#its the purview of private school kids here

[gaytobymeres]

wish i could read latin........

[charcherry-weekly]

Charcherry Weekly - Issue 213

Hello everyone, Mage of Light Nick Card here. After a cool streak, its back to being hot again. Back to school is approaching and I can only hope these kids have proper transportation in time.

Since the incident at

The Archives,

there have been heightened concerns about the safety of The Railway, particularly from its workers. As a result, the workers of the Railway called for a strike.

Slowly but surely over the course of the week, stops and lines gradually went offline over the course of the week. Even the Ancient Quarry battle subway carriage joined the picket line! (I do wonder if it houses a rotom or something...)

This came to a head on thursday, when even the DTA lines began to go down in solidarity with the strikers, to the point that a number of DTA-funded assets were reverted to their initial state (particularly Charcherry North and The Park, the latter of which was no longer even open to the public due to past incident). The Railway Board then blamed the DTA for allegedly causing everything, which was the final straw.

It was only once all known lines went offline that a team could be assembled to negotiate with The Board in charge of The Railway. The team included Desertian President Witch of Time Katyleen "The Wolf" Kitten, Train driver Skye, as well as Winged Maid of Void Skye Macdonald, Desertian Government Union Steward Electrolis, Railway Union representative Jacob Richards, Your dear newsletter writer, and two private individuals, one of which was there at the request of the Queen of Air and Darkness Mab of the Winter court of the Fae. Train Driver Skye drove the party there in a void bus, to a void-y version of Milton Keynes in the middle of nowhere, only encountering a single (un)identifiable entity on the way there. Fortunately, Train driver Skye is also an excellent bus driver.

Eventually, the party arrived at the building where The Board resided. It was as if nobody had bothered to pay any of the bills for it ever. We entered the cold and dark building, finding great difficulty in ascending, due to the non-working elevator, as well as the rusted, locked, and blocked door to the stairs. Eventually, we managed to find a way to the stairs and begun climbing. It felt like it had taken forever. It was near the top that we met up with one of the private individuals, having been summoned by Winged Maid of Void Skye. We continued towards the top, where a monument to The Railway's progress and The Board's failures awaited us. We gazed upon it for a moment, preparing to enter

The Boardroom.

With confidence despite the darkness, we faced The Board together. The members of the Board introduced themselves as Jill Parsons, Jack Ford, and Dick Beeching. Katie had clearly done her homework, because she squarely schooled them on various topical incidents. Meanwhile, RWU rep. Jacob presented an absolute laundry list of every trial run that was determined a failure but was ignored by those in power. This caused The Board members to snap back, but your dear newsletter writer managed to say just the right thing to stop them in their tracks. By the grace of the Light that I am purview to, I revealed that they had in fact looked at the reports and ignored their warnings, with the intention to blame eachother to try and get out of harm's way. It managed to be so accurate that they instantly gave up and listened to our demands. It was also determined that The Board members weren't even among the living--they were a conglomerate of british rail spirits, comprised of all the grief of the Railway's past failures.

Determining that they no longer held any power over the Railway any longer, the party considered what to do with The Board. Eventually, it was decided that they would be sent to spend the rest of their afterlives in a dreambubble. The Skyes, Skitis (summoned last minute by Winged Skye), and a private individual handled the safe delivery together. Meanwhile, the rest of the party had to be evacuated from the now-crumbling building. Katie used her time powers to make an escape, using the anchor method to arrive back at Desertia Station. Apparently she must have picked up something from there to make the leap.

With The Board squarely defeated, we announced that the union had gained control of The Railway, thus ending the strike with all demands met.

Currently, The Railway is undergoing repairs to re-open as many lines as possible, within safe means. Negotiations and new contract drafting is currently underway between the DTA and the co-op Railway to decide how things will be handled from now on. It is likely that Queen Mab and/or her appointed representative will get involved at some point. Her Enigmatic Resiliency will also need to get involved for matters pertaining to SCART's connection to the greater railway.

In the meantime, please be patient with repairs and re-openings, its being worked on.

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Lost flock of Psyduck, please locate them for me, they ran off after a train ride and I can't find them anywhere. Contact duckymaster95 to report any sightings.

update: now I can't even ride the rails to seek them out? If you see them anywhere PLEASE contact me.

Do you want an ad here? Contact lavenderSiren to get an ad for whatever. If you don’t write it yourself, you risk the newsletter writer writing it instead, do be warned.

This week’s known market stands in Desertia Town:

DTA train ticket stand?

Katie’s potion stand (Not available to plitlanders due to regulations, available to all others however)

shinyjiggly pokesnacks stand (also has a Unity Village location!)

Brae's produce stall:

- Potted vegetables

- Jarred vegetables

- Various jams

- Hisuian herbs (medicinal leek, pep-up plant, king's leaf)

Traditional Shop

- Whistle, beast (5 gp)

- Scent cloak (20 gp)

- Piton, silent (5 sp)

- Smith's Tools (20 gp)

I think that does it for this week. I've been working on HyacinthHeld, but its been going slow due to obligations and distractions. I'm just glad that I have proper inspiration for it now.

https://letssosl.boards.net/thread/450/charcherry-weekly-issue-213

[tedwardremus]

Ok, so the random prompts that you reblogged, I legit thought the first one said,

“let’s make Plan b” (I had to read it three times to get the prompt correct)

Anyways, it had me thinking about Remus, you know how he’s always characterized as a “Casanova, intimidating, Chocolate loving, Alpha Werewolf”

I don’t understand why Remus is always seen loving chocolate so much, so it made me think, ‘what if Remus was holding feminine products’ instead of chocolate. I think if a Remus were to carry those items during school, then I could totally see girls wanting his attention (both platonic/intimate)

This brings me back to the prompt, “let’s make Plan b” it’s known that the Marauders are in fact intelligent (also, dorks) so here’s a question for you, do you think they would try and advocate for women’s health? Or, would they seek help from the girls and try to come up with ways to make both feminine products and Plan b. 🤔

(ps, I’ll send a prompt after this-anon Nena 🤫 )

First, we must ask ourselves: what does reproductive health and feminine hygiene look like in the wizarding world?

We know pain medication is pretty advanced and easily accessible from the Hospital Wing. Is there a cultural stigma for students who experience a menstrual cycle from seeking pain medication? The Wizarding World seems a bit conservative and women tend to get married and have kids younger than their muggle counterparts which to me signifies that women are limited in their options when it comes to choosing when and how they start a family.

Do individuals who menstruate in the wizarding world use tampons and pads? Or is this another thing that signifies a difference between those who grow up in the magical world and those who grow up in the muggle world?

Does magical healthcare mean abortions and contraception can happen more easily in the privacy of their own home? Is this knowledge that gets passed down from mother to daughter, and men are completely ignorant of how women deal with their reproductive health and pregnacy chocie?

I’m going to dive into a bit of history here because Plan B wasn't FDA-approved until 1999, and MWPP went to Hogwarts in the 1970s. When I see people discuss MWPP’s possible feminism or include it in fics, I think people forget what the 1970s looked like for reproductive health. Please note I am from the US, so my history is pretty US-centric. If a lovely UK individual wants to chime in and add their thoughts, I’d be thrilled to learn more from you! 

A Brief History of Abortion

For centuries, and up until the late 1800s, abortion was widely practiced in the United States, and was the purview of women and midwives. For the most part, it was legal in the early stages of pregnancy.  With the knowledge of plant-based remedies carried down for generations, abortion was common enough to appear in the legal and medical records of colonial America. 

In 1880, anti-abortion legislation arose as a societal backlash against the growing movements of suffrage and birth control. The AMA formed at mid-century and its male leadership worked to discredit midwives and place themselves in charge of women’s health. At the same time, the first generations of women collage graduates entered the public sphere, and increased female independence was a threat to male power and patriarchal dominance.  The new restrictions opened the door to tightening governmental control over women’s health care and their lives. 

What was once a private and personal decision regarding a woman’s health became a public agenda adjudicated with government interference. A campaign to criminalize abortion subjected women to fear, shame, and desperation. Poor women and women of color suffered disproportionately, as the ability to obtain a safe abortion often depended on economic situation, race, and location. Too often, women resorted to dangerous, sometimes deadly, methods of ending their pregnancies.

The women's movement in the mid 20th century took the subject of abortion public, no longer concealed in the privacy of a woman’s priavte life as it had been in the past. Women marched, rallied, and lobbied for safe abortion on demand. Civil liberties groups and liberal clergy joined in these efforts to support women. By the late 1960s, a nationwide effort was underway to reform the criminal abortion laws in effect in nearly every state. 

Abortion, within certain restrictions, in the United Kingdom became available under the terms of the Abortion Act 1967.

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, which recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy”. Women having safe access to reproductive health care in the United States has allowed women to make giant leaps in equality. Since the 1970s the number of women in the workforce has grown and so has women’s leadership in those places of labor. Women’s participation in higher education as well as their graduation rate has increased to outpace the number of men. These gains are due to the fact that women have been able to plan when and how they start a family and exercise control over their own reproductive health.

Second Wave Feminism

Our  heroes, MWPP, attended Hogwarts in the 1970s, during the Second Wave of Feminism, a period in the women’s movement that started in the early 1960s and lasted through the 1980s. Feminists during this time sought to achieve equality for women by challenging unfair labor practices and discriminatory laws. They provided women with educational material about sex and reproduction and fought to legalize all forms of birth control. They established political organizations and wrote books, articles, and essays challenging sexism in society. But to obtain equality, women needed to change the way men (and women, too) thought of, spoke about, and treated women. This endeavor not only required changing laws, but also necessitated a fundamental shift in all aspects of society to reflect the true equality of women and men.

In the United States, a group of women in 1966, including Betty Friedan who authored the foundational The Feminine Mystique, founded the National Organization for Women (NOW). In 1967, the organization added to its Bill of Rights for Women the “right of women to control their own reproductive lives” and set a goal to challenge restrictive abortion laws and expand access to contraception. In 1967, NOW also included to its agenda paid maternity leave, educational aid, job training, and tax deductions for child care.

The Pill

The 1960s also included the distribution of The Pill. At first dispensed only to women who could prove they were married – and only for reasons related to a woman’s health – the Pill soon was one of the most talked-about medical advances in history. By the time it was in widespread use, the population reflected it: the baby boom ended in 1964 with the first birth rate decline since World War II. 

