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healthfitnessmedicinearticles · 3 years ago

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What is Endometriosis?

Endometriosis is a painful condition in which the endometrium (tissue that lines the inside of the uterus) grows outside the uterus. It usually involves ovaries, fallopian tubes, and the tissue lining the pelvis. Endometriosis is a reproductive system disorder that affects mainly the ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes, and the tissues lining the pelvis. It can also be found on the intestines, urinary bladder, appendix as well as other distal organs like the lungs.

The hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle affect the misplaced endometrial tissue which means the tissue will grow, thicken, and break down. After some time, the tissue that has broken down has nowhere to go and becomes trapped in the pelvis.

Endometriosis is a very common debilitating disease. The exact prevalence is difficult to estimate as many cases go underdiagnosed and it requires invasive testing for diagnosis. About 25 to 50% of women suffering from infertility have endometriosis, and 30 to 50% of women with endometriosis are infertile.

The incidence of endometriosis in coastal Karnataka and Kerala is increasing because of better awareness of endometriosis symptoms in the public, early suspicion of the disease, and better imaging modalities.

Endometriosis affects all age groups, right from puberty to perimenopause, but usually, it is found in the reproductive age group.

What causes endometriosis?

The exact endometriosis causes are not known.

Possible causes could be:

1. Retrograde menstrual flow - some of the tissue shed during the period flows through the Fallopian tube into other areas of the pelvis.

2. Genetic factors - Endometriosis clusters in the families. Multiple genes and environmental factors play a role. Sisters have a 5 percent greater risk of getting the disease.

3. A faulty immune system that fails to destroy the outside growing endometrial tissue.

4. Estrogen hormone appears to promote endometriosis.

Risk factors for developing endometriosis:

1. Never giving birth

2. Starting a period at an early age and going through menopause at an older age.

3. Shorter menstrual cycles (less than 27 days)

4. Heavy menstrual periods that last for more than 7 days.

5. Low BMI

Signs & Symptoms of endometriosis

Painful cramps during menstruation

Pain during intercourse(deep dyspareunia)

Pain with ovulation

Infertility

Chronic pelvic pain

Urinary symptoms, such as frequent urination or blood-stained urine, especially around the time of menses

Bowel symptoms, such as pain and bleeding during defecation, constipation, or diarrhea, especially around the time of menses

Lower back pain or leg pain, especially around the time of your periods

The symptoms of endometriosis can impact the patient’s general physical, mental, and social well-being.

How does endometriosis affect fertility?

Endometriosis can affect fertility in several ways. Most obviously, as the disease progresses, the fallopian tubes get distorted and adhere to the ovary and uterus, and the passage of sperm and eggs through the pelvis will be increasingly impaired. You will notice the change in the pelvic environment due to the endometriosis-related inflammation. These inflammatory substances and cells weaken the function of both eggs and sperm (fertilization, embryo development, and implantation). There is also increasing evidence that with endometriosis the quality and quantity of eggs in women is affected.

Endometriosis associated pregnancy complications

Endometriosis always does not regress in pregnancy. Data shows a three-fold increase in the incidence of ectopic or tubal pregnancy and a two-fold increase in miscarriages. It can cause preterm births, placenta previa, small for date babies, postpartum hemorrhage, and ovarian cyst torsion.

Diagnosis of Endometriosis

There is no simple test to diagnose endometriosis. It can be diagnosed only by performing a laparoscopy and a biopsy of the tissue.

There are other tests, which the gynecologist may perform which include ultrasound, MRI scans, and gynecological examinations but none of these can definitively confirm endometriosis.

Treatment of Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a chronic disease characterized by pelvic pain and associated with infertility. The treatment of endometriosis requires a life-long personalized management plan with the aim of maximizing medical treatment and avoiding repeated surgical procedures.

Choosing a treatment comes down to the individual woman’s wishes, depending on her symptoms, her age, and her fertility wishes. She should discuss these with her physician so that they, together, can determine which long-term, holistic, treatment plan is best for her individual needs. For some women, this can be a combination of more than one treatment.

If the pain seems to be the main concern we have several options like over-the-counter pain killers NSAIDs, etc, or hormonal tablets which can be beneficial. Even oral contraceptive pills for a continuous duration are considered effective to reduce the pain as well as putting a hold on the progression of the disease. Hormonal Injection, progestogens, and androgens are other alternatives to reduce the symptoms and can be used in severe forms of the disease. As a last resort, there are options to remove the endometriosis implants, ovarian cysts, or the uterus by surgery.

In early-stage disease and young patients, it is always better to opt for laparoscopy and try and correct the anatomy (position) of the pelvic organs to their actual position to prevent and treat infertility. As the chances per cycle are less, it is advised to have other treatment of using medication to produce more eggs. Performing an IUI(Intra Uterine Insemination) is a better option in certain cases to improve the pregnancy rates per cycle. If this doesn’t work, then there are other methods such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) to help improve your chances of having a baby.

Feel free to reach endometriosis treatment specialists and ask any questions you have regarding the treatment methods. consult the best gynecological hospital near you for endometriosis treatment in Bangalore.

Can Endometriosis Be Prevented?

There is no way to prevent endometriosis, one can only lower the chances of getting it.

1. Lower the estrogen levels by taking birth control pills when indicated.

2. Regular exercise

3. A healthy nutritious diet which is rich in essential vitamins, mineral, and phytonutrients. Eat a diet that has more omega 3 fats like fish, walnut and flax and plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains which increases the dietary fiber,

4. Avoid alcohol and cut down on caffeine and aerated drinks and intake of red meat and trans fat foods. Cut down the intake of processed food. Try a gluten-free and a low FODMAP diet.

5. Reduce exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl and dioxin.

Early intervention is the only prevention. Noah built his ark before it could rain.

Social Impact

Women with endometriosis are more likely to report an altered body image, describe reduced desire, arousal and pain. From a woman’s perspective, endometriosis is a disease surrounded by taboos, myths, delayed diagnosis, hit-and-miss treatments, and a lack of awareness, overlaid on a wide variety of symptoms that embody a stubborn, frustrating, and, for many, painfully chronic condition. It affects these women and girls during the prime of their lives. These individuals’ physical, mental, and social well-being is impacted by the disease, potentially affecting their ability to finish an education, maintain a career, with a consequent effect on their relationships, social activities, and in some cases fertility.

Conclusion

Endometriosis is a disease that is rooted in a very real, highly complex hereditary, and truly multi-factorial disease. Women with endometriosis may struggle with the emotional distress brought on by the unrelenting symptoms of pain and infertility and a multidisciplinary approach with psychological support is essential for these women.

#endometriosis #endometriosis treatment #endometriosis stages #endometriosis diagnosis

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littlepanduh-writes-365 · 4 years ago

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Day 47

Title: “Notification”

Description: Tzuyu gets a notification that says “A Very Important Date <3”. She’s been meaning to delete that ever since they broke up 8 months ago. She wonders why she hasn’t done so.

Features: Satzu (Twice)

Word Count: 1,804

Tags: Angst | College AU

In the middle of the university library, Chou Tzuyu sits at a desk and types away on her laptop. A textbook for the film class is open to a chapter about the impact of silent films. Her phone sits above the book.

Tzuyu’s eyes are trained to her laptop screen when her phone flashes. It’s on silent, but it’s not on do not disturb mode in case of an emergency. The next time it flashes, she’s rereading a few sentences from her textbook, ignoring the activity on her lock screen. She goes back to typing, but her flashing phone is finally distracting her.

Determined to finish her thought, she holds back. It can’t be that important. If anything, it’s her group mates trying to divy up work for their project.

Suddenly, the memory of Chaeyoung and Yuqi, her roommates, setting their apartment on fire infiltrates her concentration. She decides to at least finish her sentence.

Finally, she pushes her laptop away and eyes her phone. She takes a sip of water in an attempt to prepare herself for the onslaught of messages.

As she expected, it was just her group mates telling each other what portions were done for the project. Tzuyu sighs as she reads the thread because she knows that she’s admittedly slacking on her part. She tries to think if she can squeeze in some time to work on it today, but this paper has been her highest priority since the due date is next week and she needs someone to proofread her paper before submitting.

Tzuyu scrolls past the messages from her group mates. There’s a notification about a sale at her favorite bakery. There’s a few notifications from social media.

There’s a calendar reminder.

A Very Important Date <3

Two weeks from now.

Tzuyu feels her heart ache.

She tries her best to push it back, but she’s feeling blindsighted.

When they broke up, it didn’t cross her mind to delete the event because she rarely uses that feature on her phone. At the time of their break up, she just wanted to get through the semester. Of course, there were countless nights of crying in her apartment and missing classes, but that was eight months ago. She should be over it.

Tzuyu tries to fight it, but she can’t.

Their anniversary was already planned in her head. They talked about it for so long.

Reliving it was like a falling back into a bad habit.

It was a Saturday, so there was no need to take time off from work or skip class. Tzuyu was going to make reservations at a Taiwanese restaurant for lunch. She was going to cook a traditional Japanese dinner. During the day, they would just fool around at the Han River. Maybe they’d take pictures. Maybe they’d ride bikes. Tzuyu wasn’t one for PDA, but she would accept it that day because she knows her ex had such a hard time holding back for her and she secretly loves it anyways.

Would she have worn a blouse with a tie since it’s an important day? Maybe she’ll just wear a denim jacket and a coat since Tzuyu still is a college student and it’s still cold.

Maybe they would’ve kissed in the rain. Tzuyu always fantasized about it, despite hearing bad reviews of being wet and cold and getting sick after.

It didn’t matter to Tzuyu. The day was just supposed to be them. Be it rainy or clumsy, it was just going to be the two of them. That’s what made Tzuyu happy.

She knows it’s not a good idea, but Tzuyu opens up her Instagram. She skips checking on her notifications and goes straight to the search bar.

“Sana Minatozaki”

There’s a new profile picture. Tzuyu can’t read the bio since it’s in Japanese and not in Korean anymore.

The profile is still public and she can see the latest pictures. They mostly consist of food or presumably dance performances.

There’s a picture that catches her eye. Sana is smiling with her eyes closed and another girl is kissing her cheek. She taps the picture to see the profile of the other girl. It belongs to Hirai Momo and Tzuyu thinks the name sounds familiar.

Tzuyu pretends the green monster in her doesn’t exist.

That monster questions her with more what if’s.

What if she’s not a girlfriend? What if she makes her happy?

What if Sana stayed?

Suddenly, she’s taken back to that night. They were in her car. There were no tears, but she knew both of them wanted to cry.

“It’s for the best.”

Tzuyu agreed.

Sana was moving back to her home country next year. She had planned to stay in Korea for a little longer, but she was struggling to find a job here, let alone struggle through getting a work visa. Tzuyu wished Sana could try a little harder, but she understands it’s not easy to look for work. With her situation, they might as well break up now and let Sana enjoy her last year rather than getting more attached and having a harder time breaking up.

It really was for the best.

She didn’t want it though.

Why didn’t she tell Sana?

“I still love you. You really mean a lot to me.”

Tzuyu wants to scream at her. How can you say that you love me when you’re breaking up with me?

She doesn’t see Sana when she exits her car. When she finally looks, all she sees is her hunched back. A body slowly walking to her apartment.

Tzuyu’s mind races back to the why’s and what if’s but she shoves them back to the far corner in her heart, next to the space that didn’t tell herself to delete the stupid reminder on her phone.

Maybe she shouldn’t push it back again, especially since she regressed this far, but it’s something she knows she needs to do.

This paper won’t write itself.

That’s what she tells herself anyways.

It’s understandable that Tzuyu’s efficiency was absolutely horrible. Her sentences were choppy and didn’t flow well together. Every time she needed to read something from her textbook, she would just space out. When she forces herself to focus, Sana just pops in her head.

