not about that, so i’m going to summarize one of the things that makes b’elanna so important to me as a female latin american character very briefly: it’s her emotional complexity and the compassion with which all her emotions, including the anger and the trauma, are treated while portrayed as a latina character. i wish more than anything i had grown up watching voyager for this specific reason, and now that i’ve actually watched it i feel like a piece of my puzzle has been filled in, and i’m a little closer to whole. which is why it’s all the more curious that b’elanna isn’t exactly written as a latin american character in the first place.

star trek is a very american franchise, written by very american writers, and, with some notable exceptions, very white, cishet, male writers. it’s been talked to death how star trek’s vision of a multicultural world becomes seriously impaired by the lack of diversity in its leading creatives. today i specifically want to address how the franchise has been since its inception, and still is, limiting its potential by how the american cultural zeitgeist dominates its development. it’s a specifically white american zeitgeist, too. the human world regardless of the ethnicity of its members gets steamrolled into a very colorblind world where apparently humans now pride ourselves on our acceptance and embracing of different nations but we are only ever shown cultural expressions consistent with the experiences of modern day white americans. it’s even clearer in the writing of characters of color, like harry kim or geordi laforge, over white non americans like miles o’brien or malcolm reed. there have been exceptions, most notably in the writing of sisko’s family, but for the most part characters of color are not ever shown engaging in any activities that might have been passed down from non white american heritage. this is true even for characters who aren’t even supposed to be american, like uhura who’s meant to be from kenya. it’s not just a disappointment to the core values that the franchise is meant to stand by but also a waste of writing potential and even a loss in what could be a way to connect to potential fans from all over the globe.

back to me, because this post was made because of the very selfish reason that feel like i just need b’elanna to connect a little bit more to me. to my upbringing. i call it selfish because it’s not as clean cut a writing decision as it i make it out to be. latin americans, diaspora or otherwise, are not a monolith even in the 21st century. john torres and his family show again the limitations the writers run into with their limited worldview and they don’t seem to hold on to latin american traditions or cultural heritage. and furthermore, b’elanna herself has mixed feelings on her klingon heritage already but that doesn’t mean that the heritage passed down by the father who abandoned her would be that much easier to embrace. and yet in my mind i can just see little b’elanna eagerly devouring slices of fried plantain made by her father on rare occasions and feeling so utterly loved after being starved so many times of his affection because he shared something with her about himself and made her feel cherished with it. and that nostalgia for that tiny spark of love she felt so many years ago being fanned and set ablaze when her new family learns how to cheer her up with this little gesture that recognizes her roots.

it wouldn’t exactly be an uncomplicated portrayal, it’s not like i want my favorite dish to be equated with deadbeat dads and their shitty racist against klingons families. but i’m just reminded of jacob geller’s discussion on bj blazkowicz’s jewish heritage in the recent wolfenstein video game series. “i just want some recognition that he’s connected to me.” it would mean the world to me, too.

[lady-wildflower]

We’re Not Gonna Live With Fear - Star Trek: Picard season 3 episode 10 The Last Generation

So I wasn’t entirely satisfied with some of the ending of Star Trek: Picard, season 3 episode 10, just because it didn’t feel like it got quite enough time (which is weird, ‘cos it’s almost half of an hour long episode, but hey), and I felt like writing a supplementary fic to do with the deassimilation of Jack - it’s a similar complaint to what I had with Voyager and the ending of Unimatrix Zero, being assimilated isn’t something that you get away from scot-free. I mean, in First Contact there were full-fledged fully implanted drones within an hour, whatever mechanism handled Jack’s assimilation would have had plenty of time to get all fiddly with Võx. So here’s a fanfiction, crossposted from AO3.

Jack Crusher deals with his initial recovery from the Borg Queen after being assimilated in 2402. Word count: 6,255.

Note: I also changed the initial bit a little so he didn’t remove the thing on his face with… what, his hands??? On the way from the transporter room? I think it may have been a production decision to make him look more human but I don’t have to worry about that and I have different priorities so I ain’t doing that. And I don’t imagine the shit on his hands would have just been gloves mate.

“Welcome to the Enterprise,” his father said warmly, smiling at him as he waved a hand at the brightly lit yesteryear not-quite-retro-but-nearly-there, classic really, Bridge of the Galaxy class U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D. Jack still didn’t know quite how his parents had dug a blown-up crashed ship out of the mothballs of what he had been sure had been the complete totalling of the Enterprise D, but there they were, standing on her bridge. Worf, the very model of a modern major Klingon, was snoring like a puppy in the counselor’s chair beside Sydney and Alandra’s Dad, and his weirdly elderly robot chum Data. Riker and Troi were embracing in the relief that death had not done them part, and the viewscreen showed a prolonged hail from the U.S.S. Titan A, depicting Seven of Nine, Sydney, Alandra, and Raffi. And there, up in the raised aft of the bridge behind the broad tactical station, Jack’s Mum and father stood on either side of him, holding him as he held his armored arms around them right back, with pride. Of course, it wasn’t that idyllic. Because Jack was still reeling from the disconnection of his consciousness from the Borg Collective. And that had been a comparatively tiny Collective. His body? Implants perforated his form, he was covered from toe to neck in armor with tubule sockets and piping all over him, the skin of his visible face was almost entirely mottled with black circuited veins and gray, some of his hair had fallen out - much to his consternation, as a vain young man dreading the imposition of early-onset baldness thanks to his father’s genetics - and the right side of his face was dominated by the black cranial implant that clawed up toward his nose under his eye and its red laser, and that also happened to be why his vision was green-tinged and filled with grids and analyses in Borg codes he could inexplicably understand, telling him all about how the systems of the Bridge worked and connected to the rest of the ship.

“So. This is where I was cooked up,” Jack said amusedly, glancing over at Riker. “She’s in good shape for getting blown up and wrapped around a planet,” he noted, and his father chuckled slightly under his breath.

“Oh, that is thanks to Mister LaForge. Sneaky fellow spirited away the saucer section off Veridian III twenty years ago and has been refurbishing the old lady in secret ever since,” Picard told him, and Geordi smiled smugly back at them. “And a good thing he did too. Who knows what would still be happening if he hadn’t,” he said, his tone getting a little morose as he turned back to Jack and his eyebrows did that weird scrunchy thing they did when he was emotional. His Mum’s hand patted his shoulderblade plating gently.

“You have no idea how glad I am that you’re back,” Beverly told him. “And you are so very thoroughly grounded, Jack Edward Crusher! Running off like that, getting yourself assimilated! Gave me the worst heart attack any mother’s ever had!” she exclaimed, a touch of sarcasm in her voice as she slapped his arm, but probably hurt her own hand more than his arm. Jack scoffed self-consciously. Yeah, he had done that hadn’t he?

“In my defense, I did sort of have the Borg yelling at me my whole life. It was bound to happen eventually,” he quipped. His mother’s expression immediately softened and she pursed her lips, raising her hand to his cheek.

“Ohh… well, it’s a good thing you’re a doctor’s son. Let’s see how bad the damage is,” Beverly said softly, fetching the sleek tricorder she’d discarded and flipping it open. “As soon as we can rendezvous with the Titan I’ll ask their chief medical officer to stock us up and we’ll get started getting all of this crap off of you then. For now, a good scan and a screwdriver will have to do,” she said, and Jack frowned with his one good eyebrow.

“Here? Why not head over to the Titan?” Jack asked. His Mum raised her eyebrow.

“No no. I de-assimilated your father in this ship’s sickbay, and so help me like father like son I will do the same for you young man,” Beverly replied, and Jack couldn’t help but smile a little at that. He was beginning to accept Picard as his father, not quite his Dad yet, but his father, and he supposed the connection was sweet. The tricorder started twittering methodically as his mother began scanning him, and almost immediately her eyebrows were knitted together in concern. He knew why - as soon as he’d even thought about it, his ocular overlay had spewed up a green whole-body diagram of his implants into his peripheral vision, and boy were there a lot of them splayed through him. It almost made him vomit; it was bad enough just keeping away from looking at the black exo-plating that covered his body, arms, and hands, but to imagine - no, remember - all the bits and servos and mechanisms inside of him? It was with a shiver of revulsion that Jack tried to will the image away, and to his relief it did go away.

It had been a traumatic day. And now that the smothering influence of the Borg Queen was gone, his mind was free to gape in horror at what had been done to him - it just hadn’t had much time to take it all in yet. The mutilated, half-cannibalized faces of the drones who’d been tasked with the first phase of his secondary assimilation would haunt his nightmares for a long time.

“Well, Beverly?” Picard asked concernedly, looking to her. As he moved, Jack’s ocular overlay saw fit to give him a complete rundown of the alloys that made up his fanciful Admiral’s combadge.

“Well, it’s not good, I’ll say that. It never is, with the Borg,” Beverly said wryly, making a face. “But I suppose it’s better than it could have been. There’s a lot that’s typical of Borg that they don’t seem to have gotten around to, I don’t even want to speculate what was meant to go there,” she told them, pointing to the socket on Jack’s right pectoral. Some pulmonary junction meant to facilitate another future implant that would have allowed him to function in a vacuum, Jack believed. “The cortical array is going to be a nightmare to remove, I’m afraid,” his Mum told them, this time pointing to the mass of tubules and wires implanted into the base attached to the right of his skull. “It makes sense that the Borg would have designed your complement for the purpose of amplifying your transmissions before all else, everything else is either standard or missing. Which, don’t worry son, I’m already thinking of ways to get that particular segment out of your DNA, and out of the DNA of everyone in Starfleet who was affected,” she assured him, and he nodded gratefully. Picard beamed at her affectionately.

“Trust me Jack, your mother knows all about unplugging all of this,” Picard agreed. “She’ll have it out of you in no time.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say no time. Locutus pre-dated some things, the spinal clamps for one. Those aren’t coming out any time soon, not if you want to be walking in the next few months,” his mother disagreed. “It’ll be a little while until you’re a hundred percent de-Borg’d, son,” she said apologetically.

“I can live with that,” Jack surmised, before he sniffed amusedly. “Hey, Mum, can I keep this?” he asked jauntily, pointing a gauntleted finger at his eye. His Mum frowned at him bewilderedly and lowered the tricorder as Picard’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You know, on somethings the Borg had some good ideas. It’s good this, it’s like I’ve got the Memory Alpha article for everything I look at and I don’t even need to find a padd for it,” he said with a shrug, trying to ignore the way servos in his biradial clamp whirred with the motion. Picard scoffed.

“You want to keep it?” Picard asked incredulously.

