#fortress conservation

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

Africa’s top human rights commission said the Democratic Republic of Congo violated the rights of Indigenous Batwa people when it forcibly evicted them from their ancestral territories and imposed a national park on those lands without the original inhabitants’ consent. 

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ordered the DRC to provide the Batwa legal title to their homelands, among more than a dozen other prescribed remedies. 

The decision was decided in 2022 but wasn’t made public until late June of this year. Lawyers involved said publication was delayed because of mistakes made in the text of the French version of the decision, and that the DRC has not taken any action to comply with the decision.

The government’s embassy in D.C. did not respond to a request for comment and also did not participate in the Commission’s proceedings despite requests that it do so.

Since Kahuzi-Biega National Park was established in 1970, the DRC has forced about 6,000 Batwa people, sometimes violently, from an area of rainforest in the eastern DRC the size of West Virginia. Those evictions began on the recommendation of a Congolese conservation organization, according to the Commission’s decision, despite the Batwa having a long and proven track record of protecting and preserving their homelands.

In its decision, the commission sharply criticized the logic behind “fortress conservation,” the removal of Indigenous peoples from their land in the name of protecting nature. That model, born in the United States with the creation of national parks like Yellowstone, has been exported around the world. Increasingly, it is being used in conjunction with some carbon offset programs. 

“If the purpose of creating a park is to protect biodiversity for the good of all, should the way of life, culture and environment of the indigenous populations occupying it not be taken into account?” the commission wrote.

The Batwa’s culture is entirely based on a thriving ecosystem, the commission said, and their removal may have worsened biodiversity in the region because park guards and governmental officials granted forest access to non-Batwa groups that carried out extractive activities including mining and logging, leading to severe deforestation and environmental degradation. The Congo Basin is home to sensitive ecosystems with iconic species, including chimpanzees, forest elephants and critically endangered gorillas. 

[probablyasocialecologist]

Several Indigenous groups say the conservation strategies, deeply influenced by American environmentalism, meant uprooting numerous communities that had lived in the forests for millennia.

Members of several Indigenous or Adivasi groups — as Indigenous people are known in the country — set up the Nagarahole Adivasi Forest Rights Establishment Committee to protest evictions from their ancestral lands and seek a voice in how the forests are managed.

“Nagarahole was one of the first forests to be brought under Project Tiger and our parents and grandparents were probably among the first to be forced out of the forests in the name of conservation,” said J. A. Shivu, 27, who belongs to the Jenu Kuruba tribe. “We have lost all rights to visit our lands, temples or even collect honey from the forests. How can we continue living like this?”

Jenu, which means honey in the southern Indian Kannada language, is the tribe’s primary source of livelihood as they collect it from beehives in the forests to sell.

The fewer than 40,000 Jenu Kuruba people are one of the 75 tribal groups that the Indian government classifies as particularly vulnerable. Adivasi communities like the Jenu Kurubas are among the poorest in India.

Some experts say conservation policies that attempted to protect a pristine wilderness were influenced by prejudices against local communities.

[...]

Sharachchandra Lele, of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, said the conservation model is outdated.

“There are already several examples of forests used actively by local communities and tiger numbers have actually increased even while people have benefited in these regions,” he said.

Vidya Athreya, the director of Wildlife Conservation Society in India who has been studying the interactions between large cats and humans for the last two decades, agreed.

“Traditionally we always put wildlife over people,” Athreya said, adding that engaging with communities is the way forward for protecting wildlife in India.

[kirame90]

Animals never sin 1/2

Pure being a worrywart and Brutal being....himself, really. For once his hands aren't covered in blood so good for him xD

This two-part minicomic is available on my charity Patreon, as always.

Our cause for December 2024 is European Outdoor Conservation Association

EOCA supports and funds grassroots conservation, protection and regeneration projects around the world, protecting the wild places and wildlife we all care so much about. Since EOCA was set up in 2006, it has funded 201 projects, investing €5.6m in conservation in 65 countries. You will find their past and current projects here

You'll find their annual reports here

[tf2bhalo]

There is something to be said about Sniper healing when coming to New Mexico. Having lived his whole life thinking something was genetically wrong with him. That he simply wasn't enough, not manly or masculine enough by his own countries standards. Genetically speaking it was impossible but the man didn't know that till he was in his THIRTIES.

Then he comes here and has to sleep, work and eat with 8 other men. All in various states of what a man should be by his own mental standards growing up in Australia. Each with their own quirks but undeniably manly.

[clit-a-cola]

tf2 community be normal about gnc men for a second of your life challenge

[is-the-post-reliable]

(reposting as I am unable to reblog the original.)

requested by @kodicraft

🔶 Rating: Partially Reliable 🔶

The Devils Hole is home to the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish.

From the National Park Service's page on Devils Hole: 'Devils Hole--a detached unit of Death Valley National Park--is habitat for the only naturally occurring population of the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis).'