How is she? Did she find work? Is she dating Momo or are they just close friends? Does she talk to anyone else from school or our exchange program group?

No.

This isn’t good.

After a few more sentences, she picks her phone up one more time. She taps on the calendar app and looks for the actual date of the anniversary. When the event opens, she scrolls down to bottom and stares at the bright red lights.

Delete Event

Her finger hovers over the buttons. She lightly taps it with a shaky hand.

Are you sure you want to delete this event? This is a repeating event.

Tzuyu stares at the two options. Her brain says yes, but her heart says no. Tears are starting to form in her eyes.

She’s thinking about her smile. She’s remembering the warmth and comfort. She’s recollecting memories in their Korean language class and dates at the bubble tea shop.

Delete This Event Only

Delete All Future Events

A tear drops on her phone. She wipes it off and hurriedly wipes her face, too. Crying in the middle of the library sadly wasn’t uncommon, but it would still attract worried eyes.

Tzuyu looks back at her phone, only to see an empty calendar. In disbelief, she taps the date on the calendar, only to see an open day. She scrolls the next year only to see that the calendar was free, too.

It’s gone.

Her body doesn’t feel so tight anymore, but a gnarly headache is forming and maybe she can work on her paper later.

She starts packing up her laptop and bookmarks her textbook before shutting it and stuffing it into her backpack. Tears are falling from her face and she’s audibly sniffing, but she doesn’t care anymore. Honestly, she doesn’t even know if what she’s feeling is pain or relief.

“Tzuyu! Are you leaving? Can I have your spot?”

Tzuyu looks up from the voice that called out her name. It’s Jinsook, someone in her project group.

Jinsook catches up to her and Tzuyu just stares at her. She tries to muster up a response, but her throat is tight and it’s taking a lot of energy to not bawl at the moment.

Her groupmate seems to catch on. Tzuyu’s eyes and nose are red and puffy. Her eyes grew with concern. Normally, Tzuyu would feel guilty, but all she wants is to leave the library.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Tzuyu bites her lip. She nods, but not without a tear escaping. Like a reflex, she wipes her face with the sleeve of her shirt. Once again, she lets out another loud sniff.

Jinsook puts an arm on her shoulder and rubs her arm. Before Tzuyu can speak, she takes a deep breath. She has no idea how she’s going to explain this to her colleague. “Yeah, I’m just, uh, going through something right now.”

Her group mate nods. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Tzuyu bites her lip in contemplation. Ultimately, she shakes her head. “I just need to be by myself right now.” She offers a sad smile. “Thanks though.”

Jinsook returns the smile. “I know we’re just groupmates, but I’m here for you.”

Tzuyu nods back. “Hey, um, I know I’ve been behind on my part of my project, but I promise to work on it soon.”

Jinsook shakes her hand. “Don’t even worry about it. Things like this happen. We’re doing good on time anyways.”

Relief enters Tzuyu’s body. She doesn’t know if Jinsook is lying just to ease her stress, but it’s working and she won’t complain about it. Part of her wants to hug Jinsook, but she knows that’s a little out of character and she just wants to be home right now.

“You can take my desk.” Tzuyu bows at her before she leaves.

---------

Tzuyu takes the long way to the bus stop. Part of it was so then walking would clear her mind and so people on the bus didn’t have to see her cry.

Her mind is jumbled. One side is asking where things went wrong and another side is telling her to “just move on”. She questions why she can’t move on and what she should do about it.

Eventually, an hour passes and she really should go home right now. She pulls out her phone, ignoring any more notifications.

She goes straight to her messaging application and looks for a group chat with her roommates.

Any of you guys home?

I just need a good cry right now.

#this has been in my wip document for 7 months #based on true events #idk if i should be writing about my ex #but tbh i never really talked about him even with my friends so this is a nice outlet #anyways if youre going through a breakup please take as much time as you need #its not easy to go through especially as a student #take care #365 Challenge #littlepanduh #satzu #tzuyu #sana #twice fanfiction #also random blurbs of yeri from rv and yeoreum from wjsn

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ask-jaghatai-khan · 5 years ago

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Cairn – The Pariah Planet

// I said I would do it, and here it is: the homebrew lore for a lost planet of all-Blanks in 40k. A big part of designing this was deciding which 40k tropes I would play straight and which I would intentionally invert/avert for the sake of showing how different this system cut off from the Warp is. This is the full lore breakdown for the setting teased in my Vampire of Cairn short. Utopia hidden from a dark galaxy? Or a lonely world lost beyond the Ghoul Stars?

Cairn – The Planet of Blanks – Repose System

At the far edges of the Segmentum Ultima, there exists a planet beyond the reach of the Warp. Through peril and hardship, this world was settled entirely by the human mutants known as “Blanks” or “Pariahs” in the distant past. Now, their planet is shrouded from the eyes of those with souls, cut off completely from the affairs of human and xenos in their distant gap between the stars. The people of Cairn, as the planet is known to them, have no way of realizing their nature, the truth of their origins. They look out from their system using what tools they have, trapped within the orbit of their star, wondering what lies out in the galaxy their ancestors left behind.

History

Before the rise of the Imperium, and during the height of the Eldar Empire’s detached decadence, humanity was experiencing a golden age of technological power. Like all good things in a misfortune-plagued galaxy, however, this era was not to last. Mutants began to arise from the human population – among them “psykers” and “Blanks” who defied natural law and were shunned by their fellows. In time, humanity’s own creations rebelled against them as well, and the worlds of Man were plunged into disorder. Warp storms arose before the birthing of a dark new god, cutting off many worlds and plunging them into barbarism and xenophobia, while great legions of sentient automatons sought to destroy their former masters. It was in this time, before the coming of the Emperor, that many of the mutant “Blanks” sought to escape persecution and death. The name of the first Blank or group of Pariahs that promised this great exodus has been lost to history, but nonetheless a great convergence of the soulless sought to journey to a new promised land. Their flight was dangerous, as though individual Blanks or small groups might be able to stow away on large Warp-vessels, the gathering of so many together for the final jump dampened the effects of their ships’ Warp drives. The last and greatest vessel to make the jump to the “Repose System”, home of the world Cairn, was the S.S. Valediction – also known as the S.S. Xibie. The great refugee ship was thrown out of the Warp at the edge of the Repose system, drifting until it crash-landed in the Valley of Emergence upon the Blanks’ destined homeworld.

The initial shock and trauma of the exodus took its toll on the refugees. Though much technology was able to be salvaged from the shipwrecks that had carried the Pariahs to their new home, in the time it took for them to adapt and begin to settle their population entered a new dark age. Clans and other groups became tribes of techno-troglodytes, until enough stability was reached for burgeoning societies to form. Around a millennium later, the planet had managed to pull itself back to a pre-spaceflight but still advanced civilization through research of the technology of the past. Already the Cairnite peoples had forgotten why they first came to this world. The tides of the Warp were absent around them, no new ships could arrive, and the last individuals to remember their origins were gone. Legends that their exodus had been a response to persecution for some common trait endured, but they could not know what had set them apart from their fellow humans all those centuries ago.

Cairn’s relative peace was disrupted, however, upon the arrival of an unknown factor. As the first forays towards colonizing the rest of their star system were underway, a fleet arrived at the edges of Repose space by unknown means. Without warning, the confederated Cairnite peoples were under attack by a genocidal force of machines – Men of Iron, remnants of a forgotten age. It was unknown how the automatons had reached the system, but they conducted a brutal war against the beleaguered humans for many years until an even more bizarre anomaly occurred. Whether by some secretive war effort, or sheer chance, a change washed over the invading machines. Some form of malware had been modified or wiped from the Men of Iron’s governing Superminds. The war ceased, communications were established with the Superminds, finding that they had been operating blindly based on some bugged code, and that the machines were open to cooperation.

The following millennia saw a great restructuring of the Repose system, as the Men of Iron were stranded but willing to lend their vast technological knowledge to the humans, intermingling into one society. By the modern era (M.41), Cairn was a marvel of civilization, serviced by the many mining colonies spread out among the Repose system’s asteroids and moons, including more heavily urbanized centers such as the industrial ice-world of Stasis (Yujian), or the habitable moons of the gas giants Yama and Yami. This was not by any means an easy process, however. Much blood was shed over the centuries with various political groups vying for dominance, while the Superminds of the Men of Iron in turn had to struggle with either maintaining efficiency or breaking their own consensus in favor of one faction or another. It was in 722.M40, on the verge of violent conflict, a new constitution was drafted under the Federal Consensus of Repose, whereby the individual “states” within the Repose system, outlined culturally and economically, would operate as sovereign democratic governments, organized by (but not subservient to) the New Consensus, a collection of elected delegates, scientists, and philosophers who consulted with the Iron Superminds so as to better arrange the management of Repose’s space-age civilization.

The new era has been cited as many citizens of the Repose system as being a golden one, of progress, individual freedom and communal solidarity, and prosperity. There are still rumblings of dissent however, either from holdout reactionary factions or even common citizens, who do not trust that the New Consensus is as accountable as it appears. Many believe that the NC knows secrets of Cairn’s history, and the history of an ancient galaxy, that would shatter the public order.

In their research and observations of the galaxy beyond Repose, the historians and astronomers of the Blanks are at a nihilistic impasse. Many know that some kind of genocidal persecution necessitated the initial exodus to Cairn, though none remember why. Likewise, research of galactic history predating the Iron War can be hard to discern from myth or legend. Even the Supermind databanks have great spots missing due to the passage of time or the ravages of conflict. Most scholars believe that there existed one or more great stellar empires of human or alien before the Exodus, with a new one having been on the rise at around the time of the Iron War, as some data from the Superminds concerned the expansion of a new galactic human power. Few can be sure if the many tales of “Orks”, “Eldar”, “Hrud”, and the like concern true alien species or are more fairy tales. Nothing can be gleaned from the ancient alien ruins of the Repose system, which archeologists believe to be the remnants of a civilization that died out millions of years ago – with Repose being a possible backwater settlement of a larger, more advanced empire. Still, dark readings come in through the advanced sensor arrays of the Repose system. Energy signatures hinting at large ongoing civilizations, but no manner of messages being broadcast out across the stars. Gravitation fluctuations around various star systems, seemingly at random, have occurred in the most recent centuries. Some technicians have observed, with more data being fed into the Superminds, that the great computers grow more reclusive and uncommunicative. The societal ramifications that the next wave of research breakthroughs could have has put many in the Consensus in a compromising position. With the apparent decay of the galaxy around them, some wonder whether it is simply a matter of time until some species which still commands spaceflight might reach the Repose system and lay waste to its isolated peoples.

Timeline

~M25-M29 – The Empty Exodus – Word spreads among secret convocations of the human mutants known as “Blanks” or “Pariahs” of a plan and a promise to find a world where they can be safe. Few understand why they are being persecuted, but all know that they will die if they remain on their home worlds. Over a long period of time, many Blanks procure individual passage through shady means to arrive at either the Repose system or one of its neighbors. With a growing population of psy-negative colonists, Warp travel to Cairn becomes more and more dangerous. The exodus concludes with the jump of the S.S. Valediction – a large refugee carrier containing a huge population of Blanks. The ship makes the Warp jump, but the navigator is killed instantly upon exit, with the ship being shunted into Cairn’s orbit and many onboard dying in the resultant crash. With their journey complete, the settlers begin making a new home for themselves.

