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lifeofyellowpearl · 5 years ago

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Yellow Pearl Goes Over Old Files: Operation Backtrack

Author’s Note: Well this is embarrassing. I’m sorry for disappearing on y’all like that. I won’t go into too much detail but I had a mental health crisis that needed tending to. I’m much better now and hope to restart frequently posting again!

It was during my continued perusal through the old archive files that yet another document of both historical and personal significance stood out to me. A military report pertaining to an operation wherein The Diamonds had hoped to retake a major spaceport that had been seized by The Crystal Gems. As I thoughtfully observed its contents, I could not help but focus in on the title: “Operation Backtrack.” There were numerous battles throughout the war, but few stood apart in terms of seminality in such a way as the battles of “Operation Backtrack” and the devastating events preceding.

It was up until this point in the war, that the menaces of The Crystal gems were willfully deemphasized within the minds of The Diamonds. That this band of lowlife miscreants could pose a true threat to one of our colonies was a possibility which the diamonds were yet hesitant to acknowledge. But this unthinkable prospect was growing harder to dismiss and what was witnessed at Spaceport Eta – 18 of Facet 12 made it nigh impossible. Indeed, our enemies were lacking in military experience and the authority of Rose Quartz was periodically put to the test by increasing incidents of internal variance. Nevertheless, these vulnerabilities were offset by the creativity and innovation for which Rose Quartz was widely known. The magnitude of her métiers was put on full display during the extraordinary takeover of Eta-18.

A collection of crystal gem forces had been gathering on the south Eastern coast of facet 6 as revealed to us by our spy satellites. No sooner after this confounding revelation did a suspiciously serendipitous pall materialize over the area, frustrating any and all areal observation. When the pall finally began to dissipate, no trace of the enemy’s presence could be found. Further consultation with ground forces could reveal no clue as to where these gems had gone, for the number of enemy forces had remained constant on all fronts – save the inevitable casualties of war. Following a weeks-long period of infuriating stalemates and a relative quiet that drove even the most rational minds to give way to the throes of speculative paranoia, a two-pronged attack of memorable proportion was finally launched off the western coast of facet 12 by the Crystal Gems! In an uncharacteristically shameful display of panic and irrationality, our forces dissolved into a rout as their respective commanders tried in vain to maintain order in between their desperate and tearful cries for backup.

The commanders frantically spoke of titanic beasts of a particularly indescribable hideousness emerging from the ocean just two kilo-units off the coast among a horrifying fanfare of tidal waves and oceanic mist. Upon the shoulders, backs, and stationary palms of these creatures rested artillery units from whom our forces were subject to merciless bombardment. The creatures then began to approach the beaches as Crystal infantry emerged from the waterline in unprecedented numbers, overwhelming our forces and ultimately driving them further inland.

It was later revealed that The Crystal Gems had trekked across the ocean floor from facet 6 all the way to facet 12, hauling with them artillery for which their leading weapons engineer had built special deep-sea pods to protect against the natural perils of the ocean deep. The “beasts” in question turned out to be hetero-fusions of an especially disgusting sort, that to even recount such an indecent display of offensiveness stoked feelings of unequivocal revulsion among the unfortunate quartzes who laid eyes on those…things. The coastal spaceport was soon surrounded and captured within days. This gave our enemies an established presence in the eastern hemisphere as well as a beachhead within facet 12. Not to mention the control they now had over one of our few spaceports.

Due to the infancy of the Earth Colony, spaceports were sparse. The port which had been seized, Eta-18 Fascet-12, was one of only few at this early point in the colony’s maturation. Moreover, at the onset of the rebellion, the interstellar ports served an additional function as military posts through which troops and supplies could be brought in and distributed in accordance with the needs of our ground forces. What’s more, this port was the biggest and most prominent and now there were rumors circulating that our enemies had plans to take to the stars in their campaign. There was much speculation surrounding the potential machinations of the Crystal Gems and while the Diamond Authority was reluctant to publicly confirm or deny any such rumors, recent findings by The Crystal Gem Intelligence Commission – which had been given a second chance - had forced the diamonds to quietly lend, at the very least, some degree of credence to the hearsay. The Crystal Gems, as it seemed, had intentions to capture our mines in the asteroid belt and now, with the capture of Eta-18, they had the means to do just that. These asteroid mines, in the wake of this conflict, had come to be an invaluable part of an expansive – albeit hastily constructed – interstellar supply line. The surprise by which this tenacious rebel faction caught us compelled from The Diamond Authority an admittedly cursory response, allotting time for minimal organization. Consequently, the fragility of our supply line’s integrity was highly conspicuous. Even a minor disruption would collapse the entire interstellar nexus, crippling our military efforts for weeks, possibly months!

With all this in mind, it was evident that attached to this port was a significance beyond that of a tactical setback. It was concluded that this seizure was but a component within the larger scope of a full-scale military operation that the crystal gems had been planning for months. This was extremely troubling, as an operation of such sophistication was well beyond the capabilities of some scantily organized band of rebels. Indeed, such a feat could only have been executed by no less than a truly cohesive military force – one that could realistically stand against Homeworld’s armies. For this reason, the loss of this port was cause for great alarm and speculation – much of which, despite The Diamond Authority’s best efforts, could not be put at ease. Consequently, no expense, resource, nor soldier would be withheld in our efforts to reclaim Eta-18, that confidence in the military, as well as the great authority it serves to represent may be fully restored.

Preparation began on both sides as everyone was operating under the assumption that The Crystal Gems would take advantage of their new position and push further into to facet 12 while Crystal Gem naval units would prepare for an asteroid belt campaign. However, just as we underestimated the capabilities of The Crystal Gems, so too did everyone overestimate the limits of Rose’s naivete. We were stunned to hear that Rose Quartz was “offering us” an opportunity to sue for peace. This was the latest of many attempts by the foolish rebel to bring about a diplomatic end to this conflict. It had seemed that Rose Quartz believed that a bombastic display of military might would force the Diamonds into submission, reasoning that the Diamonds would not risk the potential humiliation of losing more assets to the rebel armies.

Jaws were dropping to the ground as news of this began to spread. We would later learn that even some of The Crystal Gems were appalled by Rose’s decision. However, aside from a few detractors – their weapons engineer being among the most vocal, many of The Crystal Gems simply elected to trust that Rose knew what she was doing. This was good news for the diamonds and created a greater sense of hope in any and all future plans to retake Eta-18. In an effort to buy time, Rose was led to believe that a peaceful resolution was indeed within her grasp. Meanwhile, enemy forces dug in, maintaining defensive positions and a temporary cease-fire was declared. This allotted us precious time to regroup and adequately prepare to retake the base in the operation codenamed, “Operation Backtrack.”

Among the many prerequisites upon which the success of this enterprise relied was the element of surprise. It was imperative that the Crystal Gems be allotted as little preparation as possible; to the end that our armies would have nothing with which to contend save a weak and sparsely fortified perimeter. So, we poured as many resources as we could into counterintelligence, that documentation of our eventual attack would never meet the sinister and increasingly ambient eyes of our rebel foes. Given the unalloyed extensiveness of our counterintelligence efforts, we saw no reason as to why any information regarding this operation should reach The Crystal Gems. And yet, as our armies mobilized in preparation for the operation’s day of execution, word had gotten back to us of the extensive fortifications which were being set up by our enemies around the perimeter of the commandeered spaceport. This was troubling news as these fortifications were being made in clear anticipatory preparation of an oncoming attack. What’s more, enemy forces had resumed their fire. That the gems had been made aware of our operation, was an obvious and generally uncontested suspicion among the commanders as well as the diamond authority. One of the many ever-increasing failures of our counterintelligence measures.

As much as My Diamond wanted to address the potential source of information leakage from our intelligence departments, she hadn’t the time. As the Crystal Gems were embattling the Eta-18 perimeter in earnest, it was imperative that we lay siege to the port as quickly as possible. While the full element of surprise had been lost, our deceptive efforts were not entirely in vain. We had moved enough of our forces to facet-12 that an inland push was nearly impossible, and the asteroid mines were now in retrograde meaning that any efforts to try and capture them at this point would be even more of a logistical nightmare. And so, the mobilization process was expedited and soon our armies went to meet our enemies at Eta-18. The battles of this campaign initially presented themselves as efforts of simplicity; little more than skirmishes that would quickly be overcome. But much to the surprise and consternation of the general, the Diamonds, and the public at large, the battles dragged on much longer than anticipated. Our foes had surprised us with an impressive display of resilience and tenacity. One which forced our reluctant commanders to admit to the Crystal Gems a begrudging respect.

Nevertheless, it all ended in a seemingly decisive victory. One that, from my perspective of innocence, would have surely permitted an abundance of pomp and gaiety of which there could be no surfeit. And yet, My Diamond carried herself in a manner that was not indicative such occasion. When she heard about the outcome of the operation, I saw in her not a look of relief but one of concern and frustration. So far, much to my confusion, this victory had not elicited any proclamations of triumph. The following events would confuse me evermore, for when My Diamond convened with her three companions to discuss further action, they shared in My Diamond’s worried demeanor – save Pink Diamond, who’s demeanor showed an unrelenting sense of guilt and ambivalence. I saw in Pink Diamond an internal struggle of unknown cause; one that would only become more apparent in the coming years. To this day I look back and wonder what it was that provoked within the young diamond such evident inner turmoil.

Another four days would pass without any proclamation of our victory. I concluded that there was, in fact, something I was missing but I couldn’t fathom what it was. Why trouble the public any further with worry by withholding news of this operation’s outcome? Why hesitate in our celebration of our much-needed win? In a creeping moment of temerity, I was tempted to present My Diamond with these inquiries but did all I could to quell the urge for to so boldly ask such things was not within the bounds of a pearl’s conduct. I rightfully chastised myself for even entertaining the thought.

It was in a moment of near spontaneity that My Diamond decided to visit the port, that she may see firsthand the state in which it was left postbellum. Nothing about this was normal. There are a number of attributes that I could ascribe to My Diamond, ‘spontaneity’ not being among them. These inquiries were at the forefront of my mind as My Diamond set a course for Eta – 18. I accompanied My Diamond to her palanquin once our ship arrived at its destination and as I did, I was deafened by her silence.

My Diamond and I entered the palanquin and in an instant, we were jettisoned from the palm of My Diamond’s vessel. The rapid descent and the turbulence it brought about overwhelmed the auditory senses. As I looked out the window, my mind could hardly accept that we were descending as it appeared as though we were static in mid-air. Despite the speed of our descent, the surface below was very slow in gaining prominence. Not to say that there was much I was looking forward to seeing. Even from this distance, I could see that there was nothing below us. Or, to be more accurate, nothing of substance or worth. Simply a vast expanse of organic lifelessness. At this moment in time – save the few traces of modern civilization that we had brought with us thus far – the surface of this world was almost completely exanimate as it was occupied only by useless lifeforms and inanimate resources. Directly below us, the expanse of natural deadness was dichotomized between land and sea. To our east was a seemingly infinite range of worthless lowland vegetation. To our west, an immeasurably empty ocean so vast as though it extended into infinity. A thin serpentine coastline served as a line of demarcation between the two halves of this biotically dead surface. Void was it all of any true substance or vigor, as we had yet to truly breathe life into this planet of primitive nothingness. That is our mission, after all; to create life from the primal nihility of the otherwise lifeless worlds of this universe. I will never even begin to fathom why the Crystal Gems would be so against that.

As we got closer to the planet’s surface, a small yet notable trace of modern civilization began to present itself near the coastline. This was the Eta – 18 spaceport. As we got closer to the ground the speed of our descent gradually became more notable and more details of the port began to present themselves. Though we were still a ways from the surface I was already impressed by the port's magnitude. Boasting an area of nearly 2000 hectares, it was one of the biggest spaceports on Earth thus far. However, there was something strange in its appearance. I was yet unable to place my finger on it but there was almost a disorganized aspect about it. Things just felt out of place and I could not discern why.

I turned to My Diamond who was hunched over, her elbows resting on her thighs and her head resting on the interlocked fingers of her hands. Her eyes were fixed on the ground and on her face, I saw a mild look of dread. She must have caught my regard in her peripherals as her eyes suddenly darted in my direction. Instinctively, I averted my gaze and turned my attention back to the outside.

A great deal of altitude had been lost in those brief moments as we were much closer to the surface and the details of the port’s condition presented themselves in full. Shock and horror overtook me once I observed the doleful state it was currently in. Where I expected to see the magnificent architecture of buildings, hangers, starships, and an enthused and rallied army prepared to reclaim it all in the name of our glorious diamonds, I saw utter and complete destruction and a loose collection of gems sparsely wading through the abject ruination of what was once our prodigious spaceport.

Our palanquin soon landed on what little was left of the landing pad. My Diamond and I stumbled as a small depression caused the palanquin to land slightly off-kilter. We stepped off where we were greeted by the sight of nothing but absolute ruin. Save a sparse number of rogue standing walls, pillars, girders, and corbels - the port, in its entirety, had been reduced to rubble, leveled to the ground upon which these mighty constructs once stood. What truly stuck with me was the absolute completeness of it all. There truly was nothing left. I understood the necessity of airstrikes for the success of the operation but were we so confined in our desperation as to destroy the entire base? No, that couldn’t be right. Such a masochistic act of annihilation would have defeated the entire purpose of our noble enterprise. I turned again to My Diamond, in the vain hope that I may glean some clue as to what happened here. I was deeply troubled when I beheld her demeanor. She stood rigid in a veritable state of awe. Doubtless was it that My Diamond expected to find the port in such a horrid state. That the dreadful details of its condition had been recounted to her many times over was an uncontestable certainty. But no amount of mental imagery, regardless of an utmost vividness bolstered by repeated accounts both oral and written, could prepare her for the reality that presented itself now.

I turned my attention back to the surrounding ruin. There was something about the place, aside from its ghastly aspect, that sparked within me an unshakeable feeling of dread. Perhaps, I postulated, it was the feeling of exposure that occasioned such inexplicable fear. As all the buildings were leveled, I had a full view of the natural nihility that surrounded the port. The miles of terrestrial emptiness to the east – carpeted as it was by its hideous low-growing flora –and the infinitely expansive ocean of deadness to the west. It was disconcerting as it was depressing, being in the presence of such primeval desolation. The overcast above only served to bolster my unease. Normally, our terraform companies would clear the skies of such unpalatable weather happenings in preparation for a visit by a Diamond. But this visit was entirely unplanned and so, no such preparation had taken place.

Still though, I knew that, on its own, the mere sense of exposure to the exanimate natural world was not the only source of my agitation. There was a threat about this place of an ambient nature. One that could not be seen but whose encroaching presence had somehow made itself known to me. I turned again to the ocean and as I did, I found myself troubled by an acutely increased fear whose roots ran deep within the nether realms of my inner gem. I regarded the coastline with timorous curiosity. It seemed as though my intuition was detecting an unknown menace lurking somewhere within the abysmal depths of the hideously organic brine. I turned to observe the gems surveying the damage and as I did, I noticed a common peculiarity among them. Each individual seemed to carry herself in an almost daunted manor. Every so often, one would turn her regard to that repulsive ocean of deadness and in doing so, would briefly indulge herself in a moment of silent trepidation before returning to her work still slightly afeared. These gems, as it seemed, shared in my inexplicable disquiet. I considered it all, the destruction, the aura, the fearful gems. And after a moment of internal deliberation, it all clicked. I realized, at that moment, what truly happened here and why My Diamond behaved as she did.