“I can see all sorts of things with it, it’ll come in right handy. Like LaForge’s eyes,” Jack replied, glancing over to Commodore LaForge to verify with his own eyepiece that he was remembering right; indeed, LaForge was the blind one with synthetic eyes that could see all manner of spectra - and the ocular implants Jack had been fitted with were even better. “Wonder if I could run that old Doom game on it. But if you could just fit an off-switch into the thing? It’s gonna be bloody distracting when I try to go to sleep,” he asked wryly, and it was his Mum’s turn to scoff.

“Speaking of, Data, would you mind scanning the wreckage for a preferably intact regeneration alcove? Even if Jack comes to his senses and has us get rid of the damn eye implant it’s going to be a while before it’s all gone, so we’ll be needing one and they’re not exactly in good supply,” Beverly asked, leaning over the tactical console as Data turned about to her with his funny yellow eyes. A partial analysis of Data’s complex positronic android-synthetic hybrid frame flashed up in Jack’s eye. Jack wondered if Data still technically held the Starfleet rank of Lieutenant Commander if he’d been legally dead for twenty-five years, even as he snickered at his Mum’s description of his lunacy at thinking the eye implant at least practical. It was going to be a long recovery, he knew, so Jack thought he might as well make the most of it and get something cool out of it. Namely, the most unobtrusive yet helpful implant of the lot. In a way he was deflecting from the pain, but that little bit of joviality was serious-ish.

“Of course Doctor,” Data replied politely, getting up from the first officer’s chair to go back to his forward station. The LCARS panel chirped and beeped as he tapped buttons in quick succession. “Scanning for one now… I have one. It doesn’t look like it’s got a dead drone in it,” he said wryly, before he tapped another few buttons. “It’s in Cargo Bay One, but I’ve put it in a containment field just in case. I may be twenty years short on news, but I do know that Borg technology isn’t known for its safety,” he told them.

“Thank you Mister Data,” Picard said gratefully. “Will, if you would take the con while Geordi, Beverly, and I head down to Sickbay and get started? Plot a rendezvous with the Titan,” he asked politely, pointing at each of them in turn as he began to step toward the turbolift.

“Sure thing, Jean-Luc. Good luck kid, I know it’s not easy,” Riker replied, parting briefly from Troi. “We’re all glad to have you back with us,” he said with a smile, and Jack nodded back to him. He wasn’t quite sure how to react to it; all his life he’d kept people out, but now that he’d bared so much… he didn’t quite know how to be open without their minds swimming in his own, he had to admit.

“We are. As we said to your father before we came here, you’re as much our family as Kes or Alandra or Sidney. And if you need anyone to talk to about this, my door’s always open to you Jack,” Deanna agreed, smiling warmly at him.

“Thanks. I’ll um, I’ll think about it,” Jack replied, giving them a black-armored thumbs up. Well, he supposed he’d learn how to be open in time. Nevertheless, he slowly and uncomfortably stepped after his father, followed by his Mum and LaForge who’d come up and around from the lower portion of the Bridge.

“Sickbay,” his Mum said as the doors closed behind the four of them, before she reeled back slightly as Jack accidentally got her in the eye with the laser on the side of his head. Could he turn that off? Well, the red dot on the turbolift wall didn’t go away, so he supposed not. “How do you feel?” Beverly asked him softly, reaching up to his cheek. Jack paused.

“Honestly, it fucking hurts,” Jack replied, so quietly he almost hadn’t spoken. He hadn’t wanted to appear weak, but now he was realizing how enormously stupid that was. “Everywhere. The Borg don’t exactly believe in painkillers,” he winced, noting how his father nodded commiseratingly. Every implant was burning agony in his skin and under it, the edge of the armor around his neck was like a vise rooted into him, burrowing in. Nanoprobes still scraped through his veins, filling him with a terrible ache, and so much of him felt rigid, constrained like every joint in his body needed to be cracked. And his head was pounding like a drum, as the turbolift doors whooshed open to reveal a softly lit corridor in the same classic style as the Bridge.

“It’s all right, we’ll put you under while we take as much as we can out son,” Beverly assured him softly as she took the lead in slowly making their way from the turbolift, stepping backwards. Jack nodded thankfully; he’d already been semi-awake to fully experience the implants being put in, he didn’t want to be awake when they were taken out. Jack glanced to the side, at the shiny black panels on the walls that his ocular overlay informed him were old general-purpose monitors for things like directions, only to freeze in horror at his reflection. He blinked, and Võx blinked back at him, the stoic image of the Borg terror. An image not unlike the historical images he’d seen of Locutus of Borg. A zombified, twisted, dissonant reflection that did not, could not, belong to him. Nausea grew in his gut before his father touched his back plates.

“I know,” Picard said simply, and Jack heard thirty years of trauma in his father’s soft-spoken voice. Was it their shared destiny to be forever scarred, violated, by the Borg? There were tears in Jack’s eyes as Picard offered him a hug, and the only reason he didn’t fall into it like a pile of bricks was because he wasn’t entirely sure how much he weighed just then and he didn’t want to hurt his father. But he did lean into the embrace, squeezing his eyes shut over Picard’s shoulder so he could not see the monster the Borg had made of him. Spacedock, and everyone else who had died at the hands of those Võx had controlled, their blood was on Jack’s hands. Because he’d been weak, and submitted to the voice in his head. Become the instrument of the Borg’s vengeance. Jack was weeping, sobbing his guilt into his father’s arms as his mother gently caressed the back of his neck and his hair affectionately, before a tiny pricking feeling barely caught his notice; a hypospray. Mercifully, darkness took him as his mother sedated him.

--

Jack had never been so glad not to dream. To him, he had succumbed to darkness and only moments later consciousness had seeped back into him like gluggy soup, and his eyes slowly blurred open before he started at an electronic hissing that whirred up seemingly right behind him before something clunked and there was a tiny lurch in his back.

“Wh-er-” Jack groaned, trying to get up and see what it had been only to instantly be dizzy as he tried to sit up too quickly. “Ow…” he winced, squeezing his eyes back shut as that infernal headache bolted back through his brain and his whole body ached.

“Jack. Jack, take it easy,” a familiar voice said right beside him and he jumped, opening his eyes again to blearily see - without any green overlay, notably - the wavy blonde hair and silvery ocular implant of one Commander Seven of Nine, still wearing her red-shouldered Starfleet command uniform. Jack blinked a bit and his eyes finally focused, and he took in where he was. He was, curiously, not aboard the Enterprise D anymore, obviously his Mum had been convinced to at least eventually set her sentimentality aside and transfer him to the Titan’s better equipped sickbay, where he seemed to have a ward to himself. Seven’s hand, laced with the metallic tendons of her remaining Borg implants, took his shoulder gently as Jack sat up, looking around at his bed - well, he knew what they’d done with the regeneration alcove. Some of its components, most obviously the green flickering plasma conductor at its head, had been incorporated into the biobed, no doubt so he’d be more comfortable and yet also regenerate what remaining Borg components he had - and he did still have quite a few. Looking at himself, the exoplating had all been removed, which he was more than glad for. Reticular nodes, the little spidery implants on the skin, still marked a lot of his visible arms and legs, including twin ones on his feet, and probably were there under his hospital gown too. Some of his skin was still gray and mottled around them, but most of it looked like it had returned to a rosier complexion. His right arm almost seemed to match Seven’s - assimilation mechanisms were standard on Borg, though obviously the design had changed a little since Seven of Nine - with dark metallic augmentations embedded over his tendons, wrist, and fingers, which too were capped like Seven’s. “Does it hurt?” Seven asked him.

“Mhmm,” Jack grunted, trying not to nod too much because his head was killing him. It wasn’t the only thing though; for whatever reason, he was actually cognizant of the implants itching now, irritating the skin around them. Seven of Nine took up a hypospray from the bench and held it up, and he squeezed his eyes shut with a smiling grimace in lieu of nodding. With a hiss, Seven administered the analgesic within it, and Jack exhaled slowly as it began to work, dulling his headache. As she did, Jack frowned at her. “When’d you get promoted?” Jack asked, pointing at the four, not three, pips on her neck.

“Yesterday. Captain Shaw’s posthumous recommendation,” Captain Seven replied with a small smile. Catching Jack’s lopsided frown at that, she inhaled. “You’ve been out for three days. Your mother’s taking some well needed rest, she’s been up for the last three days working on you. While they’re gone, I’ve been assigned the job of being your ex-Borg nanny,” Seven told him, with a sardonic lilt to her voice. Jack snorted.

“Borg babysitting? It’ll never catch on,” Jack chuckled, and Seven shook her head amusedly. Jack frowned and raised his plated hand to his face, specifically around his right eye; surprisingly, he found that he still had the base of the ocular implant around his eye, a little like Seven’s but surrounding a bit more of the circumference of his eye and heading up his nose, so why did he not have the overlay? Thankfully, there was no annoying laser rangefinder on his head anymore, there wasn’t a red dot on his hand.

“The uh, robot installed the off-switch you asked for,” Seven told him helpfully. “Just on your temple, there,” she added, demonstrating on her own face. Jack pressed that point on the implant, finding a tiny button that hadn’t been there before, and the green overlay booted back up with a slight twinge of pain in his eye. Nodding, he turned it back off again, and again his eye twinged as it vanished.

“Brilliant, thanks Data,” Jack muttered. “I allowed to get up?” he asked Seven, though he of course had no intention of following a rule not to. Seven nodded.

“Yeah. Here, let me help you,” she replied, holding his arm and hauling him to his feet. Despite his silly desire to do it independently, it was probably a good thing Seven of Nine was helping; his legs were shaky and weak, and he realized just then that it was probably because he hadn’t eaten anything in three, nearly four, days, and the Borg implants responsible for taking over his metabolism had probably been taken out. The cold floor of the Titan’s sickbay chilled his toes, but he welcomed that touch as he shook and steadied himself on the ex-Borg Captain. “Good?” she asked.

“Yeah, better,” Jack replied hoarsely, looking around the sickbay ward. On a far bench were what appeared to be a number of the implants that had been removed from him as well as the exoplating unceremoniously dumped into a container, and on the bedside table was a little square mirror, so he shakily stepped over to it and picked it up. He’d have to get used to his altered reflection, he knew; reflective surfaces weren’t exactly rare, he couldn’t hide from it. Thankfully, as he raised the mirror, he did not see Võx, no. It was still disturbing, but at least it was a reflection that could belong to him. The gray skin had retreated to only be around the very edges of the base metallic ocular implant that partially circumnavigated his eye, and much of the assembly on the side of his head was gone. His hair was a little bit ruined, having been cut away in places, but the face in the mirror was Jack Crusher again. Just… a little wounded. Though, not all of the cranial implants were gone - there was still a lot of black metal behind his right ear. He frowned and touched it.

