#house treated with animal dung

[hero-israel]

#4 sounds like white people at the end of slavery… “we didn’t want to end it because what if there’s retaliation? There have already been slave riots. Imagine what would happen if we gave them freedom or if we became the minority?” It’s not speculative it actually happened the fears had basis. That’s what number four sounds like. It also feels like you only care about one view point like you expect me to believe y’all are perfect victims that did one thing in retaliation?

#4 sounds like that to you because you are an American who thinks the whole world is America and all history must be the same as yours. So you should start by asking yourself what it is in your cultural upbringing, and what in the media you consume, that has you automatically believing the worst possible claims against Jews, to the point of seeing it as understandable for us to be mass murdered.

Jews did not - and do not - want to live in an Arab or Muslim majority society not because of any issues related to "slave uprisings" you are teleporting into this discussion, but rather because Jews had already been brutally oppressed, persecuted, and genocided by Arabs and Muslims for 1,000+ years before Israel or political Zionism were ever invented. Mohammed himself got his hands dirty with this, wiping out the Jews of Yathrib and renaming the gore-drenched rubble into something called "Medina." No less a source than Maimonides wrote in 1172 "God has entangled us with this people, the nation of Ishmael, who treat us so prejudicially and who legislate our harm and hatred…. No nation has ever arisen more harmful than they, nor has anyone done more to humiliate us, degrade us, and consolidate hatred against us... We bear the inhumane burden of their humiliation, lies and absurdities, being as the prophet said, ‘like a deaf man who does not hear or a dumb man who does not open his mouth’.... Our sages disciplined us to bear Ishmael’s lies and absurdities, listening in silence, and we have trained ourselves, old and young, to endure their humiliation, as Isaiah said, ‘I have given my back to the smiters, and my cheek to the beard pullers.’”

Because there is a long history of this, there is much you can read about it, if you care.

Some very random examples:

The "badge of shame" was invented in medieval Baghdad, only later migrating to Europe

Life for Jews in Yemen: The Jews of Yemen were treated as pariah, third-class citizens who needed to be perennially reminded of their submission to the ruling faith…The Jews were considered to be impure, and therefore forbidden to touch a Muslim or a Muslim’s food. They were obliged to humble themselves before a Muslim, to walk on his left side, and to greet him first. They were forbidden to raise their voices in front of a Muslim. They could not build their houses higher than the Muslims’ or ride a camel or horse, and when riding on a mule or donkey, they had to sit sideways. Upon entering a Muslim quarter, a Jew had to take off his footgear and walk barefoot. No Jewish man was permitted to wear a turban or carry the Jambiyyah (dagger), which was worn universally by the free tribesmen of Yemen. If attacked with stones or fist by Islamic youth, a Jew was not allowed to defend himself. Further, the Jews were forced to wear sidelocks or peots. The wearing of such long and dangling peots “was originally a source of great shame for the Yemenites. It was decreed by the imams to distinguish the Jews from the Muslims”. More degrading and insulting decrees to the Jews were the Atarot (Headgear) and Latrine Decrees. The former was a seventeenth-century decree forbidding the Jews to wear a headcovering or turbans. The Latrine Decree was a nineteenth-century edict in which the Jews were forced to clean out public toilets and remove animal dung and carcasses from the streets. Another discriminatory edict was the Orphan Decree which gave the Zaydis the right to convert to Islam any child under the age of thirteen whose father is dead. Further, evidence by a Jew against a Muslim was invalid and a “Jew was forbidden to pass a Muslim to his right, and whoever did so, even unwittingly, could be beaten without trial; the Jews were forbidden to make their purchases before the Muslims had completed theirs; a Jew entering the house of an Arab or the office of an official was only allowed to sit down in the place where the shoes were removed” . Tudor Parfitt summarizes some of these laws in the following: [the Jews] were required not to insult Islam, never strike a Muslim, or to impede him in his path. They were not to assist each other in any activity against a Muslim…They were not to build new places of worship or repair existing one…They were not to pray too noisily or hold public religious processions. They were not to wink. They were not to proselytize. They were not to bear arms. They were required to dress in a distinctive fashion in order not to be mistaken for a member of the Muslim occupying forces. In other words dhimmis had all the times to behave themselves in an unostentatious and unthreatening manner, one appropriate to a defeated and humbled subject people. They were to avoid the slightest show of triumphalism and they were forbidden any activity that could lead to proselytization. Yemenite Jews were “excluded as it almost always…from affairs of state, and from the great institutions of the country”

1941 Farhud pogrom (Iraq)

1929 Hebron Massacre ("They cut off hands, they cut off fingers, they held heads over a stove, they gouged out eyes. A rabbi stood immobile, commending the souls of his Jews to God – they scalped him. They made off with his brains. On Mrs. Sokolov’s lap, one after the other, they sat six students from the yeshiva and, with her still alive, slit their throats. They mutilated the men. They shoved thirteen-year-old girls, mothers, and grandmothers into the blood and raped them in unison....")

1921 Jaffa Riots

1920 Nebi Musa Riots

1910 Shiraz Blood Libel (Iran) ("In the middle of the 19th century, J. J. Benjamin wrote about the life of Persian Jews: "…they are obliged to live in a separate part of town…; for they are considered as unclean creatures… Under the pretext of their being unclean, they are treated with the greatest severity and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans, they are pelted by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt… For the same reason, they are prohibited to go out when it rains; for it is said the rain would wash dirt off them, which would sully the feet of the Mussulmans… If a Jew is recognized as such in the streets, he is subjected to the greatest insults. The passers-by spit in his face, and sometimes beat him… unmercifully… If a Jew enters a shop for anything, he is forbidden to inspect the goods… Should his hand incautiously touch the goods, he must take them at any price the seller chooses to ask for them... Sometimes the Iranians intrude into the dwellings of the Jews and take possession of whatever please them. Should the owner make the least opposition in defense of his property, he incurs the danger of atoning for it with his life... If... a Jew shows himself in the street during the three days of the Katel (the start of Muharram)…, he is sure to be murdered")

1840 Damascus Blood Libel (Syria)

1839 Allahdad Pogrom (Iran)

1834 Hebron Massacre

1834 Looting of Safed

1800s Morocco - Jews were forbidden to wear shoes

1700 Jerusalem oppression / apartheid: ("Muslims are very hostile to Jews and inflict upon them vexations in the streets of the city… the common folk persecute the Jews, for we are forbidden to defend ourselves against the Turks or the Arabs. If an Arab strikes a Jew, he (the Jew) must appease him but dare not rebuke him, for fear that he may be struck even harder, which they (the Arabs) do without the slightest scruple...")

1679 Mawza Exile (Yemen)

1660 Destruction of Safed

1500s Iran: ("After the ascension of Shah ‘Abbas II the Jews of Isfahan faced a lot of persecution. Most communities were forced to convert to Islam. Furthermore those who refused to convert would have most of their inheritance taken away as the inheritance laws at the time allowed for those who converted to Shia Islam to inherit the property of non-Muslim family members. Some communities did not convert and were thus forced to wear a special badge to show that they were Jewish. The maltreatment of the Jews weakened their community ties and influence throughout the region. By 1889 there were only around four hundred Jewish families left in Isfahan and most very poor.... by the middle 20th century 80% of the Jews of Isfahan lived on the verge of poverty.")

There's so much more I really don't know where to start or where to end. Afghanistan revoked all Jewish citizenship in 1933. Turkey banned all Jewish names and held massive antisemitic pogroms in 1934. Iraq banned Hebrew schools and Hebrew names in 1936, pogroms throughout Libya 1945, Syria fired all Jewish government employees 1946. Tripoli pogrom 1785. Algiers 1805. Cairo 1844. Istanbul 1870. Safed 1517 and 1799. Jerusalem 1665 and 1720. Granada Massacre 1066. Fez Massacre 1033. How many Wiki links do you want, how many textbooks?

This is an old, old conflict, and the Americanized "colonizer / slave plantation" frame is off-topic.

[atopfourthwall]

You know this is something that's been on my mind for a while, what the hell is it with you and gophers? You have you're Doc Ock say gophers are plotting against him, Spiderman 2099 has a mad scientist create a master race of gophers, Action Comics 775 has Superman proclaim he'll now treat the Elite like gophers; is that going to be next year's Halloween plot where it turns out the house was built over the fortress of gopher people?

On a slightly more traditional note, are you going to pick up the new Cassandra Cain Batgirl comic

There are some words that just make me giggle, especially certain animal names because they are not ones one might encounter every day. Dung beetle, for instance, is just inherently funny to me. Gophers is another one. It is also possible that I am subconsciously influenced by the fact that the major college football team of Minnesota is the Golden Gophers, but I don't see that as being a thing. And yeah, I'll probably pick it up.

[bonefall]

i am definitely one of those people who gives their cats warrior names so here r my parents' two young cats:

"Cloudbound"-> Haipipip "fat cloud bouncing." He is a big floofy ragdoll himbo and he reminds me of a cotton swab.

"Flywhisker" -> Ffawshusspap "keen fruit fly." There's not yet words in the lexicon for her name I think, so I used "bee sensing with carpal whiskers" as a placeholder which is kind of what I want to get at but she's really more of a fruit fly yk? And I couldn't find a personality adjective for an observant cat or a proficient hunter, which I think could be a good addition regardless. Anyways she is a very skittish and twitchy little black and white spotted cat and i am her favorite person because i walk quietly.

Don't feel obligated to answer this ask, i just wanted to share :]

FLIES

Fruit flies are actually quite rare, and mostly only seen in ThunderClan because of their notorious love of including fruit in their recipes. This climate is very cold, and fruit flies are most common around human settlements where there's a year-round supply of fruit (pre-infested!) coming in from supermarkets.

So I'll add fruit flies when I get around to a legitimate entry on flies as a whole, but for now, there's a whole bunch of teeny flies that could be very fitting here.

Let's start with the broad "categories" of "Fly" that Clan Cats have plus some related words;

Fly (Generic) = Usprr Any insect that primarily flies to travel, but is not a butterfly, dragonfly, or midge. Bees are a type of Fly in Clanmew. (Midges include craneflies, robberflies, and mosquitoes)

Waste = Bloh Translates directly. A waste. Something that can't be used.

Gall = Oorp Swollen bumps and shapes that rise off plants to house certain types of insects, very popular with certain types of flies, but also used by some mites.

To Harmlessly Pretend/To Pretend To Be Busy = Aweerron/Aweerro/Aweerr This is a REALLY hard verb to translate into English. Translated directly, it means "doing the act of being dandelion-yellow." Translated roughly, it means to don the color yellow so you're left alone by something with a greater threat-level. It can mean 'compliance,' or it can mean to 'mind your own business,' or it can even mean 'looking busy.' A verb that describes several animals, but especially types of flies, of which bees are a type. Their yellow coloration acts as a deterrent to bigger animals who want to avoid being stung. If you've ever been at work and just done something pointless when the boss rolls around, so you don't get assigned more work, you were doing this.

Maggot (of any fly) = Ulae The most general term for baby flies of all types. Also used for bee larvae. NOT derogatory in Clanmew.

Maggot (of green bottlefly) = Huli The medicinal maggot, a VERY important species for use in treating SEVERE wounds.

SPECIFIC CATEGORIES OF FLIES

Hover Fly = Hafrr Little flies capable of a true hover, coming in various odd shapes, but most are dandelion-yellow. Just like butterflies, a fly that is capable of performing this difficult flight pattern is highly respected, but in a cutesy, diminutive way. Hover flies are primarily pollinators, seen around flowers. Being likened to a hoverfly is like being called "spunky."

Building Fly = Kyybr Most bees, wasps, hornets, certain gall flies. Flies that build another structure. Ants temporarily become these at certain times of the year, according to the Clan cat interpretation of an ant's nuptial flight. There are a TON of other subtypes under this, wasps, solitary bees, swarming bees, etc, which I'll get into some other time.

Bristle Fly = Bfurr Probably what you imagine when you hear "fly." Round, bristly, buzzy things, which are often attracted to rotting things and waste. A little fruit fly is a type of bfurr, but so are bottleflies and the golden dung fly. Some flies which are not drawn to decaying matter, such as the Red Parasite Fly, get lumped in here too.

Lace Fly = Honrr Clear-winged, slender insects. Includes scorpionflies, some sawflies, actual lacewings, and the bay sucker.

And lastly, a couple of interesting species.

Scorpionfly (Panorpa Communis) = Yykrn The web-pilferer. Named for its habit of snatching the prey of spiders right out of their webs!

Cleg (Haematopota pluvialis) = Grawr The MOST annoying fly in the entire Clans, absolutely detested. A nasty creature whose bite contains an anticoagulant, causing it to bleed profusely. Common in WindClan and near the edges of conifer forests (such as the plantation near ShadowClan). Considered a lot worse than mosquitoes, which are just itchy.