The expense of Operation Backtrack – In both gem power and material resources – were great. So much that to recoup the losses sustained would take months. I thought about this in trepidation as the fullest extent of the threat posed by The Crystal Gems became known to me.

The battle waged by our foes was not, in its entirety, a defensive one but in part one of external attrition. Upon receiving word of our oncoming siege – no less from a persistently treacherous insider yet to be identified – they indeed foresaw the inevitable fate of their hold on Eta – 18. We had successfully duped the nefarious Rose Quartz but once again, despite her infantile credulity, the ingenuity and inexplicable charisma of Rose Quartz went on full display as she rallied her troops at Eta-18, taking full advantage of their blind fanaticism. The Crystal Gems could not deny the end was near for their venture but rather than flee or make preparations for surrender, they relentlessly embattled their perimeter and held firm. Our general assumed this to be a final act of defiance. A last stand meant to precede a spectacular demise on a monumental scale – one that would jettison the fallen into the glorious realm of martyrdom. This, however, was not their intent, at least not entirely.

Their tenacity had only one end, to force the Diamonds into relentless deployment of their finite military forces. The Crystal Gems knew of the significance with which the Homeworld public regarded the Eta – 18 port and the ends to which the diamonds would go to reclaim it. They were also aware of the eventual end that our armies would bring to their illicit holding on the port.

And so, they secured their perimeter and held firm. Wave after wave was sent but with each advance, Crystal Gems would manage to break a hole in our line forcing us to pull back and close the gap. Eventually, our enemies were pushed back into the sea but not before razing the entire port. This, along with the expenditures of this operation, left a hole in our reserves.

But worse yet, they could still be out there, watching from the depths, rebuilding their numbers through some other unconventional means which we had yet to consider, waiting for the right time to emerge and finish off our remaining troops, to the end that they may further cripple our reserves. Before I realized what I was doing, I found myself gradually moving to My Diamonds right as to create a barrier between myself and the water. I got it now, this was not a defeat, but this was not a victory either. I did not know what to call this but what I did know is that Rose had demonstrated the extent of her weaknesses, but she had also demonstrated the extent of her capabilities. No longer could The Diamond Authority downplay the severity of the threat she posed. My Diamond turned to her left to address me but found that I was not there. She turned to her right about to ask why I had moved, but after regarding the notable fear on my face, she simply said, “Come Pearl. Let’s leave this place. We have much to do.” As we made our way back to the palanquin, I heard her mutter under her breath, “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

Author’s Note: Here’s Operation Backtrack. I had a lot of fun making this one!

#steven universe #Yellow Pearl #yellow diamond #Battle for Earth #fanfic #short story

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dogbearinggifts · 5 years ago

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Beauty in the Mundane, Chapter Three: Odd Ones Out

Author’s Note: This is chapter 3 of my AU answering this petition from @scotty-the-t-rex for Hazel and Agnes to go back in time and adopt the Hargreeves kids. If this is the first time you’re seeing this fic on your dash, you can start with the prologue and move from there, or search all chapters with the tag “hazel and agnes adopt the hargreeves au.”

The whole fic is also available on AO3.

No song inspiration for this chapter title. I just realized I’d given a perspective from all of the odd-numbered kids, in order, and decided to add one from Vanya too.

********

They landed in a motel room—Luther knew that much. The small space, the two beds with nondescript coverings, the nightstand and chair in one corner and bathroom in another all spoke to a dwelling meant to welcome strangers for a few nights before shooing them onward. He’d stayed in a hotel only once before, accompanied by a police officer and social workers while they waited on Louise and Albert to sign paperwork and do whatever else they’d done to bring Luther and his siblings into their home as their foster children.

And now they were dead.

Luther knew he ought to feel something, an emotion so overpowering it dissolved him in tears. That was what Klaus had done when evidence of their deaths intruded on his waking world; and while Dad had said Klaus needed to feel more shame over the constant waterworks, the deaths of two people so kind seemed a good reason to start crying. It seemed fair. It seemed right.

Yet no matter how long he thought about their sudden departures from the world of the living, all he felt was a twisting guilt in his middle.

“You’re…Luther, right?”

Luther looked up. He’d noticed her sink onto the bed beside him, but it hadn’t registered as something important until she spoke. “Yeah.”

“I’m Agnes. How are you doing? Are you feeling okay?”

He felt tired, more so than the night Dad had been taken and the police had asked all those questions. An itch crawled beneath every inch of his skin. His head felt as though someone had punched his brain with a wad of cotton. But he didn’t know if there was time to indulge those weaknesses, so he nodded.

“You sure? Is there anything you need?”

The answer was Yes, but he didn’t know what it was he needed. So he shrugged.

“All right.”

Agnes. He hadn’t heard that particular name before, but it sounded as sweet as she looked.

She repeated her questions and introduction with the rest of his siblings, but she went out of order. Louise had done that too, introducing herself to Allison before moving on to Ben and then Diego. But then, Louise had seemed surprised and more than a little horrified when Luther explained their ranks, so maybe family outsiders just didn’t understand.

“Where’d we land?” she asked once she’d spoken to each of Luther’s siblings in turn.

“1987.” The man’s name was Hazel—Luther remembered that much from the way Klaus had said it. “I’ve got some bills from right around then. Should be enough to get us a room for a night or two.”

“That seems kinda close.”

If that small question of his judgement stoked his anger, Hazel didn’t show it. “I know. But we’ll need some time to figure out where to go next.”

Agnes’ gaze swept over each of the siblings in turn before landing back on Hazel. “We don’t have a lot of options, do we?”

Hazel emptied his pockets onto the small desk. “It’s just a matter of pickin’ the least terrible year with the smallest chance of causin’ a paradox.” He took a seat in the chair, sifting through bills.

This wasn’t unexpected, or shouldn’t have been. If Louise and Albert were dead and Hazel had seen fit to spirit them off to another year in the middle of the night, there was an even greater need to hide as far from 1997 as possible. Of course they’d go further away than 1987. Of course they’d have to consider their destination year carefully. He just figured they’d have thought it all over before finding them and taking them away.

Hazel finished counting out a few bills and stood, tucking them into one pocket, then put those he’d rejected in the other. “I’ll go pay for this room and then we can figure out our next move.”

“You sure they’ll let us have it?”

He snorted. “At this kinda place? That’s one of the more normal requests they get.”

*********

The grown-ups hadn’t left the room to talk.

Hazel had left and returned with a key to the room they occupied. Once he had it in hand, Agnes had turned on the television, clicked through channels until she landed on a program that caught everyone’s interest, and then went to the table by the window to talk with Hazel. Allison knew the program was intended less as a genuine amusement and more as a distraction so she and Hazel could speak a bit more freely, but they both remained there.

“How far back do we need to go?”

Hazel sighed. He’d taken a small handful of coins from his pocket and placed them on the table a few minutes prior, causing Agnes to observe that they might not need to worry about money for a while. He held one of those coins, a gold one, between two fingers as he seemed to turn Agnes’ question over in his mind. Much as Allison longed to move closer and see what was so special about those coins, she remained still.

“We’ve gotta take ‘em far back enough that we’ll avoid a paradox for at least a couple years. Dunno what happens when we cause a paradox, but the Commission went to a fair amount of trouble to avoid ‘em.”

“So we’ll need to go back to before the fifties, since that’s when I was born.”

“You and I should be okay, long as we stay away from anywhere we grew up. Commission’ll be keeping more of an eye on the kids.”

There was that word again: the Commission. Hazel had taken the coins as a means of passive revenge on them—a “middle finger to the Handler,” as he put it—but from all Allison had gathered, they weren’t angry about the coins. Something else had caught their attention, something that had sent them out in search of Allison and her family.

Neither adult had said as much, but it seemed both thought the Commission responsible for whatever had killed Louise and Albert. Dad had never mentioned this Commission, and she’d never heard of it from Louise, Albert, or any of the police officers or social workers she’d spoken to in those days after they took Dad away. He’d predicted other threats—wicked inventors, cults, theatrical villains and general crooks—but the Commission had been clever enough to slip his notice and quick enough to kill both foster parents.

“If we’re gonna play it safe,” Hazel said, “I’d say we need to take ‘em to the forties or fifties at the latest. The 1950s, not the 1650s.”

“The fifties?” Agnes’s voice lacked the shock of incredulity, but there was plenty of uncertainty to make up for it. “Hazel, are you sure?”

“It’s the closest decade where they can actually hide. Sixties might work, but anything past the seventies is too soon. We don’t have to stay forever, either. Once they’re old enough, they can decide what they wanna do.” He paused, set the coin down and nudged another without lifting it. “For what it’s worth, I don’t want to take these kids past the late forties.”

The coins clinked as Agnes gave one a nudge of her own. “I guess if we bought some land, built a house and kept to ourselves, they’d have a better chance at staying out of the public eye.”

“Keep ‘em away from any Commission hires in town,” Hazel agreed. “Give ‘em a chance to just be kids.” He sighed again. “You know anything about farming?”

“I had a little herb garden for a while.”

Hazel said nothing for a long moment, and Allison knew she could get him to say more. Four words, then a few more, and she’d have everything she wanted to know. I heard a rumor you told me all about the Commission. I heard a rumor you told me why we have to hide. I heard a rumor you told me everything.

Luther had said, after they’d been taken from the Academy but before they went to stay with Louise and Albert, that they ought to be careful about using their powers. “Dad said he’d take us out of the Academy when we were ready for the world and the world was ready for us,” he’d said.

“W-w-we’re out now,” Diego had said.

“And Dad’s somewhere else. We’ve gotta be careful.”

Dad knew about her power. He’d always known, as far as she was aware; some of her earliest memories featured him standing over her shoulder, urging her to do it, say it, do as I instructed, Number Three. But she’d never been certain if he always knew when she used it, or if those times when he commanded her to use it were the only moments he was aware. I heard a rumor you let me rest bought her enough time after training to catch her breath and stand without nausea doubling her over, but the memory of what had come after I heard a rumor you didn’t make me train at all next week still brought a shudder. She’d gained a day or two of freedom, but something had happened within them. Maybe her rumors wore off eventually. Maybe Pogo had told. Maybe Dad was only susceptible to smaller rumors, immune to big ones. Whatever the case, she’d pushed too far.

Louise hadn’t seemed to know when Allison used her power, nor had Albert. She hadn’t used it more than a handful of times during their stay, and she still wasn’t sure where the lingering guilt came from. Maybe it was what Luther had said, maybe it was the fact their foster parents still hadn’t known at their deaths. Maybe there had simply been no need for I heard a rumor you let me have whatever I wanted for breakfast when Louise had already placed half a dozen choices on the table. Whatever the case, if Allison could use her power on her foster parents and leave them none the wiser, maybe the same would hold true for Hazel and Agnes.

But then, they knew about her powers—or they knew about Five’s, at any rate. If they could watch Five blink upstairs and back down without so much as a yelp, they could be expecting a rumor. Maybe that wouldn’t change things and maybe it would. She wouldn’t know until she tried.

Agnes lifted a different coin, a bronze one with uneven edges. “These all look so new.”

“Picked ‘em up same year they were minted, most cases.”

“I’ve never tried to sell coins before,” she said, “but won’t they try to check to make sure they’re real or something?”

Hazel said nothing for a long moment. “I can spend a couple weeks in the past, get back in an hour or so.”

“What if they decide it’s fake?”

Again Hazel was silent, but Allison knew an answer would come. He was the grown-up, after all, and he’d found the seven of them in what seemed like the nick of time. He could jump between decades as easily as she could jump from one stair to another. She held her breath in case his eventual words were too quiet for her to hear over her own breathing.

“I don’t know,” Hazel said at last. “Guess we’ll need another plan.”

Allison let out her breath, but it did nothing to calm the fear coiling in her middle. She wanted to burrow under the covers. She wanted to fling open the door and run out in her pajamas, to keep running until she was as far from Hazel and Agnes as they were from the Academy.

I heard a rumor you took us all back.

The words were there in her head, ready to be spoken. If they knew about her powers, if they guessed what she’d done later, if they came for them all again—well, she’d deal with that when it happened. She just wanted to go back to Louise and Albert.

No. She didn’t. She wanted to go back to the Academy. Back to a room that was hers and hers alone, back to Mom humming as she cooked dinner. Back to Pogo and the way he called her Miss Allison, back to training and threats and praise and tears.

Back to Dad.

Allison hugged her knees to her chest, burying her face to hide the welling tears. She knew what a rumor would do to Dad. She knew what she could get and what would get her in trouble, what she could say and what she had to keep in her head. And when she slipped up, when she pushed a rumor further than she should, she knew what the next few days or weeks would be like. With Dad, she knew what to expect.

With Hazel and Agnes, there was no sense in setting expectations at all.

*******

Five wasn’t close enough.

He was close enough to hear specific words over whatever the cartoons on TV were saying. He was close enough to make out the details of their next plan—something involving interest and getting to the year 1929 before the banks started running—but he wasn't there at that table. He wasn’t next to it, wasn’t close enough to loose all of the questions crowding his mind, wasn’t close enough to see the briefcase and examine every lock and latch.

Five looked toward the window that remained firmly shut against the day. It was day—he’d seen as much when Hazel opened the door to head down to the front desk—but he hadn’t seen much else beyond a railing and a parking lot with a few pine trees scattered around. That offered a clue as to where they’d landed, but not a strong one.

“If we wanted to build a farm or something out in the middle of nowhere, there’s a lot of places we could go. Especially back then.” Agnes gave a small sigh. “But we’ll need people eventually. A doctor, a mechanic.”

“I know.”

“And we can’t just make everything ourselves. I mean, I don’t know how to—to make fabric, or milk cows, or anything.” She paused again. “Hazel, are you sure this is a good idea?”

He said nothing for a minute. “California might be our best bet. We’ll handpick some farmhands, pay ‘em well, treat ‘em better. Stay close enough to a town to get supplies, far enough we won’t raise any eyebrows.”

California. It was one of those places Dad had brought up as a location they might one day save, although he hadn’t seemed focused on the whole state so much as its cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego. But those rescues would have taken place in the future, years after his first birthday, not forty years prior to it.

And Hazel hadn’t mentioned saving anyone. Just a farm.

A farm in the fifties.

It wasn’t as far back as they could go, not as far back as Five wanted to see. But it was something. The1950s were a different world, one Five’s history tutors had only revealed in small, tantalizing snatches. It was a world closer than the 1650s or the 1550s or even just the 50s, but now it sat within reach.

“How long’ll that take?”

“Dunno.” Hazel sighed. “But I can get it all going now. Get some money, get the house built, head back and grab everybody.”

Agnes paused. “That sounds like it’ll take a while.”

The trepidation in her tone was palpable, but when Five looked to Hazel, he saw a small smile.