“We couldn’t remove the entire cranial assembly,” Seven explained. “Firstly, you asked to keep the eyepiece which means keeping the cortical array and the spinal clamps, because those are what the regeneration alcove we built into your bed links to, and secondly… your father explained to us the Borg’s purpose for you. Your cranial array was specially designed, it’s almost more akin to what a Borg Queen has,” she told him, and he listened dutifully. “We could take away most of it, but not all of it. In a way, you’re like a micro-Collective all to yourself. I’d say it saved your life,” Seven said, and Jack turned to her curiously. “Most Borg don’t just get to decide to leave,” she pointed out.

“Right,” Jack muttered, nodding. He couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for others, who had had to be excised from the Collective by force. And those Võx had assimilated, Jack had sort of just shoved them out a little unceremoniously. To be fair, he’d been in a hurry. “If I’d’a stayed in there much longer… might have lost myself,” he breathed, trying not to think about it too much. Seven didn’t reply, she just silently nodded understandingly. Jack took a deep breath, then looked a bit more at his reflection. He grimaced, touching the ocular implant again. “Am I never gonna get that eyebrow back?” he asked petulantly. Seven laughed.

“Welcome to the club, kid,” Seven chuckled. “I was able to neutralize your nanoprobes, so you know. Some of them are locked into a limited maintenance mode, we can’t get rid of all of them, and the rest… well, let’s just say I don’t envy you your next visit to the head,” she said wryly.

“What?” Jack asked worriedly, before he groaned.

“Easiest way to get rid of them all,” Seven shrugged. “Don’t ask me, I’m a Captain not a doctor; Raffi’s in command for the moment. Hungry?” she asked him and he nodded eagerly.

“Starving. Don’t think that regeneration bed does much for that,” Jack replied, and Seven shook her head.

“No, it doesn’t. I remember being pretty pissed off about that when I first started having to eat,” Seven of Nine said amusedly. “Here, put that on and we’ll go get you something to eat. I’m sure your father’s chomping at the bit to see you, and your Mom will be too once she wakes up,” she said, handing Jack his clothes off the bench.

--

One Year Later

“Jack! Jack Edward Crusher-Picard if you aren’t ready to go I swear to God!” the voice of his Mum called impatiently down the hall. Jack snorted to himself. Well, this was going to go well. Beverly Crusher, dressed in her best formalwear, appeared at his door, eyes blazing. “You are not even dressed. Come on, chop chop! Or do you want to be late to your own graduation?!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together to startle him into retracting his arm tubules from the padd in his hand, and he hurriedly turned off his eyepiece like a scolded child.

“We’ve got plenty of time!” Jack protested.

“Get. Dressed,” his mother insisted, shaking her head. “And would you stop doing that? Sticking those damn tubules in every padd in the house, you’re starting to wear holes in them! Don’t even know why you want to,” she huffed, pointing at the padd in the his hand.

“‘Cos I can have like fifty tabs open at once!” Jack laughed, even as he got up off the regeneration alcove-fitted bed and tossed the padd onto his desk. “Counselor Troi says it’s good that I can recontextualize and embrace what remains of a highly traumatic event in my life,” he added smugly, quoting the good counselor, and his Mum just scoffed at that.

“Is that what you call surfing the extranet all night when you were supposed to be studying for your exams?” Beverly asked him sardonically.

“Well-”

“Get ready to go, for crying out loud,” his Mum told him, before she went back down the hall muttering. Jack snickered to himself and closed his door to get dressed, though he briefly reconnected to the padd to apologize to Sidney for cutting their conversation short and tell her he’d see her later, and then closed the other tabs he’d had open, pausing only to watch the batting team of the cricket game he’d been watching bat a six before he turned his eyepiece off again - the Titan was in dock, so he and Sidney, whom he’d been tentatively seeing since the whole incident, had gone on a couple dates, much to the disapproval of Commodore LaForge, had some drinks together, and then she had promised to attend his graduation from Starfleet Academy. He’d been placed in an accelerated program due to his extensive prior experience - and thankfully pardoned for the pile of petty crimes he’d committed in the name of his and his mother’s medical work - but he’d spent the last year attending the school, and it was part of why he now lived not aboard the S.S. Eleos XII or any replacement for her, but in a very nice penthouse apartment afforded to his mother as an Admiral in Starfleet in San Francisco. His father didn’t live with them, the romance that had once blossomed between Jean-Luc and Beverly was one they both agreed was best left in the realms of bittersweet memory so as to not sour it further, but they were still fond of each other and Picard visited often. Jack thought his father’s Romulan partner Laris was quite a cool woman. Maybe one day, he supposed, he’d get a second half-brother, this one half-Romulan, one he’d actually be able to get to know for once.

Starfleet Academy hadn’t been half bad either; it had been a little awkward at first, since he was the person who’d remotely assimilated half his classmates a year ago, and boy had the guilt kicked him for months, but with time and work and a lot of counseling they’d moved past that and he’d made some quite good friends. But that day he supposed it was time for him to focus on graduation, so he reluctantly set aside his distractions and got dressed in his formal uniform, brushed his teeth and shaved, and applied a generous glob of dermal cream about his implants, particularly the assimilation manifold that ran along his whole right arm. The edges of the things itched a lot and tended to scab when he scratched them, and there were a few stubborn spots that had eventually scarred. Finally, he combed his hair tidily over what remained of the cranial implant that had thankfully been mostly excised since the initial round of surgeries, and smiled at his reflection. The implants weren’t quite so obtrusive anymore, and he’d come to appreciate the one around his eye which he’d actually painted with hypoallergenic silver plating to make it look a bit less ugly and more like Seven’s. The mottling of his skin was gone, his hair had grown back and the bright young man that looked back at him was exactly that; a young man, and human. Satisfied, he nodded at himself. By day’s end, there’d be a pip on his collar.

“There. Better?” Jack asked his Mum as he stepped into the living room.

“Much better,” Beverly said warmly, beaming at him. “All right then, let’s be off,” she said, before they walked arm in arm down to the transporter arch and beamed to the Academy, where Jack winced as the sun struck his eyes. Shame the implant didn’t come with a sunglasses function, the Borg really needed to learn a thing or two about beach holidays. But they both smiled gladly at the sight of who was waiting for them quietly under a tree, leaning on the wall trying not to attract too much attention despite wearing a suit; Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, who got up with a wide smile and walked across the concourse to them. “Jean-Luc,” Beverly said, offering him a hug.

“Beverly,” Jean-Luc replied, embracing her and kissing her cheeks politely. “Good to see you, and of course.. big day son,” he told them both, as he moved to Jack and hugged him too with a proud wrinkly old man smile.

“Yeah,” Jack said, smiling back at him. “But I reckon you’re feeling pretty foolish now for giving that whole the last Picard speech last year,” he snickered, having been sent the video by Sidney a few weeks before. Picard scoffed ruefully, closing his eyes and hanging his head. All that pontification about the decorated Picard line ending with Jean-Luc, and a year later the whole thing was ruined.

“In my defense, I was not aware that you existed at the time,” Picard grumbled softly, not without a glance at Beverly, who made an apologetic face. “But I have never been prouder to be wrong, Jack. The legacy you write will no doubt prove you far more than worthy of all those Picards who came before you,” he said softly, putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “And part of the reason I am quite definitely not giving a speech this year is because I doubt I could live last year down if I spoke at the graduation of my own mysteriously apparated son,” he chuckled, and Jack smirked as he patted his father’s shoulder with his partially-encased hand. “Shall we?” the old man said, and with that the three of them joined the throngs of students and their families gathering in the great auditorium for the graduation of the class of 2402.

Jack was just glad that he wasn’t the first young ex-Borg cadet to graduate from the Academy, so that the speaker couldn’t have called him up as the first, as if it were some honor - though he suspected that even if he hadn’t been second to the late Icheb, they wouldn’t have wanted to point him out only a year after such a pivotal Borg threat, using Jack himself as its tool, had taken so many lives, destroyed so much. It weighed on him even then a year later, made him wonder if he even deserved the place he took at Starfleet Academy. The angry tirade of the fallen Captain Shaw, whose very life Jack - no, Jack urged himself to remember, Võx, not him - had taken, against his father, against what the Borg had made of Jean-Luc Picard, the only Borg so deadly they gave him a goddamn name! rambled through his mind as he only half listened to some Admiral whose name he hadn’t caught talk about the values of Starfleet. It wasn’t the first time he’d thought of how he was certain that Captain Shaw wouldn’t have forgiven him.

A glint of light caught his eye, and he looked up at the gallery from which it had come - and he recognized its source; it had reflected off of the eyepiece of Seven of Nine, who sat not looking at the speaker, but at him. She wasn’t the only one. Sidney sat there, newly a Lieutenant and beaming down at him, Picard and his Mum were with them, along with Musiker and the Romulan Elnor, Troi, and Riker, and their daughter Kestra, a few years from graduating herself, had come along too. And Seven of Nine was smiling just as proudly as his parents were at him. Jack smiled back up at them. If the old Enterprise senior staff were a big family, then Seven was like a cousin to that family, a big cousin who’d been there for Jack whenever she could be all year. Jack smiled back up at them, remembering what they themselves had told him in their own ways; that he deserved to be here. That he had been manipulated and used, and that what the Borg had engineered him to be did not define him.

The instant he had stepped up and received his commission as Ensign Jack Crusher-Picard and the silver pip had been pinned to his neckline had been decidedly more tense than that of his classmates, but it had been those friends whom he had made that had begun the applause that had rung out through the auditorium just as it had for everyone before him, applause echoed loudest by the gallery of his family and Sidney and Seven. Perhaps there were those who would see him as dangerous always, but he was not alone.

Of course, the better bit of the day was the dozens and dozens of parties that sprang up all over San Francisco afterward, and Jack found himself partying in a cocktail bar ringing with pop music alongside Sidney, a little tipsy as he and his friends laughed away the evening as new ensigns of Starfleet.

“Ayyyyyy!” Jack cried as his Andorian buddy Tr’ven won the beer pong game. “Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink!” he chanted along with his friends as the loser, a Bajoran by the name of Jarian Dai groaned and reluctantly picked up the red cup. Bzz bzz. In Jack’s pocket, his miniature padd buzzed with a text notification. Huffing, Jack got out the little glass device, expecting it to be another text from his Mum asking when he’d be home, but he was curiously surprised to see the text hadn’t come from his Mum. No, it had come from Seven of Nine, simply abbreviated to 7/9 for her display name.

7/9: Check your Cadet account emails.

Jack frowned. That was a bit out of the blue, but he supposed not without plausible cause; some of the cadets, like Dai, had received their assignments - he was going to the U.S.S. Vanguard - so maybe that was what she meant. Putting the padd in his left hand, Jack turned on his eyepiece and then focused on his arm to shoot the two evil little tendrils that were the interfacing assimilation tubules into it.

