#like i do get what they were going for.... with universa and all

[willosword]

it's a shame the premise and introduction to the dinosaurus arc was so ridiculous, because there's some compelling stuff in here. i think the show will probably make the ramp up to the actual team-up itself feel a lot less forced

[countrymusiclover]

100 - Not Little Girls Anymore

Part 101

Gemini Runaway

@icefrye19 @secretdreamlandmentality

Stomping around in the woods I clutched my hands into fists at my sides feeling anger boiling in my body. The wind blew my hair in my face before I just lost it. Throwing my hands out in front of me breaking the bark off trees into tiny pieces that were almost too small to see. “Universa ruina I tenebras ra damis infinitum..dissulta.”

Raising my hands up again the trees smashed again and the wind began picking up. Gripping my hair tightly in my fingers I heard someone coming up to me where I spun on my feet showing my fangs at whoever it was. “Get the hell out of here unless you’re looking for a fight!”

“Raelyn, Woah hey don’t bite my head off. It’s just me.” The figure stepped out from behind one of the trees that I had destroyed where I saw Cami with her hands raised in the air.

The veins underneath my eyes slowly went away when I slumped my shoulders calming down at the sight of her. “Cami, what are you doing out here?” She had moved back here about two years ago so she could work at one of the bars here like she did when she was human.

“Freya called me and told me that you’re brother, Hayley and Andrea are missing. If you want me to help track them I can. But I am also here and I can provide some booze and an ear for listening.” She claps her hands together with a weak smile.

Blinking through some tears I pushed my hands inside the pocket of my jacket. “I’d say booze after I get to rip whoever took my brother from me!…..but right now I…I need a hug. Jacob and I have never been apart like this since he came back from the dead.”

“Come here, Rae.” Cami opens her arms for me where I collapsed against her, beginning to sob in terror that someone might hurt them. “Hey ever since I have met you and your brother even when he was just a siphon witch there is nothing that stopped him from fighting back.”

Holding tightly onto her shirt in my fingers I croaked through some more tears. “I just don’t want to lose him, Cami. He’s…he’s still my brother…my twin brother.”

“You don’t have to explain it to me ever. I would give anything to have my own twin brother back in my life. All you should know is that I am here for you always.” She broke the hug holding my forearms seeing that some tears were falling down my face.

Sucking in a breath I felt my phone go off when I read a text from Freya that said people were gathering at the compound asking about Henry the newly turned hybrid. “Thanks Cami…oh Freya says there’s trouble at the compound. Someone wants Henry out of town.” She grasped my hand in mine and we vamped into the main entrance of the compound where I saw Vincent where I immediately got angry again.

“Raelyn Mikaelson, I thought we had an understanding about you and your children staying in this city. And now I have to deal with one of them making a hybrid. I’ll throw you out of-“

Raising my hand I shut him up with a silent spell stomping up to the witch who thought he could do anything to me. “Silencio, at first I thought you were helping us but you’re not. The truth is now that I look at you, you really just wanted them gone. You wanted my family torn apart!”

“Of course I did. This city was in danger and now it isn’t because I put the Hollow into the Mikaelson’s. You asked for my help to save your daughters and your niece so that is what I have done.” He somehow undid the spell I had used throwing me against the wall where I growled about to charge at him.

Cami vamped in between Vincent and I before I could hurt him. “Wait, wait, wait. Just stop for a second here. Okay Raelyn just wants her family back together. Can’t we find a way to bring them back and not destroy the city?”

“Cami, you can’t be serious now. When you were human Klaus compelled you without a thought, you nearly died multiple times. And then you became a vampire after Klaus’s ex forced Raelyn to turn you. So I don’t understand what makes you still be friends with this family. They only care about the ones who they share blood with!” Vincent raised his hands up in the air rolling his eyes at the former human.

Pushing around Cami I grabbed his shoulders about to throw him until I saw Jackson and a wolf from Hayley’s pack coming into the compound. “Now isn’t a good time Jackson!”

“I’m not here for my mother’s request. The wolves have been saying they want the Mikaelson’s back in this city. Lisina, tell her.” Jackson put a hand on the black woman.

She stepped forward giving me a half smile. “Hayley convinced us all that you were a good person before you gave us your blood to become hybrids. And we have been told about this wedding between your daughter and Jackson. So we will fight to make that happen. Because you made our suffering stop every full moon.”

“Thank you, Lisina. I appreciate the support.” Taking her hands in mine I smiled back until I saw some rain outside turning red like blood which couldn’t be good. “Uh, there’s something I have to take care of first. So you all should go home before the storm comes in.”

“You told him to come back, didn't you? Oh there’s gonna be trouble people.” Vincent began running out of the compound in a panic.

Vamping upstairs into the alcohol parlor I covered my mouth with my hands instantly crying happy tears by who was standing in front of me. “Oh my gosh, Nik!” He smiled in my direction with his hands in the pockets of his jacket leaning against the wall.

“Hello Raelyn.” He smirked through some tears of his own before he vamped forward and I did the same until we met in the middle. Jumping up I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.

He wrapped his arms around my back where his blue eyes focused on mine and didn’t break away ever. “Please tell me I’m not dreaming right now. That you really are here after all this time.” I shuttered almost not believing that I could physically feel him underneath my fingers.

“You’re not dreaming, Rae. I’m here….I’m right here and I am not going anywhere until we reunite our family.” He rested his forehead against mine where our breathing picked up. I gripped his jacket in my nails leaning forward finally kissing him after five years.

My heart races even though it no longer has to beat to keep me alive. My hands go around his neck as he pulls my face closer to his, his lips inches from mine. "I tried to forget the desires but I can't Nik. I can’t live my immortal life without you. You are my life, Klaus always and forever." I brush my hand through his hair before he vamped my back against the wall trapping me there.

I part my lips nodding my head slowly before his lips gently leave kisses on my neck. I gripped his hair in my hands moaning when he hit my sweet spot. And he moved his hands upward cupping my face in his hands kissing me deeply. “You are my life too, Raelyn. I have spent a thousand years on this earth but these five years without you has been the worst torture of my existence.”

“Vincent ruined us…he ruined our family that we had. And I….I want to make him pay. I -“ I cut myself short sniffling through tears until I moved my hands over his shoulders removing his jacket and tossing it across the room.

My arms moved to the hair on the back of his neck shuttering out a shaky breath feeling so much desire built up inside me wanting to come out. Nik moved his hands and started to remove my jacket, crashing his lips to mine like kissing me was what kept him alive. Once my jacket is gone he starts kissing me harder again, my hands gripping his locks seconds before we heard footsteps coming up the stairs causing us to separate partly from one another.

“Dad!” Missy hollered with Hope and Alina coming in seconds after in utter shock.

Klaus slowly moved away from me stomping up to our daughters. “Do you have any idea what you've done?”

“What are you talking about?” I raised a brow at him, shifting my gaze to our girls seeing that the anti magic bracelet I had put on them had been removed somehow even though I was confident that they couldn’t remove them. “What did you all do to get the bracelets off?”

Alina stepped forward clutching her hands into fists at her sides. “We found someone who could touch the bracelet and snap them. Jackson did it without a second thought because he actually cares about me mom.”