“Time goes different when you’re goin’ from one point to another. Not sure how it all works, but I shouldn’t be gone more than a couple hours.”

They kissed, and Hazel stood. Before Five could form a conscious reason why, he was on his feet. Someone—maybe Allison, maybe Luther—grabbed at his pajamas, but he tore himself free and blinked to the door. Hazel took a half-step backward, blinking in surprise, and Five knew he ought to go back to the bed. Sit with his siblings, watch TV, wait for Hazel to return from his errand in the past.

But Five couldn’t do that any more than he could have eaten bees. He drew a breath and said what he’d come to say.

“I wanna go too.”

*******

Five had done a lot of things that made Vanya question his sanity.

There was the time he’d climbed out onto the fire escape and dangled, one hand gripping the side and one foot planted on the rung, as Dad came barreling down the hall. Or the time he’d added a handful of marshmallows to his morning oatmeal, wolfing half of it down before Dad could ask where he’d been and why it had taken him so long to join the rest of the family at the table. He’d zipped around while Louise’s back was turned, blinked up or down the stairs when Albert had called for him, answering their questions about how he’d gotten there so fast with only a grin.

This, though—this took the cake. Which, in retrospect, shouldn’t have been a surprise, considering what Five had done at their seventh birthday.

Hazel only partially faced the bed, but Vanya could still see the blank surprise written all over his face, as if Five’s question had frightened all of his thoughts away. He blinked, and then he blinked again.

“You, uh, you ever been to the fifties before?”

Vanya couldn’t imagine why he’d ask that question. Five had never been to the fifties—none of them had. Maybe it was a normal sort of question for time travelers, but Five wasn’t that.

“Nope. And I wanna go.”

She held her breath. Hazel’s surprise couldn’t hold out forever. Any second now it would crack, and the anger would pour through. Maybe he’d shout. Maybe he’d hiss displeasure through clenched teeth. Maybe he’d simply take Five by the collar and drag him back to the bed, force him to sit and watch as his first chance at time travel departed to the past.

Maybe he’d decide Five needed to stay here in 1987 while everyone else went to the fifties.

Hazel locked eyes with Agnes. A brief, unspoken conversation passed between them.

“You think you’ll run into any Commission guys?” Agnes said at last.

“Depends on how long we stay. Dunno if they’re tracking the briefcase or not.”

“If they are, and they see him with you….”

“Could send up a false flag. Make ‘em watch the wrong decade, buy us some time.”

Another moment of silence. Another set of looks exchanged. Hazel turned to Five.

“You got any button-down shirts?”

“Yeah!”

“Wear one of those. Blue jeans should be okay, leave the shirt untucked to hide the zipper. No sneakers.”

Inside of a minute, he was in and out of the bathroom, dressed according to Hazel’s directions—although dressed was more a technical term. His pants were unbuttoned, and only the topmost button on his shirt had been fastened. Brown loafers covered his toes, but his heels squashed the backs, and the laces remained undone.

Vanya expected an explosion from one of the grown-ups, but Hazel simply pressed his lips together in a semblance of a smile while Agnes chuckled softly and set about buttoning Five’s shirt.

“I’ll drop him off here once we’ve got some money,” Hazel said as Five shoved his feet into his shoes and tied them properly.

“Let me know how it goes,” Agnes said.

“Will do.”

Five straightened, spreading his arms to show off his buttoned shirt and pants. “I’m ready!”

“Be careful.” Agnes said it to Hazel and finished her statement with a kiss, but looked to Five next. “Both of you.”

“We will.” Hazel took up the briefcase and adjusted a few things, then took Five’s hand.

They were gone in a flash of blue light, leaving Vanya to wonder what might have happened if she had asked to go, too.

*********

Chapter Two

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spoonie-living · 7 years ago

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[Image: Graphic for ChronicBabe 101 review. A cartoon image of the book, which is bright orange and pink with the title in a hand-drawn banner with and surrounded by doodles; pink, sparkly cat-eye glasses.]

Review: ChronicBabe 101

Hello, loves! Editor Diane here, and I’m super stoked to bring you this review of Jenni Grover’s new book, ChronicBabe 101!

First, the basics:

Category: books, advice, spoonie 101, spoonie-made

Good for: spoonies who just need help on the basics of getting by with a chronic illness; caregivers and allies who want to support a spoonie reading this book; libraries; offices of medical providers

Design: 5/5 ★★★★★

Organization: 4/5 ★★★★

Clarity: 5/5 ★★★★★

Accessibility: 3.5/5 (to both disabled folks & marginalized groups) ★★★½

Overall: 4/5 ★★★★

Look, I adore this book. The resources in it so closely echo what I personally want all spoonies to have in their arsenal. I have some criticisms and concerns about accessibility for certain marginalized groups---but in general, I call this one a winner and highly recommend it.

Learn more about the book and hear my thoughts below the cut!

Disclosure: I have been given this product for review. Although the product was a gift, all opinions in this review remain my own and I was in no way influenced by the author (in fact, I asked for this one!)

You will probably not be surprised to hear that I love Jenni, creator of ChronicBabe.com---we post a bunch of her resources on the blog.

Jenni is just bursting with energy and goodwill, which naturally shows through in her writing; ChronicBabe 101 is no different. It invites the reader to join the ranks of Chronic Babes: strong, independent folks who refuse to give up or lie down (metaphorically, at least 😉).

As you may or may not know, I wrote a 101-style zine, Chronically Badass: A Guide For The Young and Chronically Ill, which contained a bunch of advice I wanted to give to new spoonies after having become sick myself. ChronicBabe 101 does the same, distilling all the advice Jenni wants to give folks---but it does so in much greater detail and honestly makes Chronically Badass look like the Cliff’s Notes!

The book covers the following topics:

Acceptance

Breaking bad habits and forming good one

Stopping negative thinking

Establishing and maintaining boundaries

Loving your body

Building a support team

Strengthening relationships

Education and career success

Communication

Getting organized

I really can’t think of better subject matter to include in a book like this; Jenni covers all the important things that we just don’t learn in school or society, and she makes the information friendly and personal to boot. I found myself nodding along as I read, and especially enjoyed her attention to emotional intelligence.

The book reads as a class, including “pop quizzes” and “homework assignments,” which invite you to reflect and act. There’s a “pep squad” section, too, with interviews with both spoonies and folks who work with them.

Finally, there are small asides with caregiver stories and perspectives. These asides were interesting reads and useful to both spoonies and their supporters, but I had a little trouble seeing how they connected to the chapter’s topic sometimes. I also felt like they needed to go a little deeper in order to match the actionable advice in the rest of the book.

My only serious criticism is about the book’s accessibility---not in the disability sense, but in terms of the audience reached or, in this case, left out.

While Jenni certainly invites folks of any genders to be Chronic Babes, her writing often assumes a femme readership and uses asides like “girl” when speaking to the reader. This could really put off readers who aren’t female-identified (or even be triggering to folks with gender dysphoria), which bums me out since she could have made some tweaks to avoid this.

There are also a couple instances where more attention could have been paid to making a diverse readership comfortable. In reading the book I found a few discussions of weight loss that lacked awareness of fatphobia, and a section on sex that kind of erased folks on the asexual spectrum. As with the gender issue, these would be really easy to work around, so I was disappointed to see them show up.

Does that mean I dislike the book? Heck no! The reason I’m critical of its accessibility is because I want it to be accessible to everyone. This book is so, so important to our community, but as it is, I have to recommend it with content warnings.

So: if none of these content warnings apply to you, then I encourage you to read this fabulous book! Head on over to the ChronicBabe 101 website for buying options.

Thanks again, Jenni, for your wonderful book and your valuable contribution to spooniekind! 💝

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pamphletstoinspire · 5 years ago

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Part 6 On Catholic Social Teaching: Solidarity, Part 1

The great Roman playwright Terence said, “I am a man. Nothing human is alien to me.” It’s significant Terence was known for his comedies, since comedy is the art form that focuses most strongly on our weaknesses and our need for help from both divine and human grace and mercy.

In tragedies, the protagonists die isolated in their grandeur: great men and women left in splendid ruins, while lesser beings look on in awe and say, “Now cracks a noble heart!” But in comedies, the quintessential ending is when everybody comes together at a great wedding banquet, and all’s well that ends well. It’s rather like the heaven Jesus constantly compares to a wedding banquet: the marriage supper of the Lamb in which the poor, deaf, blind and lame have the seats of honor. In comedy, we’re all in this together and — being recipients of the Playwright’s grace — we all get our richly undeserved rewards from the Founder of the Feast.

This idea that we’re all in this together — that nothing human is alien to us, and we’re all debtors to gifts and gift-givers, both divine and human, whom we can only repay by similar acts of generosity to one another — is what undergirds the last pillar of Catholic social teaching known as solidarity.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church tells us that solidarity: “is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.”

As with all Catholic social teaching, solidarity has roots in Scripture — as when Paul tells the pagan Athenians, God “made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him” (Acts 17:26-27). Solidarity emphasizes the universality of God’s provision for the human race, as well as his call to us to play an active role in that provision.

Christian faith begins, therefore, with a communal and familial understanding of the human race; because the human race springs from “one” — both the one God in whose image we are made, as well as the “one flesh” union of Adam and Eve, from whom the human race inherits its image both glorious and fallen.

The faith insists God begins with his natural creation, and his grace builds on this nature. Therefore, the Church’s social teaching applies naturally to the whole human race, not merely to Christians — since the whole human race participates in the natural law. That is why the pagan Terence knew, like the authors of Scripture, the goods of human love, family and a meal with friends — as well as the evils of murder, or a broken family, or theft.

The Fourth through the Eighth Commandments don’t tell Israel (or anybody else) something they don’t already know through the proper use of reason, but ground these universally known moral facts in God. Contempt for parents, murder, adultery and theft are bad because they harm the creatures made in God’s image. And since we are those creatures, we sooner or later have to acknowledge we must do unto others as we would have them do unto us; we must forgive as we have been forgiven; and we must be good to the alien, the orphan and the widow since we too can easily be strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Church notes that we live in a period in history when the evidence of the constitutive interconnectivity of the human race is more apparent than ever. The Compendium teaches:

“Never before has there been such a widespread awareness of the bond of interdependence between individuals and peoples, which is found at every level. The very rapid expansion in ways and means of communication ‘in real time,’ such as those offered by information technology, the extraordinary advances in computer technology, the increased volume of commerce and information exchange all bear witness to the fact that, for the first time since the beginning of human history, it is now possible — at least technically — to establish relationships between people who are separated by great distances and are unknown to each other.”

The Church hails our increasing interconnectedness as a good thing. In our intensifying global culture, it’s pretty nifty I can and do have friends not only in the U.S., but in the U.K., Australia and Nigeria. Technology has shrunk the world and brought us close to people who were in unthinkably faraway places with strange-sounding names only 20 years ago. We’re much more consciously aware than ever before of the lives, needs and hearts of people all over the globe in ever-expanding circles of friends and family. I can receive a prayer request from my Nigerian friend, post it on Facebook, and within seconds, people from Wichita to Glasgow to Sydney are part of the network of prayer that sustains his life.

But, of course, original sin extends to our global culture as well. So the Compendium continues:

“In the presence of the phenomenon of interdependence and its constant expansion, however, there persist in every part of the world stark inequalities between developed and developing countries, inequalities stoked also by various forms of exploitation, oppression and corruption that have a negative influence on the internal and international life of many states. The acceleration of interdependence between persons and peoples needs to be accompanied by equally intense efforts on the ethical-social plane, in order to avoid the dangerous consequences of perpetrating injustice on a global scale. This would have very negative repercussions even in the very countries that are presently more advantaged.”

In short, our global culture doesn’t just make it easy for me to pray for my Nigerian friend. Because of original sin, it also makes it easy for me to exploit his child and even enslave him for my morning cup of cocoa. Our God-given interdependence and our fallen and increasingly radical inequalities are in a horse race to see which rules us, and the Church calls us to work so everybody in the human family has a just share in the goods of the earth God has given us.

The way to start doing this is to start seeing the relationship between rich and poor as the Gospel does. St. John Chrysostom summarizes that relationship beautifully when he says, “The rich exist for the sake of the poor. The poor exist for the salvation of the rich.” We are emphatically all in this together, insists the Gospel. And the Christian Tradition warns it is the rich, not the poor, who are in far greater danger and in far greater need.

The Gospel repeatedly warns the rich that it is they who are in desperate need of the ministrations of the poor. This is the warning at the heart of the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, or in the (to our ears) strange counsel to “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations” (Luke 16:9). The idea is precisely to turn on its head our traditional notions of patronage — wherein the poor must go hat in hand to the rich for protection, employment and sustenance — by reminding the rich that it is the prayers (or anguished cries and curses) of the poor that will spell the difference between heaven and hell for the rich. For inasmuch as we do for the least of these, we do unto Jesus himself.

The Church tells us that solidarity is both “a social principle and that of a moral virtue.” In other words, it is part of the nature of how humans are supposed to live; but — since we are fallen and often behave at odds with our own best interests — it is also a virtue we have to intentionally cultivate by denying ourselves, taking up our crosses and following Jesus.

Obvious case in point: the duty of generosity. Generosity sounds good on paper. All of us together are stronger, happier and healthier than each of us alone and relying only on our meager resources to get by in life. But, in practice, generosity means refusing my natural inclination to clutch my stuff and making the choice to risk sharing it with somebody who might cheat me or do something I disagree with or not share with me when I am in need. The biblical tradition says to this instinct, “Yes, it’s scary. Be generous anyway” — and commends, again and again, the righteous man in these terms: “One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. A liberal man will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered” (Proverbs 11:24-25).

And, as the story of the Widow’s Mite (Mark 12:41-44) makes clear, the point, really, is generosity according to one’s means, not according to a dollar amount. The Widow had a couple of measly pennies to offer, but she gave generously nonetheless — as is often the case with the poor. Similarly, the question, “And who is the poor person we should care for?” is much the question, “And who is my neighbor?”: the one who has a need you can fill in the way most appropriate to his or her dignity.

Because solidarity is a social principle, the Church warns there are such things as “structures of sin.” The Compendium describes them this way:

These are rooted in personal sin and, therefore, are always connected to concrete acts of the individuals who commit them, consolidate them and make it difficult to remove them. It is thus that they grow stronger, spread and become sources of other sins, conditioning human conduct. These are obstacles and conditioning that go well beyond the actions and brief life span of the individual and interfere also in the process of the development of peoples, the delay and slow pace of which must be judged in this light. The actions and attitudes opposed to the will of God and the good of neighbor, as well as the structures arising from such behavior, appear to fall into two categories today: “on the one hand, the all-consuming desire for profit, and on the other, the thirst for power, with the intention of imposing one’s will upon others. In order to characterize better each of these attitudes, one can add the expression: ‘at any price.’”

In short, sin begins in the heart, but it does not stay there. It gets expressed in everything we do. So the things we make reflect, among other things, the sins that live in our hearts. This isn’t true merely of artists who make pornography or manufacturers who make shoddy products. It’s true of everything we make, including most especially the gigantic and globe-spanning political, social and economic systems we create to dominate the world.