“Oooh he’s getting the tubules out!” Leannia, an unjoined Trill, cajoled excitedly. She was drunker than he was, and Jack scoffed.

“Oh shut up Leannia,” Sidney chuckled, shaking her head as she smiled at him.

“I’m just checking my emails, it’s not that cool. Screen on this thing’s tiny,” Jack replied, shaking his head. Leannia laughed gleefully and took another long sip of whatever colorful cocktail she had, some disgusting thing with Denevian Mead in it, while Jack flipped out his emails into his peripheral vision with a thought. And indeed, among the unreads, was one from Starfleet Command, with the subject line Starship Assignment - Jack Crusher-Picard. “It’s my assignment,” he said softly, but clearly not softly enough, as half his friends heard and gasped.

“Oh! Tell us tell us!” Dai called, downing the red cup of booze he’d had to drink from the pong. “Let’s hear it Crusher!”

“Gimme a bloody second,” Jack laughed, opening the email in another tab to read it. Most of it was the usual official stuff, before his eyes widened incredulously as he read his assignment.

Starship: U.S.S. Enterprise - NCC-1701-G

Commanding Officer: Captain Seven of Nine

“Holy cow,” Jack muttered.

“Whizzit?” Dai asked, his voice so slurred it came out in one word.

“Enterprise G,” Jack replied, retracting his tubules and turning off his eyepiece as he blinked. Instantly, cheers erupted around him from his classmates. Sidney erupted, yelling with gladness that they were both to be serving together and kissing him.

“AYYYY! Bartender! Another round for the Enterprising xB!” Tr’ven yelled eagerly as his antennae shot up, clapping Jack’s shoulder triumphantly. “Hahahaa!” Jack couldn’t help but laugh and celebrate with them, beaming as the group congratulated him. Despite all the pain, despite the violations he had been through, Jack was not alone. It was not such a bad thing at all, to suffer the mortifying ordeal of being known.

--

[moonshadowed]

20TH / 21ST CENTURY VERSE.

Are you one of my mutuals from one of my other blogs that got suckered into following this one despite knowing nothing about sci-fi interested in interacting but not sure if you’d want to do a sci-fi au? Do you want to throw our characters into new and different situations?

Then look no further than this masterlist, detailing what each character does in a 20th / 21st century verse under the cut!

cws for: mentions of ableism, racism, sexism, the Holocaust / Nazis / antisemitism, an antiquated derogatory term, a drug reference, and parental death. Please stay safe!

JEAN-LUC PICARD.

An archaeology professor (who also dabbles in classics, history, and anthropology, as archaeology often doesn’t have its own department and he does have a wide breadth of interests), who is also in charge of a local / community theatre troupe, The Players Enterprise. This troupe is populated largely by his ex-students and his friends turned found family (in other words, the 20th / 21st century au Enterprise crew). He serves as director, stage manager, and, on occasion, actor! As he doesn’t have the stress or trauma of command,  he’s more at peace and more inclined to laugh and smile more, joke more freely / be a little sillier, and his kindness and warmth would be even more evident, as would his love for the troupe and his students. 

WILL RIKER.

In the forest service / forestry somehow no matter the verse (think anything from a tree surgeon to a gardener / landscaper to a lumberjack to a park ranger / forestry manager, basically anything outside and outdoorsy) who moonlights as a jazz musician (which is his true love). He works local gigs at restaurants / taverns / bars and concerts, and met Picard through taking his classes (and other classes at the college he works for). Has been his “Number One” right hand at the theatre troupe (and one of his favorite actors) ever since! Like Picard, he’s also more lighthearted and feels more free to joke around, and is quite well-liked in the local community. 

GEORDI LAFORGE.

Another ex-student of Picard’s, after graduation Geordi went into education and became a teacher (most likely early education, but he could and does work with a wide variety of kids). He also enjoys building model ships, helping with props for the theatre troupe (as well as turning his hand to acting), tinkering with electronics and machinery, and is legally blind and low-sighted. In his twentieth century verse in particular he is a fierce advocate for disability rights, especially when it comes to access to education and equal opportunities. He had to fight for what he acheived (being a blind teacher isn’t easy) and is boundlessly kind and welcoming, and won’t let anything stop him or get him down.

BENJAMIN SISKO.

Chef and proprietor of Sisko’s Creole Kitchen, the family business, Ben also coaches community baseball (Little League, a few more casual teams. and helps out with the community’s minor league team). He’s also a keen piano player and a skilled singer. He is also single father to his son, Jake, an aspiring writer who plays on his baseball team. His restaurant staff and regulars often overlap with the regulars at the local bar (which forms the 20th / 21st century au DS9 crew), and he loves them all dearly, and he takes in anybody who needs a hot meal and a place to sleep. 

JADZIA DAX.

A graduate student at the local university and an aspiring astrophysicist, Jadzia has many interests. She loves music, enjoying playing with Benjamin and having a fondness for lost and obscure composers, has a talent for wrestling, gambling, and magic tricks, and enjoys gymnastics as much as puzzles. As they are in a male-dominated field, they’ve had to overcome a lot to get to where they are, but she possesses a maturity and a grace beyond her years so that not much gets her down. 

KIRA NERYS.

Kira comes from a Jewish family in a Nazi-occupied country during World War II (most likely Poland, but debatably France, Slovakia, or the Soviet Union) who took part in the Jewish Resistence. Depending on the time period of the verse in question, she either fought in the Resistence alongside her family, or she was born after her family fled the country and escaped to their new home. She has a revolutionary spirit and is skilled in many forms of fighting, and is fiercely protective and radically proud of her heritage. She has no patience for intolerance or bigotry, and is a rebel and an activist. She is intimidating, especially at first, having learned to bite first, but she loves fully and wholly.

JULIAN BASHIR.

A young doctor fresh out of medical school, Julian is kindhearted, gentle, and enormously intelligent, if a bit unorthodox in his methodology and his treatment ideas (some have drawn the comparison between either a mad scientist or Doctor Frankenstein, and Julian takes these as compliments). He is naive, awkward, and boyish in some ways, but when it comes to his work there is no one better, and he is fiercely brash and stubborn when it comes to the wellbeing and safety of his patients and friends. He has faced a lot of racism and intolerance, particularly in the 20th century au where he is sometimes known by the epithet “the darkie doctor,” but he will continue practicing medicine for as long as possible. 

MILES O’BRIEN.

Working in IT as a repair technician, Miles has done a number of odd jobs over his life and enjoys tinkering with both electronics and mechanics. Or rather, he says he enjoys it, even though you wouldn’t guess it by how often he winds up tearing his hair out over his assignments (and / or his clients). He loves his life with his wife, Keiko, and little girl, Molly, and is deeply devoted to the rest of the regulars at both SIsko’s Creole Kitchen, the local bar scene, and the Players Enterprise (he’s their resident techie, primarily in charge of lights, sound, and prop production and management), even if it took a while to truly bond with them and find his place there.

CHRIS PIKE.

Originally from Mojave, Chris lives in Bearcreek, Montana, a tiny town near Billings, where he runs a working ranch, teaching horseback riding and sustiainable agriculture. He especially loves connecting with local schools to teach about animal husbandry and gardening, and he runs a farm-to-table style restaurant in one of his barns (he, of course, cooks everything and sources everything locally). He’s a fan of the pig races, and for a long time things go smoothly. However, he ultimately meets with an accident that leaves him wheelchair-bound. However, he doesn’t give up his dream; instead, he doubles down on it. advocating for disability rights and education. 

LUKE SKYWALKER.

Luke is a small town boy who never really left home. He took over his family farm with his sister, Leia, from their father, Anakin, who has been chronically ill for a long time though is slowly (but surely) recovering. Even so, Anakin can’t really work the land anymore, so in order to help with the farm work, and with everyday chores around the house, Luke and his father have built two droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. Luke has aspirations of getting off the farm someday, though, and supporting his family and seeing the world by being a pilot. Similarly, Leia wants to instill real reform by becoming a politician or some kind of local government official (she probably ends up mayor or a representative someday).

HAN SOLO.

The Skywalker family farm didn’t really need a farmhand, but they certainly weren’t going to turn Han away. Scruffy, rakish, and ever-so-slightly lazy, Han teaches the twins how to repair a lot of the busted-up old farm machinery and is particularly gifted at fixing cars (mainly because his old van keeps breaking down, it’s a miracle the thing is still on the road and it’s certainly not entirely legal), and when there’s a handyman job to do, Han’s usually the one to do it, as he did several odd handyman jobs, including doorknob repair, before he somehow wound up on the Skywalker’s farm. He says it’s just a job, that he couldn’t care less about what happened to the Skywalkers, but he’s beginning to feel like part of the family whether he likes it or not (it also doesn’t help that he has his eyes set on one of the twins). He also may or may not grow and sell weed on the farm, but that’s another story.

ADDITIONAL.

DAVID MARCUS is an ambitious, daring, and stubborn doctoral student working on dual science and engineering degrees

WESLEY CRUSHER helps out with the Players Enterpirse and takes classes at the university as a high schooler for college credit. His father, a professor and a dear friend of Picard’s, died when Wesley was very young, and he’s been raised by Beverly and the rest of the Players Enterprise for as long as he can remember

LYRINDA HALK is an adventure guide who works at or near the same place Will does, taking people on all kinds of thrilling expeditions and excursions

[jorgeclardiary]

Arise II (A Spotify Playlist). [To listen click HERE]

It’s the Lunar New Year, and the energy of Aquarius permeates the atmosphere as the current stellium of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Jupiter is so close to the sign.

The February 2021 new moon is the climax of this planetary gathering. It is time to set intentions and ascend to living life in the 5th dimension.

The 3rd dimension which has so occupied humanity, being aware of a physical manifestation with little connection to essence, is on its way out. The 4th dimension of thoughts and feelings opens the doors of the heart; a clear thought accompanied by a strong feeling, like joy, will take us to the 5th dimension where we understand Source and the interconnectedness of all.

Here are 100 minutes of music by Candido, Resonance, Voyage, The Gibson Brothers, Pam Todd and the Love Exchange, Sun Palace, Melba Moore, Taana Gardner, Empress, Melvin Van Peebles, Crown Heights Affair, and Azymuth, to aid us at that 4D moment of thoughts and emotions into the 5D realm of community and gratitude.

Walking past the apocalypse of 3D dominance I am…here wearing a Scooter LaForge City Poncho, Levi’s jeans, and A.P.C. sandals.

Photos by Goor Studio

[onimiman]

My Favorite Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (by whichever character is central to the episode)

Having completed my five-month watch of 1987 to 1994′s Star Trek: The Next Generation, I have decided that, in lieu of providing a typical top 10 and bottom 10 favorite episodes of the series, I would list and explain my favorite and least favorite episodes based on whoever among the main cast is the central character of that episode. So here we go for the episodes of this show I liked best.

For Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Chain of Command: Part II - This is probably Patrick Stewart’s finest hour of acting throughout the series; here, we see how much of an emotionally arresting performance he can give as Captain Picard is stripped (both literally and figuratively) of his dignity and tortured by Cardassia Gul Madrid (also played wonderfully by David Warner) simply because of Madrid’s desire to dominate his subject. At first, when I was watching the episode, I was confused as to why the Gul was still torturing Picard when the beginning of this ep made it clear that Picard really knew nothing that the Cardassians wanted; but after watching sfdebris’s review of this episode and learning that this is nothing more than for Madrid to basically conquer Picard’s mind for a petty sense of victory, it really seals the horror of what Picard goes through here. I was also fascinated at how Madrid’s torture techniques included actually trying to play to Picard’s sense of empathy in a really bizarre way; and it’s a testament to Picard’s character that, even though he already ratted Dr. Crusher and Worf out in the very first scene, he refused to have his mind broken (even though he was damn close to the edge). The episode’s subplot aboard the Enterprise with Captain Jellico was great, too, and in spite of Jellico being kind of a prick, he was also a very understandable character in both this episode and its predecessor. Overall, a fantastic episode that makes me wonder if Q had been watching with any degree of sympathy over Picard’s plight.

For Lieutenant-Commander Data: Brothers - Just as Patrick Stewart managed to really flex his acting muscles in the episode discussed above, Brent Spiner really does a great job at playing not only Data, but also Dr. Soong and especially Lore. This episode is a great character piece for Data and hints that he may very well grow in a way even if he were to never install that emotion chip into his positronic net. Moreover, Lore, as evil as he is, does display aspects of humanity that Data would no doubt want to achieve and it gives him a three-dimensionality that was previously absent in “Datalore” and later in both parts of “Descent.” Soong was also portrayed well as a brilliant but curmudgeon of a man who still had a shred of humanity in him, and with all of these character interactions played brilliantly by one man, “Brothers” proves to be one of Data’s finest hours in this show, and that’s in spite of a mediocre subplot involving those kids aboard the Enterprise.

For Commander William T. Riker: The Pegasus - Throughout most of this show, Commander Will Riker has consistently been portrayed as the model Starfleet officer, even in spite of some unorthodox methods of disobeying some pre-Picard commanders of his. However, this episode shows Riker in an interesting state of vulnerability that we’ve never seen from him before; while “Frame of Mind” had tortured Riker psychologically, it felt like an episode that, quite frankly, could have happened to anyone aboard the Enterprise. But this episode tests Riker as a Starfleet officer as he’s divided between his present loyalty to Picard and his holdover loyalty to Admiral Pressman that threatens not only Riker’s career and sense of duty, but also to the Federation’s integrity as a galactic organization. It scratches away at the facade of Riker being the ideal officer and shows that even he can fall prey to uncertainty.

For Counselor Deanna Troi: Face of the Enemy - It’s fascinating to see how someone who can be as calm and understanding as Counselor Troi is unexpectedly thrust into a situation where she has to pretend to be a ruthless member of the Romulan Tal’Shiar, if only just to preserve her own life. It’s nice to see Marina Sirtis go beyond the understanding near-whisper of Counselor Troi, especially in an ep like this. 

For Lieutenant-Commander Geordi LaForge: Interface - It was a little difficult to find an episode that I think fit LaForge best, but I liked this one the most. It was interesting to see how Geordi, much like Counselor Troi, had turned from one of the most levelheaded members of the Enterprise crew to someone who was determined to rescue whom he thought to be his mother. Yet I appreciated that even after he realized that the alien who was fooling him into believing that he was speaking to his mother, he was still willing to save that alien and its kind from certain death; it really shows what kind of good guy LaForge can be.

For Lieutenant Worf: Parallels - Of all the Worf-centric episodes, this one is probably the most unique among them because it has virtually nothing to do with his Klingon heritage. Instead, we see him in this trippy quantum time travel story where we see the Enterprise in various outcomes, not the least of which is a reality where the Borg weren’t defeated at Earth during the events of “The Best of Both Worlds.” But aside from being unique, this episode is great at building up through minute subtleties that Worf can’t help but notice before reality starts to become so drastically different that it may very well collapse in on itself. So it was nice to see Worf have to handle this kind of situation without having to be defined by the fact that he’s a Klingon like in every other ep that was focused on him.

For Dr. Beverly Crusher: Remember Me - Similar to “Parallels,” the episode does a good job at building up from minute subtleties. What starts off as a mystery of one missing man has Dr. Crusher start to question her sanity as more and more people aboard the Enterprise start to disappear until it’s just her. The ending did have a great deal of tension as Crusher realized that the universe itself was collapsing around her and she had to run for that mysterious white glowy thing that appears every now and then that tries to suck her in. Good episode and good performance from Gates McFadden. 

[meditativeyoga]

Everybody Upside-Down

A year back, the morning after bring his bouncing 2-year-old kid on his shoulders, Peter woke up as well as discovered he couldn't removal his head. The discomfort in his neck as well as obliterating his left arm was so intense that he could not push his back, sit upright, or concentrate enough to own a car. Detected with cervical radiculitis at C5, C6, and also potentially C7, Peter missed work, numbed himself with muscular tissue depressants, as well as kept his neck trussed up in a brace for 2 weeks. He found that the posture that gave him greatest relief was Uttanasana (Standing Ahead Bend). For months, his technique was mild and low-to-the-ground: hip-openers, ahead bends, and corrective work. Five months later on, the skin of his left joint was still numb as well as the initial fingers on his left hand periodically tingled.

The irony of his injury wasn't shed on him. Forty-one years old at the time, Peter had been exercising yoga exercise for 13 years. Though he understood he was growing older, Peter had constantly been 'good' at yoga, taking care of sophisticated postures with aplomb, taking on his peers for the instructor's compliments.

He had begun practicing inversions within the first year of his practice. Should not those 13 years of Headstands and also Shoulderstands have ensured that Peter's neck would certainly be solid, flexible, able to endure his kid's weight as well as unforeseeable, energetic kicks?

Or is it feasible, instead, that Peter's inverted technique created the conditions for his injury? Peter has had tight neck muscular tissues throughout his grown-up life, as well as in times of anxiety, his shoulders stoop up towards his ears. Peter's modus operandi for several years was to reveal up for course a couple of times a week and blithely raise his densely muscled body upside-down through his neck muscular tissues.

He required himself to remain upright through a 10-minute Headstand, sweating liberally. Perhaps one could do that without effects at 20-something, but a lots years later, the initiative takes its toll. We all operate in a tangle of pernicious behaviors, and also unless we purposely unload and also dismantle them in our yoga exercise practice, they lie in wait as well as trip us up.

Many yoga exercise professionals in the USA are probably like Peter-householders pushed by other demands and also wishes, not able to exercise yoga daily. They reveal up for course whenever practical, and execute every present that does not prompt as well as acute pain.

Peter's instructor, like any good yoga instructor, advised his pupils to create a house practice, but Peter had never ever found the moment. While it's impossible to claim just how crucial Peter's upside down method was to his injury, it deserves asking the inquiry: If he had actually practiced extra constantly, even more mindfully, could he have actually avoided it?

Sirsasana (Headstand) and Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) are sexy poses-physically tough, aesthetically significant, as well as exhilarating. They are likewise surprisingly easily accessible. Regardless of the restrictions of a limited lower back or hamstrings, many yoga experts can move right into an inversion reasonably quickly.

As yoga expands ever much more preferred (there are a lot more students exercising hatha yoga exercise in The golden state compared to in the whole nation of India today, asserts Larry Payne, coauthor of Yoga for Dummies), students are enthusiastically practicing Headstand and Shoulderstand across the nation-in jampacked Ashtanga courses without props, as well as for relatively extended periods (10 mins plus) in Iyengar Yoga courses.

Unfortunately, nevertheless, beginning as well as expert yoga trainees are turning up in the offices of bodyworkers, chiropractic practitioners, and also doctor with compression of the upper spine and also impaired mobility in the neck, probably from the technique of inversions.

In a society that highlights competition as well as accomplishment, some trainees are clearly flinging themselves right into inversions also soon. Couple that with the desultory nature of lots of people's practices-one class a week at finest, on a drop-in basis-and classes that are as well huge for the teacher to see everybody in a provided present, and also you have the dish for possible disaster.

How, after that, do we evaluate and come close to inversions, presents that are stated to be important and that possess distinctive physiological advantages? We can begin by sculling back via the years and studying the role of inversions in timeless yoga, at the river's source.

Fountain of Youth

Yogis in India have actually trying out their own bodies and breath searching for knowledge for at the very least 5,000 years. Exactly what they pertained to understand regarding themselves was a direct outcome of continual self-study as well as reflection, or svadhyaya.

In their stringent reflection and spartan techniques, over the sluggish unraveling of days and months as well as years, they familiarized and love the deep, long-lasting motions in the body-the pulse and rhythm of liquids and also electrical charges-and put exercises, photos, and also language to those activities, so we can follow.

The ancient texts specify that there are 7 major chakras (or psychic energy centers) along the vertical axis of the body. At the danger of being reductive, one could describe hatha yoga as methods designed to increase prana, or life force, up the spinal column, the path of the chakras. David Gordon White, in his interesting book, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Middle ages India, writes of an 'inner space' that starts at the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine. It runs upward with the heart, and ends at the fontanelle, or 'slit of brahman,' referred to as the brahmarandra, in the cranial safe. He prices estimate the Kathaka Upanishad (6.16), which states: 'There are a hundred and also one channels of the heart. Among these skips to the crown of the head. Increasing by it, one mosts likely to immortality.'

The Natha siddhas as well as other Tantric schools, forefathers of the hatha yoga exercise practice, believed that amrita, the nectar of immortality, was held within the cranial vault, at the 7th chakra, the sahasrara chakra. The valued nectar, meting out our days, fell through the center of the body and also was eaten in the fire of the upper body. Transform yourself upside-down, the reasoning went, and amrita would certainly be kept, hence prolonging life and protecting one's prana.

The Pradipika listings Viparita Karani Mudra as one of 'the 10 mudras which dominate old age and also fatality.' However, that calls for an everyday practice of Viparita Karani Mudra for 3 hrs!