The existence of the pupfish does prevent the pumping of groundwater in the area, after a legal battle. I am not sure this would apply to all mining.

From a High Country News article on the pupfish: 'The Cappaert case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the power of the Antiquities Act and the weight of the new Endangered Species Act. In 1976, the High Court affirmed the federal government’s right to maintain water levels sufficient to support the pupfish, even at the expense of water rights held by nearby ranchers.'

The habitat of this fish is incredibly small. However, it is slightly larger than suggested, as the fish swim at least 20m deep; the rock shelf referenced is the only place where the fish feed and spawn in the wild.

From the same National Park Service page: 'Although pupfish have been found as deep as 66 feet (20 m), the fish forage and spawn exclusively on a shallow rock shelf near the surface, feeding on the algae and diatoms found there.'

It is true that multiple conservation attempts have failed. Previous attempts to breed or crossbreed the fish have not been successful.

From a National Park Foundation article on the pupfish: 'Despite past efforts to create a similar artificial platform for the pupfish, as well as attempts to breed Devils Hole pupfish and hybrids in captivity, this small ledge remains the sole spawning and feeding shelf for the fish.'

I have not been able to find any references to 'assassination attempts'. One individual did threaten to pour pesticide into Devil's Hole, but it seems this was never attemped. If anyone can find anything on this, please let me know, but in the mean time I have to say this claim is unsubstantiated.

From a High Country News article on an incident of tresspassing and the pupfish: 'A Pahrump newspaper editor even threatened to throw the pesticide Rotenone into the sunken cave to “make the pupfish a moot point.”'

The fencing was initially installed after two people drowned, not after an assassination attempt. Later, more fencing and security was installed after three men drunkenly tresspassed and killed a pupfish.

From the same National Park Service page: 'Subsequently, the Hole was fenced after two divers drowned in its water.'

From a High Country News article on the incident of tresspassing : 'Since the incident, Devils Hole has become an even more formidable fortress. The Park Service capped its towering fences with additional barbed wire. The public can only view the sunken cave from a distance now, more than 20 feet above it. And inside the fenced viewing area are even more cameras, motion sensors and “No Trespassing” signs.'

There is a breeding program at Ash Meadows Facility, where scientists have attempted to mimic the natural habitat of the pupfish.

From a National Geographic article on the breeding attempts: 'And when they built the Ash Meadows facility, the scientists tried to create a mirror image of Devil’s Hole, which meant bringing in water, substrate, and algae from the natural environment.'

It is possible that a different research/breeding facility is being referred to, but the Ash Meadows Facility does not seem to have a secret location. In fact, the facility is open to visitors, according to their website.

I wont attempt to fact check whether the cave is haunted, but I can confirm that at least two people drowned and were not recovered from Devils Hole. Whilst the cave is not truly bottomless, the bottom has not yet been found.

From an SFGATE article on Devils Hole: 'When the bottom of Devils Hole is one day found, the skeletons of two brothers-in-law may finally be recovered, fathoms below the frolicking pupfish.'

The breeding program has been more successful in recent years. This may be due to the discovery that diving beetles were eating the eggs and larvae, and the beetle population in the artificial environment being controlled. (This fact was not included in the original post, but I thought it was cool.)

From a National Geographic article on the breeding attempts: 'As Feuerbacher watched the infrared footage, which can visualize objects in the dark, a tiny pupfish larva smaller than a peppercorn flitted into the camera’s frame. This was big news. When a population gets as low as that of the pupfish, every animal—wild or captive, larva or adult—is critical to the species’ survival.

“I was pretty excited to see there was reproduction going on in the tank, and I just watched it for a little bit,” says Feuerbacher, a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Then I saw a beetle swim past.”

It began circling the fish, and closing in.

“Then it just dove in and basically tore the fish in half right while I was watching,” says Feuerbacher.

[...]

During the first beetle collection, facility manager Jennifer Gumm says they caught 500 beetles in three hours. And on the very next pupfish egg collection, which is done by leaving out pieces of carpet that the fish like to lay their eggs on, the team retrieved close to 40 pupfish eggs.

Before this, they had been lucky to find four or five pupfish eggs during a refuge collection. Usually, it was zero.'

[flseur]

꒰ 𐙚 keeping warm — genshin men ꒱

⟡ synopsis : as the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, your boyfriend has other ideas on how to keep warm.

⟡ characters : diluc, wriothesley, childe ( he's referred to as ajax in the fic )

⟡ content warning : nsfw ( 18+ ), fem!reader, soft sex, riding, praising, size kink, squirting, creampie, semi-public sex, bathroom sex, gagging, edging

౨ৎ note : winter time shenanigans with genshin men ૮ • ﻌ - ა ‘tis the season !

