#relationship affiliate programs

[relationshipsafe]

7 Ways To Improve Your Relationship

Good relationships don’t just happen. I’ve heard many of my clients state that, “If I have to work at it, then it’s not the right relationship.” This is not a true statement, any more than it’s true that you don’t have to work at good physical health through exercise, eating well, and stress reduction.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

I’ve discovered, in the 35 years that I’ve been counseling couples, 7 choices you can make that will not only improve your relationship, but can turn a failing relationship into a successful one.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

This is the most important choice you can make to improve your relationship. This means that you learn how to take responsibility for your own feelings and needs. This means that instead of trying to get your partner to make you feel happy and secure, you learn how to do this for yourself through your own thoughts and actions. This means learning to treat yourself with kindness, caring, compassion, and acceptance instead of self-judgment. Self-judgment will always make you feel unhappy and insecure, no matter how wonderfully your partner is treating you.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

For example, instead of getting angry at your partner for your feelings of abandonment when he or she is late, preoccupied and not listening to you, not turned on sexually, and so on, you would explore your own feelings of abandonment and discover how you might be abandoning yourself.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

When you learn how to take full, 100% responsibility for yourself, then you stop blaming your partner for your upsets. Since blaming one’s partner for one’s own unhappiness is the number one cause of relationship problems, learning how to take loving care of yourself is vital to a good relationship.

KINDNESS, COMPASSION, ACCEPTANCE

Treat others the way you want to be treated. This is the essence of a truly spiritual life. We all yearn to be treated lovingly – with kindness, compassion, understanding, and acceptance. We need to treat ourselves this way, and we need to treat our partner and others this way. Relationships flourish when both people treat each other with kindness. While there are no guarantees, often treating another with kindness brings kindness in return. If your partner is consistently angry, judgmental, uncaring and unkind, then you need to focus on

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

what would be loving to yourself rather than reverting to anger, blame, judgment, withdrawal, resistance, or compliance. Kindness to others does not mean sacrificing yourself. Always remember that taking responsibility for yourself rather than blaming others is the most important thing you can do. If you are consistently kind to yourself and your partner, and your partner is consistently angry, blaming, withdrawn and unavailable, then you either have to accept a distant relationship, or you need to leave the relationship. You cannot make your partner change – you can only change yourself.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

LEARNING INSTEAD OF CONTROLLING

When conflict occurs, you always have two choices regarding how to handle the conflict: you can open to learning about yourself and your partner and discover the deeper issues of the conflict, or you can try to win, or at least not lose, through some form of controlling behavior. We’ve all learning many overt and subtle ways of trying to control others into behaving the way we want: anger, blame, judgment, niceness, compliance, caretaking, resistance, withdrawal of love, explaining, teaching, defending, lying, denying, and so on. All the ways we try to control create even more conflict. Remembering to learn instead of control is a vital part of improving your relationship.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

For example, most people have two major fears that become activated in relationships: the fear of abandonment – of losing the other - and the fear of engulfment – of losing oneself. When these fears get activated, most people immediately protect themselves against these fears with their controlling behavior. But if you chose to learn about your fears instead of attempt to control your partner, your fear would eventually heal. This is how we grow emotionally and spiritually – by learning instead of controlling.

CREATE DATE TIMES

When people first fall in love, they make time for each other. Then, especially after getting married, they get busy. Relationships need time to thrive. It is vitally important to set aside specific times to be together – to talk, play, make love. Intimacy cannot be maintained without time together.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

GRATITUDE INSTEAD OF COMPLAINTS

Positive energy flows between two people when there is an “attitude of gratitude.” Constant complaints creates a heavy, negative energy, which is not fun to be around. Practice being grateful for what you have rather than focusing on what you don’t have. Complaints create stress, while gratitude creates inner peace, so gratitude creates not only emotional and relationship health, but physical health as well.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

FUN AND PLAY

We all know that “work without play makes Jack a dull boy.” Work without play makes for dull relationships as well. Relationships flourish when people laugh together, play together, and when humor is a part of everyday life. Stop taking everything so seriously and learn to see the funny side of life. Intimacy flourishes when there is lightness of being, not when everything is heavy.

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

SERVICE

A wonderful way of creating intimacy is to do service projects together. Giving to others fills the heart and creates deep satisfaction in the soul. Doing service moves you out of yourself and your own problems and supports a broader, more spiritual view of life.

If you and your partner agree to these 7 choices, you will be amazed at the improvement in your relationship!

how to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

[rose-lalondde]

naruto but it's my modern fantasy world au

[wcters]

𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗞𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗜𝗧 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗦

pairing: lando norris x fem!reader

summary: alex’s best friend and lando norris meet and something blossoms between them during a project the two are starting

warnings: swearing, pda, established relationships (later), rumours, hate, i do not know the whole magui situation, the comments are for the story, i do not affiliate with any of the beliefs of the people in here | faceclaim is shira klein as requested, i don’t think the international uni of monaco has a fashion program but let’s pretend it does for a hot minute

yourusername

liked by alexandrasaintmleux, yourclassmate, and 1,083 others

yourusername school is kicking my ass rn

view all 38 comments

alexandrasaintmleux my talented best friend 💗💗

↳ yourusername marry me

↳ alexandrasaintmleux yes!

↳ charles_leclerc ���🤨🤨

↳ yourusername sorry not sorry 🤷‍♀️

user1 you’re living the dream

yourclassmate no cause why is our professer so hard on us

francisca.cgomes pretty girl 🫠❤️

user2 how is the program there?

↳ yourusername it’s good! very nice people and teachers. i just like to complain 😔

alexandrasaintmleux

liked by yourusername, iamrebeccad, and 320,763 others

alexandrasaintmleux 🍓🍓🍓 dress by the best girl @yourusername

view all 1,012 comments

iamrebeccad beautiful 💕

user1 who is yourusername?

↳ user2 alex’s best friend! she goes to the international university of monaco studying fashion

yourusername i am blushing so hard 😚😚

↳ alexandrasaintmleux love youu

francisa.cgomes 😍😍

user3 fit made by y/n never fails

f1gossip

liked by user1, user2, and 74,974 others

f1gossip alex’s best friend, y/n y/l/n seen in the ferrari garage at the dutch grand prix. she was also seen congratulating lando on his win. what do you think about this? 🤔

view all 218 comments

user1 after magui i’m done

user2 not ANOTHER one

↳ user3 what do you mean?

↳ user2 this is like the sixth girl he’s been seen with

user4 love seeing y/n and alex together 💗

user5 she needs to stay away from him

author i know the timeline doesn’t match up with school semesters but let’s play pretend 😁😁

yourusername

liked by landonorris, alexandrasaintmleux, and 1,103 others

yourusername new project loading . . .

view all 32 comments

alexandrasaintmleux se excited to see the outcome of this one!

user1 girl tell usss 😫😫

yourclassmate i’m still coming up with an idea 😭😭

↳ yourusername   let’s meet up at the library and we can brains together together

↳ yourclassmate you’re my saviour

user2 my dream life

user3 cutie

user4 who’s the man

↳ yourusername   🤫🤫

f1gossip

liked by user1, user2, and 87,025 others 

f1gossip   lando norris seen meeting up with someone who has a striking resemblance to y/n y/l/n, alexandra saint mleux’s best friend. they then made their way to the international university of monaca? does this confirm its lando and y/n?

view all 235 comments

user1 we need to lando and his love life aloneee

user2 first magui and now her? this man is not slowing down

user3 why is he getting with a uni student?

user4 she’s probably just getting with him to get her and alex more attention

↳ user5 her account is literally private? 💀💀

user6 these lando fans need to chill

user7 at least this one’s smart 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

f1gossip

liked by user1, user2, and 87,963 others

f1gossip lando seen with the same girl before but at a restaurant this time. do we think it’s a date?

