#it shows on those global rankings too

[goldennika]

i remember a while back how “what’s the deal with airplane food?” was a joke(?) being thrown around a lot

i thought i was in the minority who actually enjoyed airplane food until i realized that the people who popularized that joke probably flew a lot of western airlines and i’ve seen how bad their food options are

but as someone based in asia and therefore flies with asian carriers almost exclusively, i’ve always had a very different flying experience than someone on say, a US carrier

[carionto]

Humans and Boredom II

The planet cracker.

A devilish name that somehow still does not do this type of Human ship justice. Arrays of massive gravity hooks capable of tearing out kilometers wide and deep chunks of mass from any celestial object one of them decides to settle in orbit of.

The process is slow and tedious and, luckily, unsuitable for any practical military application, but unimaginably rewarding nonetheless. Once a chunk has been lifted, a fleet of harvester drones meticulously tears it further apart and separates into individual minerals and any other categorizable substances. From there the internal refineries of the planet cracker process them further into more usable metals, alloys, resins, and countless other resources. Finally, another fleet of transport ships ferry those back to where they are needed.

The land based production capacity of an entire (small) planet, with a single (albeit metropolis sized) ship, crewed by no more than a hundred Humans and thousands of drones.

One of these immense beasts - The Hardy Gal - was stationed around one of Saturn's moons - Epimetheus - that was recently voted out of the global popularity contest "Who's Even Heard of This One?" and thus sentenced to become part of the Dyson Ring.

The drone fleet that was supposed to be tearing up the unfortunate little moon, however, was recently recalled for refitting after a report showed a key part was manufactured using an outdated guideline by a suspiciously licensed corporation, that was also caught up in an unrelated embezzlement scandal.

Suffice to say that chief Gravity Master Boris Fruischtyen didn't have much to do. Laws and regulations do not permit any unsupervised extraction results to just be left in orbit. Oh no, can't preemptively arrange chunks for processing later, nope, "efficiency? what's that?". *sigh* Lift, hold, harvest, repeat.

Boris would have nothing to do, except the gravity hook arrays were a set of fifty per array, and The Hardy Gal had eight arrays. Four hundred individually aim-able and moveable chunks of matter.

While his day job was not very productive for now, his social media activity shot through the roof. There's a lot you can draw with four hundred "pixels" and the literal cosmos as your canvas and backdrop.

His personal favorites were water features and creatures set against the blue of Saturn, and he arranged quite a few of the extinct whales and penguins too. Additionally, every day he would fulfill one of the audiences top ranking requests.

Through these he discovered he has a fascinatingly good sense for flower compositions, especially from unusual angles. It's odd. He's only ever seen flowers in images and videos, perhaps lacking actual real life flowers to compare to allows his imagination to fill in the gaps in a way referencing factual knowledge would limit him. Who knows.

Despite having access to a three dimensional canvas, he preferred to keep things flat.

"What can I say, 2D is better. *chuckle*"

However, that doesn't mean he keeps things simple. The gravity hooks are quite good at selective manipulation, they have to be to target certain spots beneath a whole lot of other matter (which is then raised alongside the "elevator" matter). He demonstrated how the same image can look wildly different if you just change the "pixels" from squares to spheres, or how certain material compositions change color when squeezed more densely.

His personal favorite part is the finishing touch. After he's had a drone go out and stream his latest piece from plenty of angles for the viewers, he gives the whole image a simultaneous and gentle push back towards the moon. After a few touching hours of people in chat saying farewell, sharing personal stories and just asking questions Boris is always happy to answer, the image impacts the surface where the majority of parts were extracted from in a spectacular show of minor impacts and a shower of debris. Too bad it doesn't have an atmosphere, just imagine how cool it'd look burning up on reentry.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

hey do you guys remember how I said that I was going to use patreon to write up content that would be WILDLY too long for tumblr? yeah. this is uuuuuh a little less than 6000 words about a bad Animal Planet series from 2008 that no one watched but me and my sister.

and here's part of the introduction under the cut for freebies, in case you want a little sample:

If you weren’t a painfully introverted animal fact kid in the early 2000s it’s almost impossible to explain the degree of sway that Animal Planet and its shows held over me as a child. Meerkat Manor, Animal Cops, The Most Extreme, The Little Zoo That Could, Prehistoric Planet, River Monsters, all of Steve Irwin’s work, and truly any and all non-serialized programming about any animal imaginable. I ate it all up, even the terribly boring half-hour programs like Backyard Habitat and Petfinder that they only played in the weird wee hours of the morning. 

Crucially, this programming is mostly of a nonfiction bent. Prehistoric Planet uses a framing device involving the use of time travel to bring extinct animals into the present to live in a zoo, but ultimately they’re trying to teach you some facts about some beasts, and while Meerkat Manor was definitely anthropomorphizing and editorializing the drama those meerkats experienced, it was at least rooted in the very real Kalahari Meerkat Project, which has been intensively documenting the behavior of meerkat mobs for many meerkat generations.

But then we get into the oddballs. In 2004 Animal Planet aired Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real, a British “docufiction” produced for Channel Four that sought to contextualize the nearly-global mythology of dragons in real history and biology, complete with CGI recreations of dragons in their “natural habitats.” That’s all fine and good; there’s nothing wrong with using a fake thing to teach people about real animals’ evolution and anatomy. The Loch Ness Monster episode of River Monsters is excellent for this, as you can tell that host Jeremy Wade (angler, freshwater detective, and criminally fuckable old man) doesn’t expect to find a monster literally at all and is just taking the opportunity to introduce his audience to animals they might not otherwise know about, including the noble Greenland shark. He pulls the same trick again in a later episode where he’s sent to discover the “truth” behind sea serpents and winds up diving in search of the elusive oarfish.

Dragons is… not doing that. Instead it offers up a framing device following a completely fictional paleontologists who “suggests the theory that a carbonized Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton on display was killed by a prehistoric dragon” (thanks, Wikipedia) and then has to go on a quest to save his career by proving that dragons totally existed and he’s not crazy. And he’s not! The piece ends with him discovering straight up for-real dragon bones in the Carpathian Mountains. If you were, say, an impressionably soft-brained 8 year old watching this, well holy shit. Congrats! It turns out dragons are real and nobody knows but you. 

Why did Animal Planet air this? God only knows, but it wouldn’t be the last time they dabbled in this shit. 2012 saw another piece by the same creator, Charlie Foley, called Mermaids: The Body Found which posited that various governments are holding merpeople captive and also relied on the infamously eugenicist aquatic ape theory to justify how merpeople could exist. The CGI on that one creeped me the fuck out, although I was at least old enough by then to recognize it wasn’t real.

Between those two docufictional farces, Animal Planet got a little freaky and rolled out some fake factual content of their own: three season of the TV show Lost Tapes (2008-2010, RIP), which purportedly showed “found footage” from incidents of humans having terrifying encounters with cryptids and fighting to escape with their lives. Interspersed with the fully fictional stories were segments of experts talking about folkloric history and speculating as to how creatures like Sasquatch and sea serpents could be real, which was an admirable effort to make it educational but often fell pretty short. There’s a werewolf episode where their expert weakly offers up that there are tons of transformations in nature, like caterpillars turning into butterflies. Notably that has absolutely nothing in common with a human turning rapidly into a wolfbeast and then shifting back, but they tried! They stopped trying as hard by season three, by which point they were throwing any and every beastie they could think of at the wall: there are episodes dedicated to zombies, a poltergeist, two different types of vampires, and the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. 

Also straining belief was the dedication that some POV characters had to keeping their cameras rolling. I don’t blame the writers for that; it’s hard coming up with a fresh gimmick for “found footage” in every episode. Some of them, like characters wearing body cameras, are pretty smart; others, like a teenage girl continuing to film on her phone while being hunted by the Jersey devil, are not. They’re very much running on horror movie rules; the characters are as dumb as they need to be to make the plot go. To the show’s credit the dumdums are frequently punished, and it’s not uncommon for every single named character to end up dead at the hands (or claws, fangs, whatever) of the monster of the week. 