୨୧ DILUC

❥₊ ⊹ after a late meeting with the knights of favonius in the dead of winter, you had unfortunately been caught in one of mondstadt's worst snow storms to date. the wind was blowing harshly and it burned your cheeks. when you had reached dawn wineary, diluc was already anxiously waiting near the front doors with thick blankets, clearly worried about you.

you were shivering, a lot, and diluc feared that the blankets may not do enough for you. so he led you by hand to the washroom to take a warm bath and sitting right behind you in the porcelin tub, pushing stray hairs away from your bare back to wash it. eventually when the two of you got out of the bathtub, you went to diluc's bedroom, hoping that skin to skin contact will warm you up once again.

it started off as innocent cuddling surrounded by blankets, with diluc being the bigger spoon but feathering touches turned into wanderering hands which turned into diluc's large hands leading your hips up and down his thick cock.

"ah... that's it baby..." he moans into your neck, moving one of his hands to your lower back, pushing you closer into him.

he was warm, whether it be from his body conserving heat better than yours or his pyro vision resting on the bedside table to the right of you, you don't know what it is but the warmth felt good.

you continue to ride him, your pussy milking his cock for all it's worth while your clit is rubbing against his abdomen deliciously. soon, a layer of sweat formed on both of you bodies.

"mphm! diluc..." you whine softly, pulling away to look at his face and his crimson eyes are filled with lust but also love, so much love.

"yeah? what is it, love?" he asks, his hands coming up to gently hold your face between them and his fingers brushing some hair away from your eyes. "is something wrong?"

"kiss me, please." you beg.

and he obliges, pressing a sweet kiss on your soft lips then moaning in your mouth when you resume riding him. "fuck, love you so much."

"l-love you too, diluc. s'much. love you so much!" you cry out as diluc lifts you up and starts pistoning his cock erratically in your oozing cunt. your back reacts to the overwhelming amount of pleasure by arching, causing your chest to press against his.

diluc's grip on your waist grew tighter as he neared his orgasm, now all he needed was to feel you cum on his cock. "so good, sweetheart... love your pussy... love you..." he mumbles, pressing open mouth kisses to your collarbone. then his cock hit that spongy spot deep inside you and caused you to spiral into your once impending orgasm.

you sobbed as you came, grabbing a hold of diluc's hair as you shook from the sheer amount of pleasure he gave you. from feeling your body shake and your cunt contract around him, diluc's orgasm reached it’s peak and you felt his cock twitch inside of you before his seed flooded your womb.

୨୧ WRIOTHESLEY

❥₊ ⊹ once winter hits in fontaine, there tends to be less to do in the fortress of meropide. there's no work to do, no herbs to gather for sigewinne because all the plants on the surface are dead for the season, and the production of parts for mekas has slowed down immensely. the sanctum becomes dull, boring, and cold. extremely cold. which is why you're thankful for the fireplace that wriothesley had installed in his office.

the warmth from the burning wood accompanied by the warmth, and pleasure, your boyfriend was providing you was perfect.

"doing so good for me, princess..." he groans, he has you on your back on the blue chesterfield placed in front of the fireplace, legs resting around his wide waist while he splits you open with his thick cock.

"hng... w-wrio, shit!" you moan, wriothesley's pace was unrelenting. he didn't care if anyone heard how loud you were being, the messy sounds of him fucking you amazingly was already reverberating throughout the room.

wriothesley had a strong grip on you, fingertips digging almost painfully into your hips. you felt fucking incredible, your sloppy little cunt was practically dragging him deeper and begging for him to cum inside. to fill you completely, to mark you as his.

each thrust into your pussy was calculated, precise, and accentuated, making the mix of your arousal and wriothelsey's precum ooze out from inside of you. he could tell that you were going to cum soon, you were moaning louder, your fingers were leaving red, hot, angry lines in their wake on the lateral muscles of his back, and you were clamping down impossibly tighter on his cock.

"y'gonna cum soon, baby? good fucking girl. cum all over my dick. make a mess." he coos, pulling his cock almost completely out, leaving only his tip in before ramming it back inside of you.

"mhm! gonna cum! wrio, oh m'god!" you hiccup, then moan louder as he brings one of your legs to rest on his broad shoulders with one hand while the other reaches down and toys with your clit.

the knot in your stomach finally snaps and you cry out as you cum hard, and everywhere. your arousal covered wriothesley's cock and lower abdomen, nearly soaking him completely. tears begin to flood your eyes at the intensity of your orgasm and wriothesley continuing to fuck you, "please, please cum inside." you babble.

"oh, fuuuck." wriothesley moans, fucking into you at a quicker pace to reach his orgasm. then when he cums, warmth spreads across your stomach and you feel him covers your walls in white.

when wriothesley pulls out of your messy pussy, a string of yours and his arousal is connected to his cock. "i really made a mess of you, huh?" he chuckles.

"shut up!" you laugh, sitting up and throwing a pillow at him.