“I’m going to kill Jackson!” Klaus threatened under his breath until I sent him a glare knowing that he wanted to but then Mary would want war against our family.

Hope finally spoke up sitting down on the couch hitting her hands on her knees. “We knew it would take something big to bring you home.”

“So you had your little hybrid friend attack your cousin and her parents?” He scolded his first born daughter.

Hope rolled her eyes thinking that their plan was perfectly fine. “Henry just did the heavy lifting. And "attack" is a really strong word. They’re fine. In a really nice coffin, sleeping. Mom cloaked her in a sleeping spell for five years until I wrote a better one myself.”

Her father threw his head back grumbling. “Oh, well, in that case, I've never been prouder. Where are they!”

“You're just gonna go disappear again if we tell you ... .and then mom will cut our communication with you all together like she did for almost two years until we did something about it.” Alina snarled, crossing her arms over her chest glaring at me.

Nik ran a hand over his face seeing some flowers by the window that had bloomed were now dead. “Alina, you are in danger when we're in proximity. I know you feel that. The dark magic inside us manifests itself in ugly ways. We could be putting others in danger, too. The whole city.”

“I don't care! You’re our father and we deserve to have you in our lives no matter what it takes.” Alina stomps up to him glaring up at him with her head tilting upright slightly.

He flashed his werewolf eyes at his second daughter. “This is not a debate, Alina!”

“Dad, we missed you. And while you have been gone all mom has done is keep secrets from us. Alina is supposed to marry Jackson and leave….she wants to split us up!” Missy starts crying, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

Shaking my head at them I spun on my feet gripping my locks in my fingers. “I had a hard enough time grounding you all before. And if your were anyone else who kidnapped my brother I would tear you in half. But I can’t do that because you're my kids ... .our children and yet I need to spill blood!” The vampire veins and fangs appeared when I whipped my head around towards our daughters.

“You are making it harder for me to not trap you in our room for the next few days and make love to you over and over again.” Klaus smirked at me with a small crooked smile, slumping his shoulders and running a hand through his hair. “The little girls I knew would never have dreamed up a scheme like this.”

Hope got to her feet, throwing her hands upwards. “Well, sorry to disappoint you. But that little girl hadn't read your memoirs. You compelled Cami O'Connell to write your story. About a guy who used to put his family members in coffins and use them as leverage.”

“So you've studied my old tricks. Did you learn this one?” He bent his head down slightly smirking before he was standing in front of Hope and he grabbed her head seeing the three coffins inside the attic of the old church. “She's at St. Anne's.”

Hope shoved him away from her sniffing through angry tears. “Get out of my head!”

“You could die. Just by standing here, I could be destroying you. I'll ask your mother to take it easy on you. Okay? Good-bye, girls.” Klaus threw his hands out in front of him. He glanced from me and back to his daughters with some tears.

“We know some tricks too, daddy.” Missy raised her hand shutting the door in his face before he could vamp away. Grabbing my husband's hand I dragged him out of the room and into ours, locking the door behind us knowing we needed to talk things through. Because a Mikaelson reunion was never easy.

Comments really appreciated ❤️

[loominggaia]

why is serafeen the only one whose surname isn't the name of their own kingdom? is damijana breaking any rules with that?

Also, what were the leaders' surnames before taking to their thrones? are they public knowledge or secret?

Good question! Most Great Kingdoms follow a set of rules written by the World Council, which is made up of representatives from all over the globe. Some of these rules include using gold as currency, teaching Universa in schools, and leaders taking on the name of their kingdom as their surname, among other things.

Following these rules is a sign of good faith and earns brownie points for those nations, showing that they are team-players who can be trusted to some extent. Some of the rules seem arbitrary and inconsequential, like changing one's name, but that's kind of the point. The World Council is trying to create consistency and shared traditions among all world powers to bring them closer together. They believe that taking on the name of their kingdom will make leaders care about their positions more and feel a closer connection with their people. (Unfortunately this hasn't proven to be the case, but it's the thought that counts, right?)

However, not all Great Kingdoms agree to these terms. The Empire of Damijana, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and the Aquarian Alliance are notorious for being "rebels" in this regard. They might follow a few rules when it's convenient, but not all of them. This gives these nations a sketchy reputation and hurts their diplomacy quite a bit. It makes other nations wary about allying with them or doing any major trade deals.

Serafeen's surname is Rotimos. This name was bestowed upon her by The Council, a government power in Damijana, but her people believe that it was given to her by Gaia herself. Serafeen refuses to conceal her Gaia-given name as a show of power against the World Council. She's basically saying "I will not compromise my culture for anyone's else's sake. If that's a crime, then come fucking get me. 💅"

If Damijana were a weak nation, the World Council might try to punish it in some way for not following the rules. Problem is, Damijana is NOT a weak nation--it's one of the strongest in the world. So the World Council just has to sit there and eat shit, basically.

Damijana breaks World Law in various other ways too. The Seelie and Unseelie Courts are also guilty, but they're too isolated and their ongoing war is such a shitshow that no one wants to interfere with whatever they have going on over there. The Aquarian Alliance is even worse, they've disregarded World Law entirely and made up their own rules. But like Damijana, this nation is so damn powerful that no one can challenge them about it.

Damijana and the Alliance are like two delinquent teens that have out-muscled their parents. Everyone's too afraid to confront them. Meanwhile, Seelie and Unseelie are like two toddlers running around, screaming, and flinging feces at eachother...Everyone just stays out of it because nobody wants to get splattered with doodoo.

As for the other great leaders, their surnames are generally kept a secret to protect their families. Kidnapping a high ruler is nearly impossible, but kidnapping one of their lesser-known relatives and holding them for a fat ransom is not uncommon.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[goron-king-darunia]