The Pill and the Supreme Court decisions that followed allowed women to take control of their own reproductive system – a power that had been in the hands of male doctors, judges, and politicians since the mid-nineteenth century. Women saw these opportunities for autonomy and acted upon them. Yet the sexual double standard in American culture still condemned women who engaged in extramarital sex as “easy,” “fallen,” and not of marriageable material, while men were viewed as “playboys.” 

Feminine Hygiene

Feminine Hygiene also advanced during this time period. In the 1970s, Kotex introduced the Menstrual Gift Package to the market. The simple kit challenged social norms by encouraging adults to talk about menstruation with their children.

This innovative product makes sense for Kotex, which was a trailblazer in menstruation matience as the first-ever brand of sanitary napkins to hit the U.S. market in 1921.

Before Kotex, women used homemade cloth pads to manage their periods. Women had different ways of dealing with their periods each month, and it was commonly accepted that women would rarely be seen in public while on their periods. Kimberly-Clark launched Kotex in the 1920s by using leftover cellucotton from World War I bandages. The disposable sanitary napkin, while seemingly very simple, was a high-tech invention at the time. The discreet yet highly absorbent material gave women more freedom during their monthly periods.

Kotex advertised its products in women’s magazines starting in the 1920s, which shaped the perceptions of menstruation and how women publicly discuss their periods today. Their advertising campaigns reinforced the idea that menstruation was something to conceal and a problem for women rather than a natural bodily function.

The Kotex gift package is another example of the company’s innovative marketing techniques. This time, though, the advertisement was designed to help break down cultural taboos surrounding menstruation. The kit promoted that every girl should know about menstruation before their 11th birthday and encouraged mothers to talk to their daughters about menstruation. The kit was marketed to mothers as a way to introduce their daughters to menstruation. The kit includes instructive booklets for first-time menstruators, sanitary napkins, belts, and napkin holders. The star product of the kit is the New Freedom menstrual pad. For decades, women had complained about menstrual pads and how difficult they were to use. Pads shifted position and twisted so they wouldn’t lay flat, and the attachment devices (belts) sometimes irritated or injured the wearer. In the early 1970s, Kotex introduced New Freedom pads, which used adhesive to stick underpants.

Would MWPP Advocate for Women’s Health?

So now that we got the history lesson out of the way and we understand the context of the time period in which MWPP would be going to school what is my answer?

Let’s go with the assumption that the wizarding community mirrors the muggle world in terms of stigma against talking publicly about women’s health and the lack of access to feminine hygiene products and reproductive choices. The culture is changing, women are organizing and tlakign publicly about these issues, and new developments in health mataince and procedures are occuring at a rapid pace.

We already know that MWPP were outspoken about their distaste for dark magic while they were teenagers, exceptionally bright, and while bullies in school are also contradicted by their loyalty and allyship toward disadvantaged students. Not only did Sirius, James, and Peter still want to be friends with Remus after they found out he was a werewolf but ensured he had emotional support and gave him a safer experience while transformed by becoming animagi. James “I’ve never used the M-word in my life” Potter clearly cares about treating people with decency and is repulsed by people who would view themselves as inherently better than others (even if James was a bully as a teen, he grew out of it and matured).

Instead of getting jobs, the four of them dedicated their time (and lives) to an underground anti-fascist organization to fight against the established blood supremacy. They were still teenagers when they were fighting Death Eaters. They aren’t afraid to combat social stigmas and status quo and they will push ahead and do what they think is right. 

I think MWPP would largely be unaware of what witches at Hogwarts needed or were experiencing until it was brought to their attention. Maybe Lily is complaining to James, and he’s like woah, this is all brand new information, and I am now greatly upset on your behalf and all women.  Sirius is also outraged but not as surprised as James. Peter has never uttered the word menstruation or period or abortion in his life. Remus is supportive but is so afraid of going outing himself that he listens to Lily but doesn’t do anything about it.

If Remus is holding feminine products and chocolate for menstruating students, it is not his idea, Lily made him do it because witches don't have pockets in their uniforms, but wizards do. "You're a prefect Remus! You should be able to provide basic necessities to students when asked!" Lily is shouting at him while stuffing his pockets with chocolate frogs and tampons.

So that leaves us with our real champions for women, James and Sirius who I think would not only listen to Lily but try to solve her problems and as a result, make lives for menstruating students at Hogwarts easier. 

Lily says the pain potion was developed by men and doesn’t work on prolonged pain like cramps? Sirius and James help steal potion ingredients for Lily so she can make an improved potion.

The Hospital Wing doesn’t supply free hygine products? Sirius and James go to McGongall’s office to have a little chat and write a letter to the governors’ board.

Does Hogwarts have sex ed? I doubt it. They don’t even have math class. So what happens when students find themselves with child after a romp in the greenhouse? Maybe there are some books in the restricted section that Sirius and James remove using the invisibility cloak and make copies of key pages that Lily plasters in the Library.

Essentially, Lily is at the center of this effort and James and Sirius are her supportive assistants who are unashamed to discuss women’s issues with her publicly.

And even if we were to go along with this idea that James and Sirius would be willing to help advocate for proper resources for their classmates, we have to acknowledge how much of a fantasy this is. The stigma around women's reproductive health still exists. I talk to teens all the time about activism and women's issues, and the giggles boys have about talking about contraceptives is still there.

I can see James and Sirius caring about their classmates and doing what they can to help, but I also see them as teenage boys in the 1970s, so they may not have the language or understanding to fully commit or do it sensitively.

And I do not want to erase the voices and autonomy of female characters or build a world where women aren't the main driving force for advocating for their rights.

[dragonnan]

Everyone is encouraged to join!  

FYI - yeah I know it’s actually Saturday... Didn’t feel like changing it though, lol!

Share links to fic, artwork, WIPs, whatever you want!  

My works:

Link to my AO3

Link to my portfolio (which includes some fanart)

The work I thought it would be fun to share is an in-progress unpublished work that will likely take a while to put together.  I was incredibly inspired by the brilliant writing of both @hanuko and silentsaebyeok who both have stories about Wilson Fisk.  Here is my take on that character in an Avengers fic!

Untitled Fic

Setting: near the end of Homecoming and just prior to Tony reconciling with Pepper

AU of Daredevil season 2-3 (Karen didn't murder Wesley as Fisk's mother didn't remember her visit.  She only remembered Ben)

Late afternoon sunlight had turned every pane of glass into a pool of gold.  The patio doors of the tall office building had been left open – allowing the haze of late day warmth to coil upwards; carried on drafts of air heated from the concrete below.  Rubber soles squeaked softly against marble that knew mainly Italian leather and the rare alligator hide.  Two-hundred dollar sneakers were incongruous to the wealth of the man sporting them, but then, Tony Stark had never been a fan of the expected.    

“So what wrong side of the bed did I wake up on this morning to earn this clandestine meeting before my Kai Jiew has had time to settle?”  One hip resting on the edge of the railing, Tony managed to shudder back a yawn before it became embarrassing.  Behind him, the familiar snap of a briefcase lock barely drew a glance as “Dilbert” pushed up his glasses and withdrew a thick file from the depths.

Further in the shadows, the larger man, silent, stood with his head at an oddly subdued angle.  Often reticent in the blessedly few interactions Tony had ever had with the man, it was little surprise that it was his assistant who spoke.

“Apologies, Mr. Stark.  I assure you this won't take long.”

The unstated request, of course, was that Tony sit at the table positioned within the large room.  Tony raised an eyebrow.  “You didn't say please.”

A smooth, tight lipped smile, followed his quip.  Meanwhile, the still silent other member of their trifecta finally stepped forward – grasping one of the stuffed leather office chairs and rolling it back before seating himself.  Wilson Fisk wove his hands together above propped elbows.  “I appreciate your willingness to meet me so early, Anthony.  I felt it best to speak with you privately given the... delicacy... of the issue at hand.”  He gestured towards the single remaining chair.

Well that wasn't at all circumspect.

Returning the tight lipped smile in kind, Tony grabbed the chair facing the head of the table and sat; leaning back and settling his arms on the padded rests.  “You know, usually I let Pepper handle SI business.  Not sure if you got the memo but I'm not actually CEO any longer.  How was prison, by the way?  I heard the kitchen got a new chef.”

Ignoring the comment, Fisk tapped his thumbs together and kept a close study of the polished inlay before him.  “That is something we share in common,” he looked up, then, finally, “I, too, find that most business affairs tend to be... tedious.”  Fisk grinned, a flash of small, even, teeth, before he nodded towards his assistant... Wilbur?  Weston?  “Mr. Wesley, if you would please?”  He turned back to Tony – also leaning back and resting his thick hands over his thicker waist.  “I can assure you, however, that what we're here to discuss is a matter that falls somewhat outside the purview of Stark Industries.”

While his employer spoke, Wesley neatly stacked the pages of the file before sliding the bundle across the polished tabletop to Tony.  Eager to just get everything done with, Tony pressed his hand flat on the cover to slide it close, flipped it back... and froze.

Across from him, Fisk continued speaking.  “I have found that I have an over-abundance of pressure on me as I attempt to rebuild was was lost during my incarceration. Aside from the judgement of the good people of this city I also have faced an ongoing assault from a number of vigilantes.  This city, for all of its potential, has the unfortunate side effect of breeding these... vermin... faster than the rats that inhabit the sewers.  As it is they are beneath the notice of those who claim to protect the people of this city.”  His hands stilled – lying one on top of the other as Tony silently turned to the next page.  “Too busy protecting the rest of the world, perhaps.”

Tony made himself turn to the next page; his eyes blinking rapidly.

“Of course it isn't in my nature to harm innocents.  I find it distasteful to involve women and children in such matters.  And, yet, I find that it is, in fact, a child at the center of my current dilemma.  Of greater irony is that this child has both power and connections that would, under normal circumstances, place him outside the reach of those who would wish him harm.”

The forth page was a photo – clipped from a newspaper and a duplicate to the framed image that sat on the worktable in Tony's lab.  In the grainy image he stood, one arm slung around a young man's shoulders, as the kid received his certification for completing the “Stark Internship”.  Tony licked his tongue across his teeth before closing the file once more.

Fisk let out a soft hum.  “As it is, prison has a way of creating strange bedfellows.  I met someone – a man you may know.  Adrian Toomes.  After some persuasion he had something very interesting to share with me.  Something that, I can only imagine, you would wish to keep out of the hands of certain individuals.”