~800.M30 – The Iron War – After at least a millennium of regression into a post-apocalyptic society, the settlers of Cairn manage to pull themselves from techno-feudalism to a modern society just foraying into a spaceflight. At this time, the world of Cairn was host to a confederated union of industrialized states loosely held together by a peacekeeping government. This tenuous government was forced to solidify its alliances upon the arrival of the Men of Iron. A fleet of automated carriers holding legions of the murderous machines from mankind’s past invaded Cairn after jumping into the edge of the Repose system. Though the fleet was crippled due to spaceborne accidents, the Men of Iron almost succeeded in wiping out the comparatively primitive humans. By the end of the war, which lasted for around three decades, the Blanks were relegated to small pockets of resistance within their heavily fortified cities, with outright battle abandoned in favor of subterfuge and desperate survival. Then, for reasons little understood by even high-level researchers of the modern era, the automatons stopped. Communications after the ceasefire established that the Superminds had been host to some form of virus, which had now been purged. In the ensuring negotiations, the Men of Iron promised to make amends and work towards mutual trust by offering their vast technological knowledge to the humans.

722.M40 – The New Consensus – After thousands of years of technological advancement, the colonization of the Repose system had reached a new peak. Outright war had not fractured the peoples of Cairn for many eras, though their history was still far from bloodless. Now a new period of unrest was brewing. A coalition of the prominent trade guilds, along with various marginal groups from the outer colonies and radical intellectuals grew tired of their friction with the United Confederacy. The UC had become militant and elitist, with attempts at internal reform stifled by a powerful group of generals, admirals, and tech-magnates. Scientific and medical research, already slow due to the unknown effects the Blanks had on reality around them, had ground to a halt beneath intrigue and conspiracy. Before the outbreak of complete and total war, however, a fracture occurred in the mindset of the Cairn Supermind, giving the revolutionaries the opening they needed to seize control. After a period of transitioning power, a new constitution was drafted as the Federal Consensus of Repose, putting greater power into the hands of the common people and moving away from the authoritarian culture of the previous era. The New Consensus is still in power as of the present era, though factions that were once considered little more than rabble-rousers and conspiracy theorists are now beginning to ask questions of the Consensus that threaten to reveal dark truths of Repose’s history and future.

The Repose System

The Repose system consists of Cairn, Stasis, Yama, and Yami as the primary four planets, with many dwarf planets also existing beyond the Ring, or Jingshe asteroid belt. Repose itself has one major moon, and three minor “outer moons” which have negligible gravity but have long played a part in Cairnite culture. Stasis is an industrial world built on the ice planet that orbits beyond Cairn. Stasis has one moon and a slight dust ring, but its main advantage is its extreme cold temperatures and abundance of water. The world is used as a manufacturing center and the primary base of the Iron Supermind Processors, due to the excellent heat regulation. Yama and Yami are both gas giants, with Yami being very close in orbit to the yellow star Repose and possessing a great accretion of dust and moons in orbit about it. Yama sits just beyond the Jingshe belt, and acts in a similar capacity to the Solar Jupiter. It was theorized by some astronomers that the Jingshe belt, along with the residual dust that forms a thin, nebula-like corona beyond it, has played some part in the lack of communications able to reach the system.

Geography

Cairn is the primary world in the Repose system, the most habitable and also the first to be inhabited by the Pariah colony ships that arrived millennia ago. Its surface upon arrival was not dissimilar to a primordial Terra – advanced life had not yet evolved, and so most of the world was rocky and desolate, broken up by vast, bubbling seas teeming with primitive lifeforms, while the most advanced terrestrial life was equivalent to the Terran Silurian period. The colonists brought many flora and fauna with them from their native worlds, and that which survived became a part of the biosphere. Many factors of the initial colonization lead to unforeseen consequences that almost saw the humans die of mundane issues such as disease and famine, before population levels managed to stabilize and a new equilibrium was reached with the environment. Nowadays, Cairn is not much different from that eerie primordial geography, though with some more advanced flora and fauna (such as trees or diverse vertebrates). Hot springs, moss plains, jagged cliffs, and dusty ancient deserts all give the world a solemn, empty feeling. The weather is temperate and often humid outside of the deserts or polar regions, and common phenomena include great fog-drifts and mist storms. Most of the planet consists of one continent and ocean, though extensively broken up many large seas and inland bodies of water, as well as huge islands and abundant island-chains. Many of the islands and seas are named, but the main geoforms are known simply as “the Continent” (Dalu) and “the Great Sea” (Dahai). Large population centers outside of the major cities are rare, with most human settlements being either rural outposts dedicated to a certain trade, or large hive cities.

The existence of alien ruins on Cairn did not go unnoticed, and many more would be discovered throughout the system in later millennia, giving rise to many conspiracies and various cults of thought. Some technological secrets were extracted with the help of the Men of Iron, but most of the ruins remain an enigma. Seeming to come from a civilization millions of years old, no history can be gleaned from them other than their apparent age and advancement, due to how degraded they have become.

Biosphere

The colonists of Cairn could not have known, even among the better-informed in their number, just how anathema the soulless are to conventional life. Upon their convergence, not only did Warp travel become impossible, but many more “advanced” animal species began to fall ill and die. This posed a problem for the refugees, as the livestock they were intending to depend on either went extinct or experienced population collapse. They were forced to subsist on the native creatures, such as xenos fish, arthropods, and amphibians until agriculture could be established. Though most of Cairn’s flora is native, there can now be found many species of woody and succulent plants brought by the Pariahs. Most of the fauna is of the aforementioned primitive varieties, though now there can be also found many rodent-like species, lithe carnivora descended from various types of dogs and cats, as well as a large assortment of diverse ungulates, birds, and reptiles. Cairn’s oceans are steeped in mystery, as new species of varying levels of complexity are always being discovered.

Society

Upon their landing on the primordial world of Cairn, the masses of the soulless were soon thereafter pushed back into a techno-barbaric, post-apocalyptic society. This turmoil did not last exceptionally long, however, as there are subtle differences between the personalities of “Blanks” and the whims of regular humans. The passions of Pariahs run slightly colder, and when not living as outcasts within a society of Warp-sensitives, they are shockingly collective in their attitude. For many centuries the tribes of refugees existed in a state of feudalism, progressing into a capital-focused industrial society before the arrival of the Men of Iron. After the unity of the two races, various internal factions vied for dominance and the allegiance of the Consensus. In 722.M40, a faction representing coalition of “lower class” citizens pressured the existing government into creating the Federal Consensus of Repose. Now, the society of the Blanks is mostly classless, with the major power lying in local governors, the trade guilds, and the think tank that is the New Consensus. Individual cities organize their own trade and economies as dictated by the citizenry, while the NC oversees the various great works projects that keep the Repose system running at its interplanetary scale. It is not a flawless system, as internal powers often threaten to withhold resources if they feel they are not being treated fairly, but such disputes are considered better than the tyranny of the old industrial lordships.

Besides the nature of Cairn’s all-Blank population, there is the oddity of the humans living alongside their once bitter enemies of the Men of Iron. The Men of Iron serve largely as they did in the days of the Dark Age human empires, though with a renewed status. Lower-tier automatons are just that – mindless and programmed for simple tasks. More advanced units with sapience-processors are considered equal citizens and constitute the smallest division of the overall presence of the automatons. Overseeing all are the Superminds. These are not hive minds as conventionally thought of, but rather the gestalt consciousness that emerges from the macro-processors of the main factories and computation centers of the Men of Iron. The Superminds are born by the shared uplink of all Iron software and serve as a way for the automatons to govern themselves “democratically” at a subconscious level. The Superminds are few in number but intensely powerful. There are three primary Superminds, called the Triarch – one based on Cairn, the other on Stasis, while the third is the refitted remains of the Iron Supercarrier AN-026, which is now in permanent orbit inside the Jingshe belt. The Superminds may be interfaced with by trained technicians so as to share their power and knowledge with the whole of society, and make up one half of the New Consensus, with droves of human scholars constituting the other half.

Technology

Like so many human societies by the time of the 41st millennium, the settlers of Cairn have forgotten more than most burgeoning species will never know. Compared to the arcane technologies of the Dark Age or their bastardized successors in the modern Imperium of Man, the technology of the Repose system can only look pale in comparison. The Blanks do have two strengths which have kept their society alive and prosperous despite this. First is the fact that, especially in the era of the New Consensus, the efficiency of the Cairnite tech and industry is beyond most comparable worlds of the Imperium, free of many of the issues of waste, pollution, and unspent excess. Second is that the vast majority of their tech – at least that which sees common use – is fully understood to the Blank mechanics, unlike the mystery and dogma-steeped workings of groups like the Adeptus Mechanicus. Most technology used within the Repose system is high efficiency, clean-operating, and ergonomic. While they have no means or even idea of how to conduct faster-than-light travel, their spacefaring capabilities are on par with the height of pre-Warp aerospace engineering.

Most standout of the technological prowess of Repose is undoubtably the Iron Superminds. Formed of the shared consciousness of all sentient Men of Iron within their uplink radius, and housed on massive high-end processing banks, the Superminds act as a unique form of government for the automatons, allowing them to self-govern in a form of subliminal democracy. Each Supermind can be viewed as a highly advanced “leader” personality, but they are in fact merely expressions of their many individual minds. Repose is currently home to three Superminds, which share information but govern different populations – there are the Cairnite, Stasiser, and Jingshe Superminds, each of which is housed in massive facilities in their respective locations. While the Pariahs lack a “tech caste” as pronounced as the Imperium, the mechanics responsible for the most direct interfacing and collaboration with the Superminds are more machine than human due to their obsession with their chosen field. The Supermind complexes are about equal in processing power, and new breakthroughs have been achieved through the “Wetware Program” whereby components of donated brains have been adapted as processing batteries. Certain sects have put forward conspiracy theories as to all sorts of unsavory things being done in the Wetware Program – in truth, compared to the findings kept secret by Repose’s astronomical research divisions, the Wetware Program is quite benign. Some less scrupulous agents have even considered furthering Wetware conspiracy theories to move attention away from the astronomical research.

Most of the Pariahs of the Repose system, while not immortal or invulnerable, are in excellent health, and have access to many medical technologies that would normally be reserved for the nobility on most Imperial worlds. This extends all the way from the simple heartiness of working Blanks, to the strange cosmetic indulgences said to be practiced by the hedonist societies of the cities. Aesthetically, most of the technology of Repose is similar to the technology of races like the Tau – the ancient influences of Dark Age tech and human ergonomics are apparent, but most designs are far simpler and sleeker than heavy Imperium fare. For all their aptitude, it was a significant feat for Cairnite tech to evolve as far as it did, given that many human technologies operated – whether the humans knew it or not – with some level of Warp resonance, leaving their reverse-engineering and evolution by the Blanks on a mass scale at a subtle disadvantage.

Culture

There are two major language groups in Cairnite society. The first and less common is Neogoth, which evolved out of the galactic common tongue which would later be dubbed “Low Gothic” by the Imperium. Neogoth is highly mutated from its origins, and its use is largely either academic or found in less metropolitan areas of the planet. The names “Cairn”, “Repose”, “Valediction”, etc. are all Neogoth translations. The second language group, more widespread and with greater common use, is Xibiese, named after the ship Xibie, or Valediction. The landing of the S.S. Xibie was the last and largest in the colonization of Cairn, and so the refugees onboard had a greater degree of power in terms of resources and unity, establishing themselves as leaders of the many disparate groups of Blanks. Xibiese shares some crossover with Neogoth but is mostly different in structure. In Xibese, Cairn is known as “Ling” and the system of Repose is known as “Lian”. Xibese is mostly used as a standard language for personal communication, art, and public affairs, whereas Neogoth is common in either academics or in holdout cultural pockets.

