#self imposed challenge to draw them for 30 days

[spacenintendogs]

so sleepy....

30 days of wolfox: day 1

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV Write Entry #30: Denouement

Prompt: amity || Master Post || On AO3

A/N: I'm a little sad I have to break my streak of "tear out my readers' hearts" with my last prompt fill of the challenge, but alas, the prompt just did not at all work with the idea seed I had on the backburner. Ah well, always next year! Instead, we come full circle. :)

--

Were he still a wet-behind-the-ears sixteen-year-old, Alphinaud imagined he would probably be crediting himself for the sight before him.

Synnove’s yard was crammed with tables and chairs dragged from her house or hurriedly purchased from the carpenters at Red Rooster Stead, arranged in such a way as to ensure the riot of color that was her garden remained relatively unscathed. The core of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn were all present—himself, Alisaie, Thancred, Y’shtola, Urianger, Estinien, Krile, Tataru, G’raha, and the four Warriors of Light—and not for the first time, he stifled a giggle at the sight of half their number all bearing white hair. Rereha had a point that they seemed to collect them, particularly after they practically bullied Estinien into joining.

(A pang throbbed in his heart; he missed the acerbic wit of Papalymo, and wondered how the thaumaturge would have gotten along with their newer members.)

There were Hoary Boulder and Coultenet, and Ochre Boulder and the Cockburne sisters, and Riol and F’lhaminn. There were former Scions, too—Lyse, of course, currently engaged in a three-way push-up competition with his sister and Dancing Heron, but also Arenvald and J’moldva and V’mah, cheering them on.

It was the ones who had never been Scions that were the most astounding guests.

Ser Aymeric was the least surprising, though at one point in time he might have been the most shocking one to see, considering Ishgard’s self-imposed isolation. He sat next to Synnove, the pair of them each with a carbunclet on their lap, the both of them deep in discussion with Thancred, Lucia (on a brief leave from the Ilsabard Contingent), Hilda, and Raubahn Aldynn. Nearby, Synnove’s aetherophysics advisor from her student days, Mhaslona, and Admiral Merlwyb presided over the large pit in which the food for the clam bake was cooking, the Admiral not hesitating to shove Ivar away with her foot whenever the ruby carbuncle came over to try to burrow into the coals.

At another table, Nanamo Ul Namo, Kan-E-Senna, and Rereha were introducing Lord Hien to Tonk; Alphinaud wasn’t sure who looked stranger to his eye in such casual dress, the Sultana or the Elder Seedseer. Perhaps the Seedseer; Kan-E wasn’t quite as focused on the cardgame, half her attention given over to a discussion with the Scion mages and Y’shtola keeping her wineglass topped off. And it looked like Nanamo and Rereha were using Kan-E’s distraction surreptitiously teaching Hien either how to count cards or how to quickly reshuffle the draw deck, with the Doman king’s shoulders shaking with laughter.

Alakhai, Estinien, and Yugiri in a knife-throwing competition was probably the least strange sight today.

From his place perched on the fence surrounding the yard, Alphinaud smiled and shook his head. Once, he had thought he had all the knowledge and answers to solve Eorzea’s problems; surely all the city-states needed was to be led in the right direction. His direction.

The arrogance of it.

“What’s got you so maudlin?”

He glanced over and smiled at his twin, who smiled back even as she easily hauled herself up onto the fence next to him.

“The arrogance of youth,” he drawled.

Alisaie snorted, and looked out over the yard. As always, he didn’t need to explain further for her to grasp what he meant; he dearly wished she would give herself more credit for her perceptiveness. “Well, it’s not like we played no part in the fate of the star,” she said.

“True,” Alphinaud said. Without thinking about it, he began tapping out a rhythm against the fence board with his heels. Alisaie joined in a moment later. “And it certainly it turned out far better than we ever dreamed.”

“I can’t believe the Sultana cheats at cards,” Alisaie muttered.

Alphinaud stifled a giggle. “I can,” he said. “She’s always had a bit of a devious streak.”

“And Rereha and the Admiral carefully cultivated it like an orchid in a hothouse.”