Marmalade Hover Fly (Episyrphus balteatus) = Fsi Yes. Marmalade can be a valid warrior cat prefix if you'd like <3 The most common hoverfly, traveling in swarms and looking almost exactly like a bee. Their maggots kill aphids and the adults pollinate flowers, causing them to be looked at especially fondly in ThunderClan.

Green Bottlefly (Lucilia sericata) = Holibf The species that is attracted by Clerics so its maggots can be used in medicine. A fly species you're definitely already familiar with, for its shiny, green abdomen.

[frimleyblogger]

House Of The Week

House Of The Week - now available, a house treated with animal poo, courtesy of German firm, KOOP

With the nation busily clearing out clutter from their rooms and lofts, we will all be living a minimalist lifestyle for years to come.

If you are thinking of downsizing, as you do not need now to accommodate your stock of a lifetime’s worth of accumulated impedimenta, or you are thinking of taking your first tentative step on to the ploperty ladder, a German company, KOOP, have come up with…

[senaadjovi]

Odysseus as a Symbol of Home

“So she spoke, and the proud heart in me was persuaded, / and I went back down to my fast ship and the sand of the seashore, / and there I found beside the fast ship my eager companions / pitiful in their lamentation and weeping big tears. / And, as in the country, the calves around the cows returning / from pasture back to the dung of the farmyard, well filled with grazing, / come gambolling together to meet them, and the pens no longer / can hold them in, but lowing incessantly they come running / around their mothers, so these men, once their eyes saw me, / came streaming around me, in tears, and the spirit in them made them / feel as if they were back in their own country, the very / city of rugged Ithaka, where they were born and raised up.” (Odyssey 10.406-17)

The Odyssey by Homer follows the journey of Odysseus’ homecoming. After much hardships and the loss of a lot of men, Odysseus and his companions finally arrive at Circe’s island. A group of men go the house of Circe but get turned into pigs. Odysseus escapes Circe’s traps, persuades her to turn the men back into humans and returns to his ship to meet with the rest of his companions. In this passage (Odyssey 10.406-417), the theme of home is explored through Odysseus’ eyes in an epic simile comparing the way his men come running to him to calves running to their mother. This simile, narrated by Odysseus, compares the men with calves to highlight their deep longing for home and the importance of Odysseus as a representation of their home, though it hints at a more complex relationship between them.

The comparison of the men running to Odysseus with calves running to their mothers makes the reader feel the longing and the importance of home for them. The vocabulary associated with Odysseus’ companions : “pitiful” (10.409), “weeping” (10.409),” lamentation” (10.409) evokes distress and sets a highly emotional tone to the simile. The image of cattle and green pastures contrasts with Circe’s island seashore and evokes their home country. Comparing the men to farm animals also points out the intuitive need of home that they are feeling, as animals are seen as instinctive beings. The importance of home is also highlighted by the use of “their own country” (10.416): the possessive is emphasized three times, country already implying a sense of belonging. Additionally, the mention of  “born and raised up” (10.417) possibly indicates that the men never left their country until the Trojan war and therefore strengthen the importance of home for them. ��The mention of the calves running from the pastures to the farmyard is also interesting: even though the calves have been filling themselves with grazing and have had their bodily needs satisfied, they still have a deeper need for their mothers. It hints at Odysseus and his men relentlessly trying to find the way to their home even when they find other generous lands and riches. At Circe’s house, they are treated like princes, eating and drinking to their heart's content. Yet after a year has elapsed they decide to leave, answering the call for home.

The fact that Odysseus narrates the passage shows how identified he is with his country Ithaka. Speaking of his companions, he says that “these […] came streaming around me […] as if they were back to their own country” (10.416). The joy of seeing him is paralleled with the joy of reuniting with their home. This correspondence between Odysseus and Ithaka is apparent when Odysseus presents himself to the Phaiakians: after naming himself, he directly names and describes Ithaka as if his country was equivalent to himself (9.19-28). Odysseus’ narration also informs us about his own view of his men, and adds a layer of complexity to their relationship as established in the text before. Multiple passages of The Odyssey show instances of the men questioning Odysseys’ authority or disobeying him. Just a few lines after this simile, Eurylochos mistrust him, refuses to follow him back to Circe’s house and urges the other men to disobey as well, accusing him of the deaths of his companions in the land of the Cyclops: “it was by this man’s recklessness that these too perished” (10.437). However this simile implies that Odysseus is the mother figure for his men, which shows the affection he must feel for them and for their memory and portrays a much deeper and more tender bond between them.

In conclusion, this passage narrated by Odysseus explores one of the most important and omnipresent theme of The Odyssey : home. It is here explored through the bond between the men and Ithaka and between the men and Odysseus, which in Odysseus’ eye seems to be identical.  Odysseus narrating this story several years after their deaths may tint it with nostalgia and with a hint of guilt for not having been able to fulfill his role of leader and bring his companions back home. We could say that, for Odysseus, believing that he was an equivalent of home for his men during their adventures is the only comfort he has for their deaths.

Works cited: 

Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. 1967. Perennial-Harper, 1991.

[chit-a-to]

People are praising the manga of Yashahime for treating Moroha better but I’d like to remind that it’s still part of the problem - the mangaka still drew Rin as a child next to Sesshomaru and implied that’s when they fell in love and he’s still treating InuKag like trash. Remember how he made Kagome OOC by implying that she’s jealous of Sessrin and wished Inuyasha could be more like Sesshomaru as a husband? Bitch what?! If anything it should be the other way around, Rin should be jealous of Kagome, considering she has a husband who actually cares about her enough to build her her own house instead of squatting with the in-laws and can actually express a wide range of emotion rather than remaining forever stone-faced.

Also Inuyasha’s not the one dressing up his current wife in his exes clothes, so uhh… who should be jealous of who again? 😂

So true anon. That's why I'm not #TeamAnime or #TeamManga because the main problem is still there. Plus all that shit about kagome envying rin like what in the ever loving shit is that pile of cow dung concept doing there. If anything, hny anime and manga are both fanservice to raisins yet being the greedy af fans they are, they're still not satisfied, resenting and whining every time the attention is shifted a bit to whoever not about their fav chara.

[swearingintengwar]

@sortinghatchats: Bokurano Edition

It’s no secret that I’m more or less obsessed with Bokurano, and that I absolutely love @sortinghatchats​‘s work. So, finally, I’m going to combine the two and sort the fifteen pilots! I’m using @wisteria-lodge​‘s animal terminology and including both burnt and exploded houses. There’s probably mistakes in here since I’m a very new sorter, so don’t expect the work of a veteran here. I’m just doing this because I love sorting and Bokurano’s a good show. Also, there will be SPOILERS under the readmore, as well as the usual content warnings for Bokurano: a lot of child death, plus brief mentions of rape, suicide, and familial abuse. (Let me know if I missed something!)

It’s no secret that Takashi Waku is a Lion secondary. He’s a shounen protagonist. ‘Nuff said. His primary is a little harder to pin down - for a while I was torn between Badger and Lion, but I’m going to go with Badger. While there’s some traces of a glory hound Lion’s “this is gonna be awesome” attitude in him, on the whole he’s driven by the Badger thought process of “the world needs a savior, and, well, I’m the one with the fucknormous robot”.

Masaru Kodama is as exploded Bird primary as they come. He’s organized his life around a strict and unhealthy set of principles, survival of the fittest taken to an extreme, and his wealthy, sheltered upbringing gave him the echo chamber characteristic of exploded Birds. Within the confines of that system, though, he’s a Snake secondary who lives by his whims. Stealing Kokopelli’s glasses, being an ass to the neighborhood cats, going on a rampage through the city - he does things because he feels like it.

Isao Kako’s houses are a perfect storm of tragedy. He’s a very young Bird primary, still working out his system and looking for guidance anywhere he can find it. Even if it’s obviously bad guidance like Dung Beetle’s suggestion to go rape Chizu, he’ll listen to it. The boy’s about to die. His world’s been turned upside down. He’ll grab on to any anchor he can find at this point. His exploded Lion secondary turns those ill-advised ideas into equally ill-advised actions that he throws himself into utterly - Chizu had to kill him to get him off her back.

Speaking of Chizuru Honda, I’m usually not the best at spotting models, but she’s definitely got one. Specifically, she’s a Snake primary modeling exploded Lion. She’s obsessed with a cause - namely, kicking Hatagai’s ass - but not for its own sake. She rages against him because he hurt someone she loves. While she thought their affair was between the two of them, she was willing to forgive him, but when he dragged her sister into it, that was the last straw. Her secondary’s hard to pin down, but I’m guessing a burnt Bird. As a young child, she seemed to appreciate knowledge, but at the time of the series, Hatagai’s betrayal has ripped out her moorings, and she’ll do whatever it takes to make him regret his actions.

Daichi Yamura is also a Snake primary, though if he has a model I can’t see it. More than anything else, Daichi loves his family, and would do anything for them. His secondary seems to be Badger. He’s hardworking, diligent, and finds fulfillment as a provider for his siblings.

Mako Nakarai was easy to pin down as a Badger secondary. She’s studious and hardworking, and loves to work with her hands - all classic Badger secondary traits. Her primary was harder for me to figure out, but Snake seems likely, since deep down she just wants to be loved.

Kunihiko Moji is yet another Snake Badger. He’s devoted to his childhood friends, who are like family to the orphan boy, and he’s very big on the principle that friends should be able to rely on each other. Add his dutiful and reliable personality and he’s a textbook example of his sort.

Maki Ano is definitely a loyalist primary, and I’m leaning towards Badger. She loves her family, she loves her friends, she loves pretty much everyone except Jun (whose treatment of Kana infuriates her) and Dung Beetle (who’s… Dung Beetle). What really solidified her as a Badger primary for me, though, was the very end of her battle, where she opens up the enemy robot’s cockpit, acknowledging the humanity of the people she’s about to kill. Secondary-wise, she has the boisterous determination of a Lion.

Yousuke Kirie was hard for me to figure out, but in hindsight, it seems pretty obvious that he’s a Snake primary who’s just starting to explode. His family is everything to him, and while he’s not outright hostile to others, even friendly (if a bit reserved) towards the other pilots, he’s more than willing to sit idly by while the universe is destroyed if he doesn’t like the way it’s been treating his mom. I ended up having to guess his secondary, but I’ve got a hunch he’s a Bird.

Aiko Tokosumi had me stumped for quite a while, but I think she’s a double Lion. The scene where she lashes out at Yoko for her betrayal gives me Lion primary vibes. Her secondary’s a little easier to pin down as Lion - she exhorts and inspires, drawing on an indomitable Leonine spirit to lift up the ones she loves. She sings, she encourages her friends, she talks her mom out of a mental breakdown. If Lion is the shounen protagonist secondary, Anko’s got the motivational speeches down pat.

Takami Komoda is a pretty clear Bird secondary - proper, patient, doing things the “right” way. I struggled with her primary for a while, but given the sheer amount of strength she draws from her father’s love, I’m thinking Snake. (Bokurano seems to have a lot of Snake primaries whose circles are their families!)

I didn’t get a very good handle on Kanji Yoshikawa, but the sheer amount of scheming he does points me towards a Bird secondary. I’m even less sure of his primary, but that gives me Bird vibes too.

Yoko Machi is so badly burnt I struggled with her sorting for a while, but I eventually pinned down her primary as burnt Lion. Yoko’s a seeker of justice forced into a fundamentally unjust role, and when she comes clean, her Leonine code of honor shines through. (Killing your own brother in retribution for his transgressions would normally point me towards exploded Lion, but let’s be real here, Dung Beetle deserved it.) Her secondary, however, is burnt beyond recognition. With how much she’s suffered, and how little time passed between her redemption and her death, there’s not really much to go on here.

Jun Ushiro-Tanaka. He’s probably my favorite pilot, but more to the point, he’s a textbook burnt Snake primary, an asshole because he doesn’t know what else to be. In the later part of the show he gradually unburns, first taking a few tentative steps outside his little circle of one when he visits Kirie, and ultimately letting his family and Yoko into his heart shortly before his death, until he finally gives his life without hesitation for the sister he once abused. I had trouble with his secondary at first, but I’ve pinned it down as a burnt Badger. For most of the show he’s pretty listless, but when he’s healing in the last days of his life, the thing he does that stuck out to me most was helping Kana and her friends build a treehouse. Helping others. Working with his hands. Badger things.

I think the onion ninjas are lurking around here somewhere.

Finally, Kana Ushiro is, like her brother, an unhealthy loyalist primary, but she’s the opposite unhealthy loyalist primary to him, an exploded Badger. Could the girl with the martyr complex the size of about three Zearths be anything else? She also shares Jun’s Badger secondary, but hers is healthier. She’s comfortable in the domestic role she’s taken on, patiently caring for her brother no matter how strained their relationship may be, and in the epilogue she tenderly cradles a wounded bird as she comforts the Yamura siblings, showing them that their lost brother was a true hero.

[piermanwalter]

Thief’s Apprentice: Civil Servant Triumvirate

What does it take to keep a city of immortal skeleton wizards functioning? These revenants are the antithesis of the bros: a semi-legitimate politician who won’t fall for petty scams, another large sealed container, and a guy who breaks into houses and attacks people but legally.