Tony wanted to clench his hands – his fingertips twitching before he pushed them flat against the wood beneath them.  “Just to clarify you're threatening my intern?”

Fisk leaned forward; hands folding tight before him on the table.  “I was hoping we wouldn't have to play any games but given your refusal to read the rest of the documents Mr. Wesley provided, I will summarize them for you.” Here he stood; walking to the open doors facing the patio.  “I know who Peter Parker really is.  I know about his aunt.  I know the names of his friends, where he goes to school, and where he buys his favorite sandwich every afternoon.”  He rested his hands behind his back; squinting in the sunlight.  “If he continues to disrupt my affairs in Hell's Kitchen, the consequences could be... unpleasant.” He glanced back at Tony; his face serene.  “You realize I'm asking for very little.  Keep your new pet leashed and allow me to conduct my business in peace.  The child will never have to know my name. Other than what he may learn from news reports; of course.” Tugging his cuffs, Fisk turned to more fully face into the room.  “I never wanted to involve you.  This is the sort of attention I have spent a fortune to avoid.  As it is I find myself in a position where reticence could cost me even more.”  

Pushing to his feet, Tony could no longer stop his hands from fisting at his sides – though he managed to control the tremor as he joined Fisk.  Side by side, the other man practically loomed over him.  

“So you aren't just threatening a kid – you're threatening everyone he cares about.  Little bit budget TV villain but you do you I guess.”  Pulling off his tinted glasses, he stared up at the other man.  “The thing is this little weekly drama you're playing?” he waggled his fingers back and forth, “way above your pay grade.  Maybe stick to collecting on gambling debts and playing whack-a-mole with the other lowlifes in your contacts list.”

The smallest of smiles twitched at the corner of Fisk's lips.  “I know you're someone who prefers visual aids,” his voice became guttural – losing the soft quality, “perhaps a demonstration would help to convince you.”  

A glance to the side, the barest nod to Wesley, and the other man typed into his phone.

There was a moment – silence this far above the city.

And then an apartment complex, three blocks away, exploded into flame.

Horrified, Tony gave Fisk a single look, seeing the purpose in that cold gaze, before twisting the dial on his watch and backing up just enough to turn and take a running leap.  One foot caught on the railing and with a surge of his muscles, he launched himself out into open space.

Terrifying free fall – the ground racing towards him at breakneck speed.

And then smooth metal wrapped his body and he shot towards the blaze.  

:Cutting things a little bit tight, aren't we, Boss?:          

      “No time to chat, Fri.  Emergency response status?”  He twisted his body into an angle as the building grew large in his visor – too few residents stumbling free out onto the pavement.

:Fire and Rescue are three minutes away:

“Shit.”  Aiming for a top floor window that had been blasted out with the explosion, Tony shot through the opening and made a quick scan of the room.  He winced at the sudden burst of heat that briefly enveloped his suit.  “Anyone on this level?”

He almost swore he could hear his AI sighing.  :Apologies, Boss.  I am unable to differentiate life signs from the ambient temperature.  Also the heat is steadily rising and will soon be at levels exceeding this suit's tolerances.:

Ignoring the warning, Tony finished his check of the room and moved on to the next apartment.  “Yeah, let's put a pin in that.  Adjust audio input and scan for human voices.”

In the second apartment he found a single person – deceased.  Same for the next two.  In the forth apartment there were two dead but he also found a child – burned and terrified but alive – buried beneath the blankets in her parent's closet.  Tony kept her wrapped to protect against the flames and rushed her to the sidewalk and into the arms of one of the firemen who had just arrived on scene.  

“Explosion – multiple charges – there's still people...”  He coughed at the black smoke boiling from the ruined building and dropped his visor back into place before returning inside.

Even with the protection of his suit the heat was breathtaking.  There were no more survivors on the top floor so Tony proceeded to the next level down.

:I'm detecting instability in the surrounding structure.:

“We got three apartments left on this floor.  Stop listening to the walls and keep listening for voices!”

The next sign of life he found, however wasn't a human but a howling dog still locked in its kennel.  Tucking the kennel under one arm, Tony finished his search of that floor – finding three additional people and four more pets.  With everyone holding their respective creatures he didn't risk another flight but, instead, soaked several blankets in a shower and guided them to a stairwell FRIDAY had located that was still relatively flame free. Then, turning back to his task he set out to locate more survivors.

Another five minutes in – fire and rescue now dousing the building as fireman began going door to door on the bottom two floors, Tony took the last one remaining.

It was then that disaster struck.

He'd just entered the first apartment – already racing towards the elderly man collapsed on the floor when there was a sudden burst of flames across the ceiling above – overlaid by a warning from FRIDAY.  

:Boss, there is a weakening of the...:

“Shit!”  His heartbeat was a drum in his ears as hooked a thick blanket from the ratty chair in the living room – slow motion tornados of smoke lifting up from the surrounding dry surfaces.  Propulsion would actually take longer – factoring in the time to slow his speed before reaching the man.  It was a fast paced eternity bolting across the ancient carpet.  The blanket billowed out ahead of him and cloaked the man just moments before he wrapped arms around him – knowing that even inside the blanket he was burning the old man with the super heated surface of his suit.  

He managed two steps to the window.

And then the world shattered in a concussive blast.

[renegadesrpg]

Dark Angels: Creation Part 7 Revelations and Plans

Bryn: Shock doesn’t begin to express what I feel, and I’m not the only one. None of us ever really talked about the lives we’d been recruited from, beyond the bare basics. To hear Sean’s laid bare so matter-of-factly was like having an emotional lightning bolt flash through the image I’d conjured. I’m no empath but it doesn’t take one to read this group. Sean normally leaks empathy like a sieve and helps all of us but he’s put up a wall I’ve never seen before. Adrian’s gone stoic. It figures. Spartan boys were taken from their families young, but that sense of loss never goes away. Sorrow had flashed across Sin’s face before he’d schooled it to settle back into his normal, analytical expression, but it was Zav that worried me. Deep lines had formed on his scruffy face and his eyes….totally haunted. We had secrets among us. The kind that left scars that no one wanted to break open and here we’d gone and done just that. As I walk around the table to Sean, I drop my hand on Zav’s shoulder and give it a brief squeeze so he knows that he’s among family, then drop to squat in front of Sean. 

“There are other places of power Sean. I’ll find another. Let your parent’s power rest until it’s time for it to find the new humans that call to it.”

Sean: Shaking my head, I interrupt her, “No. This is the place.”

I’d been 12 when they died, but I’d already known the responsibilities of power. My parents had raised me to it, and before she’d stood as sacrifice, my mother had told me she was doing it as much for me as for my father. That one day I’d need them, need what they could give, and this way they’d be there. And now they were going to be.

“My parents would want this. My parents both had the sight. They were prophets and before my mother died she told me this day would come. It’s been foreseen. I don’t know the outcome of this fight, but I know that when you screw with prophecy, it always goes sideways. So, yeah, this is the place.”

Easing down the wall I’d put up isn’t easy, but one of my contributions to this group is to help keep emotions from either freezing us up or clouding the issues and right now, I’m pretty sure they’re doing both, so time for me to work. With a deep breath and an effort of will, I put away the memories. If I feel like my mother’s smiling at me right now, I can’t help that, but I can use it to stabilize all of us. It’s a familiar feeling, warm and kind, and I can almost hear her voice telling me to trust myself, just like she used to when I was a kid. I use that now to focus myself on the task at hand, letting it leach out of me towards the others to replace the sadness I am drawing away. The weight of their emotions will stay with me for a brief time, but I’ve got broad shoulders and I can handle it. As the heaviness of the memories leaves each of them it’s like the entire room is taking a breath. Adrian and Zav visibly relax and Bryn, although she’d been very contained, also took a mental inhale. Sin is …well, Sin. Always in control but as I open myself I can feel a subtle easing of his tension. Focusing on the hovering image on the table, I take a breath.

“The power isn’t going to be an easy thing to tap into. I’m not sure it can be used the way you describe, Bryn. Once the megalith is freed it will look for its host immediately, so unless it chooses Sin, he can’t tap it and it won’t stick around. But adding that to Sin’s own strength, the Horseman’s power and stolen souls and Zav’s grace it might be like adding a stick of dynamite to the mix anyway. I’m not sure it won’t all explode even without adding the megalith’s stored energy. Now, the standing stones outside the circle might be useable since they were designed to guard the megalith, but you’ll still have to be careful. If the traps use magic sympathetic to what’s there, it will boost the spell to the point it could take us all down. And if it uses magic antithetical to my mother’s power…it will definitely take us all down.” 

Sin: *I feel the tension ease within me as Sean brings himself back to us, within all of us. We are all ancient creatures and the memories tend to blur, but some, the most painful ones and the most joyous ones, will stay with us until our final deaths. As he allows his gift to lift the sorrow from each of us, though I know he does it at cost to himself, a sense of calm confidence replaces it and it becomes easier to regain our focus. Rubbing my chin thoughtfully…*

There is that. And I think it would be wise to find a way to protect ourselves from the effects of the traps as well. Magick is your area of expertise Bryn, though we all dabble with it. What do you think? Can this be done?

Bryn: Narrowing my eyes as I think. There are options, but what will be powerful enough to combat the traps at the strength I believe I can generate with the help of the power already there? 

“Maybe” I begin thoughtfully… “Protection amulets. Something that lets the power of the trap flow over us, rather than try to repel it, or fight it… No, a bag or a bracelet? Yes, that would do it. I’ll need more than one type of stone and they’ll need to be inscribed with protection sigils or runes…” 

My mind works rapidly as I mentally list what would be needed… 

“Yes. I can do it. But if I need 200+, I’m going to need help. The crystals are just the first step. I’ll need help engraving protection symbols on them. And I’d be damned happier if we could tattoo a few on our people as well. 

Zav: --finally, something I can do besides be a “blood” donor”—

I can take care of both things. I can help with the engraving and I’m good with a needle gun.

-- looking at the raised eyebrows around the table—

What? A guy can’t have hobbies? Sean meditates; Adrian makes weapons; Bryn communes with the moon or something...