A little sample of how a structure of sin works can be seen in the story found in Acts 19, when Paul went to Ephesus and challenged the cult of Artemis and the rest of pagan idolatry. Paul didn’t merely attract the hostility of her worshippers. He also garnered the wrath of the silversmiths there who manufactured shrines for her worshippers to buy. He threatened, in short, the entire economic “structure of sin” that stood behind the idol and made the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) a thriving commercial as well as religious center. Result: a riot that got within an inch of killing Paul.

Now we are all at one time or another — to the degree we all sin — idolaters just like the Ephesians, since sin is the disordered attempt to get our deepest happiness from something other than God. The “Big Four” in the pantheon of idols are (and always have been): money, pleasure, power and honor. And, just as the Ephesian silversmiths did, we often create political and economic systems to support our idols.

This results in the creation of idolatrous political and economic systems that fight against those trapped within them, even those who are genuinely trying to do the right thing — just as the political and economic structures in Ephesus fought against Paul. So, for instance, we see just such a conflict in the early United States, when the Founding Fathers who fought (sincerely enough) for the proposition “all men are created equal” nonetheless were trapped in the structure of sin known as a “slave economy” and couldn’t find a way to get rid of it. Result: Thomas Jefferson — the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and said of slavery, “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever” — never freed his own slaves. The system of slavery enslaved Jefferson to the sin of keeping slaves.

This is why the Church insists that, in addition to confronting our personal sins, these structures of sin must be battled as well, precisely because they exert pressure on us to not repent from our personal sins. And this means, as it did with ending slavery, the involvement of the state.

This is where the Church bumps up against the libertarian and individualist piety of many Americans, who reject the idea that the state has any role to play in establishing the common good. (Indeed, for some virulent strains of libertarianism, there is a denial there’s even such a thing as the common good.)

To be sure, states have themselves often embodied precisely those structures of sin that must be reformed. But the Church has never thrown the baby out with the bathwater by arguing for the abolition of the state. Rather (and more on this next time), the Church has always affirmed the state is a good given to us by God, and, even in its corrupt form, it exists for our good (see Romans 13, written when Caesar was Nero, who would eventually kill the author of Romans 13). And this is, in no small part, because the notion that structures of sin can be confronted without any involvement of the state whatsoever is like saying a battalion of tanks can be confronted by a determined individual with a BB gun.

The words of the Compendium are clear about what is required to change structures of sin: “They must be purified and transformed into structures of solidarity through the creation or appropriate modification of laws, market regulations and juridical systems [emphasis mine].” In short, individual efforts to effect change (e.g., boycotts of corporations that support abortion or use child slaves) are wonderful, but, very often, it’s necessary to change legal, political, social and economic structures by the force of law as well. Not just the citizen, but the state, has a responsibility here.

Not that this relieves the individual of any responsibility for solidarity or the common good. On the contrary, the bulk of the responsibility falls squarely on our shoulders as disciples of Jesus Christ. Of which, more next time.

BY: MARK SHEA

From: https://www.pamphletstoinspire.com/

#catholic social teaching

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ezatluba · 6 years ago

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Some Anti-Vaxxers Aren't Getting Their Pets Vaccinated. Here's Why That's So Dangerous

JEFFREY KLUGER

MARCH 8, 2019

Dogs can’t get autism, and even if they could, vaccines couldn’t cause it. Period. But some anti-vaxxers are increasingly making the same unfounded claims about pets and vaccines they’ve been repeating about children and vaccines for the past 20 years: that vaccines are unnecessary, dangerous and that they can cause a form of (canine) autism, along with other diseases. Just as with kids, that may be driving down pet vaccination rates. And the movement, while niche, shows no sign of stopping; in some states in the U.S., anti-vax activists have recently agitated to make state laws about mandatory pet vaccinations more lax.

The problem is acute in the United Kingdom. In its most recent annual report, Britain’s People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) surveyed more than than 4,600 pet owners and found that in 2018, about 25% of dogs—2.2 million of them—had not had their necessary vaccinations when they were young. That’s roughly on par with rates last year, which had jumped significantly. The most common reason people gave for not vaccinating their dog—accounting for 20% of responses—was that “it’s not necessary.”

Whatever the justification, every owner who does not vaccinate a dog contributes to endangering a great many other dogs too. “[T]he figures for pets not receiving primary vaccinations and regular boosters may threaten population-level immunity,” the authors wrote in the report.

The numbers are also high for other pets; 35% of cat owners did not have their kittens vaccinated, and 41% of older cats hadn’t received their regular boosters. Almost half of pet rabbits had not been vaccinated when they were young.

These increasing trend lines are consistent with what has happened with human vaccine rates after the thoroughly debunked rumors that vaccines can cause autism began (and rates of unvaccinated children have spiked). Indeed, the fear of “canine autism”—which, again, does not exist—could be contributing to vaccination refusals. In April 2018, Gudrun Ravetz, Senior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), issued a statement debunking the link between pet vaccinations and autism after a British morning show stoked fears of this link on social media.

“There is currently no reliable scientific evidence to indicate autism in dogs or a link between vaccination and autism,” she said. “Vaccinations save lives and are an important tool in keeping our pets healthy.”

In the U.S., veterinarians and animal advocates are also fighting this type of misinformation. Vaccine resistance may be growing among pet owners here, according to a 2017 article on the industry website American Veterinarian, though at the moment reports are anecdotal and spotty—limited mostly to trend-sensitive places like Brooklyn and San Francisco. In an e-mail to TIME, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) wrote, “We are not aware of studies that have documented a change in vaccination rates in pets. The ASPCA Community Medicine team alone performs tens of thousands of vaccinations annually for owned dogs and cats, rescue animals.”

But Brennan MacKenzie, a veterinarian in Los Altos, California, told the American Veterinarian that he has indeed seen pushback from pet owners. “Over the last 10 or 15 years,” he said, “there has been an increase in mostly unfounded concerns about vaccine safety for people and that, I think, has raised people’s awareness and level of concern about vaccinations for their pets.” A 2017 article in the Brooklyn Paper noted an uptick in vaccine refusals by pet owners in the borough.

Often, the concerns the pet owners have are both vague and catastrophic, with vaccines said simply to overwhelm the immune system and leave the animal susceptible to any and all diseases. That creates a neat kind self-validating reasoning: any illness the animal contracts, no matter how unrelated to vaccination, can be blamed on it.

Like all vaccines, those created for animals do carry some potential side effects—most minor, some more serious but less common. According to the AVMA, the mild ones include fever, decreased appetite and canine coughing. The more serious ones, which require immediate veterinary care, include swelling of the muzzle, severe coughing or even collapse. As with all vaccines, however, the risks of remaining unprotected dramatically exceed the dangers of the shot.

“There is a huge upside and a tiny downside,” says Nicholas Dodman, professor emeritus of veterinary medicine at Tufts University. “It’s the same with both dogs and humans.”

The trend in the U.K. and the risks of something similar occurring in the U.S. have vets worried. One thing that contributes to the danger is, paradoxically, that vaccines have been so successful at controlling animal diseases that many people have no experience with how terrible those diseases can be—a phenomenon that mirrors anti-vaxxers’ cavalier attitude about human diseases like measles or polio.

“When I was in Scotland at a time they didn’t vaccinate, I saw horrible cases of distemper,” says Dodman. “You see the way the animals suffer, and you would always vaccinate.”

The most dangerous of all of the canine diseases is rabies, which is effectively a death sentence for a dog. “Rabies kills, period,” says Amy Nichols, vice president of the Companion Animals Division of the Humane Society. “It’s incredibly contagious, and a pet that gets it has to be euthanized.”

In most states, rabies vaccines are required by law, but it’s hard for local governments to stay on top of human childhood vaccinations — let alone police people’s pets. In two states, anti-vax activists have agitated to loosen state laws, hoping to make it easier to find ways around mandated shots. The first such effort, Connecticut House Bill 5659, was filed in the state legislature in 2017 and would have permitted veterinarians not to administer rabies booster shots on schedule if tests of a dog’s blood showed that anti-body concentrations, or titers, were above a certain threshold. The bill would have also allowed the vets to adjust vaccines, by administering smaller doses to smaller dogs, for example—though body weight is not a relevant factor in vaccine efficacy.

“It’s not a weight-versus-dose question,” said California veterinarian Lisa Boyer in an interview with The Guardian. “My seven-year-old and I get the same vaccine.”

The Connecticut bill did not pass, but two similar bills were introduced in the New Hampshire state legislature this year. House Bill 331 would have, like the Connecticut bill, allowed veterinarians to administer titer tests to determine the need for a rabies vaccination; House Bill 426 would have allowed pet owners to show proof of such tests in obtaining a dog license. Both bills were killed in committee by unanimous votes, but people in the veterinary community don’t believe that anti-vax agitators are going away.

“My sense from the testimony is that similar bills are being introduced in other states,” said Lindsay Hamrick, New Hampshire Senior State Director for the Humane Society of the United States, in an email to TIME.

One thing that could help keep anti-vaccine pet owners in check is that they have a number of half-measures anti-vaccine parents don’t. Pediatricians are all but unanimous—correctly so—that children should be vaccinated in full and on-time. But with animals, some vets are willing to administer vaccines (other than the rabies vaccine) in small aliquots, or doses—say, a fifth of a vaccine weekly for five weeks. And for some vaccines other than rabies, titer testing may indeed be appropriate to determine if a vaccine can be skipped or delayed.

“It probably costs more to do the titer than to do the shot,” Dodman says. “But if you’re worried, sure.”

The kind of life a particular dog lives may also be relevant. Dogs that go to doggie day care or visit dog parks or spend a lot of time outside—especially if they swim or wade in freshwater rivers or lakes—are at greater risk of infection and in greater need of immunization than dogs that spend a lot of time indoors. The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) has an online Lifestyle-Based Vaccine Calculator that addresses this. Check the boxes that describe how your dog lives, and the algorithm will recommend the most important vaccines.

There is not a dog in the world that has ever enjoyed the feel of a veterinarian’s needle. But that pain is incidental and fleeting; the pain of the diseases the shots prevent is far worse, far more enduring—and sometimes fatal.

“Not to vaccinate against these diseases is crazy,” says Dodman. Our pets count on us to be smarter than that.

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my-dear-hammy · 8 years ago

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Basking in Candlelight-Jamilton-Part 11-Paces, Fire!

Master Post

Hey! Just wanted to say hi, see how everyone is doing. Are you enjoying the story so far?

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Warnings: Excessive Drinking, blood, cuts from glass, cussing

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Jefferson's POV

George Washington resigned. I'm super close to following in his footsteps. That melody has yet to play out. It haunts my every step. I just want it to end. But I can't leave while the nation spirals toward self-destruction. Hamilton's Whiskey Rebellion rocked us a bit and now John Adams is president and already fucking things up. How can I leave it like that?

I tried to resign. I did. When Washington was still halfway through his second term. But then the Democratic-Republicans stuck my name on the presidential ballot and suddenly I'm a candidate. Fine, I don't care. If the people want me to lead, I will. But now I can't leave until Adams is gone. I don't have to worry about Hamilton anymore, he got fired. Well, he technically resigned, but Adams like to think he fired him.

I sat back in my chair. Vice President doesn't do much, well, I would, if Adams let me. He doesn't trust my political views, so he keeps me under lock and key. The mother fucker. Oh well, I'll read a book or something to pass the time.

Some knocked on the door. Interesting. Putting aside my book and my tea, I stoked the fireplace and went to the door. I swung it open, "Welcome to the grand palace of-Hamilton? What are you doing here? God, you smell terrible." He reeked. I waved my hand in front of my face.

"Thomas!" he slurred, "Buddy!" He half hugged, half collapsed on me.

"Since when am I your buddy? You're drunk, go home."

"Home?" he said, looking up at me, "I don't have a home anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"Eliza read the Reynolds Pamphlet."

"Ah. You shouldn't have written that."

He waved me off, "She burned the house down."

"Well, she certainly went out with a blaze of glory," I chuckled.

"And she took Phillip and went to her father's."

"So, what are you doing here?"

He paused. "I have absolutely no idea."

I sighed, "Alright, here we go," I picked him up and he giggled, kicking his legs like a child.

"Holy shit, this is high."

"Shut up and watch your head." I carried him inside and dropped him on my bed.

Hamilton studied the bed for a full five minutes before turning to me, "Don't get any ideas, Jefferson." His voice was clear and sober for that one sentence.

I certainly did have ideas.

I sank into the couch, why did I have to go through this?

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Hamilton's POV

I woke to desperate cries. That's one way to sober up.

I shot from the bed and ran into a wall with a thud. Where am I? I looked around for a second, it was familiar. That's right, Jefferson's. Another cry broke the silence.

"Jefferson?"

I could barely make him out, he was tossing and turning on a couch. I was immediately at his side. Trying to shake him awake, did absolutely nothing, just made him cry louder.

"Fuck."

I hugged him. Well, better put, I tried to suffocate him hugging his face to my chest. That actually seemed to work, go figure. Hesitantly, I stroked his hair and murmured softly. His hair is sooo soft, it's unbelievable. Eventually, quieted down and returned to a relatively peaceful slumber. Laying him back down, I got up to leave, but found his hand was attached to my arm and it wouldn't relinquish despite my best attempts. So I resigned and lied down on the floor and went back to sleep.

When I woke again, my hangover hit me full force. Cursing I sat up, Unable to fight consciousness anymore. The first thing I noticed, Jefferson was gone. The second thing I noticed, I was in the bed again. Why did I keep waking up here? It was starting to get strange.

I threw off the covers. Mission one, find Jefferson. Mission two, food. Mission three, pass out again. Great, day planned and ready to go. I stumbled down the stair and into the kitchen. To my surprise, Jefferson was already there. To my greater surprise, he was surrounded by multiple bottles of alcohol.

Well, shit.

"Monsieur Hamilton," he greeted, sounding completely normal, "Bonjour." Well, except the French.

[Author's Note: I apologize if I slaughter this next part, I'm trying my best with what I know and I'm just trying to piece it together. If there are any fluent French speakers reading this, feel free to tell me the correct version and I'll fix it.]

"Bonjour, comment vous sentez-vous?" I asked. (Goodmorning, how are you feeling?)

He cackled, "Commen suis-je sentez-vous?" He continued to cackle. "Comment pense vous que je sentez-vous?" (How am I feeling?) (How do you think I feel?)

"Toi ressembler merde." (You look like shit.)

"Je sentez-vous comme merde," he replied. "Comment vous sentez-vous?" (I feel like shit.) (How are you feeling?)

"Comme merde," I shrugged, taking a seat. "Parlez-vous toujours en français quand vous êtes iver?" (Do you always speak French when you are drunk)

He shrugged and pushed a bottle over to me. Uncapping it, I chugged. "Je suppose que nous sommes tous deux des gens plutôt terribles, sont nous ne pas?" (I guess we're both pretty terrible people, are we not?)

"Je suppose nous sont," I chuckled. "Quvous hante alors?"(I suppose we are.) (What haunts you then?)