@hannikka Regarding a comment on this post. “i know this ask has nothing to do with me, but i will be honest with you, before you said to take this with a grain of salt i was going to fight you XD (not really, but still XD) because i definitely and actually fell in love as in real lovewhen i was very young and it lasted years, so i was horrified for a moment, but then again like you, said our experiences are not universa” Again, like I said, I have not been a child in a very long time and I am demisexual so my threshold for attraction is VERY different from the standard. I can only speak from my experiences as a child and what I’ve seen regarding other kids I’ve worked with. It’s not impossible to fall in love, real genuine love, as a kid. I just think that’s VERY rare for it to happen and it seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Obviously this is anectdotal rather than data driven and even then, in the USA, narratives involving children and romance are heavily sanitized because in the USA implying that children are people with feelings like adults is very scary strawberry territory for censors because god forbid we imply children are complex people. Even worse if we imply children and adults can be friends, good heavens. The USA tiptoes around intergenerational friendships like a plague corpse in the street because if something even remotely resembles pedophilia, it’s BAD. Like, the USA buries that shit so hard, to the point where when the Professor Layton games came out I was confused for the longest time about what relation Luke had to Layton because in the USA one does not simply just have a grown man mentoring a young boy that isn’t his son or a blood relative of some sort. Like... there were memes about Layton being a guy that kidnaps orphans because that, for some reason, seemed more probable than the actual explanation which is that Luke is the son of one of Latyon’s close friends, and he and Luke bonded over solving a mystery together in town. Hell, even Layton being adopted was kind of a revelation for me when that showed up in the narrative because the USA had a BAD track record of underrepresenting non-traditional family structures. So I’m sure my view on children is partially cultural as well. The USA doesn’t want to admit it but we’re STILL barely out of that old phase of “children should be seen and not heard” bullshit of treating kids like extensions of their parents and swung right around to some weird other extreme of “if we even acknowledge kids at all, we either make them wise beyond their years or infantalize them to hell and back because what even is a child anyway? Baby? Yeah, we know what that is. Helpless cinnamon roll that can never do anything bad ever. Teenager? Yeah we know what that is. That’s like that weird stage of development where you’re like an adult but with now power and lots of feelings and you’re terrible with everything. IDK if I just grew up overly sheltered (which is probably the case) but like... seeing all these new shows on Netflix that acknowledge that teenagers have sex feels... transgressive somehow. Like, I LIKE that we’re acknowledging it. Because we’ve known for ages it happens and clearly doing pearl-clutching and trying to pretend it doesn’t won’t stop teen pregnancy. But it feels so terribly RECENT that we’re actually not actively shoving that under the rug. The Lion King (the good animated one, not the CG one) firmly cemented in my head when I was a wee baby watching it that “friends” and “lovers” were separate categories (even though Nala and Simba are a couple, LOL) because like, yeah, thinking about getting married to my best friends was WEIRD (even at a time in my life when a lot of my friends were boys. XD) So I was totally with Simba when he was like “Ew, I can’t marry her! She’s my friend!” It’s really only been in recent years that the idea of friendship and romantic/sexual relationships aren’t mutually exclusive has become mainstream. Or at least, it’s only recently that I aged into a group where these stories were targeted. IDK, I feel like I’m getting into the weeds here and talking in circles. But the point is YES, I am totally only speaking from my own experiences here, I am 100% not an authority, I am only giving an opinion, and my opinion is largely shaped by experiences and media that are not universal by any means. XD. I was relatively sheltered, have conservative parents, was a neuroatypical child and still am neuroatypical as an adult, turned out to be demisexual which is pretty different considering most of the world is some flavor of allosexual, an I grew up in the USA where basically the only acceptable adult/child relationships are parent/child and teacher/student (and if you’re a teacher you’re on thin fucking ice, fucking YIKES) because the USA treats every other possible interaction between an adult and child as highly suspect. The only factors I have mitigating these views is that I’ve worked with kids and took developmental psychology in college. So I am aware children are a lot more complex than the culture in the USA gives them credit for being. Children aren’t some weird alien species. They’re largely just very tiny adults with very little power/little ability to act on their agency and very little experience. I have met 10 year olds I would trust more than I trust myself, honestly. Kids that are more mature than me and just... understand things I would definitely NOT have at the same age. So, like, again, I’m not saying it’s impossible for kids to fall in love. I’m just saying that usually kids aren’t concerned with that, and when they ARE, they’re usually practicing the particulars of love. but this is just from my own childhood and my limited experience working with grade school kids. Kids I worked with were far more interested in friendships than romances, and as a kid, my romantic interests were, like, Link from Ocarina of Time and I couldn’t decide if I liked fucking Knuckles the Echidna as a dad or as a boyfriend and I think I settled on dad material because I have an old old old illustrated story that I might have even uploaded here where Knuckles is my dad. XD So, like, for real, take my opinions with a FAT grain of salt because I am literally just a goofy goober and have been in exactly 2 romantic relationships and one of them only lasted a year. XD (The other is basically from college until now which is practically 10 years, but also largely long-distance so, like. Definitely not the usual experience. XD) But also, for real, if I say something controversial, weird, or just plain wrong, you can 100% feel free to fight me because I am an idiot and I say dumb shit all the time. That one debunked post that went around about the “Azhar Library bombing” is a big case in this. XD I am basically an educated adult child. I know some things, but more than anything I know enough to realized that I actually know VERY LITTLE and my whole life should be a learning experience. So I am absolutely not opposed to being wrong and getting taught things because that’s honestly half the reason I’m even remotely as good a person as I am today because I was a garbage kiddo and a garbage teenager and still probably a garbage young adult and was educated out of it. I have a lot of internalized beliefs that were changed because of college and listening to people online, and I can only learn more and grow more my having good friends throw down and fight me over stuff when I say a dumb thing. XD Literally I am probably only on the Left because good people educated me on politics when no one else would. I legit could have been one of those awful cases of a disenchanted teen that was led down the alt-right pipeline. Scary to think of but my parents weren’t teaching me so thankfully better people stepped up to do it. So, legit, you are welcome to fight me any time, man. I want to learn. I want to be inoculated against bad ideas and educated away from any bad opinions I hold.

[gus-the-icreamman]