– dodges the potted aloe she mentally throws at me but I didn’t need to. It stops in mid-air and gently lowers to the ground—

Sin: *Mockingly chiding, as I mentally catch the plant and set it on the ground,*

Now, now children, Celia would not be happy if the bits of nature she puts around my home were damaged…

*I tilt my head at Bryn as she tries, unsuccessfully, to look repentant and catch her mental hiss as she communicates silently with Zav, declaring she would have nailed him if I hadn’t intervened and quickly put a stop to the repartee I /know/ he will throw back…*

Zav, are you skilled enough to tattoo the symbols clearly? There can be no mistakes if they are to work. Indeed, they could backfire completely if they are not exact.

Zav: --I smirked at Bryn. She’d always been a firebrand. It’d been why I’d proposed her as a recruit to Sin before I’d moved her soul on. She’d tried to spell her way out of being reaped and failing that, she’d tried to skewer me with a Roman spear. That kind of fight you can’t teach. Giving my attention back to Sin at the mention of my name….--

I’m good. You encouraged us to have other things to help us decompress, so in my off time I opened a tat shop in Miami. It’s got a waiting list. Whatever I put on us will be an exact match for what Bryn gives me. But the ink’s going to have to have salt in it for the symbols to last on reaper bodies and that’s going to hurt like a bitch, unless Bryn’s got some magick juju that can make the ink stick without it.

Bryn: Laughing a little at ‘magick juju’, because the Gregori has more magick in him naturally than most people who study an entire lifetime manage to attain…

“Not to keep the skin from rejecting the ink, no. But I can spell the ink to reinforce the symbols so I don’t have to be there to invoke them on each person after the tat’s done.

Sin: You will be there anyway. Not to oversee, or assist, if that is not needed, but you will be near enough to provide aid should an attack come. *Looking around the table, my voice growing low and intent.* From this moment forward, none of you will be without a partner at all times. We are entering very dangerous territory when we leave here and I will risk none of you. 

Sean: Cocking my head at this edict, I gotta ask…

“What about you? You’re the heart of this, Sin. He wants you bad enough to forge an alliance with Lucifer, and declaring open season on reapers includes you. You aren’t invulnerable to this.”

Sin: *A cruel smile grows on my face as my dark eyes grow cold*

The Horseman wants me because he fears me. As he should. And because he fears me he will not make an attempt upon me until he is certain he can win because in his heart he is a coward. When he believes he has the power he will try to trap me. That he has forged this “deal” with Lucifer to allow him to take reapers in return for more souls tells me he is not certain yet. So we will prepare and we will strike first. And no Sean, *sensing his protest and shaking my head* Lucifer will not set his demons upon me. This would not be his first attempt on me and it did not go well for him last time. It was made clear by my allies in the pantheons that they would take it amiss if he were to try again. He is not under their purview, but he has no wish to fight wars on multiple fronts. Yet. I will be quite safe on my own.

Sean: I nod, not quite convinced, but Sin is Sin and I’m not going to argue with him. I’ll just have a private word with those two watchdogs he calls servants.

“So Adrian, if Zav and Bryn are paired, that makes us partners in crime.” Grinning at him. “Mo Chapeton, what’s our assignment?

Sin: I want you two to spend time among the ranks and use Sean’s empathy to feel them out, so we can be sure who will be loyal to us. Tell those that are unable to fight with us there will come a day that you will message them to accept no calls from the Horseman or any being other than one of us. They are to find places to ward and prepare to seclude themselves. I do not want them in the line of fire. For those that will fight, you will arrange times and places to hone their skills as much as can be done in the time we have. Adrian, you are still in charge of preparing the duty rosters? *He nods, watching me intently* Then you can arrange for them to train without it being thought unusual. 

Adrian: I can go one better. I’ll put it out that we’re doing rolling boot camps again because of Bryn’s recent encounter with demons, and I’ll use the same excuse to pair some of those that won’t be in the battle with our weak links so none of them get tempted to try to score points with our internal opposition if they get suspicious of the changes. And if everyone is partnered, our partnering won’t create any gossip.

Sin: *nodding approvingly* A good plan. Once you have that established, the two of you will prepare a place of containment where our “weak links” will all be confined to ride out the battle.

Sean: I raise my eyebrow at this. A ‘place of containment’? He wants us to build a ….

“A reaper prison? You want us to build a reaper prison?”

Sin: *raising my eyebrow back at him, mockingly*

You have sufficient magic to ward a place, do you not? *I almost laugh at the outrage on his face, before taking pity.*

I’m not asking you to create structures. A well-warded cavern would probably be the best, as afterwards they will be dismissed from the reaper corps. *tilting my head at their unspoken questions* If we win, I will own their souls and may dispose of them as I wish. If we lose, they will at least be out of the carnage that I’m sure the Horseman will create among the corps. Which is why I want the rest to have well-warded bolt holes. *grimly* They can’t turn over to Lucifer those they can’t find.

Sean: Huffing a little at the playful jab Sin had taken, but I understand why he did it. He wanted me to remember that I’d brought more than empathy with me. I’d been a druid. The empathy was just a very potent manifestation of my power. But that power could be used in other ways and I’d had the training to be able to do it. I just hadn’t wanted to in a very long time.

“Then I guess we all have our marching orders.”

Sin: Do not go back to your usual places of rest or adhere to any formerly established routines. My safe house in Brazil is protected and has room enough for all of you. We will meet again in four days. I know that is not much time, but we do not /have/ much time. Until then, check in with me mentally every 12 hours. If you miss a check-in, I will assume something has gone amiss. I /will/ find you. That is a promise.

Bryn: Raising my hands over the still hovering image of the Stones of Callanish, I murmur softly

“Leig às Callanish,”

and watch the image of the standing stones shimmer into nothingness. Walking over to Zav, I slap my hand on his shoulder.

“C’mon partner. You need anything from your place? We can go their first, then go to my place to get the tools and materials I’ll need.”

Glancing at Sin questioningly, “I’ll have to rebuild my entire workshop in Brazil. I’ll need it all.”

Sin: *Folding my arms and nodding as I stand* That is not a problem. It is quite large. And if you should need anything do not hesitate to go into the town to search for it. The local populace is already convinced that it belongs to either a drug lord or a bruxa. Between you and Zav, they’ll be sure it’s both. 

Zav: --standing beside Bryn, -- Just a quick detour to my shop in Miami to pick up a few things for the tats. Anything else I need and Sin doesn’t have, I can materialize. Let’s hit it. 

Sean: As I watch Zav and Bryn mist out, I turn to Adrian,

“Well buddy, let’s go find our potential narcs so you can get down to that duty roster.

Adrian:--nodding –

I’m in, but, –looking at Sin— I meant it. Sean as my partner for now is good, but once this all starts, Sean is your wing man. It’s important.

Sin: I understand. *I do not have to like it, but I do understand it. Adrian’s seeing had been quite clear on that point. And because Sean had been correct. When you try to circumvent prophecy, nothing good ever comes from it.*

Fare thee well my friends. Keep to the check-ins and we will meet again in four days’ time.

*After Sean and Adrian have dematerialized I walk to out to the lanai and watch the moonlight glimmer on the waves. I fear that no matter the outcome of this battle my time in my own personal paradise is drawing to an end. After so many years I had found peace here. My thoughts drift back over the years. Certain people and times stand out in my long memory. Bella as a frightened child, and then as a confident young woman, fighting for her powers and finding her true mate, and my friend, Dean. Bast, my longtime companion and goddess whom I had restored to her pantheon. Comforting Danu after the death of her mortal son…. and Freya, severing my link with the Horseman and providing a safe house for me in Valhalla as I regained my purpose. The sons of my human life…Cain who slew his brother, Abel. Seth who rejected us for the twelve tribes’ version of our lives…and Ishtar, my beloved wife Ishtar. The first soul I had reaped, had taken to Elysia. I had looked for her reborn soul for thousands of years before I finally accepted the Fates had taken her from me forever. Would I see her when I, too, answer the Creator’s final call? Or was my eternity with her forfeit because I had sought vengeance for her that final day? And then I realize it is not just my time in paradise that is over. In this moment of clarity I know that my time as a reaper is also coming to an end. What comes next, I do not know. There is only one certainty. Everything dies.

#TBC

[newstfionline]

A billionaire wages war on poverty in Oklahoma

Simon Montlake, CS Monitor, November 20, 2017

TULSA, OKLA.--Inside a sun-splashed classroom, George Kaiser folds his lanky frame into a tiny plastic chair next to a blue mat. For the dozen-plus 3- and 4-year-olds sitting on the mat in various stages of squirming, it’s afternoon story time.

Mr. Kaiser is the billionaire benefactor behind this and other preschools for the poorest children in Tulsa, Okla., and he’s the reason why this classroom looks the way it does--cozy nooks, fairy lights, play kitchens, books everywhere--and has two certified early education teachers. As one of them reads “The Gingerbread Man,” Kaiser’s face has the rapt look of a child waiting for the page to turn.

He’s been here before. He’s brought US lawmakers and presidential candidates into the classroom and plied them with data showing the effect of early education on at-risk kids.

Still, he never seems to tire of the attentive faces, the happy hubbub. One of the kids, a smiley African-American boy in a striped polo shirt, is too antsy to sit for long, so he gets up and runs over to the tall visitor in the gray suit, who stretches out his arms for a hug. The boy leans into Kaiser’s lap, and the two listen to the story of a runaway cookie’s comeuppance.

Cheryl Remache, a local mother, recalls a similarly personal encounter she had with Kaiser. A few years ago, she broke down and sobbed at a preschool board meeting because one of Kaiser’s schools had taken in her two autistic sons. He came over and hugged her. “We wouldn’t be where we are today without him,” says Ms. Remache, her eyes tearing up again.

Her younger son, Jayden, is now in sixth grade and a member of his school’s debating team. Remache says the preschool was the building block that helped him succeed. “This is not a drop-off babysitter. This is education,” she says.

If it seems as if Kaiser is everywhere in this former “oil capital of the world,” helping and hugging people, it’s because he is. The deep-pocketed philanthropist is involved in preschools and elementary schools, industrial parks and recreational parks, artists’ lofts and folk-singer museums, parenting classes and prisoner rehabilitation programs. He has, in fact, turned Tulsa into perhaps the country’s most ambitious test bed for the power of philanthropy to tackle poverty at its roots.

Across the United States, millionaires and billionaires are increasingly stepping in with private money to try to solve problems that were once largely or exclusively the purview of government. In Detroit, philanthropic dollars helped build a streetcar system. In Kalamazoo, Mich., donors are underwriting college tuition programs. Elsewhere, philanthropists are funding the mapping of all cells in the human body to try to stamp out disease and pouring money into preventing obesity.