There was no stopping his laughter at that.

It wasn’t correct to say that everyone here was the dearest of friends, but the ease with which they all let down their barriers spoke of their mutual respect, that this time was an opportunity to rest and enjoy the fruits of all their labors. It had taken work to get here: Eorzea united, truly united, for the first time in their history, Ala Mhigo and Doma freed from the Garlean yoke, the Ascians gone with Zodiark and Hydaelyn and the Final Days.

And what better way to celebrate than with an old Scion tradition of gathering for food and drink and good company? The Final Days were averted and, most importantly, all four of the Warriors of Light were now declared fully hale and whole, no longer under the baleful eyes of the Sharlayan healer corps.

They were the true lynchpin to this wondrous gathering, the Warriors of Light. Everyone here had played some role in where they all were today, but without the four women around whom they orbited, would they have done it at all? Would they have defeated Gaius van Baelsar, or ended the Dragonsong War, or freed Doma and Ala Mhigo, saved the First, saved all of existence from the grief and loneliness of the Ancients echoing through time?

Alphinaud didn’t think so. It was their tenacity, their compassion, their utter ridiculousness, that truly brought all these people together and gave their star hope for a better future. Not that he’d be able to convince the four of them of that.

Well. Maybe one of them, though even she was more likely to merely play it up for humor rather than actually believe it.

“Oi, Alisaie! Bunny!”

Speak of the devil.

“Not that name,” Alphinaud groaned. It had been years since that accursed nickname had been leveled on him.

Rereha cackled as she bounded over to them. “Baby bunny,��� she said, sing-song, “your hair is the same color as the loporrits’ fur. Your favorite color scheme for clothing is the same as theirs. You are ‘bunny’ forever!”

Alisaie threw back her head and laughed as he dropped his face into his hands. He took it all back, at least about Rereha Reha. She was a menace to society and it was a miracle she hadn’t incited an international incident by sleeping with the wrong person.

The pink-haired lalafell reached out with both hands, grinning. Alisaie took her right hand with a matching grin, and Alphinaud let out a put upon sigh—feigned, of course—but took Rereha’s left. Rereha tugged gently, and the twins hopped off the fence, letting her drag them across the yard as she skipped backwards.

“We’re putting a handicap on Heron for the push-up contest,” she said, “and we need both of you for it!”

“Why not just use Tyr?” Alphinaud said.

“Heron still has some limits right now, and Healingway will kill her if she exceeds them.”

Alisaie snorted a laugh, though Alphinaud was certain Rereha wasn’t exaggerating.

As they traversed the length of the yard to the corner where Heron and Lyse were, a flash of iridescent blue caught Alphinaud’s eye. He turned his head to follow it.

A small flock of bluebirds, each with a pair of long, graceful tailfeathers, were flitting above the yard, one with a sunflower bloom in its beak, and if he didn’t know better, he would have assumed they were playing a game of keep-away. The birds twirled and danced through the air before winging their way to perch on the lowest hanging branch of the oak tree in Synnove’s yard, from which hung a swing that currently played host to a napping Galette. The bluebird with the sunflower was in the middle of the flock, and even from here, Alphinaud could see her sharing the seeds with her sisters, as birdsong joined the chorus of chatter and laughter in the yard.

Alphinaud grinned as he followed his sister and their friend, and wondered what new adventures—and new friends—awaited them all on the morrow.

PREVIOUS || FIN!

[fdragon-art]

Day 18 (30 Days | Homestuck - Day 4) - Panel Redraw (pg 4857)

"Memories hold the power to be anything. 'Nostalgic', 'Wistful'... 'Traumatic'. It's often not until later that we learn what a memory will be for us."

=Thoughts=

This 30 days has offered an interesting variety of challenges art-wise. At the very least, it's offered an interesting variety of possible challenge. Perhaps they're more self-imposed than anything.

Backgrounds are...not something I tend to practice. Typically because it would require a piece to feel meaningful to even bother with the extra effort it would require from me. So a prompt like "Panel Redraw" almost certainly was going to ask it of me despite that reservation. It is good to be faced with the truth that they're really not that hard. Just time-consuming.