Jefferson laughed, "Une mélodie." (A melody)

Okay, that's odd to get drunk over. But who am I to judge?

"Hamilton?"

"Oui?" (Yes?)

"Merci." (Thank you.)

"Je vous en prie." (You're welcome.)

Third Person

A few hours later, the alcohol started to kick in. Took it long enough. Hamilton's face is flushed and he drunkenly swayed back and forth.

"Lafayette was lying on the table, right? And then Herc tackled him, but the table could handle it, so they both crashed to the ground," Hamiton laughed, "Burr was so mad, he had to pay for it. We weren't allowed back." Hamilton upended another bottle.

Jefferson cackled, "That's brilliant! Burr had to pay for it, ha! I bet he never went drinking with you again." Jefferson slammed his bottle down a little too hard. "Merde!" he swore. He underestimated his strength, again. Glass litter the floor and sliced open his hand. Blood mixed with the alcohol as it dripped onto the floor.

"Jesus, Jefferson, way to go," Hamilton laughed, setting down his drink. "Don't move." Hamilton left to get some bandages and a broom.

Jefferson looked down at the sparkling shard surrounding his bare feet. Fuck this. He stood and walked across the floor to a water basin, fully aware of the pain and the glass ground into his feet. He washed his hands and feet, picking out the shards. Hamilton returned only to see the bloody footprints.

"Shit, Jefferson, I told you not to move." He rushed over and helped Jefferson clean his injuries. Jefferson looked down at Hamilton's face as he diligently worked and smiled.

"You're a beautiful person, Alexander," he murmured.

Hamilton glanced up, trying to look at Jefferson's soft lips. "Yeah?" he asked, refocusing on the work at hand, "You're not so bad yourself." He wrapped the bandage around Jefferson's feet, "There all done. Now don't move this time, seriously." Hamilton got up to sweep the floor but was stopped by Jefferson's grasp. He turned and looked at Jefferson questioningly.

"Alexander," Jefferson murmured, his voice soft and husky, he pulled Hamilton into a tight embrace. Hamilton tensed and then relaxed. Jefferson smelled like coconuts and fresh, crisp, winter air. He almost melted. Coming to himself, Hamilton pushed away and went to go clean up the glass.

#hamilton #Thomas Jefferson x Alexander Hamilton #jefferson x hamilton #Thomas Jefferson x Hamilton #hamilton x jefferson #Hamilton musical #jamilton #jamilton fanfic #jamilton fanfiction

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justawriterofthings · 8 years ago

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The Lovers, The Dreamers, And Me.

One of the requested David fics! HOORAY!

Summary: The reader is a mutant who lived with David in Clockworks. They left when David left and now lives with David, Syd, and the rest of the gang. Takes place during the beginning of the series, revolving around that plot. Kind of angsty since David and the Reader are friends and Syd is still in the picture.

Warnings: Mention of mental illness, hint of death but no one actually dies.

Word Count: 3,663

Author’s Note: Thank you guys so much for the requests, likes, reblogs, and comments! It means a lot to see that my work is liked :) I’m sorry in advance if some of the characters seem out of character and if Syd seems more like an antagonist in this. Also I really love the song Rainbow Connection and I will probably incorporate it into more fics. I apologize for any errors I missed. AND I’m sorry if this seems unfinished and plot-less. The ~~ indicate a switch from present to memory.

David was a difficult person to room with, but then again, so were you. The two of you often swapped stories about why you were where you were. He had told you about his years as a junkie and you had told him about yours as an arsonist. He told you about Lenny and how she was in here with him. You told him about your father who had practically taught you how to be a criminal, raising you in that life. For the six years you shared a room with him you swapped stories, never seeming to run out of any.

He paced in his room, the voices were loud this time, you could tell. He told you, when the two of you first became roommates, to leave him be when he was like this but you never could. “Why are there so many songs about rainbows? And what’s on the other side?” You sang to calm him down. He said your voice got lost with the others when you sang, but it always seemed to calm him down a bit. You hugged him and stroked his hair. Careful to keep your temperature down the entire time. “Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and me.” You finished. And he was physically less tense.

“Why is it that you are always so- so warm?” He asked, you could tell he was in pain but he smiled at you anyway.

“I’ve always been hot.” You joked.

You thought back on the memory with a smile. Ptonomy looked back at you, unsure if he should smile back or not. “Kinda glad you guys brought me back too. I don’t think I could have lasted another minute in that place.” You said, letting go of the table and flickering a fire between your finger tips.

“Why were you there in the first place?” Melanie asked you, watching you carefully.

“Pretty much the same thing as Syd. People can’t touch me. Well, they can, but they risk getting third degree burns. Especially if I’m not expecting it. People thought I was antisocial, plus with the added record of starting fires..” You let your sentence trial off.

“But you and David were touching in your memory.” Wallace was confused.

“I can lower my temperature briefly when I’m calm. But in the case of David I was able to train myself to lower it when I had to calm him down. It wasn’t for as long, but it worked. The song was how I could keep track of how long I could stay cool enough to touch him.” You put the fire out and continued speaking. “He doesn’t understand what he can do. He’s convinced that it’s still an illness.” Your head drooped a bit.

“Thank you, Y/N. You may head back. We’ll talk to you when we return.” Melanie said, letting you out of the memory cube.

You shrugged and went to go find David. When you did find him he looked better than you expected he would. “Hey man.” You greeted him and he nodded back. “Memory work went pretty well, thanks for asking.” You sat next to him and swung your legs a bit.

“I thought I was supposed to be the one who read minds?” He joked.

“I just know you too well, I guess.” You shrugged and nudged his shoulder. That’s when you felt it. Your shirt got hotter. “Shit.” You groaned and started to pat out the flames. David jumped up and looked a little shocked. “I didn’t ruin your shirt did I?” You asked, looking over to him once the flames were out.

He looked down at his own shirt. “No. It’s fine, just a little hole.” He looked over at his sleeve and then back at you with reassuring eyes.

“I’m sorry. I forgot. I don’t normally forget.” You scolded yourself. It wasn’t like you to act so carelessly, but you thought with David maybe things between you could cause you to cool down some. You apparently thought wrong.

“Y/N it’s okay, it’s just a shirt. We both know how bad it can get so this was nothing.” He was blunt with you and you let out a tight laugh.

“Yeah I guess we do know how bad it can get. Poor Mrs. Godfrey.” You sighed, recalling the woman who thought she could hug you on your second day in Clockwork. It had also been David’s second day and it was how the two of you became friends. It gave the two of you something to talk about after being assigned to room with each other.

“May she rest in peace.” David added, seemingly gone from the conversation and focusing on the floor below him. There was a slight crease on his forehead.

“Is it the voices again?” You asked, trying to keep your distance. He was silent, but gave you a small nod. You focused on cooling down, shutting your eyes and clearing your mind helped for him and you both. “Why are there so many songs about rainbows? And what’s on the other side?” You began, feeling yourself cool so you moved closer and wrapped your arms around him in your usual embrace. He was getting less tense so you continued to sing. His forehead, which had been scrunched up before was now relaxed. You stroked his hair, your tune carrying through the room. “Rainbows are visions but only illusions. Rainbows have nothing to hide. So we’ve been told, some chose to believe it. I know they’re wrong wait and see. Someday we’ll find it the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and me.” You finished the song, and to your amazement you were practically a normal temperature. David noticed and looked up at you with a smile.

“We complement each other, you and I.” His voice sounded a little strained, but other than that he seemed to be feeling a little better, enough to not make any move to get away from you before you heated up again.

You heard footsteps outside and looked up to see Syd standing in the doorway. You jumped away from David and your body was immediately engulfed in flames. “Y/N. It’s alright. It’s alright.” David held up his hands in front of you, not too close though, to try and calm you down. “It’s just Syd.” He repeated, which didn’t help. So you sang the song quietly to yourself in hopes that would work. Over your own voice and the fire roaring in your ears; you heard David’s voice, though it was strained, singing along with you. The flames dissipated but you still felt hotter than normal. David watched the flames go down and he made a move towards you but you threw your hands up to stop him.

“Still too hot, I’m afraid.” Your tone was broken and defeated as you watched Syd eye you from across the room. David looked back at her with pleading eyes to help you too but she just openly gaped between the two of you.

You knew she felt a little threatened by your relationship with David. You thought it was because of her abilities that kept her at a greater distance. But David loved her and you were aware of this. He loved you too, but it was a different kind of love. You had feelings for David as well, but you looked past them, to help him since he was the closest friend you had. Whereas Syd, only focused on her feelings for him, which could end very badly. Both you and David knew this, but he didn’t make any move to stop it. Which you thought was a bad idea, but you weren’t in a position to say anything.

David couldn’t take his eyes off of you. “Y/N. Let me help you now.” He whispered. Then you were in a white room, a breeze drifted through the large French doors.

“Where are we?” You asked, looking around at the simplicity and beauty of the place.

“I take Syd here. It’s where we can be together. I thought that it might help you to be here. Help you cool down a little.” He was completely honest with you.

“Where is here, David?” You asked, looking at him now.

He moved towards you and placed his hands on either sides of your cheeks, you tired to pull away, afraid you would burn him. “Someplace safe.” He answered, his skin making contact with yours and you couldn’t help but lean into his touch.

“But you take Syd here.” You tried to pull away afraid now to encroach on her place with him.

“Yes. But if it helps you the way you help me then I don’t see the issue.” He rubbed his thumbs across your cheeks. You couldn’t tell him how you felt. You didn’t know what it would do to him. So you kept quiet and savored his touch for as long as possible. It was as though time had slowed when you were with him in this white room. Everything around you two had stopped and you couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy directed at Syd. He shared this room with her too, this room was originally meant for her. Your eyes wandered around the room, David had moved you both over to the bed and he held you as you had held him over the years. You couldn’t bring yourself to protest any of it and you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him.

“I thought you were just as crazy as I was when you told me you were made of fire.” He recalled the day the two of you had met. “How you ended up with me and not in prison? I’ll never understand, but I’m grateful for it.” He paused. “I don’t know what I would have done without you, Y/N.” He declared as he stoked your hair.

You could feel the tears welling up in your eyes. “I love you, David.” You barely managed to get the words out, there was a part of you that was afraid he would take it the wrong way.

“I love you too, Y/N.” He replied without a second thought. When the words left his lips your body went numb. It was only you and David in that moment, in this place. There was no danger, no D3, no Syd. Just you and him. Friends who complimented each other in the best way.

You wrapped your arms around him, trying desperately to pull him closer to you. He gripped you tighter. “Now that you’ve shown me this place, I don’t think I ever want to leave.” You let out a small laugh. “We should go though. We have work to do for Melanie.” You added, cursing yourself for saying so. David didn’t make a move to let you go, but you felt him nod.

Then you were back, you could feel Syd’s eyes on you but you ignored them when you felt physically cooler. David could sense this and moved to hug you. “No flames.” He smiled after letting you go.

“No flames.” You confirmed, matching his smile with your own.

Once there was a moment of silence, Syd spoke up. “David, we need to talk.” Her voice was strained and you immediately felt yourself heat up again. David made no move to let go of you. Though you were sure he could feel it.

“Deep breath in. And then out.” He whispered, so you did. He held on for a few moments, then let you go. Syd and David left you alone.

Your core temperature rising, you tried to focus your breathing while simultaneously trying not to think about what they needed to talk about. You heard a knock and looked up to see Cary. You gave him a small smile. “May I?” He asked, referring to if you if he could come in and sit. You gave him a nod of approval. “Melanie and I were discussing how you may also have an extremely powerful gift. She and I would like your permission to run some tests?” He asked. You could see the nervousness pour off of him in waves.

“Sure, Cary. Anything to help.” You agreed, too tired to argue against it.

Cary hooked up a few monitors to you and told you to think of something happy. He was monitoring your temperature as well as your brain waves. Your mind automatically went to your time with David. The only happy memories you have are the ones with him.

Quietly shutting your door behind you, you tip toed over to David. Today had been a bad day for him and he ended up getting heavily sedated so you told him the two of you would have a fun night. He was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. “Hey I got the marshmallows.” You pulled the handful you stole from the kitchen out of your pockets. David continued to stare at the ceiling, but you heard him grunt a little and you took that as a good sign. “Now I just have to find those popsicle sticks from craft time and that bucket I pawned off the janitor.” You talked through what you were doing for David. He mentioned to you before when they medicated him, he used your voice to stay grounded. Once you had everything gathered on the floor in between your beds you helped him sit up. “Ready for s’mores without the chocolate and gram crackers since I couldn’t get a hold of those things?” You asked him, he looked at you with drowsy eyes, but smiled up at you anyway. “Down we go.” You helped him down to the floor and propped him up on the side of the bed. “Here wait.” You grabbed your pillow and his and placed them behind his back. “Comfortable?” You asked him and he gave you a slight nod. “Great.” You smiled. “Now, to get this fire going.” You placed the popsicle sticks in the bucket, your hand still inside so David couldn’t see, you lit your finger and set the wood on fire. You handed David a popsicle stick that had a marshmallow skewered on it.

“I got it.” He mumbled, holding the marshmallow over the bucket with a steadier hand than you thought he could. “These would be better with the rest of what makes a s’more though.” His speech was slurred but he managed to get out what he wanted to say.

“The sass, David!” You giggled, charring your treat. You could see the skepticism in his eyes as you created the black coating. “What? It’s delicious and a little less messy since I couldn’t grab the rest of the stuff.” You replied to his look.

“That’s not how you do it. Slow.” He said, trying to get some of his strength back but the drugs were still in his system. You plucked the marshmallow off the stick and popped it in your mouth.

“I’m going to grab you some water, maybe flush that shit out of your system faster. Don’t go anywhere?” You got up and headed down the hall with his glass in your hand. Padding down the hall to the bathroom, you avoided all of the other patients that were still wandering the halls. There were a few orderlies that you saw patrolling the halls, you had made it a goal to stay out of their way as well. After getting David the glass of water, you quickly headed back to your room then shut the door behind you. “Here you go.” You handed him the glass, waiting for him to get a good grip of it before you let go.

“Thank you, Y/N. For everything. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He grumbled between sips.

“That’s great Y/N.” You heard Cary say, bringing you out of your memory. You felt cooler and you shot him a wide grin.

“I believe you may be on to something.” You said to him. You knew positive memories could help cool you down, but you weren’t aware of how significant it could be. “This is huge! This means the memory work can be more than Melanie just getting to know my problems. Controlling this is in the memories.” You said as he unhooked his machines from you. “But this also means the bad memories affect it too.” You kept talking since he was too focused on his machines to respond. He would mumble a few things now and then but you assumed it was to Kerry.

You felt exhausted after your work with Cary. It felt like you had been drained of all your energy. You bypassed dinner and headed straight to bed, barely able to keep your eyes open. “Y/N.” David called your name as you walked past him and Syd. You gave them both a small nod of acknowledgement, then shuffled your feet to bed. You heard David get up and follow you but you ignored it. “Y/N, Cary said you made a breakthrough today.” David tried to make conversation with you. You let out a hum to know you were listening. Even your thoughts were minimal, your exhaustion taking full hold. You thought to David, unable to form the words out loud, that you would talk tomorrow. Though you were unsure if he heard it or not. But he didn’t question you anymore after that so you assumed he had.