୨୧ CHILDE

❥₊ ⊹ while it's well known about the rigid extremities of winters in snezhaya, and not being from there, they felt particularly more... harsh, on you because you're not used to them.

so when childe asked you to come with him to visit his family for the holidays, you thought you were prepared by packing and wearing extra layers but you were proved very, very wrong. and because your boyfriend is ever so caring, he realized how much you were struggling to conserve heat and brought up another idea on how to keep you warm.

"a-ajax... we shouldn't, your family is in the other room." you weakly protest, clearly not completely against his idea because when he pulls down your panties, almost pathetically a string of arousal is connected to them.

"yeah?" he chuckles, "your pussy says otherwise, babe."

"don't say things like that!" you whisper-yell.

"mhm... whatever you want..." childe mumbles, too enamored by your glistening cunt. "i'm putting it, okay?"

"'kay..." you say, your hands tightly grab at the counter in the washroom when you feel how his thick cock sinks into you. "o-oh..."

"shiiit... you sure you didn't want to do this?" he teases before bottoming out completely.

"hng!" you begin to moan out before childe puts two fingers in your mouth.

"i know baby, i know... but you gotta stay quiet..." he lightly scold, still thrusting his cock in and out of your sopping pussy. "so fucking pretty. prettiest girl in the world. so lucky you're all mine." childe watches the way the your ass recoils at each snap of his hips like he's in a trance, truly you were a sight to see.

he was reaching so deep inside of you and you wish you could scream it to the high heavens. your eyes rolled to the back of your head at the stimulation, you could feel your slick and his cum make a mess between your thighs and you didn't know how much longer your legs could hold you up.

as if he could read your mind, childe pulls out abruptly and you whine at the loss of contact before he manhandles you into turning around and picking you up to have half of your ass on the edge of the counter.

"wrap your legs around my waist..." he whispers in your ear and you do so. childe thrust the entire length of his cock back into your cunt and your arms fling around his neck, grabbing at the short hairs of his head.

"o-oh my god... ajax!" you sob, trying to grab onto anything or everything to keep you anchored onto him. his pace was erratic and you swore at the angle he was fucking you at, you could feel him in your stomach.

"so. fucking. tight." childe growls in your ear. even though the two of you were trying to be quiet, the sounds of skin on skin was filling the room with your silent moans. and the tie in your stomach was about to snap, you were about to cum, hard.

"fuck, fuck, fuck... 'm cumming, a-ajax! oh my go—-" and then he stopped.

"what? why did you do that?" you begin to question until childe put his finger to his mouth and hushing, then thats when you heard it.

knock! knock! knock!

"ajax, sweetie? is y/n alright in there?" you hear childe's mom on the other side of the door.

"yeah, mom!" he yells back. "she's just a little cold!"

flseur © all rights reserved, do not repost, take inspo from my layouts or themes, translate, or claim as your own.

[thezombieprostitute]

Would werewolf Steve take me apple picking and help me bake apple pie and let me boop his nose with flour? I’m in a very fall mood today.

I haven't thought about Werewolf Steve in such a long time!

Warnings: Mild/implied smut.

The Northern Forests are absolutely gorgeous this time of year. All the different leaf colors make the forest look breathtaking. The only thing more beautiful, to Steve, was you.

It's been over a year since you woke up to a muscly, hairy man rowing you down the river to get medical assistance. In that time you and Steve grew closer than he imagined he could ever let himself get. You were more curious than afraid of his wolf side. You showed him unending trust that he longed to live up to. You even got him willing to go out and interact with people more and more.

While the two of you were living in the middle of nowhere, you focused on your nature photography and conservation efforts, and Steve found himself getting back into painting and drawing. It was a side of himself he had shut down in favor of keeping himself, his wolf, under control. After his first transformation around you, where you hadn't run in fear, and he hadn't attacked you, Steve soon learned his wolf needed freedom, not a prison. His artistic side, his protective nature, his need to look after others, those were the things that would keep his wolf side from destroying everything around him.

So when the autumn hits, Steve is more than happy to take you to some of the nearby farms and orchards. He's gone from being a recluse to feeling excited to go out and do things with you. He makes sure you don't have to do any of the heavy lifting, almost appearing to have inhuman strength until you chide him. He can be a little careless about keeping his werewolf nature a secret when it comes to showing off for you.

Other than that, things go well until you have an almost literal run-in with one of the young men working at the orchard.

"Ope, sorry about that, Ma'am," the young man quickly apologizes.

"It's fine," you assure. "I should've looked where I was going."

Steve is standing behind you, your back to his chest. You swear you can feel his growl. The young man makes the briefest eye contact with him before ducking his head and carefully backing away, still apologizing. You try to turn around to look at him but Steve wraps his arms tightly around you and runs his nose along your neck.

"Steve, you can't do that," you scold him. "It was an accident."

"He touched you," Steve quietly growled. "Almost hurt you."

