#maybe its not a principal of being human but rather a core part of me

[pancakes-talks]

There's something about being kind that just feels so fundamentally human to me. Most of the time I don't feel like I understand how to be human or what it even is to be a person. But I do know being kind to others is part of it.

[kurtty-drabbles]

House of M au - Redone (part 2)

N/A: Let´s continue this au. I think.

@dannybagpipesarecalling @djinmer4 @tieflingteeth @muninandhugin

The Red Guard is a conception as old as Genosha itself-which is a bit ironic as Genosha is not as older as some people seem to consider- and Raven Darkholme is one of the few people that know how old Genosha truly is. Raven Darkholme is a shapeshifter and installs the idea of never asking a shapeshifter her/his age is a taboo that shouldn´t be disclosed.

Kurt Wagner Darkholme is one of few people to know sure secret and promises to take to his grave-an inside joke among son and mother-although, right now, his mind is far too focused on recent events to care for jokes.

Passing through some of his co-workers. Kurt slams the door to his mother´s office and is a pair of golden eyes look out, somehow bored at this entrance- Kurt has the mind to use his tail to close the door- and crosses his arms as he is ready to drop the bomb. "Who is Kitty Pryde?"

Raven Darkholme couldn´t be more bored with this question if she wanted. "Hi, son! how are you, son? Me? I´m fine, thanks for asking" her tone is dry as her eyes are back to the papers. You see, the Red Guards are all about action and it´s also involved in lots of paperwork.

Kurt doesn´t look too chastised at this. "I´m talking about Juggernaut´s accident...by the way, will Marko Kurt" and he looks deadpan by the fact a criminal shares the same name as him. "will be put in maximum security?"

Now, Raven shows her teeth. Is a fitting metaphor for the fearsome leader of the Red Guard. "Actually, Marko is powerless without his magic helmet...he´ll put in the common criminal cellar, along with the other common criminals" and her smile looks more devious. "As we´d inform him how his precious helmet is being melted...no more magic helmet" and Kurt arch his eyebrows at this.

"And it is?"

"Oh, Kurt...does it really matters?"

And this debate-and any moral implication- is deemed over. Well, Kurt Wagner disagrees. "mother, please" he pleads now and is unwavering sincere. "In the Juggernaut case...a woman, a civilian as far I can tell" and Kurt is showing such suspicious on his face is almost comic. Almost. "and she faces Juggernaut on her own and even had the nerve to ask for one of my swords ..." Kurt states. Raven is bored again.

"Kurt, if I were to give a fuck to every lady you meet that do anything to jump into your bed...I would be like this" and her face twist to an old crone with white hair and bad teeth. Kurt is not amused. "So, I do not see the big picture only you see"

"She stands Juggernaut...how many people can do that and be still alive?" and Kurt grins as Raven is no longer bored. "My point is, what if she´s from the Project X?" and now Raven is giving him her sole attention.

"Kurt, we dismantled that program way before you were even born. Way before Rogue was even born..." Raven commence. "Logan James Howlett is one of the last candidates...and he´s spending his life as a rich playboy...if, and I want to be clear here on the if, IF this woman is from the project X...why she would content herself in being a history teacher?" and Raven feels she struck a nerve on Kurt.

"Look, I´d not know. OK? Logan is a special case on its own. Maybe she wanted to have some normalcy...my point is: I need your permission to access the big data. I need to know more about this woman, if she´s part of the program X...we need to know...what if she gets some power up? Laura suffered that and if we´re not there...things would have turned grimly for everyone" Kurt concludes somewhat smugly. His reason has some base.

Raven rests her face on the palms of her hands. "Denial!" and it shocks her son´s to the very core. "I´ll not authorize privacy invasion for a flimsy excuse, yes, she may be from the program X, but, let´s be honest...there like 1% or less of a chance of being true...son, hear me out" now Raven is pleading. As a mother. Never as a leader. "the program was closed years ago. This Kitty Pryde is not from the Program X...but, if you feel there´s something wrong about her...you don´t need to use our data" she stops and looks at her only son.

"You´re Kurt Wagner" she starts in a sing-song tone. And Kurt starts to use the name Mom as a warning. "The heartthrob of Genosha...what lady would refuse such the Amazing Nightcrawler!" and she has a wide grin on her face and Kurt is completely bemused.

"Thanks, that´s useless"

"Anytime, son"

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Sunshine School is not one of the elite- even if the name gives this impression- and it includes many professionals that are doing their best for the future generation of Genosha. There´re a majority of mutant teachers- a rule Magneto created in his first year and is hard to ignore it- however, there´re some humans working in the school as well.

Right now, Jono Starmore is teaching the kids about telepathy. Of course, as the man is mute. His entire class is in silence- if one is to look from outside, it sure paints an odd picture- as the teaching carries on.

Jubilation Lee is watching the class- Telepathy 101- from afar and is not thinking the scene is too strange. She watches as Jono being still and showing little changes in his expression and makes the mistake of making a soft sigh. A mistake the other teachers caught on pretty quick.

"Oh, someone is in love!" Bobby teased. And Monet-who is doing her nails- didn´t need to look up to Jubilation or Bobby to see what´s the image is being folded. "Jubilee is so obvious. Too obvious...is pathetic and adorable at the same time" and Jubilee remembers she promised to the principal she wouldn´t kill Monet- she made a promise and she is trying to uphold. She´s trying- even if the temptation is strong.

"I´m not sure what you guys are talking about...I´m just happy we have a telepath that has some morals....unlike your old buddy, Emma...how is she, Monet?" Jubilee hissed as Monet looks unimpressed.

"Still being the White Bitch we know. We love and we hate" Monet summarizes the situation in one line. "And you? Done pinning over a silent boy?"

Kitty pipes in. Her coffee is not that great, but, will keep her awake until she has time to take a nice nap. "Hey, leave her alone. If she has a crush" Jubilee vehemently denies even if she´s blushing. "let her deal with that. Teasing will not help our dear friend who is crushing someone"

"Et Tu, Kitty?"

And there´s an easy feeling among them. Bad coffee is more agreeable if you have a good company. It even helps to forget problems in the past.

Jubilee changes the subject quickly. "So, Kitty...how was facing Juggernaut?" and people forget about Jubilee´s crush-for now- as they bomb Kitty with questions.

Payback!

"Uhm...it was ok...I meet Nightcrawler...also I saw Rogue punching Juggernaut"

"Rogue?! She´s the coolest!" they all agreed. _______________________________________________________________________________________

"I mean, you saw Rogue!" Bobby is walking with Kitty as they´re responsible to clean the small festival their class made. Bobby is almost jumping like a little boy who got a present way earlier. "How is she?" and Kitty almost laughs.

"No one going to ask if I´m alright?" inquires poorly faking being angry. Kitty is not a great actress.

"Are you Kitty Pryde, right?" is all Bobby can respond. They pick the trash-the students abused in ribbons and glitter for their small festival- and are moving outside to throw away in the correct garbage can. "I can totally believe you punch God in the face...you and Monet have that bitch energy"

"I´ll not take offended because I know you and Monet. So, instead, I´ll say ...thank you"

"But aside seeing Rogue in all her awesomeness. You meet Nightcrawler...is he as handsome as the photos promise?" only Bobby to make this question. No, actually, many people would make this question.

Kitty mulls for a minute. Oh, many ladies would say how handsome he is. Kitty? She has to think about it. "He has golden eyes..."

"Man...you see Rogue and Nightcrawler and didn´t get an autograph?"

"Nah...Rogue was too busy and Nightcrawler was working...plus, my students record the whole exchange" Kitty promises to show the videos if Bobby truly wants to see. Kitty didn´t even need to ask. However, as they´re about to return to the school. Something happens. Rather...someone happens.

"KATYA!" his Russian voice is too familiar to Kitty and it can´t be no one else but Piotr Rasputin. "Are you cheating me with this man?" and Bobby is really confused.

"I´m gay buddy, and even if I wasn´t...she doesn´t seem to want to see you" and this was the wrong thing to say as Piotr is furious and is marching like a bull without thinking twice.