The Mayor of Veilheim

Although elected by the literate class as The Mayor, The Mayor isn’t a Veilheimer or even from Surenia. His outsider status is celebrated as bringing an end to cultural and political stagnation, but has caused some problems. Counter to Veilheim customs, he still treats his children and grandchildren as family even though he died decades before. The Mayor’s continued contact with them is seen as unnecessary interference with the affairs of the living. Integration between living and dead society has swung back and forth throughout history, although recently the living in Veilheim have gone from viewing the world outside the living district as another plane of existence to coming and going as they please (only if they are plaguebearers) within a few generations, as orchestrated by The Mayor. 

The Mayor’s political platform is normalising death so the living die happier and produce less madmen. Under his rule, living apprenticeship under dead Masters has increased, a few living businesses such as perfumers and the Rambush family distillery now serve the dead, and skeleton prostitution is decriminalised (for health and safety reasons it’s still illegal for anyone who’s not a skeleton to be a prostitute). The Mayor also implemented the infamous and controversial Destitution Inducing Tax Law, which reduced 1000 of the richest Veilheimers being taxed 0.1% of city budget per year to 100 of the richest Veilheimers being taxed 1% of the city budget per year. The repercussions of this law will be discussed later. With increased working population and ending a few monopolies, Veilheim’s self-sufficiency caused some diplomatic issues with other cities, such as Villa Princeps and Alhambra, which used to count on Veilheim for trade. The Mayor dealt with this by decreasing staple food and fabric imports, but increasing imports of luxury items from outside.

As well as being a functional statesman, The Mayor is also a great wizard. As covered before, magic is the energy derived from souls dying outside the body. Wizards can’t perform magic on their own, but can effectively use magic items, objects with pieces of mage souls in them. To use a magic item, a wizard needs to convince the soul piece inside to die for their sake. Thus wizards are all monstrously manipulative. The Mayor keeps a stash of magic items from his home country that nobody else can use because the souls inside all speak a different language. 

During the uncertain early years of his reign, The Mayor resorted to a lot of secret crimes to stay in wealth and power. After things stabilised, The Mayor has been able to stay in power via legitimate means for a long time and has worked to erase his history, but some elements of his criminal past come back to haunt him, including you. Some of his deals have gone on for so long with people so dangerous he hasn’t figured out how to end them yet. 

Noble Porter

About 10 years ago, a pirate crew attacked the city and were all arrested. While awaiting trial, some pirates died in the cell and went mad, killing and eating the rest, forming into one single creature composed of at least 8 pirates. Temperament stabilised by being made of so many people, the resulting being’s imposing size and treasure-protecting pirate instincts led to new employment. Noble Porter, most noble of porters, delivers state documents within Veilheim and also to other cities by putting them in the big cabinet. The key is delivered separately a few days earlier to the document’s recipient. Then Noble Porter finds you and kneels so you can reach the cabinet and unlock it. Noble Porter’s head is literally and metaphorically filled with state secrets. Noble Porter is constantly surrounded by guards and seems physically incapable. Despite Noble Porter’s helpless appearance, don’t forget the composition of at least 8 pirates who spent their lives killing and looting and died cannibalising each other.

Noble Porter has a very nondescript personality, can’t speak, and takes a very long time to make decisions. Noble Porter must always be referred to without pronouns, since Noble Porter lacks the mental faculty to comprehend anything other than the proper title. It’s easy to infer complete stupidity from this, but Noble Porter has a surprisingly good idea of the general vibe and often bails out of suspicious situations before they begin. How much Noble Porter likes you is determined by how long it takes you to unlock the cabinet. If you use the wrong keys too much or unlock the wrong drawer first, Noble Porter won’t like you. Noble Porter may also relock locks, change pin combinations, and shuffle documents into other drawers. It usually takes a few minutes to get the cabinet open, but you can use this to your advantage by robbing people while they are distracted. This has inevitably led to Noble Porter liking several specific nobles because they get delivered important documents a lot. This is about as fair and efficient as the standard workplace email. How has Noble Porter managed to accumulate the wealth and prestige prerequisite to being a noble without any language skills? Pirate hoarding instincts.

If Noble Porter doesn’t like you, documents will take much longer to be delivered. If Noble Porter likes you, documents will be delivered quickly and sometimes Noble Porter will deliver extra handwritten nonsense letters and random objects. These nonsense letters are starting to become a currency in high society. Noble Porter is also married to Cylinder Locksmith, who has an unfair advantage because she installs the locks into the cabinet. Is she purposefully being exploitative? It’s hard to tell.

Tax Collector

Despite being rich and influential, Tax Collector is seen as being on the same level as other Collectors, such as Rag Collectors, Dung Collectors, Ash Collectors, etc. Tax Collector has been around for at least 500 years and thus has cultivated an extensive legacy of terror. As per Veilheim’s traditional tax policy, if someone can’t or won’t pay taxes, their share will be paid by increasing taxes for other taxpayers and also Tax Collector will drag them out into the street and stab them, after which they are ridiculed by the general public and reviled by other taxpayers who had to pick up their slack. It’s possible to regain some clout by stabbing Tax Collector back. This happens often enough that it’s legal to stab him as he’s stabbing you (it’s still illegal to stab him at any other time). If you are a chronic tax evader, instead of stabbing you in front of your house, Tax Collector will drag you into the judicial district and stab you in the main square. It’s considered a great honor if Tax Collector stabs someone with the same thing you stabbed him with. Sometimes there are multiple rounds of tax collecting, where Tax Collector collects taxes from those who can pay, stabs those who can’t, then calculates how much extra needs to be paid, collects that from those who can pay, stabs those who can’t, and so on until he reaches a monolith of riches who pays for like 18% of the city budget.

Aside from tax collecting, Tax Collector is also involved with antiforgery, crime scene investigation, and tracing the origin of stolen goods. His giant soul from old age and also work experience makes him an excellent alchemist. Alchemy is the study of how souls affect chemistry. For example, if a chunk of limestone is mined by someone and put on the back of a donkey and unloaded by someone else, then burned into quicklime by a different person, the resulting calcium oxide still carries tiny fragments of the souls of three people and one donkey. Not nearly enough to be a magic item or affect its physical behavior, but still enough to be detected by an alchemist. If you touched something, Tax Collector knows. 

After his workload of 1000 people a year was reduced to 100 people a year by the Destitution Inducing Tax Law, Tax Collector is much more involved in normal law enforcement, turning him from an annoying figure among high society to widely reviled by all. As intended by the law, 1% of Veilheim’s yearly budget is enough to drive someone to destitution. Because productive property (things like food, tools, buildings of labor, working animals, and industrial materials) are counted for tax purposes as much less than other things like leisure buildings, precious metals, and jewels, people on the verge of being in to top 100 rush to convert their riches into raw flax, iron bars, and live sheep. Those unfortunate(?) enough to still be considered rich after this often have their life’s work erased. If revenants don’t die, to maintain a functioning economy they must be killed financially. The young by comparison are still afraid of this, but old revenants driven by greed to accumulate as much as they can often lose the will to live after they can no longer grow their wealth as fast as they used to and even the biggest diamonds makes them feel nothing.

Tax Collector! Render me destitute and give my life meaning again!

Then there are people like Noble Engineer and Sporadic Miner who are so absurdly rich that paying 1% of the city’s yearly budget doesn’t significantly affect them.

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

5th September >> Mass Readings (USA)

Saturday, Twenty Second Week in Ordinary Time 

    or 

Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Saturday, Twenty Second Week in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Colour: Green)

First Reading

1 Corinthians 4:6b-15

We go hungry and thirsty and we are poorly clad.

Brothers and sisters: Learn from myself and Apollos not to go beyond what is written, so that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over against another. Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it? You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich; you have become kings without us! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we also might become kings with you.

For as I see it, God has exhibited us Apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and men alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.

I am writing you this not to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 145:17-18, 19-20, 21

R/ The Lord is near to all who call upon him.

The Lord is just in all his ways

and holy in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call upon him,

to all who call upon him in truth.

R/ The Lord is near to all who call upon him.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him,

he hears their cry and saves them.

The Lord keeps all who love him,

but all the wicked he will destroy.

R/ The Lord is near to all who call upon him.

May my mouth speak the praise of the Lord,

and may all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

R/ The Lord is near to all who call upon him.

Gospel Acclamation

John 14:6

Alleluia, alleluia.

I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;

no one comes to the Father except through me.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Luke 6:1-5

Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

——————————-

Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

(Liturgical Colour: White)

(Readings for the memorial)

(There is a choice today between the readings for the ferial day (Saturday) and those for the memorial. The ferial readings are recommended unless pastoral reasons suggest otherwise)

First Reading

Genesis 3:9-15, 20

I will put enmity between your offspring and the offspring of the woman.

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me– she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” The Lord God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

“Because you have done this, you shall be banned

from all the animals

and from all the wild creatures;

On your belly shall you crawl,

and dirt shall you eat

all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

He will strike at your head,

while you strike at his heel.”

The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

1 Samuel 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd

R/ My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.

“My heart exults in the Lord,

my horn is exalted in my God.

I have swallowed up my enemies;

I rejoice in my victory.”

R/ My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.

“The bows of the mighty are broken,

while the tottering gird on strength.

The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,

while the hungry batten on spoil.

The barren wife bears seven sons,

while the mother of many languishes.”

R/ My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.

“The Lord puts to death and gives life;

he casts down to the nether world;

he raises up again.

The Lord makes poor and makes rich,

he humbles, he also exalts.”

R/ My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.

“He raises the needy from the dust;

from the dung heap he lifts up the poor,

To seat them with nobles

and make a glorious throne their heritage.”

R/ My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.

Gospel Acclamation

cf. Luke 1:28

Alleluia, alleluia.

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;

blessed are you among women.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Or:

see Luke 1:45

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary, who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Or:

see Luke 2:19

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed is the Virgin Mary who kept the word of God

and pondered it in her heart.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Or:

Luke 11:28

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are those who hear the word of God

and observe it.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Or:

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are you, holy Virgin Mary, deserving of all praise;

from you rose the sun of justice, Christ our God.

Alleluia, alleluia.

Or:

Alleluia, alleluia.

Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary;

without dying you won the martyr’s crown

beneath the Cross of the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia.

EITHER:

Gospel

Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23

For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,

which means “God is with us.”

OR:

Gospel

Matthew 1:18-23

For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,

which means “God is with us.”

OR:

Gospel

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt.

When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son.

When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazorean.

OR:

Gospel

Matthew 12:46-50

Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

OR:

Gospel

Luke 1:26-38

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

OR:

Gospel

Luke 1:39-47

Blessed is she who believed.

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

OR:

Gospel

Luke 2:1-14

She gave birth to her firstborn son.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

OR:

Gospel

Luke 2:15b-19

Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.

The shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.

OR:

Gospel

Luke 2:27-35

You yourself a sword will pierce.

Simeon came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“Lord, now let your servant go in peace;

your word has been fulfilled;

my own eyes have seen the salvation

which you prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal you to the nations

and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

OR:

Gospel

Luke 2:41-52

Your father and I have been looking for you.

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom. After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.

OR:

Gospel

Luke 11:27-28

Blessed is the womb that carried you.

While Jesus was speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

OR:

Gospel

John 2:1-11

The mother of Jesus was there.

There was a wedding in Cana at Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from although the servers who had drawn the water knew, the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

OR:

Gospel

John 19:25-27

Behold, your son. Behold, your mother.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

[ancienthinduism]

The sacred Animal~ religious  significance of the ‘COW’ in hinduism

Hinduism is a religion that raises the status of Mother to the level of Goddess. Therefore, the cow is considered a sacred animal, as it provides us life sustaining milk. The cow is seen as a maternal figure, a care taker of her people. The cow is a symbol of the divine bounty of earth.

Lord Krishna, one of the most well known of the Hindu deities is often depicted playing his flute amongst cows and dancing Gopis (milkmaids). He grew up as a cow herder. Krishna also goes by the names Govinda and Gopala, which literally mean “friend and protector of cows.” It is considered highly auspicious for a true devotee to feed a cow, even before eating breakfast oneself.

Throughout the Vedic scriptures there are verses which emphasize that the cow must be protected and cared for. It is considered a sin to kill a cow and eat its meat. Even today in India, there are many states in which the slaughter of cows is illegal. That is why you can find cows roaming freely all over India, even along the busy streets of Delhi and Mumbai.

Cow is an ideal animal in Deity Bramha’s creation. As per spiritual science, the four Purushārthas, namely, Dharma, Artha, Kāma, and Moksha can be acquired by serving the cow. While praising the cow, the principal Deities, namely, Bramha, Vishṇu and Shiva have narrated the following shloka:

त्वं माता सर्व देवानां त्वं च यज्ञस्य कारणम् । त्वं तीर्थ सर्वतीर्थानां नमस्तेस्तु सदानधे ।

Meaning: O Destroyer of sins! You are the mother of all Deities. You are the reason for yadnya (sacrificial fire). Among all Tirthas (Holy places), you are the holiest. I pay my obeisance to you.