The background "bushes" and trees were all really done more roughly, but it also didn't help that the original panel had them kinda vague silhouettes. It feels almost silly, giving them definition as I have, but I was just going for a more accurate approach while still keeping to just lines.

Speaking of, I seem to have struggles with child-like proportions. Every time I try to make a humanoid look like a child, their age always seems to veer upwards. I'd like to think I did a decent job of this one, but the original made him look more 6 or 8, while this one still looks closer to 10. At least, it's still better than drawing a teenager. He at least still looks like a young kid.

Line weight is still a challenge, but it was funny here; due to the size of the piece, the pen size wound up almost triple my usual at the thickest. Fortunately, all that really did was make it look better. The fire and smoke actually looks closer than Jake, who looks closer than the bushes and trees. It seems I'm getting a handle on it~

[cvid19]

COVID 19 PANDEMIC

COVID-19 Effects on the Philippines

    According to Pharmaceutical Technology Philippine is one of the high-risk countries from the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. The first case of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV, now COVID-19) in the Philippines was confirmed on 30 January 2020, in a 38-year old woman who arrived from Wuhan. Two days later, the Philippines recorded the first death outside China on 01 February 2020.

    The Philippines government declared a health emergency on 09 March, following a spike in new confirmed cases and local transmission. The COVID-19 Code Alert system was revised upwards to Red Sublevel 2 on 12 March.

    The Philippines government announced the entire country will be placed under a state of calamity for a period of six months. The declaration will enable national and local governments to quickly access relief funds to curb the spread of the disease.

    They started announcing local lock-downs (home quarantine) following the increase in global coronavirus cases. The entire Luzon island is locked-down affecting more than 50 million people. The lock-down prohibits people from going outside their homes except for getting basic necessities.

    Quarantining (lock-down) will be imposed in the Philippines barangays, municipalities/cities and provinces if at least two COVID-19 coronavirus cases are recorded in two different households in the respective locations.

https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/coronavirus-affected-countries-philippines-measures-impact-tourism-economy/

Economy

    Covid-19 make a lot of difference on the economy of the country. Philippines witnessed a slower economic growth in the first half of 2019, compared to 2018. The country saw a sustained economic growth of 6.3% between 2010 and 2018, while the growth slowed down to 5.5% in H2 2019. The World Bank estimates Philippines to witness full-year 2019 economic growth of 5.8%.

    The Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP) noted that the coronavirus outbreak could have a major impact on Philippine economy over the next few months.

    Ruben Carlo Asuncion, chief economist for Union Bank of the Philippines, noted that the coronavirus outbreak could cost the Philippine economy $600m or 0.8% of economic growth if it lasts for six months, as quoted by CNN Philippines.

    A series of unforeseen events caused an abrupt halt to the Philippines' strong growth momentum in early 2020. The Philippine economy carried its strong growth momentum from the second half of 2019 into early 2020 thanks to positive consumer confidence, robust macroeconomic fundamentals, and an improvement in the external sector. However, the eruption of Taal Volcano in early January, the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the region, and the rise of COVID-19 infection cases in the Philippines in March, forced the economy to a near halt in the latter part of March due to severe disruptions in manufacturing, agriculture, tourism and hospitality, construction, and trade. The economy contracted by 0.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, the first contraction in over two decades, and was a sharp reversal from the 5.7 percent growth over the same period in 2019. Leading indicators that track economic activity in real time suggest that the contraction would be even more severe in the second quarter as most regions of the country entered an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in mid-March.

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33879

Tourism

      PWC Philippines indicated that given the travel restrictions and closure of businesses, 88% of the respondents expect losses of over 50% of their 2020 revenues. Sixty-three percent of the respondents also say that they expect their businesses to normalize within six months to over a year. Such findings are worrying because the tourism industry contributed 12.7% of the country’s GDP in 2019, and provided 5.71 million jobs in the same year.