Needless to say, as a 12 year old I thought this was extremely edgy and cool. I was old enough to recognize that the so-called found footage was fake and that the acting was mostly very bad, but I liked cryptids and some of the show’s better episodes could still creep me right out. I think geeky 12 year olds who like to get a little freaked out on purpose are probably the ideal target demographic for this show, followed by nostalgic 20-somethings who have seen every episode several times.

(Hi, editor’s note: having completed this list it turns out there are WAY more episodes than I thought and I fully Do Not Recall some of them, so egg on my face.)

[probablyasocialecologist]

Though the IDF has said that soldiers may only resort to live fire to “negate an actual and immediate threat to life, as the last option in the procedures for stopping a suspect,” the reality is that those among its ranks — as reported by international organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — have shot and killed Palestinians who posed no threat to their lives. Regardless of what IDF protocol dictates, commanders have been known to tell recruits that they “can fire on children if they’re over 14.” Similarly, Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist who was shot dead in 2022 by the IDF while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, had been wearing a clearly marked press jacket and was unarmed. Israel initially claimed that there had been a firefight with Palestinian militants and that Abu Akleh, who worked for Al Jazeera, had been accidentally hit. But evidence uncovered by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, as well as other independent nongovernmental organizations, shows that there was no gunfire before Israeli forces fired at the Palestinian journalists covering the raid and killed Abu Akleh in the process. To date, the Israeli soldiers attending the raid have not been brought to justice. Simulated exercises deliberately present Israeli soldiers with an accentuated sense of Palestinian aggression, while on a day-to-day basis the Palestinians they meet at checkpoints are civilians, who are not bearing arms and are vastly outgunned. The lines between reality and these hyperrealistic simulators are blurred when we consider that Israeli incursions into actual Palestinian territories took place almost every day leading up to Oct. 7. Plenty of these raids were carried out in overcrowded refugee camps, which already have their electricity and water supplies routinely cut off by Israel. Residents of these camps, living through Israeli attacks every day, have sardonically described their home as being Israel’s “playground.” Academics at the University of Berkeley, California have found that in some camps, like Aida in the West Bank, 100% of the population has been exposed to tear gas — “more than any other population surveyed globally,” they wrote in 2017, and one entirely ignored possible precursor to Israel’s recent use of white phosphorus in Gaza.

[actual-changeling]

In a pervious post you said "the implications throughout the show that Crowley was a pretty powerful and high-ranking angel, and is still one of the most powerful demons". Where/what are those, exactly? How high are we talking, because I don't think the opposing ranks are equal to one another. Like, if Crowley had been an Archangel he isn't an Archdemon now, right?

Hell has a completely different kind of command structure, yes!

It seems to be wayyy more democratic for one, and has varying kinds and levels of ruling authorities. They have proper trials and rules, contracts to sign, several demons working on earth, a multitude of positions of employment (for lack of better words), provide living spaces for their earthly representatives, and overall function, while heaven seems to have—well, none of those things.

Figuring out a demon's rank is—in my opinion—pretty easy because of that.

Crowley makes a comment about bottom of the barrel demons, we see different jobs and how respected they are (e.g. Furfur being stuck in admissions, which is more of a grunt job, while anyone in temptations is in a more desirable position pun intended), and if we make some smart guesstimations, we can probably figure out the job & relative rank of any demon we're introduced to.

So—where does Crowley fall?

His position in heaven as the Starmaker may or may not have had an influence on his position after the fall, but we do know that he had and still has strong miracle powers. Let's take a look at the tasks hell assigned him:

a) the Serpent of Eden and Original Tempter

b) a long-term and (assumedly) one of the main representatives on earth

c) he's not just in Temptations, he works on a global scale and regularly impresses his bosses back in hell

d) he was tasked with helping Satan win a bet against God by taking care of Job's property, house, and family

e) Satan personally chose him to deliver the Antichrist and start Armageddon, which is THE job in the history of heaven & hell.

Hastur and Ligur are also explicitly jealous of the kind of jobs Crowley gets to perform, and while there is a general 'he's gone native' sentiment, they leave him alone as long as he does his job and doesn't break the rules in a way that fucks with hell's plans.

In season 1, we are told that Crowley is partly as powerful as he is because he has an imagination, which allows him to navigate the burning M25 while Hastur gets discorporated. When hell is told about the 25 Lazarii miracle that was performed, Crowley is seen as a viable candidate for either having done it himself or working with whoever did it.

Beelzebub also decides—for good reason—that if ze wants to find Gabriel, ze'll need his help:

They hold a trial when they could have just killed him like Hastur melting the Usher to test the holy water, but because of his rank Crowley gets a (more or less) fair trial. If you think about it, deciding he's guilty and then giving him the same kind of punishment he used to melt Ligur is actually not too bad of a treatment; lower demons, on the other hand, are punished on the daily without as much as a blink.

Crowley solves the mess in the bookshop, Beez and Dagon listen to him when he talks and explains, they see him as someone almost equal to them. It is believable to Hastur that Crowley is involved with the Dark Council and capable of recommending him for a promotion.

If Crowley had been a 'better' and more ambitious demon, he probably could have been a Duke of Hell even before Job. He can stop time, he can stop Satan himself in his tracks, and he is respected by both heaven and hell—so whatever you want to call his rank/job/position, it is undoubtedly one of high regard and power.

[edutainer2022]

UNREQUITED Ch 7

Co-written with @janetm74

Ch 6

AO3 (1-7)

This installment found a place in the tapestry of a vaster story, thanks to the amazing insight of @janetm74, making the implications so much more exciting to ponder and to explore further!

(Page Six)

Ever since Kat Kavanaugh buried a hatchet and wasn't chasing conspiracy theories about them on Global Holovision anymore, watching the news live was a once in a blue moon activity in Casa Tracy. They followed the major world events through John and Eos (maybe a bit of social media on a relatively quiet morning), and they were likely to be part of those in some capacity at least a third of the times. Sometimes a half.

But it was one of those days. A relative lull in rescues compiled with the exhaustion of the previous fortnight streak of disasters bred mildly numb boredom. Batteries too low to pursue their usual hobbies, they gravitated to the lounge.

Scott was ever at the desk with holo screens full of quarterly budget reports, because their biggest brother did stock market numbers for LEISURE, apparently. Virgil was playing, as usual, but the music was slowly fading to a halt. Alan was gaming, or pretending to be while napping, his VR goggles on. Kayo was going through some specs, half leaning on the couch cushions. Even John was in a quiet lull up in orbit, his hologram just bobbing at the comms unit, hanging out with everybody, but not really a part of any conversation.

That left Gordon scralling lazily through newsreels. The sudden yelp sent Alan tumbling on the floor and Scott at least half an inch closer to a cardiac arrest under thirty. A keen observer would have noticed Kayo reaching for a knife in the ankle holster. The piano music keened on an abrupt note and stopped. Several pairs of VERY unamused eyes stared Gordon down.

The Fish was on his feet already, bursting with excitement, sending the news holo to the center of the lounge.

"Did you guys know Fischler has a brother?!?!"

The assorted grumps and groans across the lounge indicated that they not only didn't know, but weren't in the least thrilled by that information.

Only John and Kayo shared a quiet look, because OF COURSE they would know.

Gordon surveyed the lounge in triumph, setting the stage for a punchline.

"He has a brother and he's getting married!"

"Who, Fischler?"

Alan was still scrambling up from his hardwood landing and making a show of rubbing an ouchie. Scott at least looked ready to switch gears to the full "hurt brother!" mode. Gordon was not deterred.

"No, dummy, not Fischer! His brother is getting married!"

"And that's any of our business how?"

Alan was still not ready to relinquish attention from his boo-boo. Not with so many big brothers in attendance. But John, Kayo and Virgil were already sharing concerned LOOKS.

Any widely publicized event with cameras rolling and hundreds in attendance, involving Fischler, could potentially turn into a showcase of his latest "invention", or ten. Which would mean potential casualties and work for IR. They would need to be on the look-out and on standby. Scott waved at the comm to get the volume up.