Though they have no way of knowing, the culture of the Pariahs of Repose is strange in the galaxy at large. Unaffected by the tides of the Warp, their entire system is free from the tumult of Warp storms and the whispers of the Chaos Gods. Their system signature is undetectable to almost all the major powers in the galaxy at large, and they have been unbothered in their corner of space since as far back as the Iron War. Their society, whether by fortune or some quirk of their unique natures, is far more orderly than the myriad worlds of the Imperium, or even the reaches of Ultramar. They are a progressive people possessed of – on average – an even temperament and a dedication to enlightened virtues. A far cry from the legions of ragged outcasts who first settled Cairn, the peoples of Repose are not ostentatious, but egalitarian and interested in scholarly pursuits, given that most of their manual labor is fully automated. However, there is an undercurrent to the societies of Repose that speaks of something missing that the Pariahs cannot fully understand. They do not experience emotions as keenly, and while this is not always a problem, there can be sudden rashes of suicides or depression across the system as the Blanks experience a bitter dearth of all sensation. On the other side, they can be very materialistic and gluttonous. Secret societies dedicated to debauchery of various kinds, some more palatable than others, have long existed on Cairn and its sister worlds. Occasionally, a unique madness may grab hold of a Pariah and fill them with nihilistic hatred, developing into a form of psychosis considered untreatable by even the best doctors. Despite these things, the peoples of Repose have lives that many would consider utopian. The only thing that would risk shattering such an existence would be some arrival of outside aggression that would put even the Iron War to shame – the leading astronomers of the Repose system cannot know that the strange anomalies they see in the distant stars are the wars of mortals and daemons, infestations of ravenous xenos, or the workings of ancient metallic monstrosities, but they do know that if such phenomenon could find their way to Cairn, there would be no way to stop them.

#warhammer #40k #homebrew #pariah planet

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antoine-roquentin · 6 years ago

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The permanent background music to those larger events are several corruption investigations and scandals involving figures close to the president. The investigations involving bank transfers by employees of Flavio Bolsonaro, a son of the president, to a middleman who was Flavio’s chauffeur, are lingering on. The former president of Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal Party (PSL) Gustavo Bebianno, an important figure, had to step down due to the high amount of public election monies that went to an unimportant candidate two days before the election. Similar investigations against the Minister of Tourism continue, and the education minister Damares faced accusations due to her adoption of a girl from an indigenous community years ago that was never officialized, and that was called kidnapping by relatives of the girl. For a supposed anti-corruption government this track record in just three months is remarkable.

What was more damaging was the scandal around the corruption investigation itself. State oil company Petrobras which is at the center of the Lava Jato scandal has also faced investigations in the USA. The indemnization that Petrobras had to pay to U.S. authorities was lowered to $853-million (all sums in U.S. dollars) in September 2018. At the time, it was reported that 20 per cent of the sum remained with U.S. authorities, and that 80 per cent, some $682-million would go to the Ministerio Público in Brazil (that led the investigations) for unspecified social and educational programs. In addition, in order to settle a class-action lawsuit it was agreed that Petrobras pay $3-billion to shareholders who bought company stocks on the NY stock exchange between 2010 and 2014. Hence, Petrobras paid almost $4-billion while, in the end a higher amount of between $5 and $10-billion had been expected by market observers.

Only in March 2019 was it revealed that the basis of this reduction was a deal between Petrobras and the U.S. authorities, signed on 26 September 2018 by representatives of Petrobras, the U.S. Department of Justice and the respective U.S. state attorneys. The deal states the sum of $682-million will go to a private NGO run by the prosecutors in the Ministerio Público of Brazil, and that Petrobras keep the U.S. Department of Justice informed about its investments and business plans.

The agreement has caused a huge uproar and led to the cancelation of plans for the NGO in question. Raquel Dodge, the supreme state attorney blocked the deal after determining it violates the Brazilian constitution, so the sum of $682-million will remain with Petrobras. Most importantly, the deal discredited the image of the investigations among the public since the suspicion was confirmed that the investigations have as one of its goals the control of Petrobras by U.S. interests, and include the direct intervention of U.S. authorities in the political life of Brazil.

The arrest of former president Michel Temer, a week after the scandal, was interpreted as a move to regain legitimacy for the corruption investigations, even if Temer had to be released after seven days. But the arrest of Temer, and other politicians, was also seen as a sign of indirect blackmail of established politicians in Congress that were about to discuss the first draft of the law for pension reform. The signal was interpreted as: ‘if you don’t organize agreement on the reform, we will also arrest you for corruption.’

While Temer was not able to pass the reform, Bolsonaro has radicalized it. Poor pensioners who today have the right to receive a pension in the value of the minimum wage from the age of 60 onward (1000 Reals, about 250 Euros), shall now receive only 400 Reals from the age of 70 onward. At the same time, the generous pensions for military personnel – who receive full salaries as pensioners and which represent the larger part of the overall budget deficit – will be largely spared.

Pension Reforms

The conflict that unfolded in the second half of March over pension reform was over Bolsonaro’s refusal to rally the deputies of Congress to support the reform draft. This is usually a game of exchanging favours, deputies negotiating in favour of their clientele, and then being rewarded with posts, money or other political favours. Bolsonaro announced that he will not distribute any favours, the practice of which he designated as the “old politics.”

Nonetheless some engagement with deputies is necessary to get the pension reform approved, and this will require several changes to the constitution if Bolsonaro sticks to the plans. It was then that the president of Congress, Rodrigo Maia from the Democratic Party, a right-wing outlet with roots in the dictatorship, began to provoke Bolsonaro in a series of tweets demanding that he “start governing” and get off of Twitter. Bolsonaro responded angrily on Twitter. Maia’s aim was to exhibit the incompetency of Bolsonaro and to bring himself into play as an important negotiator.

It was a little after this exchange of insults between Maia and Bolsonaro – Maia wrote Bolsonaro should stop “kidding around” and start working, Bolsonaro said “Maia is stressed about family issues,” alluding to the arrest of Maia’s father-in-law together with Temer – that Bolsonaro came up with his dictatorship commemoration plans, only to be topped by his Minister of Exterior, Araujo, who declared that German Nazism was a left-wing project. Bolsonaro repeated this phrase on his visit to Israel a week later, maybe the worst choice of location for it.

This incredible mess and ideological madness led to a considerable drop in the popularity of the government and Bolsonaro himself, registering the lowest poll-ratings after the first three months for any first mandate since the first elected official, Fernando Collor de Melo – even Collor who was impeached quickly, had higher approval rates. Only Cardoso and Rousseff scored worse than Bolsonaro after three months, but this was in their second mandates respectively.

The Brazilian business elite which effectively decides who stays in power once elected is getting nervous. The amateurism of Bolsonaro and his government (it would be wrong to call it a team) is seen as a danger for the pension reform and bets are now that it will be considerably watered down. Pressure groups in Congress are already calling for exceptions for firefighters, teachers and the military police. While a cut in pensions for the poor will be most disastrous, it is the middle class and reasonably paid workers in the public sector that have the most to lose with the pension cuts.

Unemployment is up to around 12 per cent, the same level as a year ago, and there is no visible economic agenda of the government. The head of the mighty agrobusiness caucus recently had cause to vent his anger against Bolsonaro. Backing away from moving the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the president instead announced the opening of a commercial office in the city, while one of Bolsonaro’s sons – who regularly intervenes on political issues without coordinating with anyone – tweeted “Hamas should detonate itself” after Hamas had criticized the opening of the office in Jerusalem. A considerable amount of meat exported by Brazilian agrobusiness goes to Arab countries and is specifically produced as Halal meat in the presence of Muslim religious representatives. Other producers from India and Turkey are waiting to take over this chunk of business. Despite all the ideological regression that emanates from the Brazilian business elite, it becomes very pragmatic when its commercial interests are at stake.

It is hard to say what can be expected from the next 100 days. It is obvious that the conflict between the military faction in the government and the ideological hardliners has hardened. Moro and Guedes as the neoliberal third-pole have not shown much political leadership and independent initiative in this scenario. The hard-core making the crucial decisions are until now Augusto Heleno in the important post of national internal security leader and vice-president Mourão who demonstratively met with the Palestinian ambassador to Brazil in January – business is treating Mourão already as a president in waiting for a lack of alternatives. But the lack of coordination on the economic front is set to worsen the economic situation of the country, and it will probably be a joint protest by workers and business, albeit for different reasons, that can cause serious trouble for Bolsonaro’s motley crew. •

things have actually gotten worse since this was published. bolsonaro’s main advisor, astrologist olavo de carvalho who’s sort of a brazilian cleon skousen or francis parker yockey (check out some of his hilarious theories), gave a speech in which he trashed the military as not doing enough to protect brazil from communism. bolsonaro’s son posted it on his father’s twitter, in what was seen as an attack on his vice president, but his father ended up deleting it and changed his password so his son carlos couldn’t get on. so the son went to sulk at a firing range while complaining on his own social media about how the brazilian military are cowards

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auncyen · 5 years ago

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writing scraps from this year

- "Everybody's Fool" [...I'm pretty sure this had no context besides being an Evanescence song that I like and that sounds like it could fit Joker, especially in a Palace fic.]

- Ryuji worries--he messed up and killed Okumura's shadow, too aggressive, everyone is appalled at the thought, tells him no -Ren brought Futaba in on the significance of Akechi knowing about the Metaverse, upsetting Morgana [both these bullet points were for things in Shuffle Time, but I'm pretty sure I'd probably use them for independent fic if I used them now. Okumura goes down REALLY easily once you get to him himself, and I just had this stray thought that, especially since head injuries can be unpredictable in the real world--like, Ryuji in the boss fight, worked up for Haru's sake because shitty abusive dads, just winds up and absolutely slams Okumura's Shadow, surprised but satisfied that he instantly goes down--and the Shadow seems fine, if weak, in the conversation afterward, so all's well that ends well, and even after the mental shutdown Ryuji doesn't immediately think of it--but then one night he just happens to think of the way his bat connected and Okumura's head banging against the helmet when he hit the floor and concussions and sometimes they're fatal and oh god he ruined another team, it's his fault Okumura had a shutdown, he killed someone-- thankfully he goes to Ren about this before he goes to Haru or the police, but he's nearly having a panic attack and Ren is just like no. NO. This was not you, something else was going on, calm down. just hold on and we'll figure it out. I imagine this is while Ren is suspecting Akechi but right before he's sure enough to tell the team so like. HE'S EXTRA PISSED OFF BECAUSE NOT ONLY IS ONE FRIEND'S PARENT DEAD, ANOTHER FRIEND IS BLAMING THEMSELVES FOR IT the point of Ren telling Futaba about Akechi early on was just to add another little wrinkle to Morgana getting upset enough to leave the team, I think. He'd felt "special" as Ren's confidant at least, and he'd liked knowing that only he and Ren knew about Akechi even if he knew they'd tell everyone else as soon as he showed anything concerning. But Ren thought it might be prudent to know about Akechi's background, so he asked Futaba to look into it as well as why Akechi was a person of interest, and Morgana understood that it made sense to tell Futaba, it just...became another way that he was no longer needed/important.]