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By 2019, the method we search might not modify completely, but these new systems will definitely change the way we all build links, engage users, plus generate leads through content marketing and advertising. Site Champion® increases site visitors by helping shoppers find your own products in search engines by means of increased keyword rankings using SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION automation. While link quantity is nevertheless important, content creators and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals are realizing that hyperlink quality is now more essential than link quantity, and since such, creating shareable content could be the initial step to earning valuable hyperlinks and improving your off-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Businesses with multiple websites and SEO-agencies can set up report web templates. Its search engine marketing group provides expertise in Pay-per-click marketing services, organic SEO and interpersonal media optimisation. The particular ads that you often discover on various web pages demonstrated and those that also show up on the rightmost side associated with search engine results are inorganic SEO examples. While I nevertheless see this trend in have fun with with many enterprises still within the midst of their electronic transformation, the convergence in the particular MarTech space is creating a lot of synergies and opportunities and this particular should be seen as the welcome development for brands plus agencies who are looking regarding an edge in regards in order to their SEO driven content advertising or outreach strategies. Along with the only complete certainty that SEO's, Website owners may have a lot of adjustments to make to web sites under their care in the particular mobile and voice search surroundings. The basics of GOOD SEO hasn't changed for years - although effectiveness of particular elements provides certainly narrowed or changed within type of usefulness - a person should still be focusing upon building a simple site making use of VERY simple SEO best practices - don't perspiration the small stuff, while all-the-time paying attention to the essential stuff - add plenty of unique PAGE TITLES and lots associated with new ORIGINAL CONTENT. Keyword research will be THE first step of any kind of SEO campaign. This free marketing device is really a long-term technique and can be time intense but it will worth this. A good user experience is usually the key to satisfaction plus a powerful SEO. 1 SEO might target different kinds of lookup, including image search, video research, academic search, 2 news lookup, and industry-specific vertical search motors. Many of us are in the fourth one fourth of 2018, it is typically the right time start thinking regarding the year ahead and brand new changes SEO realm might count on. We've long known that client opinions, input, and sentiment regarding a brand deeply impact SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION rankings, but we wanted the particular information to prove it. Off-page SEO means getting action to build trust, specialist, social signals and inbound hyperlinks. How video affects SEO actually depends on your goals whenever using video in your marketing and advertising campaign and which video system you use. LSI is just not what most SEO professionals claim it to be. This is certainly not a idea that can be used simply by the average web designer or even webmaster to improve their lookup engine listings, and it is usually not what many people, which includes myself, has written it in order to be. Nevertheless, first some history. This particular video walks you through the particular specific steps you have to get increased rankings in 2018, including launching speed, technical SEO, content, hyperlinks, and more. Given that it is, all across typically the year agencies specializing in SEO were occupied recovering and finding new procedures to optimize the search motor even better than what their own competitors were doing. Join us for some sort of three-day, one-track conference full regarding forward-thinking, tactical sessions in SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION, growth marketing, the mobile surroundings, analytics, content marketing, and a lot more. The objective regarding SEO is to get the website ranked as high while possible on search engines, like Google. In the event that you are improving user encounter by focusing primarily on the particular quality of the MC associated with your pages and avoiding -- even removing - old-school SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques - those certainly are usually positive steps to getting even more traffic from Google in 2018 - and the type associated with content performance Google rewards will be in the end largely from least about a satisfying consumer experience. For instance, when I'm logged in to Google+ and I actually search for SEO, I obtain the following in my top 5 search results. Black head wear SEO practice involves breaking almost all of the rules and rules of the search engine. Every time you observe or hear the phrase lookup engine optimization, ” substitute exactly what create quality and indicating relevance” and you'll have the correct mindset permanently SEO work. SEOs conveniently call this effect ‘domain authority' and it appeared in order to be related to ‘PageRank' : the system Google started in order to rank the web within 1998. For those who have more time plus are keen to follow the particular SEO industry, subscribe to Moz and Search Engine Land. Integrating these keywords into the write-up allows you to add range while still retaining SEO energy. To get a better SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, helps your website can obtain on the top among well-known search engines like Bing plus Google. On the various other side, you can ensure a good effective content marketing campaign just when you apply the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques properly. SEO : Search engine optimization: the procedure of making your web site better intended for search engines. The purpose of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION writing is to make your own company more visual, more attractive in website search engines. SEO is usually the practice of increasing this quantity and quality of targeted traffic to your website through natural and organic search engine results. 31. SEO data can notify a smart social media technique. Solid keyword & marketplace research assist SEO strategy plus allow us to deliver realistic projections and forecasts of opportunity inside your market. Nevertheless, when this comes to developing and doing an audio SEO strategy intended for your business, just creating content material for the keywords your clients are looking for is each arduous and, well, wrong. In this situation, in, the article ranks correct after the official Google suggestions (and it makes sense that will Google should be number one on their own branded query) but Smashing magazine is proven as a position 0” little of text on the issue Google pop up guidelines” within. Search Engine Land, a top quality SEO blog this is the pillar of the community is usually ranking after Smashing (which occurs to be really a style blog than an SEO one).

A greater number associated with people will stick to tone of voice search, so SEO specialists can need to adjust to this particular relatively new kind of research. Seo or SEO is usually a powerful method to generate targeted traffic to your site and hopefully increase your bottom part line. Whilst many marketing tactics rely upon you reaching out to your own audience, SEO gives you the particular power to achieve people whenever they are actively searching out there information related to your providers and products. White colored hat SEOs the actual recommendations of Google and other lookup engines like google. As Google's search engine outcomes become increasingly monetized and some other platforms such as Amazon plus YouTube gain more SoV plus search volume, I think wish overdue for the focus associated with SEO to shift far through Google. Traditional SEO is usually Blog9T focused on building (keyword relevant) links and (keyword relevant) articles. The main reason they may sometimes misunderstood is because there are a whole Internet underbelly of alleged SEO companies that you may pay to link to your own site on their networks associated with low-quality articles. However, before we obtain to our main event, I actually must note that after our own 2017 edition of SEO tendencies launched last year on Lookup Engine Journal, we heard the couple of complaints about simply how long it was. After that your boss tells you you aren't accountable for search engine marketing (SEO), too. Michael jordan Harling, SEO Specialist at Roman Blinds Direct, agrees with the particular consensus that voice search can be the trend in 2019. Ultimately, simply by the end of 2018 or even mid-2019, we'll see a golf swing back to natural” content created by real humans who may produce valuable content that in fact provides value. Hiring experienced SEO experts can ensure that your website climbs the search engine ranks with no using any illegal practices or even short cuts that could create short-term spikes in the home page's ranking, but eventually lead in order to your website having to spend penalties. Official Site Associated with BlowFish SEO - Professional Search Motor Optimization Services operated by Robert DiSalvo SEO Located in Hand Beach Gardens, Florida. The takeaway here is usually that if you might possess LOTS of location pages helping A SINGLE business in a single location, then those are really probably classed as some type of doorway pages, and most likely old-school SEO techniques for these types of type of pages will discover them classed as lower-quality -- or even - spammy web pages. CRAWL this, like Google does, with (for example) Screaming Frog SEO spider, plus fix malformed links or stuff that result in server errors (500), broken links (400+) and unwanted redirects (300+). SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION gives you an attempt at rating for the terms which your own customers use, so you may do better business. The job of the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is to create high-quality articles then win the attention, the particular love as well as the particular link from a blogger or even editor. The keyword difficulty or even keyword SEO difficulty is the very useful metric for key phrase research.

Here's a true statement you don't need to hear as often: Your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION technique for 2018 shouldn't concentrate on keywords. (1888PressRelease) Stone Marketing, a Boston-based, full-service SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and internet marketing firm today announces they have been positioned as the number five SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION firm in the 2010 Advertising World Top ten SEO Organization Award initiative. According to Forrester Analysis, the number of global mobile phone subscribers is expected to achieve 3. 5 billion by 2019, crossing the 50% mark with regard to smartphone penetration by 2018, plus reaching 59% by 2019. On-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ensures that your site can be read by both possible customers and search engine automated programs. In 2019, voice-search will become the dominant way that individuals search. But SEO is all regarding the organic” rankings, which show up in the middle of the particular search results page. The most important SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION factor for creating high-quality content material Here's What Industry Insiders Say About SEO 2019 is doing good keyword study. Protocol changes in 2018 seem in order to centre on reducing the strength of old-school SEO techniques, along with the May 2015 Google ‘Quality' formula update bruisingly familiar. Keep in mind in SEO article writing suggestions you keywords have to create sense too. Domain Authority within SEO is a rank that will measures how popular and reliable search engines call at your own website. If the key phrases you happen to be hoping to rank with regard to don't display on the page, this will be much more difficult to achieve your goals : making on-page optimization a essential part of most SEO advertisments.

[stopkingobama]

The UK Should Brexit the Singapore Way

Since I’m in London for a couple of speeches, I’ve taken advantage of this opportunity to make sure I’m up to speed on Brexit.

Regular readers may recall that I supported the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union. Simply stated, the European Union is a slowly sinking ship. Getting in a lifeboat doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, I noted, but at least there’s hope.

The European Union’s governmental manifestations…are – on net – a force for statism rather than liberalization. Combined with Europe’s grim demographic outlook, a decision to remain would guarantee a slow, gradual decline. A vote to leave, by contrast, would create uncertainty and anxiety in some quarters, but the United Kingdom would then have the ability to make decisions that will produce a more prosperous future. Leaving the EU would be like refinancing a mortgage when interest rates decline. In the first year or two, it might be more expensive because of one-time expenses. In the long run, though, it’s a wise decision.