BENEFITS OF THE COW AS AN ANIMAL : 

Besides their milk, cows also provide many practical purposes, and are considered a real blessing to the rural community. On the farm, bulls are used to plough the fields and as a means of transportation of goods. Even Lord Shiva’s trusted vehicle is Nandi– the sacred bull.

Cow dung is saved and used for fuel, as it is high in methane, and can generate heat and electricity. Many village homes are plastered with a mud/cow dung mixture, which insulates the walls and floors from extreme hot and cold temperatures. Cow dung is also rich in minerals, and makes an excellent fertilizer. There is a big organic farming movement in India to return to ancient methods of utilizing cow dung to re-mineralize the depleted soil.

Cow urine which has a unique place in Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine.

 Commenting on the chemistry of ‘gau mutra - Cow urine’  is used to produce a whole range of ayurvedic drugs, especially to treat skin diseases like eczema. Besides, gau mutra is a well known disinfectant. Anti-septic property is also the attribute of cow dung or gobar which is mixed with clay to form a plastering medium for mud huts. It is a proven fact that mud huts plastered with gobar keeps insects and reptiles away. This is the reason why people in the countryside of India still store grain in huge earthen pots plastered with gobar and gau mutra to keep it free from insect manifestations.

Ayurveda understands that some physical and emotional health crisis can not be healed by diet and herbs alone. They need the deeper and subtler healing of these types of Vedic ritual ceremonies to clear astrological past karma. The holy cow again offers its bounty by providing the ingredients in the Panchamrit, or blessed drink, that is distributed after the ceremony. Panchamrit translates as “sacred ambrosia” or “nectar of the gods” and is made up of 5 items – milk, yogurt, ghee, honey and sugar. By drinking this sweet prasadam, one is infused with the divine energy created during the puja, and is healed.

Religious and spiritual importance of Cow

Hindu’s consider Cow as an adobe of 33 crore Hindu Deities and hence Cow is considered as sacred in Hindu Dharma. Cow has been treated as auspicious and also a symbol of compassion and piousness. Cow is treated as the highest and most pious animal and is given the utmost importance, being at the apex in the Animal world. The belief is that one can attain salvation (Moksha) by worshipping the Cow and serving her and both Lord Krishna and Balram spearheaded the “Cow worship and preservation” culture. The first Jain Tirthankar, Adinath was also named as Vrashbh meaning ‘Oxen Sorub’. Of all beings, the Cow is treated, in India, as the most sacred and sanctified. This sense of the unique sacredness of the Cow is expressed in the works of ancient Indian Rishis  like in the Vedas, Smritis, Srutis and Puranas, etc., as well as in later literature and folklore.

So highly were cows held in esteem by the Society that there were days fixed in the yearly calendar for exclusive worship of the Cow.  Dhanteras is a day when cows are worshipped along with Dhanwantari the Sage and the diety of medicine in hinduism . Balipratipada or Padwa is celebrated the day after Deepavali when, in many parts of India, cows are ceremoniously worshipped. Not only cows, but bulls also, were, and still are, the objects of worship. The last day of the month of Shravan, called POLA, is a day when bulls are decorated and taken in a procession to a public place for collective worship, after which they are then taken from house to house where each family offers ‘pooja’. 

[yes3blondesabrunette-blog]

Blog Post 1 ENH110

Melisa’s View-

             In the three short stories that we had to read, “A Hunger Artist”, “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, and “Sonny’s Blues” each of the main characters are being made spectacles of in their own way. In the case of “A Hunger Artist” the artist himself is put on display to show everyone that he can starve himself, though he comes to find that the general public does not appreciate nor believe that he is really starving himself. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the old man that lands in the front yard of the fisherman is actually an angel but when the townspeople and others come from different parts of the world to see him, they do not believe he is one due to his appearances. In “Sonny’s Blues” Sonny is isolated by the world and also by the people he is around. He wants to be a jazz player but does not want to be doing what every musician is-drugs. All three stories have a sense of isolation shown in them through their central characters.  

           Beginning with Franz Kafka’s short story “A Hunger Artist” the starvation artist is miserable with his life, because no matter how hard he tries to show everyone that he can do the act of not eating for longer than 40 days, people still believe that he is sneaking himself food during the night time. Even the watchers that are assigned to him during the night do not seem to believe that he is actually starving himself, and they turn their backs so they can let the artist eat what he wants, “nothing annoyed the artist more than these watchers; they made him miserable; they made his fast seem unendurable; sometimes he mastered his feebleness sufficiently to sing during their watch for as long as he could keep going, to show them how unjust their suspicions were. But that was of little use; they only wondered at his cleverness in being able to fill his mouth even while singing” (Kafka, 1). During the story, the artist only gets more frustrated, being the one who has decided to have a career as the one he has and not having a choice to change it due to his old age. He only wants the approval and appreciation of the public who comes to see him in his cage, but that is not something that he receives. With this, the artist only ends up pushing himself away from the world as “such suspicions, anyhow, were a necessary accompaniment to the profession of fasting. No one could possibly watch the hunger artist continuously, day and night, and so no one could produce first-hand evidence that the fast had really been rigorous and continuous; only the artist himself could know that, he was therefore bound to be the sole completely satisfied spectator of his own fast” (Kafka, 2). When the artist decides to join the circus in hopes of getting more attention, he is only left more disappointed, “when the public came thronging out in the intervals to see the animals, they could hardly avoid passing the hunger artist’s cage and stopping there for a moment, perhaps they might even have stayed longer, had not those pressing behind them behind them in the narrow gangway, who did not understand why they should be held up on their way towards the excitements of the menagerie, made it impossible for anyone to stand gazing for any length of time” (Kafka, 4). The artist makes himself more isolated from the world, both by putting himself in a cage, and by also getting angry with everyone due to their suspicions. In the end, he gets overshadowed by the panther, who everyone gets more interested in seeing.

           In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”, the old man is found in Pelayo’s and Griselda’s courtyard, being described by both as “..dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away any sense of grandeur he might have had. His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, were forever entangled in the mud”(Marquez). When the neighbor woman informed them that he was an angel, they were in disbelief with the rest of the townspeople. At first “when they went out into the courtyard with the first light of dawn, they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel, without the slightest reverence, tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren’t a supernatural creature but a circus animal”(Marquez). As soon as the old man enters, he is being isolated by being locked into the chicken coop. He is then not believed to be what he is, an angel. The people do not treat him like an angel because he does not look or act like one, in fact, he cannot even fly. Instead they “..threw stones at him, trying to get him to rise so they could see him standing. The only time they succeeded in arousing him was when they burned his side with an iron for branding steers, for he had been motionless for so many hours that they thought he was dead. He awoke with a start, ranting in his hermetic language and with tears in his eyes, and he flapped his wings a couple of times, which brought on a whirlwind of chicken dung and lunar dust and a gale of panic that did not seem to be of this world” (Marquez). The angel is not only isolated because of his being put into the chicken coop, but also because of not interacting or responding to the people. In the end, the angel gets overshadowed by the woman who was turned into a spider. However, he proves himself by surviving a cold winter, growing stiff feathers, and flying away. 

        In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator speaks about his younger brother Sonny. The narrator is worried about Sonny, his health, and his life decisions/choices. The two have been in and out of touch for some time, and the narrator comes to find out that his brother has been picked up because of a heroine addiction. This was brought into Sonny’s life along with his love for music, specifically speaking, jazz. The narrator and his brother have completely different lives, with him being an algebra teacher, and Sonny trying to become someone famous in the music industry. The narrator does not understand Sonny when it comes to his wanting to become someone in the jazz industry. He tells him that he needs to finish school and doesn’t pay much attention to his brother’s wants and dreams. He says, “I just looked at him and I was probably frowning a real frown by this time. I simply couldn’t see why on earth he’d want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands, while people pushed each other around a dance floor. It seemed---beneath him, somehow. I had always put musicians in a class with what Daddy called “good-time people” (Baldwin). Sonny feels isolated in this story because his brother does not understand nor support his love for jazz. He wants to become someone but anytime they talk about it, his brother is questioning him. Sonny loves jazz but with it comes drugs, as people during this time frame are using heroine to intensify their performance. Sonny does not want to do drugs. In fact, he even tried to escape them by leaving home, specifically Harlem. He says, “I was all by myself at the bottom of something, stinking and sweating and crying and shaking, and I smelled it, you know? My stink, and I thought I'd die if I couldn't get away from it and yet, all the same, I knew that everything I was doing was just locking me in with it” (Baldwin). When Sonny came back he hadn’t really escaped, but he tried to. He still wants a life where he is playing jazz music, but at the same time he feels isolated from it. 

        In conclusion, all three stories have their fair share of isolation that is present in their own way. In “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and “A Hunger Artist” the similarities are more obvious between the two. Both of the main characters are put on display for the general public. They are both made fun of, and not treated righteously. This can be a life lesson to speak up. The old man does not say anything to any of the people that throw things at him. He does not show them who he really is until the end, where he proves everyone wrong by flying away. The hunger artist does not have to keep his job just because of his old age, but even though he does he does not have to make himself angry because of people’s suspicions. After all, he is the only one who knows he is not cheating himself. He does not need everyone else’s approval. This could be a life relating issue because a lot of people seek the public’s approval, and they end up disappointed because everyone will always judge. “Sonny’s Blues” relates to real life situations by showing that even when you attain the fame, things do not magically get better. There are still troubles that a famous person goes through, their lives are not amazing just because they are famous. 

Alma’s view-

       To begin with, in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the central character being the old man, is made a spectacle of when he lands in the courtyard of the fisherman’s house. In Franz Kafkas story “A Hunger Artist” the main character, the starvation artist has put himself in a cage to show off his skills of starving himself only to not get the appreciation and recognition that he wants. In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” the character we pay most attention to, Sonny, feels separated from the world. He wants a career in jazz but can’t seem to not be a part of the drugs that come with it. In all short stories there is a sense of isolation that takes place, with each character being put to test by their specific audience or world.

      Starting with the story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” the old man who is the main character is meant to be an angel who is found in the front yard of a couple’s house. However, he is not believed to be one because of the way he looks, “..he was much too human: he had an unbearable smell of the outdoors, the back side of his wings was strewn with parasites and his main feathers had been mistreated by terrestrial winds, and nothing about him measured up to the proud dignity of angels” (Marquez, 166). The angel is put on show in a chicken coop for everyone to gather around and see. There are people from around the world who decide to come see him. The townspeople and others “..tried to make him eat some mothballs, which, according to the wisdom of the wise neighbor woman, were the food prescribed for angels. But he turned them down, just as he turned down the papal lunches that the penitents brought him, and they never found out whether it was because he was an angel or because he was an old man that in the end ate nothing but eggplant mush. His only supernatural virtue seemed to be patience” (Marquez, 167). The angel is put to test by his audience who wants to see and know what he can really do. No one believes he is a supernatural creature because of his appearance and because of that they treat him poorly. The angel’s audience fades away when they turn their attention to the woman who was turned into a spider, leaving him be in his chicken coop.

      Continuing onto the story “A Hunger Artist” the main character, the starvation artist has decided to make a career by putting himself in a cage and showing everyone that he can starve himself for up to 40 days, or longer. He is already isolating himself from the world and his audience by starting out with living in a cage. The hunger artist then feels as if he is not being recognized nor appreciated by his talent. He wants to show everyone he can do more and..”he made no secrets of this, yet people did not believe him, at the best they set him down as modest, most of them, however, thought he was out for publicity or else was some kind of cheat who found it easy to fast because he had discovered a way of making it easy, and then had the impudence to admit the fact, more or less” (Kafka, 245). Because of the disbelief that the artist receives from everyone, he decides to join the circus, which leaves him to be more miserable than he already was. It seems that he becomes even more invisible, “..at first he could hardly wait for the intervals, it was exhilarating to watch the crowds come streaming his way, until only too soon---not even the most obstinate self-deception, clung to almost consciously, could hold out against the fact-- the conviction was borne in upon him that these people, most of them, to judge from their actions, again and again, without exception, were all on their way to the menagerie” (Kafka, 249). A panther ends up replacing the artist, getting all the attention that he wanted and deserved.

       For the last story “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator speaks about his brother Sonny, who has gotten himself in trouble by being on heroin and getting picked up by the cops. Sonny had always had a certain love for jazz music in his life, and he speaks on how he wishes to become a famous artist one day. His brother, the narrator, does not seem to understand why he wants to be a jazz player, stating that he “..simply couldn’t see why on earth he’d want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands, while people pushed each other around a dance floor” (Baldwin, 44). This creates the isolation for Sonny because he feels he is not being understood. At the same time, Sonny is also knows that part of the music he wants to get into includes getting into the drugs that come along with it. He is struggling to keep himself away from it, “I’ve been something I didn’t recognize, didn’t know I could be. Didn’t know anybody could be. Sometimes, you know and it was actually when I was most out of the world, I felt that I was in it, that I was with it, really, and I could play or I didn’t really have to play, it just came out of me, it was there” (Baldwin, 55). It is obvious that Sonny is not feeling right with his life and where he is at. He wants to be someone in the jazz industry, but he is not there quite yet.