From the Goraksha Shataka, a twelfth- or thirteenth-century text on hatha yoga, we learn that 'approximately the navel stays the lonesome sunlight, whose essence is fire, situated at the base of the taste is the eternal moon, whose essence is nectar. That which rains below the downturned mouth of the moon is ingested by the upturned mouth of the sun. The method [of Viparita Karani] is to be done as a means to acquiring the nectar [which would otherwise be lost]'

Defying Gravity

Until really just recently, there has actually been little passion in the West in objectively documenting the results of yoga on health and wellness, specifically for the much more advanced or esoteric practices, such as inversions. The medical physicians who have conducted the present studies are mainly Indian. Ralph Laforge, M.Sc., handling supervisor at a facility at Battle each other University Medical Center as well as an authority on the clinical foundations of hatha yoga exercise, understands of just two professional tests in this nation developed to identify the physiological advantages of inversions, both which were too 'statistically underpowered' to attract clear conclusions.

Our understanding of how inversions benefit us, after that, is built on expert point of view, study, and educated reasoning. In the lack of more medically rigorous studies, we can cite biomechanical concepts, action indices such as heart price or blood pressure, and witness the effects of inversions on people who practice regularly.

All the proof indicates one principal, galvanizing effect that inversions carry the professional: They upend one's relationship to gravity. Gravity has a profound impact on the physical processes of the body. As NASA discovered and Jerome Groopman reported in a New Yorker article (February 14, 2000), once people enter zero gravity, we go through severe biomedical problems. Our sense of balance, determined by the vestibular system of the internal ear as well as calibrated to minute liquid activities, is destroyed. Blood, no more weighted in the lower upper body as well as legs, floodings upwards and also the heart rates up, prompting dehydration as well as eventually anemia. Muscles degeneration and bone mass drops precipitously.

Here on earth, gravity slowly however certainly evaluates us down and also saps our toughness. We stand, rest, or walk with head above the heart, legs and also pelvis beneath. As the years rack up, so do the damages. Subcutaneous fat sags. Varicose capillaries and piles erupt. Weary of persistently pumping blood with its vast circulatory network, the heart falters. According to Payne, the old yogis called gravity 'the quiet enemy.' The yogi does a martial-arts sleight-of-hand: Overthrow oneself as well as enlist gravity's power to apprehend the devastations of that self-same force.

The human body is sensitive to the variations of gravity due to the fact that it contains more than 60 percent water. From the skin in, the body is dense with cells, drifting in a bath of intercellular liquid. An intricate network of vessels weaves in as well as around every cell, progressively removaling fluids via shutoffs, pumps, and porous membrane layers, committed to transferring, nourishing, washing, and also cleansing.

According to David Coulter, Ph.D., who educated composition at the University of Minnesota for 18 years, when one inverts, cells liquids of the reduced extremities drain-far a lot more efficiently compared to when one is asleep. Areas of blockage clear. In a 1992 Yoga exercise International write-up on Headstand as well as the circulatory system, Coulter wrote: 'If you can stay in an upside down stance for simply 3 to 5 minutes, the blood will certainly not only drain promptly to the heart, however tissue fluids will certainly move a lot more successfully right into the capillaries and also lymph channels of the reduced extremities and of the abdominal and also pelvic body organs, promoting a much healthier exchange of nutrients as well as wastes in between cells and also blood vessels.'

All Systems Check

There are 4 significant systems in the body that the practice of inversions is said to favorably affect: cardio, lymphatic, nervous, and also endocrine.

The circulatory system is included the heart, the lungs, and also the entire system of vessels that feed oxygen as well as gather co2 and other waste products from the cells. Arteries extend in an elaborate tributary system from the heart, which pumps newly oxygenated blood from the lungs external. Veins return blood to the heart, and, unlike arteries, compose a low-pressure system that depends on muscular motion or gravity to removal blood along. One-way shutoffs at normal periods stop backwash as well as keep liquids removaling to the heart in a system referred to as 'venous return.'

Turning yourself inverted urges venous return. Inning accordance with Pat Layton, physiology educator for the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco's Advanced Researches Program, 'Individuals need to do aerobics due to the fact that they don't invert. You have to run actually hard-get the heart pumping hard-to circulate blood down to the feet and also up the back. Not that you shouldn't do aerobics, yet inversions are a healthier way to obtain the advantages [to the circulatory system], especially as you age.'

Layton thinks that inversions additionally ensure healthier and extra effective lung cells. When standing or resting upright, gravity draws our fluids earthward, as well as blood 'perfuses' or saturates the reduced lungs better. The reduced lung tissue is therefore much more compressed than the upper lungs. As an outcome, the air we inhale moves normally right into the open lungs of the top lungs. Unless we take a great, deep breath, we do not elevate the proportion of air to blood in the reduced lungs. When we invert, blood perfuses the well-ventilated top lobes of the lungs, therefore making sure a lot more reliable oxygen-to-blood exchange and healthier lung tissue.

Finally, as Payne states, 'Inverting offers the heart a break.' The heart functions doggedly to guarantee that fresh oxygenated blood makes its way up to the brain as well as its sensory organs. When inverting, the stress differential across the body is reversed, and also blood floodings the carotid arteries in the neck. It is believed that baroreceptors, systems that calibrate blood circulation to the brain, sense the rise in blood, and reduce the circulation, therefore decreasing blood pressure as well as heart rate. It has not, nonetheless, been clinically established whether the practice of inversions can reduce blood pressure over the long haul, as well as actually, high blood pressure is normally taken into consideration a contraindication for inversions.

The lymphatic system is accountable for waste removal, liquid balance, and immune system response. Lymph vessels develop amongst the capillary beds of the circulatory system, but comprise a different system that moves stray proteins, waste materials, and added liquids, filtering the fluid back through the lymph nodes and also discarding just what remains into the blood circulation system at the subclavian blood vessels, under the collarbones. The lymphatic system is similar to a sewage system-a detailed, underground network tied to every house in town-that maintains the citizens healthy.

Inversions, after that, are similar to the sump pump in the cellar, thrusting sewer right into the pipe. Lymph, like the blood returning to your heart by means of the veins, depends on muscle motion and also gravity to promote its return. Because the lymphatic system is a shut stress system and has one-way valves that maintain lymph relocating towards the heart, when one transforms upside down, the entire lymphatic system is stimulated, thus reinforcing your body immune system. Viparita Karani is the very best instance of this, as it is a light inversion that one can enjoy for a minimum of 5 minutes without any stress and anxiety to the body when one is tired out or ill. It interests keep in mind that for troubles like varicose blood vessels and edema (swelling) of the feet, when lymph is unable to preserve the appropriate fluid equilibrium in the lower extremities, physicians commonly merely tell people to place their feet up.

Head over Heels

When one boils down from Headstand, one often really feels more clear as well as calmer. The usual presumption is that Headstand floods the mind with fresh oxygenated blood, and also the mind is revitalized. Is there such a thing as way too much blood to the brain? Dr. B. Ramamurthi, a neuroscientist based in India, has revealed that the mind is protected from an influx of blood that would certainly bewilder its fragile frameworks, and that when a fairly healthy individual inverts, there is generally no excessive increase in the capillary of the mind. Intense pressure in the head or bloodshot eyes, nevertheless, ask for a changed technique. A research by Dr. F. Chandra, well known in Europe for her talks on the physiological as well as emotional impacts of yoga, assumes that Headstand might effect a base-line opening of capillary, making them much more reliable at dilating as well as constricting to effectively shunt blood to the energetic areas of the brain.

Inversions might likewise influence the movements of cerebrospinal liquid (CSF), the juice of the central nerve system which streams from the mind to the spine. The top of the skull gets intense stress in Headstand, which, when properly done, might advertise flexibility in the cranial bones, therefore boosting the production of CSF in the ventricles of the brain.

The result of inversions on the complex endocrine system, the body's glandular system of hormonal agent delivery, has been much proclaimed, however is perhaps the least recognized: Shoulderstand is extensively advised for menopausal and perimenopausal ladies because it is presumed that it boosts the thyroid as well as parathyroid glands, which produce hormonal agents that control one's metabolic process. This has not been scientifically shown, however Payne assumes that inverting places these glands, located in the top chest, in a 'basic bathroom of blood,' hence enhancing their efficiency.

In Headstand, the pineal and pituitary glands (which sit behind the eyes in the center of the head) are upended 180 degrees, straight over the fontanelle. We understand that the pineal and also pituitary glands are liable for growth and also sex hormonal agents. We do unknown exactly what turning around these glands in the area of gravity does. Could this, nonetheless, be the dripping amrita of the ancient yogis-might they have sensed the sluggish release of hormones from the cranial safe and also made use of inversions to stem or promote the release, advertising health and wellness and hampering aging?

To Invert or Not to Invert?

B., an osteopathic specialist, spoke to me just on the problem of privacy. He has actually collaborated with a couple of long-lasting yoga experts in their 50s who involved him with persistent pain or impaired flexibility in their necks. They have bodies of 30-year-olds, yet their necks are so stiff and also pain-ridden from the yoga inversions, they are like the necks of 60-year-olds, he claims. Over his 20-plus years of technique, B. has seen lots of clients who, already vulnerable in the upper spine from cervical deterioration, whiplash, an old injury, or misalignment, unknowingly intensify the scenario by inverting in yoga course.

He explains that the brachial plexus, an essential network of nerves that leave the spinal column from between the reduced cervical vertebrae and upper thoracic (C5-8 and T1), enervates the whole top extremities and shoulder region. Headstand and also Shoulderstand area tremendous compressive force on the upper spinal column, which, for those that are prone, can cause nerve irritability and compression to the brachial plexus, in addition to 'basic thoracic outlet syndrome,' which could jeopardize blood circulation as well as manifest as feeling numb in the arms and also hands.

Arthur Kilmurray, supervisor of Mystic River Yoga exercise Studio in Medford, Massachusetts, has experiences that support B.'s cases. He began studying Iyengar Yoga in the late 1970s and also was doing long inversions within four to five years. However by 1988, Shoulderstand had actually come to be impossible: He felt as if his head would certainly take off when up in the pose. Kilmurray assumes this originates from a football injury at age 21, exacerbated by lengthy inversions. Also now, although he really feels no discomfort, chiropractic doctors are surprised by the lack of variety of movement in his neck. Kilmurray does not presently exercise Headstand or instruct inversions, and also educates his students to 'create level of sensitivity to the breath, prana, and fluidity of the inner body' prior to moving to the longer inversions and also advanced positions.

Inversions are except every person. Also if you are inverting constantly currently, there will be times when the technique is unsuitable. Despite this 'failure' to invert, it might be useful to recall the yogic tenets of ahimsa, nonviolence or compassion, as well as svadhyaya. We exercise yoga to reduce suffering and also create our ability to be fully present in our lives. Why linger in exercising Headstand as well as Shoulderstand if it triggers you pain? Restorative postures such as Viparita Karani (Legs-Up-The-Wall Posture) and a sustained Setu Bandha (Bridge Pose) will certainly offer you some of the benefits of Headstand as well as Shoulderstand, without exhausting the cervical spinal column.