Others reached the same conclusion.

“Black Swan” author Nassim Nicholas Taleb…told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” the EU has become a “metastatic and rather incompetent bureaucracy” that is too intrusive. “The way they’ve been building it top down from Brussels is doomed to fail. This is 2016. They are still thinking 1950 economics,” said Taleb, who is also the author of “Antifragile” and is an advisor to Universa Investments. Taleb has warned about an EU breakup for some time, calling it a horrible, stupid project back in 2012.

That being said, there is a lot of angst in the U.K. about what will happen during the divorce process, in part because of the less-than-stellar performance of the Tory leadership.

The EU is Scared and Desperate

There are three things, however, that British politicians need to remember.

First, the EU bureaucrats are terrified at the prospect of losing $10 billion of annual payments from the U.K., which is why they are desperately trying to convince politicians in London to cough up a big pile of money as part of a “divorce” settlement.

And “desperately” is probably an understatement.

The UK…contributions to the EU do come to over €10 billion a year. That is a substantial fiscal hole for the European Commission to plug… The Commission would prefer not to reduce expenditure since the structural funds and agricultural subsidies it distributes help to justify the EU’s existence. …it is not surprising that the Brexit divorce bill has become a sticking point in the negotiations. If the amount is big enough, it could tide the EU over for a few years. In Brussels, a problem kicked down the road is treated as a problem solved. This gives the British some leverage because it is most unlikely that the Commission will have lined up any new sources of funding, or agreed what it can cut, before March 29, 2019, when negotiations have to be completed. With no deal, the EU might end up with nothing at all.

Second, European politicians are terrified that the U.K., which already has the world’s 10th-freest economy, will slash tax rates and become even more competitive in a post-Brexit world.

If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe European officials who say the same thing.

European leaders will insist that the UK rules out tax dumping as part of any trade deal struck during Brexit negotiations… Matthias Machnig, the German deputy economy minister, called for a “reasonable framework” in tax and regulation, and warning “a race to the bottom in tax and regulation matters would make trade relations difficult”. Donald Tusk, the European Council president, also warned this morning that a deal must “…encompass safeguards against unfair competitive advantages through, inter alia, fiscal, social and environmental dumping”. The fear is that unless the trade deal which binds the UK into the European standards on tax, competition and state aid the UK will lead a regulatory “race to the bottom.”

Third, failure to reach a deal (also know as a “hard Brexit”) isn’t the end of the world. It’s not even a bad outcome. A hard Brexit simply means that the U.K. trades with Europe under the default rules of the World Trade Organization. That’s not complete, unfettered free trade, but it means only modest trade barriers. And since Britain trades quite successfully with the rest of the world under those rules, there’s no reason to fear a collapse of trade with Europe.

Moreover, don’t forget that many industries in Europe will pressure their politicians to continue free trade because they benefit from sales to U.K. consumers.

Around one in seven German cars is exported to the UK. Around 950,000 newly registered vehicles in the UK last year were made in Germany. As many as 60,000 automotive jobs in Germany are dependent on exports to the UK. Deloitte have explored the potential effect of a “tariff war” on the industry. …German politicians are realising this. The Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs, Ilse Aigner, has said that “Great Britain is one of the most important trading partners in Bavaria. We must do everything we can to eliminate the uncertainties that have arisen.” …The Minister is correct. …A comprehensive free trade agreement is not only vital, but should be easy to achieve. In other words, spiteful protectionism from the Commission would accomplish nothing but impoverishing all sides.

The bottom line is that the U.K. has plenty of negotiating power to get a good outcome.

So what does this mean? How should British politicians handle negotiations, considering that they would like free trade with Europe?

Part of the answer is diplomatic skill. British officials should quietly inform their counterparts that they understand a hard Brexit isn’t a bad outcome. And they should gently remind EU officials that a hard Brexit almost certainly guarantees a more aggressive agenda of tax cuts and deregulation.

But remember that it’s in the interest of U.K. policymakers to adopt good policy regardless of what deal (if any) is made with the European bureaucrats.

The Singapore Break-Up Strategy

The first thing that should happen is for British politicians to adopt a low-tax model based on Singapore. Some experts in the U.K. are explicitly advocating this approach.

I call this the Singapore effect. When Singapore separated from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, it apparently faced a grim future. But the realisation that no one was going to do it any favours acted as a spur to effective government – with spectacular results. We could do the same. We need a strategy that lays out the path to reductions in corporation tax, lower personal tax.

Marian Tupy of the Cato Institute explains why copying Singapore would be a very good idea.

Why Singapore? Let’s look at a couple of statistics. In 1950, GDP per capita adjusted for inflation and purchasing power parity was $5,689.91 in Singapore. It was $11,920.58 in the U.K. Average income in Singapore, in other words, amounted to 48 percent of that in the U.K. In 2016, income in Singapore was $82,168.33 and $42,287.17 in the U.K. Put differently, Singaporeans earned 94 percent more than the British. During the intervening years, Singaporean incomes rose by 1,344 percent, while British incomes rose by 256 percent. …the “threat” of Singaporean tax rates and regulatory framework ought not to be a mere negotiating strategy for the British government vis-a-vis the EU. It ought to be a goal of the British decision makers—regardless of what the EU decides!

Here’s a chart from Marian’s article.

Or the U.K. could copy Hong Kong, as a Telegraph columnist suggests.

Our political leaders still seem to lack a vision of what Britain can achieve outside the EU… Perhaps they are lacking in inspiration. If so, …Hong Kong…is now one of the richest places in the world, with income per capita 40 per cent higher than Britain’s.

And much of the credit belongs to John Cowperthwaite, who unleashed great prosperity in Hong Kong by limiting the role of government.

Faced with…the approach being taken in much of the West: deficit financing, industrial planning, state ownership of industry, universal welfare and higher taxation. How much of this did the British civil servant think worth transposing to Hong Kong? Virtually nothing. He had a simple alternative: government spending depended on government revenues, and this in turn was determined by the strength of the economy. Therefore, the vital task for government was to facilitate growth. …He believed in the freest possible flow of goods and capital. He kept taxes low in order that savings could be reinvested in businesses to boost growth. …Cowperthwaite’s view was that higher government spending today destroys the growth of tomorrow. Indeed, over the last 70 years Hong Kong has limited the size of the state to below 20 per cent of GDP (in Britain it is over 40 per cent) and growth has been substantially faster than in the UK. He made a moral case for limiting the size of government, too.

In other words, the United Kingdom should seek comprehensive reforms to reduce the burden of government.

That includes obvious choices like lower tax rates and less red tape. And it also means taking advantage of Brexit to implement other pro-market reforms.

One example is that the U.K. will now be able to assert control over territorial waters. That should be immediately followed by the enactment of a property rights-based system for fisheries. It appears that Scottish fishermen already are agitating for this outcome.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation says the UK’s exit from the European Union will boost jobs in the sector, reports The Guardian. It’s chief executive Bertie Armstrong said the exit will give them “the ability to recover proper, sustainable, rational stewardship through our own exclusive economic zone for fisheries.”

Let’s close with some Brexit-related humor.