    Tourism industry is a major contributor, accounting for 12.7% of the Philippine economy in 2018, according to data from the Philippines Statistics Authority. More than seven million foreign tourists visited the country during the first ten months of 2019.

    Globally, the World Travel and Tourism council estimated that it could take up to ten months for the industry to recover.

    Nine months since the virus was first detected in China, there is still no sign that the spread is slowing down. The road to recovery can take longer than initially anticipated. Fitch forecasts that tourist arrivals and tourism receipts will not go back to pre-COVID levels even five years hence.

    The tourism industry, however, is expected to witness a major impact as the country closed its borders with China and other countries due to the coronavirus infection, Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez noted. Dominguez added that the exact economic impact of the outbreak is too early to be estimated but remained optimistic that the country can sustain its economic growth.

https://www.pwc.com/ph/en/publications/tourism-pwc-philippines/tourism-covid-19.html

Business

   Drawing on a survey of more than 5,800 small businesses, this paper provides insight into the economic impact of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) on small businesses. The results shed light on both the financial fragility of many small businesses, and the significant impact COVID-19 had on these businesses in the weeks after the COVID-19–related disruptions began. The results also provide evidence on businesses’ expectations about the longer-term impact of COVID-19, as well as their perceptions of relief programs offered by the government.

    Firms in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region have been hit hard by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, with dramatic and widespread falls in sales and employment. Firm sales in some EAP countries were 38 to 58 percent lower in April or May 2020, compared to the same month in the previous year. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been particularly affected.

    The pandemic will have a lasting impact on productivity growth as firm indebtedness and increased uncertainty inhibit investment, and firm closures and unemployment lead to a loss of valuable intangible assets. Support for firms is needed but must be based as far as possible on objective criteria, related not only to past performance or current pain but to the potential for firms, including new firms, to thrive in the future. To avoid unduly prolonging assistance, governments should build exit strategies into the design of support measures and commit to phasing support out by linking it to observable macroeconomic indicators of recovery.

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/30/17656

Lesson that We’ve learn during this Pandemic

"Not only does self-care have positive outcomes for you, but it also sets an example to younger generations as something to establish and maintain for your entire life."

CREDITS TO AARP ORG

    -This pandemic thought us to become stronger or having a courage in time of crisis. We must always be on a positive side that we will strive and cope this challenges that we are facing  because as the years will pass by this pandemic will be a reminder or a lesson that we must thought the next generation that no matter what happens as long as you will not give up and fight for everything that will come up you can reach your goal and strive. This also thought as about caring for others and working as one because once achievement will be more greater if there are people that help you to do great things just like our front liners we must learn how to cooperate by following the protocols that they give because if its not for them we will have more harder times that we even face before and we wont know what are we going to do.

 Ø  As a reminder if your experiencing the signs and effects of COVID-19 do not think of it that much just think on a positive way to feel better again. Positive mind could be a great help to cope anything that bother you even if it’s a deadly virus. We all know that we are all facing in the same situation but I believe that we can do it, we can wipe out this virus in this world for ones. Just follow the protocols that we are given and I know that we will all be better and we can do all the things that we’ve missed when the time comes.

[fakeathon-challenge]

It’s Back! The September 2019 Fakeathon has arrived!

For as long as there have been people, we have told stories about strange creatures with mysterious powers, unnatural shapes, and peculiar intelligence. Mythological creatures were Pokémon before Pokémon existed, so it makes sense that many canon species draw from myths. Whether it be Japanese Yokai, monsters of ancient Greece or the fae spirits of Celtic folklore, the realms of myth and legend make for a fertile ground of ideas!

This prompt theme draws heavily on my favorite Wikipedia article, List of Legendary Creatures. Each creature has a link to its own article so that you can read up on is backstory and get inspired. As usual, you do not need to follow these prompts exactly and are in fact encouraged to exercise your creativity in interpreting them into Fakemon.

Q. What is a Fakeathon?

A Fakeathon is a month-long fakemon challenge, where the goal is to design 30 fake Pokemon in 30 days. Any art style is fine, be it traditional, digital, pixel, 3D art, whatever! 