If you are brand-new to yoga exercise, take your time prior to inverting-a year is not as well long. Job very closely with an observant and educated teacher. Attend class regularly. Discover the basics: Discover the expansion of the back first in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Pet), open up the shoulders with Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand), Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance), and Vasisthasana (Side Slab Pose), and create equilibrium, quality, as well as toughness with the standing positions.

Studying the Yoga Sutra as well as Bhagavad Gita will certainly help you structure a yoga exercise practice that is well balanced and also smart. Exercising alone will certainly aid you remove need to do your asanas for others as well as grow a deeper understanding of your body as well as its rhythms so that you can practice in ways that respond to your needs. With mindfulness, also a newbie can exercise inversions without injury.

If you already invert, ask yourself just how you do it. Do you make use of muscle mass to keep up, as Peter did? Just how much do you observe yourself in the position, concentrating on your placement? If you want to function in the direction of longer poses, of course do so. Do so smartly, and be willing to advance gradually if you want a healthy neck right into your dotage. Observe the refined adjustments in your neck and throat, and also see your breath. Keep up for short amount of times first-a minute or 2. Back up on celebration. Constantly boil down if there is discomfort.

After the injury, Peter has transformed his method. He now sits daily, goes to a regular restorative yoga class, and does shorter inversions. He has recognized that purpose and focus are more vital than throwing himself through the postures. Practiced without wisdom and concern, inversions can lead to injury. Yet at their ideal, these poses sing up the spine as well as the body hums with happiness. Headstand and also Shoulderstand are called the king and also queen of the asanas-and they could be instead cavalier with their topics' necks. Be clever yet undaunted: They approve excellent benefits to those who come close to with regard.

Yoko Yoshikawa teaches Iyengar-based yoga exercise in Oakland, California.

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Mikkel Blackwell

The Important Bits

Names: Mikkel Blackwell

Deednames: 404 Error, Blue Screen

Species: Garou

Auspice: Ahroun

Moon: Full Moon

Breed: Homid

Rank: Athro

Camp: Wise Guy

Birthday: July 12, 1965 {56}

Location: Lyons, France

Appearance

Eye Color: Burning blue.

Hair Color: A pale, buttery yellow color typically styled short.

Skin Color: White.

Fashion Sense: Business casual.

Tattoos: None.

Scars: None.

Personality: Intense and dominating.

Weapons: NA

Fetishes: NA

Talens: NA

Likes: NA

Dislikes: NA

Quirks: NA

Occupation: Don of the Blackwell family/LunarTech Sept

Relationships

Current Lover: Angelica Blackwell

Former Lovers: Evette Blackwell

Family:

Angelica Blackwell {Wife}

Nathan Blackwell {Nephew}

Alice Blackwell {Niece}

Piper 'Bassdrop' Blackwell

Micah LaForge {Adopted son}

Mega-Byte {Adopted daughter}

Reneè 'Webstalker' Lupei {Sister}

Mihai Lupei {Brother-in-law}

Lumiere ‘Saws-the-Fang’ Lupei {Niece}

Antoinette Lupei {Grandniece - Deceased}

Remi Lupei {Grandnephew}

Friends: None

Mentor: None

Enemy: None

Pack: None

Totem: Cockroach

Individual: Chosen of Cockroach subtract two from all difficulties involving computers, electricity, and applied science. They can also perceive the contents of data streams in the Umbra, watching along with a YouTube video or listening in on a cellphone call with a successful Gnosis roll (difficulty 6).

Pack: Cockroach’s packs gain three dice that apply to any roll to activate a Gift that affects technology.

Ban: A Pack who has adopted him as a totem must not kill cockroaches.

The Story

Gifts: Unknown

Aesthetics

Pinterest Board: For the Family

Playlist: NA

Quote: “The family comes first.”

[carliejeanmediacomms]

International Communication

CNN; Cable News Network is ‘television’s first 24-hour all-news service’ (Erickson 2020) ‘created by maverick broadcasting executive Ted Turner’ (abid) in June 1980. The beginning of the first broadcast can be seen below;

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‘CNN is the worldwide leader in news and information delivery online’ (CNN Worldwide Staff 2020) and is a network channel who stream 24 hour news across America and have branched out to the rest of the world.

CNN are known for ‘going where the audience is’ (NewsWhip 2016) and being available and active on ‘whatever platforms audiences are engaging’ (NewsWhip 2016) on. ‘Nearly six and a half million Twitter users around the globe depend on @CNNbrk to learn the facts quickly, along with links to images or videos to accurately report what is happening around the world’ (CNN Worldwide Staff 2020). ‘On Facebook it is the same with almost four million users interacting and engaging with CNN on Facebook’ (abid).

As well as Television their major platforms of CNN and CNN International are across platforms such as ‘Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and messaging apps. That team is responsible for what we push out, and spans New York, Atlanta, Hong Kong and London. So [they are] 24/7 global social publishing’ (NewsWhip 2016).

Modern ‘People consume news channels in a very different way. They only want it for 10 or 15 minutes. They want their fix of what's going on, to check the world hasn't ended, and they [switch over] to something else’ (The Observer 2005) The CNN network understands the importance of having ‘different types of audiences and different generations using different types of storytelling’ (Fipp 2017). This can be done over different platforms such as social media and applications, in order to do this successfully they need to know their audience.

‘Primarily their audience consists of ‘college-educated woman between the ages of 25 and 54, who tends to lean to the political left—but prefers her news to be neutral’ (Hashmi et al 2012 p.2) while also being being and “on the go” and not having much time to sit and the news on the television, consequence of this the audience are more likely to receive ‘most of her news online or through her smartphone’ (abid).

‘CNN is expanding its international presence’ (BtoB 2005) by adding a channel in India which ‘will extend CNN's existing footprint in India well beyond the 10 million homes the network currently reaches via CNN International (CNNI)’ (Abid) which will be consistent in telling audiences what to think about (Groshek 2008).

Currently ‘CNN International broadcasts to 23 countries, reaching 150 million households worldwide’ (The Observer 2005) yet to widen their broadcast reach they will need to do more than broadcast. As well as expanding its network it has been noted that ‘CNN needs to cultivate its audience and presence on Twitter. Twitter has become an integral part of global news communication. Younger audience is already switching to Twitter from blogosphere’ (Hashmi et al 2012 p.17). Expanding its social media presence as well as its footprint will not only widen where the audience comes from but the age ranges in which the network currently covers, expanding its range to younger more technologically savvy audiences.

Bibliography

BtoB (2005) ‘CNN extends global reach; Network partners to launch 24-hour, English-language news channel in India’ Gale Academic, Crain Communications, 1530236, Vol. 90, Issue 16

CNN (2011) ‘CNN's first broadcast: June 1, 1980’ Published on YouTube, Available at: https://youtu.be/dqDopY5dMD8 [accessed 21/11/20]

CNN Worldwide Staff (2020) ‘THE GLOBAL NETWORKS OF CNN DOMINATE ON SOCIAL MEDIA’ Shorty Awards. Available at: https://shortyawards.com/4th/the-global-networks-of-cnn-dominate-on-social-media [accessed 21/11/20]

Erickson H (2020) ‘CNN’ Published by Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/CNN [accessed 21/11/20]

Fipp (2017) ‘CNN on social media and matching the right platform to the right audience’. Available at: https://www.fipp.com/news/cnn-social-media-platform-audience/ [accessed 21/11/20]

Groshek (2008) ‘Homogenous Agendas, Disparate Frames: CNN and CNN International Coverage Online’ Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Page 52-69

Hashmi, Humphries, LaForge & Song (2012) Audience Report on CNN. Published Online. Pages 1-33.

NewsWhip (2016) ‘"Creating A News Habit for Every Generation": How CNN Use Social Media’ Published by Digital Journalism, Interviews

The Observer (2005) ‘Business & Media: CNN's 25-year fight for eyeballs: Only balanced news can win a global audience, the international channel's British head tells James Robinson’ Publisher: Guardian Newspapers

[differentchildmusic-blog]

Behavioral Biometrics Market Annual Growth with CAGR of 17.34% Between 2018 and 2023.

The Behavioral Biometric Market is expected to growas products and services are moving into advanced digital security beyond simple password and pincodes. According to the new market research report by IndustryARC titled “Behavioral Biometrics Market: By Type (Active, Passive); By Level of Authentication; By Deployment Mode; By Application (Fraud Detection and Prevention, Continuous Authentication, Others); By End User (Banking, Enterprise, Government and Law Enforcement, Others) & Geography – Forecast(2018 - 2023),” the market will be driven by increasing sale of smartphones with built-in finger print sensors. To access the full report, click the link below: https://industryarc.com/Report/9596/behavioral-biometrics-market-research-report.html Biometric authentication has become a unique technology used to prove an individual’s identity. It has become increasingly common in the recent years. Millions of people have become accustomed to use their finger prints, eyes and faces to authenticate themselves. North America Dominates Share in BehavioralBiometric Market: North American regions is the leading market, and estimated to account for more than 40% in the forecast period of 2018-2023. The increased use of behavioral biometric devicesin government establishments, hospitals, and ATMs in this region is foreseen to raise the growth of the market in the predicted period.Asia-Pacific is among the growing markets for biometric technology. Asian countries have started adopting the biometric technology in screening security systems at all the border checkpoints, through facial detection systems. Selected Type and End-User Analysis Done in the Full Report: The finding say, voice recognition is the leading segment in the present market.This is an actually a new form of authentication, of voice recognition in mobile banking, that creates a growing demand for multifactor authentication in enterprises, ability to use technology remotely, and quite reasonable price is factor behind the growing market. Selected Driving Factors Mentioned in the Full Report: Finger print biometric systems have witnessed wide range of acceptance in various applications. Increasing adoption in e-commerce, tablets, mobile phones, and cloud computingare expected to generate a high demand in the biometric technology. Key Players of the BehavioralBiometric Market: Prominent players in market include Biometric Signature ID, BehavioSec, HYPR Corp., AnchorID, B-Secure and Laforge Optical. BehavioSec develops non-invasive biometric authentication methods, its ability is to prevent fraudulent activity. The team is working on enabling defensive systems to recover from a security breach in real-time situation. Related Reports: A. Next Generation Biometrics Market https://industryarc.com/Report/1308/next-generation-biometrics-market-analysis.html B. Biometrics Banking Market https://industryarc.com/Report/15165/biometrics-banking-market.html The BehavioralBiometric Market is Segmented as Indicated Below: The growing popularity of advanced authentication technology are in developed countries will drive the demand for behavioural biometric market. A. Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Type 1. Active 1.1. Signature 1.2. Keystroke Dynamics 2. Passive 2.1. Gait 2.2. Voice 2.3. Eye Tracking 2.4. Gesture Recognition B. Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Level of Authentication 1. Single Factor 2. Multi Factor C. Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Deployment Mode 1. On Premise 2. Cloud Based Company Profiles 1. BaziFIT 2. Decilion Group 3. Hitachi 4. Odyssey Technologies 5. SpeechPro 6. SutiSoft 7. VoicePass 8. WonderNet And more What can you expect from the report? The Behavioral Biometric Market Report is prepared with the main agenda to cover the following  points: 1. Market Size by Product Category 2. Market Trends 3. Manufacturer Landscape 4. Distributor Landscape 5. Pricing Analysis 6. Top 10 End User Analysis 7. Product Benchmarking 8. Product Developments 9. Mergers & Acquisition Analysis 10. Patent Analysis Any other major customizations can be discussed with our team. We can also provide you with a separate quote based on your requirements. You can drop an e-mail to sales@industryarc.com to learn more about our consulting services. Media Contact: Mr. Venkat Reddy Sales Manager Email 1: sales@industryarc.com Or Email 2: venkat@industryarc.com Contact Sales: +1-614-588-8538 (Ext-101) About IndustryARC: IndustryARC is a Research and Consulting Firm that publishes more than 500 reports annually, in various industries such as Agriculture, Automotive, Automation & Instrumentation, Chemicals and Materials, Energy and Power, Electronics, Food & Beverages, Information Technology, and Life Sciences & Healthcare. IndustryARC primarily focuses on cutting-edge technologies and newer applications in a market. Our custom research services are designed to provide insights on the constant flux in the global supply–demand gap of markets. Our strong team of analysts enables us to meet the client’s research needs at a rapid speed and with a variety of options. We look forward to helping the client address its customer needs effectively, stay ahead in the market, become the top competitor, and get real-time recommendations on business strategies and deals. Contact us to find out how we can help you today.