As soon as your head hit the pillow you were out.

You dreamt of fire. Everything around you was engulfed in flames except for the building in front of you. Your father stood beside you, his body consumed in the blistering heat. “Y/N, if this building goes then you get presents for your birthday this year.” His face was twisted, his mouth almost smiling at you.

“The whole building?” You asked, your voice that of a young child’s.

“Pops only gets the insurance money if it’s the whole building, pumpkin.” He patted you on the head and the fire that consumed his hand started to quickly flow from him to you. The heat was comfortable, like it was always meant to be there.

“But the people inside?” Your voice, high already, managed to get even higher once it filled with panic.

“Just do what I ask.” He started to get angry with you. You felt yourself get smaller and did as he asked. Fire shot out of your hands and the building started to burn.

Jolting awake, you sat straight up in your bed. You could feel your body shaking erratically. “Y/N?” David’s calm voice sounded so far away. “Y/N, did you have another nightmare?” He asked you but you couldn’t open your mouth to answer him so you just shook your head yes. “It was just a nightmare. It wasn’t real.” He repeated the words you had said to him so many times before. He kept his distance, unable to comfort you the way you always had comforted him. He could just sit there and watch you shake, repeating that it was okay and that it wasn’t real.

It took twenty minutes before you could stop shaking. But when you had, you had been able to look at him. “Love you, David.” You managed to get out the words, though they were shaky and barely audible he heard you.

“I love you too, Y/N.” He sounded sad when he said it though. But you had been too tired to notice.

“Can you stay a little longer?” You asked him and he nodded, motioning for you to move over. Your body was still hot but your exhaustion kept you from burning everything you touched. “Cary had me think of a happy memory today.” You looked up at the ceiling, but you felt his eyes on you when you spoke.

He was on his side watching you, “What memory was it?” He asked, curious.

“When we made s’mores.” You smiled, still not looking at him. You felt him turn so he was lying on his back.

“I vaguely remember that night, but there are bits and pieces where I can see that being a happy memory.” He was honest with you.

“You know that my nightmares actually happened. They were real.” You changed the subject.

“I know, Y/N.” He sighed.

This time you were the one to turn on your side. “Is everything okay?” You asked, looking at him with an intensity you weren’t aware of having until he looked at you with the same sadness that matched his tone before.

“Syd doesn’t think we can be just friends. She wants me to see less of you. She’s worried that being together will have an effect on the work I’m doing.” He sounded so defeated when he spoke to you.

Your face fell. “She understands that we’re friends and helping each other through this, so why would she want to split us up?” You were so confused. Syd had been in Clockworks with the two of you, she knew that it was just a friendship between you and David. Though you did admit it seemed like more than that sometimes and that you did have feelings that constituted as ‘more than friends’ feelings sometimes.

“I’m not going anywhere, Y/N. We’re helping each other and that all that matters right now.” He was worried that what he was saying wouldn’t happen. But you had been worried about the same thing, and worried that Syd was using what she had told David as an excuse for her jealousy.

After his comment, neither of you spoke again. You had been too tired to process what he said. The two of you drifted into unconsciousness. This time, there weren’t any interruptions. No nightmares, no dreams, no outside world. Just quiet darkness. Your brains shutting off, leaving the two of you in blissful nothingness.

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scionofchaos · 4 years ago

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A Series On Witches - Part 8

This is the eighth in a series of posts on the nature of witches and magic practitioners as I have witnessed, as well as some notes on common spiritual practice, and the nature of humanity. Lots of broad material to cover, so I'm going to go ahead and get started. If you get to the end of this post, and you find you have things to say, I welcome you to please comment, reblog, however you feel appropriate, or private message me if you'd prefer, and let's get the discussions started!

Last time, I gave a brief look into my thoughts on the framework where Gods of Life and Death occupy separate worlds, separate existences, from the lesser beings. In short, I'm not a fan. Today, I would like to finish up this round of analysis with the "Four+ Worlds" framework. I am not a Ceremonial Mage, not by nature, so this framework is naturally the most alien to me. But all the same, I want to render my opinion of it based on my experience and my studies. In it, the implication is that there are many types of Gods, and most or all of them have their own separate homeworlds. Very popular in movies and comics. There would also be one or more worlds where different kinds of Spirits live. I find that concept compelling, but I don't know how separate I would say these "worlds" are. The Spirits are all around us, barred more by our perception than any real barrier. A spirit could nestle down inside you and sip from your wellspring of life, and unless you had the sufficient means to detect and understand this, you might not even realize it happened. I would say it happens with the frequency of being fed upon by other biological life forms -- ranging from mosquitoes to tigers. Do you remember every time you've been bitten by an insect? Probably some, but not all. Do you remember every time you've been bitten by a tiger? I think if it's happened at all, and you're alive to tell the tale, that you'd remember something like that. But just as surely as the Tiger would leave a mark (to say the least), you have marks on you from major Spirit attacks. You may not realize they are there.

When a Spirit feeds on your Physical essence, you get sick. You feel weak. You get short of breath. It does not appear to happen "for no reason." Rather, that vulnerability in your essence makes it easier for bacteria, viruses, fungi, all manner of such things to take hold. It makes the lactic acid leave your muscles slower. Hardens the mucus in your lungs. Every one of these signs has a physical explanation, because it's supposed to. Because it has to. So if you try to prove by physical means that your essence has been fed on, you will fail. This physical world is built on such rules. But to non-physical senses, the damage is obvious.

When a Spirit feeds on your Conscious essence, you miss things. You listen selectively. You let your body odor go unchecked. You sleep a lot. You have strange dreams. And because Consciousness is Awareness, it can be difficult to know this about yourself. But others will see it about you. They will know.

When a Spirit feeds on your Psychic essence, you lose memories. You fail to retain information when trying to learn. Your emotions go wild, or drain out completely. And because Mentality is your Sapient Mind, this may be impossible for you to notice, especially if it goes on too long without proper healing. But those who examine your mind will know.

When a Spirit having its own Vital essence connects more closely to your own, the two branches of the Vital totality become shorter, closer, harder to distinguish from each other. Should this joining be parted soon, you may never spot a clue it has happened. But the longer it goes on, the more your Physicality, Consciousness, and Mentality become like theirs. Lesser, if they were lacking. Greater, where they were strong. And if they tear away from you after all that time, they will likely hold on to a larger chunk of who you were, than the portion you will retain.

When a Dead Spirit, one that has no Vital essence and cannot be called "Alive," connects itself to you and siphons your Vital essence, that essence is cast into the void. You do not gain from their strengths, but your weaknesses become numerous and pronounced. They are stealing from the Vital totality, in order to take control of their powers. To make Physical changes. To direct their Consciousness. To stoke the flames of their Mind. But most importantly, as it is their native realm, to create Causal repercussions. If they can generate a powerful enough Consciousness and Mind, and work with the byproducts, they might insert themselves into the Vital totality, and parasitize it from within.

Another interesting concept to take away from "Four+ Worlds" is that there may be "Realms of Man" in addition to this one. Places in remote existence where humans and animals reside, other than the one we call home. I cannot speak with authority on that, but there are other realms. Whether or not humans live there, I cannot say.

And so we come to the Realm (or Realms) of Death. And the limits of my knowledge. My original birth from Chaos did not die, but was made to live in a physical, biological sense. I have no memory of what happened to that first Beast. I have no memory of when Fire "died," only that Fire continues to exist, and my memories as Fire darkened considerably. I still hold a strong innate tie to the nature and the actions of Fire, but I am not conscious through all of it. I do not physically control it. It is as though you ceased to be a human being, continuing life as a dust mite under a flake of the skin you once called your own. Your body lives on, acting in the human world, but you can barely comprehend what those actions are. My life as Miach absolutely came to an end, but not when the stories say. My people were not so easily killed, and me less than most. I did not die of natural causes, or by any mere blade. I was murdered, executed, by a most powerful Enemy whose identity I barely understand. I'm not sure Miach ever did. There were many entities awake in that time, acting on levels I hardly grasped. I spent so much time ducking shadows and studying Dragons that, I must profess, I never really made time for the others. I remember almost nothing of my Raven life, as of yet. And my Human life has yet to die, despite many opportunities. Very little of my next life has been foreseen, and not by me, so I have nothing to tell you there.

Is there a world where the Living go when they Die? I don't know if that question even makes sense. From all I can say.

We just keep living.

#spiritwork #spirituality #energywork #magick #mysticism #religion #philosophy #witchcraft

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nancygduarteus · 7 years ago

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How Does a Violent-Crime Spree Affect a Community?

After 19 days, the fear and anxiety that have haunted the city of Austin, Texas, may have reached an end on Wednesday. The suspect in a series of bombings blew himself up in a car as the police approached. Six different bombs, considered linked by the police, have killed two people and injured five more since March 2. Four of them exploded in Austin; one went off in a FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas (in a package headed for an Austin address); another was found and recovered undetonated at another FedEx facility near the Austin airport.

The suspect was a 23-year-old named Mark Conditt, and he left behind a videotaped confession. According to The New York Times, Austin officials have cautioned that there may still be other bombs out there, planted before the man died. While it appears that Conditt worked alone, authorities have not yet ruled out the possibility of accomplices. But even if it is truly over, residents of the Austin area have already been living with the knowledge that a bomber is at large for the better part of a month. That kind of violent-crime spree can take a toll on a community—both while it’s happening and after it’s over.

Michael Cannell is a journalist and the author of Incendiary, a book that chronicles the story of another serial bomber—the so-called “Mad Bomber” who terrorized New York with more than 30 bombs in the 1950s. “He had kind of a genius for stoking fear,” Cannell says. “The fear in these cases is disproportionate to the actual threat. Homemade bombs—yes, they can kill and cause terrible damage, but they are not enormous explosives. They are days, or more likely, weeks, apart. Relative to the other threats—I’m thinking about gun deaths, I’m thinking about car accidents—serial bombers do not present a statistically enormous threat. Yet the fear and anxiety they produce can paralyze entire communities.”

“When you have an active perpetrator in a community, society is living on the edge of its seats, wondering when is the next shoe going to drop,” says Scott Bonn, a criminologist and the author of Why We Love Serial Killers. “There’s heightened anxiety, it’s a state of terror.” Paranoia creeps in; in Austin, police responded to hundreds of calls about suspicious packages.

There’s still much that’s unknown in the Austin case, including the motive for the crime. But typically with a serial crime spree, be it bombings or serial killings, the sowing of fear is the point, Bonn says.

“I interviewed David Berkowitz”—the serial killer known as “Son of Sam” who killed six people in New York in 1976—“and he was well aware that he had New York City in the palm of his hand,” Bonn adds.

Under these conditions, people may go to great lengths to change their behavior to feel a modicum of safety. Because Berkowitz targeted brunettes with long hair, some women in New York reportedly cut and dyed their hair, or covered it with wigs. In 1990, when five University of Florida students were killed within days of each other, The Washington Post reported that stores in Gainesville saw a rush of mace and gun purchases.

One study found that during the 2002 sniper attacks in Washington, D.C., 45 percent of residents reported going to parks, shopping centers, and other public places less than usual. More than a third said they were staying home more, and a small percentage said they’d missed one or more days of work because of the attacks. In a separate study of D.C.’s homeless residents, 65 percent said they’d restricted their activities during the attacks, presumably because they were more vulnerable and exposed than people who could take shelter in their homes.

In Austin, during this recent bombing spree, The New York Times reported that some people were “avoiding opening packages or even answering their front doors out of fear,” though others were determined not to let the fear disrupt their lives. “People seemed to keep their eyes trained downward—looking for suspicious bags and backpacks, packages, and strands of wire across sidewalks.”

The sustained nature of a violent-crime spree, where the criminal remains at large for some time, makes it a different sort of trauma than a one-time event like a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. After disasters, psychologists characterize people’s risk for negative mental-health effects by thinking about “dose of exposure,” says Amy Nitza, the director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz. People who were closer to the event, or exposed to it longer, are at greater risk.

But with the Austin bombings, “you have a greater number of people with a lower dose of exposure,” Nitza says. “Who is classified as a victim or a survivor becomes much more broad.”

One study referred to this kind of exposure as “continuous trauma” when looking at the psychological state of some local students nine days after the Gainesville murders. It found that depression was the main symptom seemingly brought on by the killings—not anxiety or stress. “While anxiety may have been quite pronounced in the first few days following the killings, we speculate that such high levels of anxiety were not sustained for a long period of time,” the authors write. “Perhaps when efforts to solve the crime quickly were unsuccessful, anxiety levels decreased as individuals began to feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed.”

“I see how that can make sense,” Nitza says. “When the situation is chronic, and there’s this chronic level of uncertainty and not knowing where the danger is, it’s really hard on people physiologically for their fight or flight response to stay on.”

(It’s worth mentioning that these effects are not exclusive to places that are briefly rampaged by a serial killer or serial bomber. A paper on the sniper attacks noted that the psychological effects are likely similar to “those caused by the chronic community violence that is endemic to many inner-city neighborhoods in the United States.”)

Once the criminal is caught, and the situation resolved, “most people are resilient,” Nitza says. “They’re going to bounce back to their pre-event level of functioning.” It’s reasonable to expect that some, though, will continue to struggle. The study on D.C. residents, conducted seven months after the sniper attack, found that rates of PTSD symptoms were twice as high as rates in a nationally representative sample. Nitza says that people with previous histories of trauma are more likely to be at risk.

The broader psyche of a community is likely to be changed by such events, too, but it’s harder to quantify exactly how that disruption shapes the atmosphere of a place.“People may have their worldview shaken in a way you wouldn’t with a more acute geographically limited disaster,” Nitza says.

George Metesky—the name of the “Mad Bomber” from the ’50s— tended to target public spaces, such as Radio City Music Hall and Grand Central Station. “He made us aware of how fragile our civic safety is,” Cannell says. The Austin bomber’s M.O. was in some ways even more invasive: putting bombs on people’s doorsteps. A reminder that people aren’t always safe even in their own homes.

In his book, Cannell quotes Metesky as saying: “I’ve read that a man with a hammer can wreck a 16-inch naval gun, just by hitting it until it shatters. It’s the same with bombs.”

Or in other words: “It isn’t about the size of the explosion,” Cannell says. “It’s about the size of the public reaction.”

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/03/how-does-a-violent-crime-spree-affect-a-community/556205/?utm_source=feed

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greaterstokesawareness · 1 year ago

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My RECAP: Brian Stokes Mitchell at Perelman Performing Arts Center in NYC, October 5, 2023

Autumn in New York when it still feels like summer

It was so warm out on this early October day that I didn't even get to wear my Richard Gere pea coat trench, maybe next time. We spent a bunch of time wandering around St. Paul's Chapel and graveyard and visiting the September 11 memorial reflecting pools. The performing arts center is just across the street. This isn't a part of New York City that we've ever visited so we did a lot of exploring. Our next stop was the Tin Building and the Pier 17 waterfront area overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a really cool spot with lots of built-in outdoor seating and restaurants.