The holo displayed a close pic of a younger and significantly more polished version of Langstrom Fischler, hair sleecked back, but a weaselly smile just a tad on the manic side.

The celebrity news anchor was gushing about a "dashing fresh face on the World Senate, a philanthropist and patron of innovation, a devoted brother and a consummate athlete, setting off to be a force of a positive change in the world" and "his drop dead gorgeous fiancée, a once Miss Brazil runner-up, who dedicated herself to the selfless life of service, decorated for honor and courage".

The picture on the screen changed to an official GDF snapshot of a tall young brunette in dress blues. The insignia on the collar indicated the rank of Captain and breastplanks - several high ranking awards for valor. The picture switched to a series of candid paparazzi snaps of the "happy couple".

The show host droned on with one corny cliche after another about the "match made of dreams" and a " high profile dream wedding" scheduled to take place on a cozy remote island.

Gordon interrupted the stream of saccharine platitudes:

"Huh? How come we're not invited? Scott, you know like everyone in the World Senate!"

His voice was drowned out by the deafening snap of the metal stylus, broken in Scott's fingers. The sound of the desk chair hitting the floor, as Scott stood up and all but ran from the lounge, was even louder.

"Huh?!"

Gordon, yet again, surmised the bewilderment of everyone present.

Jade eyes squinted a fraction as Kayo watched Scott's outburst and hasty retreat.

Virgil was half out to follow Scott, when a ping came through on Gordon's comm. The sign flashed pink.

"Yay! Looks like I'm going after all! Penny needs a plus one! John, can I borrow your tax?!"

John half waved his brother off, brows furrowed and hands already flying over invisible files, when another pink ping came through. It was Kayo's turn for a "Huh?" moment.

"Looks like Penny needs a plus two, as well. I'm invited".

That deflated Gordon's initial excitement enough to notice Virgil leaving in the general direction of Dad's office, where Scott had locked himself.

Before Virgil reached the door to try and reason with big brother to talk about... whatever that was, John sent two files to his comm.

One - a picture they all saw a hundred times on Dad's desk back in Kansas, but it didn't compute out of context. Scott's Airgroup Wing after a training flight. All hugging and laughing, still in flightsuits. Scott and the girl from the news today - Fischler Jr.'s fiancée - at the center.

The other Virgil never saw before. It would figure since it was a screenshot from, what he recognized with some dread, was Dad's old phone. There was a picture sent to a private chat with Dad of the same girl, in a sundress, and Scott in a polo shirt, apparently both on leave. An almost ten years younger Scott was smiling like he could power up a sun. The message to Dad read "SHE SAID YES!!!".

The date of the message indicated about a month and a half before Scott's mission to Bereznik.

Virgil sank to the floor, leaning on the wall, never going through with the knock on the locked office door.

***

It was such an unbelievable cliché it felt surreal. The thunderstorm, the lightning, the lash of downpour across his face. Then again, it was fitting, as his world was going crashing down around him. Yet again.

There was nothing surreal about the hard edges of Mom's ring she just gave him back.

For about six weeks he was the happiest man alive. Dad's IR project was well underway, and he was to share that dream not only with Dad and brothers, but with the love of his life. He should have known better...

The words were real too - hard and ruthless. About Dad yanking his leash, and expecting nothing but dutiful following in his footsteps and his vision, concealed by his looming shadow, and giving up what they both dreamed about and worked so hard for - test flights, command ranks, career in service.

The echo came back to him often, in one dark hour or another, after his world shattered to pieces yet another time.

Dad voiced his reservations clearly, but did agree to give him Mom's ring. "When you know, you know". Wasn't it how he and Mom got married?

It WAS too soon, they WERE too young, and frateenization within a unit WAS an issue, but with IR lifting off that wasn't to be a problem, once he told her the full scale of the classified project. He should have known better...

He last remembered the ring yanked off his neck with the dogtags chain by a smirking Berezniki guard.

He put up a hell of a fight for that and was beaten within an inch of his life. The first time.

Next time he found it, inexplicably, in Dad's safe on the island, after the search for Zero-X was called off. He meant to ask Kyrano, as he wasn't conscious or coherent enough for the extraction op, or for months after, but the man never returned his calls anymore, sending in a resignation after half a year of following leads on the Hood.

There wasn't much room in his mind or hours in his days to give it more thought for years after. Or more pieces for his heart to break into. He should have known better.

And now she was getting married. To someone bright and promising, changing the world for the better, who wasn't him. The story of his life!

He should have known better as well.

The sound of glass shattering against the wall and a visceral scream finally sent Virgil in, wild-eyed, breaking past the lock.

***

John lifted an eyebrow in a perfect quizzical arch, putting the tablet down, as the "wedding party" poured, or rather, limped into the lounge.

Gordon's tuxedo sleeve was torn clear off, his bowtie, undone, served as a makeshift tourniquet. Parker sported cuts, bruises and a glorious shiner. Penelope's elaborate updo was in disarray, one heel of a golden pump broken. Kayo's slip dress hem was torn, exposing a garter holster.

As John hurried to the kitchen for the first aid kit, he heard her hiss something to the effect of "You should have seen the other guys".

The villa was quiet. Grandma had Alan on the mainland for the weekend. Virgil chased Scott up the volcano. There was a good chance biggest brother and his stormy mood was best quarantined at the Round House for the rest of the day.

John was waiting in the lounge for the fallout, one way or another. He wasn't quite prepared for the sight on display, handing out ice packs.

Gordon hissed too and bit off a curse, as John set about cleaning the bullet graze on his arm.

"Pen, do all your friends whip out a standard issue gun at the altar and read the groom Miranda rights instead of vows?"

Lady Penelope was busy trying to look poised while breaking the second heel off a designer pump, to make them even.

"It was a deep undercover mission to round up a drug and slave trafficking ring. A destination wedding was a most fortunate venue for the occasion."

Kayo looked up from the kitchen isle at that, not pausing to stop extracting a considerable arsenal of throw-knives from her bodice.

"Looks like the Fischler brothers were bankrolled by mafia. The crazy inventions AND the World Senate election. In exchange for some... perks."

Kayo snorted and went back to her inventory of weapons.

Gordon perked up as the anesthetic cream kicked in and forgot to NOT wave the injured hand around to assist his narrative.

"It was actually kinda cool! The bride barked out "Hands up!" instead of "I do"! The bridesmaids all dropped their bouquets and brandished guns. The bridal party were all Organized Crime and Counterterrorism. Well, and us... A little  heads up wouldn't have hurt, Penny. Then all hell broke loose. Rose petals and confetti everywhere. You should have seen Fischler's face!"

Gordon was nearly flailing with excitement, so John's hands pushed him mildly back into the seat. Turquoise eyes found Penelope's line of sight, studiously avoiding Kayo:

"So... no wedding?"

"No wedding indeed."

Up on the Tracy Volcano Virgil's comm vibrated, switched to silent mode hours ago. John's message read "No wedding."

Virgil exhaled a sigh, but didn't yet know how to break the subject with a brother, seated next to him on the sun-warmed boulder, overlooking the ocean. Blue eyes were fixed on a point far away in the distance, or maybe far away in the past, Scott still wouldn't talk about. 

[mariacallous]

We are seeing a worrisome rise in mental distress among young people in the U.S., a trend that began in 2011. Various studies show that young people are now the country’s most unhappy demographic, with unprecedented increases in anxiety, depression, and suicide. In a recent ranking of happiness in countries around the world, American young people came in at 62, behind Bulgaria, Ecuador, and Honduras.  

What explains this rise? The usual sources of blame are all too familiar: smart phones, pandemic precautions, and declining church attendance, among others. In addition, political polarization, toxic debates, and misinformation increasingly influence our civic discourse and discourage the young from participating in civic life. There is also a stigma against admitting emotional problems—particularly for males—and a shortage of affordable mental-health treatments when people do.