[venkateshiarc-blog]

North America Dominates Share in Behavioral Biometric Market

According to the new market research report by IndustryARC titled “Behavioral Biometrics Market: By Type (Active, Passive); By Level of Authentication; By Deployment Mode; By Application (Fraud Detection and Prevention, Continuous Authentication, Others); By End User (Banking, Enterprise, Government and Law Enforcement, Others) & Geography – Forecast (2018 - 2023),” the market will be driven by increasing sale of smartphones with built-in finger print sensors.

Biometric authentication has become a unique technology used to prove an individual’s identity. It has become increasingly common in the recent years. Millions of people have become accustomed to use their finger prints, eyes and faces to authenticate themselves.

North America Dominates Share in Behavioral Biometric Market

North American regions is the leading market, and estimated to account for more than 40% in the forecast period of 2018-2023. The increased use of behavioral biometric devices in government establishments, hospitals, and ATMs in this region is foreseen to raise the growth of the market in the predicted period. Asia-Pacific is among the growing markets for biometric technology. Asian countries have started adopting the biometric technology in screening security systems at all the border checkpoints, through facial detection systems.

Selected Type and End-User Analysis Done in the Full Report:

The finding say, voice recognition is the leading segment in the present market. This is an actually a new form of authentication, of voice recognition in mobile banking, that creates a growing demand for multifactor authentication in enterprises, ability to use technology remotely, and quite reasonable price is factor behind the growing market. Multi-factor biometric technology is used under e-commerce and cloud computing, and had created plenty of opportunities for prominent players. This multi-factor authentication is not simple and convenient, they are unlikely to setback widespread in acceptance.

Talk to one of our sales representatives about the full report by providing your details in the link below:

https://industryarc.com/support.php?id=9596

Selected Driving Factors Mentioned in the Full Report

Finger print biometric systems have witnessed wide range of acceptance in various applications. Increasing adoption in e-commerce, tablets , mobile phones, and cloud computing are expected to generate a high demand in the biometric technology.

The face detection biometric technology is expected to grow rapidly due to its high adoption in retail, security and consumer electronics. Software for face recognition technology in mobile apps, such as digiKam, and Lightroom are have increased the demand in smartphone applications and social networking platforms.

To access/purchase the full report, click the link below:

https://industryarc.com/Report/9596/behavioral-biometrics-market-research-report.html

Key Players of the Behavioral Biometric Market

Prominent players in market include Biometric Signature ID, BehavioSec, HYPR Corp., AnchorID, B-Secure and Laforge Optical. BehavioSec develops non-invasive biometric authentication methods, its ability is to prevent fraudulent activity. The team is working on enabling defensive systems to recover from a security breach in real-time situation. HYPR Corporation works with enterprise level clients for security systems and convert the legacy systems to modern biometric standards. The company creates systems used under voice, eye, face, and fingerprint systems. AnchorID offers biometric security in banking environments that helps you to log without password. Increase in security threats has led various market players to expand their market presence by establishing themselves in marketplace.

The Behavioral Biometric Market is Segmented as Indicated Below:

The growing popularity of advanced authentication technology are in developed countries will drive the demand for behavioural biometric market

Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Type

Active

1.1. Signature

1.2. Keystroke Dynamics

Passive

2.1. Gait

2.2. Voice

2.3. Eye Tracking

2.4. Gesture Recognition

Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Level of Authentication

Single Factor

Multi Factor

Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Deployment Mode

On Premise

Cloud Based

Behavioral Biometrics Market – By Application

Continous Authentication

Risk Based Authentication

Insider Threat Detection

Fraud Detection and Prevention

Others

Behavioral Biometrics Market – By End User

BFSI

Government and Law Enforcement

Consumer Electronics

Enterprises

E-Commerce

Casinos

Online Education

Healthcare

Defense

Others

Behavioral Biometric Market By Geography (16+ countries)

Behavioral Biometric Market Entropy

Company Profiles

BaziFIT

Decilion Group

Hitachi

Odyssey Technologies

SpeechPro

SutiSoft

VoicePass

WonderNet

Company 9

Company 10

More than 10 companies are profiled in this report

Related Reports:

1. Next Generation Biometrics Market

https://industryarc.com/Report/1308/next-generation-biometrics-market-analysis.html

2. Biometrics Banking Market

https://industryarc.com/Report/15165/biometrics-banking-market.html

G. Appendix: Abbreviations, Sources, Research Methodology, Bibliography, Compilation of Experts, Disclaimer.

What can you expect from the report?

The Behavioral Biometric Market Report is prepared with the main agenda to cover the following 20 points:

1. Market Size by Product Category

2. Market Trends

3. Manufacturer Landscape

4. Distributor Landscape

5. Pricing Analysis

6. Top 10 End User Analysis

7. Product Benchmarking

8. Product Developments

9. Mergers & Acquisition Analysis

10. Patent Analysis

11. Demand Analysis (By Revenue & Volume)

12. Country level Analysis (15+)

13. Competitor Analysis

14. Market Shares Analysis

15. Value Chain Analysis

16. Supply Chain Analysis

17. Strategic Analysis

18. Current & Future Market Landscape Analysis

19. Opportunity Analysis

20. Revenue and Volume Analysis

FAQs:

Does IndustryARC publish country, geography, or application–based reports in Behavioural Biometric Market?

Yes, we do have separate reports and database as mentioned below:

Americas Behavioral Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Europe Behavioural Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Asia-Pacific Behavioural Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Type Behavioural Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Authentication Behavioural Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Deployment Mode Behavioral Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Application Behavioral Biometric Market (2018–2023)

End-User Behavioral Biometric Market (2018–2023)

Does IndustryARC provide customized reports and charge additionally for limited customization?

Yes, we can customize the report by extracting data from our database of reports and annual subscription databases. We can provide the following free customizations:

1. Increase the level of data in application or end user industry.

2. Increase the number of countries in geography or product chapter.

3. Find out market shares for other smaller companies or companies that are of interest to you

4. Company profiles can be requested based on your interest.

5. Patent analysis, pricing, product analysis, product benchmarking, and value and supply chain analysis can be requested for a country or end use segment.

Any other major customizations can be discussed with our team. We can also provide you with a separate quote based on your requirements. You can drop an e-mail to sales@industryarc.com to learn more about our consulting services.

About IndustryARC

IndustryARC is a Research and Consulting Firm that publishes more than 500 reports annually, in various industries such as Agriculture, Automotive, Automation & Instrumentation, Chemicals and Materials, Energy and Power, Electronics, Food & Beverages, Information Technology, and Life Sciences & Healthcare.

IndustryARC primarily focuses on cutting-edge technologies and newer applications in a market. Our custom research services are designed to provide insights on the constant flux in the global supply–demand gap of markets. Our strong team of analysts enables us to meet the client’s research needs at a rapid speed and with a variety of options.

We look forward to helping the client address its customer needs effectively, stay ahead in the market, become the top competitor, and get real-time recommendations on business strategies and deals. Contact us to find out how we can help you today.

[dronenewz-blog]

Initial Drone

As a reformed drifter myself iv been wanting to make this footage happen for a long time. Although many people have beaten me to the punch recently I feel like this came out really well and im super happy. Above all it was an awesome day! Big thanks to JRoc FPV coming along on the day, and the drift boys, particulary Matt Russell in his legendary AE86 for taking up the ‘faster than the drone’ entry speeds. Killer day all round, cant wait to do it again! My Quad- Proof UAV 220 Frame: https://proof-uav.com/frames/220proof…- TBS Mr Steele motors 2306 2345kv: https://proof-uav.com/motors/tbs-mr-s…- KISS FC: https://proof-uav.com/kiss-flight-con…- KISS 24A: https://proof-uav.com/kiss-esc-2-5s-2…- 4s 1300mAh LiPo: http://dronelab.co.nz/lipo-batteries-…- HQ 5x4x3v1s PC: https://proof-uav.com/propellers/hq-d…- TBS Micro Crossfire RX: http://www.team-blacksheep.com/produc…- TBS Unify Pro HV VTX: https://proof-uav.com/tbs-unify-pro-h…- TBS Triumph antennas: https://proof-uav.com/tbs-triumph-sma…- Runcam swift RR edition – https://proof-uav.com/rucam-swift-rot…[My Transmitter Setup]- FrSky Taranis: http://dronelab.co.nz/transmitters-re…-TBS Crossfire TX Module: http://www.team-blacksheep.com/produc…[Goggle Setup]- Fatshark Dominators HD3:- LaForge V2- TBS Triumph antenna: https://proof-uav.com/tbs-triumph-sma…Invader patch antenna – https://proof-uav.com/invader-antenna…[Camera Setup] – GoPro 5 SessionBig thanks to those who keep me in the air:http://team-blacksheep.com/http://dronelab.co.nz/http://www.flyduino.net http://www.dronenewz.info/video/initial-drone/ #dronenewz