Not a library

The new Perelman Performing Arts Center is a big marble cube of a building with spaces that are designed to be flexible to accommodate all kinds of different performing arts needs. There's also a restaurant and lounge, an outdoor balcony and a giant staircase leading up. I work at Yale and it reminded me of the Beinecke Library because the there are no windows and the marble is designed so the light filters through. It was a pretty cool spot and I would love to see another show there sometime. You can read more about the building in this New York Times article (x).

Songs of Hope and Life

The show was Brian Stokes Mitchell accompanied by Ted Firth on piano and was titled Songs of Hope and Life. It lasted for a good two hours and Stokes did 18 songs including several that I personally hadn't heard him perform live before. You can find the setlist below. Highlights were pretty much all the songs I've never heard live before which were "Hope," "The Best Is Yet to Come," and "Being Alive." And I'll give a goofy honorable mention to "It's Not Easy Being Green" and "Hooray for Tom" mostly because of the surprise green spotlight which honestly cracked me up. When Stokes did "Odds on Favorite" and "Over the Moon" he was in full excitable-boy-mode. He literally sat at the piano and played an instrumental song from the E.T. soundtrack with Ted Firth playing his part standing up. I mean it was objectively adorable.

[side note: I was surprised to hear the Bruce Hornsby cover and it made me think that the Jackson Browne songs on my wishlist (x) might not be too far off the mark :)) Brian Stokes Mitchell "Sky Blue and Black" when?].

Twice in a lifetime opportunity?

Did I mention we were sitting in the front row center? Yeah, in a repeat of good fortune just like at the Town Hall show last April, we were lucky enough to sit in the front row. Which means we were lucky enough to witness the absolute artistry of Stokes singing "This Nearly Was Mine" with no microphone. I will never get tired of seeing him do this. What made this time especially cool was that he moved right up to the edge of the stage, right in front of us, to sing. Honestly, I was frozen in my seat, literally holding my breath at times. Like I can't properly explain how captivating it is to watch someone that talented and professional at their craft sing that close up and to be able to catch every mannerism, every dramatic choice, all of the breaths and swallows, all those small decisions during a performance. Just stunning. Here's audio of the song from that night (x), I know it can't truly capture the actual performance but you can get an idea of how cool it was to have Stokes basically sing this really special song right into your face.

Next up for us is Ridgefield, CT on October 29th. Super excited, can't wait to see Stokes sing again! You can find a link to his upcoming concert dates and other goodies in my pinned post (x).

Links: setlist.fm (x), event page on NYCPAC (x), Playbill article about Downtown Sessions series (x)

Set list:

Feeling Good

Hope (Jason Robert Reynolds song)

I, Don Quixote

The Best Is Yet to Come

Getting Married Today

Being Alive

Waters of March

Lush Life

This Nearly Was Mine (no microphone) (x)

A Wizard Every Day

It's Not Easy Being Green

Hooray for Tom (Bruce Hornsby song)

New Words

Make Them Hear You

The Impossible Dream

Odds on Favorite (Pete Seeger song)

Over the Moon [instrumental on piano with Ted Firth] (from E.T., John Williams)

Grateful

#brian stokes mitchell #greater stokes awareness: my recap #greater stokes awareness: author's note #brian stokes mitchell: concert #broadway #musical theater #greater stokes awareness

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reseau-actu · 7 years ago

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Islamic State threatens Iran from 'Tora Bora' borderlands

HALABJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Islamic State may be on the wane in Iraq and Syria but for Iran, the threat is still strong, centered on Kurdish communities along the Iraq-Iran border where militants have operated in recent years.

The locals even have a nickname for the area, “Tora Bora”, after the mountain hideout al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden fled to after the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, a senior Iraqi security official in the border region said.

In late January, three Revolutionary Guards were killed in the Bamo region fighting 21 Islamic State militants who had sneaked in from Iraq. Three militants detonated suicide vests and two others were killed in the clash, the Guards said.

Days earlier, Iran’s intelligence ministry found a weapons cache in the town of Marivan on the Iranian side of the border that included TNT, C4, electronic detonators, grenades, ammunition clips for AK-47 machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.

The clash and discovery indicate that Islamic State still has the ability to penetrate the tightly controlled security net of the Islamic Republic, which has largely managed to avoid the devastation wrought by the group in neighboring countries.

“Today (Islamic State) does not control a country ... in order to assert that they exist, they may carry out an attack any day,” Hossein Dehghan, a former defense minister and now an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a recent interview with the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Halabja, the largest town on the Iraqi side, is most often remembered for a chemical attack ordered by then-President Saddam Hussein in 1988 which left thousands dead.

The presence of religious militants in the area around the town is not new: at the city’s entrance hang portraits of Iraqi Kurdish security forces, known as Peshmerga, killed in the battle against Islamic State.

Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the jihadist largely blamed for stoking a civil war between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shi’ites, led a group in the area called Ansar al-Islam, which merged with Islamic State in 2014.

Many of the Iranian and Iraqi Kurds now fighting with Islamic State are part of a second generation of militants largely influenced by Zarqawi’s deadly legacy, Iraqi security officials and Peshmerga commanders familiar with the matter say.

Sunni IS militants see Shi’ites, who make up the majority of Iran’s population, as apostates and have repeatedly threatened to carry out attacks in the Islamic Republic. Kurds make up about ten percent of Iranians and are predominantly Sunni.

Hamai Hama Seid, a senior Peshmerga commander and member of the Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, said Kurdish IS militants take advantage of their knowledge of the language and region as well as strong cross-border ties.

“There are definitely ties between the Iranian and Iraqi extremists on the two sides of the border,” Seid told Reuters in the Iraqi border village of Tawila, only a few hundred meters from the Iranian border. He added:

“The militants exploited this area because it’s mountainous, difficult and wooded.”

Many of the young men are poorly educated and have few economic opportunities, allowing extremist recruiters to flourish, Iraqi security officials and Peshmerga commanders say.

JUNE ATTACK

Iranian authorities say the arms cache found on the border was going to be used to attack civilians in public areas, a follow-up to the shocking assault on the parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of the founder of Iran’s revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, last June that left at least 18 people dead and dozens wounded.

FILE PHOTO: Members of Iranian forces take position during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran June 7, 2017. Omid Vahabzadeh/TIMA via REUTERS/File Photo via REUTERS

Islamic State claimed responsibility for that assault and threatened more. The Revolutionary Guards responded by raining missiles on the militants in Syria and arresting dozens of suspects in Iran.

The June attack was conceived by an Iraqi militant using the nom de guerre Abu Aisha, a senior commander in a unit of Islamic State fighting in Iraq and Syria made up exclusively of Kurds, according to the Iranian ministry of intelligence.

The Tehran attackers fought in Mosul and Raqqa and trained outside Iran, the ministry said.

Photos posted online show Abu Aisha, a member of Ansar al-Islam prior to joining Islamic State, beheading Peshmerga soldiers while wearing a traditional Kurdish outfit.

In the fall of 2016, a number of Kurdish Islamic State militants led by Abu Aisha came to an Iraqi border village near Halabja to try to establish a base of operations which could carry out attacks in both Iran and Iraq, according to Iraqi security officials familiar with the matter.

Peshmerga killed Abu Aisha in December 2016, according to Iraqi security officials and Kurdish activist Mokhtar Hooshmand, who was jailed in Iran on national security charges from 2010 to 2012 and met dozens of Sunni extremists behind bars.

Afterward, Serias Sadeghi, who ran a bakery with his brother in Paveh, an Iranian town about 15 km (9 miles) from the border, took over as lead planner for the Tehran attacks, Hooshmand said by telephone from outside Iran.

Sadeghi knew Abu Aisha and had crossed back and forth into Iraq with him multiple times.

“Sadeghi was still very eager that this operation be carried out,” Hooshmand said. “He played a key role.”

During the attack on Khomeini’s mausoleum, Sadeghi detonated a suicide vest, shooting up an orange fireball captured on amateur video. The other four attackers were also killed.

Critics of the Iranian government say the Islamic Republic is reaping what they sowed in the area: it failed to crack down earlier on the militants because they served as a counter-balance to secular groups who opposed the central government.

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), an Iranian opposition group fighting for greater autonomy for the Kurdish community, posted a report online in 2014 about militants spreading propaganda for Islamic State and trying to recruit young men for the group in Iran. They named Sadeghi as an individual actively recruiting in Paveh.

“They were in most of the mosques in Kurdistan and spread propaganda but none of them were arrested by the Islamic Republic,” said Mohammad Saleh Ghaderi, a representative of the PDKI in Erbil.

Attempts to reach representatives from the Iranian Ministry of Interior were not successful. But documents show Iranian authorities were aware of the growing threat.

A report issued by Iran’s Ministry of Interior noted in 2014: ”Many Salafist Iranian Kurds have announced the readiness to join Islamic State in Iraq and many have traveled to Syria.

“Salafi and Takfiri Iranian groups are pumping Iranian Kurdish youth toward Islamic State and sending them to Iraq,” the report said, using terms employed by Iranian officials to describe Sunni religious extremists.

“Not a day goes by that funerals are not held for them in Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan,” the report said. It added: “In the future we will witness a large number of Iranian Kurds ... joining Islamic State.”

Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

Article complet: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-iraq-islamic-state/islamic-state-threatens-iran-from-tora-bora-borderlands-idUSKBN1FP1FW?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

#Actualité #English

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ironfanfestival-blog1 · 7 years ago

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detail note on Bibliometrics

in line with Hawkins “the application of quantitative analysis within the bibliographic reference of the frame of literature.” The British widespread institution describe the identical bibliometrics because the “utility of mathematical and statistical approach in the have a look at of the use of files and statistical techniques it the study of using documents and guide sample.” starting place of the time period “Bibliometrics” Biblio + Metrics = Bibliometrics “Biblio” is originated from Greek phrase “Biblion” which means that “e book” or “Paper” “Metrics” is originated from Greek or Latin phrase “Metricus” or “Metrikos” which means that the science of Meter or to measured. rationalization: Bibliometrics is a hard and fast of techniques used to look at or degree texts and statistics. citation evaluation and content material evaluation are generally used in Bibliometrics methods. even as Bibliometrics methods are most often used inside the field of library and information technological know-how. Bibliometrics is the statistical evaluation of bibliographic statistics, usually that specialize in citation analysis of research outputs and courses, i.e. how many times studies outputs and guides are being cited. Bibliometric evaluation is turning into an an increasing number of important manner to measure and verify research effect of people, businesses of individuals or establishments. due to boundaries associated with bibliometrics (as highlighted within the troubles and obstacles section), Bibliometrics measures should continually be used along with different statistics which includes investment obtained, number of patents, awards granted and qualitative measures which includes peer assessment. over the past decades Bibliometrics methods have end up pretty stylish for the assessment of scientific research and for the evaluation of hyperlink "http://www.guidelines.kaowarsom.be/en/evaluation_researchers_individual"individual researchers. The most frequently used Bibliometrics measures are the subsequent: • The wide variety of papers published by way of a given researcher or studies group, as a demonstration of his/its productivity. • The frequency with which a published paper is cited in later guides by using other researchers, as an indication of the hobby this paper has raised. • The frequency with which an electronically to be had paper is downloaded by way of readers, as an indication of its importance. • The common frequency with which the papers in a given magazine are stated all through a given time span after book, as an indication of the medical great of the journal or of the thoroughness of its peer assessment. HOW DO BIBLIOMETRICS affect AS AN author: Hiring, advancement, tenure: writer metrics; provide you with a manner to measure the impact of your studies. For many roles in science academia, author metrics are used to display candidates, and as criteria for advertising. Altmetrics - measuring impact via social media - permit you to get instant comments on the effect your research is having on the medical community. furnish programs: quotation metrics can affect investment for you, to your branch, and even on your college. investment organizations are increasingly more requiring evidence of publishing effect. locating journals to post in: magazine metrics can help you decide which magazine to publish in. selecting the right magazine can help enhance your creator metrics - your paper may additionally acquire more citations if you are published in a magazine with a excessive effect factor. HOW DO BIBLIOMETRICS have an effect on AS A RESEARCHER? discover articles for your subject matter: "cited via" features supplied in net of science and Google scholar permit you to find out newly published studies being performed on your subject matter. perceive seminal studies: understanding how regularly a paper has been noted allow you to evaluate the significance of that paper. further to tools like web of technology and Google student, altmetrics is rising as a manner to assess the web social effect that a piece of writing or creator is having. finding journals to examine: magazine impact factor equipment like magazine quotation document permit you to discover leading journals in a subject. Why use Bibliometrics? Bibliometrics can be described because the statistical analysis of guides. traditionally, Bibliometrics has centered on the quantitative evaluation of citations and citation counts. Such citation evaluation can be useful to researchers in: • supporting to become aware of and priorities publications to examine • Informing the choice of targets for deliberate publications • Contributing to the demonstration of instructional impact • finding capability collaborators institutions also can benefit from the use of Bibliometrics. Bibliometrics evaluation can be used to help pick out an group's research strengths, to benchmark its overall performance, and to inform studies method improvement. using quotation analysis to gauge the significance of 1's paintings, as an example, is a sizeable a part of the tenure assessment manner. information scientists also use quotation analysis to quantitatively determine the middle magazine titles and divide publications especially disciplines; interrelationships between authors from distinct establishments and colleges of idea; and associated facts about the sociology of academia. Bias and Discrepancies or trouble: • exceptional vs. quantity: The wide variety of instances a work has been referred to should not be used to gauge the nice of the work, it without a doubt only measures the interest of other researchers inside the paintings as recorded inside the mentioned references. • debatable papers, inclusive of those primarily based on fraudulent statistics, may be pretty stated. a piece can be heavily referred to due to the fact different authors are refuting its research. • quotation bias. people might also inappropriately cite their own work, their colleagues, or paintings from the journals in which they post. some of bibliometric equipment will let you exclude self-citations. • skilled researchers have a bonus over early profession researchers as they'll have produced more outputs over a time frame and so may have greater citations. • there may be a bias towards English language fabric - this displays the content of the principle quotation tools. • Time is wanted before a significant quotation analysis can be made, so new journals generally tend to fare badly. • Bibliographic equipment can not usually reliably differentiate between researchers who proportion the same surname and initials, that means that citation counts won't be accurate. • Time-span: on average a e-book may additionally reach its citation count number height inside the first years following guide. The time span chosen for a citation document may skew the outcomes. • only a small percent of articles are exceedingly stated and they may be observed in a small subset of journals. This small share bills for a big percent of citations. • publication exclusion: most effective studies articles, technical notes and evaluations are "citable" objects. Editorials, letters, information objects and meeting abstracts are "non-citable objects". • assessment articles: authors and journals that frequently post assessment articles tend to have their citation counts exaggerated because those forms of articles are commonly especially stated • Non-noted articles: citation counting does no longer remember articles that have been used but did not get stated. makes use of of Bibliometrics: • To become aware of authorship trend in document in diverse topics. • To measure the usefulness of retrospective and modern-day cognizance carrier. • To become aware of beyond gift publishing tendencies as well as forecast destiny publishing tendencies. • To broaden experimental models. • To pick out core periodical in exceptional discipline. • To formulate stoking and weeding coverage. • To provoke effective and multilevel network system. end: Bibliometrics is a sort of research method used inside the library and facts .it is quantitative examine of diverse components of literature on a subject and it used to perceive the sample of book authorship and journal insurance with the objective of getting and insight in to the dynamic of increase of information inside the areas beneath consideration. The adoption of Bibliometrics techniques in various discipline stimulate stunning boom of literature on Bibliometrics and its related areas. question # 07: Write a be aware on organizational accountable for the Bibliography manage in Pakistan Definition A bibliography is formatted in precisely the equal way as a reference list. not like a reference listing, a bibliography is a group of all the resources you have used all through, and in education for, your task. it's miles crucial you listing resources you found that had been applicable for your paintings, even if you don’t discuss with them to your text. A bibliography is blanketed at the cease of your essay. Bibliography is a listing of books, scholarly articles, speeches, personal racket, driers, net web sites, and different resources. Bibliographical groups In Bibliography there are many agencies are working in Pakistan. The Bibliographical company could mean a whole file of the existence and place of each company in everywhere in the world.. what is bibliographical manage? Bibliographical manage would suggest a whole document of the lifestyles and area of each book and of all other substances of concern to libraries. accepted bibliographical control IFLA expert declaration on everyday Bibliographic control in the course of the 1970‘s IFLA hooked up an workplace for popular Bibliographic manage following several years of discussion approximately the significance of worldwide sharing of bibliographic records to help lessen costs and to inspire greater cooperation international. That office became known as UBCIM (prevalent Bibliographic manage and worldwide MARC).At that time the philosophy became that every countrywide bibliographic employer could catalog the paintings posted in its personal united states of america and establish the names of its authors, and that records would be shared and re-used around the sector. but, in the1990’s it was identified that having facts in a language and script customers can recognize is extraordinarily critical, so respecting the cultural diversity of customers around the world must be addressed as properly. these aren't necessarily collectively unique conditions, as has been verified in the subsequent digital international Authority document (VIAF) initiative. net technologies offer new opportunities of sharing records at a worldwide scale and past the library domain, but also show a want for authoritative and trusted information. for this reason, the concept of UBC remains legitimate and really worth IFLA’s persevered help and promoting. IFLA therefore reaffirms the subsequent ideas • A national bibliographic enterprise (NBA) has the obligation for providing the authoritative bibliographic statistics for courses of its own u . s . and for making that information available to other NBAs, libraries, and different groups(for example data and museums) thru suitable and timely services with the goal of increasing open get admission to to the bibliographic facts. • NBAs, as part of the creation of authoritative bibliographic facts, also have the responsibility for documenting authorized access factors for persons, households, company our bodies, names of locations, and authoritative citations for works related to its personal usa and for making that authority statistics available to other NBAs, libraries, and other communities (for example records and museums). • IFLA has the duty for retaining and selling the statement of global Cataloguing concepts (ICP), published in 2009, as the foundation for the sharing of bibliographic records • IFLA has, through the work of its relevant expert gadgets and advisory committees, the responsibility for creating, maintaining and promoting bibliographic requirements and recommendations to facilitate this sharing of bibliographic and authority facts (e.g., ISBD, the FRBR family of conceptual fashions, and so forth.) • IFLA works collaboratively with other worldwide organizations (e.g., ISO, ICA, ICOM, and many others.) inside the introduction and protection of different standards so that it will make certain that library requirements traits, which include well matched statistics fashions, are coordinated