Yet the root causes for this crisis run deeper. They include rising education costs, uncertain employment prospects and declining wages, particularly for those without a college degree, and the absence of a sense of community in many places. In a recent Brookings paper economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton found that the life expectancy for the college educated in 2021 was eight-and-a-half years longer than for the two-thirds of American adults without a bachelor’s degree—more than triple the gap in 1992. Most of the jobs available to those without a B.A. do not offer health insurance, part of the explanation for the mortality gap. These trends result in losses in human welfare and productive potential. They also exacerbate the uncertainty many young people feel about their futures.

While there is no magic bullet for this crisis, most suggested policies focus on better regulation of social media, programs that support civic engagement among youth, and better mental health care access. But an important and underreported part of the solution is restoring hope. The crisis stems in significant part from a lack of hope that often is fueled by a sense that higher education—and the economic and life expectancy benefits it brings—is beyond reach of many. My research finds strong linkages between hope and better long-term outcomes in education, health, and mental well-being, with hope more important to better outcomes of those with limited access to post-high school education and mentorship.

My recent research on populations and places vulnerable to misinformation, for example, finds that they share two linked challenges: the lack of opportunities for higher or vocational education and community-wide despair (and related deaths), with young people lacking a pathway to a better future particularly vulnerable. Solutions on the education front not only require reducing costs and increasing access to post-high school education opportunities but mentorship that supports young adults seeking more education to achieve their aspirations and suggest pathways to the kinds of employment opportunities that can give them better future lives.

Jose Santana’s story is telling. In early 2022 he was thinking about dropping out of his Bronx high school. He simply did not see a purpose in going to college. That changed the summer after he participated in Youthful Savings, a New York and Santa Monica-based program that educates low-income students in middle and high schools about economics and entrepreneurship, mental well-being, and ethical business. After completing the program, he started his own business, helping young entrepreneurs better organize and utilize web and graphic design tools. Jose earned his high school diploma this June and plans to major in business at Andrews University in Michigan.

While Jose believes the skills that he learned were valuable, what most influenced him was the mentorship he received from the program’s founder, Somya Munjal, who is a champion of educating youth about financial literacy. She shared with Jose her own struggles to pay for college and business school and how that led to what she does to support low-income youth get ahead.

On the surface, Youthful Savings may not look like a way of alleviating the mental health crisis that is plaguing American youth. Yet the program is part of a proliferating trend that has the potential to bolster young people’s mental well-being while fostering their immediate goals of acquiring more education. Somya’s ability to expand Youthful Savings was supported by Civic Wellbeing Partners, an initiative which facilitates opportunities for the young and supports well-being in low-income populations.

Somya grew up in Chicago, the child of Indian immigrants. From the time Somya was in high school, influenced by her parents’ struggles, she worked 40 hours every week. Given her strong performance in school, her parents dreamed of her attending Harvard but lost their savings during the 2001 recession. She attended Northern Illinois University, majoring in accounting. She was frustrated with her studies until she found her passion in a class about the role of education as a change agent. In Jose’s words: “Hearing Somya’s story … inspired me to continue and stay in higher education.”

Macomb Community College (MCC) outside Detroit provides another example of how to support young people in school and train them for meaningful work. The college pairs every incoming student with a mentor, which ensures that even those who need help or counseling but are reluctant to ask for it get ready assistance. Its university hub—founded in 1991—hosts several Michigan universities offering courses on its campus, providing students a more affordable route for gaining credits towards their degrees. Roughly 65% of transfer students from Macomb, many of whom remain on the home campus to get their degrees from the partner schools, complete a bachelor’s degree.

The hub—the first of its kind—has since been replicated by several other community colleges around the country, such as Lorain (Ohio) and Temple College (Austin). While some modalities have changed due to the increase of online learning, an important focus continues to be streamlining the pathway from associate to bachelor-degree completion to eliminate waste of time and money.

Macomb County, traditionally a political hotbed, has a population that is divided by three very different populations: retired autoworkers, a historically discriminated African American Community, and an influx of new immigrants. The Legacy Project at MCC invests in the civic engagement of these communities as a source of learning, credible information, and reasoned discussion. Jim Jacobs, president emeritus and legacy founder, noted that “the real value added of community colleges is how well they can convince young people that their aspirations for a better a life can be obtained within their communities. It is not only more education—but the belief they can use their skills.”

Communities—and their colleges—are an important source of support for low-income populations and their youth, providing mentorship and employment opportunities, among other things. They also play an important role in stemming the tide of loneliness that is linked to mental illness, as the data from the U.K.’s Campaign to End Loneliness shows.

Dunya Kilano, the daughter of immigrants from Iraq, came to Macomb as a child and later attended the college: “College wasn’t something that felt like a clear pathway for me. I was the first in my family to go. My parents supported me although … they would have been OK if I decided to take over their business instead.” Transferring to Oakland University while still taking courses at Macomb made a four-year degree more affordable. Her college experience laid the groundwork for her career with Face Addiction Now (FAN), a community organization that provides resources, education programs, and hope to those recovering from substance use disorder. “Education …[was] helpful but the connections I made are what led me to the work I do … An advisor suggested I take a social work class; I ended up becoming president of the Social Work Club and received a leadership award. Social work was my calling.”

Another example, focused on middle and high school youth, is the BeeWell initiative in schools and communities in the U.K.’s greater Manchester District. BeeWell introduces skills such as self-esteem, adaptability, and strategies to combat loneliness into school curriculums. It has yielded significant positive effects on both the mental well-being and academic performance of the students.

The combined emphasis on individuals and communities is key to the success of these initiatives. Macomb’s focus on civic engagement helps break down barriers separating the county’s diverse populations and enhances the chance that newly educated youth will live and work there. And communities are becoming a critical part of efforts to address the mental health crisis, as the traditional individual doctor-patient model is unable to keep up with the increasing demand for services.

Reversing the decline in youth mental health and addressing the uncertainties they face are daunting challenges. While we cannot immediately resolve them, providing youth with the skills they need to navigate them is an important step forward. By helping young people gain agency, skills, and connections through education—critical links to better outcomes—these efforts show that restoring hope and improving mental health is not just a pipe dream.

[jayflrt]

i LOVE sunoo don't get me wrong, but i just need to know how he got 1st in the global rankings every vote. he deserves it but i don't remember him getting a lot of screen time! i thought someone like heeseung would be more popular

okay wait i'll give u my take on this as someone whose first iland bias was sunoo 🫣

1. right off the bat in the first episode sunoo was super cheerful and entertaining during everyone's unit entrance performances. and i personally think crown unit did the best and sunoo rlly stole the show with his expressions and vocals

2. he is so CUTE like everything he did was so charming. he was def popular with the korean fans because they love aegyo but i feel like sunoo's one of those idols who can make aegyo not feel cringe for international fans LOL also even when he was in ground he was so funny and lighthearted while still working hard and being competitive. there was this one scene of him complaining about not having much time in the center for a performance so he literally spent all his time in front of the camera perfecting that move and entertaining the viewers which was a rlly smart move

3. i heard this from addy but apparently he blew up for his visuals before iland started when they released the profiles and stuff :') BUT he didn't let anyone write him off as someone who could by with visuals and was consistently in the debut lineup even with the producers, and eventually was the producer's pick to be in enha

4. on that note his singing was sooo good like not many ilanders could hit clean high notes but sunoo was always really good with that. and he's confident about his skills too like when one of the grounders was like "who can even hit those high notes?" for save me and sunoo so casually just went "me" 😭

5. he's surprisingly a very good leader and decision maker. all of his picks for chamber 5 were all calculated, like he didn't just go for people who were consistently ranked high. and he had some sixth sense about sunghoon showing another side during chamber 5 and he fr did 😭😭 not to mention all the chamber 5 unit members debuted 🤭

[aguineapigcouldntdothis]

as a disabled person who can't regularly change her sheets and yet somehow manages to *not* be horribly antisemitic on account of the fact that being antisemitic is unrelated to physical ability: thank you very very much for calling that instance of rank ableism what it was, and I'm sorry that person doubled down on their ableism when you went out of your way to be as gentle as possible and take them in the best faith you could. I appreciate you. 💜

yep this is why i said it! those words do not hurt me as a disabled person who struggles immensely with physical hygiene but there's people that can be hurt by that. you deserve to be treated like the human that you are no matter what you may struggle with. even if you can only clean once every five years. also being jewish, esp in a time like now, i understand how important it is to try to bring jews closer to our community rather than pushing them away. mindless acts of hatred just make disabled jews and other jews with intersecting identities feel unwelcome.

i could probably argue with this person more and waste time on that but i wont because ive already said my point. if they wanna continue to be full of anger and hatred then that's on them.

plus that comment also is a misrepresentation of how antisemitism functions but that's a whole different subject. it reads like antisemites act that way because theyre just too stupid or helpless to know otherwise, rather than it being a systemic issue heavily ingrained in global culture that can affect even people who are outwardly intelligent and well put together.

yeah sure we can all be assholes to each other! why should we though?? what do we gain from that besides a fleeting sense of power over someone?? when this person is inevitably disabled someday i hope someone shows them the kindess that they refuse to show disabled people now

[starkraivennemad]

Wide Awake With The Beginning

It was one in the morning when Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade sent his partner Sargent Sally Donovan home. Unfortunately, he woke up at his desk nearly two hours later.