Yet few if any of today’s megadonors are involved in as many programs targeting the poor in one city as is Kaiser. The oil and gas industrialist believes that every child deserves a chance to succeed and that effectively spent charitable dollars--his and others’--can unlock their potential. His foundation has given away more than $1 billion over the past decade, almost all of it in Tulsa.

“God bless George Kaiser. That’s all I can say,” says Dewey Bartlett Jr., a former two-term mayor of the city.

Kaiser’s next act will be his most audacious. Over the next decade, his foundation wants to target every poor child born in Tulsa, from birth until third grade, so that a patchwork of public programs--prenatal care, parenting classes, child care--becomes a seamless quilt. The strategy reads like a welfare program from Denmark. But it’s being piloted in the reddest of red states, where limited government is a way of life.

Funding will also come from a national network of philanthropists eager to see if Kaiser’s model works. “They’re making a very big bet in one community on a comprehensive strategy that can be truly transformative,” says Nancy Roob, chief executive officer of the New York-based Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. “It’s one of the most robust of its kind anywhere in the United States.”

The idea behind all these efforts--fighting poverty with philanthropic wealth--is one that holds great promise in an era of dazzling private fortunes, yawning economic inequality, and public-sector austerity. But it comes with caveats: greater reliance on the whims of the wealthy and a potential erosion of oversight by elected officials. It also raises the question of what happens to poor communities that don’t have a rich benefactor.

Is Kaiser a glimpse of salvation for America or just a saintly anomaly in one city?

Kaiser is a tall man with a thinning shock of gray hair, an irrepressible demeanor, and a patrician air. To hear him tell it, in his Great Plains drawl, his generosity stems from “Jewish guilt” and a debt of gratitude owed to Tulsa. His father, Herman Kaiser, a German judge disbarred by the Nazis, immigrated here in 1940. Herman joined his uncle’s oil and gas company, which became Kaiser-Francis Oil. George was born two years later, the first US citizen in the family.

Growing up in Tulsa, George sensed the social change in the air. Public schools were desegregating; “colored only” signs were coming down. The whites-only country club invited Jews to join. Herman refused, believing it was a token gesture, and George hasn’t forgotten it. “I’m still uncomfortable going there,” he says.

George went to Harvard University and studied politics and international relations. He briefly considered a diplomatic career. Instead he went to business school and in 1966 moved back to Tulsa to join the family firm. Three years later his father suddenly fell ill (he would live another 23 years). George took over the company and led it through the turbulent ‘70s.

But it was banking that catapulted Kaiser into the ranks of America’s richest. In 1991, he bought a Tulsa bank that was in federal receivership, one of dozens of failed lenders. Having served on its board, Kaiser knew it had potential and he led the revival of what became the Bank of Oklahoma. At the time, it had $1.8 billion in assets. Today it has $33 billion, and Kaiser is its largest shareholder. Bloomberg estimates his net worth at $12.5 billion.

Kaiser’s shift to philanthropy came gradually, from writing checks to local charities to setting up a community foundation in 1998. In the past, Tulsa had “a lot of major corporations and a lot of wealthy people, largely in the oil and gas industry. Those people had moved to Houston or retired,” he says. Kaiser began thinking about the most effective way to help the city’s disadvantaged residents.

By this time, he had read new medical research into brain development. He began to ask, what if the biggest barriers to social mobility are in plain sight, waiting to be broken down? Could this help to repair the American dream of equal opportunity for all?

The key conclusion, says Kaiser, is that experience determines the development of cognitive and social and emotional abilities in children. “What that means is that rich, smart parents have rich, smart kids not because of genetics but because they also hold their kids and read to their kids and put mobiles over their cribs,” he says. “What that means is that you can fix it.”

He smiles. “I don’t have epiphanies, but that’s as close to an epiphany as I came.”

This led Kaiser to scour the country for state-of-the-art programs to provide intensive nurturing to poor children from as young as 6 weeks. In 2006, Tulsa opened its first Educare, a nonprofit preschool, paid for by the philanthropist. The city now has three, and a fourth will open in 2019. Most of the teachers come from early education programs at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and Tulsa Community College, programs underwritten by Kaiser.

Each Educare has fewer than 200 students grouped in small classrooms taught by specialists. They have the look and feel of a private preschool in an elite ZIP Code. But every child is at or below the poverty line, and on Fridays, as nap mats are stowed in cubbyholes, paper bags of donated food are discreetly left for the neediest to take home. A sign on the wall reads, “Embrace. Empower. Evolve.”

Kaiser had settled on his first antipoverty fix. But his philanthropy would keep evolving.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) has even bought derelict land in North Tulsa and worked with the city to develop it and look for investors to build factories, hoping to generate jobs and training for local residents. It’s an unusual role for a charitable foundation: economic development agency.

While cities from New York to Detroit have tapped private donors to build public parks, none compare in scope and generosity to A Gathering Place for Tulsa. GKFF alone has committed $200 million in land and capital to design, build, and run the park. It has raised an additional $150 million in private donations to go along with a $65 million investment in public infrastructure.

Today the site is still a blur of diggers, dirt berms, and half-built playgrounds. Giant castles and animals loom over curving pathways. Kaiser reckons that American kids are too cosseted from risk-taking play and has imported equipment from Germany that will no doubt excite injury lawyers. There are also mirrored mazes, a massive cottonwood “Reading Tree,” and flying-fish fountains.

Kaiser loves that kids from across the city will mix at the park. It’s another selling point for Tulsa, which helped him tap corporate donors. But he still hesitates at the ballooning cost, the dollars not going to programs that directly improve a poor child’s well-being.

“I can’t really justify it,” he says.

Other donors might sit back and bask in the civic acclaim. Kaiser, who works 95-hour weeks, is too busy looking at spreadsheets to see if the data support his programs’ goals, whether it’s time to invest more or cut funding. That arithmetic is what drives his philanthropy, he says, not the warm buzz of story time in a classroom. “Without evidence, it’s an emotional response,” he says.

Indeed, Kaiser possesses a restless mind. He reads widely, from medical journals to economic surveys, and displays an uncanny recall of historical facts and granular data, all salted into analytical sentences delivered with a professorial tone. He has the air of a striver who knows he’s one of the smartest guys in town, but who still stops to ask: But what if I’m wrong?

Kaiser applies a cost-benefit lens to his own lifestyle, too: He usually flies coach, wears a $12 watch, and hunts for a cut-rate hotel room. Forbes called him “one of the world’s most understated billionaires.” Susie Buffett, a philanthropist who led Kaiser to Educare (Nebraska, where she lives, now has three), says he is “cut from the same cloth” as her famously unflashy father, Warren Buffett. “My father is a huge George fan,” she says.

Ms. Roob says Kaiser’s analytical bent comes with a dose of empathy. “What it takes to make someone effective in philanthropy is having the right partnership of head and heart,” she says.

Educare came too late to Tulsa for Kelsey Lipp. As an infant, she was neglected by her teen mother, who struggled with methamphetamine addiction, and abused by her father and stepfather. “I couldn’t trust anyone,” she says. “I knew I had to take care of myself.” At age 14, she ran away from home and was held for more than a year by a man who, she says, repeatedly forced her to have sex.

After her escape, she hid the truth from her family, dropped out of school, and turned to drugs. At 19, she found out she was HIV-positive, which led her deeper into meth addiction. “I felt my life was over,” she says. To feed her habit, she stole. Last July, a botched home robbery led to her being shot in the leg while driving away. In February she was arrested at her grandparents’ house. “I knew I was going to jail and I was angry about it,” she says.

Today Ms. Lipp, who is 22, is out of jail and enrolled in Women in Recovery, an 18-month program of drug rehab, therapy, and life skills and career training. Oklahoma leads the country in locking up women, mostly for drug-related offenses. By focusing on mothers facing prison sentences, the program tries to both rescue the women and prevent their children from taking the same path.

Kaiser started the program in 2009. He likes to point to the subsequent drop in Tulsa’s female prison admissions, compared with the statewide trend, as a measure of its efficacy. It’s also a much cheaper alternative than locking people up, given the lower rate of repeat offenses by women who stick with the program.

The initiative has gotten government buy-in: In April, Oklahoma signed a “pay for success” contract that will reimburse Women in Recovery for each individual it rehabilitates. State officials praised the arrangement as beneficial to taxpayers, especially at a time of “fiscal duress.”

A decade of tax cuts and fitful economic growth has resulted in nearly $1.2 billion in state budget cuts. Oklahoma’s per-student K-12 spending has shrunk by more than one-fifth, the deepest of any state, and dozens of schools have adopted four-day weeks to save money. The state is still struggling to fill a $215 million budget deficit in 2017-18.

For philanthropists making ambitious investments in helping the poor, such austerity poses a dilemma. Simply put, there’s not enough private capital to replace public dollars. And the long-held idea of philanthropists as risk-taking pioneers--what Kaiser calls the “R&D shop” for government--seems to work best when policymakers are willing to step up and fund worthwhile initiatives.

In 2010, Kaiser signed the Giving Pledge, a campaign led by Bill Gates and Mr. Buffett to persuade the ultrarich to give away most of their money. Like Buffett, he has called for higher taxes on the wealthy. Once a registered Republican, Kaiser swung hard to the Democratic side and raised money for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The ultimate test of how much his money can help the poor may come with his Birth through Eight Strategy for Tulsa. Since Educare and other quality preschools don’t have enough places to serve all of the city’s impoverished children, Kaiser wants to build out a continuum of social services to ensure that more kids are born and raised in nurturing homes.

About half of all students in Tulsa public schools enter first grade behind in math and reading. The program aims to increase kindergarten readiness and third-grade test scores. Advocates will start by targeting expectant mothers with prenatal programs and connect them with services for their children. Within a decade, it hopes to serve 32,000 low-income kids. GKFF is providing most of the estimated $200 million in private funding, along with Blue Meridian Partners, a network of individuals and foundations to which GKFF belongs.

Once implemented, GKFF believes the program will become a national model. Kaiser sees it as a way to give back to Tulsa, and, because the initiative is local, he can measure its results better than, say, those of a health-care project in India.

And Kaiser does like to gauge the results of his giving. He is not like many megadonors: He doesn’t just give money and then let others run their do-gooder projects. Both he and his staff at GKFF go deep into the operational weeds, designing, testing, and tweaking programs, and collecting data.