I already shared some examples last year, and we can augment that collection with this video. It’s more about USexit, but there’s some Brexit material as well.

And here’s some more satire, albeit unintentional.

The President of the European Commission is so irked by Trump’s support for Brexit that he is threatening to campaign for secession in the United States.

In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if the Republican president does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU. …A spokesman for the bloc later said that the remarks were not meant to be taken literally, but also tellingly did not try to pass them off as humorous and insisted the EU chief was making a serious comparison.

I have no idea why Juncker picked Ohio and Texas, but I can state with full certainty that zero people in either state will care with a European bureaucrat thinks.

And speaking of accidental satire, this tweet captures the mindset of the critics who wanted to pretend that nativism was the only reason people were supporting Brexit.

“The EU is an economic catastrophe unfolding in slow motion at huge scale!” “The only reason anyone wants to leave the EU is racism!”

— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) July 3, 2016

Last but not least, we have another example of unintentional humor. The pro-tax bureaucrats at the OECD are trying to convince U.K. lawmakers that tax cuts are a bad idea.

The head of tax at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which advises developed nations on policy, said the UK could use its freedom from EU rules to slash corporate tax but the political price would be high. …”A further step in that direction would really turn the UK into a tax haven type of economy,” he said, adding that there were practical and domestic political barriers to doing this. …The UK is already in the process of cutting its corporate tax rate to 17 percent.

Though maybe I shouldn’t list this as unintentional humor. Maybe some British politicians will be deterred simply because some tax-free bureaucrats in Paris expressed disapproval. If so, the joke will be on British workers who get lower wages as a result of foregone investment.

By the way, here’s a reminder, by Diana Furchtgott-Roth in the Washington Examiner, of why Brexit was the right choice.

As we celebrate Independence Day on July 4, we can send a cheer across the pond to the British, who declared independence from the European Union on June 23. For the British, that means no more tax and regulatory harmonization without representation. Laws passed by Parliament will no longer have to be EU-compatible. It even means they will be able to keep their high-efficiency kettles, toasters, hair dryers and vacuum cleaners. As just one example of the absurdity of EU regulation, vacuum cleaners with over 1600 watts were banned by Brussels in 2014, and those over 900 watts are scheduled to be phased out in 2017. Brussels bureaucrats say that these vacuum cleaners use too much energy. No matter that the additional energy cost of a 2300-watt vacuum cleaner compared with a 1600-watt model is less than $20 a year, that it takes more time to vacuum with a low-energy model, and, most important, people should be able to choose for themselves how they want to spend their time and money. I, for one, prefer less time housecleaning.

Amen. As much as I despise the busybodies in Washington for subjecting me to inferior light bulbs, substandard toilets, second-rate dishwashers, weak-flow showerheads, and inadequate washing machines, I would be far more upset if those nanny-state policies were being imposed by some unaccountable international bureaucracy.

Reprinted from International Liberty.

Daniel J. Mitchell

Daniel J. Mitchell is a Washington-based economist who specializes in fiscal policy, particularly tax reform, international tax competition, and the economic burden of government spending. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

[americanlibertypac]

The UK Should Brexit the Singapore Way

Since I’m in London for a couple of speeches, I’ve taken advantage of this opportunity to make sure I’m up to speed on Brexit.

Regular readers may recall that I supported the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union. Simply stated, the European Union is a slowly sinking ship. Getting in a lifeboat doesn’t guarantee a good outcome, I noted, but at least there’s hope.

The European Union’s governmental manifestations…are – on net – a force for statism rather than liberalization. Combined with Europe’s grim demographic outlook, a decision to remain would guarantee a slow, gradual decline. A vote to leave, by contrast, would create uncertainty and anxiety in some quarters, but the United Kingdom would then have the ability to make decisions that will produce a more prosperous future. Leaving the EU would be like refinancing a mortgage when interest rates decline. In the first year or two, it might be more expensive because of one-time expenses. In the long run, though, it’s a wise decision.

Others reached the same conclusion.

“Black Swan” author Nassim Nicholas Taleb…told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” the EU has become a “metastatic and rather incompetent bureaucracy” that is too intrusive. “The way they’ve been building it top down from Brussels is doomed to fail. This is 2016. They are still thinking 1950 economics,” said Taleb, who is also the author of “Antifragile” and is an advisor to Universa Investments. Taleb has warned about an EU breakup for some time, calling it a horrible, stupid project back in 2012.

That being said, there is a lot of angst in the U.K. about what will happen during the divorce process, in part because of the less-than-stellar performance of the Tory leadership.

The EU is Scared and Desperate

There are three things, however, that British politicians need to remember.

First, the EU bureaucrats are terrified at the prospect of losing $10 billion of annual payments from the U.K., which is why they are desperately trying to convince politicians in London to cough up a big pile of money as part of a “divorce” settlement.

And “desperately” is probably an understatement.

The UK…contributions to the EU do come to over €10 billion a year. That is a substantial fiscal hole for the European Commission to plug… The Commission would prefer not to reduce expenditure since the structural funds and agricultural subsidies it distributes help to justify the EU’s existence. …it is not surprising that the Brexit divorce bill has become a sticking point in the negotiations. If the amount is big enough, it could tide the EU over for a few years. In Brussels, a problem kicked down the road is treated as a problem solved. This gives the British some leverage because it is most unlikely that the Commission will have lined up any new sources of funding, or agreed what it can cut, before March 29, 2019, when negotiations have to be completed. With no deal, the EU might end up with nothing at all.

Second, European politicians are terrified that the U.K., which already has the world’s 10th-freest economy, will slash tax rates and become even more competitive in a post-Brexit world.

If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe European officials who say the same thing.

European leaders will insist that the UK rules out tax dumping as part of any trade deal struck during Brexit negotiations… Matthias Machnig, the German deputy economy minister, called for a “reasonable framework” in tax and regulation, and warning “a race to the bottom in tax and regulation matters would make trade relations difficult”. Donald Tusk, the European Council president, also warned this morning that a deal must “…encompass safeguards against unfair competitive advantages through, inter alia, fiscal, social and environmental dumping”. The fear is that unless the trade deal which binds the UK into the European standards on tax, competition and state aid the UK will lead a regulatory “race to the bottom.”

Third, failure to reach a deal (also know as a “hard Brexit”) isn’t the end of the world. It’s not even a bad outcome. A hard Brexit simply means that the U.K. trades with Europe under the default rules of the World Trade Organization. That’s not complete, unfettered free trade, but it means only modest trade barriers. And since Britain trades quite successfully with the rest of the world under those rules, there’s no reason to fear a collapse of trade with Europe.

Moreover, don’t forget that many industries in Europe will pressure their politicians to continue free trade because they benefit from sales to U.K. consumers.

Around one in seven German cars is exported to the UK. Around 950,000 newly registered vehicles in the UK last year were made in Germany. As many as 60,000 automotive jobs in Germany are dependent on exports to the UK. Deloitte have explored the potential effect of a “tariff war” on the industry. …German politicians are realising this. The Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs, Ilse Aigner, has said that “Great Britain is one of the most important trading partners in Bavaria. We must do everything we can to eliminate the uncertainties that have arisen.” …The Minister is correct. …A comprehensive free trade agreement is not only vital, but should be easy to achieve. In other words, spiteful protectionism from the Commission would accomplish nothing but impoverishing all sides.