God, you’re starting to get too old for these late nights, Greg my boy. Starting to? Shaddup!

As always, before he went home for the night, he did his nightly checks.

Sherlock Holmes would be annoyed should he ever find out; Greg did not care.

Watson would semi-jokingly accuse him of spying, but the good doctor had long ago resigned himself to the facts of hidden cameras in his life.

Anthea would say he was being a ridiculous mother hen, but he knew she was the reason he was allowed it.

He needed to know where people were before he could go home and lay his own head down.

He pulled out his tablet, checking both GPS and cameras.

His sisters were in their respective homes with their families, asleep as most people would be that time of morning.

There were no visual cameras at Anthea’s on purpose. Mycroft had informed him of the time he found grounded-up camera pieces silently served with his morning tea. That politely dissuaded him from doing such again, but the thermal imaging was allowed to remain as a compromise. Greg only had access to her phone GPS, thank goodness - because he did not want to imagine what she would feed him in vengeance if he had visuals.

At Baker Street, Watson was also asleep, but Sherlock puttered about the kitchen. Sherlock’s focus was on what seemed to be entrails dangling from tongs. Greg mentally shuddered at whatever insane experiment the genius was about. No surprise that Sherlock was awake. His sleeping habits, though much improved since sharing a flat with Watson, were still deplorable.

Pot-Kettle Greg, leaving work at near three. He chastised himself as he closed that tab and opened the final one. A tab he noticed was added a year ago, and not by him, for someone revered with as much importance as the previous.

Mycroft Holmes.

Uber intelligent. Enigmatic. Posh. Mycroft was a reserved man, many thought of as cold - and he is, especially to those who do not get the honor to know the true him. To the few of the public that see him regularly he is a cold exacting man. One who does occupy a minor office with the British government - he even has an official ID, paperwork, and occasional meetings to prove it. It a far cry from his true occupation as political analyst who wielded immense power in his manicured hands. Power that has caused royalty, dictators, and other high-ranking people in global politics to take heed – or else. Over the years Greg has been blessed to see the dry biting wit. The little quiet ways Mycroft shows his care for his parents and Anthea. The loving exasperation in how he and his little brother, Sherlock, deal with each other when out of the public eye. Greg knew he was one of the very few graced to know the man beyond the public persona and forged a quiet friendship from what was once a very acrimonious association between them.

Greg knew, originally, he had been tracked simply as another way for Mycroft to potentially locate his brother when Sherlock would cut off all other means of tracking when so inclined, which was often. Like John he had become resigned to his life being somewhat under surveillance by the enigmatic man because of his association with Sherlock.

Greg was eventually given access to the cameras for Sherlock and John as a quid pro quo courtesy. A year ago, he had been given access to Anthea’s GPS - only when she was in London of course -  for when Mycroft is incommunicado, but wanted to secretly let Greg know they were in fact in London without calling unless absolutely needed. It was a surprise to discover when the last tab appeared, and Greg had direct access to Mycroft’s GPS. Again, only when in London, but it was better than being reliant solely on Anthea for emergency contact. He completely understood the level of trust being given to have it and he was honored.

Greg does not know when he added Mycroft to his nightly check routine, but there the man was…

Wait… Why is he there so late…? Oh…

The GPS told Greg where the man was: at his office in Diogenes.

The hidden cameras, the only visual cameras for Mycroft he had been allowed access, told him why he was still there: he had fallen asleep at his desk.

Oh, that cannot be good for his back.

Mycroft, always impeccably dressed, had removed his jacket in the privacy of his office. It was the first time Greg has seen him so and Greg almost felt he was spying on something illicit as he watched the gentle rise and fall of the man’s body in slumber.

You work so hard Mycroft, taking care of the world. Who takes care of you?

It was not the first time Greg has had that thought.

Would you let me take care of you?

Nor was it the first time Greg has had that thought. Read rest the on AO3...

Mystrade Monday Prompt #73 For January 22, 2024 - "You know that’s not the case.”

[beardedmrbean]

The 19th century Austrian socialist Ferdinand Kronawetter once remarked, "Antisemitism is the socialism of idiots." He was not wrong, but I believe even he would have been surprised that most of these idiots are either celebrities or attend the West's most prestigious educational institutions.

From Greta Thunberg to Harvard yard, you can barely throw a stone without hitting someone holding an anti-Israel rally. Apparently, we also have normalized Jewish students needing to be locked up in university libraries for their own "safety," or the BBC regularly publishing blood libels, first about a supposed bombardment of a hospital in Gaza by Israeli forces, and a few weeks later with the claim that Israeli Defence Forces are intentionally targeting medical personnel and Arabic speakers.

But even that is, in fact, old news: In January 2009, the French public broadcaster France-2 aired footage of Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year's Day. As it turned out, however, the recording was from 2005 and not 2009, and the victims were not killed by the IDF but an "accident" of Hamas explosives detonating prematurely. And on it goes: Recently, pictures showing the carnage inflicted on the Syrian people by the Assad regime made the rounds claiming to show destruction in Gaza.

Who needs the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" when you have the mainstream media?

Sometimes it seems as if no ideology evolves as quickly as antisemitism: Before Israel, the Jews where hated for being rootless and without national allegiances. Now that they have a state, they are hated for that. And if the last Jew were to leave the Middle East tomorrow, some other reason would be found to justify Jew-hatred.

In fact, after 1948, Jews had to leave most of the Middle East and North Africa: Once thriving communities from Morocco to Iraq ceased to exist after the regimes of these countries drove out their Jewish populations. Many of them moved to Israel, the only state in the region that actually allows Muslim Arabs and Jews to live side-by-side.

Alas, if you are Jewish, it is never enough: Unless all of the Middle East is "Judenfrei," the Jews will always be painted as oppressors and everyone else as oppressed.

So in some ways, it's not surprising to see antisemitism thrive in the ranks of the global leftist elite. When global climate celebrity Greta Thunberg blabberers on about "no climate justice on occupied land," she is only revealing the next iteration of Jew hate. It turns out that for the "environmental movement," the solution to the "Jewish Question" seems to be more important than addressing climate change.

Similarly, in the famously tolerant Netherlands where government advisors are openly pushing for the normalization of paedophilia, the line needs to be drawn somewhere: Several filmmakers pulled out of the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam after the organizers refused to allow their stage to be used for promoting the eradication of Israel.

Pot, porn, and paedophilia are all a go for the Dutch, but being pro-Israel? One should be careful not to go too far!

Another turn-of-the-century Austrian who would have a lot to say about this would probably be Sigmund Freud: If the West is suffering from the pathologies of historical guilt for all the alleged sins of its past, Israel and the Jews are the favourite object of projection. If the Jews are as bad as the Nazis and European colonialists, then opposing them is like re-running history, but this time those Westerners on college campuses can finally be on the side of the oppressed.

Both Israel and the Palestinians are just extras in an exercise of excessive narcissism that allows one to stand "on the right side of history" and virtue signal at no cost. Of course, this doesn't apply when Arabs are slaughtering Arabs. There were no protests for the peoples of Syria or Yemen or when ISIS was committing an actual genocide against the Yazidis.