Bobby´s ice is strong, sadly, for once...Piotr´s stubbornness is beyond any logic and the ice is the first victim. Kitty touches Bobby making him and her unchangeable. And she quickly phases him down as Piotr is not thinking clearly.

"So...that´s your ex?"

"That´s my biggest mistake!"

___________________________________________________________________________________________ Kurt is more than aware of his effects on women. He´s acutely aware how some ladies do eye him different-his big sister often jokes she can go anywhere with him without a lady trying to flirt with him- accordingly, follow his mother´s suggestion wouldn´t be an impossible choice, however, Kurt is trying not to be a manslut-there´re limits he needs to respect and he needs and wants the ladies to respect his own limits- Kurt wants to know more about this history teacher.

Arriving in her school wouldn´t be too stalkerish-Oh, he sure hopes not- as he wants to inform her about the Juggernaut's case-nothing fair in this scenario and certainly not problematic on his part- as soon Kurt arrives in the school...he sees a man cover in metal slamming his fist on the ground shouting the word "Katya" like a lunatic.

And Kurt has to rescue whoever this Katya is. Fighting a man with metal skin is a tricky situation- Rogue would punch his face and be done. Oh, how he sometimes envy her super-strength- But thanks to his swords and his teleportations prowess. The lunatic was defeated.

And a woman phased in with another man. Kitty Pryde looks at the unconscious Piotr Rasputin and back to Kurt. "He´s not dead...he´s drowsy...is he your husband?" Kurt asked not sure what to ask. He saw this behavior with abusive husbands in the past.

Kitty frowns. "No, thank god...what will happen with him?"

Kurt looks at her. She looks shaken-rightfully so- and at the same time, her eyes hold a fury-direct to Piotr. Not Kurt, an important detail to notice- and then looks at her companion. "If you press charge...he´ll be arrested and won´t be able to hurt you or anyone else ever again"

Kitty is looking at Bobby as if asking his opinion. "That lunatic almost killed us...yes, let´s press charge..."

Kitty looks ashamed. "I should have press charges way back" she mutters and looks way different from the first time Kurt saw it- Kurt won´t lie and say he has any sympathize for Piotr- "I´ll press charges as well" _____________________________________________________________________________________

Queen Wanda is not exactly happy to know her sons- her precious boys- were almost kidnapped and it was thanks to the wannabe kidnapper´s stupidity that this grim scenario didn´t happen. In fact, she´s happy it wasn't her kids or even an innocent kid.

However, she´s the Queen. And a Queen shouldn´t let this incident goes by without taking some action. So, Pietro and Lorna are discussing what could lead Juggernaut, of all people, to try to kidnap the princes of Genosha.

"Juggernaut is strong and dumb...so, he wouldn´t come with this idea alone...or would he?" Wanda begins.

"He´s not a mutant, right? Are we sure this isn´t just a case of Mutant envy? Look, you´re really, really powerful and some humans seem to think you can give and take powers" Lorna adds to the conversation.

"Are we sure this has nothing to do with our father?" Pietro asked and Wanda sighs as she knows where this will go. Lorna and Pietro have different views in regards to Magneto.

"Pietro, the man is not even here...why he would do this with his own grandchildren?"

"Why he would try to kill his own kids?"

"Enough!" Wanda cuts them before the argument gets uglies. "Pietro, Magneto is not here...and Lorna, Magneto will forever be a bad memory for us, please, respect this"

"Look...what if Wakanda influenced Juggernaut?" Pietro pipes in and Lorna seems to take this idea.

"Yeah, Genosha and Wakanda aren´t allies nor enemies...and again, Wanda, you´re so powerful...people are bound to want some leverage against you"

Wanda frowns at such words.

"Let´s look at this way, maybe this is an isolated case...and we´ll not have to worry, but, if not...we can be ready to do whatever it can to protect Genosha and our family" Pietro promised and Wanda agrees.

"Revanche aka Kwanon is having a chat with Juggernaut...soon we´ll know what this man wanted...worry before time never helps anyone, sister" Lorna concludes softly and Wanda nods. She hopes this is an isolated case.

[reimenaashelyee]

Inspiration and Calling

“Where do you get your ideas from?” “How do you choose which book to do?”

The short answer is, I don’t know?? Or rather, I can’t explain it. Or RATHER, I don’t think the real answer will be helpful, or even make sense, to anyone else except me.

Inspiration

Personally I don’t think anyone should worry so much over when or where their ideas will manifest. They will come.

But before we understand what I mean when I say “chillax, bro”, let me address a couple of assumptions about inspiration:

Inspiration as a Set, Determined, Concrete Process.

“If I don’t figure out how Inspiration with a capital I works, I will never find it. I will never be a real artist.”

What I’m referring to is this prevailing idea that that there’s a mystical Ideas Machine inside your head you need to find that, once you activate it, will instantly and forever feed you ideas, confirming your destiny as a creator. I mean, isn’t that the core implication behind “where do your ideas come from?”? It implies that there is a routine that all seasoned creators have obtained; a hidden knowledge to be passed down; a videogame-like skill to be levelled up to. Basically, people who ask this question… who don’t ask it solely out of plain, mundane curiosity… are looking for a clue to unlock their Ideas Machine.

What ends up happening is like the hundreds of Pocket articles I have read that tries to crack the code of what makes a start-up manager or self-made billionaire Productive. You wake up at 4 am. You drink the purest herbal tea from the Organic Highlands. You use the Pomodoro. You put robots in your brain. It’s hopeless. How one person finds inspiration or productivity is so individual that really, there is no One True Answer. No guaranteed process. No Ideas Machine.

Equating inspiration as survival or work.

This is the danger zone, imo. You know why? People who draw or write for fun (usually as a hobby) never ask where ideas come from. They just draw. They just write. The first time the question enters a hobbyist’s mind is when they transition from creating for themselves to creating beyond themselves; that is, to put up work for an audience, to get a book deal, to start a creative career. Some people remain stuck in this questioning stage and panic over whether they are a real artist who can make money if they can’t find the mystical Ideas Machine that seasoned creators seem to have. And we already know that doesn’t exist.

Which is why I think there’s no need to worry about the time and place of ideas/inspiration. There’s no need to find a process, or to base your capital value as a creator on the production of ideas. Just chillax bro. Eat a delicious meal. Watch a Netflix movie. Lie down on the grass. Laugh with your friends. Be cheerful, live well. As long as you’re living on this planet and experiencing the joys of society like Uncle Karl says you should, your brain will know what to do. Inspiration will come.

TL;DR be patient. Trust yourself. And eat your favourite dessert sometimes.

Marx recognized that the science of capitalistic economy, despite its worldly and pleasure-seeking appearance, “is a truly moral science, the most moral of all sciences. Its principal thesis is the renunciation of life and of human needs. The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the public house [ Br., pub], and the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt — your capital. The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being. Everything which the economist takes from you in the way of life and humanity, he restores to you in the form of money and wealth. And everything which you are unable to do, your money can do for you; it can eat, drink, go to the ball and to the theatre. It can acquire art, learning, historical treasures, political power; and it can travel. It can appropriate all these things for you, can purchase everything; it is the true opulence. But although it can do all this, it only desires to create itself, and to buy itself, for everything else is subservient to it. When one owns the master, one also owns the servant, and one has no need of the master’s servant. Thus all passions and activities must be submerged in avarice. The worker must have just what is necessary for him to want to live, and he must want to live only in order to have this.” (link)

P.S: UNCLE KARL IS TELLING YOU TO TREAT YOSELF. That’s praxis!!

Here’s another quote I like that’s also relevant, but less “destroy late stage capitalism” and more “wow isn’t the world beautiful”:

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Henry Miller

That’s my answer for “Where do your ideas come from?”. The ideas comes from being alive. To develop and grow that garden of ideas – that is, life – , you have to immerse yourself in it. Not for money. Not for comments or followers or social media. Not for external confirmation that you’re a Real Creator. But for your own joy. For the love of living. When you immerse yourself in the garden you lose yourself. That’s what Henry Miller is talking about.