Ryuji & tutoring? Ren paying Kawakami to help him figure out study method for Ryuji--doesn't want her going directly to Ryuji because it might embarass him/make him stubborn - or Makoto tutored Ryuji when he was a first year--both found it frustrating, but he got acceptable grades before the Kamoshida incident happened--she wants to do better this time. (Sojiro helps them figure out what's getting in Ryuji's way, gives a mini-lecture to both of them? Tells Makoto that if she's going to be in charge of people she needs to help them achieve their best rather than forcing them to follow a method that doesn't work for them)

-Ren has a guess that there are PT-like people in hometown of Inaba, but for the completely wrong reason-- Adachi's sudden confession seems like a change of heart, as well as the oddities in the confession (which probably aren't public but Futaba would hack that shit as soon as Ren started talking about the odd midnight channel and weird murders and supernatural-seeming shit and everyone goes METAVERSE???) - Ryuji thinks it's a shame the group never went big, Ren points out that they couldn't really do much in sleepy Inaba - the overall thrust is that Ren is deeply invested in being able to continue Metaverse activities even after he goes home, and Futaba and Morgana both enable this instead of thinking more and becoming concerned about why this is so overly important to Ren

- Sae gets Metanav on her phone? [...This is...all I wrote down for this. as an aside of the whole interrogation room plot, Sae would theoretically be granted the app on her phone--at least, if Yaldabaoth thought she'd be useful to Ren. Since canon does nothing with this, I guess he didn't. BUT WHAT IF? idk]

- Mishima accidentally Metaverse with Ryuji [THIS IS ACTUALLY HOW I WROTE IT? lol the idea was he was telling Ryuji about a Phansite request while they were trying to verify its authenticity, so naturally he manages to hit all the keywords while they're in the vicinity of the Palace] - Ryuji panics, gets them back immediately, tells Mishima to NOT mess with any apps that might appear on his phone - tells the others at PT meeting -and Ren just...sighs. "now he's going to flip when he doesn't get the app" - hold up, Ren. How you know that? everyone pumps Ren for more info on Igor once he comes up, Mona is tipped off that something is wrong with Ren [this was...actually another thing that was supposed to come up in Shuffle Time! GEE, MAYBE THE ISSUE I'VE HAD WITH SHUFFLE TIME IS TRYING TO DO TOO MANY THINGS. basically this was playing with both the fact that Ren doesn't really seem nice to Mishima sometimes and that Ren knows more about the app than the others do and for some reason doesn't tell them. Ren is pretty sure Mishima's not ready to awaken to a persona, so he'd be useless in the metaverse, so he's not a candidate for the app. While he's right, at least within the timeline of the fic, the way he acts about it rubs Ryuji wrong and the fact that he knows things about the app and hasn't been saying rubs EVERYONE wrong. This was supposed to be set before the rank where Mishima is challenged to change himself and Ren acknowledges afterward that even if Mishima isn't ready for a Persona yet, he has more strength than he gave him credit for. He also apologizes to Mishima for holding a grudge about the leaked record and tries to be kinder to him afterward.]

KO Gamplay & Story integration -Ren gets knocked out in mementos, bad fight - cut to interrogation room: "...And that's when 'Ren' died." - Sae is not impressed & Ren needs to stop bsing. he smiles & tells her to be patient so he can explain...the crime she truly wanted to ask him about... - back to fic's main time: others manage to revive Ren, but he's acting strangely - his 'ego' has been wrecked & his personas are out of control. his friends can help keep him in check but only for a while, and even then he's not quite himself; whoever is with him gets responded to by a Persona of their arcana, so he flits wildly between personalities between meetings with confidants and pretty much needs to be supervised in public settings to make sure he acts...semi-appropriately (morgana being around means he's usually in Magician mode) - eventually, though, the matching arcanas is an issue with Akechi drawing out Justice personas that know 1) there is an assassin in the Metaverse and 2) Akechi has access to the Metaverse. Principality, which guards nations, waits until he is certain Akechi is the Black Mask. Then murders him in the real world. And that's why Sae is interrogating Ren in this timeline.

-Ren's POV of Stall & Crash -"warden" Arsene, punishment/handcuffed/restraint -"I know you're not real" "I am as real as your sense of self... ah, but you don't have a good grasp of that, do you". [u know how in p3 out of control Personas hurt their real selves and p4 is basically EVERYONE'S Shadow being pissed off at their real self? yeah this was basically Ren's guilt at considering selling out his team, albeit while heavily drugged, causing Arsene to manifest as an abusive warden who 'allows' Ren to still be able to use his Personas but makes it very clear he's not worthy and hurts him at times. I don't think I did this mostly because while it's proposed as Ren's POV of Stall & Crash, Ren being unstable to this degree beforehand wasn't really evidenced in that fic and I thought it might be fun to play with but also I would HOPE he wouldn't start Shido's Palace while like this. ...may work better as a completely separate fic?]

- Clean-Up the Heart - Ren calls Kawakami before realizing BAD IDEA - she gets suspicious and invents a reason for him to request her so they can talk - they have a heart-to-heart - that's it that's the fic [...lol. to add a bit more: the idea was to set this either while Ren is still playing dead, or right after he's allowed to come back to school. He really needs to talk to someone about everything that's happened but he doesn't want to place more stress on Sojiro or his teammates, so he thinks about the other confidants he knows and...Kawakami should be okay, right? He shouldn't tell her about any of the scarier stuff, but maybe he can just talk a little except he clams up as soon as she answers and hastily says it was a misdial Kawakami doesn't quite buy that as she can tell he sounds genuinely off, so she just...makes up on the spot that actually. she's a little tight for cash, and she knew she said she'd do things for him for free, but if he could hire her just one last time? and ren's just like "oh. okay. sure" she basically cleans up his room and then goes 'okay, one, I'm not actually having money problems, you don't need to pay me, and two, now I KNOW something is wrong because I lied and said I was having money problems again and you haven't been nosy about it even once. What's wrong?" and that's how she gets Ren to open up, at least a tiny bit.] holy cow this got long so I'ma do the rest in a different post I guess

#writing #p5 fic #for later #but also for anyone curious

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makeste · 6 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 083: Your Hands Can Still Reach

Previously on BnHA: tHEY TOOK my SON. MY SON.

...oh god. yeah so. Vlad was a badass and so was Aizawa, but neither of them ultimately managed to stop Dabi and his group from kidnapping my child. Dabi bragged about how they were going to unravel society’s trust in U.A. after they let the students get attacked on multiple occasions. Back in the forest, Deku’s group tried to stop Dabi and co. from escaping, but Kurogiri’s appearance made that all but a foregone conclusion. Tokoyami was saved at the last second thanks to Aoyama’s intervention, but Kacchan literally disappeared right in front of Deku’s eyes. Like, they made eye contact, and Kacchan was all “stay away Deku” and like deadly serious because there was nothing else he could do, and then he was just. Gone. It was amazing omg

Today on BnHA: Everyone licks their wounds. It’s depressing. The U.A. faculty has a meeting to discuss how badly they fucked up (spoilers: a lot) and whether or not there is a traitor in their midst. All Might is particularly distraught, at least until Naomasa calls him to let him know the police have a lead on the League of Villains’ location. Class A visits Deku in the hospital. Kirishima tells Deku that he and Todoroki overheard Momo talking to the cops about the tracker she planted on the Noumu. Seeing where this is headed, Iida starts to protest, but Kirishima passionately says that because he was unable to do anything before, he feels like he has to do something now. He’s planning to go and try to save Bakugou, and tells Deku that it’s not too late.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 141 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

everyone’s just licking their wounds on this opening page. Aizawa and the kids who are still able to stand are dragging the unconscious and wounded kids out of the woods

jesus this is fucking grim

Momo please be okay oh my god. such a fucking hero. saved the fucking day and no one even realizes it yet

and Kendou’s dragging Tetsu and the unconscious captured villain because she’s also a fucking hero!! YESSSS GIRLS. YESSSSSS

Tsuyu and Ochako are catching up with the others, but they’re all just surrounding Deku who’s on the ground just screaming

someone needs to knock this kid out now for his own good. this is so far from on brand

JESUS CHRIST look at all this fucking collateral damage

fifteen kids in critical condition from the poison gas. holy shit. and 11 more injured, and one MISSING and POSSIBLY DEAD, although I know he’s not dead but THEY FUCKING DON’T AND HOLY SHIT THOUGH

and Pixie is also in critical condition from head trauma. realistic consequences!!!! now we’re getting to the point where not only is it more realistic than most anime, but most live action entertainment as well. someone gets banged on the head and doesn’t immediately recover?? holy fucking shit

and my girl Ragdoll is. probably fucking dead omfg. a large pool of blood and missing in action. wtf. realistic fucking consequences

holy shit I was wondering how the cops actually manage to contain these massively strong villains, and fucking look at this shit though

damn. I honestly don’t know how anyone has the balls to try and break the law if they know there’s even the slightest risk of them being wrapped up like an evil burrito and stuffed into a metal containment tube for the rest of their lives

can we give Tetsu and Kendou a round of applause. and Deku. and Tokoyami. not a single one of these villains was apprehended by the cops, or even the pros. this was all the kids. even class B was representing too for the very first time

I don’t know about you, but to me that could not have possibly gone any better. fanfic lodge, you lived up to your reputation and then some. more like canon domestic fluff and angst lodge. can I get a fuck yeah. holy shit

now we’re cutting to the next day at U.A.

the pros are holding a meeting

they’re saying they need to acknowledge “the disgrace” of allowing their students to be assaulted at a camp that was meant to prepare them for exactly this kind of thing

and they underestimated how far along the villain alliance had already come along. like, they were fairly sure there would be trouble soon, but these guys were already organized and making plans

yep. these are fast-paced villains for sure. y’all thought this was One Piece, but this is BnHA! we’ve already had like... four arcs. and it’s only chapter 83

okay Midnight’s bringing up something really important here

“ever since All Might came on to the scene...” but the thing is, he’s not on the scene any more. not really. and now we’re starting to see the result. he’s been trying to delay this as long as possible, but...

Mic is saying that the peace that All Might brought about made them complacent. it’s true, societies do have astonishingly short memories

All Might himself seems fucking devastated

please don’t beat yourself up, you couldn’t have foreseen this happening. you went and made the world better for a little while, and then you got hurt and now the world is starting to regress back. you were one man standing up against all the bad shit that was out there and you fucking did it somehow, even if just for a little while. and you fucking inspired a whole new generation to carry on that fight after you

okay and here is the biggest mistake they all actually made during this whole thing

yeeeep. big mistake. I know, hindsight and twenty-twenty, but. they were trying to seem strong and stable, but in truth they were anything but, and they went and put these kids out there in the spotlight and inadvertently made them targets. and on top of that, now it makes them look even more careless and incompetent by willfully ignoring the threat. while you were playing games, the bad guys were organizing their fucking shit

by the way, it’s so bland to see the Sheriff talking and not having it be in old-timey cowboy jargon. so I’ve taken the liberty of rewriting this:

“ta think we were fixin’ to giddy on up with the sports festival right after that first peck o’ trouble. reckon we got no choice but to yield this time. the abduction of a student is a real conniption. them there varmints didn’t just take Bakugou away -- they done took society’s trust in heroes away at the same time.”

(ETA: so I finally was able to read the Viz version, and. lmao. I don’t think I did a half bad job.

totally called the usage of the word “varmints.” )

Rat Principal says the media is already “ablaze with criticism.” can’t fucking blame ‘em

he’s also speculating that the villains targeted Bakugou due to the rowdiness he displayed at the festival. basically, if a U.A. student -- and not just any student, but the kid who won the sports festival at that -- were to end up going villain, that would pretty much be the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as the public’s trust goes

OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH

[SLAMS HAND ON TABLE] FUCKING SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK, MIC?? I’VE ONLY BEEN SAYING THIS EVER SINCE USFUCKINGJ. DON’T TRUST ANYBODY. FUCKING ANYONE. WHICH ONE OF YOU ASSHOLES IS IT?? Y’ALL BETTER SLEEP WITH ONE EYE OPEN

so he’s saying no one outside U.A. knew where the lodge was. although I’ve been wondering about that. just how many forest lodges are there within reasonable distance of U.A. that could accommodate two classes’ worth of students for a week or two of training though? like, was this facility itself actually a secret, or was it just a secret that this was the facility they chose? because it could have just been process of elimination

but I like the traitor theory better :D

Midnight’s telling him to drop it but they need to fucking consider this though?? like, I get that the last thing they all need is to stop trusting even each other, but ALSO, if there is a traitor in their midst then they need to fucking address that shit though

at the very least, information flow needs to be much more tightly controlled from this point out. and they need to step up their own intelligence game. where my spy heroes at yo

anyway so yeah, now the Sheriff is saying that they can’t start turning on each other with suspicion because they’ll end up crumbling from within. exactly the point I expected them to make. but they still need to do something. maybe do the Tyrion thing from Game of Thrones where they feed different people different fake stories and see who takes the bait

(ETA: okay, so despite saying a few chapters ago that I wasn’t going to talk about traitor theories, I ended up going on a 1,500 word tangent about my top traitor suspects lol. it got so out of hand that I ended up cutting it from this recap, so I’ll actually be putting that up as a separate post. you can find that here.)

the principal is starting to say something about that topic, but he’s interrupted by a phone call

lmao All Might’s ring tone

heh

he’s walking outside and clenching his fist in dramatic frustration

who’s calling I wonder. Gran or Deku? or Nao maybe

yeah it’s Nao

he just finished taking Aizawa and Vlad’s statements and says there’s been a development

ha ha it’s Momo’s tracking device! isn’t it?!

okay whoa. I’m not even gonna try summing this up so I’ll just post and discuss

pressing pause on this for a second to smdh at the fact that they just initially dismissed this lead as being fucking irrelevant. why

so does this mean the villains are no longer using that hide-out? and did Momo not tell anyone about the tracker? has she also figured out that their location was compromised and that they don’t know who they can trust? is she still unconscious from the Noumu attack?