That's what this all comes down to: a rewriting of history so that the Jews' oppressors can absolve themselves of guilt and claim to be the oppressed. During the Holocaust, the Jews experienced the worst that men can do to their fellow man, and many in the West are itching for the opportunity to find historic salvation in creating a moral equivalence between the Nazis and the state of Israel.

Neither Greta Thunberg nor her acolytes have any clue about Middle Eastern or Jewish history, because it is not about that—just as her climate activism was never about climate, but the usual Leftist tropes from colonialism to social justice.

In 1968, Eric Hoffer wrote about a premonition that would not leave him: "As it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us." After all we have seen in recent weeks in in Western capitals and college campuses, I am afraid that he was right.

[solarwynd]

With that anon on the IFPI ranking means that he did not accomplished the "Global Pop Star" status that Army in propagating 😐 too bad he had to enlist after that massive promo that he got. to think he had the chairman of hybe and his a&r is the ceo of hybe america 🙃

Well to me, that “global pop star” title has more to do with impact rather than equating it to a factor of ranking high on IFPI. (K-pop groups no one cares about rank high on those charts) Success is still a factor, obviously, and objectively he has that. Him not ranking higher is still odd though considering they did everything to make sure seven was super successful. The most successful song of last year even, yet other songs outcharted.

And enlistment isn’t gonna hinder Scooter or bang from promoting jk. That’s evident by the drawn out usher collab for SNTY plus the CK global campaign they have lined up for him rn. They can’t risk him *not* constantly being in public eye because they need his image and name out there. Which actually shows the lack of impact that he left to live up to said “global pop boy” title

[most-screwed-by-writers-tourney]

Ironwood: Big bad of the series is an immortal witch who can control creatures of darkness that eat people. After the big bad takes out an entire kingdom, and severely lowers the potential of another to protect itself, he starts putting an embargo on resources, a curfew, and and increased security while also trying to get global communications back up and running. He entrusts the main heroes with his plans, offers them training, new equipment, and high ranking positions in his army. He's not aware the big bad is immortal. Two of the main heroes reveal his secret plans to a vigilante who has been stealing supplies and not using them to help the poor like she claims she is doing. They hide the fact that the immortal witch is in fact immortal. They hide the truth about why the big bad's magical ex-husband who used to be in charge of the destroyed kingdom's defenses isn't around anymore.

When the big bad shows up with a giant army of monsters when they're not prepared to fight her, he wants to do the sensible thing: leave with the magic mcguffins the big bad wants to a safe place, and regroup to fight another day. Sadly, this would result in a lot of people being left behind, but a majority of the kingdom were already evacuated to the giant floating city. The heroes end up ruining everything by has because he refuses to try and save EVERYONE despite THE BIG BAD BEING RIGHT THERE ON THEIR DOORSTEP MORE PREPARED THAN THEY ARE. Then the next season happens and they turn this thoughtful, hard working, caring man wanting to protect people, into a power hungry monster willing to shoot everyone standing in his way and willing to bomb civilians if he doesn't get his way. And the only reason he's written this way is because the writers notices a lot of fans were ACTUALLY SIDING WITH HIM DURING THE PREVIOUS SEASON. THEY ADMIT THIS IN THE DVD COMMENTARY THAT THE ONLY REASON HE'S WRITTEN THE WAY HE IS NOW IS BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T REALIZE THEY WROTE A SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER AND THAT WASN'T WHAT THEY INTENDED AT ALL. And by the end of it all, it's all for nothing. The big bad gets two of the four missing mcguffins she needs to destroy the world. Ironwood's kingdom is sun into the ocean, a good portion of the civilians and soldiers died and those that remain are dropped into a desert kingdom they have bad relations with. This kingdom was also the tech hub of the entire world so anyone who uses certain machines or needs prosthetics or medical equipment can't get them anymore. And we're supposed to be rooting for Team RWBY and their friends, and not Ironwood? He wasn't perfect, but he was far more competent and sympathetic than any other character in this show and the writers decided "let's make this multi-prosthetic, ptsd ridden warrior be the worst person alive since too many fans thought he was right to retreat in a terrible situation

Vignette: Original writers left at the end of season 1 and an all-new writing team took over in season 2. The new writers violently yanked her away from the arc that was set up for her, but then it's like they couldn't agree among themselves what her new arc should be. So she runs around accomplishing nothing, making other characters miserable and/or getting them killed, and becoming super-unlikeable in the process. She started out tough but vulnerable, generous, with a strong sense of loyalty. She ended up seeming self-absorbed, flighty, and cruel.

[knowledgdenext]

Understanding Google Algorithm Updates: What You Need to Know

Google is the most dominant search engine in the world, handling over 90% of global searches. One of the key reasons behind its success is its ever-evolving search algorithm. Google constantly refines its search engine algorithms to ensure that users get the most relevant, high-quality results for their queries. But what exactly are Google algorithm updates, and why should you care? More importantly, how can businesses and digital marketers adapt to these updates and stay ahead in SEO?

In this article, we’ll dive into the history of Google algorithm updates, explore some of the most impactful updates, and offer insights on how to optimize your website for these changes. Plus, if you’re looking to become an SEO expert, we’ll show you why joining CADL’s SEO courses in Zirakpur is the perfect way to learn everything you need about mastering Google algorithms.

1. What Is a Google Algorithm Update?

Google’s search algorithm is a complex system used to rank websites and deliver the most relevant search results to users. It takes into account various factors such as the quality of the content, relevance to the search query, page speed, mobile-friendliness, backlinks, and user engagement.

Google regularly updates its algorithm to improve the accuracy and quality of its search results. Some of these updates are minor and go unnoticed by most, while others can significantly impact website rankings. These updates aim to enhance the user experience by filtering out low-quality content and rewarding websites that provide real value.

Key Insight:

Google's algorithm is constantly evolving. By joining CADL's SEO course in Zirakpur, you’ll learn how to optimize your website to meet the changing demands of the algorithm and stay competitive in the digital landscape.

2. History of Google Algorithm Updates

Over the years, Google has rolled out several significant algorithm updates, each with a specific goal in mind. Some of these updates have become famous for the dramatic impact they’ve had on search rankings. Understanding these updates is crucial for any SEO professional.

Here are some of the most impactful updates in Google's history:

a. Panda (2011)

The Panda update was introduced to reduce the rankings of low-quality sites, such as those with thin or duplicate content. It focused on improving search results by promoting high-quality, valuable content and penalizing sites with too many ads, low word count, or keyword stuffing.

b. Penguin (2012)

Penguin targeted spammy link-building practices. Sites that engaged in black-hat SEO techniques, such as buying backlinks or participating in link schemes, saw a sharp drop in their rankings. This update emphasized the importance of natural, high-quality backlinks in improving SEO rankings.

c. Hummingbird (2013)

The Hummingbird update brought a shift towards understanding the meaning behind search queries rather than just matching keywords. Google started to emphasize “semantic search,” which aimed to understand the context and intent behind user searches. This made Google better at answering questions directly and delivering more accurate results.

d. Mobilegeddon (2015)

With mobile search growing rapidly, Google rolled out the Mobilegeddon update to prioritize mobile-friendly websites in search results. Websites that were not optimized for mobile devices saw their rankings decline, while responsive sites got a boost.

e. RankBrain (2015)

RankBrain introduced machine learning into Google’s algorithm. It helped Google better understand ambiguous or complex search queries by identifying patterns in how users interact with search results. RankBrain is now considered one of the top ranking factors.

f. BERT (2019)

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) is an update aimed at better understanding the nuances and context of words in search queries. It allows Google to interpret the meaning behind user queries more effectively, particularly for long-tail keywords or natural language searches.

3. Why Google Updates Matter for SEO

Google algorithm updates are designed to improve the user experience, but they can also cause significant fluctuations in website rankings. SEO professionals need to be aware of these updates to ensure their strategies align with Google’s goals. When an algorithm update rolls out, some websites might see a boost in rankings, while others may experience a drop.

Why Do Google Algorithm Updates Matter?