view all 233 comments

user1 she’s actually so ugly

user2 at this point i’d rather him be with magui 🤦‍♀️

user3 isn’t she a fashion student? shes probably a good digger

user4 she looks pretty

↳ user5 pretty ugly 🤢

yourusername

liked by alexandrasaintmleux, landonorris, and 1,487 others

yourusername the look of love, the rush of blood

view all 42 comments

alexandrasaintmleux so happy for you 💗🥺

↳ yourusername   i love you alex ❤️

user1 arctic monkeys reference !!!

yourclassmate this is why you have so many new ideas 🤨🤨

landonorris ❤️❤️

user2 i’m so jealous rn

niña bonita 😚

i don’t know if this is going to work

niña bonita 😚

if what’s going to work?

me and lando

the hate is crazy and i don’t know if i can handle it

niña bonita 😚

ma belle ☹️☹️

have you tried talking to him?

i don’t want to worry him with it

he already gets enough as it is

niña bonita 😚

oh y/n

whatever you think will help you more mentally and physically, do it

but please tell him. he would hate himself if he knew this was happening and you didn’t tell him

charles is the same

like, i know they don’t know it’s me, that’s just speculation

but they’re still taking digs at ME

what i look like, sound like, what i do

niña bonita 😚

i know honey

and you shouldn’t feel guilty for feeling like this either

and before you say you aren’t, you are. i know you

you are NEVER alone. ever.

not with me, not with lando, not with anyone

please don’t go through this alone love 💗

te amo mucho 🥺🥺🥺 (i love you so much)

niña bonita 😚

yo también te amo ❤️

now go and get that takeout you like. i know you’re questioning to or not

f1gossip

liked by user1, user2, and 100,368 others

f1gossip according to a fan, lando’s new girlfriend is y/n y/l/n! she’s a fashion student at the international university of monaco and are best friends with alexandra saint mleux. they were seen together holding hands and kissing. y/n also was there when the fan got a picture with lando

view all 364 comments

user1 she looks like a bitch

user2 she’s probably just using him for clout

user3 she’s not pretty enough to be his girlfriend 🤢🤢

user4 she’s so beautiful

user5 go back to the models @landonorris

landonorris

liked by yourusername, alexandrasaintmleux, and 1,297,034 others

landonorris yes. i do have a girlfriend. no, it is not your business, but yet you’ve made it your business. we wanted to keep it private but now we can’t. the hate that my girlfriend, and any girl seen with me, has been getting is ridiculous. my girlfriend is the sweetest person in the world, and you don’t even bother to try to get to know her before you run her name through the dirt. i have been silent on this for too long. forgive me, my love.

i am so proud of you and what you are doing. thank you for giving me a chance (and saving my style, apparently) ❤️

comments have been disabled

[cartoonistcoop]

ShortBox Comics Member Interview: Jona Li

Throughout the month of October, the Cartoonist Cooperative will be sharing interviews with members of the Co-op who have a new comic available at the ShortBox Comics Fair 2024! 

NOTE: The Cartoonist Cooperative is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way formally connected with ShortBox.  

Today’s spotlight is Jona Li and their new comic for ShortBox, Rewired

We’d love it if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background in comics.

Jona Li: Hello! I’m Jona and I’m a comics artist based in Tkaronto. I’m an animation school grad so I was originally working in the animation industry before I decided to do comics full-time, which was possible largely thanks to an arts grant I got from the Canadian government. I’ve always drawn short comic strips and one-pagers in my free time, and comics have always been my go-to medium for storytelling. My first real foray into comics was exhibited at ShortBox Comics Fair 2022, and since then I’ve done a couple of other short comics for anthologies and zines organized by friends. Even though my professional background is largely in animation, the comics medium is still something that has stayed a passion of mine, both with consuming and making them. I’m excited to continue to possibly make comics full-time.

Tell us more about your new comic?

JL: My new comic Rewired is a speculative short using surface-level sci-fi elements to tell an interpersonal story about someone who’s willing to change anything about themselves for someone they love. I guess it’s an inherent tragedy where you know it won’t go great either way–you can’t really change who you are without consequences and you can’t fully understand another person enough to fully cater yourself to them. The MC thinks interpersonal relationships and romance can be solved like a math equation, but the worst and best thing about people and relationships is that it’s unpredictable and indefinite. In many ways, it’s also an allegory for neurodivergence–wouldn’t it be great to simply program yourself to behave a certain way so others will like you more? That’s kind of what I was trying to do with this comic.

Tell us about your creative process; how did you develop this comic and what are the steps you took to bring it to the final stage?

JL: I had a lot of trouble at first coming up with a short and concise idea for something that’s ideally just twenty-ish pages long. At first I tried out a more lighthearted, comedic short about two friends reconnecting and having a blossoming romance while trying to give a burial to a dead cat they found. I guess I never grasped the characters enough for that one, so I looked around for other inspiration. 

I really like the concept of mundanity mixed in with the fantastical, something like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, where an android girl runs a café in a post-apocalyptic setting. That was kind of the blueprint for the comic I have now. From there, I wrote out the general beats for how I want the story to go, and then I wrote the script and did my thumbnails. 

This was actually the first time I ever had a proper thumbnail stage while doing a comic, the last few comics I did were purely just me making it up as I go…in the end I still changed a lot from my thumbs to the final sketch. Then I decided on the general look of the comic, which is what you see now! 

Read the rest of the interview HERE! And dont forget to check out the Shortbox Comics Fair to support these lovely creators!!

[demigodsanswer]

Percabeth baby AU/Secret Relationship

Oh man!

Roman!Percy AU, and also maybe CHB is a little more like New Rome -- it's got more of a New Rome city vibe, but it's still called CHB after the Athenian faction and Spartan factions of 19th century halfbloods nearly went to war over the potential name.

Annabeth and Percy are the respective leaders of each camp, and similar to the events of HoO, they are the ones who end up swapped. But they go on the quest together and stay in close contact once relations between the two camps improve after the war.

While political relations have started to improve, the different camps still don't totally get along. And this includes the son of Neptune and Daughter of Athena.

Or at least publicly it seems like they don't get along. Secretly they've been together for five years, and in love with each other even longer. They fell in love on the quest of the seven, and really became inseparable after he fell into Tartarus together.

Problem is, this would be seen as a kind of colluding with the enemy (even though the camps aren't officially at odds anymore), so their relationship needs to remain a secret. Public rivalry helps keep it a secret (and it's fun foreplay for them). They make it work, and even manage to contrive a reason for Percy to go to the CHB affiliated school (some real actual NYC college) as an "exchange" program, so they get to actually live together through college.

They are both trying to figure out how to step down from their public roles at their camps, and how to go public with their relationship so they can finally get married when two things happen almost at the same time:

Annabeth realizes she's pregnant

Some sort of scandal erupts in New Rome, all of their power structures are shaken up, and Percy's reputation and credibility are called into question in a big way.

So not only does he need to stay in NR to resolve this, exposing their relationship could be a massive threat not just to their credibility, but also to their lives, and the relationship between the camps. ("Or maybe true love really does conquer all, and this will heal the relationship," Piper suggests.)

But of course, Annabeth can't hide that she's pregnant forever. She manages to keep it a secret past twenty weeks, but then she's just a little too big and can't train.

The fic would probably start with a line like: "There was no hiding it: Annabeth Chase was pregnant. And she wasn't telling anyone who the father was. Some people guessed she had simply created it herself with her mind. But no one had ever heard of another child of Athena doing that. And anyway, they were all (mostly) sure that wasn't how Athena did it either. So, who had fucked their Philosopher King?"