As Kaiser spends down his vast fortune, the debate over his impact on Tulsa is likely to grow. The strategies that his foundation pursues, from prenatal services and early childhood education to criminal justice and cultural tourism, may have equal if not greater weight than any bond issue or city council resolution. Should Kaiser take a wrong turn, Tulsa presumably would, too.

[dippedanddripped]

Art programs in public schools have long had the unfortunate luck of forever being in the crosshairs of budget cuts. Despite mountains of research extolling the benefits of incorporating music and art into curricula, the U.S. Department of Education’s 2020 budget proposal put “arts in eduction” on its list of programs to be eliminated, deeming that it has “limited impact.”

With rapidly dwindling funds and students at risk of falling through the cracks of the education system (not to mention the cracks of society at large), some schools are looking to brands to supplement what state and national budgets are lacking. Case in point: New York City’s P.S. 55 Benjamin Franklin.

The pre-K to fifth grade public school in the Bronx recently announced a partnership with the nonprofit hip-hop outreach Windows of Hip-Hop and luxury watchmaker Bulova to build the first-ever recording studio within a New York school, along with creating a hip-hop curriculum.

“For a long time, schools taught children about other people’s cultures—we want to teach our children about their culture,” says PS 55 principal Luis Torres. “Social studies for me was learning about slavery and things that painted our children in a negative way. So now it’s an opportunity for us to start teaching the children about their own culture, why they dress the way they dress, why they speak the way they speak, why they like to listen to rap music, why they like different things.”

The partnership came about when Torres discovered that the school’s volunteer soccer coach was also the president of a marketing agency that counted Bulova as one of its clients. The brand was already working with music legend Nile Rodgers and his We Are Family foundation, and Torres got on the list for an event where he met Bulova’s U.S. managing director Michael Benavente. Torres was already acquainted with Windows of Hip-Hop after reaching out to one of its president and CEO Melissa Libran on Instagram. As it turns out, both Bulova and Windows of Hip-Hop were trying to figure out effective ways of bringing music into schools.

inRead invented by Teads

The meeting of minds then turned into a major opportunity—and hopefully a larger movement—for underserved kids. “We’ve been in New York for 144 years. So the whole time we’re here, we want to connect with communities,” Benavente says. “Nobody needs a watch today. So the watch business really becomes an emotional connection, and it really becomes about community. So for schools, the kids need hope. Kids need an avenue. We’re using music as our platform to connect with people because it’s multicultural. It doesn’t matter where you were born, where you’re from. Music connects. This is just the start of something. Where it’s going to take us, we don’t know yet, but we know one place it’s going to take us is PS 55.”

HIP-HOP EDUCATION

The recording studio, which is being constructed in the basement of PS 55, is slated for completion in the spring of 2020. The school hosted an event earlier this month announcing its plans and giving a preview of what students can expect: Learning about music production, laying down their own tracks, and gaining a deeper understanding of hip-hop’s history—all in the neighborhood that was hip-hop’s birthplace, no less.

“It helps the kids to understand that there are other careers in hip-hop. We don’t knock our community, but many are not going to be doctors and lawyers,” Libran says. “Some may be promoters, producers—there are so many careers in hip-hop that we’re trying to highlight because at this point, the truth of the matter is that they’re too exposed to drugs and crime and gangs. Being that [the school is] around four housing projects, it’s like they don’t even get a chance.”

“I’m a kid that comes from the projects, and I didn’t really believe much in education,” adds Alberto Elkerson, a board member in Windows of Hip-Hop’s eduction division. “I can only identify with things that I was receptive to. And I was certainly receptive to music. I left school in eighth grade, but I was able to do well for myself. We’re talking about a broad curriculum. We’re talking a kid looking at that mix board or the recording studio downstairs and saying, ‘I don’t have to be an artist. I can own a record company.'”

Expanding students’ purview on potential careers is important, but the more immediate goal of this partnership is for teachers to use hip-hop as tool to enhance both scholastic and cultural education.

“What has the kids’ ears more than anything now? Hip-hop,” says Grandmaster Caz, hip-hop legend as well as a board member and ambassador for Windows of Hip-Hop. “So instead of hip-hop being a detriment to them, hip-hop should be a learning tool for them. For you to rap, you have to know vocabulary, you have to be able to read, you have to be able to write. It teaches that.”

“For me as an educator that grew up on hip-hop music and seeing the way hip-hop is today, we need to get back to what it was,” adds Torres. “A lot of [the students] are exposed to the gangster stuff and all the rough stuff without a message. Where’s the message? Where’s the story? When you hear hip-hop of the past, there’s a story. Our hope is that we’re able to change some of these negative things that have come about in our communities, because people are misunderstanding the purpose of hip-hop.”

As enriching as PS 55’s program seems to be, Torres strongly believes there are systems in place rooting for the downfall of something like this. Torres has been very vocal about how schools with the strongest sports and arts programs (i.e., wealthy and predominantly white schools) control scholarships and access to specialized schools—and he’s not wrong. According to research compiled by The Hechinger Report:

Nearly 13% of students from families that make more than $106,000 a year get private scholarships, compared with about 9% of those whose families earn less than $30,000, according to data collected by the Education Department. White students also have higher odds of getting private scholarships than black or Hispanic students.

While two-thirds of parents with incomes of $75,000 or more could name scholarships as potential sources of financial aid, only 1 in 4 with incomes under $25,000 a year could, according to a survey by the Harris polling company for the loan company Sallie Mae; white parents were also more likely than black or Hispanic parents to know about them.

“It’s to the advantage of certain communities that our schools don’t have arts, because as long as our children can’t compete for those scholarships and those seats in those specialized schools, their communities will continue to benefit,” Torres says. “So while we’re sitting here talking about doing something positive and great, we have to also understand there are people sitting somewhere else talking about investing in prisons and keeping the arts out of certain schools and communities. So we have to try to get more like-minded people to start doing this investment.”

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS

It’s why a partnership with a company like Bulova is important to the overall mission of what Windows of Hip-Hop and Torres are trying to do—and one they’re hoping more brands will embrace.

“A company like Bulova that gets behind what we’re doing here just legitimize our efforts,” Grandmaster Caz says. “To outside ears, eyes, and entities, that makes us look more important. ‘Bulova’s messin’ with them? Let’s go see what’s going on.'”

Torres recently delivered a TEDx Talk where he proposed a budget of $170 million to fund arts programs, with $100,000 going to each of New York’s 1,700 public elementary schools. To pay for it, he proposed that each of New York’s 250,000 business pay annual dues of just $850. A reasonable sum but unrealistic at scale. At the heart of what Torres wants to accomplish as not just a principal but an advocate for parity in eduction, is finding brands like Bulova who are willing to step up.

“[Benavente] doesn’t have to do anything for this community of the school, but Michael has a commitment as a human being to change the lives of children that don’t have access to resources. He understands that if he doesn’t open up some of these doors for us, we’re never going to get through those doors. He has access to things that we don’t have access to,” Torres says. “Having a partner like Bulova is very important for our school, because it tells people that we have to invest in these communities, even though our investment might not have a financial return, but it will have a human return, because now we’re preparing these children to be productive citizens in this world.”

[zipgrowth]

Big Tech Needs to Treat Our Children Better

I invest in education technology, but decades before I knew what a venture capitalist was, I was a history teacher in a small town in America’s heartland where I started my school’s first “Internet club.” I’m a believer in the merits of technology and have written about how technology can be used to broaden access to knowledge, connect people and even improve empathy.

But 2018 marked an inflection point for education technology that most investors and developers did not see coming. It surfaced biased algorithms, irresponsible advertising, privacy incursions, fake news and screen-time addiction—all especially concerning for those of us who believe that while technology is no magic elixir, it is an essential element of our education system. While I see technology as a powerful force for good in education, its deep and unchecked infiltration into our kids’ everyday lives may be undermining the work of our teacher—and even the purpose of public education.

Technology is, in fact, already touching nearly every part of our public education system, from assessments to communication to professional learning. Field-trip photos are texted to parents, quiz reminders find their way into students’ chat feeds, and teachers have new tech tools to motivate their students. Technology is helping schools get increasingly better at offering a more tailored approach to education; moving away from the one-size-fits-all model. So much of this progress is welcome and long overdue.

Big Tech now commands more hours of our children’s attention than schools.

But I’m afraid this progress will stall if we do not urgently tend to an issue that is truly fundamental to our education system. Our public schools were designed with a clear purpose: to educate our citizenry so that democracy could thrive. Our schools are inextricably linked to our democracy. It is the reason that our schools emphasize skills like research and how to navigate disparate information and construct logical arguments. National academic standards ask that students demonstrate “cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic.”

In short, a strong democracy is dependent on students’ ability to discern credible sources of information and use evidence-based arguments. In an age where media options have exploded and consumption is at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever that we are nurturing citizens who are intellectually rigorous and independent.

Schools do the best they can while they have our kids. But when the school day ends, kids at increasingly younger ages swipe on their phones and immerse themselves in social media, games, YouTube and other corners of the internet. On average, teens spend 9 hours per day consuming media in enticing online environments where videos default to autoplay, advertisers target kids and recommended content is driven by algorithms. They spend so much time on their phones, even teens themselves are worried.

Much of what they consume runs counter to the very thinking skills that schools are working so hard to build. YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, where most kids spend their time, are driven by a business model that relies on winning consumers’ attention to secure advertising revenue. These platforms invest heavily in making their products so compelling that users want to use them every day. They build-in features like autoplay, notifications and streaks to make their products sticky in a very intentional way. Some tech executives have gone public with feelings of dissatisfaction. Sean Parker, an early tech entrepreneur left consumer tech for health tech because “you’re spending a lot of time trying to make your products as addictive as possible.”

Business models driven by attention yield content that too often results in the media equivalent of junk food for kids. When we let algorithms make decisions, the results are: views, watch time, completion rate, and subscribers—not positive impact. That may be fine for adults, but for children, maximizing attention consumed is not good enough. When we leave out child-development experts, school leaders, and other quality and expert considerations, we get videos like the one below, recommended by YouTube’s algorithm to a 3-year-old I know. It has almost 9 million views.

Some tech journalists have been the most outspoken. TechCrunch’s John Biggs wrote, “YouTube is a cesspool of garbage kids content created by what seems to be a sentient, angry AI bent on teaching our kids that collectible toys are the road to happiness.��� In my own household, I’ve been shocked so many times by inappropriate recommended content and ads served up to my 3 kids including an anti-feminist rant ad embedded in my daughter’s favored YouTube craft videos.