Maintaining or Improving Rankings: A new update might penalize websites with poor content or shady link-building practices, while rewarding those with high-quality, relevant content. If you're not keeping up with updates, your website may lose visibility and organic traffic.

Adapting SEO Strategies: Each algorithm update comes with new guidelines. For example, after the Penguin update, websites had to shift away from spammy backlinks and focus on building genuine, authoritative links. Not staying informed means you could be optimizing your website incorrectly.

Enhancing User Experience: Google’s updates are always focused on improving the user experience. By aligning your website with Google’s vision, you’re also ensuring that users have a better experience when they visit your site.

Key Insight:

Staying on top of algorithm updates is essential for anyone involved in SEO. CADL’s SEO training in Zirakpur will give you the knowledge to understand and adapt to these changes, keeping your website ahead of the competition.

4. How to Adapt to Google Algorithm Updates

Now that you understand the importance of Google algorithm updates, the next step is learning how to adapt. Here are some strategies to ensure your SEO practices remain up-to-date and effective:

a. Create High-Quality Content

Google's ultimate goal is to provide users with the most relevant and valuable content. Focus on creating in-depth, informative, and engaging content that answers users' questions and solves their problems. Avoid thin content, keyword stuffing, and duplicate pages, as these can negatively impact your rankings.

b. Focus on User Intent

With updates like Hummingbird and RankBrain, Google is increasingly focusing on understanding user intent rather than just matching keywords. When developing content, think about what users are looking for and how you can meet their needs. Answer common questions, provide solutions, and offer valuable insights.

c. Optimize for Mobile

With the Mobilegeddon update and the rise of mobile-first indexing, having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional. Ensure your site is responsive, loads quickly, and provides a smooth user experience on all devices.

d. Build High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors, but quality matters more than quantity. Focus on earning backlinks from authoritative, reputable websites in your industry. Avoid participating in link schemes or buying backlinks, as these practices can lead to penalties under updates like Penguin.

e. Monitor Your Analytics

After every algorithm update, it's essential to monitor your website's analytics to identify any changes in traffic, rankings, or user behavior. If you notice a drop in traffic or rankings, investigate whether your site is affected by the update and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

f. Stay Informed

SEO is an ever-evolving field, and staying informed about Google algorithm updates is crucial. Regularly read SEO blogs, attend webinars, and join online communities to stay updated on the latest changes and trends. At CADL, you’ll gain access to resources and training that will keep you on top of every important SEO update.

5. How CADL’s SEO Course Can Help You Stay Ahead

As Google continues to refine its algorithm, SEO professionals need to be proactive in adapting to these changes. Whether you're just starting in the field or looking to improve your existing SEO skills, joining CADL's SEO course in Zirakpur is the ideal way to master the strategies necessary for success.

Here’s what you can expect from CADL’s SEO training:

Comprehensive Curriculum: Learn everything from the basics of SEO to advanced techniques for optimizing content, backlinks, and technical SEO.

Real-Time Updates: Stay updated with the latest Google algorithm changes and learn how to implement the best practices that align with these updates.

Hands-On Learning: CADL provides practical, hands-on experience, allowing you to apply what you’ve learned to real-world SEO scenarios.

Expert Guidance: Get guidance from experienced SEO professionals who will help you understand the intricacies of Google’s algorithm and how to work with it, not against it.

Conclusion

Google algorithm updates are an integral part of the SEO landscape, and keeping up with them is essential for maintaining and improving your website’s rankings. From Panda and Penguin to RankBrain and BERT, Google’s updates have transformed the way websites are ranked, putting user experience at the forefront.

If you’re serious about excelling in SEO and staying ahead of the competition, joining CADL’s SEO course in Zirakpur is the best decision you can make. You'll gain the skills and knowledge needed to navigate Google's ever-evolving algorithm, ensuring long-term success in the digital marketing world.

[xtruss]

The World's Tallest Building, The Burj Khalifa, Dubai , UAE. Image: Stéphane Compoint

Inside The Supertall Building Boom

What Skyscrapers Reveal About The Countries That Build Them

— September 20th 2024

A skyscraper is a statement of ambition. No surprise, then, that Saudi Arabia wants to build the world’s tallest. Construction on the Jeddah Tower stopped in 2018 but will restart soon; when completed, it will be the first building ever to rise to a dizzying 1,000 metres. The Jeddah Tower’s nearly 170 storeys will house the usual combination of luxury flats, hotel rooms and offices. On one side visitors will be able to gaze on a new financial district; on another, across the Red Sea.

The building may cost around $1.2bn, but that is a trifling sum given the more than $1trn that Saudi Arabia is spending on developing infrastructure, luring tourists and repositioning itself on the global stage. Leaders see the tower, which resembles a jagged splinter of glass, as a symbol of the kingdom’s power. It “sends a financial and economic message that should not be ignored”, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is overseeing the project, has said.

If that is the case, other places are sending out similar steely messages. There are 236 “supertall” buildings across the world—a label given to anything bigger than 300 metres—and 160 of them have been erected since 2014, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), a research group. Another 96 are under way. These hulking piles reshape skylines and cities. And, as well as reaching skyward, they point towards geopolitical and cultural trends. Which countries are building supertalls, and why?

Midtown Manhattan in 1955, looking downtown towards the Empire State Building, then the tallest building in the world Image: Getty Images

The Middle East is home to 20% of all supertalls. The United Arab Emirates, like Saudi Arabia, is showing off its oil wealth and status as one of the region’s fastest-growing economies. It has 35 supertalls; Dubai alone boasts 31, more than any other city. Its behemoth is the Burj Khalifa, which, at 828 metres, has been the world’s tallest tower since opening in 2010. (Reportedly only 71% of the Burj Khalifa is usable space; the rest is “vanity height”.)

Asia has a great love of heights, too, having built more than two-thirds of all supertalls in the past decade. A recent addition is Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, which was completed last year. At 679 metres tall, it pushed its way into second place. China, which had barely any skyscrapers before 1980, now has five of the ten tallest. The country is home to more skyscrapers per person than America. Some 70% of the supertalls under construction are going up in China. Twenty-five of them, if completed, will rank among the world’s top 100 tallest buildings.

China’s upward trajectory has practical causes. Until recently, the country’s population was surging, rising from 980m in 1980 to 1.4bn today. And those seeking work are still moving from the countryside to the cities, where 66% of people live. Height also helps with urban density, making commuting distances shorter.

But politics provides additional mo­tivation for city planners to think big. “Officials in small cities are particularly prone to build tall,” says Jason Barr, an economist and the author of the book “Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers”. Strivers in the Communist Party see supertalls as a way to put their lower-tier cities on the map—and perhaps gain attention from central-government bigwigs.

Only 10% of supertalls built in the past decade have sprung up in America, the ancestral home of the skyscraper. (The first were built in New York and Chicago in the late 1880s.) New York, a city known for its gigantic buildings, has gained a few, including super-thin towers south of Central Park in a cluster nicknamed “Billionaires’ Row”. There are still many economic incentives to go high, particularly in New York: land is expensive, and its population is among the most concentrated of any American city. But gaining approval for new buildings is a complex process, thanks to 3,300 pages of zoning regulations.

The number of storeys may be soaring, but some countries nevertheless prefer to stay closer to the ground. In the European Union only Poland has a supertall building (Britain, an ex-member, has one too: the Shard). Skyscrapers are often regarded as “gauche” on the continent, says Daniel Safarik of CTBUH. In London and Rome new edifices are not allowed to block views of certain landmarks, making it hard to build upwards. Paris has banned construction of new tall buildings in response to “ugly” skyscrapers. On X one French person called the Montparnasse Tower, a Brutalist building from 1973, the greatest affront to Paris since the Nazi occupation.

When designing a supertall, architects must not have their heads in the clouds. The first serious order of business is to make sure the building does not get buffeted or blown over. “Wind is the governing factor” of supertall design, says Gordon Gill, who co-designed the Jeddah Tower. As buildings go up and up, so do wind forces. Engineers calculated that the Burj Khalifa, for instance, needed to be able to stand tall amid winds of 150mph (240kph), equivalent to a strong tornado.