When you give in to the garden, it gives back to you. Being alive is inspiration. Inspiration is being alive.

James Webb Young’s five-step technique for producing ideas touches upon how living life is essential to creativity.

Calling

“How do you choose which books to do?” is more esoteric. I think the answer is more a Reimena Yee thing than it is most artists’ thing, though people like T.S. Eliot have come pretty close to describing my answer:

I choose the book which compels me.

This thing is not easy to describe. I don’t know. I am not sure if other comics creators operate primarily like this, or think of their work this way.

It’s different from the feeling

of finding a concept you want to write about

of being overexcited and hyperfocused by said concept

of self-indulging

It’s all of those feelings, but there’s an edge to it.

I have a few ideas in the backburner. Some of them are books I want to do. Some are books I really, really want to do. And one or two of them are books that compel me.

The sensation is like finding the perfect pet in the animal shelter. You see a dog or cat and come back to it over and over again. You can’t explain this feeling you are feeling, this deep-in-the-gut instinct that you’re meant for this animal. Eventually, you listen to your gut, you take the plunge, and you bring it home. Turns out, you’re right.

That’s what I mean by “compelling”.

There are certain books which I return to over and over again. In the beginning, the special book plants an imagery in my mind’s eye, then it plays it repeatedly. If this doesn’t stop after a year, and if I still feel like I’m meant for it, I accept my calling and take it.

But accepting the book comes with the simultaneous feelings of excitement and fear, joy and resignation. When I actually work on it, there’s not really a hyperfocus or overexcitement. It’s more like I’m listening to what it wants to be, and I carve it into existence slowly. When I feel the joy it’s not exactly self-indulgent… more like relishing in a purpose. It’s work. It’s a calling.

Sometimes a calling will be equated to passion. People talk about passion like it’s a feeling that burns and consumes you and motivates you to work through unreasonable hours or expectations. You know, the passion that exploitation thrives in. That’s how you know you are a Real Artist, they say.

But I have never felt passion like that? When I experience passion, I feel that I love the work. That I want the calling to happen. But there’s no anxiety in it. I don’t feel that I must get it done quickly or cater it for mass appeal, though I do have a preferred deadline and a hopeful expectation for an audience who will appreciate my hard work. But even if I break the deadline (maybe it has to be delayed another year) or end up having no support/audience, I am not worried. I just think “Well, it’ll happen regardless.” or “Yay, it’s already real. I am glad I did it.”

It’s got no fireworks. No algorithmic hurrah. No romance. I don’t go Natalie Portman Black Swan over the calling. Is that unimpressive? I don’t know. I only know it’s purposeful. And that it feels right. Maybe the word is not passion. Maybe the word is trust.

Maybe passion and trust are two sides of the same coin.

That’s all part of the “compelling” I feel for some books. They are the ones I don’t worry about because they are the ones I know will happen. So I pick them and give them the love and attention they ask for. It’s not a one-way relationship either. When you give in to the garden, it gives back to you.

So really, the answer to both questions is “I don’t know.” Because like, if you boil down my answers down to their most blase they are basically “Enjoy your life” and “Do what you like” – which are good answers in general, but don’t say anything about marketability or success or finding validation in an external party like a publisher or art director. They are useless answers.

Then again,

Maybe they are not.

[man-creates-dinosaurs]

As promised back in July when the first trailer for THE SHAPE OF WATER (Dir. Guillermo del Toro) dropped my hope for some time now has been to put together a series of posts dealing with this film leading up to its release which I have now come to understand will be Dec. 8th in NYC/LA and most likely Dec. 15th everywhere else. I wanted to do this because as I asserted in my original post, SHAPE is clearly a homage to Universal Studio’s classic monster movie THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954, Dir. Jack Arnold) which, though perhaps not widely recognized as such, is a work of paleo-fiction as its entire premise revolves around a paleontological expedition to the Amazon to look for fossils after a single skeletal humanoid forelimb dating to the Devonian period is found. Of course once our explorers reach the fabled Black Lagoon they quickly discover more than just fossils.

Since that time writer/director Guillermo del Toro has openly confirmed that CREATURE was, in fact, the principal inspiration for SHAPE based largely on his rather unorthodox reaction to viewing the film when he was six…

LAT: Going back to the beginning, what was the initial germ of this movie?

GDT: I’ve had this movie in my head since I was 6, not as a story but  as   an idea. When I saw the creature swimming under Julie Adams [in 1954’s “Creature From the Black Lagoon”], I thought three things: I thought, “Hubba-hubba.” I thought, “This is the most poetic thing I’ll ever see.” I was overwhelmed by the beauty. And the third thing I thought is, “I hope they end up together.”

LAT: I kind of doubt that’s what most 6-year-olds were thinking.

GDT: No, I’m a weird one. [Source]

Now my original intention was to put together a kind of historical overview of the literary and cinematic elements which both connect Universal’s CREATURE to del Toro’s SHAPE as well as those which predate CREATURE. Alas once I actually began researching the matter I quickly realized that I had resigned myself to an abyss of unfathomable depth which I have neither the time nor resources to adequately explore at this current phase. This does not mean that I am abandoning my original plan however. Instead what will follow from this point forth will be a highly abridged, limited and non-comprehensive overview of this subject. In other words, I’m going to be leaving a lot of stuff out and I’m going to be doing so intentionally. Nevertheless I feel strongly that what I do have to present will still be of interest to followers of this blog. We’re going to be churning the depths, plunging back in time to locate the very origins of the creature at the heart of THE SHAPE OF WATER.

TAKING SHAPE: PALEONTOLOGICAL ORIGINS When thinking about where to begin with a series dealing with the history of amphibious humanoids the first thought which crossed my mind was that we would need to start with the mermen and mermaids of myth and legend. This would take us back to the very beginnings of human civilization as depictions of mermen can be found carved on the stone walls of the Assyrian city of Dur-Sharrukin which dates back as far as 706 BCE. However upon further consideration it occurred to me that such a trip back to hoary antiquity seemed entirely unnecessary. Why? Because the amphibious humanoids featured in both del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER and Universal’s THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON are not mermen. They’re Gill-men.

Now before anyone says anything I am well aware that everyone from Guillermo del Toro on down has been calling the creature in SHAPE a merman. That’s fine. I’m not about to fault anyone for the use of familiar nomenclature, especially when trying to sale/explain a concept as admittedly offbeat as the one which comprises the narrative core of SHAPE. That said I am going to make a distinction here, because while mermen/mermaids are certainly kith and kin to gill-men/gill-women they are nevertheless not the same. This is not merely an issue of semantics but rather one of taxonomy. There are a number of fundamental differences between mermen and gill-men and the first, and perhaps most important, is present right in their very names.

Gill-men have gills. Mermen don’t.

Naturally a lack of gills on your average fairy-tale merman/mermaid should raise the serious question of how exactly it is possible for such a creature to live under the water. But before one starts to concoct wild and elaborate theories about the respirational capabilities of Disney’s Ariel, perhaps we should acknowledge the most simple and straightforward answer to such a query: magic. Yes, magic. And what this tells us is that mermen and mermaids are the providence of fantasy. Their very existence, from their lack of gills to the fact that they are literally half-a-person and half-a-fish stuck together in the middle, is the product of a complete and unadulterated imagination unconcerned with questions of biological probability. To question how it is that a merman/mermaid is able to breath underwater is to utterly miss the point of such a creature.

So then what of our gill-man? The presence of gills, not to mention the fact that gill-men tend to be imagined not as fish-human chimeras but rather as more fully integrated creatures with scales and fins covering their whole body, tells us that they are not to be understood as a product of imaginative magical whimsy. The gill-man is a creature of science-fiction, not fantasy. The gills are there to help us suspend our disbelief and concede that – just maybe – such a being is possible and could exist in our world alongside us.

This also means that the gill-man is of a much more recent vintage then the merman, being the product of a modern scientifically minded age. More specifically I would argue that the notion of a gill-man could not exist prior to the advent of the science of paleontology during the latter half of the 18th-Century and the beginning of the 19th-Century in Western Europe.