Big Tech is exceptionally effective at optimizing for the results they desire. The features we see now show that safety and better curated content for children has not been a priority.

It’s Time to Act—and We’ve Done So Before

In an age where media options have exploded and consumption is at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever that we are nurturing citizens who are intellectually rigorous and independent.

Skeptics might say that television was no different with its junk food cartoons and over-the-top consumerism. I came of age in the ’80s and ’90s when the average family watched 5 hours of TV every day. It was so central to daily life that it spawned its own genre of food and furniture.

While it’s true that television was built on the same ad-driven business model as Google, there was no real innovation in the underlying passive technology. The tools to target advertising and create addictive products were primitive by comparison. Television’s successor, the internet, has proven much more powerful in this regard.

Like the internet, TV was not made for kids. In the early days, children watched adult westerns and tobacco commercials. Child advocates started to worry about the impact of all this adult programming on children. In 1966, the prescient Joan Ganz Cooney wrote a white paper calling for children’s educational programming, which led to the wildly successful Sesame Street.

Children were watching so much TV that the federal government intervened. Congress passed legislation in 1990 called The Children’s Television Act which required TV stations to develop programming that would “further the positive development of children 16 years of age and under and consider the child’s intellectual/cognitive or social/emotional needs.” It also cut commercial time in half and placed restrictions on what types of products could be advertised to kids. In 1997, the Federal Communication Commission enacted stricter regulations that required a minimum of 3 hours of programming per week to educate and inform children.

It was a smart move by the federal government to see TV as a potential educational tool noting, “TV has the capability to benefit society and assist in education and informing children,” a fact sheet stated. “Studies show that TV can effectively teach children specific skills, assisting in preparing children for formal education.” Realizing the potential synergies, the Children’s Television Act was placed under the purview of the Secretary of Education.

Here we are in 2019, knowing that our children have effectively switched channels over to the internet and consume content at unprecedented levels. Big Tech now commands more hours of our children’s attention than schools. It’s time for the leaders of technology companies to recognize that whether they like it or not, they play a powerful role in our children’s cognitive development and even the strength of our democracy. What if they worked hand-in-hand with our teachers to reinforce the goals of our national learning standards through developmentally sensitive algorithms, self-monitoring tools, and requirements on source visibility?

If our tech leaders won’t step up and do the right thing, I would hope that once again the government intervenes on behalf of children. COPPA protected their privacy, and, based on the state of consumer technology, we’re going to need another act to protect their minds.

Big Tech Needs to Treat Our Children Better published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[ntrending]

Net neutrality is under threat (again). Here's why you should care

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/net-neutrality-is-under-threat-again-heres-why-you-should-care/

Net neutrality is under threat (again). Here's why you should care

Editor’s note: F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, issued a statement outlining a plan that would overturn Obama-era regulations regarding net neutrality. The FCC commissioners will vote on the issue on December 14th, 2017, where party affiliations suggest it will likely pass by one vote.

The internet is an entirely human phenomenon. It is an unfathomably vast interconnected sea of computers that hold roughly the entire sum of human knowledge to this point. It’s as available to the wealthiest billionaire as it is to the kid on library WiFi, browsing on his cheap Android phone. What keeps the Internet open and equal is a principle called “net neutrality,” which is as much a technological tool as an economic argument and a moral stance. It is also a principle that is periodically threatened. The latest assault comes from current FCC director Ajit Pai, who wants to change how internet companies are regulated, a move that could prove disastrous for net neutrality.

What is net neutrality?

Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, are supposed to direct traffic indiscriminately, no matter if the user is looking up a niche blog about armadillo ranching or trying to stream a video from Netflix. This is how the internet, as technology, was designed: to transfer packets of information across vast distances as quickly as possible, regardless of what those packets may contain.

Net neutrality is a practice that governs the behavior of ISPs. Their modems connect customers’ devices to the internet writ large in exchange for a fee. For ISPs, it’s a pretty good deal already: Many places in the United States have limited options, so the customer base is locked-in to an extent.

Without neutrality, an ISP could instead dictate usage terms to both sites and to users. An ISP could charge customers more to stream videos, and at the same time charge Netflix to make sure its videos stream as fast as Hulu videos and YouTube.

There are lots of metaphors to help visualize net neutrality. In his 2014 comic, cartoonist Michael Goodwin illustrates ISPs as the driveway that connects a home to the vast network of destinations on the internet, and net neutrality is the principle that prevents ISPs from slowing some traffic or charging a premium fee for other traffic.

Where does the term “net neutrality” come from?

Columbia Law professor Tim Wu, then at the University of Virginia law school, coined the term “net neutrality” in a 2003 paper, in an attempt to define an already-understood vision of the internet. To Wu, net neutrality is not just a way to manage traffic on the internet, but a fundamental philosophy about how innovation happens.

Net neutrality adherents “see innovation process as a survival-of-the-fittest competition among developers of new technologies,” Wu writes, and notes that people supportive of this evolution-through-competition model are suspicious of any structure that instead lets the people who control access to the internet dictate how the competition shakes out.

In essence, Wu argued that the best possible internet is one where consumers themselves choose what applications, uses, and sites are successful. And they voice that choice by visiting (or not visiting) those sites. Without net neutrality ISPs are in a position to fix the game, by taking money from one company to provide better streaming for their video—even if that content wouldn’t normally be fastest to stream.

How is net neutrality enforced?

Maintaining a system of neutrality falls under the purview of the FCC, who have a vital but incomplete role in making this work. While much of the rulemaking for ISPs is done at the federal level, that’s more by default than necessity.

“Local governments can also play a crucial role by supporting competitive municipal and community networks,” notes the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group dedicated to rights of people online, says this about net neutrality. “When users can vote with their feet, service providers have a strong incentive not to act in non-neutral ways.”

Without local competition between ISPs, the companies can operate like unchecked monopolies. This was something the FCC has sought to challenge multiple times.

In 2011, the FCC adopted a set of Open Internet Rules. One prevented broadband providers from blocking any lawful websites. Another prevented them from creating slow lanes, in the form of “unreasonable discrimination” in web traffic. The third guaranteed transparency, which requires providers to “disclose information regarding their network management practices, performance, and the commercial terms of their broadband services.”

A 2014 court defeat in Verizon v. FCC overturned two of three Open Internet Rules, leaving only the transparency requirement intact. That court ruling hinged on how the FCC defined the companies in question: Were they private communications, working as intermediaries between specific customers, or was connecting to broadband internet a public good, provided by a private company but regulated in light of its public utility? At the time, because ISPs operated with less regulation under Title 1 of the Telecommunications Act as “information services,” it operated more like the former.

With the support of the Obama adminstration, a 2015 rule change let the FCC apply public-interest regulations to ISPs and broadband providers, placing them both instead under Title II rules as a “common carrier,” which also applied to things like landline networks. The meant the FCC could prohibit internet providers form engaging in practices that undercut net neutrality. Reverting this change is at the heart of Pai’s current plans for the internet.

What happens without net neutrality?

Free Press, an organization that is aggressive in its defense of net neutrality, compiled a timeline of net neutrality violations. These include blocking voice-over-IP services, redirecting search traffic, slowing of traffic, throttling all streaming traffic except to one specific site, and more. While net neutrality has been a term since 2003, and the current rules enforcing it were put in place in 2015, ISPs have tried to work around it for years, and sometimes succeeded, only to be caught later.

Without rules that allow the FCC to enforce net neutrality at the start, violations will have to be reported to the FTC instead, which can investigate and pursue legal action after-the-fact, but cannot preempt abuses.

The most-durable worry about a net without neutrality is the creation of “slow lanes,” where the ISP delivers traffic from some sites at normal speed, and from other sites at much slower speeds. If a site is loads too slowly, users likely won’t keep going there, so the loss of neutrality becomes a way for ISPs to force sites to pay for normal delivery or risk low traffic and eventually obsolescence. This fear was at the heart of the 2014 Internet Slowdown, a protest that asked sites to put a “loading” symbol, and then directed users to contact Congress and ask it to protect net neutrality.

We need not look only to protest for evidence of a what happens without Net neutrality. In December 2016, the FCC reported it was investigating AT&T for a Sponsored Data program, that exempted AT&T affiliate video from customer’s data limits but applied those limits to other data. On January 11th, 2017, the FCC reported a similar investigation into Verizon’s “FreeBee Data 360” program. In both cases, the internet providers made a choice for their customers: Use the video services we like at a discount, or pay full price for other data. That’s antithetical to the principles of net neutrality, and shortly before leaving his post, then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler sent a letter to prominent senators, informing them of the state of play in the investigations and thanking them for unwavering support of an open internet.

How is net neutrality threatened today?

FCC Chairman Pai wants to switch ISP rules from proactive restrictions to after-the-fact litigation, which means a lot more leeway for ISPs that don’t particularly want to be treated as impartial utilities connecting people to the internet. It’s possible that Pai’s announced plans are an opening bid to get Congress to instead pass weak legislation that nominally protects net neutrality, but weakens many of the protections in the original FCC rules. It’s just as likely that Pai intends to change the rules from within the agency itself, though they will need to undergo a lengthy period of public comment before implementation. When Obama asked the FCC for new rules in late 2014, the rules were proposed and finalized five months later, in early 2015.

Outside of Congress and the FCC, a Federal court recently upheld the 2015 net neutrality rules, which could end up appealed to the Supreme Court.