         To conclude, the 3 short stories display isolation in their own way through the main characters. The stories “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and “A Hunger Artist” show their isolation through their characters very similarly. The old man is locked up in a chicken coop, and the hunger artist is in a cage, and they are both put in a public place where others can view them as they wish, and for who they are. The old man proves his worthiness in the end by flying away. The hunger artist sadly does not realize that people will have their suspicions either way, and if he wouldn’t be happy with himself, that neither would others. In “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator is able to show us how Sonny feels isolated through his relationship with his own brother and also with the world. All of the stories can teach us that we need to approve of ourselves first before trying to get to bigger and better things. It is hard to become successful when we put ourselves down at the downfalls of things.

Kaleigh’s View:

We were tasked to read three short stories, “Sonny’s Blues”, “ A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” and “A Hunger Artist. They’re victims of people making them a spectacle; which causes them to feel isolated.

In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, our main character Sonny suffers from a heroine addiction. Sonny is involved in the Jazz scene. During, that time jazz performers would use heroine as an enhancement to their performance.His older brother, the narrator of the story disapproves of his life style. This causes Sonny to feel isolated. Sonny wants to get away from heroine so much he moves out of Harlem, but is love of Jazz draws him right back into that scene.

Secondly we have, “A Hunger Artist “ by Franz Kafka. The main character is a performer. His performance involves him starving for 40 days. No one believes that he actually doesn’t eat for 40 days. This causes him to be discontent with his life. All he wants is acceptance for his so called “craft”. He is obviously a sick man from the beginning but the fact that he isn’t believed causes him to feel isolated and do self hate.

Lastly, we have a short story by Garcia Marquez, “ A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings “. The old man is found by a couple on the patio. The old man is quite tattered looking. A women lets them know that this man is a angel. The couple and the townspeople do not believe this statement. So he is locked up in a chicken coupe and antagonized by the townspeople. He is isolated due to lack of communication and being locked away.

In conclusion, all these victims of isolation; were also the hero’s of their stories. This shows us how people’s ignorance and isolation can do to a person’s psyche.

Steffanie’s View-

From all three stories there is a different theme and meaning. But they all have similar meaning. “A very old man with enormous wings” he lands in the gentleman’s yard and s an angel but isn’t seen that way by others. “Sonny’s blues” the young kid does drugs but has his escape but is not seen as a normal kid by others. Lastly in “A hunger artist” the hunger artist thinks people want to see him starve but in reality they don’t and he comes to terms with that.

In the story “A very old man with enormous wings” the old man is seen in the courtyard and as described by Pelayo and Elisenda “they both looked at the fallen body with mute stupor” (Marquez) as the neighbor told the couple the old man was an angel they could not believe what they were being told by this lady. “He must have been coming for the child, but the poor fellow is so old that the rain knocked him down” (Marquez). The couple hold the angel in their house and their whole town knows it. Pelayo takes the angel out to the chicken coop and locks the angel there. The next day when the couple wake up they come to find that the neighbors are watching him and enjoying him through the fence. “... they found the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with he angel...”(Marquez). This alone shows how the angel is isolated right from the get go and the quality of life isn’t good from their perspective.

Moving on to the next story, “ Sonny’s Blues” as the story is told by Sonny’s brother the narrator is a math teacher with a typical life an goals he has accomplished, “I told myself sonny was wild but he wasn’t crazy”(Baldwin).  His brother sonny on the other hand have been sent on different paths, Sonny is hooked on heroine, “they’ll send him away some place and try to cure him” (Baldwin), but the one thing he loves most is music. Sonny wants to make something of his music career but its a tough industry to be in. Sonny didn’t always do drugs and he always wanted to quit doing them so his solution was to run away from Harlem and attempt to start over , but as seen in the story it didn’t work. Sonny’s love was not supported by him brother and he didn’t have the same love for it and thought sonny needed to make something of himself because the jazz industry can be hard. Sonny feels isolated in the sense that he’s not supported by his brother and his brother wants a different path for him.

Last in the story “A hunger artist” the starvation artist wanted to show the world that he could actually accomplish something and that i starving himself for a long time as amusement for the watchers. People don’t seem to believe he is starving himself and that he is sneaking food when all the watchers are gone. “It used to pay very well to stage such great performances under one’s own management, but today that is quite impossible” (Kafka). People would stop by at least once a day when the hunger artist first started because the suspense and excitement was so built up. “There were people who bought season tickets for the last few days and sat from morning to night in front of his small barred cage”(Kafka). The hunger artist wanted the attention and acceptance of the community but as he sat in his cage he began to grow further and further away from the town because people started to become disinterested. “... since it was not the hunger artist who was cheating; he was working honestly, but the world was cheating him of his reward”(Kafka).

In the end all three stories share the isolation theme and its clear how the characters face that. Both “ a man with enormous wings” and “a hunger artist” share the similarities more than “Sonny’s blues”. The hunger artist groans old and eventually begins to realize he doesn’t need the peoples approval but that’s what he has been longing for and he’s the only one that know he is not cheating himself. He stayed true to his beliefs and followed through till the very end. “Sonny’s blues” gives more of a real life outlook as far as dealing with addiction but having an outlet of a hobby, and when things turn up right not everything follows. These stories share great similarities, and real life story.

[mnoonthego]

Day 5- Hanging with the Animals

Last night it rained so hard! At this time of the year, it is called the “short rains” but I feel like they are kind of lengthy and intense! Apparently the “long rains” didn’t come and so any rain is much needed. It seems coincidental that it has rained every day at some point in the day since Tamsyn was given her Masai name- Nasha!?!

We thought the rain had finished for the day; however, it started up again with such ferocity that I thought it must be hail! We considered cancelling our visit to the Elephant Orphanage as it is outdoors with no cover but luckily, we decided to go as we realized that the next available opening was mid-January. They bring the baby elephants in in groups of 13-15 into an outdoor area where they receive a bottle, eat the branches that are waiting there for them and do what baby elephants do while the host talks about each individual elephant their name and their story of how they came to the orphanage. There were stories of the babies being found standing beside their dead mothers, who had died due to human-animal conflict or starvation; others were found abandoned and others who were suffering due to human-animal conflict issues that had led to injuries. We were so taken by them and their plight, we had to adopt one! We choose Olorien. She was found alone in the Masai Mara at 13 months old and had been following some cattle looking for food and maybe company. During the visit to the orphanage, we were introduced to over 35 elephants between the ages of 1-3 and there were others that were younger that weren’t able to come out as it was too cold (some were as young as 2 months!). Once they are old enough and they appear to be ready they go to Tsavo to be reintroduced to the wild. It sounds like a lengthy process of the wild elephant adults tutoring them on how to be a wild elephant and then the elephants deciding when they are ready to be released.  

While at the Orphanage, the girls grew at least two inches due to the amount of mud on the bottom of our shoes!! The shoes were so covered with thick red mud that we took the shoes to the car wash to have them pressure washed!

After hanging out with the elephants, we headed to the Giraffe Sanctuary where they are breeding giraffes and then releasing them into the wild. For us it was an opportunity to hand feed them as well as to attend a session and learn more about these fabulous animals. There are 3 types of giraffes; the ones they are breeding are the Masai Giraffes which will be trucked up north to be released. Did you know that giraffes have long purple tongues and that the purple colouring is natural sunscreen? Also, as Tamsyn pointed out they are very slimy!

On our walk home from the Giraffe Sanctuary, which is where the famous Giraffe Manor is, we stopped to watch the dung beetles work at making “poop balls” and roll them home. Fascinating!

JD and Aileen’s landlords invited us over for a Christmas party that they were having catered for the people and their families that work at their house. What a treat for us to be included! We had roasted goat, Ugali, chicken, chipatas, coleslaw, this great tomato onion salad and a rice dish that I also can’t remember the name of. I can’t saw goat is growing on me but I keep trying it! After the early dinner, the drums came out and we attempted to sing Christmas carols and did some dancing. I had the best dance partner, a little girl about five years old!

Another amazing day!

[sacramentonewsjournal]

My golf ball is roofed in animal dung

Nature been utilizing these fairways and greens as its personal private rest room and it’s your ball that’s come out worse. Our knowledgeable outlines your choices Be at one with nature, they are saying. Getting out in that inexperienced house definitely does wonders for us – scientists can show it. However being amongst animals additionally means they will have an attention-grabbing affect in your recreation, as Shirley Anders’ e mail explains. “We’ve got loads of Canada geese on our course from across the starting of September,” she defined. “They go away loads of droppings on the course. “I perceive the droppings are thought-about a free obstacle but when they adhere to the ball on the green, can we clear the ball or do now we have to play it because it lies?” Guidelines of Golf defined: Reduction from animal dung You’ve discovered your ball within the, properly, you recognize. What are you able to do? Shirley is correct that animal waste is a free obstacle. So, you’ll be able to take away droppings – in any method – whereas ensuring the ball doesn’t transfer while you’re doing so. If it does, it’s usually a one-shot penalty and you will need to exchange the ball on its authentic spot as outlined by Rule 15.1a and 15.1b. However animal waste will not be a free obstacle whether it is both “hooked up” or “sticking to the ball”. What now? Do you must hit your shot with a goose’s digested dinner splattered throughout it? Normally, however not at all times. Let’s say that a complete flock has migrated to your membership, and there are areas of the course which are coated in cr… [stop right now – Ed]. If there’s a concern concerning the impact of animal dung on honest play, a committee can herald a Native Rule – Mannequin Native Rule F-12 – that offers a participant the choice of additionally treating dung as floor below restore. In that case, and if you happen to so selected, you’d be allowed free aid below Rule 16.1 from an irregular course situation. Bear in mind, interference exists in case your ball touches, or is in, or on, an irregular course situation, if it bodily interferes along with your space of supposed stance or swing or, when your ball is on the inexperienced, if such a situation or on off the placing floor “intervenes on the road of play”. The Native Rule must specify the kind of dung from which aid could be given – the rule e-book offers the instance of goose or canine. It additionally permits, going again to the placing floor, the usage of a greens change or whip to take away it from the road of play. On this occasion, if eradicating it improved the road of play, “or different circumstances affecting the stroke”, there wouldn’t be a penalty below Rule 8.1a. Have a query for our Guidelines of Golf knowledgeable? Regardless of the simplification of the Guidelines of Golf initially of 2019, there are nonetheless some that go away us scratching our heads. And as I’ve handed the R&A’s Degree 3 guidelines examination with distinction, I’ll attempt to assist by that includes the very best on this column. 2023 NCG High 100s Tour Spring occasions now on sale! VIEW EVENTS Subscribe to NCG (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.2"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Originally published at Sacramento News Journal

[lucysmusicblog]

Public Space Rights Readings Reaction

Learning about the rights one has in shared spaces in New York City was fascinating. The text from the Temporary Autonomous Zone was really interesting in that it addressed poetic terrorism and fighting back against authorities. I thought the concept of “art as crime and crime as art” was thought provoking as well. It reminds me of this book that I read about graffiti when I was younger. A lot of people recognize it as damage to public property, which is understandable. But, one should also consider thinking about it from an art standpoint. Graffiti is a form of art as well, that expresses the artist’s emotions and views. Although it is a crime and treated as vandalism, that in itself makes it an interesting avenue of art. It’s the forbidden mystique surrounding it that lends itself to true freedom of expression.

The readings about uses of public spaces, protests vs. parades and regulations on music were also very intriguing. It was interesting how nature was viewed as “government owned”. One of the regulations was “no writing on trees, plants, shrubs, etc…” and while I agree, it made me think about whether nature can be owned by an institution. Do we truly own any part of the land on Earth? Yes, the government may deem a property “ours”, but I’m thinking beyond that. We don’t own the world, we just happen to be inhabiting it. There’s a key difference there and I think exploring the complexity of that idea is fascinating. Some of the regulations were comical to read, in that it should be obvious not to do them, but I’m sure they have happened. One that I found entertaining was the “no landing aviation” because I think it’s common sense that no one would land their jet on a whim in a park. But, it seems that it poses some sort of threat because they need to outwardly state it. Another regulation that I found though provoking was the one about weaponry. Obviously we don’t want weapons in our parks, but having an exception for cigarette lighters and law enforcement on duty shows what exceptions we make in our society. Although smoking and vaping is prohibited in New York City’s parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas, being allowed a cigarette lighter allows people to do those actions more easily. I thought requiring horses to have “horse diapers” on them was a funny concept. It’s practical because horse dung can be an inconvenience if dropped in public areas (my cousin shows horses for competition, so I know how much of a smell that can be), but still entertaining to read. I found it surprising that people don’t need a permit to perform in the subway stations. I was thinking that an enclosed space would be different, but the stations are shared spaces, so that makes sense. From experience, I see people everyday breaking these regulations- smoking in the park, feeding animals, asking for money and much more. This goes to show that although these rules are put in writing, their effectiveness is questionable. Some of the things I read reminded me of blue laws, laws that are written but aren’t enforced.