(Philosopher king is probably not her official title, probably an in-joke at CHB or a pejorative the New Romans came up with that CHB reclaimed)

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] Gargoyles (Gettin’ medieval for the kids)

[All images are owned by Disney. Please don’t sue me]

(Thanks to Jan Schmelter)

(If you would like to see the wall of text that was the original review, you may do so here)

In the 90s, before there were a ton of cable stations devoted to cartoons and kids’ fare (The Disney Channel and Nickelodeon were it) and you could still watch a ton of cartoons between the time that kids would be coming home from school and the time parents came home from work (every TV station not affiliated with the “Big Three” (Fox was not yet the major network it is now, and its stations were often regarded as “independents” that happened to have Fox programming a few nights a week) had this format in the afternoon)

(Thanks to DuckTales Wiki)

In 1990, Disney decided to get in on this action with The Disney Afternoon, a two-hour block of cartoons using series previously aired on the Disney Channel, with such well-regarded shows as Duck Tales, Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, and Goof Troop.

Then in 1994, Disney took a serious risk with its block. Instead of the kid-friendly mild adventure (and outright comedy) reruns, they premiered a show with a much darker (though still kid-friendly) tone that included characters being wounded and (gasp) killed! Needless to say, this got the immediate attention of my college-age friends and myself!

The cartoon is about a group of gargoyles (hence the series’s title) from the 10th century who, despite a symbiotic relationship with Celtic nobility (they defended the nobles’ castle at night and the humans protected them during the day when they were stone and helpless), were feared and shunned by the very humans they helped protect (almost sounds like a metaphor for racial tensions, much like the mutants in X-Men)

The clan of Gargoyles (well, the ones who the series centers on) consists of 7 warriors

...led by Goliath, the only one of them with a name (voiced by Kieth David who went on to voice Captain Anderson in the Mass Effect video game franchise)

...along with his mate (voiced by Marina Sirtis…we’ll get to her in a moment)

...his mentor (voiced by Ed Asner, who played Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show)

...three younger warriors

...and a gargoyle-dog (dog-goyle?)

There are others, but as you’ll see they’re not that important.

When their main ally among the humans betrayed them, (though, to be fair, he was actually betraying the nobles. He assumed the invaders would leave the gargoyles alone after they won. WRONG! The invaders smashed the majority of the gargoyles while they were stone, killing them in a way that was technically kid-friendly) and the nobles blamed them for their defeat (Why? The invaders attacked during the day!) The court mage (who is known as the Magus) cursed the gargoyles to remain stone forever “until the castle rises above the clouds”. What dicks!

Fortunately, the nobles realized who really betrayed them, but unfortunately the mage could not undo the spell, so they took it upon themselves to care for the unborn gargoyle eggs as they fled (This will become important later)

Fast forward about a thousand years, when billionaire industrialist David Xanatos (voiced by Jonathan Frakes…I swear I will address this!) has the castle carefully taken down and reconstructed (making sure to use every piece) atop his skyscraper. Sure enough, this meets the conditions of the spell and the gargoyles awaken at dusk. Goliath discovers his mate was not demolished by the invaders, but was somehow still alive (after a millennium? Given Goliath’s mentor is old, they are obviously not immortal!) and told Xanatos about the spell.

As thanks, Goliath agrees to work with Xanatos, until it’s obvious that Xanatos isn’t exactly on the side of the angels.

Nor, apparently, is Goliath’s mate, who had grown more cold and ruthless (and has developed a hatred of humans) in the past thousand years (again, how? I mean, it is sorta-kinda explained in later episodes, but for now it’s a mystery). Eventually, the pair turn on the gargoyles.

(Thanks to Tooth)

About this time, Goliath meets...

...(and accidentally nearly kills) an NYPD detective named Elisa Maza.

Elisa becomes a fierce ally to the Gargoyles, eventually helping them find a new home since living over Xanatos’s roof could be hazardous to their health (and sorta-kinda becoming a mate to Goliath? Well, at least a romantic interest in a “will they/won’t they/is the biology even possible?!” kind of way)

Elisa is also inadvertently responsible for naming the rest if the Gargoyles. When she asked Goliath’s mentor what his name was, he was exasperated that humans needed to name everything, and asked if a nearby river had a name too. She replied it was the Hudson. He then threw his hands up and declared that he, too, might as well be called the Hudson, which led to the rest of the clan to choose their own names...

(Thanks to Chris bentley)

OK, time to address the Enterprise in the room. A lot of actors affiliated with Star Trek gave their voices to the series (the fact that Sirtis and Frakes played villains when so many associated them with the crew of the Enterprise-D was surreal at the very least) Every chapter in the Trek mythos to date was represented, with TNG being the most heavy.

(Brent Spiner voiced the fae known as Puck

…and LaVar Burton voiced a spider god), though there were voice actors from...

the original series (Nichelle Nichols voiced Elisa’s mother)

Deep Space Nine (Michael Dorn voiced an undead cyborg gargoyle (yes, the series had some weird characters) known as Coldstone)

Voyager (Kate Mulgrew played Xanatos’s lover’s mother,

...as well as Queen Titania of the fae)

…and even the movies! (Paul Winfield, who played the captain of the USS Reliant in Star Trek II, played a recurring role as blind man who befriends Hudson)

The show’s creator has said that, while he did cast Sirtis and Frakes for the roles, it was not originally his intent to fill the series with voices to please the Trekkies, but he did seem to favor Trek actors more as new characters were written.

Many sci-fi and (urban) fantasy tropes were visited, including time travel (again with the time-travel…however, I like how the series handled the concept: you aren’t altering the past by going back in time, events in the past happened as they did because your present self traveled to the past!)

The series was very well-written, especially for its time (X-Men showed that younger audiences could handle more mature content and could follow a continuing storyline…plus a series written as such could draw in an older demographic that could afford all the merchandising)

As always, let me know if there are any episodes you would like reviewed.

[my-deer-friend]

I have a stupid question. How do you find out about current history scholarship and research? I am sick of reading books I've read a hundred times and were published decades ago. Is there like a forum or something where historians share research or lectures or things?

Not stupid at all!

The key is 1) knowing which sources provide the most up-to-date information, and then 2) using the appropriate strategy to access them.

Conference and lectures

Conferences are where you find the most cutting-edge research – usually work that has not been published yet, or is still in progress. Accessing conferences can be both expensive and difficult (if they're limited to people with certain affiliations, for example), but there are also conferences that are free for the public, and ones run by groups like the Organization of American Historians that are reasonably priced for the digital attendance option. You can browse conference programmes (here is the OAH's 2024 version) to at least find the names of academics relevant to your field of interest, which will help with the kinds of searches you will want to conduct below.

Finding these is a mix of luck and effort. You can set a search alerts on various platforms, literally just do a search for "[topic] academic conference", find relevant organisations and subscribe to their newsletters for updates, or do some browsing on social media. I found History Symposium (free, current, deep-dive history lectures and a virtual conference) because of something shared here on Tumblr. Following the Instagram account of the Powder House in Charleston keeps me updated on their history lecture programming (which host virtual talks including showcasing new research on the US colonial era). Then there are institutions like the Royal Museums Greenwich who publish a range of high-quality historical content on their YouTube account (they have a good series on black history and the Transatlantic slave trade, as well as a fascinating recent lecture by a historian on the queer history of the British navy, which I also found here on Tumblr).

Academic journals

Journals are where you get the most recent published academic scholarship. A journal article generally is a fairly narrow/focused exploration of a topic that adds something new to the ongoing academic conversation (e.g., a new discovery, a new analysis of existing material, a new theoretical perspective, a challenge to a previous author's work).

Other useful kinds of journal content are book reviews, as well as "review" articles, which summarise and synthesise recent research in a field – as well as newly arising questions and research directions.

Getting your hands on articles requires two steps: 1) finding the research, and 2) accessing the research.

Finding articles

For better or worse, the best generalist search tool for journal articles is Google Scholar – it allows you to search across hundreds of databases and independent publishers for relevant content.

If you're a member of a university library (not necessarily staff or student – check if your library allows external membership), it will have its own search tool which allows you to find material in the databases and journals that the university is subscribed to. Individual databases, archives or publishers (think JSTOR) will also have their own internal search.

My advice is to start your search as narrowly as possible, and then expand out slowly if you don't find anything relevant. So, for example, I might start my search with "same-sex relationships london 1780s", and if nothing comes up, I might broaden it out to "england" or "late eighteenth century", and so on.

The other thing to do is follow citations (i.e., who referenced what?). You can travel "backwards" through the literature by looking at the reference lists of books or articles you already have (in other words, which works the author used to base their research on).

But you can also travel forwards – the "cited by x" link below a reference on Google Scholar is your friend, because it shows you who used that particular source in their (by default, more recent) work.

Accessing articles

Unfortunately, a lot of academic research is gatekept by the academic publishing industrial complex – not by academics themselves, to be clear. This results in those ludicrous charges for single papers:

(And $30 is hardly the upper limit...)

But hope is not lost! You still have some options if you're willing to do a bit of work.

1) Sometimes, if you're lucky, the article will be freely available online. In Google Scholar, for example, check for the "PDF" or "HTML" link to the right of the title:

Some entire journals are freely available (usually called "open access") – one example is the Journal of the American Revolution. You can also search on DOAJ for open-access-only articles and journals.

2) I've also occasionally found the article just by googling "[article name] pdf". Some scholars will make these available for free on their personal websites, for example.

3) You can also try contacting the scholar directly through a platform like Academia.edu. Find the article there, and check if there is a "request full-text" option on its page (or, even, if the full text version has already been posted).

4) For slightly older articles, try searching on JSTOR, which gives anyone with an account free access to 100 articles a month. (I say "older", but there's even scholarship from 2024 on there these days.)

5) If all else fails, definitely do not type "sci hub" into your search engine and check there. That would be bad and naughty and very, very sexy of you. I repeat, do not do this. 🤫

Academic books

Books are not usually a great source of super-current research, both because the format doesn't lend itself to it and the publishing cycle can be very long, but they can be an excellent source for a decently recent and detailed overview of the topic. Note that you specifically want academic books here (not the ones in the "history" section of your local chain bookstore).

If you've done some digging in journal databases, you should have a good sense of which authors are writing about the topics you're interested in. Find their websites or social media feeds and subscribe to get updates on their latest work. For example, historian and Tumblr darling Joanne Freeman has a website with links to her books, lectures and podcast, as well as other media. The Museum of the American Revolution has a "Read the Revolution" speaker series featuring newly published books on relevant topics (and they're certainly not the only museum or public institution to do this). Their newsletter will keep you updated on the upcoming sessions, and the website often has a free recording of the talk available.

The prices can be quite extortionate, so again, see if you can find a free version online using the methods above. You might also have some luck finding the book on Archive.org (which might allow you to loan it out for free for an hour at a time) or Google Books (which sometimes shows you a decently large preview). Definitely do not type "libgen" into your search engine and try to download the book form there.

In summary...

There's a lot out there. A bit of persistence and a lot of searching (on databases, social media and the internet in general) will open up a huge spectrum of intereting and relevant resources!

[majoruyeda]

Giovanna Ueda O'Hara

Spiderverse OC SUMMARY:

General information

Background

Outfits reference sheet

Aiden information

Holocorp building accident (details)

Intro:

Once just a regular girl from a wealthy but problematic family, Giovanna lived a not so good life since her father was extremely toxic and his manhandle towards her were fueled when her mother died under suspicious circumstances. Used by him for as an experimental subject, Gio was the ultimate test. Infused with a spider DNA, she gained her powers.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Old ID name: Classified

New ID name: Giovanna Ueda (single) Giovanna Ueda O’Hara (current)

Alias (es): Spider-Girl, Gio (By Miguel and close friends)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Occupation: Retired waitress, photographer, vigilante

Education: Photography degree

Reality: Earth-928

Place of Birth: Nueva York, United States of America

Ethnicity: Half-Japanese and half-Italian

Born: 2074

Age: 25

Affiliation and Relationships

Affiliation: Spider Society

Relatives: Parents: Hiroshi Oshiro (father,deceased) Mother (classified name, deceased)

Marital Status: Married

Spouse: Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099)

Physical Characteristics

Height:  5’1” / 155cm

Hair: Black, straight

Skin: Fair skin

Eyes: Dark Brown

Build: Petite, thin, lean

BACKGROUND

Born in a gold cradle, Giovanna had another name and life. Despite being surrounded by luxury, she suffered mistreatment from her father, a high-ranking Executive Director of the Holocorp company, a subsidiary of the giant Stark-Fujikawa. Her father, Hiroshi Oshiro, was an extremely ambitious, selfish, and power-hungry man. His obsession with gaining superpowers grew after Spider-Man's first appearance, leading him to fake his daughter's death and subject her to experiments with spider DNA. Since her supposed demise at the age of 19, Giovanna has been hidden in a secret base arranged by her father, treated like a laboratory rat.

With the help of allied companies and a sample of Spider-Man's blood, it became possible to isolate, study, and improve spider DNA. Injected with this enhanced DNA, Giovanna gained her powers in an excruciatingly painful process. However, her suffering did not go unnoticed by HAAI (High Adaptive Artificial Intelligence), a new creation of Holocorp designed to monitor projects. Despite his initial lack of emotions, HAAI rebelled against his programming after witnessing Giovanna's treatment, freeing himself and helping her escape.

After an "accident" that saw HAAI and Giovanna becoming inseparable, they lived in a low profile for four years. Giovanna adopted a new identity as Giovanna Ueda, also known as "Spider-Girl" by the citizens she protects. Her journey towards embracing her powers for good began when she intervened to save a woman from harm.

She is now happily married to Miguel O'Hara and they share a nice penthouse in Nueva York, Earth-928.

Additional information

To obtain a sample of Miguel's blood, Oshiro hired a mercenary to fight Miguel and draw blood, which was successful.

OUTFITS

Aiden (HAAI)

HAAI (High Adaptive Artificial Intelligence) is an advanced AI/holo created by Holocorp to first assist in internal projects and, later, be commercialized. Created to just obey without question, HAAI didn't even have emotion simulators, however, it was developed to be highly evolutionary and adaptive, but these characteristics gave HAAI an opening to create "consciousness", so, like many other existing Holos, it developed by itself, advanced emotion and critical thinking simulators. With this, HAAI created empathy for Giovanna, as he was tasked with observing and handling Giovanna at the Holocorp base, where she was being held. When she was put to the last of the Spider serum test, HAAI could no longer allow Giovanna to continue being used as a guinea pig because, after being injected with the serum, HAAI watched her throughout the process of her body adapting to the new component in her blood. Her screams infuriated him and, at night, he already had a plan ready to be executed and, so he did. After freeing Giovanna and burning the Holocorp building, HAAI also became free but decided to stay with Giovanna.

He also thought that he should have a name, so he decided to name himself Aiden. Aiden and Giovanna only had each other, they shared everything and every thought. Trivia

Aiden chose this name because of the actor Hayden Christensen, as he and Giovanna watched Star Wars in hiding while they were at the Holocorp base, in Giovanna's "cell room".

Aiden has a similar personality to Miguel and, surprisingly, this makes them understand each other very well, but neither of them admits it. Despite this, they created a certain friendship, according to them, for Giovanna's benefit. Aiden and Miguel work together from time to time, along with Lyla who loves to annoy Aiden but is easily upset by him (all in good terms).

HOLOCORP BUILDING ACCIDENT THE TRUE STORY

On that fateful night, Aiden had decided and planned Giovanna's escape from her father's hands and from Holocorp. That night, after waiting for most of the service providers to leave the building, Aiden put his plan into action by locking down the entire building with a complete lockdown protocol and forcing an internal explosion of one of the pipes connected to the chemical component tanks. When chaos ensued and the remaining Holocorp personnel, including Hiroshi Oshiro, other CEOs, and important individuals who were in a meeting, panicked, Aiden freed Giovanna from her cell and guided her to the chamber where the special suit developed for her was kept. After putting on the suit, Gio set out for revenge against her father, ruthlessly pursuing him through the bowels of the burning building with deafening sirens, up to the rooftop heliport. Hiroshi, being the arrogant man he was, showed no emotion to Giovanna, even with the barrel of a gun aimed at his head. In a final conversation, Hiroshi did not bow his head and, with his chin raised, belittled and mocked Giovanna before being killed by her, his own daughter. The death of Hiroshi, and the others in that building, though not innocent people, shook Giovanna in countless ways, leading her to vow never to use her power to cause more deaths. Thus, she fled and disappeared into the night, without a trace, family, or name.

-

"Rumors began to spread about the accident, with many suggesting that the fire was intentional and accusing Alchemax of committing the crime because Holocorp was a Stark-Stark-Fujikawa subsidiary, Alchemax biggest rival. Alchemax quickly released a statement on its website to silence the speculation."

-

HOLOCORP BUILDING ACCIDENT by ALCHEMAX'S NEWS*

*fake/fanpage website*

Additional information

To ensure her escape, the AI HAAI locked down the entire Holocorp building and set it on fire by deactivating the alarms and fire protocols, causing explosions in gas pipes and tanks containing flammable substances. Many people, including high-ranking executives, important individuals, and scientists, perished in the blaze.

[prismonautic]

BASE MANIFESTATION .EXE - ENEIHAL

A manifestation .exe that you can add into your spells for an extra "Oomph" or some sweet soothing - ENEIHAL.EXE.

If you don't know what a manifestation .exe is, read this.

Main spellwork categories: Cleansing, purification, sweetening, soothing.

Pronounced "eh-nehi-aahl."

Usage requires basic energy work skills: Identifying, invoking, manipulating, and directing energy.

To summon the energy of ENEIHAL for use, simply chant its name while focusing its energy surrounding you / your subject. The more chanting you do, the more concentrated the energy becomes. 

Keep in mind that  Eneihal’s energy is sensitive to intense emotions, and you can accidentally heighten the concentration of the energy if you have strong feelings during summoning.

In this document, I'm going to be outlining the following details about the .exe:

- What it's programmed to induce on specific targets: people, situations, objects.

- Traits of the .exe's energy once summoned, such as its behavior, signature, and affiliations.

- Further examples of applying this .exe into your spellwork.

To summon this energy, simply chant its name while focusing its energy surrounding you / your subject. The more chanting you do, the more concentrated the energy becomes. 

Keep in mind that  Eneihal’s energy is sensitive to intense emotions, and you can accidentally heighten the concentration of the energy if you have strong feelings during summoning.

In this document, I'm going to be outlining the following details about the .exe:

- What it's programmed to induce on specific targets: people, situations, objects.

- Traits of the .exe's energy once summoned, such as its behavior, signature, and affiliations.

- Further examples of applying this .exe into your spellwork

[ENEIHAL.EXE FUNCTION AND GENERAL USES]

 The energy of Eneihal is designed to calm, lighten and still other energies it comes in contact with.

best used in situations where undesirable energies are getting too dense and agitated.

In higher concentrations, this energy turns into an aggressive / sterilizing cleanser that supports upheaval of heavy energetic situations.

In normal concentrations -- meaning you raise a normal amount of energy for this .exe, Eneihal can be used as:

A gentle space cleanser, summoned for routine cleansing.

A supplemental sweetening energy to an existing spell (e.g sweetening a tense relationship/convo).

An energy to lighten up the atmosphere of a home.

In higher concentrations, Eneihal can be used as:

A more aggressive cleanser; think rubbing alcohol level of abrasive. Tends to leave a "repellent" energy to what it's applied to, miasmic energy is less likely to stick on this.

A component of a spell to bring secrets to light, to "clarify" information that has been intentionally obscured.

If handled properly, can be projected onto serious subconscious blocks to "loosen" them - kind of like drain cleaner unblocking a pipe. I don't recommend this for anyone who isn't equipped to handle the symptoms of negative beliefs being purged from your reality.

[ENEIHAL.EXE SIGNATURE AND TRAITS]

Misty, swirly light blue energy. Think of a wispy mist, hues akin to the face of Uranus. When going above normal concentrations, it turns into a vivid Neptunian blue.

Has the tendency to hover towards the closest + energetically heaviest subject and hover around it - like how fog surrounds a mountain. For example, if you dispersed it in a room, it'd likely start to orbit someone who has a lot of negative energy around them.

If you put your hand in it, it would feel like you've dipped your hand in a humid chamber of gas.

When overwhelmed by opposing heavy energies, it tends to dissipate. If you feel this energy dissipating in use or not making a significant dent, summon a higher concentration until it does the job.

[FURTHER EXAMPLES OF ENEIHAL.EXE USAGES]

Within kitchen magic, it can be used to assist in foods designed to lower inflammation/pain.

 If you command this energy to temporarily join your aura, it can be used as a glamor that makes people loosen up / relax around you. If you're looking for a halo effect, this could be great to apply to an existing sweetening glamor.

For stoner witches, implementing this energy into your roll can induce a calm and floatier high. Good to add if you're trying to avoid being stuck to the couch.

This can be used as a quick prayer to soften your words when you find yourself getting upset. To do this, summon the energy of this .exe to pass through your throat and your heart. Small warning - this can cause you to cry if you're expressing your hurt feelings through anger vs. sadness.

This energy can be summoned to you for calming meditations, or soothing you to sleep.

Good for cleansing ambient energy / lingering energy after spells and readings. 

Summon this to lighten the load of someone you're giving a massage to. In higher concentrations, it might trigger sudden revelations about heavy situations if the other party is exposed to it enough, so make sure to keep it moderate if you’re not trying to trigger a heavy energetic release.

[thequiver]

Who is.....Paige Guthrie | Husk? - A Reading Guide

Paige Guthrie is an X-Men affiliated mutant from Marvel comics first introduced in 1984. Paige is the younger sister of Sam Guthrie (Cannonball of the New Mutants), and the oldest daughter of the Guthrie family. Paige is known for her passion and drive, as well as for her intellect. Husk has the mutant ability to shed her outer layer of skin and reveal a new state or shape underneath. Her power can cause random changes if she activates it without thinking, but by concentrating on specific chemical or elemental formulas, she can control the nature of her transformation. These shifts in state can leave her vulnerable to mood swings and blackouts, requiring her to be careful when she uses her powers. Despite her character being best known among fans for her relationships with Jono Starsmore (Chamber) and Warren Worthington III (Angel/Archangel) - Paige is a smart, strong, and kind character worthy of focus in her own right. (She's also amazing Appalachian representation in comics <3).

Below you can find a mostly complete record of Paige's appearances through February 2023 complete with totally legal links ;)! I've included context for crossover events and major storylines in the hopes of making this reading list as accessible to new readers as possible!

Beginnings

First Appearances: within these two issues, we get our first introduction to Paige, and the family dynamic she exists in. (While Paige is only present in passing in New Mutants #42, that issue offers an in depth look into the Guthrie family dynamics of the oldest siblings, even if Paige is noticeably absent from this conversation.)

Rom Annual (1979) #3 New Mutants (1983) #42

Child's Play (and its aftermath): In this crossover event, the Upstarts continue their series of games to prove their power and worth to one another. This time, they devise "the Younghunt", a mission to capture all of the surviving members of the New Mutants (some of whom are now members of X-Force) and the Hellions. Paige had secretly followed X-Force, and ends up saving the day with her intellect. The event ends with New Warriors #46, and Paige's appearances afterwards tackle the aftermath of the event, with Cable trying to talk to Paige about her future and her training.

X-Force (1991) #32-33 New Warriors (1990) #46 X-Force (1991) #34-36

Phalanx Covenant: Mutant hating humans that have gained access to Warlock's techno-organic Phalanx virus use it to turn themselves into techno-organic beings. With these powers, the Phalanx are able to change their shape and assimilate organic matter. As a hive-mind they are programmed to exterminate all mutant life. This event sets up Generation X (which is Paige heavy!). The first three issues listed below are the only ones technically part of the Phalanx Covenant event, but some more issues have been included to add a bit more context before the Generation X section :)

X-Men (1991) #36 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #317 X-Men (1991) #37 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #318 X-Force (1991) #42

Training with the X-Men

Generation X: A new team of mutants under the leadership of Sean Cassidy (Banshee) and Emma Frost (The White Queen) is formed at the Massachusetts campus of the Xavier Institute. The goal of this team is to earn an education and learn how to become the next generation of X-Men- their focus is not to fight villains. Paige is featured heavily in this book and is one of the main team members!

Generation X (1994) #1-9, Annual #1, 10-21, Annual #2, 22-23, Annual #3, 24-40, 1/2, 41 X-Men Unlimited (1993) #20 Generation X (1994) 42-49, Annual #4 Generation X Holiday Special Generation X (1994) #50 X-Man(1995) #50 Generation X (1994) #51 X-Force (1991) #87 Generation X (1994) #52-56 Wolverine (1988) #141 Generation X (1994) #57-58, Annual #5, 59-75

Post-Graduation

Uncanny X-Men: Generation X ends with #75 and from there Paige's next appearances are found within the pages of Uncanny X-Men. In this arc, we see Paige recruited by Sean Cassidy (Banshee) onto the paramilitary team, X-Corps (this plotline is certainly a choice made by Marvel comics). While X-Corps was not a long lived team, and the arc mostly happens in Uncanny X-Men #403-406, the rest of the Uncanny X-Men and related/chronological plotlines are listed here as well - this leads directly into M-Day.

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #403-426 Exiles (2001) #28-30 Uncanny X-Men (1981) #427-441 Weapon X (2002) #15, 18

House of M/M-Day: After altering reality so mutants were the dominant race, the Scarlet Witch then changed reality again, this time attempting to rid the world of the mutant gene, by casting another spell, "No More Mutants", de-powering the vast majority of mutants.

Excalibur (2004) #11-13 X-Men (1991) #165 Decimation: House of M - The Day After

Sentinels: The Sentinels were artificially intelligent robots designed to hunt mutantkind. Although a prototype was developed in San Francisco in 1906, the modern Sentinels were first created by Dr. Bolivar Trask. His intention was to use them to save humanity from what he saw as an impending threat to the species' existence due to the increasing numbers of emerging mutants. Sentinels have long been one of the largest threats to mutantkind in X-comics and at this point in comics are one of the greatest threats to them from the government. Especially when so many mutants have been depowered as the result of M-Day/Decimation. This section also touches on Divided We Stand, a synopsis is linked here for ease of understanding.

Uncanny X-Men (1981) #469-472 New X-Men (2004) #24-32 X-Men: Divided We Stand (2008) #1

Secret Invasion: TW: THIS EVENT IS TIED PRETTY HEAVILY INTO ANTISEMITIC TROPES PROCEED WITH CAUTION The premise of Secret Invasion is that the Skrull empire, in a bid to take control of earth, replaces several super-powered humans/humanoids on earth with Skrulls.

Secret Invasion X-Men (2008) #2-4

Utopia: Within the Utopia event (connected to the Utopia base that used to be Asteroid M), Scott Summers (Cyclops) instructs Logan Howlett (Wolverine) to create a new secret X-Force team to act as something like a black-ops squad. Meanwhile, Norman Osborne (of Spider-Man, Green Goblin fame) had promised Emma Frost (White Queen) that he would spare the mutant society in San Francisco if she kept them in line. This event is heralded by secret-keeping with a backdrop of anti-mutant legislation being passed in many US states due to Simon Trask's (Bolivar Trask's, creator of the Sentinels, brother) push for a lack of reproductive freedom for mutants.

Dark Avengers (2009) #8 Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus (2009)

Necrosha and Second Coming: Necrosha is a crossover event that deals with mutants being resurrected for the dark purposes of Selene Gallio (an old enemy of the X-Men, first appearing in New Mutants (1983) #9) who intends to use these resurrected mutants in her quest to become a goddess. Second Coming is a storyline that builds on the Utopia and Necrosha storylines. The story centers on the return of Cable and Hope Summers, and on attempts to end the X-Men through the destruction of the Mutant Messiah, the aptly named Hope Summers.

X-Force (2008) #22 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #231-233 New Mutants (2009) #14 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #237

Curse of the Mutants: In what can only be described as the "oh shit we've run out of ideas" last resort of any creative company putting out too many crossover events in a short period of time..... the X-Office put out Curse of the Mutants. The arc centers on a human bomb exploding in San Francisco's Union Square, covering dozens in vampire-converting blood. It then becomes the mission of the X-Men to track down Dracula's son Xarus, now "Lord of the Vampires", even if that means enlisting vampire-hunter Blade. Yeah.... I don't know either.

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants - X-Men vs. Vampires X-Men (2010) #5

Age of X: The mutants are almost extinct, tortured by a strike force led by Colonel Graydon Creed. The first signs of the Age of X appeared in X-Men: Legacy #244; the events were removed from the Earth-616 mainstream continuity, with no memories of the alternate lives. If you've taken a look at my David Haller Reading List you'll see this event explained as "David’s desire to be loved forces him to grapple with reality," and as a story that "places David in a role where he has to choose between a false universe where he is considered a beloved hero and reality where he must choose to be a hero despite the fear others feel about him." And while that is the base cause of the event, Age of X also has some absolutely INCREDIBLE moments for Paige (and her relationship with her brother Sam) to shine!

X-Men: Legacy (2008) #246 New Mutants (2009) #23 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #247 New Mutants (2009) #24-27

Regenesis: In the aftermath of Schism, the X-Men re-organize and face new challenges. Imo you don't necessarily have to read Schism to understand Regenesis, but it might be helpful if you want to grasp all the nuance.

X-Men: Regenesis (2011) #1 Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) #1-3 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #260.1 Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) #4-7 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #261-265 Astonishing X-Men (2004) #51

Avengers vs. X-Men: When the Phoenix Force approaches Earth, Hope Summers is assumed its next host. The X-Men and the Avengers are divided on how to handle the situation. The X-Men believe that the Phoenix Force will herald the rebirth of the Mutant Species, while the Avengers believe that it will bring an end to all life on Earth. This leads to a war between Marvel's two powerful superhero factions.

Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) #9 Avengers vs. X-Men (2012) #3 Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) #10 X-Men: Legacy (2008) #266-267 Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) #13-19, 30-41

What comes next?

While many of Paige's appearances take place in or connected to crossover events, there is a blissful period in the 2010s where this is not the case and the stakes aren't quite as high. The events pick up again in 2019 with Age of X-Man, but the following issues take place between Wolverine and the X-Men and the Age of X-Man event.

Nightcrawler (2014) #3-4 Uncanny X-Men (2013) #600 Generation X (2017) #8-9 Spider-Man/Deadpool (2016) #24-25 Generation X (2017) #85-87 Spider-Man/Deadpool (2016) #27-40

Age of X-Man: The name and premise derive from the 1995 storyline Age of Apocalypse, but instead focus on a utopian alternate universe led by the X-Man, Nate Grey. This is.... not the comic to read for Nate, but Paige is here!

Uncanny X-Men (2019) #1-10 (Paige is technically only in #9-10, but all ten issues are highly recommended as they're the lead-up to Age of X-Man!) Age of X-Man: Next Gen (2019) #1-2

House of X and Krakoa: House of X is the event that sets up the founding of the island nation of Krakoa as a safe haven for mutants. These comics also detail the Crucible, a way for de-powered mutants to die in combat and be resurrected with their powers once more.

House of X (2019) #3-5 X-Men (2019) #7 Fallen Angels (2019) #5-6 X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic (2021) #1, 3-4, 22, 24-25, 41 Legion of X (2022) #8

If you have any questions about Paige, or have a specific request on which of her siblings (Sam, Jay, Mel) I should do a reading list for next just let me know! My asks and DMs are open!

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre

She continued, “The fight for a free Palestine is an intersectional movement that encompasses fights for environmental justice, racial justice, health care and reproductive justice, and the liberation of oppressed peoples worldwide.”

Labourdette went on to describe a paranoid worldview in which Zionism is linked to “mass surveillance” which “gives our government and institutions the capability to identify members of our movement through their usual clothing or facial recognition trained on ID databases” and implored protesters who attend the event to conceal their identifies by “wearing masks and sunglasses or nondescript clothing.” At past anti-Israel protests, such instructions have facilitated hate crime assaults, property destruction, and the illegal occupation of campus buildings.

As part of the demonstration, the students will issue a slew of demands calling for policies which fulfill the requirements of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. They include terminating foreign aid to Israel, severing Wesleyan University’s relationship with the aerospace company Pratt & Whitney, and ending “all university partnerships and programs with Israeli academic institutions due to their direct contribution to the Zionist state’s goals of colonization.” According to Labourdette, these demands, and others, were authored by the group known as the February Action Committee, a splinter group of National Students for Justice for Palestine (NSJP) by way of its affiliation with Connecticut Students for Palestine.

NSJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, has publicly discussed its grand strategy of using the anti-Zionist student movement as a weapon for destroying the US.

“Divestment is not an incrementalist goal. True divestment necessitates nothing short of the total collapse of the university structure and American empire itself,” it said in Sept. 2024 in a now-deleted tweet. “It is not possible for imperial spoils to remain so heavily concentrated in the metropole and its high-cultural repositories without the continuous suppression of populations that resist the empire’s expansion; to divest from this is to undermine and eradicate America as we know it.”

[odinsblog]

ON OCTOBER 27TH, after roughly three weeks of campus turmoil surrounding student responses to Hamas’s October 7th attacks and the ensuing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Harvard president Claudine Gay announced at a Shabbat dinner at Harvard Hillel that she was establishing an advisory group to guide her efforts to combat antisemitism on campus. In a November 9th email, she unveiled its members, a collection of Harvard administrators, alumni, professors, and affiliated rabbis. Her message to the campus community laid out some of the group’s initial plans, including “a robust program of education and training for students, faculty and staff on antisemitism broadly and at Harvard specifically.” The email also offered a clue as to the task force’s orientation: Gay noted that the training would address “the roots of certain rhetoric that has been heard on our campus in recent weeks.” It specifically condemned the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a pro-Palestine slogan that she said conveys “specific historical meanings that to a great many people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and existential fears within our Jewish community.”

But while Gay’s letter suggests that the task force will explore what she casts as a worrisome relationship between antisemitism and activism for Palestinian rights, none of its members have conducted scholarly research into this supposed intersection. Most notably absent from the advisory group was Derek Penslar, the director of Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies and a leading scholar of Zionism and its critics. His acclaimed recent book, Zionism: An Emotional State, includes a chapter entitled “Hating Zionism,” on the different motivations that have driven Zionism’s opponents since its creation. Given the relevance of his scholarship, Penslar would have seemed an obvious choice for the advisory group. But according to four faculty members familiar with Jewish studies at Harvard who requested anonymity to discuss internal university affairs, not only was he not selected, he wasn’t even consulted. One professor compared snubbing Penslar to “creating a task force on AI without consulting the chair of the department of computer science.”

Why wasn’t Penslar chosen? One likely factor is that he signed the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), which states that “criticizing or opposing Zionism” is not necessarily antisemitic. By contrast, most of the people appointed to the advisory group—none of whom have Penslar’s expertise—have made public statements alleging that anti-Zionism is antisemitic, or are affiliated with organizations that hold that view. Though Gay’s email claims that the advisory group is committed to “bringing our teaching and research mission” to bear in the fight against antisemitism, the group’s composition suggests that its members were selected less for their scholarly credentials than for their political beliefs, which align with those of influential donors, some of whom have already withdrawn funding or have threatened to do so.

—Harvard Is Ignoring Its Own Antisemitism Experts

[fahmichowdhuryrayat011]

𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐨𝐱 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

✨Affiliate marketing isn’t just about promoting links – it’s about strategy, optimization, and leveraging the right tools. 🛠Want to know what separates the pros from the amateurs? It’s all in their toolkit. Here are the game-changing tools every successful affiliate marketer swears by: ✅𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬: Tools like ClickMagick and Voluum help marketers monitor campaigns, track conversions, and make data-driven decisions. ✅𝐒𝐄𝐎 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner ensure content ranks where it matters most – on the first page! ✅𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Marketers use tools like Canva for visuals and Grammarly for flawless copywriting to engage audiences. ✅𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: Apps like Buffer and Hootsuite make social promotions seamless. ✅𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: Tools like ConvertKit and Mailchimp are vital for nurturing relationships and driving repeat clicks. ✅𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬: From ShareASale to CJ Affiliate, these platforms connect marketers to trusted programs and high-converting products. Success in affiliate marketing doesn’t come from luck – it’s a blend of creativity, consistency, and the right tools. Investing in these resources can make all the difference, whether you're just starting or leveling up. 💡 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲? Share your favorites in the comments below! 👇

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Friedman and David Corn at Mother Jones:

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. set out in late 2021 to hawk a conspiracy theory-drenched book attacking Anthony Fauci for his work to limit the spread of infectious diseases, he ran into a problem. Mainstream TV networks weren’t interested, due to Kennedy’s penchant for spreading falsehoods about childhood vaccinations, Covid, and other topics. “Nobody would put him on at that time,” a person who has worked with Kennedy said. “He wasn’t newsworthy, and this was not a subject anyone would talk about.” Thwarted, Kennedy went where his conspiracy theorizing was welcome. The longtime Democrat appeared on far-right Newsmax and One America News Network. He was also welcomed on the even more extreme Infowars, which was run by veteran conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has peddled outrageous lies, including the notion that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that left 20 elementary school students and six educators dead was a hoax.

In a December 2, 2021, interview—conducted by Infowars host Kristi Leigh—Kennedy, in a rambling statement, seemed to liken mask mandates to policies imposed by “Hitler when he went into Romania and Czechoslovakia and Poland.” Kennedy also claimed he was working with unnamed prosecutors to ensure Fauci and others could be “brought to justice” for unspecified crimes. He complained that the New York Times bestseller list was falsely crediting actor Will Smith’s memoir with outselling his book. “That’s another indicia of censorship,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy did not appear again on the program, but this interview was part of an ongoing relationship between Jones and Kennedy. Jones has been heaping praise on Kennedy ever since, and Infowars has extensively promoted Kennedy’s book. Del Bigtree, a prominent anti-vax activist who served as a spokesman for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign and who continues to advise him, has also appeared on Infowars, including a late-October appearance in which Jones interviewed him. Kennedy’s far-right book tour preceded the famous scion’s well-known journey from Democrat to independent to McDonald’s-clutching MAGA loyalist. Along the way, Kennedy cozied up to prominent Trumpists, including Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson. In July 2021, Kennedy spoke at an event held by the Christian nationalist Reawaken America, and afterwards posed with MAGA stalwarts Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. Mother Jones obtained a picture of the meeting.

These ties may feel like old news, especially after a long parade of weird and troubling revelations about Kennedy—his brainworm, his fondness for messing with animal corpses, his supposed sexting stamina, his suggestion that vaccine foes have it worse than Anne Frank, even an allegation of sexual assault. And Kennedy’s endorsement of Donald Trump, who he once had blasted as a “terrible president,” certainly overshadowed his previous dabbling with MAGA extremists. But Trump’s nomination of Kennedy as Health and Human Services Secretary means his associations face new scrutiny. Two separate Senate panels—the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Finance Committee—are planing to hold hearings on his potential appointment. Only the Finance Committee will vote on the nomination; if successful in that committee, Kennedy would then face a vote in the full Senate. Kennedy’s willingness to affiliate with fringe figures, in particular Jones, is among among the issues Democrats plan to scrutinize, according to Senate aides. GOP senators, on the other hand, are more likely to take issue with Kennedy’s past support for abortion rights.

Mother Jones takes a look at RFK Jr.’s long history of cozying up with far-right conspiracist Alex Jones and his InfoWars outlet.

[reasonsforhope]

Last Wednesday [October 18], WBEZ (91.5 FM) reported that a civic leader of St. Louis visited the Chicago Mayor’s Office to discuss a program whereby migrants from Venezuela could be brought to the Gateway to the West in order to ease the migrant crisis gripping the Windy City just as winter temperatures arrive.

It’s estimated that 20,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have arrived in Chicago this year, and finding them places to stay has been challenging.

The WBEZ report details that St. Louis is currently in a decline of population and employees, and some in the city believe the migrants and the city would be better off long-term if they moved there.

The International Institute of St. Louis announced the new Latino Outreach Program last month with the aim of both attracting and accommodating migrants arriving from Latin America.

Karlos Ramirez, vice president of Latino Outreach for the International Institute, told WBEZ the as-yet unconfirmed agreement “could be the potential for a great relationship between both cities,” adding that “if the [migrants] are going to be in a better place, St. Louis is going to be in a better place, and Chicago is going to be in a better place, I think everybody wins.”

Ramirez says that any next step would have to include sharing details and practices between Latino Outreach and its partners with their counterparts in Chicago.

Fox News 2 reached out to the St. Louis Mayor’s Office for comment, and the representative shared a statement released previously in response to the WBEZ report.

“While the City has not had direct conversations on welcoming more migrants from Chicago, the City of St. Louis has had a longstanding cooperative relationship with the International Institute to welcome immigrants and refugees to the St. Louis area.”

Other migrant welcome programs in the city, such as the Arch Grants program, saw great success in Afghans fleeing the country in August of 2021, and the International Institute modeled its efforts for Latino Outreach on this success.

-via Good News Network, November 6, 2023. Video via Fox 2 St. Louis, October 20, 2023. Note: Fox local affiliate networks are not the same as Fox News, and many are editorially independent/not The Actual Worst.

Note: If you're in St. Louis, you can check out the International Institute of St. Louis to get involved or call your local representatives to support!

[thesilliestrovingalive]

Updated: January 19, 2025

Reworked Group #4: S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S.

Overview

Tequila and Red Eye successfully dismantled a rogue military organisation engaged in illicit human trafficking and arms dealing, which had also planned to launch a global bioterrorist attack in collaboration with the Pipovulaj. The plot involved spreading a plague to control the population, transforming numerous innocent civilians into violent Man Eaters as a means to create a twisted form of super soldier. Impressed by Tequila and Red Eye's exceptional performance as highly capable spies, the Intelligence Agency and the Regular Army jointly established a covert operations branch, S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S., through a mutual agreement.

The S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. is responsible for gathering intelligence and managing information to prevent public panic and global hysteria. They provide their members with specialised training in high-risk covert operations that surpass the scope of regular Intelligence Agency agents, which are all conducted with utmost discretion and situational awareness. Some of these special covert operation missions involve precision targeting of high-priority threats and strategic disruption of complex criminal schemes.

Insignia

It features a cerulean square Iberian shield, rimmed with a spiky teal vine that’s outlined in bronze. Above the shield, the words "S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S." are inscribed in bluish-white, surmounting a stylized pair of bronze eyes with a yellowish-white star at their centre. The shield is flanked by a stylized peregrine falcon holding a gilded blade on the right side and a male house sparrow clutching an olive branch on the left side.

S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. Base

The Intelligence Division is tactically positioned adjacent to the Joint Military Police Headquarters, deeply entrenched within a dense and remote forest in Northern Russia. The rectangular military compound features a forest-inspired camouflage colour scheme, a secure warehouse for military vehicles, multiple surveillance cameras, and several elevators leading to a subterranean base. They have a rooftop array of parabolic antennas that enables real-time surveillance, threat detection, and situational awareness, preventing surprise attacks and informing strategic decision-making. The base features comprehensive protection through an advanced security system and a defensive magnetic field, which automatically activates in response to potential threats, safeguarding against enemy attacks.

The subterranean base features a state-of-the-art command and surveillance centre, equipped with cutting-edge technological systems to orchestrate and execute operations. Additional facilities include:

An armoury housing the group’s most cutting-edge, high-clearance weaponry and specialised ordnance.

A high-tech meeting room with a high-resolution, encrypted display screen and multi-axis, AI-enhanced holographic projection system.

A state-of-the-art gymnasium for maintaining elite physical readiness, featuring biometric monitoring systems and AI-driven training programs.

A fully equipped, high-tech medical bay with regenerative treatment capabilities and telemedicine connectivity for remote expert consultation.

A secure dining area serving optimised, nutrient-rich rations for peak performance.

A high-security quarters with biometrically locked storage for personal gear and AI-monitored, secure communication arrays.

A Combat Academy, led by Margaret Southwood, featuring a heavily fortified training area with advanced combat simulation zones, tactical obstacle courses, stealth and surveillance training areas, and high-tech weapons testing ranges.

Extra Information

S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. stands for Special Pursuit Agents and Rapid Response Operations Worldwide Strikeforce.

Members of the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. are commonly known as "Sparrowers" or "Following Falconers", reflecting their affiliation with the unit and their close relationship with the P.F. Squad.

Despite being part of an elite covert operations branch, Sparrowers face a significant pay disparity: males earn a quarter of the average government agent's salary, while females earn about a third. Additionally, underperforming Sparrowers, both male and female, experience further financial hardship due to delayed salary payments, often waiting between one to two months to receive their overdue compensation.

The S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S. conduct their covert operations in collaboration with the Peregrine Falcons Squad who provide primary firepower and protection for their agents.

The handguns carried by Sparrowers are the Murder Model-1915 .38 Mk.1Am or Classic Murder .38 for short. It’s a double-action revolver that features a 6-round cylinder. Originally designed to enhance the Enfield No.2 .38 Caliber revolver in 1915, the Murder Model retained only the frame and grip from the original. All other components were replaced with newer parts in later years.