Written By Kelsey D. Atherton and PopSci staff

[breazyvapors]

Vape News in Brief – May 6th 2017 Edition

Vape News in Brief – May 6th 2017 Edition Edition We're back once again with a look around the news world to check up on what's going on in the mainstream world as relates to vaping.This week:   It's a quick hit, to be sure, but it's nice to see local papers, this time the *Indianapolis Business Journal*, and local politicians Indiana state Senator Greg Taylor, teaming up to build support for the Cole-Bishop amendment that would change FDA's predicate date giving them authority over vapor products from February 2007 to August 2016 – this would ensure that the modern features we're used to in our vape devices (temperature control, variable wattage, even rebuildable coils and variable voltage!) would be allowed to remain in existence.   Here's a reminder from the right-leaning *Daily Caller* blog: vaping does not encourage teens to smoke cigarettes. We covered the results of the study mentioned and pointed out the hypocrisy in the way they were being disseminated back in January, but it's nice to see the issue still getting some play on a wider scale.   You may not be familiar with the Johnson Creek line of e-liquids, but they've been around pretty much forever, and were making some of the only vapeable juice in America back in the late 2000s. The company's hometown, Hartland, Wisconsin, is launching a novel attack on the FDA's deeming regulations. Local officials there say that in not coordinating with state and local governments to measure economic and other local impacts before implementing their measures, the agency may have violated due process rights guaranteed under the Constitution. If the deeming regulations go through, the tiny village of Hartland faces the loss of 50 jobs when Johnson Creek is forced to shut down.   This one might be a bit worrisome. According to the student newspaper of a Los Angeles area private prep school "JUULing," or using JUUL cigalikes, is a rising trend among students there, who are using the new-generation cigalikes to get high off nicotine. Wait, smokers reading that last line are saying – nicotine doesn't get you "high," if anything it makes you sick until you're used to it. Maybe so with smoking, but remember that the JUUL and other modern closed-system cigalikes use liquid with much higher nicotine doses than more traditional refillable systems. That's because they're intended for former smokers who'll take a puff or two here or there rather than vape in extended sessions – but perhaps rich preppy kids are why we can't have nice things.   Back to Cole-Bishop, with some bad news: the bill died during debate on Monday. That may leave the Duncan Hunter bill removing vaping from FDA's purview entirely as the next best option for vapers. There was some good news, though – the FDA, as expected by many has pushed back the deadline for vaping companies to register products by three months from its previous June date. Given the immense amount of work they've created for themselves, more delays may be coming.   This headline from the *Washington Examiner* pretty much says it all: "After extinguishing e-cigarettes with regulation, Democrats brag about keeping Big Tobacco the Marlboro Man in business." We'll be back this weekend, hopefully with something brighter to report. https://breazy.com/blogs/updates/vape-news-in-brief-may-6th-2017-edition?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr #vape #vaping #breazy

[junker-town]

Turnaround artist Willie Fritz is trying to paint Tulane’s picture

Let’s step into the office of the man trying to right the Green Wave.

NEW ORLEANS — This painting is the first thing you notice when you step into Tulane head coach Willie Fritz’s office, a finished portrait of the journeyman hoisting a trophy at Sam Houston State.

Courtesy Tulane Athletics

The Tulane picture is far from completion. 2016 produced only sketches on a blank canvas. After going 4-8 in his first season, Fritz’s task is to improve a program that has had five winning seasons in the last 35 and 11 in the last 63. But this type of challenge is nothing new for Fritz.

He’s a coaching lifer, having made stops at nearly every level of college football.

Along the way he’s done just about every job.

“I think I’ve kinda got my fingerprints on every facet of the program [at Tulane],” Fritz said in a recent interview with SB Nation. “I’ve been an academic coordinator. I’ve been an athletic trainer. I’ve been an equipment guy. I’ve lined the fields. I’ve washed the jocks and the socks. I did the media guide at Blinn Junior College.”

In 1993, Fritz got his break as a head coach at Blinn. In addition to teaching classes, he drove the team buses. He didn’t drive to many losses.

JUCO Blinn College had won five games in three years before Fritz and won 39 in four with him. Division II Central Missouri hadn't been to the playoffs in three decades until Fritz arrived; he won 10 games twice and left having finished above .500 11 times in 12 years.

And then he kept rising.

Sam Houston State had made only two FCS playoff appearances in 20 years before he took the Bearkats to back-to-back national title games in 2011-12.

“That was probably the main reason why I went from Sam Houston to Georgia Southern, was to coach [higher in] Division I football,” Fritz said. “I hadn’t at that point in my career.”

When Fritz walked into a Southern program that had a proud history, it was his task to transition the Eagles from FCS to FBS. The first season in that process is purgatory. You’re barred by the NCAA from a bowl game, and you’re playing 12 games against FBS talent with mostly FCS talent. The FCS Eagles had beaten the Gators, but few expected them to compete right away.

Fritz’s Eagles went 9-3 in 2014, despite being picked eighth in the Sun Belt’s preseason poll, then 8-4 in 2015, earning a berth in the GoDaddy Bowl as Fritz was on his way to New Orleans.

It has been a long time since the Green Wave saw glory, and the banners in Yulman Stadium tell that story.

Richard Johnson / SB Nation

The Green Wave were charter members of the SEC in 1932. They stayed until 1966, when the private school downsized athletics. Tulane also became a casualty of professional sports when the Saints arrived in 1967.

But in 1998, the Green Wave could have become the first BCS buster. Going 12-0 with QB Shaun King, the team finished with its highest ranking in the AP Poll since before World War Il, but a soft schedule meant no BCS bowl game.

In 2005, the area faced Hurricane Katrina. The Green Wave relocated to Ruston, Louisiana, and the athletic department cancelled or moved other varsity sports. The storm caused billions in damage to New Orleans and forced the school to close for the first time since the Civil War.

The program has had three winning seasons since 1998 and has been to one bowl game since 2002. That’s what Fritz walked into, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Georgia Southern had a great reputation in I-AA, but I think we were picked second to last my first year in the conference,” he said. “So it was a challenge there, along with the other places that I took over, and I’ve had some schools that have contacted me that were going along real well and I was like, ‘Heck, you’re already doing good, what’s the challenge in that?’”

Dannen and Fritz turned over much of the athletic department staff. Dannen re-tooled the visual identity of the program with the throwback Angry Wave logo.

Man this guy looks angry.... #RollWave #GreenWave #AngryWave http://pic.twitter.com/5wEmkuKbog

— Tulane Equipment (@TulaneEquipment) October 18, 2016

There’s not a ton of space on campus, but Tulane is building a standalone football facility with a small practice field on top. When they need to practice indoors. On-campus Yulman Stadium, built for $73 million in 2014, is the right size for the program.

Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

Tulane’s missed out on revitalizers before.

The 1998 team had Rich Rodriguez as its offensive coordinator. After Rodriguez’s boss, Tommy Bowden, left for Clemson, Rodriguez was passed over for the top job. He followed Bowden to Clemson and helped lead the spread revolution. Rodriguez would spurn Tulane after leaving Michigan in 2011 because of, among other things, a lack of financial commitment to the program.

In 2005, Tulane came “within an eyelash” of hiring Jim Harbaugh, per former athletic director Rick Dickson. But when Harbaugh mentioned that the Stanford job was also in his purview, Dickson moved on.

In Fritz, Tulane hopes it has both Rodriguez’s ingenuity and Harbaugh’s ability to turn a team around. Fritz’s innovation? The option. Sort of.

“We haven’t run it like I’d like to run it,” Fritz said. “There’s a couple times against some teams early on where we look like we’re doing it, and we just got so banged up, particularly at the quarterback position. So we had to adapt to what our quarterback, our offensive line in particular, could do.”

Fritz doesn’t want to run the triple option like what you see at Navy or Georgia Tech. Fritz’s option is out of the shotgun, and when he’s got the type of QB he wants, it’s more change-of-pace than bread-and-butter.

“Sometimes, we’ll just run an inside zone,” Fritz said. “But all this window dressing makes it look like we’re running triple option. And sometimes, we are running triple option. Even on the inside zone, they gotta have somebody on the dive, the quarterback pitch, because it looks like that’s what we’re doing.”

He started really implementing the system at Sam Houston State in 2010, and like most innovations, it came out of necessity.

He will tailor his scheme around his talent.

“It’s the greatest pass protection known to mankind, because the D linemen are playing lateral, not playing vertical. So if you can run the option effectively, it makes your offensive linemen good pass protectors, even if they’re not.”

New Orleans is one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country, but it’s not a particularly big one.

That amplifies battles for kids, because the depth of a Louisiana class isn’t like those in Florida or Georgia or California.

Per capita, Louisiana leads all other states in blue chip talent. LSU will always be No. 1 at signing it, but the Tigers can’t sign all the talent in the state. Fritz called New Orleans the most heavily recruited city he had ever been in, and he told SB Nation in a separate interview that he knows the importance of fighting off suitors.

“For us, where we’re at right now, we want to get that high-caliber, Division I football player,” Fritz said. “I hope here in the near future, we’re gonna be able to be the draw and we don’t have to worry about being with anybody.”

Tulane recently linked arms with the Tigers to put a fence around the state. In June, Fritz and Tulane hosted a satellite camp with LSU coach Ed Orgeron. Tulane was originally supposed to host it with Michigan; the Green Wave canceled that.

2017 Tulane Football Camp ft. @LSUfootball ✅Friday, June 16 ⏳2PM Check-In (OL/DL/Specialists) ⌛️5PM Check-In (Skill) Yulman Stadium http://pic.twitter.com/obtDyOFCQt

— Tulane Football (@GreenWaveFB) May 8, 2017

“I was getting Michigan, who was really wanting to do it with us, and we were interested in doing it with [Harbaugh], but then they already had a camp scheduled that day, we found out,” Fritz said. “We didn’t know if Coach Harbaugh was gonna be able to come here, and obviously he was the draw, you know? When that occurred, I got back with LSU, and we talked immediately. I wanted to do it with LSU first, and I’m glad it ended up working out.”

SB Nation reached out to Michigan for comment.

Tulane is also in the middle of the recruiting war between LSU and schools in the Lone Star State. TCU and Texas Tech hosted a camp in Baton Rouge at Southern University in June (reportedly on the books before Orgeron took the LSU jobs). The Horns are also in play, because they were on the slate to host a joint camp with LSU in Baton Rouge until the Tigers canceled, reportedly due to “political pressure.”

“I understand Coach Orgeron’s point of view, not having anyone come in the state,” Fritz said. “It’s good for him. I can understand Herman wanting to come over here, ‘cause good football players in Louisiana, good for him.”

“We gotta do what’s best for Tulane,” Fritz said.

So how long can the 57-year-old continue?

He points to the Fitbit fitness tracker on his wrist.

“I’m an empty nester right now,” Fritz said. “If you watch me go out and coach in practice, I put about nine miles in today during practice.”

Dedicated artists are never truly finished creating.

“I really enjoy it,” Fritz said. “I’ve got a passion for it. If I didn’t, I’d quit. I see myself going at least another 10 years. I’d be surprised if I didn’t go that long.”

Besides, he’s got work to do. His office could use a painting of a Tulane trophy.