The bottom line is that the U.K. has plenty of negotiating power to get a good outcome.

So what does this mean? How should British politicians handle negotiations, considering that they would like free trade with Europe?

Part of the answer is diplomatic skill. British officials should quietly inform their counterparts that they understand a hard Brexit isn’t a bad outcome. And they should gently remind EU officials that a hard Brexit almost certainly guarantees a more aggressive agenda of tax cuts and deregulation.

But remember that it’s in the interest of U.K. policymakers to adopt good policy regardless of what deal (if any) is made with the European bureaucrats.

The Singapore Break-Up Strategy

The first thing that should happen is for British politicians to adopt a low-tax model based on Singapore. Some experts in the U.K. are explicitly advocating this approach.

I call this the Singapore effect. When Singapore separated from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, it apparently faced a grim future. But the realisation that no one was going to do it any favours acted as a spur to effective government – with spectacular results. We could do the same. We need a strategy that lays out the path to reductions in corporation tax, lower personal tax.

Marian Tupy of the Cato Institute explains why copying Singapore would be a very good idea.

Why Singapore? Let’s look at a couple of statistics. In 1950, GDP per capita adjusted for inflation and purchasing power parity was $5,689.91 in Singapore. It was $11,920.58 in the U.K. Average income in Singapore, in other words, amounted to 48 percent of that in the U.K. In 2016, income in Singapore was $82,168.33 and $42,287.17 in the U.K. Put differently, Singaporeans earned 94 percent more than the British. During the intervening years, Singaporean incomes rose by 1,344 percent, while British incomes rose by 256 percent. …the “threat” of Singaporean tax rates and regulatory framework ought not to be a mere negotiating strategy for the British government vis-a-vis the EU. It ought to be a goal of the British decision makers—regardless of what the EU decides!

Here’s a chart from Marian’s article.

Or the U.K. could copy Hong Kong, as a Telegraph columnist suggests.

Our political leaders still seem to lack a vision of what Britain can achieve outside the EU… Perhaps they are lacking in inspiration. If so, …Hong Kong…is now one of the richest places in the world, with income per capita 40 per cent higher than Britain’s.

And much of the credit belongs to John Cowperthwaite, who unleashed great prosperity in Hong Kong by limiting the role of government.

Faced with…the approach being taken in much of the West: deficit financing, industrial planning, state ownership of industry, universal welfare and higher taxation. How much of this did the British civil servant think worth transposing to Hong Kong? Virtually nothing. He had a simple alternative: government spending depended on government revenues, and this in turn was determined by the strength of the economy. Therefore, the vital task for government was to facilitate growth. …He believed in the freest possible flow of goods and capital. He kept taxes low in order that savings could be reinvested in businesses to boost growth. …Cowperthwaite’s view was that higher government spending today destroys the growth of tomorrow. Indeed, over the last 70 years Hong Kong has limited the size of the state to below 20 per cent of GDP (in Britain it is over 40 per cent) and growth has been substantially faster than in the UK. He made a moral case for limiting the size of government, too.

In other words, the United Kingdom should seek comprehensive reforms to reduce the burden of government.

That includes obvious choices like lower tax rates and less red tape. And it also means taking advantage of Brexit to implement other pro-market reforms.

One example is that the U.K. will now be able to assert control over territorial waters. That should be immediately followed by the enactment of a property rights-based system for fisheries. It appears that Scottish fishermen already are agitating for this outcome.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation says the UK’s exit from the European Union will boost jobs in the sector, reports The Guardian. It’s chief executive Bertie Armstrong said the exit will give them “the ability to recover proper, sustainable, rational stewardship through our own exclusive economic zone for fisheries.”

Let’s close with some Brexit-related humor.

I already shared some examples last year, and we can augment that collection with this video. It’s more about USexit, but there’s some Brexit material as well.

And here’s some more satire, albeit unintentional.

The President of the European Commission is so irked by Trump’s support for Brexit that he is threatening to campaign for secession in the United States.

In an extraordinary speech the EU Commission president said he would push for Ohio and Texas to split from the rest of America if the Republican president does not change his tune and become more supportive of the EU. …A spokesman for the bloc later said that the remarks were not meant to be taken literally, but also tellingly did not try to pass them off as humorous and insisted the EU chief was making a serious comparison.

I have no idea why Juncker picked Ohio and Texas, but I can state with full certainty that zero people in either state will care with a European bureaucrat thinks.

And speaking of accidental satire, this tweet captures the mindset of the critics who wanted to pretend that nativism was the only reason people were supporting Brexit.

“The EU is an economic catastrophe unfolding in slow motion at huge scale!” “The only reason anyone wants to leave the EU is racism!”

— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) July 3, 2016

Last but not least, we have another example of unintentional humor. The pro-tax bureaucrats at the OECD are trying to convince U.K. lawmakers that tax cuts are a bad idea.

The head of tax at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which advises developed nations on policy, said the UK could use its freedom from EU rules to slash corporate tax but the political price would be high. …”A further step in that direction would really turn the UK into a tax haven type of economy,” he said, adding that there were practical and domestic political barriers to doing this. …The UK is already in the process of cutting its corporate tax rate to 17 percent.

Though maybe I shouldn’t list this as unintentional humor. Maybe some British politicians will be deterred simply because some tax-free bureaucrats in Paris expressed disapproval. If so, the joke will be on British workers who get lower wages as a result of foregone investment.

By the way, here’s a reminder, by Diana Furchtgott-Roth in the Washington Examiner, of why Brexit was the right choice.

As we celebrate Independence Day on July 4, we can send a cheer across the pond to the British, who declared independence from the European Union on June 23. For the British, that means no more tax and regulatory harmonization without representation. Laws passed by Parliament will no longer have to be EU-compatible. It even means they will be able to keep their high-efficiency kettles, toasters, hair dryers and vacuum cleaners. As just one example of the absurdity of EU regulation, vacuum cleaners with over 1600 watts were banned by Brussels in 2014, and those over 900 watts are scheduled to be phased out in 2017. Brussels bureaucrats say that these vacuum cleaners use too much energy. No matter that the additional energy cost of a 2300-watt vacuum cleaner compared with a 1600-watt model is less than $20 a year, that it takes more time to vacuum with a low-energy model, and, most important, people should be able to choose for themselves how they want to spend their time and money. I, for one, prefer less time housecleaning.

Amen. As much as I despise the busybodies in Washington for subjecting me to inferior light bulbs, substandard toilets, second-rate dishwashers, weak-flow showerheads, and inadequate washing machines, I would be far more upset if those nanny-state policies were being imposed by some unaccountable international bureaucracy.

Reprinted from International Liberty.

Daniel J. Mitchell

Daniel J. Mitchell is a Washington-based economist who specializes in fiscal policy, particularly tax reform, international tax competition, and the economic burden of government spending. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

[loominggaia]

What’s the absolute worst place to end up in all of Looming Gaia then, that isn’t the Lostland?

I think there are several different contenders...