All Might is thanking Nao for the information and transforming into Muscle Might on the spot

now we’re cutting to the hospital

Deku omg. my poor fucked up son

holy shiiiiiiit the angst

Kacchan has been gone for three days holy shit

(ETA: actually by my best estimate it’s about 48 hours from the time he’s taken up until the time he gets rescued. we’ll say roughly 12 hours from the attack to the U.A. faculty meeting the next morning; then this hospital scene which takes place approximately 24 hours after that; and then finally the rescue which takes place later tonight. we’ll say another 12 hours later just to make it neat and tidy. Deku saying “for the two days that followed” is a little confusing, but this is the only timeline that makes sense, and the other translations seem to bear it out.

and yes this is important to me lol because it makes a big difference in Kacchan’s mental and physical state. 48 hours is a long time to go without eating or drinking or sleeping -- none of which I can imagine that he would have been able to do -- and three days would be pushing it even more, so yeah. I need to know these things or else the angst lover in me can’t stop speculating over them lol.)

he’s turning to look at a little bowl of fruit, or something, with a note from his mom

so now on top of everything else he’s feeling guilty about making his mom worry

your mom? like, what about Bakugou’s mom though?? how is she holding up

(ETA: omg. from what I’ve seen of Bakugou’s mom, probably a hell of a lot of people got screamed at over these past couple days. I love her ngl)

are you in shock. are you just trying not to think about it

ah! Kaminari’s popping his head in!

...nooooot just him!

awww

I wonder how many of the kids were here visiting their other friends too. and I don’t see Momo among this number so maybe she is still asleep. Jirou and Hagakure were hurt by the gas... not sure who else was hurt

how the fuck did they treat Hagakure though. that must have been difficult

Iida’s now summarizing exactly what I said

he says Momo sustained serious head trauma. omg. but I’m so fucking glad she’s okay. she was so brave and smart and composed in such a horrible moment

Todoroki ;_; I wonder if he feels guilty because he couldn’t catch the marble in time

and now Deku is having a crisis

Dekuuuuuu ;_______; [pats] YOU WERE HALF DEAD WITH TWO BROKEN ARMS NO FUCKING SHIT YOUR HANDS COULDN’T REACH HIM?!

and Kirishima’s just looking at him with a straightforward look and says “then let’s go save him this time around”

Kirishima you’re the fucking best. every young shounen needs a Kiri in their life. unless they are the Kiri. in which case they need a Tetsutetsu

he says he and Shouto came to the hospital yesterday and ran into each other

they were both like “what are you doing here” and then “I couldn’t stand being at home and doing nothing”

-- AND THEY HEARD ALL MIGHT AND THE POLICE SPEAKING WITH MOMO!!

IF THEY OVERHEARD IT, FUCKING ANYONE COULD HAVE HEARD, BY THE WAY?? EVEN NOW THESE GUYS ARE BASICALLY LEAKING CLASSIFIED INFO ANY FUCKING WAY THEY POSSIBLY CAN OMFG

BUT THIS TIME IT’S GOOD

CAN WE GET A STANDING O FOR MY GIRL MOMO HERE YOU GUYS

YAOYOROZU “GOAT” MOMO

so anyway. Iida is speculating that Kiri and Todo want to ask Momo to make another tracking device

and he’s saying that they should leave it to the pros. naw. fuck the pros except the U.A. faculty and All Might

and Kirishima can’t leave it to them omg

(ETA: the way he’s clutching his chest here is so heart-wrenching. it’s the exact same way Bakugou clutches his own chest in chapter 118 when he’s wracked with guilt over what happened to All Might. damn these kids and their overdeveloped sense of responsibility and reckless disregard for my feels)

he says he wasn’t able to do anything, he knew they were targeting his friend but he couldn’t do anything and he only stayed put and Bakugou got taken

Kirishimaaaaaa

CAN I GET A STANDING O FOR MY MAIN MAN KIRISHIMA “RIDE OR DIE” EIJIROU YOU GUYS

Kaminari’s telling him (a) to shush (this is a hospital!!!) and (b) that Iida’s right, even though he knows how Kiri feels

“I KNOW IIDA’S RIGHT” oh my god this man will not be deterred

ohhhhhhhh my heart omgggggg

YESSSS BOYS YESSSSS BRING ME MY KACCHAN RESCUE ARCCCCCCC

THE CHAPTER IS ENDING LOL BUT OH MY GOD

I’M SO FUCKING GLAD I DIDN’T HAVE TO READ THIS FUCKING ARC WEEK-TO-WEEK OR I WOULD HAVE LOST MY GODDAMN MIND. JUST SNAPPED. FUCK. SHIT’S LIKE FUCKING COCAINE

BONUS:

he’s the one Todoroki was carrying. was he not the same guy with the airbender quirk though?? or does class B have two guys who look incredibly similar to each other?

apparently he’s preoccupied with “a certain very big hero.” ?? don’t tell me it’s Mt. Lady

I’m gonna go look him up to see if he’s the airbender guy or not. surely with a class B minor character there is minimal spoiler risk

yep he is the airbender guy. I fucking love his quirk and I kiiiiiiinda wish he was in class A, actually. just, I’d really like to see how those air walls could be utilized in combat. they work for defense and for getting from place to place, and they’re just really cool

okay now I’m off to go read another chapter and inject that glorious angst deep into my veins

#bnha #boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #kirishima eijirou #yaoyorozu momo #all might #makeste reads bnha #let me tell you guys #if you ever want to do something that's both a challenge and a complete and utter waste of time #try translating paragraphs to over-the-top old timey cowboy lingo #I have new respect for viz now #that shit is a lot harder than it looks #good thing I've watched firefly so many times

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fullhalalalchemist · 7 years ago

Link

Rightwing activists are launching a nationwide drive to persuade public-sector trade union members to tear up their membership cards and stop paying dues, posing a direct threat to the progressive movement in America.

Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that a network of radical conservative thinktanks spanning all 50 states is planning direct marketing campaigns targeted personally at union members to encourage them to quit. The secret push, the group hopes, could cost unions up to a fifth of their 7 million members, lead to the loss of millions of dollars in income and undermine a cornerstone of US progressive politics.

“Well run opt-out campaigns can cause public-sector unions to experience 5 to 20% declines in membership, costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in dues money. This can affect the resources and attention available for union leaders to devote to political action campaigns,” the internal documents say.

The anti-union marketing drive is the brainchild of the State Policy Network (SPN), a coast-to-coast alliance of 66 rightwing thinktanks that has an $80m war chest to promote Donald Trump-friendly regressive policies such as low taxes and small government. The group is funded by such billionaire conservative donors as the Koch brothers and the Walton Family Foundation that stems from the Walmart fortune.

In 2016 the Freedom Foundation ran a brazen campaign in Washington and Oregon in which it went knocking on the doors of more than 10,000 childcare and home care workers telling them that under a previous US supreme court ruling they could opt out of paying union dues. In the document obtained by the Guardian, SPN boasts that the foundation’s operation cost the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in those states $8.8m in lost dues and legal fees.

um so this is a big f**** deal

#us unions #us politics #us news #unions #koch brothers #i hate rich people

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phroyd · 7 years ago

Link

Previous SPN literature exposed by the Guardian has revealed the political motives behind the network’s attacks on unions. It aims to “defund and defang” public sector unions as a means to “reverse the failed policies of the American left”.

The goal, the group said, was “permanently depriving the left from access to millions of dollars in dues extracted from unwilling union members every election cycle”.

The Guardian has now obtained what SPN is calling a “toolkit” of advice to its followers on how to go about fomenting “union reform” – a euphemism for draining unions of members and cash. The “toolkit” sets out four “tactics” for depleting their power – “effective union reform”, in its language.

One of those tactics is the opt-out campaign.

Phroyd

#us unions #us politics #us news

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bookmylectures1 · 3 years ago

Text

Difference between Direct & Indirect Tax

Taxes are one of the largest sources of income for the state. From your salary, to eating at a restaurant, watching a movie at the multiplex, driving down the street to buying a packet of biscuits at the general store, you pay different types of taxes in many different ways.

As a responsible citizen, you have an obligation to pay taxes. However, it is equally important to know the different types of taxes applied in the country. All the different taxes in India can be broadly divided into two categories – direct and indirect taxes. Let’s see in detail the meaning of the two types of taxes.

What Is Direct Tax?

In simple terms, direct taxes are taxes that you pay directly to the tax-collecting authority. For example, income tax is collected by the government and you pay it directly to the government. These taxes may not be transferred to one or more other persons. There are several laws that regulate direct taxes.

In India, the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) managed by the Ministry of Revenue is responsible for the direct taxes management. This department also participates in planning and informing the government about the implementation of direct taxes.

Common Types Of Direct Tax In India:

Some of the most common types of direct taxes applied in India are as follows:

1. Income tax:

The most common type of direct tax in India is income tax. It is charged on the income you generate in a fiscal year based on the IT department’s income tax code. Taxes are paid directly to the IT department by individuals and companies. In addition, there are several tax deductions for individual taxpayers, which are regulated in various sections of the Information Technology Act.

2. Taxation on securities transactions:

When you trade stocks, each of your transactions also has a small component called a securities transaction tax. Whether you make money or not, you have to pay this tax. The broker collects this tax from you and transfers it to the exchange, which then pays it to the state.

3. Tax on capital gains:

Whenever you generate capital gains, you must pay capital gains tax. These capital gains can come from the sale of the property or from investments. Depending on your capital gains and investment holding period, you will have to pay LTCG tax (long-term capital gains) or STCG (short-term capital gains) taxes.

Direct Tax Benefits:

Direct taxes have several big advantages, such as:

Curb inflation – In the event of monetary inflation, the government can increase direct tax rates to reduce the demand for goods and services. When demand falls, it will help reduce inflation.

Fair – Direct taxes are also considered fair because the principle of development is fundamental. Low-income people pay lower taxes and high-income people pay higher taxes.

Reducing inequality – Higher taxes imposed on the rich are used by the government to launch new initiatives for the poor. Initiatives provide a source of income for low-income people and help them improve their standard of living.

Disadvantages Of Direct Taxes:

Direct taxes also have some disadvantages, such as:

Considered as burden – Since taxpayers have to pay direct taxes in the form of flat rate income tax each year, they are considered as an expense. In addition, the entire documentation process is complex and time consuming.

Evasion is Possible – Although the current government has made tax avoidance extremely difficult, there are still many fraudulent practices that allow individuals and businesses to evade taxes or pay lower taxes than they otherwise would.