The last texts that I read about were the rights of squatters. I didn’t know many things about them until I read the readings and I found it really interesting. Squatting is more of a civil matter, which makes sense as to why it was incorporated into punk to make a statement. I found it really intriguing that if you live on a property for 30 days or more, you can be legal tenants of it. As long as you don’t “beautify” the land, after 10 years, one can even make a property claim. I never knew that squatters had rights. It also makes sense why in the videos of people’s houses we watched in class looked unlivable, they weren’t able to fix up around the land. I think that in itself makes a statement though, the fact that someone is set on living on a property and becoming a squatter. I learned a lot from the readings about people's rights and how they can use grey areas to get around laws.

[cosmosbestiary]

Field Guide To Dragons

Every year millions go out to find dragons, either to slay, study, learn magical secrets from them, or even just to catch one to keep as a pet. And every single year most of them get eaten because they can’t do something as simple as tell a green fire swamp juggernaut primal child wyrm from a green fire swamp juggernaut common child wyrm, and that why I’m writing this field guide. Because it is my hope dear reader that when you start out on your journey to find dragons you can use the knowledge found here to reach your goals instead of becoming dragon dung like most others do. Now as to the above example I give of the green fire swamp juggernaut primal child wyrm and the green fire swamp juggernaut common child wyrm, most of you are probably wondering about what the different, after all there only one word that is different in their name. Well my friends that one word makes all the deafferents, for each of those words is different type of dragon classification category each meaning a something different and each making a different kind of dragon. And we well go over each category and what they mean in due time but first I must make sure you all understand the traits all dragons have in common. Share Dragon Traits Now despite the many different forms and levels of intellect dragons come in they all belong to one specie, as hard as that maybe to believe at times but it is true. This means that dragons of course share many traits in common, and we will list and talk about each one but first let’s clarify what a dragon is. Dragons are a race of endotremce polymorphic omnivore magical lifeforms that come in large variety of forms, and are often mistaken to be reptiles due to the facts that lay eggs and normally have scales, they also have sweat glands and mammary glands which you will notice isn’t something are not things reptiles have. In truth dragons do not fit easily into the classification of lifeforms as we know it as they seem to have some traits in common with all of them, as to why well that is up to debate. Either way that means that there is nothing else like a dragon but another dragon. This is no doubt one of the things others have the hardest time understanding about dragons and I can’t tell you how many times I seen someone loss their life just because they thought a dragon would act the same way a lizard would. If you learn nothing else from this book learn this, DO NOT TREAT DRAGONS LIKE NORMAL ANIMALS, EVER!!! Cause if you do its lunch time for you. Now if you want to know real dragon behavior here are a few things they do all have in common. The first being their hording instinct, all dragons love to collect things and in fact need to. In the case of primal dragons they normally just grab whatever shiny things they can find but sapient dragons normally preface to make sure the things they collect are worth something. So, while polish glass make work as a great lure for primal dragons all it will do with sapient dragons is make them angry at you for thinking you could bride them with worthless junk. Another behavior that all dragons have in common is in fact tire in with their unusual reproduce ability. Now as anyone can probably tell you mystics(magical lifeforms) can breed with almost anything and can created hybrids that can likewise breed with almost anything, dragons as mythical mystics can of course do this which doesn’t make it that odd, what is odd is how dragons take it a step further. You see if a dragoness (female dragon) mates with a non-dragon then any offspring will be full dragons no matter what their father is but if a drakon (male dragon) mates with a non-dragon then there a 75% that the offspring will be a draco (half-dragon) and a 25% that the offspring will be a dragon, also if this is the case the mother will lay egg even if her specie is unable to do because of dragon magic. Now if a draco has an offspring there 15% the offspring will a dragon instead of what is widely known as a dragon-blooded, a non-dragon with dragon ancestors. However, if a draco has offspring with another draco or a dragon then the offspring will always be a dragon, also dragon-blooded have higher chances of having dragon offspring then normal non-dragons. I should also bring up drakaina (dragon hermaphrodites) who offspring’s odds of being a dragon or a draco depends on if they are the mother or the father. Also, while we on the subject you may wish to know that dragons and dracos can have offspring by parthenogenesis but this rare as the dragon or draco has to be apart from any specie that can impregnate them for some time. I should also bring up a few other ways dragons can reproduce while we are on the subject, ones that aren’t as widely use as the other three ways we just talk about but can still happen. First you got infusion when a dragon lays an unfertilized egg that looks to be made of stone and another dragon, or sometimes other creatures, comes along and blasts it with magic. This somehow fertilized the egg causing it to hatch into a new born dragon. Infections in it a dragon turns a non-dragon into a draco, they normally only do this to servants as a reward but they have been known do it by for other reasons. Not all dragons know how to do this as it isn’t something done by instant and all I really know about is that it involves dragon’s fire that we will talk about later. Next are parasitization and spore which are very rare because not all dragons can do them, in parasitization involving a dragon laying micro eggs which than get into a host some out who soon find infant stage dragons bursting from their bodies! While spore involving spores landing and growing into a dragon, partly by feeding on magic, is it impossible to tell what dragons can do this one as even the dragons themselves can’t tell. Now, a side effect of these reproduction abilities is that dragons can find almost anything sexually attracted. Which may explain a bit more about those tales of dragons kidnapping people then you would like to think. In fact, this behavior can be use this to your adanvge if you are or know someone who good looking and you have to deal with dragons, despite their power and intellect dragons are no more immune to good looks than anyone else. The best part about using this strategy is that dragons seem to be pansexual by nature so it doesn’t really matter what the gender, sex, or sexually of the person is trying to do this. Just make sure you’re ready to deal with what come after and be very careful about doing with a primal dragon as they aren’t normally smart enough to know what the word no means. Another thing all dragons have in common is their respect to authorly, as all dragons follow a command structed of sorts. This command structed is partly bases on power and partly bases on rank. To put it very simply the most powerful and highest-ranking dragon in their apocalypse rules, apocalypse is what you call a group of dragons for reasons that should be obvious to anyone that ever had to deal with one dragon much less a group of them. Now this brings us from behavior to share biology and magical abilities, also known as the reason why dragons are so deadly. And since we are on this we should probably start off with the reasons why dragons are so hard to kill yet are so good at killing everything else before we get into the other things they have in common. Which brings us to the adamantine and rubber anatomy dragons have, you see dragons have this non-magnetic crystal-like metal that makes up most of the harder parts of their body call adamantine. Which happens to be one of the strongest metals in the known universe if you can work it, and their softer flesh are like rubber in the way they can stretch and bounce. Making that a lot of weapons don’t do much good at hurting dragons, most projected like arrows and bullets can’t get past the adamantine parts while bludgeoning weapons like hammers are basely useless thanks to their rubber like flesh. That why most people who fight dragons use magical swords or axes sense slashing weapons with a good deal of force behind them are one of the few weapons that be counted on to harm them. Of course, even if you do hurt a dragon that doesn’t mean the fight over no matter how badly off they seem. Thanks to their super charge regeneration abilities dragons will always heal completely from all wounds that doesn’t kill them, heck if you can keep a dragon’s head alive long enough it will regrow its whole body. I have even heard rumors of people harvesting a living damage dragon and keeping it alive long enough for it heal from the damages and regrow its whole body. I can’t say if this is true or not but I don’t recommend you test this and none of stories had a happy ending, unless you’re on the enrage dragon side that is. How fast they can heal varies greatly by what kind of dragon we are talking about but in my experience if you leave a crippled dragon to die but don’t see it die then get ready for an angry house guest in about month. But if dragons are so hard to kill weapons why not use spells? You’re probably asking and for that all I can say is good freaking luck with that. All dragons have spell resistance to some degree and it is normally a very high degree at that. Plus, they are all immune to some of the handiest types of spells for fighting things more powerful then you. Curses aren’t going to a damn thing to them and transmutation spells may as well be card tricks for all the good it does to dragons, and mind-altering spells don’t do much good even if dragons aren’t completely immune to them.  But what about elemental damage dealing spells? Well those aren’t much better, dragons are immune to all damages from their own elemental type and are resistance to most others. However, with that say dragons are weak to damage of the element opposite of their own, so if you how to cast a high damage dealing spell of that kind SPAM IT! Spam it as fast as you can and watch out cause the dragon will target you first. So, spells and normal weapons only somewhat works, well if that the case why not just use chemical, biological, or nuclear methods to fight dragons? You are no doubt asking right about now. Well just ignoring the facts that those things are a lot harder to work with then normal weapons and spells, and are illegal almost everywhere, and could can cause just about as much harm as the dragon itself if not more so, there the fact they also don’t work that well on them. Now don’t get wrong the big powerful stuff will kill most dragons, key word being most not all, as well as everything else near them for miles arounds but if we are talking about not killing everything then that a different story altogether. First of all, dragons are so diverse that there is no way to created biological or chemical weapon that will work on all them, many people have try and they as well as everyone who happen to be near their testing sites are all dead. Second, even if you did make one that did work on one kind of dragon you would only get a few uses out of before the dragons would become immune to it. Dragons you see are very adaptation creatures thank to their abilities of RNA editing allowing them some control over their DNA, genetic transfer that allows them to trade genetic with other lifeforms, and symbiogenesis with allows them to get useful traits from the things they eat even not living things thanks to their magical nature. Plus, all dragons have a magical ability called Alchemical Anatomy which allows them the ability to alter their bodily fluids into other chemicals, they normally use it make their blood deadly poison or to create slime of all kinds from their sweat glands.  And yes, they of course resistance to nuclear poisoning as well but the degree of this change based on what kind we are talking about. Moving on we now have dragon hive mind, or should I say semi-hive mind. You see dragons have this from of collective consciousness that allows them to communicate with each other from almost anywhere in the cosmos. Think of like a very simple form of the internet if you will, dragons can choice to log on to it, contact friends and families, maybe even allow them to see thought their sense, or just see if the can find some other dragon thought it. However, communicate is the only thing they can do though this hive mind, they can’t heck into another dragon mind, up lord or down lord anything, and there is no search engine. Plus, while doing this dragons enter a state of meditation where it is possible to sneak up on them, and it does take some trial and error to be able to contact to it making that most primal dragons can’t do so without help from sapient dragons. Now this brings us to the four big dragon abilities, the things that make all dragons fear no matter how powerful they really are, draconic shifting, dragon fire, dragon venom and the most fear of them all god slayer. Draconic shifting is the name of the ability that allows dragon to alter to shape, size, weight and mass, sure dragons are not the only beings can to do it but dragons can alter their own parts individually is far rarer. So, if you ever find that dragon claw is longer then you thought it was now you know why. Now it is important to note that draconic shifting is more of a skill that takes practice, training, and study to get good at as much as a inborn ability so the level of shifting dragons can do varies greatly per induvial. Primals are normally the worst at it as good rule of thumb, and normally can only make themselves a little bigger or smaller. Next up is dragon fire and this one may need a little explaining to understand this do to the fact that many mistake dragon’s fire for the fire some dragons have as a breath weapon when in fact it is about something all dragons have, manna. You see if ask someone who can sense auras what they sense auras as they will normally use terms like stream, mist, fog, or cloud that makes soft purring noises or quit whispers while feeling like silk and smelling sweet, but dragon auras aren’t like this at all. Dragons are more like burning infernos or balls of pure plasmas that roar like a wild beast and feels like an open flame while smelling of strong spice! Yes, dragon manna is thick and rich and acts if it was a living thing on to itself, and it allows dragons to ignore the spell resistance of non-dragons. It is also said that if you can inject enough dragon fire into a being without causing them to explode then they will turn into a dragon, I have seen people try but I only seen them explode. Next on our little list dragon venom, the deadest venom there is! Now what make it so deadly isn’t that it is the fastest or that it doesn’t have cure because it does in away. What makes it the deadest is the fact the only things immune to it are dragons and half-dragons. All other living things can be killed by, heck even non-living things like the undead and spirits can be kill by it. Why is it so deadly? Well not only is it a cocktail of deadly venoms but it is also filled with micros and viruses found nowhere else, and it is rich with a blend of deadly curses. Now that leaves us with the most fear of all their abilities, the god slayer. Name because dragons have no only the ability to ignore all forms of magical damage resistance but can even harm incorpeeral beings, meaning all beings can be harm by dragons. Even force fields and wards don’t work well against dragons because this. This is also the reason why everyone wants a weapon made from dragon parts, for not only are they made out of adamantine but they also keep the god slayer ability. Now with the big stuff out of the way we may as well get on with a few smaller things all dragons have in common before we move on to how to tell different kind of dragons apart. First off there the fact that all dragons are ultravores meaning that can and will eat almost anything including rocks and metals. Then there their hibernation ability that allows dragons to go into a state of suspended animation in the rare cases they need to wait something out. Sapient dragons call this the deep sleep and even they don’t know how to tell how long a dragon can survive like this. All dragons also have fully prehensile tongues which also can have their own weapons on them, which just adds another reason to avoid their mouths. And then we dragon senses which are normally very powerful, now how many and what kind of senses they have can very per what kind of dragon we are talking about but one thing they have in common is that dragons can alter their senses at will to sense all the higher, middle, and lower dimensions, planes, and layers of reality that other beings go alone never knowing they exist right beside them.  What this means is that dragons are a lot deadlier then you can probably know. Also, and this is a bit odd, dragons show signs of being siphonophore like. It is possible for dragon bodies parts and some organs to have different genetic material than the rest of the body, and unlike most other large multi-cell organisms that have a complex ecosystem of microbial lifeforms that are not body cells to aid in their body systems all the microbials that make up dragons systems are genetically dragon, even the viruses. Knowing this wouldn’t help much but it is still an odd thing to think about.   All dragons fall under seven forms of classification with an added eight one that some, but not all, also have. Those classifications in other of the way they are listed are breed, element, variant, caste, rank, stage, tribe, and sometimes clan. So yeah this there are a lot of combines of dragons and that not even counting the different physically features they can also have that has nothing to with this like what kind of tail weapons they have, but more on that later. Right now we are going to go over what each of those classification means and how many categories are in each one. But before we start I should also tell that some combines are so common in some areas they may have their own local name, for example I when to an area where blue life forest ravager common teenager wurm beasts with mace tail weapons and gore horns were called head crushers. However, local names are very helpful when it comes to classifications so we won’t talk about them. They also ignore the fact dragons can change all of their classifications by a form of metamorphose that dragons called the molt. Now this isn’t something dragons have any real control over nor can tell when it is about to happen but when it does happen the dragons turn into solid crystal before breaking the crystal covering in a blight flash of light revealing their new form. Dragon Breeds Dragon breeds also known as dragon colors are often the first thing people notice about dragons because it can be seen by what their primary color is, as in what color is most of their body. And before you ask what shade or hue their primary color is doesn’t matter, a red dragon is a red dragon no matter what kind of red they are. Each breed has their own power and is known to be different from one another in behavior ways. First, we have the red breed also known as the warrior breed as they are highly aggressive which as you can probably tell is a great trait to have in what is one of most deadly creatures to exist. They also have they inborn knowledge of martial art better known as the combat chameleon ability that allows them to learn fighting techniques at unbelievable fast levels sometimes just by seeing them, and yes even primal dragons can do this. Next, we have the blues known as the diplomat breed both because they are claimer than other dragons and because of their ability to read body langue and social ques. This ability is called que reading and with it blue dragons known just what to do to make themselves like or fear by others, therefore getting just what they want. Now then we have the yellows who are called the merchant breed both because they are more likely to trade for something than take it or demand it and because of their ability of nose for treasure which allows them to smell out rocks, gems, and metals and even tell how pure it is or if it is worked or unworked. Naturally they use this to get preciouses metals and gems which means they often have very large hoards. The greens or hunter breed are known to be stealthy and can thank to the ability of vital find knowns where to hit for the most harm. Browns are known as the worker breed thanks to their natural building and repair abilities, in fact it is said that they can build almost anything. They are also known to be very head strong, and that saying something for dragons. Next up is the pinks best known as the breeders both because they have higher fertility than other dragons and they can tell who can pair off the best, making sapient pinks shippers by nature. Greys are called the wise breed because of their ability store memories and the knowledge with it. Greys not only can recall everything they every experience but with a tough they can copy and transfer memories of any being they tough, this doesn’t mean they are any smarter than other dragons or can recall anything at will. This ability works more like finding information on a computer by searching though the files save on it and grey dragons are often surprise by what information they find they have, as well as anyone who use this ability on as I can tell first