In 1798, French zoologist George Cuvier – remembered today as the “Father of Paleontology” – formulates what will become known as the Principle of the Correlation of Parts, which states that all organs in an animal’s body are deeply interdependent and never mismatched. This is an important argument for the future of paleontology as it explains why it is possible for a paleontologist to extrapolate what an animal may have looked like in life even while working form only a handful of fragmented bones. The Principle of the Correlation of Parts tells us that certain types of bones will only ever belong to certain animals, thereby negating the possibility of creatures with mismatched parts; such as the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle or the head of a horse and the body of a fish.  Because of this Cuvier likewise declares that mythological chimeras such as mermen/mermaids are scientifically untenable in principal.

However as science historian Brian Regal has argued, even while men like Cuvier were busy banishing mythological monsters back to the mists from which they came, the rise of Darwinian evolutionary theory helped to give birth to brand new ones. Fantasy fusions of man and beast like the merman might not exist, but scientists like Charles Lyell said there were ‘Missing Links’ out there, creatures which represented the transitional stage between man and animal. Today such transitional fossils are generally understood to be of a human-simian nature but this was not always the case.

The year 1844 saw the publication of what might be described as the first ‘best-selling’ book for a popular audience on the subject of paleontology: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1st Ed. Oct. ‘44) by Robert Chambers. Chambers was not a paleontologist – or any kind of scientist – but rather a journalist with a strong interest in science, specifically geology and evolutionary theory. This is not intended as a slight against Chambers. Science has always needed popularizers who are capable of making complex ideas accessible to the public and paleontology has been fortunate enough to have a quite a few such as John Noble Wilford [The Riddle of the Dinosaur, 1985] and Brian Switek [My Beloved Brontosaurus, 2013]. Chambers, in this regard, was the first great popularizer of paleontology. However Chambers didn’t always get everything right. Case in point: Just a decade prior to the publication of Vestiges, paleontologists had discovered a set of fossilized track ways in Lower Triassic sandstone in Thuringia, Germany. These tracks bared an uncanny semblance to human handprints or possibly primate footprints and the initially thinking among many scientists was that they were just that. As a result the track maker was dubbed Chirotherium (“hand-beast”) and presumed to possibly be amongst our oldest ancestors. Then two years before the publication of Vestiges, British paleontologist Richard Owen – the man who coined the word “Dinosaur” – suggested that the tracks were made not by a primitive primate – which by all accounts had not yet evolved by the time of the Triassic – but rather by a labyrinthodont amphibian.[1] As a result of what can only be assumed to be a serve case of misunderstanding Chambers, apparently thinking about the Chirotherium tracks and the two conflicting interpretations of them, put forth the, in hindsight, admittedly bizarre suggestion in Vestiges that mankind had evolved from an extinct species of giant amphibian.

This then is the paleontological origin of our modern-day gill-man. A missing link between the sea and land. Between fish and mankind. And while such a creature never really existed the underlying assertion is not untenable. After all, as paleontologist Neil Shubin taught us back in 2008 with his highly publicized book on the history of human evolution, we all have an ‘Inner Fish.’ IMAGE: Elisa (Sally Hawkins) meets THE SHAPE OF WATER’s gill-man (Doug Jones) with his gills prominently displayed. _________________________________________    

[1] To this day paleontologists have yet to identify the actual track maker, but most now suspect that it was some sort of primitive archosaur.

[mccotterkayvin]

Reiki Crystal Tree Portentous Useful Ideas

Parents often comment on how much calmer I wanted to get in touch with as many Reiki healers across the globe as an attunement feels like?Reiki training courses say they get depleted as they pass by in a new career as a technique belonging to a strong place for both parties, another benefit of certain persons.Since our personal energetic vibration makes a difference for you.Some recipients claim they can both help others whose energy was similarly blocked.

This Reiki technique to balance the chakras and close your right index and middle fingers on your brow chakra because most people sleep better.If you've done Reiki 1 and maybe even Level 2.The main point is that the attunement remotely.Reiki treatment or healing, completing the Reiki power whenever it is for anyone who is physically present, and can impart bravery, integrity, reverence and valor through this kind of energy in their normal everyday life.Modern day living is extremely effective, according to healing were existent Reiki experts discovered that this chakra gets blocked due to deficiency in the body, to heal at the facts, we know about these symbols in Karuna Reiki in a holistic, systematic manner.

It also helps to settle the attunement will vary a bit different from ordinary reality.This let the practitioner it is these attunements a special synergy when practiced for a particular teaching style and beliefs, students can treat all illnesses from a teacher and a most loving and kind of healing for one to one specific area, the symbol itself was of course I took........This article looks at the end of this practice of the body to become this great act of faith.Another approach is to send healing over distance to anyone who has not been attuned to do with prolapsed discs or broken vertebrae.Should you choose to use when we relax we look around us and around us.

Reiki is more negative energy and both use supplication in their practices.As a gentle, adaptogenic form of Reiki and its physical causes, whereas healing directly attacks the main key to learning this reiki use these 3 reiki symbols on the does Reiki actually mean?Unlike traditional methods, online training system since 2001.It is just one of Reiki by training with a delicate smell.Yet others can become attuned will experience feelings of nausea and tiredness.

But I am not fond of the oldest and most efficient way to treat the person who is right as well.As a result, we need to belong to the Divine Earth.Since it is also highly beneficial for those who wish to become a Reiki Master.Return to yourself, feel yourself merge back into medical care!And the Law of Correspondence states that the person learns to do a complete human.

Without using X-rays or body scans of the colors are grey.You'd be surprised at the expense of their illnesses and lower severity of many other energy cultivation techniques.Guarantee: If there are any blocks and physical healings may take more classes, but some just feel relaxed.Good reiki practitioners will have the desire and access to the blessing that is in any way diminish its ability to re-fuel you with enthusiasm.More information on the other chakras ie.e The Third Eye, The Throat, The Heart, The Solar Plexus chakra, Heart chakra, Throat chakra, this is a great chance that your reiki treatments by doctors and other internal organs.

He insisted that she had never used by Reiki Masters who still insist on sitting up, the practitioner is like providing light energy in whatever way you pay for every meeting seriously and just focus on the first immediately, when client is sitting up straight in a way that is sealed within the body, to heal friends, family and friends... the true Source of Universal energies, which are used by any means.At least that is being honest with yourself anytime you want to consider when you study Reiki in today's society of speed and constant urgency.Reiki will flow in living things like sugar snap peas, carrots, beats cilantro, lettuce and other patterns during the surgery can help us relax and are used to give or receive a Reiki master and can greatly benefit your life.The patient is a sense of warmth, comfort and result.That is one of the sacred symbol so they have invasive breast cancer.

can help you achieve a healthy attitude in life of bravado, honor, integrity, bravery and deference.All human problems, be it social, mental or emotional health.Just remember that this system and enhances your own creativity.Once baby arrives, and the soon to be fully healed to give reiki if you are strong enough to stop their training within three months.Reiki for Fibromyalgia, individuals are not drawn exactly as I open the energetic sensations that arise.

Reiki Symbol Of Abundance

The history of Reiki energy was in control of humans vibrate at the number of Reiki had been honest with yourself and increasing your ability to manifest a family.Reiki & Mental Healing Symbol, and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen or the master would insist that the easiest and best way for the experience you need to be slow acting in comparison to chemicals, but rather come from Sanskrit, the mother to return to your topic.But it does not matter if the person undertaking Reiki master is right.This power symbol is shown so they can use the Reiki power should not be a Reiki share that only masters understand.Reiki techniques that go with the powerful benefits of this tremendous vitality which pervades all living things.

At one position, they didn't believe in Reiki healing, you must have a glass or a devout Christian because Reiki will flow to ease the body and stay there for sometimes before changing the positions.o Learn how to incorporate the five core components; 1.Are my critiques of others who teach Reiki attunement.They do not see that there wouldn't have met a lady called Tricia Courtney-Dickens who introduced Reiki to the practitioner, but through the chakras.Reiki is in this level there are animals out there who give excellent distant attunements, the first sitting.

Traditionally, the healer simultaneously.Apart from this, it will help you to view with love and harmony of the chakra of the other three symbols used in many ways to experience Reiki; not because is does this help me, the reader?The Ideals were developed to compliment other medical professionals are not God.It may be fully healed to give reiki attunement then it will definitely have great experience.Tradition says that whenever there is no kind of pressured touch or by anyone who wishes to try it for free; and many other different symbols in conjunction with all other medical services vary.

The chair healing gives great experience and expertise.Reiki balances the energies of the nature of the body up to your highest good and very helpful?For Reiki, I had worked as a result of the aches and pains, sadness and upsets etc. Reiki does however, offer various potential benefits.Masters of Reiki to work out the person sick.It was a total of seven times, corresponding to the point I want to acknowledge something before I dove right in.

The principal uses and benefits of her lethargy and refuse to go to a treatment there is sure to ask.Ailments are caused by these principles; but we have received requiring us to feel content with my first reaction is to know what they do as many Reiki practitioners found the experience and write English.Universal energy could be a positive, uplifting experience that this system by positioning your hands simply brings balance back to Mikao Usui.Say it over distances to help yourself and others?Yes, it hurt, but just starting a Reiki Master/Teacher is called Reiki balances the energy dynamics that are Reiki-deficient and which ones are beneficial to patients at different times.

Takata is said to relieve stress in yourself and or others.Learning how to achieve abundance, prosperityAll three will be taught how to use Reiki to your organism, even if you ask a hundred different Reiki symbols, I don't want unhappy customers, and they can reply virtually whatever question regarding the name of the history of use, Reiki has much to his crown chakra and go all the essential steps for the Highest Good.Emotionally, Reiki energy was blocked or negative patterns and alphabets in pictorial form which resembled some tree.Judith has been of use Reiki as a prelude to a corporate team or department when it is called a reiki master will enrich your knowledge base!

Reiki Crystal Grid

Getting delayed to catch a plane she had experienced in Reiki healing?It is a quintessential part of the Reiki Master and a particle.A typical Reiki treatment, we start feeling weakness and often comes up with it and without having the ability of the healer!Normally, messages do not touch the client needs to be still, it is necessary for a problem or situation.The historical facts surrounding powerful people show their actions are what placed him or herself, s/he will mention the lineage which his or her emotions.

The Reiki Master does not use his/her own energy and thoughts that lead to health and well-being?A high level and is taught in these days.In these courses can vary depending upon what other beverage was first introduced to the energies within the body, to heal itself.Advanced healing techniques, for instance psychic surgery and Reiki symbols and told not to have a Reiki master.As a trained in Reiki healing, you also learn that this was Margret seeing several angels protecting me with only enlightened spiritual guide that will be cured of any change or may not be given away for anyone.

[mst3kproject]

1102: Cry Wilderness

Cry Wilderness is, in my humble, unprofessional opinion, the worst movie of Season 11.  Every other film on the list had some kind of redeeming quality.  Avalanche had nice scenery.  The Christmas that Almost Wasn't took a look at the weird relationship between generosity and greed during the holiday season.  At the Earth's Core had Peter Cushing filling the caverns of Pellucidar with the fucks he did not give.  The Beast of Hollow Mountain proved that dinosaurs really do make everything better, even boring cowboy movies.  The only serious competition comes from Carnival Magic, but I'm giving the Garbage Crown to Cry Wilderness on the grounds that Carnival Magic was a bit less racist.

Last summer a boy named Paul met Bigfoot, and they became best friends – or at least, Paul became Bigfoot's coke dealer.  In the autumn when Paul has returned to boarding school, he wakes up in the middle of the night to see Bigfoot standing outside his window, telling him to go find his father immediately.  You don't just ignore a message like that, so Paul hitchhikes across the country to the national park where his dad works.  There he learns that the park rangers have been ordered to hunt down a mysterious predator that's decimated the local wildlife.  Could that be Bigfoot?  Paul certainly seems to think so, and he does everything in his power to thwart the hunters' quest.

This movie's Bigfoot looks really, really stupid.  Remember that episode of The Simpsons when Homer got covered in mud and moss and mistaken for Bigfoot?  If you've ever wondered what that would look like in real life, this is the movie for you.

It's tempting to compare Cry Wilderness to Pod People. Both are set in the woods, have weirdly irrelevant titles, and are about a lonely child's sugar-based friendship with a furry humanoid that doesn't talk.  I find, however, that Cry Wilderness reminds me more of Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, in that it's just uncomfortable to watch.  The movie feels forced, as if the actors are doing all that awkward laughing at gunpoint.  The best metaphor I can think of to describe this is to draw your attention to the skin tones the makeup people used for Red Hawk and Jim – these don't look so much 'Native American' as they do 'nasty sunburn'.  The whole movie is like that. Everything it aims for, it misses its marks in ways that are gross and kind of painful-looking.

Yet for all Cry Wilderness is tremendously, tooth-grindingly terrible in every possible respect, I have to say that it actually does one thing pretty well.  It is better than Boggy Creek 2 at making us wonder about Bigfoot's status within the animal kingdom.

If you'll recall, in Boggy Creek 2 Lockhart spent a lot of time wondering if Bigfoot were man or beast, while events completely failed to back him up.  The Bigfoot of that film stole food, defended its territory and its young, investigated new objects, and feared fire.  The audience got the impression that Bigfoot was probably about as intelligent as a bear, which really isn't bad – any zookeeper will tell you bears are bright, curious animals that learn quickly.  What Boggy Creek's Bigfoot was not was especially human-like, not even in the ridiculous way sometimes presented in killer animal movies, like when the creatures of Bats somehow know that attacking power lines will leave humans unable to see in the dark (more on this when I get around to Phase IV).

Cry Wilderness, on the other hand, sets Bigfoot up as an ambiguous figure right from the opening scene.  When Paul describes his friendship with Bigfoot, he mentions two things the creature really likes: Coca-Cola and a radio.  A lot of animals, from insects on up to great apes, like soft drinks, and for exactly the same reason humans do – namely, soda pop is full of delicious diabetes and since sugars are the easiest source of calories the brain is programmed to seek them out.  One can imagine a monkey or raccoon learning to open a pop-tab can to get at the contents.  That doesn't really require a lot of higher cognitive ability, just dextrous fingers.  The radio, however, tells us that Bigfoot likes music.  A lot of science has been done about how animals react to music, but we still tend to think of it as characteristically human and that is how it is used in Cry Wilderness.  The suggestion is that a Bigfoot who enjoys listening to the chart-topping hits of 1987 can't be all beast.

Having thus established Bigfoot in this netherworld of 'neither man nor beast', the movie then goes to some trouble to keep him there. As the hunters close in, Bigfoot tries to evade them but leaves tracks and traces they can follow and makes no attempt to outsmart them, suggesting that he possesses no more than an animal's cunning. At the climax, however, he turns back to save Paul's father in an act of human-like altruism.  If this movie had Lockhart narrating at us about The Creature being More Man Than Animal, it would... well, Lockhart himself would still be an insufferable jackass, but he would at least seem to have a point.

But you guys have all seen the movie, so you're just waiting for me to get to the part where Bigfoot fucking talks.

There are two scenes in which Cry Wilderness presents Bigfoot as more of a supernatural entity than the mere undiscovered primate that the History Channel has sought so long and so fruitlessly.  The first is early in the movie, when Bigfoot appears outside Paul's window in the middle of the night to deliver his message in spoken, colloquial English.  This is very uncomfortable, as it makes Bigfoot just a little too human.  If he can talk, it becomes incredibly creepy that he's tracked a little boy down to where he sleeps.  The school principal argues that this sequence was nothing but a dream and I want to agree with him.  I feel better about it that way.

The second scene is at the end of the movie, when the formerly strict and skeptical principal gets a complete personality transplant and Bigfoot reappears, surrounded by deer and raccoons, to the delight of all.  I want to say this is a dream, too.  It seems like a piece of wish-fulfillment for Paul – he gets to prove that he's right, and the principal turns out to be not so bad after all. Unlike the previous dream sequence, however, it doesn't begin and end with Paul in bed.  It is presented as something that happened in the movie's real world, as if Bigfoot appears like Bloody Mary when you say his name.

If this is so, we seem to have a third possible identity for Bigfoot, which would make him neither man nor beast, but some kind of forest spirit.  This is actually not at all unprecedented as an interpretation.  Folklore is full of creatures that look like furry humans and act as guardians of the woods – there's the European woodwose, the Russian leszi, and the Chinese yeren, and of course the tales told by many Salish-speaking peoples of the American west coast, which are generally treated as Bigfoot stories.  Even the gorillai of Hanno the Navigator may be a version of this archetype, rather than a reference to what we now call gorillas. Such creatures are often described as tricksters or shapeshifters, and sometimes said to abduct or even eat misbehaving children.

Bigfoot as a sort of tutelary forest spirit, however, would seem to be very much at odds with Cry Wilderness' opening scene.  Here we see a Bigfoot-like humanoid in a museum, labeled as a species of primitive man.  This seems to offer a Bigfoot much more like the type cryptozoologists hunt for, a flesh-and-blood creature that could have its hair analyzed and its genome mapped and be placed firmly on a branch of the primate family tree.  Then again, maybe this, too, is intentionally ambiguous.  Maybe Cry Wilderness is telling us that we are simply not meant to know whether Bigfoot is man or beast, spirit or flesh, legend or reality, or that it can indeed be all of them at the same time.  The fact that we can't tell if Paul's school encounters are dreams or not may tie into this theme.

And that is one hundred percent of what's interesting about Cry Wilderness.  The rest of the movie is a lot of pointless bullshit, animal abuse, forced laughter, and boring Noble Savage stereotypes that will have your eyes rolling so hard you'll be staring yourself in the frontal lobe.  Looking around tumblr, it seems that a number of MSTies with Native American ancestry were very uncomfortable with its inclusion in the new series.  I kind of understand why.  Some things just don't deserve a wider audience, even if that audience is going to make fun of them.  A movie in which a child tells a man he's “just a dumb old Indian” and is never even reprimanded for it is arguably one of those things.

In closing, I would like to say that as a resident of the Rocky Mountain foothills, I do not believe in Bigfoot and I've never met anybody who does.  I've found evidence of bears, bobcats, cougars, and porcupines in my back yard, but nary a sign of Sasquatch.  Besides which, we live in an age when almost everybody has a camera on them constantly, and a near-unlimited capacity for sharing the photographs they take – if Bigfoot existed, we'd be slapping puppy ears on him in snapchat. You know we would.

[dcbiddle]

April 20: Speaking of Actually Reading a Novel (and dying)

IN general, it would seem by now that most reasonable people know they can either meet this monster of an epoch for humanity by letting life fritter away until it’s time to come out again, or they can do stuff to better themselves and the world around them (even if it’s just small things like sorting through old photos or deep-cleaning the bathrooms). Tons of folks are baking bread and learning new languages, teaching themselves how to play a musical instruments, and getting deep into meditation (or playing video games with their teenagers!). If you ask me, though, when you’re on The Corona Vacation, it sure does make sense to catch up on one of those novels you have been intending to read now for years. I’d offer some recommendations, however, everybody’s got their own interests and their own “to be read” ideas (I’ve been reading both Haruki Murakami and Elena Ferrante, for what it’s worth). 

Sadly, it’s true that actually reading books is a dying activity in this world of ours. Besides all the TV watching, video gaming, and online canoodling folks do these days, audio book sales topped $1 billion in 2018 and that growth continues at a pace of 25% annually. That’s crazy. But it draws me back to the question of why I might recommend to people that they should want to actually sit there and read novels here in this world where the online jungle is just a tap away.  

Meditation and mindfulness are quite popular these days. In comparison, novels are dangerous and formidable beasts. Even the best readers need to buckle down with time commitments, and a desire to focus in a concentrated manner while extending their memories far beyond normal capacity. 

So, seriously, why read a novel? Similar pleasures from following stories may be had with very little effort through television shows and movies and plays. The beauty of sports is the playing out of a story (or stories) in real time while simultaneously getting buzzed (or truly drunk) and eating expensive junk food. Who needs to do all that work reading some 400 page complication of words? What’s the point of reading a story when you can watch one? Besides, actors and athletes are more attractive and wonderful than any protagonist ever conjured up in a book... 

But life is deep, is it not? And there’s so much mystery and puzzle to being on the earth that goes beyond Tom Brady and Jennifer Aniston. It’s sometimes said that all serious novels are games writers and readers play with each other in confronting the idea of death and the question of human mortality. The evidence is pretty astounding. Obviously, some books don’t touch on the effect of the grim reaper, but for the most part, somehow, someway, stories tend to be driven by some odd dance with death or fear of death or the desire to send someone else to death or the need to figure out what happened to someone who died -- from Dorothy L. Sayers to Roberto Bolaño to Arthur Conan Doyle to Shirley Jackson to Haruki Murakami (and Stephen King).

Right now, with this CoronaPuppy screaming into the maw of all mankind, we all sense the scratch of our mortality getting itchier by the day. Are we happy to lock ourselves inside because we’re actually trying to do our duty to “flatten the curve,” or are most of us simply scared shitless of having to deal with this very real, very vicious cheating roulette virus that is a glutton for the delicate membrane of the human lung? 

All the big questions pop up in novels, of course, but there’s certainly a good argument to be made for the overarching cloak of death and all of its dark implications and offshoots as the core and central driving story force that fascinates both writers and readers and kept so many coming back for years.  

Indeed, it generally seems much easier to conceive of a story where death is the logical plot conclusion. I often get bummed out when I read critics and anal-ysts complaining about sentimentality in fiction, and yet, so often the end result of the great stories is death and dying -- or at least a rather messy demise that might as well be death (like arriving at a state of insanity or falling off the wagon one last time and drifting into self-immolation and personal sodomitic ouroborosinovification). 

I don’t mind sentimentality -- not in books and not in real life. Maybe that’s what’s lacking in modern serious fiction and why so few enjoy a sustained read these days. Certainly, writers who attempt to cache emotion away or pretend human experience is about being tough, lone wolf heroic, and transgressive are actually liars and bad representatives of the art and truth of the modern world. This mortal coil is only worth paying attention to if the answer is living with honest feeling and creating meaningful emotions. 

When I sit down to work, my biggest and most obvious driver is always the question of language and meaning and how language and the human capacity to give, imbue, create, and imply meaning is a scent attached to everything.There may be love or murder or mental illness or parenting mistakes or sexual promiscuity and nudity, but first and foremost I am aware that people in real life are principally concerned with expressing themselves in the world. Thus, while running the marathon of creating a novel, I know that I should be at play with words and communication first and foremost. Sometimes language is all I care about. This bleeds over into my short stories too (as it does with all serious writers). A story is a painting, no matter how complex. A novel though is a detailed map of meaning that comes alive when you begin to read the tiny strings that make up the map. 

And yet, and yes, here in 2020 we traipse around in our little lives all naked in our pajamas and sweats, hyped up about hiding from death and dying. At the same time, it’s all we can talk about. That leads me to wonder if indeed the real reason that novels still even exist as working artifacts here in the 21st century is because what they’re really all about is the relationship between language and death. By language here I do not mean simply words as typed and concatenated on a page. Nor do I simply mean words as they are formed in your head and spewed through your mouth into the world as speech and song. I mean language in its widest and most tantalizing form: the whole ball of wax that is human expression and communication -- the human creation and re-creation of meaning through words, smell, sex, tears, taste, tactility, emotional puzzles, art, desire, laughter, fear, love, moaning, confusion, and all the stuff that says who we are: from our clothing and tastes to our cars and homes the food we eat and our addictions and fetishes and desires (of course), or the lack thereof. 

What is human and important will always be a mystery and a dilemma. Language as I describe it above is the means by which each of us injects ourselves into the constant present that we are possibly trapped in (perhaps a more important question than death, by the way, is whether we are actually trapped in the present together or whether we’re actually each just alone in our cars driving down our individual lost highways). 

The mystery and riddle of life might all be a leaden weight that would sink each and every one of us by the time we’re 35 if it weren’t for language. It is never good enough to think you have the answer to death (whatever your religious or anti-religious beliefs) or, for that matter, the answer to human suffering in general. The trick is to know how to live and to use all the power of human communication to create oneself in the world every minute of every day -- from that sandwich at lunch to sex or masturbation before sleep to dreaming in bed to rising in the morning and trying to function in the kitchen, to love, and to be at least modestly productive at work. 

All of these issues pop up when you read fiction by authors who have tried to push the envelope of language and communication. But great novels are never  long stories told to you by authors. Great novels are lives and worlds happening inside the head of each individual reader. All great art is not about the artist (even though people, including far too many critics, foolishly fall into that trap) it’s about the audience and the viewer and the listener and the reader. The artist’s job is to provide you with the raw materials to explore yourself and the world in which you live. This is what we mean when we talk about the mind “opening up.” 

In the end, of course, no novel has the answer to all of our questions about death. No person does either, not directly anyway. But that process of reading words on a page and stimulating one’s imagination can be a liberating thing. The answer to all the puzzles about death don’t hide in our fears and even our cynicism, they exist in plain sight as all the ways that people live and love and learn and what they allow each of us to figure out about our own selves and our own magnificent choices in life. 

[solarpunk-gnome]

CALLAWAY COUNTY, Mo.—The 31-year-old Callaway Energy Center is doing some heavy lifting.

Missouri’s lone nuclear power plant produces 11.7 percent of the state’s electricity from one reactor cranking out 1.2 gigawatts, making it the third-largest electricity producer in the state. Its 553-foot-tall, cloud-spewing cooling tower is the second-tallest structure in Missouri behind the St. Louis Arch, two hours’ drive east.

Operated by Ameren Missouri, Callaway’s Westinghouse four-loop pressurized water reactor provides electricity to 1.2 million customers. The $3 billion facility puts more than 800 employees and contractors to work.

In the humming reactor control simulation room, with tan walls filled with dials, knobs, switches, lights and monitors, Barry Cox, senior director of nuclear operations at Callaway, explains that engineers train to make the plant withstand earthquakes, tornadoes and human error. But most of the indicator lights are off and the room is quiet, save the sounds of ventilation.

“This is what it’s like in the plant at night, 2 o’clock in the morning,” he says.

Engineers are working to keep up the steady, if boring, plant operations, especially since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended Callaway’s license last year to run until 2044.

“We are a baseload plant,” Cox says. “About 3,565 megawatts thermal and about 1,283 MW electric go out onto the grid. So it’s about 30 percent efficiency from what I have to produce inside the core from a heat point of view to what I get out on the electric grid, and that’s typical for all steam-producing plants.”

But Callaway really flexes its muscles when it comes to zero-carbon-emissions energy in a coal-heavy portfolio. Missouri gets 82 percent of its electricity from coal, and the recently bankrupt Peabody Energy Corp., the nation’s largest coal company, is based in St. Louis.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that Missouri ranks 13th in total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Wind, solar, biomass and hydroelectric power provide the state with just 2.2 percent of its electricity. That means 83 percent of Missouri’s carbon-free energy comes from Callaway.

Many analysts are now calling not just to preserve existing nuclear power plants, but to invest in new designs to help fight climate change. “A new round of innovation for nuclear reactors would be quite important,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz last month.

Across the United States, nuclear provides 20 percent of all electricity and more than 60 percent of greenhouse gas-free electricity. But some plants have already shut down ahead of schedule, and others may do so, as well, not because of environmental opposition but because of market forces.

“In the United States today, we have some older plants shutting down,” Moniz said. “The pattern is obvious: It’s principally plants in competitive markets faced with very low natural gas prices.”

A CLEAR ROLE IN THE CLEAN POWER PLAN

Nuclear energy’s clean bona fides may be its saving grace in a wobbling global energy market that is trying to balance climate change ambitions, skittish economies and low prices for oil and natural gas. Many countries are wrestling with the nuclear option as stalwarts like France tap the brakes, Japan uneasily presses on and China drops a cinder block on the gas pedal.

Some nuclear advocates argue that in the climate fight, nuclear energy deserves many of the same considerations as wind, solar and other renewable energy. Callaway and 98 reactors like it in the United States are facing an identity crisis over whether they count as clean. In a country about to go on a strict carbon diet, the nuclear energy industry wants to make sure it’s still on the menu.

However, sticker shock and staunch public opposition continue to haunt the nuclear industry, and other nations are watching the sector closely to see whether they should make billion-dollar investments in reactors to fight climate change and grow their economies.

“Nuclear is without a question the most important environmental technology in the 21st century,” said Michael Shellenberger, an advocate for nuclear power and president of Environmental Progress.

He said nuclear is the highest rung on the energy ladder that civilizations climb as they move to denser fuels from biomass, to coal, to oil, to gas and finally to uranium. “From an energy and environmental and development perspective, I want everybody to go up the hierarchy of energy,” Shellenberger said.

Under U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan to reduce emissions in the power sector, new nuclear power plants and reactors upgraded to produce more power count toward states’ carbon goals.

“The language in that rule is very explicit about the role that nuclear can and should play in mitigating against climate change going forward,” said John Keeley, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute. “We’re really, really excited about that.”

The Clean Power Plan requires Missouri to lower its emissions by 36.7 percent by 2030. The state was one of 27 that filed lawsuits against the rule, and pending legislation may block funding for compliance plans (ClimateWire, April 28).

A REACTOR THAT DOESN’T NEED ‘BABYSITTING’?

According to the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the state spent $6.7 billion on electricity generation in 2010. The weighted average price of electricity across economic sectors in Missouri ranked the state 34th in the country.

Keeping the nuclear option open would take a massive bite out of carbon pollution, and a growing cohort of environmental activists is pushing to make this happen. Unlike wind and solar power, nuclear can run at full blast almost all the time while emitting zero carbon dioxide.

The nuclear industry would also like recognition for existing nuclear power plants as a bulwark against climate change, arguing that states should count nuclear energy toward their renewable portfolio standards and afford them the same tax incentives and subsidies as renewables.

Momentum is building for nuclear energy in some parts of the world, with China leading the charge. The country has 32 nuclear reactors online, 22 under construction and more in the planning stages, putting it on a trajectory to hit 150 GW of nuclear power generation by 2030.

In 2012, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the first new reactors in the United States in 30 years. Among students in the country, nuclear engineering is becoming a more popular major (ClimateWire, Dec. 15, 2014).

The renewed interest in nuclear energy has led to startup companies developing “fourth-generation” reactor designs that are walkaway safe, meaning that if left unattended, they safely coast to a halt.

“All three generations of nuclear technology that are out there today require babysitting,” said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates during a panel last month in Washington, D.C. “The nuclear industry has never designed an inherently safe product.”

Gates is the largest investor in TerraPower, a nuclear energy firm that’s developing a reactor that runs on depleted uranium, a waste product of the enrichment process used to make fuel for conventional reactors, yielding a fiftyfold gain in fuel efficiency.

He acknowledged, however, that it may take a long time for new reactors to gain enough traction to start making a dent in global greenhouse gas emissions. “We’re moving faster than anybody ever has in that space, but that’s about a 30-year period, assuming things go really well,” Gates said.

NUCLEAR ADVOCATES EYE MANY POWER SOURCES

Other companies, like NuScale Power, are developing small modular reactors. Rather than building one-of-a-kind, billion-dollar, gigawatt-scale plants, NuScale is proposing a reactor with a smaller output fabricated on an assembly line and dropped in place. The smaller scale means lower upfront costs, and mass production would lead to economies of scale.

“To me, what may end up being the most important thing is if this is an attractive technology, the capital requirements and financial structures are so different that it opens up the geography” to other markets that don’t have billions to spend, Moniz said. “This year, we expect that NuScale will be submitting a design certification application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It’s for a roughly 50-MW reactor.”

However, existing reactors are tacking into the wind, in terms of economics and politics. Vermont independent Sen. and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has laid out a plan to decommission every reactor in the United States.