Limiting Investments – Due to the collection of direct taxes, such as taxes on securities transactions and income taxes, many people avoid investing. Therefore, direct taxes to some extent limit investment.

What Is Indirect Tax?

While direct taxes are levied on income and profits, indirect taxes are levied on goods and services. The main difference between direct and indirect taxes is that while direct taxes are paid directly to the state, there are generally intermediaries who collect indirect taxes from the end user. Then it is the responsibility of the mediator to forward the taxes received to the government.

In contrast to direct taxes, indirect taxes do not depend on a person’s income. The tax rate is the same for everyone. CBIC (Central Council for Indirect Taxes and Customs) is primarily responsible for dealing with indirect taxes in India. Just like CBDT, CBIC works in the Ministry of Finance.

Common Types of Indirect Taxes in India

Some of the main types of indirect taxes in India are as follows:

1. Goods and Services Tax (GST):

GST includes a total of 17 different indirect taxes in India, such as service tax, central consumption tax, state VAT and many more. It is a single and comprehensive indirect tax levied on all goods and services under the list of taxes established by the GST Council. One of the biggest advantages of GST is that it largely eliminates the cascading or taxing effect on the previous tax system.

2. Customs:

If you buy something that needs to be imported from abroad, you will have to pay customs duties. Regardless of whether the product arrives in India by air, land or sea, you have to pay customs duties for it. The purpose of collecting this indirect tax is to ensure that every product that enters India is taxed.

3. Value Added Tax (VAT):

A value added tax is a type of consumption tax levied on a product as its value increases throughout the supply chain. It is imposed by the state government, which also sets VAT rates on various goods. While the GST primarily removes VAT, it is still levied on some products such as goods containing alcohol.

Indirect Tax Benefits

Some of the significant indirect tax benefits are listed below:

Poor contributes too – It is very important for the country that every individual contributes to its development. Because the poor are often exempt from paying direct taxes, indirect taxes ensure that the poor also help build the country.

Convenience – Unlike direct taxes, which are usually paid once, indirect taxes like GST are paid in small amounts. When you buy a product or service, a small amount of GST is included in the price, making it more convenient for taxpayers to pay.

It’s easy to collect – If you want to know the difference between direct and indirect taxes, one of the biggest is how they are paid. Unlike direct tax, there are no complicated paperwork or procedures associated with paying indirect taxes. When you buy a product or service, you must pay tax laws.

Disadvantages of Indirect Taxes

Some of the disadvantages of indirect taxes are as follows:

Regressive – Indirect taxes are commonly known as regressive. While they make everyone pay taxes regardless of their income, they are not fair. People in all income groups must pay indirect taxes at the same rate.

More expensive products and services – As indirect taxes are added to the prices of goods and services, they become more expensive. For example, products such as cigarettes, high-end motorcycles, premium cars, etc. included in the 28% GST tax slab.

Lack of public awareness – With indirect taxes added to the price of a product or service, consumers usually don’t know what taxes they are paying. This is the opposite of direct taxes when taxpayers know exactly what taxes they are paying.

Summing up:

As you can see, both direct and indirect taxes have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are both very important to the economy. While taxes are generally seen as an unnecessary burden, governments build nations, invest in defence, health care and infrastructure, launch social initiatives, and thrive. Our dream of making our country a global superpower can only be achieved if its citizens continue to pay taxes with honesty.

That is all about direct and indirect tax in India. If you are a student studying CA, CS and CMA, then we at Book My Lectures offer online lectures for Taxation. We also offer online classes for CS, that helps students to achieve their goal by getting success in examination.

#CS #Direct Tax #Indirect Tax #Book My Lectures

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bki-writing-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Redemptio

Due to this piece’s long length, I will be separating it into two parts. The post that follows is the first part of “Redemptio.”

Redemptio

Humanity could no longer run away from its problems like it had for the prior billions of years. There had been seemingly infinite instances of where the resilience of the species had been gloriously displayed: the escape from the human home-world “Earth” before the rapidly changing conditions made it no longer habitable for life, whilst simultaneously settling surrounding planets; the collaboration of humans on many sovereign planet-states that resulted in a temporary “pausing” on the star Sol, giving enough time for the evacuation of the Sol star system before the star exploded as a supernova that destroyed the whole system; the mass exodus of around a decillion people from one part of the Milky Way Galaxy to another section after the discovery that the collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies would throw their worlds into the new galaxy’s black hole. These types of feats were what the ancient humans would have called, “actions committed by immortal gods.”

The first of these migrations was hectic, messy, and almost failed. But as humanity became more technological and as their numbers grew exponentially to the point where such movements happened by the thousands in the same time frame, humanity perfected the art of running away. But during one of these fleeing movements, a darkness consumed an entire fleet of ships. Soon after, more fleets began to disappear, and word spread quickly once the darkness had made an entire planet cease to exist. This was the event humanity feared the most. This was the end of the Universe. Since the Universe’s birth, it had been expanded outward, never halting. But as the limited energy began to spread out too far, the Universe began to crumble back in on itself. This was the darkness eating up one planet after another, one star system after another, one galaxy after another.

Humanity responded by doing what it knew best, which was either escaping or buying time to escape. But even for the super advanced humans, no amount of technology or research could save them. Places available to move to were constantly being wiped away from their maps, and there was no way to stop or travel through the darkness of non-existent matter, now deemed as “The Void.” Quadragintillions’ worth of lives were lost as the Void swept through the Universe like a carving black ocean. The Void was not exactly uniform in how it spread; it reached further inside some sections of the Universe more than others. When the regression of the known Universe had left only five human-inhabited planets, the void bisected this group, cutting off one of these planets from the other four. This planet was called “Ahrgonik.”

Ahrgonik had a somewhat different development from nearby planets as everything around it began to be consumed. Generations before the Void separated it from the other remaining planets, the planet-state of Ahrgonik had decided that the Void would finally be the cosmic event to end all life. So, Ahrgonik started to carry out military raids on the planets that would be the next in line for consumption of the Void, sometimes traveling to the other side of the Universe and back to complete these raids. The targets of Ahrgonik’s raids were cemeteries, morgues, crematoriums, and any other infrastructure designed to process human corpses or remains. One of the most successful raids cleaned out a museum where skeletons from throughout Earth’s history were preserved, skeletons that had been painstakingly carried along with humans as they escaped from whatever peril loomed down upon them. Many planet-states became enraged, and religious communities that highly praised the dead became appalled. Some began to prepare warship fleets to protect against and attack the Ahrgoniks, but the rest of the cosmic community reminded them that technological research to stop the Void was more important. They hoped that the Void would soon “take care” of the Ahrgoniks, so there would be no need to worry.

Once the Ahrgoniks felt like they had secured all the last human remains they could, they begun to construct a thick, dense, maze-like complex of buildings, tunnels, and transport lines around their planet and moons. The dark metal structures rose as high as dozens of miles above the planet’s surface, effectively creating an urban blanket on Ahrgonik and her moons that looked like it was constructed by a drunken plumber. The planet was essentially a bunker at this point. The other planets in the area took notice, but once again were too focused on research to really care.

After stealing corpses and building add-ons to their planet, the Ahrgoniks finally revealed their plans. Seeing that all other research was futile, they announced that they were going to focus all their research to reconnecting with their ancient roots and attempt to find “what it means to be human” again. With the destruction of the Earth and countless other planets before the Void’s emergence, billions of years’ time and light-years of distance separating all sorts of humans, and minor evolutions leading to some human subspecies, the Ahrgoniks felt the original sense of what it is to be human had been lost. Now that the end of the Universe itself was near, they felt that this endeavor – “The Resuscitation Project” – would be the only one worth laboring over in the time left to live and that this knowledge was important to know before the Void consumed them as well – or at least that the search would make the whole experience easier to accept.

This announcement made the rest of the universe livid. They could not understand why anyone would not contribute to surviving the Void.

“Repugnant traitors!” was the official response of one planet-state.

“We must place sanctions on Ahrgonik and her moons to teach them a lesson! Remove all trading, flights, and embassies with the planet!” declared another.

“If none of us make it through this harrowing ordeal, you especially should feel ashamed!” lectured a third. But the Ahrgoniks kept up their research in their sheltered planet.

It had been thirty years since the Ahrgoniks had made their desires public. This was the time when the Void had begun to encroach around the group of final planets. In those thirty years, most planets had stopped their harassing comments or were no longer in existence to make their comments, but the planets closest to Ahrgonik had kept their tirade up. Even as the Void was in the process of cutting off Ahrgonik from those last four other planets, these cosmic neighbors sent berating messages.

“Who will resuscitate you now?”

“Filth like you should’ve been the first to go. You were the runt of the last humans!”

“Glad to see a real life example of natural selection. Your subspecies disgusts us… but hey now, not all subspecies can be shining descendants of their parent species.” As the Void cut between Ahrgonik and the other planets, their final transmissions transitioned to white noise, one by one. For once, the telecommunications were silent. Shortly after, the Void’s black screen enveloped Ahrgonik, but did not consume it. The nothingness left a shell of a couple of miles thick around the planet. Nothing could be seen through the Void: not the lights of spaceships, not any stars or the other planets, nothing. Ever since the beginning of the Resuscitation Project, the power generators keeping Ahrgonik alit were fully operational, but now that the planet was in its own little bubble, those generators and their humming seemed more powerful than ever.

This was Ahrgonik under the Resuscitation Project.

It had been seventy years since Ahrgonik secluded itself. Since then, the planet had learned and adopted Latin as the official language because the rulers saw it as the purest and the best language amongst all the Earth languages for rediscovering the traits of the human meaning. Hundreds of trillions of Ahrgoniks shuffled along tunnels, in trains, and in elevators under poor and constant artificial light to Discovery Rooms. If an Ahrgonik was not working as a politician, as an operator of Ahrgonik’s utilities, or as a hydroponic farmer feeding the planet, then they were one of the two active roles in the Resuscitation Project.

Titus Mensohl was the first to arrive in Discovery Room #056,427,334,875 for the day’s Memory Diving session. After a quick look around the room to check for others, Titus wasted no time in turning on the machinery. The copper room was one-hundred by two-hundred feet with walls of metal. The floor was made on one half of corrugated metal and the other half of glass, with a border of solid metal surrounding it all. A gray railing separated the two halves. The podium with the machinery controls sat close to the railing on the glass floor side – the side closer to the entrance. Equidistant on the other side of the railing was a metal chair with black plastic cushioning and arm-restraint straps. A helmet with wiring running into the floor, to the machinery below, was latched onto the headrest of the chair. This time, something about the room was different. Titus stared out the wide window facing outwards over the corrugated metal floor, presenting the nothingness of the Void. Even if there was only the occasional cargo ship making a delivery to look at, it lured Titus’s attention as none of the other Discovery Rooms he had been in had a window. He soon dismissed the pointless feature and went back to his work. The machines would always take approximately ten or so minutes to spool up. As the hum and sunset-colored lights of the machines grew more intense, Titus leaned on the railing with his arms folded and looked through the glass floor. He was unfazed by the hundred bodies, skeletons, or other human remains that were laid out in boxes in a grid-like fashion deep below his feet. But then, he had to reread some of the coding printed on the boxes his eyes flashed over. This room’s collection of remains had samples dating back farther than he had seen before. Not just a few, but a good proportion of the room’s samples were from Earth. Titus forced himself to look back at the machines. He couldn’t let himself get excited; he wasn’t even going to be seeing these samples’ memories.

The door opened and a man younger than Titus walked into the room. He immediately looked down at the samples and gritted his teeth, but snapped his gaze towards Titus. He extended a shaky hand.

“Good time, sir. I am Gallus Novkota, Memory Diver #121,890,677,791 reporting for this Memory Diving session,” the young man greeted, nodding. Titus grabbed the feeble hand before him.