"Steve? Are you...are you okay?"

He nips your neck, making your breath hitch. "Need to get you home."

"We gotta pay for these apples, first," you tell him. He grumbles but acquiesces.

At home, Steve doesn't even let you grab the apples out of the truck, mumbling promises of getting them later. He's thrown you over his shoulder and is carrying you into the house. You laugh and call him a caveman, causing him to smack your ass. He gets you on the couch before ripping your clothes off of you and throwing your legs over his shoulders.

Several hours later Steve keeps his promise of getting the apples for you. You're sitting at the table because your legs aren't working at the moment. He actually looks guilty as he places the baskets of apples on the table for you.

"I'm sorry about that," he says. "I don't know what came over me. I just...I know it was an accident but seeing that guy touch you, I...I guess I got a little..."

"Territorial?" You finish for him.

"Yeah, that," he nods. "I had this uncontrollable urge, a need, to cover you in my scent. Mark you as mine."

"Well you certainly succeeded," you chuckle. "Now get to helping me peel and slice some of these apples for pies."

Steve smiles. Domestic bliss was something he was certain he'd never be allowed after becoming a werewolf. But you've upturned his world in the best possible ways. You turned this place from a house to a home, making it a refuge, not a Fortress of Solitude. As you carry on with the baking, filling the kitchen with the delightful aromas of apples and cinnamon, Steve still can't keep his hands off of you. His excuse is that you were so weak kneed before he's gotta keep his arms wrapped around you so you don't fall. He doesn't even bat an eye when you boop his nose with a flour covered finger. He just wipes off the flour by nuzzling your neck, making you laugh.

As the night approaches, Steve's wolf becomes more awake. Steve can tell it's trying to get his attention about something but he can't figure it out. That night he's more restless than usual, but it's nowhere near the full moon. Not wanting to worry you, he tells you he's going to go do a territory check to burn off some energy. Though he's gotten better about transforming in front of you, he still waits until he's sure you're asleep before doing so.

In wolf form, Steve takes a deep breath, gathering information. There is something different. Something that wasn't there before. He wants to investigate it but his wolf form is in charge and is insistent on doing the territory check. It seems extra focused on security. He spends much of the night making his rounds before finally investigating the source of the new scent. As he gets closer to home, the scent shows up again. It grows stronger as he gets inside the house. Maybe it's the apples? The baking? Steve thinks. He swears he feels his wolf roll its eyes at him.

They get to the bedroom where you're sleeping and that's when it hits him. She's pregnant! Steve's wolf lightly growls in confirmation. The two are aligned in this moment in their desire to keep you, and their pup, safe. But how is Steve going to tell you?

Tagging: @alicedopey; @darsynia; @delicatebarness; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @ronearoundblindly

[seat-safety-switch]

Children love nothing more than a castle. Adults, too, but we have to be more conservative in our approval of it. We have to impress the other adults about how practical we are. Maybe slap the bricks a little and go "this must cost a fortune to heat!" I'm here to tell you that you can enjoy a castle for what it is: a bunch of cool bricks that were once the site of brutal and cruel mass deaths.

Sure, there's lots of castles that were never sieged or even singed. These are fake ones, usually somewhere in North America, where the castle proved to not be a sufficient defence against roving gangs of feral cowboys.

Here, the situation is often that a rich person looked in a magazine, saw a cool picture of a European fortification, and then asked a bunch of masons to "build me one like that." Respectable, of a sort, but not a real castle. Doesn't matter: you can still enjoy them. The rich person sure did, unless they mixed it up with several dozen of their other castles and just never bothered getting around to enjoying the fruits of their workers' labour.

There are a couple problems to practical enjoyment of North American castles. For starters, many of them are still privately owned. The residents no doubt strut around their homes, pretending to be princes and earls and duchesses. Is it a weird sex thing? Nobody knows for sure, but NASA research is strongly pointing towards "yes." Those ones are probably off the table for most people reading this. That said, if you do purchase your own castle, let me know so I can come by and take a picture of my Dodge Viscount in front of it. Get it? Viscount?

Even with those ones removed from general circulation, you can probably enjoy one of many public castles. These are often placed in public parks that were spontaneously created when a rich person died and dropped their loot, like in the popular computer game Murder Rich People And Take Their Shit. For only a few bucks (for preservation purposes: remember, it costs a fortune to heat these things, not to mention the rising cost of castle wax) you too can enjoy the fortress lifestyle. And if you bring your own king and queen outfits and turn it into a weird sex thing? I won't call the cops if you don't tattle on my use of the horse stables as temporary overflow parking.

[reality-detective]

Diego Garcia: The Hidden Military Fortress with Secrets to Unveil

What’s Diego Garcia?

A 17-square-mile atoll in the Indian Ocean, strategically placed between Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It's an isolated paradise turned into a heavily fortified U.S. military base, ominously dubbed "Camp Justice."

The Hidden Truth Behind Its Beauty

Once home to 2,000 Chagossians, the island was seized by Britain and leased to the U.S. in 1966. The inhabitants? Forcibly removed, their pets gassed, homes destroyed—all to make way for military domination.

A Black Site Shrouded in Mystery

Diego Garcia is more than just a base; it's suspected to be a CIA "black site," a place where the unthinkable happens—torture, interrogation, and the silencing of secrets. Leaked memos and whistleblowers hint at atrocities, but proof remains elusive.

Alien Technology or Advanced Weaponry?

Rumors swirl that Diego Garcia houses underwater bases linked to alien tech. Satellite monitoring, deep-space tracking, and advanced surveillance systems make this base one of the most secretive on Earth.

A Legacy of Exploitation

The U.S. spent billions on this facility, using it as a launchpad for invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, the islanders remain exiled, their pleas for justice ignored under the guise of environmental conservation—a thinly veiled excuse to maintain control.

Question Everything

Why remove every trace of human life? Why deny resettlement while militarizing the island to extremes? What’s buried beneath those pristine beaches?

The Elite’s Doomsday Fortress?

Diego Garcia isn’t just a military base; it’s a hub for secret operations and possibly a safe haven for the elite in times of global collapse. As they fortify their control, the rest of us are left to wonder—what are they really preparing for?

The storm is coming, and Diego Garcia might just be its eye. 🤔

[thewiglesswonder]

You know the TFA Decepticons aren’t an oppressed minority right? DJW even said their Rise Up rhetoric was a jab at how conservatives preach about Protecting Freedoms, and in the Allspark Almanac it’s explained they wanted to colonize other planets and the Autobots objected to that. The Decepticons were exiled for being military fascists.

I'd really, really love to know where I've ever said that on this blog, but since you seem very convinced that I did, let's look at the lore again. I don't feel like trawling the internet for this specific tweet/whatever form this DJW evidence has, so if you have that, I'd love to see it.

This timeline from the Allspark Almanac II pretty clearly states that the entire crux of Cybertronian society as a whole has rested on colonization, very early on in their species' history. Their "Golden Age" 8 billion stellar cycles ago is characterized by expansion that led to the colonization (!!!) of their solar system, further colonization only prevented by isolationism.

The earliest indications of the factional split that mark their history exist within the ruling class Guardians and the Malignus, defined as a "military caste". This implies that Golden Age Cybertron existed as a caste system. Which I would take a guess as not being particularly great.

And when we get to the first (again, quoted from the text here,) "military coup", it's executed by the political ancestors of the Autobots. Not a peep about the Malignus while that was going on.

This faction eventually becomes the Protectobots, and the most notable thing about them is that their leader attempted a Great Purge of "undesirable elements" from their society. I'd be hard pressed to think I'm wrong in thinking that's kinda fucked up. We're not given explicit reasons for this 17 million year war, but wars don't happen without someone to oppose someone else, and we get this in the form of the Destrons.

As for the point about colonization: my point is not that the Decepticon's motivations are not what we see in canon. Not at all. My point is that the Autobots have the same fucking motivation.

The Age of Expansion literally begins when the Autobots take power! It only ends when they butt heads with the Quintessons! Colonization, militarism, and facism, as you put it, are not traits that are unique to Decepticons.

And, according to this timeline and historical reasoning given, there is no mention of either faction's position on further expansion. The formation of the Decepticons is rooted in the divide between labor and military aligned Cybertronians. Both sections are equally responsible for the imperialistic efforts of their Empire/Commonwealth/whatever you want to call it, and make no mistake, this does continue into the present day! From both factions!

Assuming you're referring to my hefty lean towards the Cons in terms of character/exploration interest in the gist of your message, my goal here is not to elevate them to the same Good Guy Status the Autobots have by virtue of being the protagonists. I am fully and completely aware that they are a group of insane zealots that have rallied under a guy who was described by his own VA as an "elegant bully". Rather, I think what you're picking up on is my focus on the fact that the Autobots in Animated have more than their fair share of insidious shit going on.

They retain what is essentially a military dictatorship, with the position of Magnus being only theoretically beholden to the will of the Council and Guilds, as seen when Sentinel was able to fire Fortress Maximus with no approval from the Council and got nothing more than a disapproving sentence from Alpha Trion. We have no word on how their schooling institutions work, but all of it seems heavily centered on their version of the military they've concocted in the absence of warbuilds. And, just in case we forgot about Sentinel's proposed budget...

And that's not even getting into how fucked up Autobot culture is! They're unspeakably xenophobic, throw around propagandistic phrases like they're nothing ("Cogs in the Great Autobot Machine", anyone?), have an incredibly questionable justice system if Wasp is anything to go by, and this only seems to be getting worse at the end of Season 3, if Sentinel's curfews and public service announcements are anything to go by.

I'm not trying to make the Decepticons look better. I'm trying to make the Autobots look worse.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Finished the megan phelps roper autobio a few days ago. Left me with some thoughts.

The first thing to say is that it was very well written and interesting, especially earlier on pre-exodus, in its portrayal of the wbc. There was smth especially captivating about how she described what was essentially a soft coup within the church transforming it from a consensus-run collective to a formalised patriarchal gerontocracy—its worth reading if for no other reason than to get an insiders visceral feeling of what its like to live in that kind of an activist/religious community from birth

There is this tone the book adopts, tho, especially towards the end, which is obviously absolutely integral to its appeal but nevertheless offputting to me. Its a sort of contrite attitude, portraying her decision to leave and denounce the church as an act of penance for the vile crime against humanity of living a life of Hate. Again, clearly the book wouldnt sell without that line, its the essence of her entire personal brand as an author and speaker (the high market value of which—tho she ofc does not say this in print—must have featured at least somewhat in her decision to leave, if by no other means than relieving certain anxieties about her ability to sustain herself afterward). So its not surprising she would put it so front and centre.

But approaching this penitence objectively it just seems... kind of misplaced? Not that i have anything against public acts of apology and grovelling! But, frankly, its hard to read the account and not conclude she is much more of a victim than anyone she protested or besmirched into hurt feelings. Partly by her family in the form of the inevitable abuse attendant upon being raised in that kind of insular fortress community—tho she does a good job not lazily smearing them as some kind of sadistic cult, part of why i thought her description was so interesting and insightful. But also by counterprotesters and others riled up by her churchs activism: she describes their having faced sexual harassment, physical intimidation and violence, even arson in the face of what were clearly and pointedly constitutionally protected exercises of free speech. All of the former manifestly worse than the latter. Often with cops looking the other way! In a just world these targets of her "hate" would have a lot more apologising to do to her than the other way around

The book even caused me to reconsider the degree of my disgust with their most notorious practice: funeral picketing. Not having followed the pickets at the time super closely, i had interpreted them reflexively as incursions (perhaps constitutionally protected, but still unwarranted) on private family grief, turning what would be a personal act of mourning into a spectacle of vitriol and political grandstanding both ways. So i was surprised to hear the familys official statement on the matter:

So long as the families, military, media, veterans groups, and community-at-large, use funerals or memorial services of dead soldiers as platforms for political patriotic pep rallies, we will continue to picket those pep rallies. If they put the flags down and go home, we’ll go home. Not before then.

This seems basically entirely levelheaded, aside from my disagreement with the object level views they were voicing at these events. Privacy is a two-way street: if you are going to turn yr sons funeral into a patriotic circus, you cant fairly complain about ppl returning fire with a concurrent anti-patriotic circus. No heat, no kitchen. I suspect the actual operative principle in many ppls minds is that it doesnt alter the sacrosanct private character of the funeral to engage in socially normative politicising, but socially abnormal politicising crosses the line. Which is just clearly a grotesque and inherently conservative (derogatory) unprincipled distinction to draw

Speaking of which: its sort of tricky to place the church as conservative/rightwing or liberal/leftwing at all. Even setting aside fred phelps earlier and very laudable struggle against institutional racism. In some sense they were part of the rightwing backlash to gains in gay rights, but not in a way that dovetailed with any serious rightwing political projects on that front. They were the paradigmatic doomers: there was no point engaging in legal efforts to stem the marriage tide, say, bc the american experiment as a whole had incurred gods wrath and was living on borrowed time. To the extent they did have any significant legal impact, it was overwhelmingly positive: they were the ones that brought us snyder v phelps, a heroic win for freedom of speech. They remind me as much as anything of a certain kind of maoist sect, like revcom, not just in style but in content (fervent anti-americanism, racial equality, confidence that The End Is Nigh and the only serious question is how to respond to this imminent demise of the existing order, free speech fundsmentalism clearly for instrumental reasons joined with strict internal censorship, even a version of "no investigation, no right to speak!" inculcated from early childhood)

I think one of my first ever posts on my old blog was on this topic with a nascent, less informed version of the views im expressing here. Some forms of freezepeach contrarianism are just part of my unchanging core ig

[creepycrag]

In early versions of Team Fortress 2, there was an install option that allowed users to conserve hard drive space by loading map data from removable media. Initial physical releases included map discs for Dustbowl, Granary, Gravel Pit, Well, 2fort, and Hydro. This functionality was patched out of the Steam release due to disuse, but was retained in the Xbox 360 version due to the popularity of physical media on the platform.

[kirame90]

I tried to include them all but I'm not entirely sure... Of course I couldn't put all the NSFW smex faxes here because some of them had d!cks and s€m€n all over their faces... but I tried.