hand. Just the other day I remember laying a dozen dragon eggs two thousand years ago and I’m not even female much less a dragon, it can be very odd. Next, we have the oranges or the demolition dragons as they are known, these dragons are masters of tearing structures down thanks to their ability to sense the weakness points in any building, known wreaking master. Oranges are also some of the laziest dragons, which is a good thing for us not wanting a dragon to wreak our homes. The black dragon breed, or curse dragons, are the most fear of all dragons breeds that to their inborn power to put curses on others. Black dragons seem to be able learn any curse and to place on anyone, thing, or if they are strong enough place. Next, we have the whites or healer dragons, as they are known thanks to their inborn healing abilities. All white dragons seem to be able diagnose any injury or sickness and come up with ways of treating them. Which when combine with their magic and alchemical anatomy means that even the dumbest and weakest (by dragon standers) primal can heal almost anything. Maybe because of this white dragon seem the friendliest dragons, well by dragon standers anyway. Next, we have purple dragons also known as the leader breed thanks to their suggestion power. This ability is a mind-altering effect that allows them to influence other actions and thoughts. Now they can’t make someone do something wouldn’t normally do at least at first but they can use it to change the personality and feelings of someone over time though long-term use. Because of this purple dragons often try to put themselves in charge and have high option of themselves. That leaves with only two breeds left, the dual dragons and rainbow dragons. Now dual dragons aren’t a true breed but is what you call a dragon with two main colors instead one, this normally means the dragon has zebra like strips or is divine in the half or down the middle with two different colors. Either way a duel dragon has the powers of both colors and often the behaviors as well. Than there the rainbow dragons which are the rarest of all breeds, in case you can’t tell rainbow dragons are in fact rainbow color and have the abilities of all breeds, making them extremely powerful, and they know it. But sense most beings don’t see rainbows as threating most people think of rainbow dragons as harmless, until they get a tour of a rainbow stomach. Now one thing you should remember is that while most dragons will stay the breed they are though out their whole lives it is possible that when they go through the molt they can change breed. With that said it is very rare a dual dragon to do so and I have never heard of a rainbow dragon changing breeds at all. Dragon Elements Now we get to what is probably the best-known way to classified dragons, by their element. Dragons can one or more of twelve different types of elements. Each element gives the dragon a different kind of magic to use as well as being immune to their own type, weak to one other and are resistance to the rest. This gives them control over any of the element in question near them. Also, keep in that dragons learn to use their breath differently for example a fire dragon can learn to shot fireballs or even fireworks if they wish. • Fire: These dragons have breath of fire and can use pyromancy (fire magic), which are things that you should have known by reading what element this is. These dragons are immune to heat and have infrared vision. • Terra: A sonic scream is the breath weapon of these geomancy (earth magic) dragons. All terra dragons can burrow thought rock and dirt about as fast as they move on top of the ground. They also have seismic sense that allows them to sense beings and things base on the vibrations in the ground. • Wind: With a breath of powerful gale winds these aeromancy (magic of air) dragons can break bones as easily as they break wind, and yes that was joke yet also very true. Never stand behind a gassy dragon of any element if you want to live. Wind dragons can walk clouds, fog, and steam as if they were clay ground or soft pillows. They can also have aerosense which allows them to sense things base on how air moves around them. • Water: With a breath weapon of water jet these aquamancy dragons can cut you in have. It should go with out saying that these dragons can underwater, any kind of water too. • Metal: Able to release deadly toxic gas from their mouths, and sometimes the other end, that cause effects similar to advent heavy metal poisoning as well as having magnetic powers metal dragons, and metalmancy (do I really need to explain this one), they can be a real join to fight. They also have great magnetic sense that not only allows them to always find magnetic north as well as other magnetic fields but they can also find magnetic metals. • Electric: With breath that is nothing less than a lightning bolt these dragons are electrifying, and in case you can’t guess they have electomancy (electric magic). They have the ability to of electric sense allowing them to find the electric fields in both living things and machines but they can manipulate them as well, and they are immune to electric damage. • Ice: Releasing freezing cold from their mouths at will and their cyromancy (ice magic) these dragons are cold costumers. These dragons are immune to cold and can move on icy surfaces as easy as others can walk on normal ground. • Life: Spiting powerful acids and with the magic of biomancy (life magic) fighting a life dragon can get messy. All life dragons have what is commonly called bio sight, a sense that allows them sense living things around them. They are also immune to most known acids. • Light: Shooting lasers from their mouths and arm with luxomancy (light magic if you couldn’t guess) fighting one of these dragons can be an enlighten expernse. Light dragons have x-ray vision and rays bounce right off their scales. • Darkness: A blast of draining shadows makes up the breath weapon of these Umbramancy (darkness magic) power dragons.  All darkness dragons can coat themselves in shadows making very hard to hit them and to see them as well. • Aether: With a breath weapon of pure weaponized manna these aethermancy (magic of aether) these dragons are known to be a bit more magical than most other dragons. With the ability to go incorporeal at will aether dragons can be some of the hardest dragons to harm. • Void: These voidmancy (void magic) dragons’ breath weapon is a powerful vacuum force that sucks things into their deadly maul, some would say like a black hole. Void dragons can at will dispel magical effects with a touch. So, twelve dragon elements types sound simple to remember, right? Well I got bad news for you for it gets more complex than that, for you see dragons can have more than one element in fact they can have anywhere to just element in fact they can have all twelve! But it gets even more complex than for you dragons with more than one element have greater power over one than the others. This is categorized by placing the name of the stronger element a head of the other for example if a dragon had three elements with fire as it strongest with wind as it weakest and darkness in the middle it would read fire wind darkness. And yes, this does mean a dragon with the element category fire wind darkness would be a different type that a fire darkness wind despite having the same elements. Oh, and this is a fun little fact, each combination of elements not only have each element breath weapon that make up their combination but their own unique ones as well! Lucky for non-dragons everywhere most dragons only have one element and the more elements a dragon has the rarer their type is. Also, dragons can change their elements when they molt but they normally don’t and when they do it is normally by adding another element. I should also say that it is a bit rare but possible for a dragon to have no element. These blank dragons as they are called are about as rare as a two three element dragon, they are general magic users have no special element abilities as well as no breath weapons. Because of this they are treated as disable by sapient dragons. Dragon Variant Out of all dragon categories this is probably the easiest to understand and needs the less explaining. A dragon variant is just another way of saying what kind of ecosystem a dragon is best adapted to live it. There is a variant for category of ecosystem there is including space ones, and while this could be a bit confusing for someone who can’t tell a difference between a wet land and a swamp it is pretty straight forwards.  This category also gives dragons the least abilities for it only gives them very simple things that they would need to survive in that ecosystem, for example of course a lake dragon can breathe underwater while a desert dragon can go longer without water than other dragons. Keep in mind that dragons can change their variant when they molt. Dragon Caste All dragons have one of four castes, each caste has different powers and abilities. Also, like almost everything else about dragons they can change when they go thought the molt. • Juggernaut: Even by dragons standers juggernauts are strong and durable. Easily tanking wounds that would harm other dragons like they are nothing and regenerating at a much faster rate than other dragons. They also have what is known as manna armor which is basely a force field around their body that absorb most damage before it can hurt the dragon. • Eldritch: These dragons not only have the magic of their elements at their command but are also general magic users as well. They have very high spell resistance and can regain manna at a faster rate than other dragons. They also have the ability known as draconic knowledge which is inborn knowledge of science, magic, engineering, and nature. This knowledge only grows as the dragon matures, and yes even primal eldritch dragons have this ability even they are just animals in sapient. • Ravager: Masters of dragon shifting as well as having the ability to turn invisible at will ravagers are sneaky dragons. They also have what is known as dragon intuition which not only tells when something is dangerous or not what it seems right away but also gives them great cunning. • Magnus: The most power of all dragon castles magnus dragons have the power of all the other classes combine. This is also the only castle that dragons can’t change from when they molted. Probably because there isn’t much point in taking a weaker form. Dragon Rank This form of dragon category is a bit different from the others in that there a very clear hierarchy of least power to most powerful going on here. Which is why it is called rank by the way, in case that wasn’t clear enough. Also, unique to this category is that dragons will have all the powers and abilities of the ranks below them as well as the powers of their rank. Dragons can change rank when they molt all be it rarely, but they will only go up in rank never down. Primal dragons are the lowest rank dragons as they are little more than clever animals. Primal dragons are non-sapient with no rank base abilities and powers and are look down on by other dragons. These are the dragons you find beings keeping as pets, mounts, and, familiars, and in case you are wondering sapient dragons are find with this as they do basely the same with them. Also, a word of advice never say that a sapient dragon was at any point a primal even if you know it’s true as this is seen as insult and the last thing you want do, cause it could be the last thing you do, is insult a dragon. Sapient dragons also don’t like it when you say a primal is related to them in some way but this is not see as an insult itself. Primal dragons are the shortest lived of all dragons as their lifespan is measure in centuries which is a short time by dragon standers. Common dragons come next and these dragons are the weakest of the sapient dragons and have the ability to mimic any sound they hear. Thanks to this ability dragons can master spoken languages much faster than most being. They also have a death curse which makes it that anyone who kills one of them will find that primal dragons and dragon spawn will try to kill them once they sense them, this curse also draws other hostile non-sapient mystics to effected by it. Sapient dragons can also sense this curse on those effected and have the power to remove at will, which they or may not do depending on what dragon you killed to get it in the first place.  Common dragons can live thousands of years, also known as a lot longer than most anything else. Next on the list are noble dragons who are called this thanks to their aura powers, which allows them to affect the emotions of other beings. This could be as simple as causing fear on all who look upon them or giving hope, to even destroying the sanity of others if they are skill enough in their control. They also have the power to open portals that both they and others can use, portals that could very will lead to other worlds, planes, dimensions, and even other universes. They are also telepathic but giving their other powers that not as impresses.  It is said that these dragons live for millions of years, and it is very hard to argue against this for reasons that you can probably guess as to why. Royal dragons have to abilities of desolation and Spawncraft there a reason why these dragons are called royals. Desolation is the ability to create a mycorrhizal network which allows all dragons, half-dragons, and dragonspawn that in physical contact with it to both grain nutritious from it as well as regenerate faster. The desolation also joins with other mycorrhizal networks and increases the overall manna levels in the area, as well as allowing dragons control over the environment. With this not only can dragons control the environment of the area but they can also control its geological features, which means not only could a dragon control what plants grows in the area and how well, they can also grow metals and minerals. While Spawncraft is one of the most disturbing abilities of dragons as it allows them to create what are little then organic robots from their own flesh. Call dragonspawn these creatures have no free will of their own and exist solely to obey their creator, which controls them by a smaller version of the their have mind ability. If a dragonspawn falls out of the control of its creator it will either keep doing the last thing it was order to do, stop moving completely, or fall into a berserk state till another dragon or half-dragon takes control of them. Other than this it is very hard to say anything about dragonspawn do to the fact that are made with a purpose chosen by the dragon that made them, meaning they come in many different forms with different abilities, there are even dragonspawn that are nothing more than fruit trees. Royal dragons live for billions of years or at least that what dragons say as they may as well be immortal to other beings who question this. Finally, we have the highest ranking of all the dragons, divine dragons. Who are even truly immortal or so long lived that not one of them has die of old age ever! And giving that there are tales of royal dragons dying of old age that is saying something. Divine are called divine for a reason, they have quintessence which means they’re deities! This gets them the powers, abilities, skills, and spells that any deity can learn as well as making them immune to death effects, sleep effects, mind-altering effects, pathogens, radiation, toxics, poisons, paralysis, aging, and curses unless they will themselves to be affected. They also have no need for food, drink, air, or even sleep but they can still do so if they wish. This also makes them different from demi-gods who still do need to sleep, eat, breath, and drink yet also different from gods as they aren’t spirits. Dragon Stage And here we are now, on the most confusing dragon category of them all. What makes this the most confusing category you are no doubt wondering, well that easy it is the names! You see the dragon names of these stages translates into the names for what would age categories for most other beings and most assume that what they mean for dragons as well, they do not by the way. In fact, they have far more to do with size than physical development which is why many prefer to just use a number for a stage instead of a name but the names are still more widely use. It’s probably also doesn’t help the confusion that much like ranks dragons only go up in stages when they molt, of course thanks to dragon shifting they can always make it look like they are of a lesser stage if they wish. Now before we go into the stages and what they really do mean I think you all should know what dragons real age-related terms are. First you have hatchling which are what newborns to young children dragons are called. Than you have whelps when older children to the late teenage years. Which leaves us with full growth dragons which are known as serpents, yes like snakes. And for those of you wondering about dragon aging rate, despite being so long-lived dragons seem to physically development at the same rate of humans if not a little faster. No one really know why this is, and the dragons don’t seem to care. Now let’s begin the stages with the only stage that does has something to do with physical development, stage 0 the dragon egg. Dragon eggs look like scaly brightly color faberge eggs that can vary greatly in size, they can be as small as a robin’s egg to as big as must houses! Their size depends on both the stage of the dragon that laid them as well as how many eggs in a clutch was laid at once, the bigger the egg the higher stage the dragon that hatch from it will be. Also, you should know that the reason that dragon eggs stand out so much is because is that dragons are trying to ley things know where their eggs are so they can stay away from them. Not only anything messing with them has to deal with the parents but dragon eggs are not defenseless. They have the same adamantine and rubber anatomy as dragons have, and they are full of dragon venom. Plus, they can release a deadly miasma and often have other powers as well to keep them safe, some can even move. Fun fact dragons don’t hatch so much as the explode from their eggs, this isn’t strong enough to harm other dragon eggs or dragons nearby but will chase almost everything else. Next up we have our first true stage known as stage 1 the infant stage, these are the smallest and by dragon standers least dangerous as they only grow to the size of a large rat. Next up comes stage 2 or baby stage who size comes in about that of a large house cat, follow by stage 3 the toddlers who grow to the size of a large dog. After that is the large human man size child stage or stage 4 if you will follow by large rhinoceros size stage 5 tween. The teenage stage 6 clocks in at the size of a large elephant while stage 7 adult is the size of a large dreadnoughtus. Next comes the large blue whale size mature 8 stage and then the senior stage 9s who clock in at the size of 118.6 meters (129.70254 yards. And finally you have the most fear of all dragons the stage 10 elders who are 300m(328.084 yards) huge! And these are all the dragon stages known to existed by other non-dragons or divine races, the key word there being known. For dragons tell tales of four more stages, stages that rarely come about for so few dragons can reach their power. Stages that comes in the sizes of planets, stars, solar systems and even freaking galaxies! Are these tales true you’re no doubt wondering? Well speaking for all non-dragons everywhere I can say I hope not. Dragon Tribe Dragon tribes are the biggest category of dragon categories and the easiest to ideality, for dragon tribes are little more than their body types.  Naturally this means that it is both the category most know about and the one that has the biggest effect on the dragon abilities and nature. Which is why I will not even try to explain every single dragon tribe here, they will get their own chapter with an entry for every tribe I know about and thanks to a life time of working with and against dragons, as well as having dragon knowledge going around in my head, that a lot of dragons. Dragon Clan Our last category is different from the other because not all dragons fall into, in fact most dragons don’t have clans at all. Dragon clans you see are a special category that gives both share physical features that mark them as different from other dragons and special powers. Much like tribes there isn’t enough room here to go into ever clan so I will save that for its own chapter. Other Dragon Traits Now that you know all the categories that dragons are classified into we should speak on a few other traits that are common in dragons and are used to define local dragon names. These traits can be both physical or powers and they can be use give abilities or just be cosmetic. And there are a lot of them, you have things like scale shapes, to horns and antlers, to number and type of teeth, even claw shape, but the two biggest things that affects those looking for dragons are there tail weapons and tongue weapons. All dragons with tails have a tail weapon and there are a lot of different kinds of subtypes of tail weapons. Just take the common mace tail for an example, not only does it come in many different shapes but it can come with spikes that also come in many different shapes, and sometimes those spikes can be use as drills, or shot off of the tail as a range weapon, or be use as missiles, or all of the above! Which can really make for a nasty day, and your last one at that. And same can be said for tongue mace, and yes, some dragons do have a mace for tongue weapon. Now for tongue weapons most dragon’s tongues are deadly enough without something extra, after all they fully prehensile tentacles that can constrict, rip off limbs, or be use like a whip when they aren’t holding a weapon. But apply that not always deadly enough because dragons can also version of all any tail weapon on their tongues because nature was filled with hate and rage for everything when it came up with dragons. Or at least that the way I explain it, and no one else come up with a better reason for this.