Kelvingyard: Located in Kelvingyard Town, Evangeline Kingdom. This is the largest slave yard on Looming Gaia, containing thousands of slaves. This slave yard is so large that it's basically a town within a town. Only fae and gaians are contained here, while commoners live freely in the town around it. If you are a commoner, you can live a normal life in the town. But if you are fae or gaian, you will be imprisoned in this yard immediately just based on your species. Kelvingyard slavemasters intentionally underfeed the slaves here, ensuring that they will fight over food and the strong will weed out the weak. Slaves who are deemed valuable are forced to breed and churn out offspring like baby-factories. Slaves are randomly chosen to turn a heavy wheel for several hours a day, which generates electricity for the town outside. The conditions are so bad here that Kelvingyard slaves pray for the day that someone buys them, because they believe no matter who takes them or where they go, it can't get any worse than this. If you want a first-hand look at just how nasty this place is, I recommend reading "Unbreakable".

Wretched Forge: Located in the Serkel Desert, Serkel. This is the lair of the Divine of Hate, Mankind's Disgrace. It's a giant stone temple that extends deep underground. It's built like a giant pit with a pool of lava and a giant forge below, making the whole interior miserably hot. The forge is constantly spitting out foul monsters, and these monsters need to be fed. If you are unlucky enough to be kidnapped and dragged into this temple, you will either be slaughtered and fed to the monsters, or you will be tortured so that your suffering will feed Disgrace. If you have the proper skillset, you might instead be enslaved and forced to work the forge each day, from the moment you wake up until you collapse from exhaustion. The Wretched Forge is featured in a few different stories, but it makes its first appearance in the aptly-titled "The Wretched Forge".

Slegelse Island: Located off the western coast of Evik. This little island is currently owned by the Empire of Damijana. It's a barren chunk of rock with an active volcano on it, and this volcano is constantly sputtering out lava. What's special about this lava is that it seems to manifest a lot of pyriads. Damijana has set up a giant prison camp on this island, where prisoners are forced to slaughter the pyriads and harvest their byproducts, such as pyriad leather, pyriad hair, and most importantly: pyre crystals. If you are a red elf prisoner, you will probably be made to hunt pyriads because of your natural fire-resistance. If you are any other species, you will be made to work in a hot, miserable factory for 14 hours a day, where you refine pyriad byproducts and ship them back to the motherland. Most of the prisoners here are Damijani citizens who were arrested for whatever reason, but some are just random foreigners that the empire kidnapped to fill gaps in their labor force. Literally anyone can end up here at random, and if they do, they will most likely die here. The mortality rate on this island is insane--with the majority of factory workers dying within 5 years, and pyriad-hunters barely lasting 1 year. Slegelse Island was mentioned extensively in "The Shadow Sector."

Kirkmar: Located in Red Tundra, Halostira. While not nearly as bad as some places on this list, it's still not a place anyone wants to be except the natives who were born there, and even a good number of them end up leaving eventually. Kirkmar is home to the Maskamar tribe of humans. In Universa, their name translates to "Man-Killers". The Maskamar are a notoriously violent tribe who has conquered many of the other tribes around them, and regularly raids surrounding villages, forcing them to give up resources or else be burned to the ground. Kirkmar is located in one of the coldest regions on Looming Gaia, with the warmest temperatures of the year climbing just a few degrees above freezing. During the winter, temperatures drop to 50 below and the sun only rises for 2 hours a day. Spring and summer bring lots of migrating animals to graze once the snow melts, and that means abundant food. But once autumn comes, those animals disappear, so I hope you preserved enough meat and byproducts to see you through half the year or you're screwed. There are no trees in this region. Wood is an expensive luxury, so natives burn animal fat and dung to keep warm. This gives the whole village a rank stench 24/7. Also, if you are not a native Maskamar, you will be treated coldly or even met with violence. The Maskamar are known to be horribly racist and distrustful to outsiders. This is not the type of place foreigners want to settle. Unless you're here to trade, the natives would prefer if you moved along. For a closer look at life in Kirkmar, check out "Flopper and the Whopper" and "Age of the Grupphund".

Kingsfall Swamp: Located in southwestern Evik. Kingsfall Swamp is made up of many independent villages, but all of these villages have two things in common: rampant poverty and poor quality of life. You see, this swamp is located downhill from Zareen Empire and acts as an outlet for the Kingsfall River. Zareen and Damijana both use this river as a dumping ground for all their sewage and toxic chemicals, so all of this stuff ends up concentrated in the swamplands to the south. The whole Kingsfall Swamp region is horribly polluted, full of blood-sucking pests like mosquitoes and peatcreeps, rampant with diseases like malaria, and it rains more often than not. It's a poor, muddy, rainy, smelly, polluted, literal toilet of a place. Even worse, this region is regularly attacked by the Aquarian Alliance, who kidnap the villagers' children. You can get a closer look in the story "Chains of Melody".

Taybiya: Located in Southriver Wood, Noalen. This is a very large settlement which is independent from any Great Kingdom. Because its leadership is so weak, crime and corruption runs rampant. In fact, Taybiya acts as a magnet for criminals who are fleeing surrounding kingdoms, meaning a huge chunk of the population is made up of thieves, murderers, rapists, and other shady characters. All this shady business has also attracted vampires, who are known to kidnap random citizens and drag them away to their blood-dungeons. Overall, Taybiya is a poor, run-down, crime-riddled, vampire-infested dump. It's been featured in several stories, namely "Dirty Animal" and "Monster by Moonlight".

Burmek Ruins: Located in northern Wokina. This region was once dominated by a powerful, technologically-advanced kingdom called the Burmek Commonwealth. However, this kingdom collapsed during the Nymph Wars and local nymphs have almost completely reclaimed the land. Today, Burmek's descendants survive in anarchic little forts spread across the region. You can't leave these forts unless you're armed to the teeth with guns and explosives, because the nymphs outside will attack you on sight. But life is no picnic inside the forts either, with rampant poverty and out of control crime. It's every man for himself in this lawless land. This region is explored in the story "As Nature Intended".

Spriggan's Sanctum: Located in western Umory-Ond. If you're a goblin, this place might just be paradise. But if you're any other species, literally everyone and everything in this vast forest wants you dead. It's considered one of the most hostile places on Looming Gaia. Even the local nymphs have taken on an unusual appearance, looking more like soldiers than beautiful women. If the nymphs don't kill you, the greedy greens and other local fauna will. And if you manage to survive those, you definitely won't survive the Green Witch.

Chidibe: Located in Yerim-Mor Kingdom. Chidibe is known as the poorest hold in all the Great Kingdoms. Its citizens are so deprived that they've turned to cannibalism just to survive, and the police are so corrupt that they're more likely to rob you than help you. There is no sanitation, meaning the streets are full of trash and raw sewage, which spreads deadly diseases. The average Chidibean dies well before they see their first gray hair, either from starvation, plague, or violence from their fellow citizens. To add insult to injury, this city is one of Disgrace's favorite places to raid in order to harvest slaves and monster-food, so you are likely to get kidnapped by the Divine of Hate too. This region is one of the hottest and dryest on Looming Gaia, so even in the dead of winter you will be sweaty and miserable. This city makes an appearance in several stories, including "Steel Knuckle Squad" and "The Perfect Shot".

That's all I can think of at the moment!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost