#nature will recover as it does from all cataclysmic events and continue on

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

Even if it's not viable I think it's still pretty neat that we could at least figure out how particular species would be domesticated

We could’ve probably domesticated most species really it would just be a matter of Why and Where the resources were coming from. You couldn’t just go online and bulk buy a bunch of frozen mice and rats for your captive breeding carnivore domestication project back in the day.

If you want to get incredibly technical, yes, if we dedicated a few thousand years we probably could still start a new domestication, but with the way the world is going I really don’t see humanity surviving that far into the future.

[longarmsmagee]

YAMADA HANAKO, GENSHIN OC

Deep in Chinju Forest, there is a lonely, dilapidated Spirit Shrine. This shrine is home to a peculiar individual, Yamada Hanako. Little to no information is known about her, only that she lives there, and very rarely leaves to journey to Inazuma City for supplies. Her unique appearance certainly leaves quite the impression on people, and they never forget her. But her quiet, refined likeness leaves many wondering: Who is she, where does she come from, and what secrets does such a strange individual hold?

Hanako is a Faceless Yokai who entered the world 500 years ago, during the Cataclysm. A young Fisherman's Daughter, mortally wounded, had found her way to the shrine and begged Hanako to possess her, believing that doing so would save her from death. However, when Hanako finally gained control of the body, the soul of the Fisherman's Daughter had disappeared, having passed on while Hanako was recovering. She views this event as an ultimate act of kindness, and Hanako has vowed since then to aid and protect the people of Inazuma, in the hopes of repaying that kindness. After the Cataclysm, Hanako began helping the souls of fallen Inazuman's pass on. While doing so, was blessed with a Hydro Vision. Hanako sees her vision as concrete proof that she is worthy if Life, and living.

Art by @stvrblade

Hanako only goes to Inazuma City for two reasons: supplies to maintain the Spirit Shrine, and a very special type of Salty Seaweed Tea from Shimura's. Whenever it rains, Shimura always has a pot ready just for her, and she often falls into the trap of talking with the old man until night falls. Though she often isolates herself, she is fooling no one with how enthralled she is with interacting with others. The children often ask her about the woods, the Yokai that inhabit it, and the shrine and spirits, however her conversations are often cut short by concerned parents and superstitious onlookers. Despite her stellar reputation for helping grieving and reminiscent visitors, her odd behaviors still leave her somewhat ostracized from civilized society.

Art by Lenni

Being a Faceless Yokai comes with the burden of their reputation... Faceless Yokai are a special type of Yokai that are purely spirits from the Spirit Realm. They cannot die, they simply reform and regenerate when they expend all their energy. Because of this, they are incredibly envious of the living, and crave to be a part of Teyvat. To die means you have lived, and since they can't die, their deepest desires is to experience living amongst the living. However, they have developed a taboo and immoral tactic: they possess humans in the hope of replacing their human souls with their own selves... they are often the target of exorcists and as far as history knows, have never been successful.

The only reason Hanako succeeded in this endeavor was a myriad of reasons that are almost impossible to recreate: Hanako was given permission to possess The Fisherman's Daughter, Hanako did so without evil intentions, and The Fisherman's Daughter's human soul and life perished while Hanako was in possession, leaving her self to replace it and continue living. Hanako understands this, and knowing the true nature of her brethren, also chooses to hunt down rogue Faceless Yokai in order to keep the living safe and keep her true identity a secret.

Art by @chairaeart

Eventually the Traveler and Paimon, along with a certain Tengu General, Kitsune and Oni, get tangled up in a plot with a particularly dangerous Faceless Yokai that ends up rendering Hanako helpless and separated from her body. Together, the 6 of them work together to reunite Hanako with her body, and banish the rogue Yokai, at the cost of her deepest secret. However, all agree to keep her secret for her; removing her from the world of the living may cause many repressed problems to resurge without her keeping them at bay so the best option is to leave her be, and keep an eye on her...

Upon being offered the option to travel with them, Hanako gladly follows the Traveler wherever they go, to be of assistance whenever they may need her....

"I leave you with something to ponder, Traveler... If I was so evil, why do the souls of the departed seek my help? It is because they do not see me for what I am... They see me for who I have become."

Hanako's Refsheet Page

[sepublic]

Behold! The completed story bible/plot summary for Part 2 of Bionicle: RaE! Adapting the events of Bionicle 2016, the story really begins the change near the end. Once we’re done with Part 2, we can finally move onto the new storylines I wrote for Bionicle: RaE, because believe me; Even AFTER Part 2, we’re not even halfway done yet!

Below is an excerpt for those interested;

           Ever since Ekimu and the Great Forge’s reawakening, the Okotan alliance has grown to greater power than ever before. The City of the Mask Makers, reclaimed from the Brotherhood, has begun to function as the new capital of Okoto, with thousands making new homes in the once-abandoned City, giving new life back to it. All the while, infrastructure and technology is improved, each day becoming closer to what it once was in the Creation Age; And while still far from that ancient progress, the Okotans remain hopeful.

           Deep in his forge, Ekimu the Mask Maker labors endlessly, refusing to give himself breaks. While he has been willing to stop and sit down to explain the nature of Life energy, and has considered taking a break to teach others of Mask-Making, he is mostly concerned with creating new tools, weapons, and Masks of Power for the Okotans to use. Dimly aware all those years, trapped and suspended in a crystalline prison, Ekimu has been wrought with guilt over his complicitness in the Great Cataclysm and the death of millions, as well as failing to see Makuta’s corruption and stop it. To cope, he furiously makes himself work day and night to give the Okotans the fighting chance they need to stop Makuta, desperately hoping to fix the mistakes he blames himself for.

           Naturally, people have noticed this and are AWARE, but are helpless to do anything about it. The main priority is to improve Okoto’s infrastructure, technology, and power, while also reclaiming lost lands before the Brotherhood of Makuta begins its inevitable counter-attack. The Toa are training with new Masks of Power, weapons, and tools, and Okotan cultures mix and clash in the City of the Mask Makers as people recover from the old wounds of the Skull Spider wars. The Red Serpent, the legendary Rahi controlled by Fenrakk, has continued its residence in the City of the Mask Makers, now a vehement ally of the Okotans. Likewise, the Skull Slicer has been rehabilitated and reforged by Ekimu, reclaiming his lost name Matau and becoming the colloquial, unofficial, ‘Toa of Air’ after absorbing Lewa’s Mask of Air during their battle. With new, sleek, aerodynamic armor and upgrades, Matau promises to be a welcoming ally, though others are wary.

           Regardless, beggars can’t be choosers when the Brotherhood of Makuta, after a few months, launches its inevitable counter-attack against Okoto. Furious over the loss of his Skull Spiders and Fenrakk, Makuta unleashes from the rivers and wilds his new army of Energy Leeches, organic, writhing, and ravenous creatures that constantly hunger and can drain Life energy by latching onto a victim. Many Okotans, caught off-guard by these new enemies, die horrifically as Makuta seizes huge amounts of Life energy to support his campaigns. Nevertheless, the Toa and Okotans quickly learn to adapt, fighting off against these new threats, led by Jumala, Lord of Energy Leeches and another one of Makuta’s sons, the Rahkshi. Also aiding the Brotherhood is a new generation of Skull Spiders, controlled by dozens of smaller, less powerful Command Spiders. The Skull Puppets and Warriors also provide aid, with their commanders returning for vengeance, now led by Kodo the Skull Basher.

           As new battles recommence, and formerly vanquished foes such as the Nui-Jaga return to assault the Okotans, the Toa maintain a steady and fast alliance, learning to better be a group, team, and even unorthodox family of sorts. While it’s a bit unusual learning to live in the City of the Mask Makers together, the Toa become accustomed to one another and form closer bonds. Meanwhile, an imprisoned, incapacitated Kulta and Kojol are interrogated beneath the City of the Mask Makers, to no effect.

           Takua the wandering vagabond eventually takes a journey to the Swamp of Secrets, meeting with an old friend; A reclusive prophet who gains visions by inhaling the decaying fumes of a dead beast’s corpse, said to have come from the future. These visions warn the prophet of future events.

           During the Skull Spider wars, the prophet had requested her existence be kept secret, with Takua honoring these requests while still trying to convey them to the other Okotans by ‘suggesting’ courses of action that aligned with the visions given by the prophet. Amidst conversations, it’s revealed that Takua knewabout Makuta, a few years before the Toa arrived; The dark spirit himself had appeared to her once and attempted to sway her to his side. Takua refused, and Makuta in turn haunted her every now and then, threatening to kill everyone she cared about if she explained his presence and role with the Skull Spiders.

           Scared and feeling helpless, Takua didn’t bother mentioning Makuta, feeling it wouldn’t change anything and she’d just get a lot of innocent people killed. Now, with Makuta’s identity and role revealed anyway, she’s considering revealing her dark secret, but is at the same time unsure…

           Regardless, the prophet receives a particularly brutal, staggering vision, in which she warns Takua of a horde that will raze Okoto to its foundations, releasing a horrific ‘Darkness below’ that will consume everything. Concerned, Takua ponders if she means the Energy Leeches; Either way, Takua takes it upon herself to investigate ‘The Darkness Below’ and see what it means, venturing into the tunnels beneath Okoto and going farther down than usual.

           In the aftermath of one battle with the Brotherhood of Makuta, Lewa, Toa of Jungle eventually comes across a strange phenomena in the jungle, feeling a consciousness that is moving through it. Surely enough, he tracks it down, and the being manifests as a Dragonfly-esque creature. Introducing herself as Uxar, she has initial reservations towards Lewa, but his bright earnestness wins Uxar over as the two become quick friends. Their day ends when Lewa is called back to help, and he promises not to tell the others about Uxar on her request. And from the shadows, someonewatches…

           The two eventually meet once more, only to be interrupted when Uxar is suddenly ambushed by a dark, oaken being she calls ‘Umarak the Hunter’. Leading a pack of vicious, metallic Shadow Traps, Umarak pins down Uxar and begins draining her Life energy. Naturally, Lewa attempts to stop him and briefly engages in a conflict- He’s easily defeated, but it provides a distraction for Uxar to escape. Frustrated, Umarak lets go of the matter, warning Lewa that darkness is rising and that he, of all people, can’t stop it.

           Lewa eventually regroups with the others and attempts to research into the matter, casually asking about Uxar and Umarak without mentioning he met the two. Takua ventures deep below Okoto, travelling through long-abandoned tunnels as she nears a massive, living presence beneath…

           She eventually comes across a massive pit that extends infinitely, seemingly solid-black near the bottom; And surely enough, tendrils of shadow suddenly burst and emerge from it, thrashing wildly and causing the earth to shake as they reach for Takua. With quick-thinking and action, Takua narrowly avoids the shadows, and heads to the surface, shaken. Lewa learns about the Elemental Deities in Kokoro, learning how each one is the conscious manifestation of the six elements; And Uxar is one of them, representing Jungle.

           Takua inevitably overhears Lewa’s mention of ‘darkness that is rising’ and questions him on it, and vice-versa. The two exchange a coy, awkward series of interrogations where both try not to reveal directly the secrets they have, while still implicitly telling that the others DOES have secrets. Nevertheless, the two are sympathetic to each others’ situation and try not to press further until express permission is given. Meanwhile, the other Toa battle with the Brotherhood of Makuta, and notice phenomena as well; While in the drifts, Kopaka notices what seems to be a wolf-like being bounding through the snow, chased by metallic monsters. He tries to investigate, but is left behind. Tahu spots a moving, slithering trail of flame deep in the Region of Fire and is momentarily baffled by it.

           Takua and Lewa’s research culminates when the two consult Lumi and learn the story of how the Elemental Deities fought an ever-encompassing darkness named Umarak. Unable to defeat it, they formed the island of Okoto, trapping Umarak underneath it and seemingly imprisoning him…

           At this point, the duo desperately wants to talk, and so make concessions and agree to mutually break promises. Takua explains about the prophet and her warning, and Lewa talks about his meetings with Uxar and Umarak the Hunter. They figure out that Umarak, somehow, is on the surface, but at the same time below it, and is trying to free the darkness below. Takua, recalling the nature of the Skull Spiders to Fenrakk, wonders if the Hunter is actually just a receptacle for Umarak, the darkness below, to act and function on Okoto’s surface with.

           Either way, they consider this important and ponder discussing the recent events to the others, and likewise hear of what is clearly the Elemental Deities moving throughout Okoto, active. Lewa tracks down Uxar, admitting he broke their promise, and asks what’s going on. Uncertain and unsure, Uxar finally cracks and explains how Umarak managed to somewhat escape his prison by tunnel a portion of his darkness to the surface, infecting a tree and forming a receptacle for him to act through.

           Ever since, Umarak has been slowly, gradually draining the Elemental Deities of their power, ambushing them with guerilla tactics, seizing a portion of power, before fleeing. Over the centuries, the Elemental Deities have become weakened, helplessly unable to stop Umarak’s efforts despite best attempts.

           Lewa naturally offers to help them, mentioning Takua’s prophecy, to Uxar’s concern, who sees it as an omen –along with their current state- that the Elemental Deities are soon to be fully consumed by Umarak, their power used by him to raze Okoto clean to its foundations, breaking apart the island and freeing the darkness below. Lewa wonders where all the stolen power has been hidden, and Uxar admits that the others tried finding it, yet failed.

           Regardless, Uxar hesitates on accepting Lewa’s offer, mentioning that the Elemental Deities have a complicatedrelationship with the mortal Okotans. Things are quickly made more complex when Jumala, having tracked down Lewa, ambushes Uxar, hoping to drain her and Lewa’s energy, ever-starving and ravenous. This in turn summons Terak, Deity of Earth, who vengefully battles against him, and the chaos attracts Umarak’s attention. Another battle is held, and a few of Lewa’s allies arrive to help. Terak and Uxar escape, but not without Terak losing a portion of his power, much to his chagrin. Terak angrily regards both the Okotans and the Brotherhood as he and Uxar flee, and Umarak chases after them.

           The others interrogate Lewa about his relationship with Uxar, and cracking under pressure, he explains everything, except for Takua’s prophecy, not wanting to out her. Recognizing the threat of Umarak, with the Elemental Deities now concerningly low on power and thus close to being completely drained, the Okotans consider forming an alliance with the Deities, realizing they could be beneficial in the war against the Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Jumala reports to his father Makuta, explaining the situation.

           Makuta reflects, recalling how he once tried to form an alliance with Umarak and was declined. At first he let it go, but now that the Toa know about the Elemental Deities, they’ll likely try to ally with them. And needing assets and advantages desperately, Makuta decides he refuses to let the Okotans to have any advantages over him, and decides to recommence attempts to ally with Umarak.

[phinnsyreads]

Item #: SCP-2399

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Due to SCP-2399's location and nature, physical means of containment are currently impossible. Implanted Foundation agents in major observatories are to contain footage or images of SCP-2399. An ongoing misinformation campaign is in effect, which has thus far been able to completely suppress any knowledge pertaining to SCP-2399 from public awareness.

Foundation satellites in orbit around Jupiter are to maintain constant vigilance of SCP-2399's reconstruction efforts, and make all attempts to hinder that process should SCP-2399 reach a minimum of 75% completion. Additionally, a perimeter of long-range electromagnetic jamming satellites (the BARRIER Array) has been situated in high-Jupiter orbit. Any transmissions intercepted by this array are to be summarily decoded and logged.

In the event of SCP-2399 surpassing 75% completion or an information breach in the jamming perimeter, necessary Foundation personnel will engage Protocol LEGIONNAIRE-5 (See Addendum 2399-L5), given its completion by that time.

Description: SCP-2399 is a massive, complex mechanical structure currently located in Jupiter's lower atmosphere. Since its visual discovery in 1963, SCP-2399 has been observed to use highly advanced, anti-matter-based weaponry to create spacial disruptions and devastating atmospheric [DATA EXPUNGED] observable as a large red vortex, commonly known as the Great Red Spot.

SCP-2399 appears to be damaged, possibly due to an impact with the moon Io before coming to rest in its current position. SCP-2399 has been observed releasing a multitude of small, octopoid repair drones in efforts to repair the damage it has taken. Some of these drones will remain near SCP-2399, while others will patrol nearby moons, or deeper into the gasses of Jupiter itself, in search of parts that SCP-2399 is missing. Computer models estimate that SCP-2399 is at 59% completion, with a current rate of .78% annually. This rate has increased from an estimated .12% in 1970.

Despite its damaged state, SCP-2399 seems to possess a limitless power supply, advanced electromagnetic shielding, matter-disrupting weaponry, the ability to repair damage done to itself, and a precise tracking and targeting system (See Addendum 2399-2b). Due to the large difference in technological advancement between the creator of SCP-2399 and our own, for all intents and purposes, SCP-2399 is currently indestructible by human means. In theory SCP-2399 might be left vulnerable by a powerful enough electromagnetic pulse. Unfortunately, this technology does not yet exist.

Since 1971, SCP-2399 has been the recipient of an unending stream of electromagnetic-based communications originating in the Triangulum Galaxy, roughly 3 million light years from Earth. The means of SCP-2399's travel to our solar system, and the means of its communications, are all unknown. From 1971 to 1985, SCP-2399 continuously received a single encoded message which, through codebreaking and translation efforts, appeared to be a command to repair the damage it incurred upon entering our solar system. After this time, the BARRIER array was established to intercept these messages. This coincided with a period of radio silence from the origin of the communications, until 1996, when a different order began transmitting. The BARRIER array has thus far prevented SCP-2399 from receiving this command (See Addendum 2399-Comm-Log).

SCP-2399 Discovery Notes:

SCP-2399 was originally observed, albeit unknowingly, by Giovanni Cassini in 1665. The following is taken directly from Cassini's journal on the event, translated from Italian to English.

08/10/1665 I have observed something extraordinary in the heavens. Last night, as I gazed through my looking glass, I saw what appeared to be a star of great luminescence streak through the far reaches of our solar system. I have never recorded an object moving so fast; it had surpassed the outer planets in fewer than two hours! As I watched, by my own two eyes, I saw it slow as it closed on Jupiter, make a sharp turn, and disappear into the planet itself. I saw many bursts of light afterwards, but although I continued to peer at it until the Sun broke, I saw no additional disturbances in the night sky. I must continue to document these changes, and will alert my colleagues when the day is upon me.

15/10/1665 I took Peter to my observation point last night, but a week from the night I saw the fire rain upon Jupiter in the heavens. He brought along his own looking glass, and together we aimed our view upon the giant. To our surprise, a magnificent change has occurred! Where once the distant world only showed bands of color, there is now a great red spot where the star came to rest on the surface of Jupiter. Peter was incredulous, of course, that such an amazing discovery could have taken place before our very eyes. I will continue to take note of this.

18/10/1665 Tonight as I peered through my looking glass, I swear on my life that I observed what looked to me like explosions and starbursts emanating from our red spot. I fear my mind is playing tricks on me, for there has been no record of such violent outbursts by a heavenly body since the dawn of astronomy. I will consult with Peter on the morrow, and hopefully glean from him some advice on the matter.

19/10/1665 Peter sees the same as I! As I approached him with my concerns, he leveled the same with me, and through our following discussion we concluded that it must be a powerful reaction to the falling star I saw upon the first night, and not a product of our own shortcomings. I am left wondering what cataclysmic event must be taking place upon our heavenly neighbour. Our work to document this must go on.

Addendum 2399-2b:

At ████ hours on ██/██/██, BARRIER Unit 53 observed one of SCP-2399's repair drones closing on a piece of debris, quickly determined to be part of a damaged communications array. Because of the nature of this specific component, and the ramifications of allowing SCP-2399 to recover it, it was ordered that BARRIER Unit 45 fire upon the drone with its on-board concussion batteries.

Batteries were discharged; however, the drone appeared undamaged. Footage obtained by BARRIER Unit 53 shows that, while the payload in question was launched towards the repair drone, it was destroyed within 5 km of the target by additional charges originating from SCP-2399. Command lost contact with BARRIER Unit 45 15 seconds after initial discharge, with video observation showing SCP-2399 [DATA EXPUNGED] the resulting spacial anomaly originating in [DATA EXPUNGED] the termination of BARRIER Unit 45 by BARRIER Units 44, 51, and 55.

Under no circumstances are any BARRIER Units to further engage either SCP-2399 or drones released by SCP-2399.

Addendum 2399-2c: Project Gigas:

After the events of ██/██/██, it was decided that necessary force would be authorized to destroy or incapacitate SCP-2399. Using Foundation resources, as well as resources from 45 nations, a platform of ██ warheads bearing ███ Mt payloads and ██ warheads bearing EMP detonators was launched and placed in orbit around Europa. On ██/██/██ at ████ hours with orders from 15 heads of state and 5 members of the Overseer Council, the entire payload of Project Gigas was launched towards SCP-2399.

[DATA EXPUNGED]

Efforts to develop alternative methods of eliminating SCP-2399 are currently underway.

Addendum 2399-L5:

Address by Rachel McAllen, Director of the BARRIER Project, Site ██:

<BEGIN LOG>

So, SCP-2399.

Have you ever sat and wondered, maybe after you hear about a car accident on a street you were just on, or a bombing in a city you were visiting, just how lucky you are to be alive? Just how many things have to go right for you to continue to exist? A few seconds too late, a few seconds too early, and somebody reaches for something they dropped and a busload of people run into another busload of people. Sometimes this kind of thing does happen, as we've seen, far too often. But that's what we're here for. To protect those who can't protect themselves from things that they wouldn't even know to protect themselves from.

We can't do it all, though. As many things as we've been able to contain, as many things as we've been able to keep under lock that would threaten to destroy us all, still far too many remain that we can't do anything about. Whether they're too big, or too fast, or too powerful, any of these things could blink and wipe humanity from existence. The fact that they haven't done so yet is just luck. SCP-2399, however, is different.

We have little information regarding SCP-2399's motives, origins, and full capabilities. We do not understand how it is capable of communicating over such large distances, or why those who constructed it (if it was, in fact, constructed) sent it to us in the first place. We do not know what would happen if SCP-2399 is able to fully repair itself, or if part of our array would break down and a message would get through. We do not know this, so we must assume the worst. Judging by what we've seen, were SCP-2399 to have reached Earth, it would have led to our timely destruction.

But sometimes humanity gets a little help. Sometimes something steps in the way of the apocalypse. For us, and for SCP-2399, it was Jupiter. As SCP-2399 began to slow on its approach to Earth, Cassini saw what we've been able to ascertain; that SCP-2399 struck Io, was damaged, and was unable to escape the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Its weapons activated as they were intended, but it was Jupiter that experienced doomsday, not us.

Eventually, though, it's likely that SCP-2399 will resume full functionality, and will likely be able to pull away from Jupiter and proceed to its target. As of now, we can keep hurling bombs and EMPs at it all we want, but we've got no indication that any of it will so much as scratch the thing, on the contrary, experience dictates it would do nothing at all. If this were to happen now, we would undoubtedly be destroyed.

Jupiter has given us time. For now, SCP-2399 will remain there, reassembling itself, while we devise some way to stop it. Like it or not, we are in an arms race with this thing. Our best guesses give us something like 25 years until it is able to hear past our dampening array. Until then, we must seize the opportunity that has been laid before us. We must use the time we have been given, and not let it be wasted.

So we devised Protocol LEGIONNAIRE. One gigantic EMP, powered by god-knows-what, followed by a volley of nukes big enough to wipe out our civilization a thousand times over. A blunt plan, and simple, and likely futile. Our researchers, and researchers around the globe, have yet to devise even a way to deliver that kind of pulse, let alone a way to power it. There is no indication whatsoever that we will be able to complete LEGIONNAIRE on time, or if it will do what is intended once it’s complete. But we must try. We must do something. Even if we have to drain our banks and empty our mines, we must try.

Not often do we get a chance to see the swerving bus that will end our lives, and step out of the way. Jupiter, unknowingly, has offered us that chance. I suggest we take it.

<END LOG>

Addendum 2399-Comm-Log:

The following is log of the communications sent to SCP-2399 from the Triangulum Galaxy. All messages logged are to be understood as having repeated themselves, continuously, until either a new message is logged, or a logged instance of radio silence.

██/██/1971- Unit is damaged: Repair ██/██/1985- Updating Orders: Maintain Position: Repair ██/██/1985- Period of radio silence, BARRIER Array is established. ██/██/1996- Unit is out of range of target: Proceed to planet #3 of system: Repair ██/██/2015- Unit is out of range of target: Proceed to planet #3 of system: Priority is target: Cease repairs

===

[The voice of Rachel McAllen was provided by Spera Crinis​.]

===

[This episode was requested by Patreon patron Andrew M. To join him in his support of the show, and to gain access to a number of patron-exclusive benefits, visit www.patreon.com/thescpfoundationdatabase.]

[jkottke]

Alongside mass extinction, humans are also the cause of "a great flourishing of life"

In her book The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert warns that we are in the midst of the Earth's sixth mass extinction of life, this time caused by humans.

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

This is a mainstream view of humanity's effect on the Earth flora and fauna...for evidence, you don't need to look any further than all of the large mammal species that have gone extinct or are endangered because of human activity.

A more controversial take is offered by Chris Thomas in his recent book, Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction. Thomas allows that there's a "mini mass extinction" happening, but he also argues that the extreme evolutionary pressure brought by our increasing dominance of our planet's ecosystems will result in a "sixth mass genesis", a dramatic increase in the Earth's biodiversity.

Human cities and mass agriculture have created new places for enterprising animals and plants to live, and our activities have stimulated evolutionary change in virtually every population of living species. Most remarkably, Thomas shows, humans may well have raised the rate at which new species are formed to the highest level in the history of our planet.

Drawing on the success stories of diverse species, from the ochre-colored comma butterfly to the New Zealand pukeko, Thomas overturns the accepted story of declining biodiversity on Earth. In so doing, he questions why we resist new forms of life, and why we see ourselves as unnatural. Ultimately, he suggests that if life on Earth can recover from the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, it can survive the onslaughts of the technological age.

Vox's Ferris Jabr recently interviewed Thomas about his views. When asked about the "sixth mass genesis", Thomas answered:

The history of life on Earth is a history of extinctions and ecological failures, but it is also a story of formation of new forms and spread of those new forms around the world. The net result has been a gain in diversity. In the human era we are seeing great losses, but we are also seeing all these biological gains of new animals and plants spreading around the world, new hybrids coming into existence. I am not saying there is yet a balance between the two. I accept the losses, but it is also scientifically, and in terms of our human attitudes to nature, extremely interesting to contemplate the gains simultaneously.

If the processes that are going on at the moment continue for a very long time, it is my expectation that the number of species on Earth will grow enormously. We are moving species of existing animals and plants back and forth across the world, so that they are all arriving in new geographic regions. We know when species have done this in the ancient past, they have turned into new species in those different regions. If you fast-forward a million years or a few million years, all of these introduced species that leave surviving descendants will have turned into new species. And that is going to generate many more species. We have effectively created a massive species generator.

That certainly does put an interesting spin on extinction and evasive species.

[gingerandwry]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Week 2

After the sweltering, unseasonable heat during my first week in Rio, the forecast for the next week called for rain. It’s rained everywhere I’ve been so far, but the short bursts and high temperatures meant that the rain did not hold me back. I was not prepared for the flood that was heading toward Rio.

I approached Monday trepidatiously, unsure when the clouds would burst and end my day. But it was sunny and hot as usual (and especially humid) when I woke up so I walked up to the lagoon and over to Leblon. The lagoon offers some lovely views from the running/cycling path that surrounds it.

Leblon is adjacent to Ipanema and almost indistinguishable. It’s known to be quieter and more laid back (and ritzier it seems). And on Monday morning the crowd was much older, kind of a Palm Beach to Ipanema’s Miami. I walked along the beach on the delightfully, swirly designed sidewalk promenade that lines the beaches all the way up to Leme (and some of the city streets too). I reached the base of Dois Irmaos, the iconic peaks that cap the beach’s eastern end, and enjoyed the views from the Mirante do Leblon there. And then I walked inland to my real destination: BB Lanches. In “The Beastie Boys Book” the band mentions that this is their favorite juice bar in Rio, and they named one of their songs (”Suco de Tangerina”) after an item here. So naturally I had to stop by for some tangerine juice.

With no sign of rain yet, I took an Uber to the Urca neighborhood at the base of Pao de Acucar. Just south of the Morro de Urca is Praia Vermelha, a small sheltered beach. At the end of the beach is Pista Claudio Coutinho, a popular 2k walking path that wraps part way around the hill. It’s a pleasant jungle stroll where you can hear waves crashing below and take in expansive views of the ocean and nearby islands.

I reached the end of the trail, turned around and walked back to the beach and up to the west side of the hill. The Urca neighborhood felt very distinctive. It begins with a small marina full of little fishing boats and then turns into a cute residential area, tucked in to the base of Acucar. Most of the homes are modest (with a few princely estates, especially up the hill), and there is just one small commercial strip. The most notable feature is the Mureta, or sea wall, that looks out over the city and the bay. It’s a popular place to sit, hang out, drink beer and enjoy a quiet moment in this hectic city. The area feels like a small coastal town unto itself. In fact Urca is actually where the city of Rio started before it moved farther north. And there are still a few military bases here, presumably protecting the city from seaborne attacks.

With clouds forming, I decided to head home. I took a short nap, and when I awoke, rain was pounding the city, dumping buckets while thunder and lightning jolted the sky. This continued for several hours, and when I walked outside for dinner, a river was gushing down the street (which must be why it’s called Rio...). Water was up to my ankles on the sidewalk and my calves in the intersection. Fortunately I did not have to go far to eat dinner before I retreated back to my apartment. The rain calmed down a bit by midnight but it did not stop until....

Tuesday around 3pm. Rio normally receives 95mm in April. In nine hours on Monday night it got 246mm. Some neighborhoods saw walls of water taking out cars, and some favela endured mudslides (which killed at least three people). Apparently the lagoon overflowed too. My friend here said he had never seen anything like it in 15 years here. I was relieved that the event was as cataclysmic as it seemed to me and not a commonplace carioacan affair. The rain was less intense on Tuesday, but the city was recovering from the impact so many things were closed. I had to cancel my plans and stay shut in.

On Wednesday I re-emerged and headed to the Museu de Arte Moderna. It’s looking a little run-down these days but still has a good collection of mostly Brazilian art from the 20th century. It’s displayed according to traditional painting subjects (landscape, portrait, still-life, etc.), and they have some fun with modern artists’ takes on the classics. I particularly enjoyed the last exhibit on illusion and how context changes art.

My day took a turn for the frustrating after that. I wanted to go to the Flamengo FC match at Maracana stadium on Thursday night. I bought tickets online, but this being Brazil, it was not so simple. First I had to print out a voucher, so I asked my friend to do this at his office, then I met him to pick it up. Then I brought the voucher and my passport and credit card to one of Flamengo’s stores. There I was informed that I had bought student tickets so I could not use them (the website said nothing about this). The game was sold out, so I could not get other tickets. My tickets were supposedly refundable (minus the service fee of course), but as of this writing, the money had not been returned. I was disappointed not to get to see Maracana, a legendary stadium, but mostly annoyed at having to go through this big hassle for nothing. I know that Latin American countries require saintly patience, but I was really missing good ol’ American (and Silicon Valley) efficiency at that point.

Nevertheless, I persisted. I stopped by Igreja Sao Francisco de Paula, a gorgeous church whose interior is covered with intricately detailed carvings. It looks more like an opera house, but with the refreshing lack of gilding it felt more tasteful than the other churches I’ve seen.

I carried on to Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes. The collection is supposedly formidable, but most of the museum was closed for construction and/or exhibit rotation. Really just a few rooms upstairs were open, as well as two hallways with some busted-up Grecian marble statues that were copied from the Louvre and some oddly configured side rooms that did not look interesting. (Brazil does not seem to be aware of central air conditioning since most buildings have separate A/C units for each room (if any at all). This fits uncomfortably with places like museums that should be open and lend themselves to a flow, rather than a series of rooms behind closed doors.) After a short look around I stopped for some beers then returned home for the night.

On Thursday the clouds had mostly parted and the sun was high and hot again, so I could resume my outdoor activities. I took a car back to Parque Lage (the first place I visited when I arrived) so that I could take the steep hike up to Cristo Redentor. It was only upon reaching the trailhead-- some ten minutes into the park-- that a security guard informed me the trail was closed due to the rain. Thwarted again. I explored some more of Lage (which is just a small section of the tropical Parque Nacional de Tijuca, something I would now not be able to see) before calling another Uber to take me to the Corcovado train station.

The “Christ the Redeemer” statue is probably the most iconic, recognizable feature in Rio. The most popular way to get to it is on a small old train that slowly runs up the steep incline three times an hour. Stepping off the train and up a few flights of stairs, the view at the top is spectacular. Corcovado hill is right in the middle of the city, and it’s one of the tallest, so you can see everything, past Maracana in the north, past Niteroi across the bay and past Dos Irmaos to the south. I was pleased with how much of the city I could identify at this point and with the realization that I had covered a good chunk of it. The statue itself, while a feat of engineering, is nothing special, as it’s meant to be viewed from afar. (I’ve actually been surprised at how small it is. I think I’m used to aerial photos taken from above it where it seems to loom over the whole city. Or as Homer Simpson put it, “It’s like he’s on the dashboard of the entire country.”) The journey has two notable downsides tho. One: all the tourists, clogging the best viewpoints and all taking the same photos of themselves with their arms outstretched under the statue. The other drawback is the waiting. When I arrived the next available train was almost two hours off (although you can make reservations online). Then you wait to board the train. Then you sit on the train for 20 minutes, mostly looking out at dense, unspectacular forest. Then you wait for an opening to take the photos you want. Then you wait to board a drain down and then another 20 minute ride. There are so many hills around; I wonder if any others offer a similarly thrilling view while being more accessible. At the very least, I would take a van up (which they offer from a few parts of the city) since the train adds considerable time and nothing more than kitsch value.

When I was back in the Cosmo Velho neighborhood, I walked east to its other attractions. The first is Largo do Boticario, an old square surrounded by colorful colonial houses near a babbling brook in a jungle canopy. One hundred (plus) years ago, it must have been a charming area reminiscent of an old Portuguese plaza, but it’s completely decrepit now. (Apparently the buildings have been bought by a hotel company that will restore them.) Farther up the road is the brand-new Casa Roberto Marinho. Roberto founded Globo, now a huge Brazilian media empire. He restored this Mediterranean villa and grounds as his home and hosted who’s-who parties in the 1960s and 70s. The building has now been turned into a private museum to display his art collection, with a heavy emphasis on modern Brazilian art. The works are phenomenal and the home and gardens beautiful. You really get a sense of what it might have been like to hobnob at one of his parties. After that it was time to call it a day and have a relaxing evening at home.

Before I went to bed I developed a stomachache that kept me up much of the night. (In Brazil a lot of restaurants offer cheap per-kilo buffets; it’s probably best not to eat at these places at the end of the night.) The next morning I still felt ill and tired so I stayed in bed most of the day. Bummer since my days in Rio were nearing an end.

I felt well enough (and well-rested enough) on Saturday to get myself to the ferry for Ilha de Paqueta. This is a car-less island deep into Guanabara Bay. I mostly wanted to go to see the views from the ferry, but the island is nice too. I rented a bike and rode around the perimeter (without stopping you could do this in under 30 minutes). The shore is dotted with little beaches and parks and (questionably) Brazil’s only baobab trees. Other than a small commercial area near the dock, the rest is full of homes (and a cemetery). I really enjoy enclosed, flat bicycling like this, and it was a nice, calm respite from the city. For the people of Rio it seems to be a mostly working-class getaway-- the beaches are not really that nice but the general environment is. I was mostly intrigued by the locals who live there. Although there is no local economy the island seems to encompass the full social strata-- large gated mansions, lovely cottages, modernized townhouses, abandoned waterfront estates, even a favela. It’s so Brazil to have all of this side-by-side on a tiny, beautiful island.

After a few hours I took the ferry back to the city. I stumbled upon a street party (Rivalzinho) and ambled around it a bit. I returned home and chilled out on my final Saturday night in town.

And then I awoke for my final day in Rio. I had planned to walk or bike around, but the on-and-off light rain showers made that less desirable. So I walked over to Copacabana beach since I still had not been. (Yes it’s one of Rio’s most famous sites, but Ipanema is a better beach, and I’m not much interested in hanging out on the beach anyway.) Copa is beautiful indeed, especially its graceful northeastward curve.

It made me consider what makes Ipanema and Copa so special and enticing. I realized that for both the natural beauty lies in the views: the jutting peaks at the ends, the water and the mountains and islands on the other side. But the immediate surroundings are not lovely at all-- the beaches are thick with barracas (vendors) and lined with densely-packed, (mostly) unattractive high-rises. It’s a very different approach than we take on the US west coast. There, beaches tend to be removed from cities and kept close to their natural state. Where there is nearby development it is usually minimal and often “beach-appropriate”, e.g. boardwalks, cottages, surf shacks, etc. But I’m not sure which I prefer. While I love an unspoiled, untouched beach (which Rio has if you go farther out), I like the way they incorporate their beaches into the city. It’s not pretty in a natural sense but it does add to the urban appeal. Perhaps on the west coast in our drive to “protect” our coastline we are actually under-utilizing public space. That said, Rio’s beaches do have two huge drawbacks. One, the vendors: it’s nice to know you can get anything you want right on the beach but it’s impossible to relax with someone in your face trying to sell you something every few minutes. And two, the stench: the waters here must be seriously polluted because every time I approached an open body of water (ocean, bay or lagoon), I was hit with an overpowering, stomach-turning scent of human waste. It doesn’t blanket the shoreline so you can settle into a spot out of smell’s way, but good luck getting there without wanting to vomit in your mouth.

And so my time in Rio drew to a close. (Well not before one final aggravation. For my flight to Brasilia, I was departing from the smaller Santos Dumont airport, which is on a tiny strip of land in the bay next to downtown. I opted for a window seat so that I could look out over the city as we took off. But on this plane, 7F did not have a window, just a wall. It was torture. Thanks Gol Airlines!) Rio is a beautiful, exciting city, and I enjoyed my adventure there. However I left with mixed feelings and wonder if I will return. The longer I spent there the more I missed things I take for granted at home: pedestrian right-of-way, good customer service, lower urban density, leafy greens, buildings that aren’t walled off, friendly strangers, punctuality.... And as much as I complain about our gay scene, it’s relatively friendly and low-attitude, unlike Rio’s. Rio is a big city that comes with big city people and problems, and despite its sweltering heat, it can be a cold place, at least to an outsider. I had a fantastic visit, perhaps just a few days too long. And I think I would like to return but next time it will be with friends or a loved one so that I can share all the good times the city has to offer.

[thecharleslew-blog]

Is Traditional Retail on the Verge of Mass Extinction?

I recently read that the earth is on the cusp of its sixth mass extinction. The first five were cataclysmic geological and/or extraterrestrial events that decimated all life on the planet. The sixth, they say, will be different in that it will be brought about by us. I read this while sitting outside of a shopping mall, or more specifically, an empty husk that had formerly been one of the big box retailers. I couldn’t help but notice the vacant parking lot, overgrown landscaping and general disrepair of the physical location.

For the next 45 minutes, I sat on the bench and pondered the question, is traditional retail on the verge of its first mass extinction? Faced with a problem of this complexity, I turned to my phone and proceeded to “Bing” the answer. My search resulted in numerous articles with extremely varied opinions regarding the general condition of retail, ranging from stone cold dead to healthy, but in need of a redirection.

To make any predictions of the future health and welfare of retail one must examine the most crucial indicators. What is the total of online sales? What percentage of total retail sales are online? Finally and perhaps most importantly, what are the retail trends for online versus traditional brick and mortar retail? Within moments I had the answers to my questions. Online sales will reach more than $385 billion in 2017 and will account for somewhere in the vicinity of 10% of all retail sales. What’s more telling is that online sales have enjoyed, and are expected to continue, a compound annual growth rate of approximately 10%.

What does this mean for brick and mortar? According to a Credit Suisse recently released research report, 2017 could very well be the worst year in recorded history with an anticipated 8,600 brick and mortar stores closing their doors. On a daily basis, we are hearing about additional retailers releasing disappointing sales figures, closing stores and questioning their ability to continue their existence.

Is it all doom and gloom for retail? Can retail as we know it recover? The short answer is ‘no’, but maybe that's not entirely a bad thing. If we look back at the historical mass extinction events, it is possible that absent these calamities, dinosaurs would still rule the world. Instead mammals including ourselves have adapted, improved, and improvised and as a result, have spread to every inch of the earth and indeed beyond. Commercial real estate as a whole had become lazy. The developer dinosaurs were lazy, they created vanilla boxes and anchored them with mainstay concepts that they knew could pay rent. Then they lumbered over to their next big box, repeated the process again and made vast sums of money! The retail dinosaurs helped to perpetuate this system because it wasn't broken, so why fix it? More importantly, they were provided abundant feeding grounds by the developer dinosaurs. The broker and agent dinosaurs (myself included), just kept going back to the same feeding grounds and catching the scraps that fell from the larger dinosaurs in the form of their commission checks. Something had to shake up this system and it just so happened to be an asteroid in the form of Amazon!

So what, if any, is the good news? Can there be a light at the end of this tunnel? If one were to draw the same comparison, one could argue that this retail Armageddon will not only create a survival of the fittest environment but will force even the fit to reevaluate their methods to create a vastly improved retail experience. How does one develop traditional brick and mortar shopping and provide an environment that in its totality is at least equivalent to the online shopping experience? A simple mathematic equation which I won't bore you with will show that traditional retail cannot compete with online sales from a pricing perspective. Arguably, online shopping cannot compete with brick and mortar from an experiential evaluation. How many times have you walked into a store and bought a candle just because the bright colors caught your eyes and the aroma was utterly luxurious? Or walked through Whole Foods or Costco, smelled something divine only to sample one of the delicious-looking food offerings and walk out with that very same product? 

What do the aforementioned scenarios have in common? They are all situations where multisensory stimuli have created an experience that would not be possible online! The question then becomes, what increase in price would you be willing to pay to not only see but hear, touch, taste, and smell something before you purchased it? While I'm certainly not in possession of any empirical evidence that would give a definitive answer to this, I thought that perhaps the general consumer would not only be willing to pay a premium for a traditional brick and mortar experience but would continue to do so on a regular basis provided that unique sensory stimuli were present and perhaps a memory was created.

45 minutes later, I jumped in my car and took a quick trip to Venice Beach. I had a client there who was not only surviving but thriving in the retail apocalypse, and I wanted to observe his business in light of my latest ponderings. When you walk into Nick Fouquet’s hat store you instantly get the ‘mad hatter’ analogy. Hats of all colors, textures, and designs are almost impossibly displayed in an array of strategic randomness.  Customers lounge around between cases trying on hats while Nick mingles amongst them, adding a tilt to a customer’s cap here or bending a beaver-felt brim there. Nick’s patrons walk in the door with an idea of what they want, but you almost get a feeling that the hat under Nick’s trained eye chooses its owner.  The experience here is truly unique and you will leave this humble California bungalow with a clear understanding of why people are waiting for six months and spending up to $2,000 for a hat. It would be impossible to replicate this experience online and any patron who has participated in this marriage of hat and head will remember it for the rest of their lives. If you’re ever in the Venice Beach area, treat yourself to a moment of unforgettable madness with the hatter himself, Mr. Nick Fouquet.

A friendly wave and a warm smile later, I left Nick’s shop and started driving up the coast. While I haven’t figured out how to save the retail world, I had at least confirmed my suspicion that providing consumers with an experiential event of a sensory nature was a large piece of the puzzle, and if a memory can be made it’s all the better. This has inspired me to follow up with a more detailed series of articles identifying people who have thriving businesses in today’s retail landscape, interviewing them and relaying my findings to you all. Keep an eye out for my subsequent pieces in a series I will call “Retail Royalty”.

[brentrogers]

How to Survive a Traumatic Experience

Somewhere in the world people are experiencing traumatic events every day. Communities fall apart due to tornadoes, floods, fires, and war; cataclysmic events that cause multiple losses for everyone in their path. Homes and possessions are lost; individuals suffer injuries; friends and family disappear or die. 

Individual events like physical, sexual and/or verbal abuse; illness, abduction, injury or death of loved ones; sudden loss of health, home or job are devastating as well. Traumatic events, whether on a community or personal level, are shocking and life-changing. 

To feel devastated is normal. To want to stop time and live only in our grief is normal. To grieve deeply and profoundly is normal. And grief often takes much longer than those around the griever feel it should. 

But at some point, if a life is to go forward, it is essential to find a way to move on. Moving on does not mean to forget or to dismiss what happened. No. What happened – happened. It becomes part of our personal history. As such, it will continue to shape us in some way. But to live permanently in a state of emotional shock and turmoil is to lose what a future may hold. 

Recovery can happen. It takes time. It takes effort. It happens gradually. But it does happen. Some people report that they even grow stronger in the process.

The following are suggestions for recovery that researchers have gleaned from survivors:

Let yourself grieve. Grief is a natural process that helps us metabolize what has happened. To grieve means to cycle through the stages of denial, guilt, anger, depression, and acceptance enough times that eventually genuine acceptance becomes possible. Ultimately, you will be able to remember what happened without re-experiencing the full painful impact. That can make room for remembering more positive things that were also going on at the time and even to find reasons to be hopeful and optimistic. 

Stay present: It’s normal to want to be free of pain. But numbing it away through alcohol, drugs, or will-power only delays the inevitable feelings of loss. It may be tempting but it adds another problem to the initial trauma.

Nurture yourself: The body needs to be nurtured if you are to heal. Make yourself eat, sleep, and get outside, even if, especially if, you don’t feel like it. Make a point to do things you find soothing. Listen to music, take a hike in the woods, cook something you especially like. Do whatever reminds you that you deserve to feel good even when you feel so bad.

Talk it out: The ability and willingness to talk it out is the primary skill of resilient people. Choose wisely among the people in your existing network who are willing to be there for you and listen without judgment. Seek advice from people you respect and trust. Let your friends and family members who love you help you. You would do the same for them.

If there is no one you know who you feel you can turn to, do look for other helpers. Crisis workers are often brought into disaster areas to provide some initial support. Community agencies like women’s shelters, services for the homeless, veterans’ services, or free stores and survival centers often have on-site counselors available. If you have a community of faith, this is a time to tap into the spiritual help that such a community can provide. Free support groups that address specific health or trauma issues are often available in communities. Look in your local newspaper. There are also online support groups like the forums here at PsychCentral.

Do consider seeing a professional mental health counselor as well. You needn’t worry about burdening them. A counselor’s job is to focus on you. You needn’t worry about surprising or shocking them. Experienced counselors have helped many people whose lives have been turned upside down by trauma. You don’t need to worry about being judged. Counselors listen nonjudgmentally and compassionately to all your feelings. Sessions with a counselor will help you grieve productively and will help you find new ways to cope and go on. It will take time. But talk therapy does work.

Get active: People who survive and thrive determinedly work on their recovery. When they experience a set-back in practical problems, they look for alternative ways to solve the problem. They write letters. They assert themselves with medical people. They demand answers from authorities. If they have a relapse or get stuck during their therapeutic work, they don’t drop out of therapy. They ask for their therapist’s support to confront what they fear or to make sense of a relapse. 

Find meaning: Survivors find a purpose for living that gives them satisfaction and even joy. Many work on being the best person they can be to their family and friends. They resolve to take good care of themselves and to work on issues that have been obstacles in their relationships. Others set more community-centered goals. They become the helpers for others they wished they’d had when they were most in need. They establish or join support groups or get active as volunteers. 

You are more than the trauma. As dramatic and powerful as a traumatic event may be, it does not have to be the defining event of your life. In the process of recovering, you will find or develop more inner strength and inner resources than you thought you had. Having been through the worst, you will appreciate what you have in new ways and perhaps gain a more optimistic perspective. You will take what learning you can from having suffered and move on with a new sense of personal purpose and worth.

How to Survive a Traumatic Experience syndicated from

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Back flip, True Lies & DRM

Here we go with another episode from Nerds Amalgamated. This week is packed full of fun stuff to look forward to. First up is it a robot or is it a dog? It is Boston Dynamics student competitors with Standford Doggo. This fabulous little robot is awesome and does tricks, listen in to find out what they are. Also did you want your very own robot doggo? Well you are in luck as we tell you about how to get one. Also check our website for the show notes with hyperlinks, you need the article to get what you need.

            Next up we have DJ telling us about a proposed new series coming out based on a movie. Yep, another movie is being adapted for your viewing pleasure. It will once again not have the same actors in it that were the main stars in the movie, like so many others out there. But hopefully it will be enjoyable all the same. We won’t hold our breathe but surely they will have learned something over there by now… Who the heck are we kidding, those idiots never listen to anyone else, let alone the proposed viewing public.

            Next up we look at the blooper that is worthy of a standing ovation. Someone involved with the release of a game from Bethesda studios forgot the DRM. We know, how unlike Bethesda to stuff up something right? BWAHAHA!!! This amazing bit of luck is available on Steam and quite probably numerous other websites that deal in nefarious shadowy dealings. We personally are unaware of the names of such sites and therefore are unable to confirm or deny such suggestions. But come on, just think about it, a brand new game released without the DRM and no one is going to chase that down the rabbit hole of pirating it? Yeah, like Game of Thrones was never pirated ever.

            We have the usual shout outs, remembrances, birthdays and events from history. Plus games we are playing at the moment. All combined into one big mess that we call the show. We hope you enjoy and as always, stay safe, look after each other and stay hydrated.

EPISODE NOTES:

Back flipping robot - https://www.futurity.org/doggo-robot-2067152/

True Lies TV series reboot - https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/true-lies-tv-adaptation-heading-disney/

DRM - https://steamcommunity.com/games/548570/announcements/detail/2565275416672419265

Games currently playing

Buck

– The Crew 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/646910/The_Crew_2/

Professor

– Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - https://cataclysmdda.org/

DJ

– Steep - https://store.steampowered.com/app/460920/Steep/(edited)

Other topics discussed

Hold my Beer Comedy

- http://westender.com.au/circus-coming-hold-beer-end-westend/

Flipsy the dog (Simpsons reference)

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_nGJvqHcV8

LEGO Mindstorms

- https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms

Hulu might take Marvel shows such as Daredevil

- https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2466812/hulu-is-down-to-revive-daredevil-and-other-cancelled-marvel-tv-shows

Denuvo

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denuvo

- https://www.howtogeek.com/400126/what-is-denuvo-and-why-do-gamers-hate-it/

Red Bull Air Championships

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_Air_Race_World_Championship

6ix9ine (rapper)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6ix9ine

Cutscene saga (That’s Not Canon Production Podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/cutscenesagapodcast

Shoutouts

20 May 1736 - Westminster Bridge Defies a King and the Church - The Archbishop of Canterbury – head of the Church in England – probably prayed there would never be a bridge across the River Thames at Westminster. But he was not alone. Up to the end of the 17th Century most traffic moved up and down on the river rather than by road. River transport was big business and the men who plied their trade on boats and ferries had a lot to lose from the construction of new bridges. They were backed by the Corporation of London which did not want trade moving to the fringes of London, but claimed its main objections were the loss of custom to the watermen and to the City markets and the danger of the navigation of the river being impeded. One of the claims was that if the watermen lost their jobs there would be fewer readily available seamen for the navy if England went to war. The arguments raged on until in 1664 a major proposal for a bridge was made to the King's Privy Council and to the Lord Mayor. City businesses then played their ace card and bribed King Charles II to scrap the proposal. Officially, it was an interest-free loan, but however the transaction was described the effect was that the building of Westminster Bridge would not take place for nearly 100 years. However, over time various people continued to press for such a bridge until in 1721 petitions went to Parliament. There was the same opposition as before but in the end the case was won and permission to build the bridge finally received Royal Approval on 20 May 1736, when George II was on the throne. Work began in 1738 and the bridge was opened on 18 November 1750. - https://www.onthisday.com/articles/westminster-bridge-defies-a-king-and-the-church

21 May 1792 - Mount Unzen on Japan's Shimabara Peninsula, erupts creating a tsunami, killing about 15,000; Japan's deadliest volcanic eruption. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1792_Unzen_earthquake_and_tsunami

21 May 1980 - "Star Wars Episode V - Empire Strikes Back", produced by George Lucas opens in cinemas in UK and North America -https://www.onthisday.com/people/george-lucas

21 May 2004 - Stanislav Petrov awarded World Citizen Award for averting a potential nuclear war in 1983 after correctly guessing Russian early warning system at fault - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

22 May 2019 - Illawarra scientist and inventor Macinley Butson has been featured by the world's biggest video sharing website YouTube for her SMART Armour copper cancer shield fabric. Macinley Butson's SMART (Scale Maille Armour for Radiation Therapy) invention is a device that shields the contralateral breast (the breast not being treated) from excess radiation. As well as being made from high density copper, the shields are handmade. - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-22/youtube-profiles-teenage-scientist-macinley-butson/11134004

Remembrances

20 May 2019 – Nikki Lauda, Austrian Formula One driver, a three-time F1 World Drivers' Champion, winning in 1975, 1977 and 1984, and an aviation entrepreneur. He was the only driver in F1 history to have been champion for both Ferrari and McLaren, the sport's two most successful constructors. He is widely considered one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. As an aviation entrepreneur, he founded and ran three airlines: Lauda Air, Niki, and Lauda. He was a Bombardier Business Aircraft brand ambassador. He was also a consultant for Scuderia Ferrari and team manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years. Afterwards, he worked as a pundit for German TV during Grand Prix weekends and acted as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, of which Lauda owned 10%. Having emerged as Formula One's star driver amid a 1975 title win and leading the 1976 championship battle, Lauda was seriously injured in a crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring during which his Ferrari 312T2 burst into flames, and he came close to death after inhaling hot toxic fumes and suffering severe burns. However, he survived and recovered sufficiently to race again just six weeks later at the Italian Grand Prix. Although he narrowly lost the title to James Hunt that year, he won his second Ferrari crown the year after during his final season at the team. After a couple of years at Brabham and two years' hiatus, Lauda returned and raced four seasons for McLaren between 1982 and 1985 – during which he won the 1984 title by 0.5 points over his teammate Alain Prost. He died of natural causes at 70 in Zurich. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_Lauda

21 May 1935 - Jane Addams, known as the mother of social work, a pioneer American settlement activist/reformer, social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, public administrator, protester, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace. She co-founded Chicago's Hull House, one of America's most famous settlement houses. In 1920, she was a co-founder for the ACLU. In 1931, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the United States. She is increasingly being recognized as a member of the American pragmatist school of philosophy and is known by many as the first woman "public philosopher in the history of the United States". In the Progressive Era, when presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers. She helped America address and focus on issues that were of concern to mothers, such as the needs of children, local public health, and world peace. In her essay "Utilization of Women in City Government," Addams noted the connection between the workings of government and the household, stating that many departments of government, such as sanitation and the schooling of children, could be traced back to traditional women's roles in the private sphere. Thus, these were matters of which women would have more knowledge than men, so women needed the vote to best voice their opinions. She said that if women were to be responsible for cleaning up their communities and making them better places to live, they needed to be able to vote to do so effectively. Addams became a role model for middle-class women who volunteered to uplift their communities. She died of cancer at 74 in Chicago, Illinois.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams 

- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1931/addams/biographical/

23 May 1701 - William Kidd, Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians, for example Sir Cornelius Neale Dalton, deem his piratical reputation unjust. He was hanged for his crimes at 47 in Execution Dock,Wapping, London. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kidd

Famous birthdays

21 May 1948 – Leo Sayer, English-Australian singer-songwriter musician and entertainer whose singing career has spanned four decades. He is now an Australian citizen and resident. Sayer launched his career in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, and became a top singles and album act on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s. His first seven hit singles in the United Kingdom all reached the Top 10 – a feat first registered by his first manager, Adam Faith. His songs have been sung by other notable artists, including Cliff Richard ("Dreaming"). He was born in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Sayer

21 May 1960 - Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender. Although he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder,schizotypal personality disorder, and a psychotic disorder, Dahmer was found to be legally sane at his trial. He was convicted of 15 of the 16 murders he had committed in Wisconsin, and was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment on February 15, 1992. He was later sentenced to a 16th term of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed in Ohio in 1978. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Dahmer

22 May 1905 - Bodo von Borries, Germanphysicist. He was the co-inventor of the electron microscope. After World War II , he founded the "Rhine-Westphalia Institute for Electron Microscopy" in Düsseldorf in 1948. In 1949, he was involved in the foundation of the German Society for Electron Microscopy. He was born in Herford,North Rhine-Westphalia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodo_von_Borries

Events of Interest

21 May 1881 - American Red Cross founded by Clara Barton, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-red-cross-founded

21 May 1927 - Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic. - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lindbergh-lands-in-paris

21 May 1932 - After flying for 17 hours from Newfoundland, Amelia Earhart lands near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, becoming the 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/earhart-completes-transatlantic-flight

22 May 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".

-  Patent - http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html

             -  https://patents.google.com/patent/US821393A/en

- Patent War - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war 

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss

[nebris]

Dare to declare capitalism dead before it takes us all down with it

For most of my adult life I’ve railed against “corporate capitalism”, “consumer capitalism” and “crony capitalism”. It took me a long time to see that the problem is not the adjective but the noun. While some people have rejected capitalism gladly and swiftly, I’ve done so slowly and reluctantly. Part of the reason was that I could see no clear alternative: unlike some anti-capitalists, I have never been an enthusiast for state communism. I was also inhibited by its religious status. To say “capitalism is failing” in the 21st century is like saying “God is dead” in the 19th: it is secular blasphemy. It requires a degree of self-confidence I did not possess.

But as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to recognise two things. First, that it is the system, rather than any variant of the system, that drives us inexorably towards disaster. Second, that you do not have to produce a definitive alternative to say that capitalism is failing. The statement stands in its own right. But it also demands another, and different, effort to develop a new system.

Capitalism’s failures arise from two of its defining elements. The first is perpetual growth. Economic growth is the aggregate effect of the quest to accumulate capital and extract profit. Capitalism collapses without growth, yet perpetual growth on a finite planet leads inexorably to environmental calamity.

Those who defend capitalism argue that, as consumption switches from goods to services, economic growth can be decoupled from the use of material resources. Last week a paper in the journal New Political Economy, by Jason Hickel and Giorgos Kallis, examined this premise. They found that while some relative decoupling took place in the 20th century (material resource consumption grew, but not as quickly as economic growth), in the 21st century there has been a recoupling: rising resource consumption has so far matched or exceeded the rate of economic growth. The absolute decoupling needed to avert environmental catastrophe (a reduction in material resource use) has never been achieved, and appears impossible while economic growth continues. Green growth is an illusion.

A system based on perpetual growth cannot function without peripheries and externalities. There must always be an extraction zone – from which materials are taken without full payment – and a disposal zone, where costs are dumped in the form of waste and pollution. As the scale of economic activity increases until capitalism affects everything, from the atmosphere to the deep ocean floor, the entire planet becomes a sacrifice zone: we all inhabit the periphery of the profit-making machine.

This drives us towards cataclysm on such a scale that most people have no means of imagining it. The threatened collapse of our life-support systems is bigger by far than war, famine, pestilence or economic crisis, though it is likely to incorporate all four. Societies can recover from these apocalyptic events, but not from the loss of soil, an abundant biosphere and a habitable climate.           

The second defining element is the bizarre assumption that a person is entitled to as great a share of the world’s natural wealth as their money can buy. This seizure of common goods causes three further dislocations. First, the scramble for exclusive control of non-reproducible assets, which implies either violence or legislative truncations of other people’s rights. Second, the immiseration of other people by an economy based on looting across both space and time. Third, the translation of economic power into political power, as control over essential resources leads to control over the social relations that surround them.

In the New York Times on Sunday, the Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz sought to distinguish between good capitalism, which he called “wealth creation”, and bad capitalism, which he called “wealth grabbing” (extracting rent). I understand his distinction. But from the environmental point of view, wealth creation is wealth grabbing. Economic growth, intrinsically linked to the increasing use of material resources, means seizing natural wealth from both living systems and future generations.

To point to such problems is to invite a barrage of accusations, many of which are based on this premise: capitalism has rescued hundreds of millions of people from poverty – now you want to impoverish them again. It is true that capitalism, and the economic growth it drives, has radically improved the prosperity of vast numbers of people, while simultaneously destroying the prosperity of many others: those whose land, labour and resources were seized to fuel growth elsewhere. Much of the wealth of the rich nations was – and is – built on slavery and colonial expropriation.

Like coal, capitalism has brought many benefits. But, like coal, it now causes more harm than good. Just as we have found means of generating useful energy that are better and less damaging than coal, so we need to find means of generating human wellbeing that are better and less damaging than capitalism.

There is no going back: the alternative to capitalism is neither feudalism nor state communism. Soviet communism had more in common with capitalism than the advocates of either system would care to admit. Both systems are (or were) obsessed with generating economic growth. Both are willing to inflict astonishing levels of harm in pursuit of this and other ends. Both promised a future in which we would need to work for only a few hours a week, but instead demand endless, brutal labour. Both are dehumanising. Both are absolutist, insisting that theirs and theirs alone is the one true God.

So what does a better system look like? I don’t have a complete answer, and I don’t believe any one person does. But I think I see a rough framework emerging. Part of it is provided by the ecological civilisation proposed by Jeremy Lent, one of the greatest thinkers of our age. Other elements come from Kate Raworth’s doughnut economics and the environmental thinking of Naomi Klein, Amitav Ghosh, Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, Raj Patel and Bill McKibben. Part of the answer lies in the notion of “private sufficiency, public luxury”. Another part arises from the creation of a new conception of justice based on this simple principle: every generation, everywhere, shall have an equal right to the enjoyment of natural wealth.

I believe our task is to identify the best proposals from many different thinkers and shape them into a coherent alternative. Because no economic system is only an economic system but intrudes into every aspect of our lives, we need many minds from various disciplines – economic, environmental, political, cultural, social and logistical – working collaboratively to create a better way of organising ourselves that meets our needs without destroying our home.

Our choice comes down to this. Do we stop life to allow capitalism to continue, or stop capitalism to allow life to continue?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/capitalism-economic-system-survival-earth

[dailydigitaltech-blog]

BlackBerry: The Most Important Mobile Company of the Future?

On the off chance that you resemble numerous, when you saw this feature you likely were shocked BlackBerry was still around. As BlackBerry telephones left the market, the organization dropped beyond anyone's ability to see. Be that as it may, in the background it has been moving into enterprises like car. Likewise, it remains the main seller giving versatile security to our government officials, military faculty and significant partnerships. 

BlackBerry: The Most Important Mobile Company of the Future? As we move into a time when our cell phones turn into our vital component to everything, and when the machines around us are exceptionally associated, portable, and progressively have our lives in their grasp, the security of these things has turned into a basic shortcoming. Taking a gander at self-sufficient autos alone, if an antagonistic office could pick up control over a minimum amount of them, the potential for death toll on a national scale could make some other man-made or cataclysmic event look inconsequential by correlation. I spent the most recent a few days at a BlackBerry examiner occasion in New York, and I think the organization is more vital than Apple is to our future, I think it is more vital to Apple than Apple figures it out. I'll clarify and after that nearby with my result of the week: a mechanical canine you can't yet purchase however that could ensure your home superior to anything a genuine puppy could. It likewise grandstands why we require a more prominent concentrate on security than we now have. The Critical Nature of Smartphone Security Progressively, our cell phones are turning into the virtual us. A large number of us shop on them and convey on them, and they are turning into the swap for our wallets and Mastercards. A few of us open our homes and autos with them. It won't be long, if drifts set up now proceed, before all we'll require is our cellphone to get to everything from our ledgers to our therapeutic records. It is turning into the virtual us. The issue is that if our telephone progresses toward becoming traded off, another person all of a sudden could have in any event as much control over every one of our assets as we do. With that control, somebody could take control as well as could deny us access to our own particular things. We could get up one morning with no capacity to work anything in our homes, get to our auto, or even get into work. On the off chance that that happened while we were away, we wouldn't have the capacity to get back inside our own particular home. With one virtual move, we could viably be deleted and supplanted carefully. Today it takes around a year and US$250K to get a personality secured after it has been stolen, yet in an unsecured future, we may be banished from the assets we'd have to recover our character. Given the expansion in the pattern to work remotely and maybe never really meet anybody we work with all the time, and the simplicity of digitizing and cloning pictures, it isn't difficult to envision a developing issue of individuals getting to be noticeably destitute - or more awful, losing their lives - in light of the fact that they were denied access to the things they expected to keep them alive. BlackBerry versus Apple Securing these things is the thing that BlackBerry does. It remains the organization most centered around this issue, and its items and administrations are the most generally utilized. I'm persuaded that legislatures on a very basic level don't get this developing presentation since they continually appear to need to break the security on telephones like the iPhone, not understanding that the little wrongdoing they are attempting to illuminate could open every other person to violations as once huge mob. Governments have demonstrated unfit to secure themselves, so if government authorities get what might as well be called an ace key into each telephone, so will antagonistic operators and lawbreakers. Governments tend to think strategically, and no organization - not Apple or Google - can hold off significant governments for long. They just have excessively control. Up until now, Canada has ended up being generally sensible in such manner. BlackBerry security, remaining outside of Apple or Google, can give a safeguard against silly government idiocy that Apple and Google can't. Mesh this out, the reason BlackBerry seemingly is more essential to us - and possibly to firms like Apple and Google - is that it is exceptionally ready to protect us as we move into this eventual fate of cell phones as the virtual us. While motion pictures, recreations and beautiful telephones are decent, I tend to think keeping myself, my advantages and my friends and family safe has far higher esteem. BlackBerry's Missed Opportunity A lot of a week ago's occasion centered around how well BlackBerry was doing. It is out of the money related woods. It has not too bad money stores, and the majority of its substantial scale new endeavors, including car, have been developing in nice twofold digits. In any case, as we move to this eventual fate of cell phones as the advanced us, one of BlackBerry's most vital offerings needs to do with securing singular telephones. Of the organization's future-centered organizations, this is its most vital - however it is additionally the one getting the minimum consideration. I'm not proposing that BlackBerry backpedal to building telephones as once huge mob. All things considered, similarly as it is taunting up autos to suspect the fate of self-sufficient autos that likewise should be secure, it ought to offer a more grounded idea of what a really safe telephone should be in the 2020s. It won't make any difference if the auto is secure if the gadget we use to access and control it isn't. I'm helped to remember the IBM centralized server and Web Services. Glancing back at the way the world was in the 1980s, we had focal figuring and imbecilic terminals, and the hardware was rented. Presently we have programs that aren't that not the same as stupid terminals, and the business is backpedaling to a brought together figure display in which the equipment is leased. Had IBM not ventured far from the centralized server in the 1990s, it likely would rule the cloud today. I figure BlackBerry may commit a similar error with its lessened interest in driving the fate of cell phones. It is particularly equipped for imagining the safe cell phone without bounds, which - like the centralized computer versus cloud - is less about the present equipment than it is about the present understanding. By missing this, it likewise misses what isn't only an open door for them, however our very own basic piece wellbeing and security. Wrapping Up BlackBerry is doing shockingly well, and I was flabbergasted at how all around entered it is into business sectors like cargo. It does a significant part of the following and answering to car, where it remains a noteworthy piece of the auto's control and diversion frameworks. We will urgently require a telephone engineering that is secure - not simply from offenders, but rather from our own particular misinformed governments - with the goal that we are better ready to survive and advantage from our undeniably self-sufficient and mechanical future instead of be harmed - or more awful, murdered - by it. As a race, we tend to concentrate on accuse as opposed to settling issues. In the event that you take a gander at the Russian race hacking, Russia professedly did no more regrettable than we do to different nations, yet we obviously didn't ensure ourselves. In any case, our concentrate seems, by all accounts, to be more on endeavoring to discover individuals to rebuff instead of ensuring it never happens again. As we move to self-ruling robots, homes, urban areas and autos, that demeanor could execute us. In the event that enough machines denounce any kind of authority, there soon might be nobody left alive for us to fault. Burglarize Enderle's Product of the Week I picked an item that makes my point this week. This is obviously not a transportation item, but rather it could develop into an item that at any rate some wealthy homes would have and unquestionably many organizations would convey. The SpotMini Robotic Dog from Boston Dynamics, the principal new item I've seen since Softbank purchased the firm from Google, is a cutting edge Robotic security gadget displayed after a pooch. It is quick, it moves like a creature, and it even appears to move amped up for out. In any case, dissimilar to a canine, it is reinforced, and it could convey incorporated weapons bundles that could shock or execute. Something like it likely will be conveyed to secure everything from air terminals to military offices, to strip malls and gated groups. This "pooch" likely will distinguish you both by visual innovation and by hardware, for example, your cell phone. Dissimilar to your real canine, it will be a machine - which implies that while you are approved it may be benevolent or even fun loving. Notwithstanding, on the off chance that you are let go, or all of a sudden stamped carefully as antagonistic, that perkiness could quickly transform into animosity. Envision a littler form of this thing in your home, all of a sudden choosing you were an interloper, or choosing that the people strolling into work were assaulting the organization. The SpotMini is cool, however it features that we better secure whatever distinguishes us as us, or we will confront the genuine plausibility this new class of accommodating robots will be more desperate than supportive for dreadfully a significant number of us. Thus, while the SpotMini is my result of the week, until the point when we secure what distinguishes us to items like this, I'll let you get it before I do.