Q. Are there any requirements to participate?

Nope! Anybody can join in a Fakeathon. The point is to challenge yourself and get some new ideas and fakemon concepts out into the world. You don't need to do all 30 prompts, nor do you need to do them in order. You also don't need to interpret the prompts literally under the theme. This is not a contest but a self-imposed challenge.

You are encouraged to share your creations on Social Media (Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc.) using the tags #Fakeathon and #FakemonChallenge to spread the word and share your fakemon ideas with the world!

The Prompts

Day 1. Dragon

Day 2. Faun

Day 3. Selkie

Day 4. Harpy

Day 5. Chimera

Day 6. Mothman

Day 7. Tanuki

Day 8. Quetzalcoatl

Day 9. Cyclops

Day 10. Anansi

Day 11. Kamaitachi

Day 12. Djinn

Day 13. Minotaur

Day 14. Bunyip

Day 15. Angel

Day 16. Bake-Kujira 

Day 17. Phoenix

Day 18. Undine

Day 19. Moon Rabbit

Day 20. Coyote

Day 21. Basilisk

Day 22. Bigfoot

Day 23. Golem

Day 24. Peryton

Day 25. Anubis

Day 26. Kraken

Day 27. Chupacabra

Day 28. Legendary #1

Day 29. Legendary #2

Day 30. Legendary #3

[eirist]

Sweet Surrender

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot scribble.

Rating: T (Sweet and light this time)

Note: I just wanted to digress from the usual and just place these two in a light moment together. Plus, I needed to create something to get the writing gears going on again and finish some still-pending prompt requests.

Summary: Though somehow in the middle of their often misinterpreted relationship, they did realize...  

He stood in silence inside the darkened library with the corner of his mouth lifted up in amusement as his good eye settled on the hunched figure, draped peacefully over her mapping desk, fast asleep. 

He noticed that there were maps drying on the table in the center of the room. Zoro counted five of them… with the sixth one still half-done and right underneath the slumbering navigator.

Shaking his head, he approached her. From the looks of it (and based on the number of maps she finished, the fact that he hadn’t seen her since lunch and the idiot’s cook non-stop wailing about his Nami-swan not coming down from the library for dinner), she’d been drawing and charting for almost the whole day.

Zoro studied the orange-haired girl. She could’ve stopped working once she was tired, instead of randomly falling asleep while still in the middle of sketching.

But this is Nami.

And she is freaking stubborn as hell.

Besides, drawing maps… are her pride and joy. And once she gets into the zone it would be hard to make her take a break.

He learned it the hard way.

With her head still resting on her right arm, Nami continued to doze. There was no movement from her at all, except for the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. Not even to swipe away an errant lock of hair that randomly fell across her face.

Standing near her, he noted the scattered quills, measuring instruments and notebooks surrounding her. Three bottles of ink were uncapped. He made a clicking sound with his tongue at her carelessness.

He covered the bottles, placing them on the nearest bookshelf, far away from the danger of accidentally spilling all over the mapmaker and her desk.

Zoro gently removed the eyeglasses she was clutching in her hand, placing it aside. He reached out to brush the stray strand away from her face, before glancing towards the unfinished map that she was using as a pillow.

As softly as possible, he tapped a finger on a random black line, checking if the ink on them is still wet. If it is, Nami will be waking up with hard-to-remove lines and figures on her face and arms.

Luckily, he realized, she had fallen asleep on the still blank part of the paper.  

A snore unexpectedly came from her—loud and scandalous—earning a roll of his grey eye, as well as a snort from him. 

Talk about unladylike and ungraceful. She'll be pissed to know that she does snore despite her claims of being 'delicate' and 'decorous'.

She suddenly mumbled something under her breath and he crept closer to hear her better.

"Mmm...” she murmured. “Tie up the sails… a storm is coming in half a minute… steer the ship 30 degrees northeast! Zoro! Get your lazy ass moving... mmm..." her voice trailed off, snoring again before she was pulled into a much deeper sleep cycle.

He didn’t fight the smile that crept across his face. Even asleep she was still navigating, forecasting the weather...

And ordering him around as usual. 