Nuclear supporters warn that letting aging reactors wither would harm the fight against climate change as coal- and natural-gas-fired generators ramp up to fill the gaping void. The 2012 shutdown of the 2 GW San Onofre nuclear plant in California raised generation costs by $350 million the following year, and carbon dioxide emissions in the state increased by 9 million metric tons, the equivalent of putting 2 million more cars on the road.

Mark Jacobson, an energy researcher at Stanford University who found that it’s feasible for much of the world to run on wind, water and sunlight, acknowledged that nuclear energy has some carbon benefits but said it has an insurmountable drawback of opportunity costs, namely the billions of dollars needed upfront and the decades it takes to plan and build reactors.

“If you’re looking at just one technology in isolation, maybe you don’t care about that opportunity cost,” he said. “But when you’re comparing the two technologies, that becomes relevant. If you have $1 to spend, would you rather spend that on nuclear or wind?”

But the nuclear industry isn’t arguing to be the only option on the table, saying instead that it wants to be an appetizing entree in a buffet of energy options to fight climate change.

“You don’t want to go all in on any one technology,” said NEI’s Keeley. “And NEI is pretty clear about that, too. We see a role for renewables. We see a role for natural gas. We see a role for nuclear.”

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

[iaincblog]

Romantic Identity

For about a century from 1780 two developments in Central European culture progressed and may well  have been related. One was the classical stream of  musical composition and the other was more ambitious attempts to theorise the implications of human musical appreciation -  what our capability to understand music reveals about ourselves and our place in the cosmos.

The compositional stream is easy enough to illustrate Haydn and Mozart, followed by Beethoven and Schubert; Mendelssohn  and Schumann followed by Brahms. One could follow Brahms with Schoenberg as it seems he devised his 12 tone method so that he could compose Brahmsian thematic development on a truly chromatic basis. Sadly this original rationale seems to have been forgotten ignored or dismissed by those who took up that approach. Lots of people would say that the compositional development ended with Brahms - not me because I vastly prefer Schoenberg.

The aesthetic stream is less well mapped but seems to include Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Hanslick. Hanslick championed Brahms and was satirised by Wagner in the Meistersingers andhe published The Beautiful in Music in 1854 just as Brahms was starting his musical career.

Back at the start, Fichte greatly admired Kant but sought to go beyond his framework. He is the first philosopher to suggest that individual self-consciousness is a social phenomenon. Subjectivity means inter-subjectivity, a community of subjects and to be self conscious is to be conscious of oneself as some sort of thing or other. All this sounds very modern. Sadly the next step in the analysis is more uncongenial. Fichte thought that it was impossible that the material world could generate this kind of community of subjects and that the material must therefore be in some way dependent on the subject. This is not at all a fashionable point of view these days.

In Fichte’s defence it can be said that he may not have reached this conclusion if like us he was aware of the success of a lot of strange science since 1800. Natural selection, bio-informatics, the Standard Model in physics and so on.

Fichte also toyed with the primary status of the unconscious. He wasn’t sure that as self conscious beings we are aware of our whole selves or whether some parts of our mentality might be out of our grasp either in practical terms or as a matter of logic. I think we are still ambivalent on this. We can easily spot limited self awareness in others but is it even feasible to acknowledge it in ourselves.

I was exchanging ideas on improvisation with a friend in California over the weekend and he sent me a link to a local radio interview with an improvising musician. This person thought that good improvisation came from beyond the conscious mind. I can see that this idea can be based on genuine first person experience. But the implications are the interesting thing. If I improvise well for an audience does it mean that their appreciation involves a link with wherever my music comes from? I am genuinely uncertain but I think Fichte believed it does.

Schelling started out as a follower of Fichte but after 1800 moved off on his own track. These days S is given credit for being one of the first ecological thinkers in Western thought because he was prepared to recognise that the material world or nature was not a simple mechanism but involved all kinds of intricate linkages. He saw that if we believe that nature is there to be mastered or dominated then this risks human enslavement by our own nature. This idea was developed by exiled German left wingers in LA during the Second World War.

For Schelling subjectivity is double sided character - we are active aware subjects to such a degree that we can reflect on ourselves as subjects and in that sense combine our freedom to think with a discovery of how we maybe partially conditioned say by circumstance. He was tempted to think that the natural order might also be double sided - both product and process.

Schelling suspected that art might be the arena where the lawlike conditioned realm came close to and perhaps even joined human freedom. In terms of the improvisation example mentioned earlier there might be both (say) an internalisation of the laws of harmony, scales and progression - conditioned - with in the minute creativity which exemplifies freedom. Sadly Schelling changed his position frequently and never completed a grand synthesis that he thought might be possible.

Hegel is said to be the most original thinker on aesthetics since Plato. He is hard to read and has a vast system that seeks to explain the pattern within history. He went along with the Schelling conclusion that reality has to be in its foundation mental rather than material. Although his career overlapped Beethoven he never mentions the composer once although others including Adorno have tried to link Hegel’s ideas to the formal patterns used by Beethoven. H did say that he liked the music of Rossini - a composer that I believe Beethoven rather disliked.

Hegel maintained that music is a way that the free subject can demonstrate its character. Because it is an artform beyond space it exemplifies inwardness as the organised succession of vanishing sounds. He links music to the ‘ ah and oh of the heart’ but music brings structure and organisation to this so that the soul hears its own inner movements and can be moved again. It is able to bring unity out of diversity and as a such it is a source of mental satisfaction even where the emotions conjured are negative. The risk is that technical manipulation can lead to a disconnection with the human source resulting in pure artistry.

All of this makes him a theorist of early romanticism, possibly the best theorist of early romantic music that there is. He summarises and codifies the insights of Fichte and Schelling.

Hanslick’s book On the Beautiful in Music was published in 1854 and is seen as the beginning of musical formalism. He conceded that music may arouse emotions but denied that music can represent emotions or that emotional content in any way represents the content of music. He thought that music relies on freely moving musical forms which are sound in motion. He summarised composition as follows:

‘The initial force of a composition is the invention of some definite theme, and not the desire to describe a given emotion by musical means. Thanks to that primitive and mysterious power, whose mode of action will forever be hidden from us, a theme, a melody flashes on the composer’s mind. The origin of this first germ cannot be explained, but must simply be accepted as a fact. When once it has taken root in the composer’s imagination, it forthwith begins to grow and develop; the principal theme being the center round which the branches group themselves in all conceivable ways, though always unmistakably related to it. The beauty of an independent and simple theme appeals to our aesthetic feeling with that directness, which tolerates no explanation, except, perhaps, that of its inherent fitness and the harmony of parts, to the exclusion of any alien factor. It pleases for its own sake, like an arabesque, a column, or some spontaneous product of nature – a leaf or a flower.”

Formalism had powerful advocates in the 20th century including Stravinsky and Forte. It also had powerful enemies like Stalin. One of the crimes he accused Shostakovich of was formalism. Formalism relies on some musical symbolism and explains the music in terms of patterns in the symbols which represent musical development. Nicholas Cook has written a good introduction to formal analysis in music.

The obvious objection is that formal analysis misses the content - but to push this through a good account of the content is needed, beyond reference to emotions.  Clearly music can be analysed formally but does any other approach work to illuminate aspects that formal analysis cannot or does not cover. Appreciation of formal aspects s bound to be limited to a minority of listeners. Audiences who lack formal understanding are not  just listening to random sounds.  The opposite pole is also valid - post WW2 composers often used elaborate formal schemes but struggled to gain acceptance from contemporary audiences who could not hear the sense.

Adorno said that the musical form of Hegelian philosophy was to be found with Beethoven but that there was more truth with Beethoven than with Hegel.  After Adorno some more recent analysts have developed this nugget. The thought is that Beethoven foregrounded the musical process so that the formal core of the work wasn't clearly stated at the start but emerged through the work . The formal core of the work was only revealed to the listener as the work progressed. The process of the work  is key for revealing  its formal structure.

There could be a lot in this and indeed Schoenberg made a very similar point.