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henrytcasey · 7 years ago

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Watch This Wrestling 41 (10/15—21)

Hello friends!

Yep, I took a while off from doing this thing. Why? Mostly because it’s been a busy season outside of this little project. And maybe I’m starting to wonder if this should be a Monthly thing and not a weekly thing. Agree? Disagree? As always, @ me on twitter: henrytcasey to let me know what you think.

What I Watched

Evolve 95, 10/15

Monday Night Raw, 10/16

SmackDown LIVE, 10/17

205 Live, 10/17

NXT, 10/18

Lucha Underground, 10/18

CZW: The Wolf of Wrestling, VOD 10/18

Upcoming Watch List

WWE TLC, 10/22

Nova Pro Wrestling: Nova Project 3, 10/22

Powerbomb TV: Futures, 10/22

Monday Night Raw, 10/23

SmackDown LIVE, 10/24

205 Live, 10/25

NXT, 10/26

PCW: Fright Night, 10/27

Non-WWE Match of The Week:

“Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams vs Zack Sabre Jr.

Evolve 95, 10/15

I kinda wanted to give this to one of the Lucha Underground Season 3 finale matches, but couldn’t. Even though I’m writing this almost a month after it happened, Williams vs Sabre Jr. still sticks out in my memory.

A technical master-class, I loved this bout because it continued to push forward the slow-burn story of ZSJ’s weakness. Yes, he won, but Hot Sauce looked amazing here, just like Jaka did the previous night in his non-title victory over Sabre.

Available on WWNlive.com because WWN and FloSlam fell apart faster than a birthday cake in a pro wrestling setting.

Honorable Mentions:

Matt Riddle vs Fred Yehi, Evolve 95, 10/15

Mil Muertes vs Cage vs Jeremiah Crane, Lucha Underground, 10/18

Lucha Underground Career vs. Title Match: Prince Puma vs Champion Johnny Mundo, Lucha Underground, 10/18

Non-WWE Segment of The Week

Lucha Underground Finale Montage

Lucha Underground, 10/18

In a surprise to no one, the finale scenes of Lucha Underground’s third season brought all of the thunder. Both of the show’s prior season cappers included shocking moments, but this time it bore an even greater responsibility, as this could have been the series finale, and many fans were aware that Puma’s departure was for real, as the wrestler who portrays him (Ricochet) has been teasing a departure for months and months.

And then, it delivered — and it did so in spades. While we can spend posts debating what Dario Cueto said into a phone as he bled out (he better not be dead, damnit) — and Brandon Stroud already put work into that, we can’t just stall out there. From King Cuerno’s epic trophy room to the surprise appearance in the Lizard Temple to the Spider-Man No More-esque goodbye from Puma, this sequence was exquisite.

And fortunately for me, I took so long to write this that we know this won’t be Lucha’s final season:

pic.twitter.com/eczgLhReET

Also, a little note to Evolve. That crazy clusterfuck ending to Evolve 95 wasn’t how you do a brawl to close out. Sure, you had the epic DARBY OFF THE BACKBOARD spot I desperately wanted to see in Corona, NY (at the death house called The Elmcor), but that was a little too early for The End to be met with a significant challenge.

Available via El Rey, iTunes and other services

Honorable Mentions:

“Keith Lee issues an OPEN CHALLENGE!”, 10/15

A Film by Taya, Lucha Underground, 10/18

WWE Match of The Week:

Aleister Black vs Raul Mendoza

NXT, 10/18

It’s funny, I didn’t remember this match when I was skimming through the NXT archives, but fast-forwarding to the middle of it, I realized this was the easy pick of the WWE week. Yes, that’s owed in part to it being a weak week for matches in the E, but this had a memorable moment despite Mendoza being utterly forgettable in it.

youtube

Yes, this is one of the excellent matches that stoked the fire of the feud between Black and Velveteen Dream. Dream’s finally finding that character, and Black’s utter fury — taken out on Mendoza — is perfect.

WWE Segment of the Week:

Kevin and Sami Explain Themselves, Again

SmackDown LIVE, 10/10

We don’t know what exactly is going on backstage with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn — reportedly kicked off the last leg of a recent European tour — but on camera they are gold.

youtube

This segment, where they harass Daniel Bryan, and go in on him for becoming a corporate lackey, is another example of why Kevin Owens is doing better than most of the company when it comes to promos. He has a memory that outlasts the most recent three months. Bringing up how Bryan used to be anti-authority, and now cares about what’s best for business? Ties the room together, man.

Honorable Mentions:

The Shield Enter Raw Together for the first time in a long time, Monday Night Raw, 10/16

Pulp Fashion, SmackDown LIVE, 10/17

New Day or RUSEV Day?, SmackDown LIVE, 10/17

Drew Gulak’s Uninterrupted Powerpoint Presentation, 205 Live, 10/17

#watch this wrestling #wrestlewords #evolve wrestling #Zack Sabre Jr.#hot sauce tracy williams #lucha underground #wwe #nxt #aleister black #velveteen dream #kevin owens #sami zayn #daniel bryan #smackdown live

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miriadonline · 7 years ago

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CONF: Westminster Media Forum conference on fake news - scope, public trust and options for policy - with Facebook, Channel 4, RT, The Daily Mash, IPSO, Adblock Plus and IMPRESS - Morning, Thursday, 13th July 2017

Westminster Media Forum Keynote Seminar Fake news – scope, public trust and options for policy

This seminar will examine latest developments in the debate surrounding fake news and consider next steps for the media industry and policy in terms of monitoring and regulation.

It takes place in the context of wider concerns being raised about the impact on democratic processes, as well as on trust in the media both in the UK and internationally.

Sessions will analyse the scope of fake news – particularly focusing on distinguishing between satire, clickbait and the deliberate spread of misinformation for monetary gain or in order to influence public opinion.

Chaired by: Baroness Wheatcroft

Timing: Morning, Thursday, 13th July 2017 Venue: Central London

Higher Education institutions who have already booked to attend include: Bangor University; Cardiff University; Falmouth University; Sheffield Hallam University; UCLPartners; University of the Arts London and University of Warwick.

Delegates will also consider priorities for increasing public awareness of the issues as content is increasingly shared online, strengthening verification and signposting processes, and ensuring advertisers can gain greater control of where their brand messages appear online, as well as where responsibilities should lie for regulation.

Westminster Media Forum Keynote Seminar:

Fake news – scope, public trust and options for policy

Timing: Morning, Thursday, 13th July 2017

Venue: Central London

Draft agenda subject to change

8.30 – 9.00 Registration and coffee 9.00 – 9.05 Chair’s opening remarks

Baroness Wheatcroft

9.05 – 9.15 Placing the ‘fake news’ phenomenon in context

Julian Coles, Consultant

9.15 – 10.10 What is fake news, what does the public think and how should the industry respond?

Matthew d’Ancona, Author and Political Columnist

Anna Belkina, Director of Communications, RT

Paul Stokes, Co-Founder and Publisher, The Daily Mash

Dan Brooke, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Channel 4

Questions and comments from the floor with Julian Coles, Consultant

10.10 – 10.55 Monitoring, verifying and signposting news items

Patrick Walker, ?Director of Media Partnerships EMEA, Facebook

Senior representative, news service

Questions and comments from the floor

10.55 – 11.00 Chair’s closing remarks

Baroness Wheatcroft

11.00 – 11.25 Coffee 11.25 – 11.30 Chair’s opening remarks

Senior Parliamentarian

11.30 – 12.00 Ad misplacement concerns and the implications for brand management

Eitan Jankelewitz, Partner, Sheridans

Dr Laura Sophie Dornheim, Head of Public Affairs, Adblock Plus

Sarah Hall, Managing Director, Sarah Hall Consulting and President-Elect, CIPR

Questions and comments from the floor

12.00 – 12.10 Key issues for policymakers and regulators

Matt Tee, Chief Executive Officer, IPSO

12.10 – 12.55 Fake news regulation – responsibilities and next steps

Jonathan Heawood, Chief Executive Officer, IMPRESS

Dr Martin Moore, Director, Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power, Policy Institute, King’s College London

Senior representative, platform

Questions and comments from the floor with Matt Tee, Chief Executive Officer, IPSO

12.55 – 13.00 Chair’s and Westminster Media Forum closing remarks

Senior Parliamentarian

Peter van Gelder, Director, Westminster Media Forum

To note: This seminar has elicited strong interest from government officials, with representatives already booked to attend from BEIS; Cabinet Office; Charity Commission; CPS; DCLG; DCMS; DfE; DH; DWP; European Commission; FCO; HMRC; HM Treasury; Home Office; ICO; IPO; NAO; Ofcom; ONS; Wales Audit Office and the Welsh Government.

The agenda: Placing the fake news phenomenon in context – recent developments and concerns; What constitutes fake news, public perceptions and options for industry response; The way forward for restoring public trust in the news; Next steps for monitoring, verifying and signposting fake news items online; Promoting greater transparency in the digital advertising market – addressing ad misplacement and the implications for brand management; and Fake news regulation – responsibilities and next steps.

Networking: Places have been reserved by parliamentary pass-holders from the House of Lords and officials from BEIS; Cabinet Office; Charity Commission for England and Wales; Crown Prosecution Service; DCLG; DCMS; Department for Education; DH; DWP; European Commission; FCO; HMRC; HM Treasury; Home Office; ICO; IPO; Ofcom; ONS; NAO; Wales Audit Office and the Welsh Government. In addition to representatives from the universities noted above, places have also been reserved by Addleshaw Goddard; Analysys Mason; Arebyte; ASCL; Aster Group; Bell Pottinger; Bird & Bird; Borkowski; Bristows; British Red Cross; Clifford Chance; Elior UK; ESB; Ethical Journalism Network; Farrer & Co; Future Cities Catapult; GfK; Golin; Google; Grapeshot; GroupM; Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; IMPRESS; ITV; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Lewis Silkin; Manchester Metropolitan University; Mawsonia; Met Office; Minerva Communications; NRi Digital; NSL; Osborne Clarke; Oxera Consulting; Schroders; STV; Teneo Blue Rubicon; The Chatty Scientist; University for the Creative Arts; Weber Shandwick; White & Case; Wiggin; Withers and Yahoo.

Press passes have been reserved by representatives from 2020Dentistry.com; Ars Technica; Bloomberg News; Business Insider UK; Criminal Law & Justice Weekly; Management Today; Market Research Society; Marketing Week; Network of Sikh Organisations; PRWeek; Quartz; Significance; Team New Europe; Tech City News; The BMJ; The Canary; The Drum; The Financial Times and The Sunday Times.

Booking arrangements

Online booking form.

Once submitted, this will be taken as a confirmed booking and will be subject to our terms and conditions below.

Please pay in advance by credit card on 01344 864796. If advance credit card payment is not possible, please let me know and we may be able to make other arrangements.

Options and charges: Places at Fake news – scope, public trust and options for policy(including refreshments and PDF copy of the transcripts) are £210 plus VAT; Concessionary rate places (see conditions): £80 plus VAT. Please be sure to apply for this at the time of booking.

Can’t attend? Full transcript available approximately 12 days after the event for £95 plus VAT; Concessionary rate: £50 plus VAT.

If you find the charge for places a barrier to attending, please let me know as concessionary and complimentary places are made available in certain circumstances (but do be advised that this typically applies to individual service users or carers or the like who are not supported by or part of an organisation, full-time students, people between jobs or who are fully retired with no paid work, and representatives of small charities – not businesses, individuals funded by an organisation, or larger charities/not-for-profit companies). Please note terms and conditions below (including cancellation charges).

www.westminstermediaforum.co.uk

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kindzlurvetop-blog · 8 years ago

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Cheat Unturned

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