[orcinus-ocean]

Kolmården The Wild Kingdom

My dear man found and bought this book for me last week, in a thrift store. It’s from 1974-1977, and is all about Kolmården Zoo. I will translate as well as I can (not the whole book, but select pieces), because I think at least some of you find stuff about old zoos and dolphinariums as interesting as I do.

"The wild kingdom" is roughly translated, it's actually more like "the kingdom of those who are wild".

Note: in this article, they're talking far and wide about the landscape of the area and the controversy in exploiting/working it. I put an extra headline where they actually start talking about animals.

Are Zoos Needed?

When it became publicly known that a zoological garden was being planned in Kolmården (pronounced Kohl-MORD as in “over” - ehn, in old Swedish meaning “dark forest”), it awakened a certain and partially strong opposition. Kolmården was - and is - one of the few wild forest areas in south Sweden. The terrain is hilly, rational forestry is difficult. The fault steep between Östergötland’s rich dung earth and Sörmland’s “slippery hills” is sharp and marks one of our country’s most palpable and most geographically manifested landscape borders (note: “landscapes” are the old type of provinces in Sweden). The ancient border between Götaland in the south and Svealand in the north also went here, even if no one today can mark it out exactly.

In short, it was a sensitive area to be exploited. Certainly, nature enthusiasts from Norrköping and other adjacent urban areas had wandered here and enjoyed the untouched wilderness. Certainly there were paintings by Elias Martin and others who illustrated the area’s originality and and “wildness”. Certainly Kolmården had a tone in the name that came for us swedes to identify with it, untouched wilderness in south Sweden. Not the least Selma Lagerlöf had contributed to that attitude.

So now this area was to be exploited. Myself, I belonged to the critical and skeptical. But I have changed. The area is not destroyed, it is exploited in a reasonable way. Where before perhaps a few thousand people wandered about annually, now up to a million people comes into contact with Kolmården’s nature. Although it is not the nature which is the attraction, but the animals in the pens. But people come, one has to wander long roads to see all the animals of the park, one gets fresh air and exercise, and hopefully one also learns something.

Also, the park is not just oriented towards animals in captivity: there is bath and winter sport, the surroundings attract to further hiking and camping, Bråviken’s blue surface can be dotted with sail- and motor boats outside the park, there is a guest harbour, etc. Kolmården has already meant and will continue to mean a lot for the outdoor life in middle Sweden.

That a zoo of Kolmården’s vast proportions came to be placed right here was probably by chance. But now in hindsight, one can note that the situation is fine. Just nearby, the E4 runs with denser and denser traffic. People on a vacation trip happily take a break from the driving and spend a few hours in the park.

A large part of Sweden’s population is within a day trip’s distance from the park: the Mälar Valley with its many and growing cities, the populous Östergötland, the Örebro area. An excursion at 100 kilometer’s distance from the home is not too far as long as the cars can roll and the gas is enough.

Certainly the area is sensitive with its wild cliffs and old, fragile forests. And the facility’s size and scale have of course set deep scars. But the one who comes to Kolmården the first time can hardly avoid being surprised over how well buildings and facilities are fitted to the terrain. Even in the middle of the area, one can sometimes feel as if alone in the boundless forest, one does not see much of the houses and stables, they connect well to nature, low and painted in dark, discrete colors. The cable way’s slender masts and the wide forest street which is clear cut below it is perhaps the most conspicuous encroachment.

The cliffs and rocky knolls are used both as practical and decorative elements. One avoids concrete and would rather build walls from left-over rocks from the marble quarry. The tiger pen consists to a large part by vertical cliffs. The polar bear mountain is a natural knoll. The Aparium houses, under its vast rook, one of Kolmården’s tallest points, 117 meters above the surface of Bråviken.

Here begins the topic of the actual animals, and the 1970s take on the topic of zoos.

If the nature and environment of Kolmården’s Zoo is treated in an admirable way, how is it then with the most important, the confined animals? Does one at all have the right to deprive the animals of their freedom and trap them for viewing in a zoo?

It stands clear, that all animal lovers would rather want to see wild animals in freedom and enjoy polar bears among the drift ice of the arctic, or admire the rhinos on the African plains. But how many get the opportunity to do that?

People’s need to see living animals is great and it is one of the most important reasons that we do not just accept, but encourage, zoological gardens.

And the freedom for the wild is becoming more and more limited. One can hope for vast reserves and national parks where the fauna can survive humanity’s population explosion, and such do exist and are being created on a conveyer belt. But unfortunately we have no guarantees that the reserves will be enough and remaining in perpetuity.

Many animals have their very existence threatened, and as long as the understanding for sufficient reserves have not grown large enough, a zoological garden can in many cases save an endangered species. The goal should be to protect such species as long as they need protection, in order to then reintroduce them in appropriate areas, where they can then take back their wild and independent lives. But we will come back to this. In any case, the saving of certain species is one of the strongest reasons for the justification of zoos.

One can draw forth many other reasons: the needs of children for contact with “cute” animals. Opportunities for that exist in plenty in Kolmården’s children’s area. The need for research, perhaps mainly ethological. Zoos have contributed to such in the highest degree. The need for gene reserves: we don’t know which attributes and genes we in the future may need and even be dependent on for our survival. The zoos can create such reserves.

But no matter how many reasons can be cited, they all fall flat on the ground if the animals aren’t cared for properly and if they don’t get adequate spaces. I am convinced that all who come to Kolmården will be impressed by the meticulous care, vast spaces and relative freedom the animals are given. Kolmården Zoo has, in that aspect, quickly obtained a reputation of being one of the world’s finest parks - perhaps the finest.