Her head lolled to the left, as she probably tried to turn her body in her sleep. His hand immediately came up to prevent her from rolling her face across her still-drying work.

"Uuhmmm..." she groaned. That pulled her out of her sleep. She drowsily opened her eyes to stare at him, her brown eyes unfocused.

"You're gonna nose dive into your map and desk," Zoro explained, unconsciously rubbing his thumb on her cheek while checking her face for ink marks. 

She just blinked up at him, still in a half-asleep state.

Zoro sighed at her response or lack thereof. "Let's get you to bed," he suggested as he moved to slip an arm under her knees and back, effortlessly lifting her up. 

"Hmmm..." she hummed dozily, automatically snuggling closer to him. "Not yet..."

"You're already tired. Just call it a night."

“Mmmm…”

"I'll take you to your room. You can finish the rest of your maps tomorrow alright?"

A slight shake of her head told him no. 

He gazed at her disapprovingly. 

"I still have to clean up..." she whispered. "There are—"

"I'll tidy it up ok? Just get some sleep."

She finally tilted her head back to regard him through half-lidded eyes. "Really?" She asked amusedly though a bit groggily.

"Really." 

"That's just...” she closed her eyes and nuzzled his chest again. "Great…”

Zoro grunted in response.

“Though I still want to draw..." the cat thief murmured, yawning.

"Tch Nami!"

"Hmm... I still want to..." her voice trailed off.

"What you want is to rest," Zoro muttered. “Why are you so obstinate?”

That seemed to wake up her willful self that loves contesting with him.  

“Hah!” She chortled as she blearily looked up to him. “Speak for yourself!”

“You should learn to listen sometimes; it could be good for you.”

“Right back at you, stubborn swordsman.”

“Tch.”

They held each other’s gaze in challenging way.

He gotta hand in to the navigator… and here he thought she doesn’t have enough energy to argue or contradict him.

Such vitality. Just to get an opportunity to hand his ass over to him.

Maybe it is in her nature to go against him?

Just like it is in his.

“You can’t tell me what to do Zoro,” she declared haughtily.

“And you can?” Zoro countered, referring to all the occasions she had bossed him around.

“Yes!” Nami said with a curt nod.

The green-haired man hauled her up a bit higher brusquely, so they were face to face.

They continued staring at each other waiting for the other to give in. Zoro, trying to impose his sensible suggestion for her to get some rest. While Nami was adamant on being hard-headed.

Nami finally puffed her cheeks, one definite sign that she’s willing to concede as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She hates it when he has a point. But to be honest, she can barely keep herself awake anymore, and being cradled against his muscled chest was not helping at all. 

“Fine you win,” she reluctantly said. “But only if you put me in bed.”

Zoro smirked, having won this round. “With pleasure.”

“And tidy my stuff.”

“Sure.”

 She sighed contentedly at that, pressing herself closer to him and resting her head on the crook of his neck. “Mmmm... It’s so comfortable here…” she said quietly.

He really doubted it if he’s more cozy than her bed. But from what she had just said and from the way she had her arms around him... it had him blushing just a bit.

He can feel her fingers, drawing island shapes on his shoulder in a rather lazy but soothing manner. 

"Make sure my maps and tools are a-ok alright?" She requested her breath tickling the skin of his neck.

"Yes your wickedness," Zoro drawled.

"Or debts will sky rocket," she threatened before yawning and finally closing her eyes again. “And I’ll hold your swords and cleaning kit hostages.”

He just snorted at the empty threat, making his way out of the library.

But not before kissing her forehead softly. A sort of reward. 

"So sweet Zoro..." 

"Shut up."  

Her smile was radiant even as she slipped back into the land of dreams with another contented sigh. 

Two willful people just don’t yield to another that easily. Though somehow in the middle of their often misinterpreted relationship, they did realize...  

Sometimes it’s not really bad to give in to each other.

As every towel thrown on the ground between them will always be a sweet surrender. 