The proposed Xi’an Greenland Tower in Xi'an, China, draws inspiration from the detailed armour of terracotta soldiers from the Qin dynasty Image: Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill Architecture

To avoid a statement of grandeur becoming a parable of ineptitude, architects have to “confuse” the wind using diff­erent shapes. Thinness, tapering, twisting, round edges and cut-outs at the top of the building all help, and there are interior as well as exterior solutions. At 432 Park Avenue in New York, five double-floors are left empty to let the wind pass through. Taipei 101 in Taiwan features a steel pendulum, weighing some 728 tonnes, that swings to counteract wind-induced movement.

Given the role of skyscrapers as symbols, architects must also pay close attention to what they look like. Note that the Woolworth Building in New York, the tallest in the world from 1913-30, has a copper roof and gargoyles to reflect its status as a “cathedral of commerce”. Today those commissioning supertalls, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, want the building to stand for cultural confidence as well as a specific sense of place.

Top: 432 Park Avenue in New York and Taipei 101, Taiwan (Bottom) Image: Getty Images, Bridgeman, Alamy

Mr Gill says he consults historians to learn about relevant symbolism: for the façade of the proposed Greenland Tower in Xi’an, he evoked the armour of the terracotta soldiers of the ancient Qin dynasty. The spiral shape of Israel’s first supertall, currently under construction in Tel Aviv, recalls a biblical scroll. Merdeka 118 looks rather like a syringe, but its design was supposedly inspired by the shape of Tunku Abdul Rahman’s hand, evoking the statesman who proclaimed Malaysian independence in 1957.

The proposed 1 Park Avenue in the port city of Dubai, UAE (top) was designed to symbolise the motion of water. The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (bottom left), were meant to evoke the Islamic architecture of South Asia like the Qutb Minar, an 800-year-old minaret in Delhi, India (bottom right). Image: Alamy, Getty Images, Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill Architecture

The sky is not the only limit for supertalls. Enterprising countries all want spectacular buildings, at least until they decide they have had enough. China’s officials are clamping down on “weird” buildings. Edifices that look like “giant trousers”—the nickname given to a building in Beijing designed by Rem Koolhaas—are now verboten. In 2021 the government imposed a height cap of 500 metres and banned cities with fewer than 3m residents from building above 250 metres. (It is thought that safety problems, an oversupply of commercial offices and lots of vacant residential buildings motivated this policy.)

More engineering breakthroughs are needed, too, if buildings are to go higher. It was elevator innovations that helped set off skyscrapers in the late 1800s. But Adrian Smith, one of the architects on the Burj Khalifa, says that lift technology has long been a limiting factor. Existing steel cables have a travel distance of around 500 metres, meaning that it is not possible to get a single lift to the top of many supertalls. (Wind also puts extra strain on the cables.) Yet multiple banks of lifts are difficult to fit into tall, thin buildings. The Jeddah Tower will instead use carbon-fibre, a lighter material that can take lifts higher.

If and when it is possible for buildings to rise higher, no doubt some tycoon or tyrant will want to start a mile-high club. Supertall buildings are monuments to human ingenuity and modernity. But most of all, as Mason Cooley, an American humorist, put it, “A skyscraper is a boast in glass and steel.”

The Burj Al Arab in Dubai, UAE, which recalls the sail of a Dhow, a Common Arab Sailing Vessel Image: Getty Images

— This Article Appeared in the Culture Section of the Print Edition Under the Headline “The Edifice Complex".

[pico-digital-studios]

IAB! Game Concepts

Don't get your hopes up too much. I did state a few months ago that a game adaptation of IAB! is pretty unlikely, but I wanted to share some of the ideas that could work out if there ever was one.

To start off with, we'll look at the World Entrance!

Based on the same area from Sonic 1: Extended Edition, this will be where you can hop between save files, erase any you don't need, access bonus modes or configure settings early on. Think of this as the starting main menu when you hop into the experience.

Now, as for the checks the game does for a save file before you hop in. As you can see on the first mockup, the signs are from Extended Edition, @ SAGE 2010 and Omochao Edition, as a way to see a bit of your progress before the HUD appears to give you a further rundown.

At the top-left is where the game keeps track of your global ring total, how many Coins you've got on hand at the moment in that file, how many of the Red Star Rings you have gathered out of a total (the number's not definitive in my ideas yet), the global time you've spent in that save file, and how many characters (out of 120, akin to LEGO/TT games) you can play as.

In the top-middle is what appears to be Time Stone and Chaos Emerald indicators, but those are actually there to let you know what stories and sub-stories are currently available to play in that save file. For instance, the far-left top icon is for the Prologues, and the far-left bottom icon is for Mr. Needlemouse in "Captured Hog!". Below that is the global score for the save file, summed up by the high scores in regular stages.

And on the top-right is where the game logs your upgrade progression, like how Frontiers did it, specifically your ring capacity (starting at 400), top speed, attack power and defence durability.

Next up, I'm gonna show off the Chapter Intro Screen.

I imagined this showing up at the beginning of chapters in the game, like what Sonic ERaZor did before levels, hence why it's in the S1 text style.

Not much else to explain with that one, so I'll get right to the major stuff. First off is the Exploration side of the game.

This is where the majority of game progress will take place outside of traditional levels. Here, you can wander around the areas to your heart's content with no (out-of-universe) rush, and it'll be how you visit the various dimensions in the game. In the Free Roam mode, you can switch between any character you've unlocked to test their skills in other places and find stuff you might not see otherwise.

Coins are awarded after beating a level or a mission, the output of which depends on your ranking (signified by medals, like seen in that top mockup). You can use them to purchase different stuff, like extra characters, cosmetics, and even upgrades.

Speaking of these non-level missions, they can vary a lot in what you set out to do. For example, one mission could have you in a race with a character, another could give you varying Hunt quests (like uncovering treasure or retrieving missing stuff), and there could even be ones with small obstacle courses to traverse for the Red Star Rings.

The way these Red Star Rings are earned depends on varying criteria as a whole.

For every main game stage, one Red Star Ring is awarded for finishing the stage. Another is available for beating it with certain criteria (like not letting a single SWAT Bot see OMT!Tails and OMT!Mina in Robotropolis up to a set point), and three can be located in each level and collected.

Red Star Rings can also be awarded for completing missions, as stated above.

For the side-stories, for the most part, there are only 2 Red Star Rings to collect, due to most consisting of one major stage outside of Exploration gameplay. The Funkinverse crossover one is the only exception, as its Red Star Rings can be earned through beating any songs there. There are 17 of these in total to get.

In the toggleable menu in Exploration, you can see more about the dimension you're currently in, change characters (in Free Roam; a toggle is available in the story Explorations), and check the upgrade status for a few characters.

Finally, let's go over the point you've likely been waiting for; the Action Stages.

All stages will be preceded with a title card akin to this, telling you what zone you're about to enter, alongside the dimension that zone is from.

Like in traditional Sonic games, your aim here is to finish the level to progress the story, and while most have the usual Sonic gameplay, some have additional mechanics to utilise (pictured above with a Stealth trick to keep out of the line of sight of patrolling SWAT Bots).

Now, as for those medals I've talked about. In the Action Stages, they stand in for the ranking system from modern Sonic games, and which one is granted to you in this case will depend on how quickly you finish the stage, with any longer than the Bronze requirement giving you the No Rank. Don't worry, though. The time limit is absent here (even if the timer only goes as high as 9:59.99), same with lives, so if you're struggling a bit, you'll never have to worry about Time Overs or Game Overs.

The medals are also awarded for the missions, which also involve their own requirements to get. For instance, with the Hunt missions:

Bronze: Find all the required things.

Silver: Find the stuff without using any Hint Rings.

Gold: Find all the stuff within a set time.

Platinum: Same as Gold, but don't take any damage.

Each mission has their own objectives to get the medals, and I even thought about an Omochao mission where you need to keep him from saying too much (without slowing the game down).

Well, that's all the ideas I could put down on paper right now. Take all this how you will, of course! See you all later!