So yeah, just a tiny sneak peek of the NSFW pieces on my charity Patreon where all the pledges are donated to different non-profits each month. There are also animatics, random silly comics, SniperSpy with their kiddies and stuff.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Universal categories and representations about pristine, people-free nature have emerged and powerfully informed the conservation of tropical habitats, from rainforests to deserts. These dominant narratives carry little, if any, regard for Indigenous and local ways of knowing, using, and living in these landscapes (i.e., Indigenous territories). The notion of wilderness is one such category that has arisen from the Enlightenment and imperial processes, and continues to cast high value, biodiverse spaces as pristine and people-free environments that are in need of preservation: supposedly, the very antidote to the Anthropocene. Despite decades of critique and resistance during and after the colonial era, a resurgence of the wilderness myth around the world has once again found traction among large international nongovernmental organizations, private philanthropists, major foundations, and corporations, and certain nation-states who seek to reimpose aspects of “fortress conservation,” whereby Indigenous and local peoples are excluded from land and the life it gives.

Wilderness: Origin. Old English wildēornes ‘land inhabited only by wild animals,’ from wild dēor ‘wild deer’ + -ness.

Rather than enlighten and save humanity, wilderness thinking has facilitated the perverse outcome of landscapes being idealized, imagined, and managed as intact, high-value biodiversity areas free from human disturbance. In many respects, such narrow interpretations of forest landscapes have justified the inhumane eviction of Indigenous and local peoples from their homelands following annexation as parks and protected areas, driving dispossession and conflict similar to the colonial period across the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Australia. The Wilderness Project and efforts to map and classify high-value, intact wilderness zones (many of which overlap with the tropics and regions with high Indigenous populations), continue to this day.

Indigenous knowledge and the shackles of wilderness

[bradleysass]

Cozy Blankets - @noblehouseofgay - word count: 567 - 25 Days of Jegumas

The wind howled outside, a bone-chilling sound that sent shivers down Regulus Black’s spine. He hated storms, always had. This one was particularly fierce, the kind that left snow piled waist-high and made it impossible to leave the cottage. To make matters worse, the electricity had flickered off an hour ago, plunging the house into darkness, save for the few candles James Potter had managed to find and light.

“Bloody hell, it’s freezing!” James muttered, stomping back into the living room. His breath puffed out in visible clouds. “The heater’s gone, too.”

Regulus curled tighter on the couch, his sharp features pinched with discomfort. He wasn’t one to complain out loud, but James could see it in the way his shoulders hunched. His dark hair was slightly mussed, and his pale hands were tucked under his arms in an attempt to conserve warmth.

“Stay put,” James said, disappearing down the hall.

Regulus rolled his eyes, muttering, “Not like I’m going anywhere in this tundra.”

Moments later, James returned carrying what could only be described as an obscene number of blankets. The pile towered over him, a colorful mishmash of flannel, wool, and fleece.

“Planning to build a fortress?” Regulus quipped, though his teeth chattered as he spoke.

James ignored the sarcasm and dropped the mountain of blankets onto the couch beside him. “We’re going to survive this blizzard the proper way: with layers of cozy warmth and an obnoxious amount of cuddling.”

Regulus raised an eyebrow, but before he could protest, James was already unfolding the first blanket—a thick, navy blue one that looked like it had seen years of use—and tossing it over Regulus’s lap.

“I don’t need—”

“Shush,” James interrupted, pulling another blanket from the pile. He draped it over Regulus’s shoulders this time, then grabbed yet another and began wrapping it snugly around his middle.

By the fourth blanket, Regulus stopped protesting. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but sink into the growing cocoon of warmth.

“Better?” James asked, flashing that infuriatingly charming grin of his.

Regulus scowled half-heartedly. “Marginally.”

Satisfied, James plopped down beside him, pulling another blanket from the stack and wrapping it around his own shoulders. He shuffled closer, practically pressing himself against Regulus’s side.

“James, what are you—”

“Body heat,” James said matter-of-factly. “It’s scientifically proven to keep you warm. Besides, I’m freezing too.”

Regulus hesitated for a moment, then sighed, leaning into James’s warmth. “You’re insufferable.”

“And yet, you tolerate me,” James said smugly, pulling the edge of the blanket cocoon tighter around them both.

The storm raged on outside, but inside their little nest of blankets, it was warm and quiet. James pressed a kiss to Regulus’s temple, his glasses fogging slightly from the lingering chill.

“I don’t know how you managed to live in that icebox of a house growing up,” James murmured. “You deserve to be swaddled like this every winter.”

Regulus’s lips twitched into something resembling a smile. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculously in love with you,” James shot back, snuggling closer.

Regulus didn’t reply, but he didn’t need to. His head tilted to rest on James’s shoulder, his eyes drifting shut as the blankets and the steady rhythm of James’s breathing lulled him into comfort.

Outside, the storm might have been relentless, but here, wrapped in James’s warmth and surrounded by his ridiculous collection of blankets, Regulus thought he might be able to endure it.