“Titus, Memory Materializer #1,686. What, were you assigned today? Your number is so high.”

“No, no,” Gallus shook his head. “I was assigned yesterday!” Titus rolled his eyes. Gallus continued. “You must have been in service for a while to have such a low number, sir!”

“Yup, been a Memory Materializer for seventy years now. Most of us Materializers are old now, though. I’m ninety,” Titus responded, eyes gleaning on the machines’ interface.

“Ninety?!” Gallus cried, placing his hands on his head. “The M.M. I worked with yesterday was only thirty!”

Titus crossed his arms again. “That’s pretty young for a M.M…. how old are you then?”

“Twenty, sir,” Gallus beamed. By now, the machines were emitting a full, hearty drone and their red-orange glow tinted the dull walls through the glass.

“C’mon, the Extractors are up. You ready?”

“Yessir!” Gallus scuttled along, around the metal railing, to sit down in the chair. He smiled as he placed his arms through the chair’s restraints and looked through the window. “Do all the Discovery Rooms have windows?”

“Rarely.” Titus took his spot at the helm of the controls on the podium. “Damn, I didn’t think they allowed guys this young to start Memory Diving,” Titus thought. A robotic arm down below picked up a skull from a random box and scanned the inside of its cranium. By scanning, the machines could extract a single memory using the microscopic imprints left behind by memories on the cranium wall over the person’s lifetime. After the scan is complete, the machine feeds the data through the arm’s wiring all the way up through the wiring of the helmet attached to the chair. The skeleton is then dumped away through a garbage chute, deemed worthless now that the single memory has been extracted. The helmet swung around, lowered, and fastened onto Gallus’s head. “Remember, you have te–”

“Ten seconds to abort if I see the memory is useless. I got it,” Gallus interrupted. In the first ten seconds of Memory Diving, the memory is only transmitted partially through the Memory Diver’s consciousness, allowing for a halfway state where they can see both what their eyes are actually detecting and the memory foggily.

“Commencing Memory Diving session #111,809,242,735,019. Memory #1: Sample index: 019A-77Y,” Titus read out. The wires leading into the helmet glowed orange and the helmet purred as it vibrated against Gallus’s head. Gallus squinted his eyes.

“Yeah, abort this Dive. There’s nothing special about this memory. Just another one about traffic.”

“Fair enough, we already have millions of memories of that. Not important at all.” Before Titus could press any more buttons, Gallus blurted out,

“No wait, hold on, this might be interesting aft–” Gallus’s head fell back onto the headrest and his body laid still as the memory’s data was fully injected into his consciousness.

Taylor sat in the backseat of his friend’s Honda as it surged onto the Interstate with his leftover popcorn in his hands. The headlights of the other zooming vehicles pierced through the night, all giving a collective glow. Taylor bopped his head to the music his friend was playing – an electronic song mixed heavily with big-band melodies, thumping bass, and Japanese lyrics. The song’s energy travelled through Taylor’s body and made the ride home from the movie theatre enjoyable. The music was too loud to hear what his friends in the driver’s seat and in the passenger seat were saying, but Taylor didn’t mind; they were laughing and he was elated. As they passed an air force base next to the highway, Taylor looked up at the sky where the pasty textured moon looked like a toasted marshmallow. The moon’s pale-yellow light was overpowered by the air force base’s lighting, but was bright enough to add a painting-like vibe to the scene they traveled through.

Gallus’s eyes opened and he breathed heavily. The helmet swung off and over around the seat’s back.

“You alright?” Titus asked. Gallus nodded. “So, what did you see?”

“I had the perspective of a man in the backseat of a car with blaring music…” Gallus started.

“That’s not that special. People have listened to music in their vehicles for eras.” Titus retorted.

“But the language of the song… it didn’t seem to fit that of which the men were using.”

“What language did they speak in?”

“I couldn’t tell. The music was blaring, like I said,” Gallus replied. Titus scoffed. “But, the man whose perspective I was in had looked out and I saw that license plates on the vehicles were American.”

“What century?”

“Had to have been the late twentieth or early twenty-first. The song’s language seemed to have been from eastern Earth.” Titus tapped his foot against the glass floor, looking down.

“All this information only indicates a cultural transmission between two Earth nations. Not special at all. If anything, it’s important on a macro level, not an individual one. That’s where the meaning of being human lies: in the individual mind.”

“But there is one more thing. This certain human looked a lot at the moon,” Gallus said. Titus looked back up at Gallus in his seat and groaned.

“The moon’s nothing special either. Humans have always looked at it, wolves, dogs have been attracted by it, even plants have. That’s not exclusively human, it’s inclusive to all life.”

“But I had this warm… feeling in my chest rise… when I look– I mean, when the other human looked at the moon.”

“You aren’t supposed to be feeling emotions from the memories. You’re supposed to be identifying them and more importantly, what it means to be human.” Titus placed his hands on the controls and began prepping the next memory. “Anyways, the only human emotions that matter are anger, fear, and courage. Were you not taught that?”

“Of course I was, sir,” Gallus replied.

“No one’s felt any other ‘emotion’ for eons. Are you ready for the next memory?” Gallus nodded. “Memory #2: Sample index: 202I-635V.” The helmet swung back onto Gallus’s head and within seconds he was inside another memory.

#science-fiction #sci-fi #science fiction #scifi

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livinginlandmarketing · 4 years ago

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A year ago, teacher and instructional coach Susan Ferguson left her classroom as the coronavirus pandemic gained momentum in Southern California, not knowing when she or her students would return.

In recent weeks, families across the region have rejoiced with the news some campuses will reopen as the state’s infection rates trend downward, celebrating what they hope is the beginning of the end to home-based distance learning, the challenges it posed and the problems it exposed.

Ferguson, too, looks forward to returning to Thomas Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles. But she’s annoyed by comments from distance-learning critics who say the past 12 months have been a waste of time.

“It’s definitely been a challenge,” Ferguson said. “The idea that some people put forth that it’s been a complete failure, I would vehemently disagree with, as someone who has seen my own students learn.”

Now, with schools poised to reopen this spring and into the fall, Ferguson and other educators are looking to the lessons learned during this most unusual academic year and how to improve education for all students moving forward.

Susan Ferguson, a teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School in South Central LA., teaches from her dining room table Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Although distance learning has had its share of challenges, Ferguson believes some good came out of it. For example, it forced students and staff who hadn’t used technology much before to learn new skills and grow more comfortable with digital learning tools. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)

Nicole Klink high-fives son, Ben, 7, as he completes his school work during distance learning at their home in Hemet on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Klink runs a Facebook group to help Hemet/San Jacinto parents cope with distance learning. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

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Katherine Gaudet, an eighth-grader at Robert Frost Middle School, attends her geometry class from her Granada Hills bedroom March 2, 2021. (Photo by Andy Holzman)

Amy Aydin, a sixth-grade teacher at Almeria Middle School in Fontana, sits at her work desk in the bedroom of her Redlands home, Thursday, March 4, 2021. Aydin has been holding her virtual classes for a year from her home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Nicole Klink checks her Facebook while working and supervising her two children as they participate in their distance learning classes at home in Hemet on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Klink runs a Facebook group to help Hemet/San Jacinto parents cope with distance learning. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Susan Ferguson, a teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School in South Central L.A., teaches from her dining room table Tuesday, March 2, 2021. Although distance learning has had its share of challenges, Ferguson said some good came out of it. For example, it forced students and staff who hadn’t used technology much before to learn new skills and grow more comfortable with digital learning tools. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)

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‘Made it happen’

One of the most significant bright spots in the past year, many educators and families say, is the intense focus school districts put on technology to try to make virtual learning accessible to all students.

Across the state, districts purchased computing devices and mobile hotspots for students. While the devices haven’t always worked perfectly, and spotty wifi remains an issue for some, distance learning has provided students and teachers more opportunities to pick up 21st century skills.

Corona-Norco Unified School District, for example, had long planned to get a Chromebook for each of its more than 53,000 students.

“Five years ago, what seemed so far-reaching, that it would take years to get devices in the hands of kids, we made it happen in less than a year,” said Lisa Simon, Corona-Norco deputy superintendent of educational services.

For educators who may have been slow to embrace technology in their classroom, many now see the benefits, such as being able to give and get feedback from students more easily.

Access to technology is one thing, however, and managing a child’s education from home is another.

Patrick Sean, 14, works on an English assignment as his mom, Nicole Klink, assesses during his distance learning class at their home in Hemet on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Nicole runs a Facebook group to help Hemet/San Jacinto parents cope with distance learning. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

When it became clear the 2020-21 school year would begin with students learning remotely, Nicole Klink created the Hemet San Jacinto Distance Learning Support Facebook group. Now more than 1,300 members strong, the group shares tips on how to make virtual learning work for families, shares information about local school districts’ plans and serves as a place to vent a little.

“Everyone’s trying to do the best that they can, but they don’t feel like they have enough support,” said Klink, a Hemet mother of first- and ninth-graders and an instructional aide for San Jacinto Unified.

The pandemic and abrupt shift to virtual learning laid bare plenty of inefficiencies and inadequacies in current educational models, said Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the USC Rossier School of Education. But that means educators can now build something better for students.

“This is an opportunity, if we take it, to courageously rethink what school means,” she said. “Rather than regress into those patterns that feel restrictive, but also comfortable because they’re familiar, we need to take this opportunity to examine those structures and reinvent those systems.”

Keeping options open

Though more and more school districts are ramping up to welcome students back, administrators know some families will choose to keep their children home for now — and perhaps well into the future. For all those who say home-based school has been pure misery, there are some for whom it has worked quite well.

Before the pandemic, Taylor Jackson, an 11th grader at a private school in San Fernando Valley, would go to soccer practice right after school and not return home until 10 p.m. Since switching to online schooling, her new schedule allows her to finish her homework by 3 p.m., freeing up more time for extracurricular activities and bonding with family.

“Online school has just helped me so much with my stress,” Jackson said. “Going back at the end of my junior year would increase my stress.”

Katherine Gaudet, an eighth-grader at Robert Frost Middle School, attends her geometry class from her Granada Hills bedroom March 2, 2021. (Photo by Andy Holzman)

Katherine Gaudet, 13, an eighth grader at Robert Frost Middle School in Granada Hills, is a straight-A student. She finds there are fewer distractions learning from home and less busywork.

“It’s just enough to help us retain the information without pushing our brain to the limit,” she said of her homework assignments.

But some classes are best taught in person, like her music class. A hybrid schedule where she could be on campus some days and sing in the same room with her classmates would be ideal, she said.

Because of the positive response from some students and families to distance learning, San Bernardino City Unified School District plans to continue offering it as an option after the pandemic, said Rachel Monárrez, assistant superintendent of Continuous Improvement.

“For some kids, the digital learning environment has been really good,” Monárrez said. “So that’s something we’re going to carry forward — we’re going to have a virtual option for our students.”

In fact, some students have thrived the past year, said Immordino-Yang.

“Kids with anxiety disorders, kids with social anxieties, in particular, kids who don’t feel at home in the spaces at school have really relished this opportunity to be less impacted by crowding,” she said. “But a huge portion of kids have really suffered and have even fallen off the radar.”

Addressing ‘learning loss’

Connecting with students who have disengaged from school will be a struggle as districts try to reestablish relationships and help those who have fallen behind academically, educators say.

In February, new state data showed that 155,000 California students had dropped off the rolls in public schools in the past year. That’s five to seven times larger than the typical drop in recent years in the state, where declining birth rates have chipped away at enrollment.

“I’m seeing, by far, the lowest level of participation in my memory,” said Amy Aydin, who has taught sixth-grade math and science at Almeria Middle School in the Fontana Unified School District for more than a decade.

“I’ve never struggled to get along with kids or to have a rapport with kids,” she said, “but the online environment makes it really, really hard.”