[questionsonislam]

At what age did Mohammad (PBUH) start to meditate or go to mount Hira before his prophethood? We know that Prophet Mohammad was illiterate but I am having doubt that if he used to go to meditate in Mount Hira then it is possible that someone also went with him to that cave to teach him how to read and write. It is true that there are scientific miracles in the Quran but at the same time I feel as if some parts of the Quran are from human. Could you please prove me that Quran is 100% God's words.

One who accepts that the Quran is the words of Allah cannot say that some parts of it are the words of a human being. Allah does not allow it: “And if the messenger were to invent any sayings in Our name, We should certainly seize him by his right hand, and We should certainly then cut off the artery of his heart. Nor could any of you withhold him (from Our wrath).” (al-Haaqqah, 44-47).

Answer 1:

Hira is the name of a mountain three miles to the northeast of Makkah and a cave in this mountain has become famous in Islamic history since the first revelation was sent to the Prophet therein. This mountain is also called Jabal-an Noor (The Mountain of Divine Light) because it is the place where the first revelation was sent down.

Before the duty of delivering Allah’s messages was given to him and especially after the age of 35, The Prophet often went up to the cave in the Hira Mountain for seclusion in order to run away from Makkah’s atmosphere full of immorality, injustice and cruelty. There he used to worship Allah by pondering about His existence, His oneness, might and greatness; and people’s disobedience, immorality and perversity against Him although they are weak and in need of Allah. Then when he was worshipping Allah in that cave at the age of forty, the first revelation was sent to him and he was given prophethood.

The Messenger continued visiting the Hira Mountain after he was given prophethood as well. For instance, one day he climbed the peak of the Hira Mountain with a group from his companions and at that time the mountain started to tremble. Then the Prophet said to it: “Calm down, O Hira! Who stands on you now is either a prophet or a loyal follower of Prophet or a martyr” (Muslim, Fadailu’s Sahaba, 50)

Can’t Qur’an be the words of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)? If not, how can it be proven?

Answer 2:

The claim that the Noble Qur’an is the word of the Prophet or another person has been frequently put forth by few people of the age of ignorance who were consumed with rage and by some Western or Eastern scientists who are enemy against Qur’an. The aim here is to confuse the minds of ignorant and rude people. We think that just like the idolaters of past, the idolaters of today also behave intentionally and without thinking in this issue and speak maliciously. For, if Qur’an is viewed with justice, no matter by whom, it will be seen that it is too superior and too divine to be attributed to a human.

Now, we will just remind the outline, referring the deep analysis of this serious matter to the great books of great men:

1) In the first place, the style of Qur’an and that of hadiths were so different that Arabs would find the sayings of the Prophet aside from Qur’an suited to their conversations and ways of speaking, but before Qur’an they could not but be conquered by amazement and astonishment.

2) While reading hadiths, the image of a person who thinks, speaks and who is bent double with the fear of God can be felt behind. However, in the voice of Quran, a great power, an awesome air and an imposing accent can be felt. In the address and words of a person, it is neither reasonable nor possible to feel two very different styles together.

3) It is before else a situation contrary to the truths of mind and reason for an illiterate man-may souls be sacrificed for this illiterate-who did not attend any school or whatever to bring about and establish a flawless, individual, domestic, social, economic and judicial system; especially if this system is so wonderful as to be practiced by many a nation, no matter friend or enemy for centuries, and if it retained its freshness up to this day.

4) In Quran, such issues as existence, life and concerned with these; worship, justice and economy are handled in such a balanced and proper way that it is in a way not recognizing a person conveying it to overlook these facts and to deem it a word of a human being; because even a single one of the above issues, with its peculiarities like eternity and being above time, is beyond the capacity of the greatest geniuses. It is a groundless claim to attribute a book with a rich content- each one of hundreds of its issues is far beyond the capacity of several geniuses-to an illiterate person who attended no school whatsoever.

5) Quran is also wonderful in respect to the news it gave concerning the past and the future and thus it cannot be a human saying. Today, the living styles of the former tribes, their good or bad end, which have been discovered lately, are the same as is narrated by Quran word for word. Here are prophets, like Saleh, Lot and Moses, here are their tribes, and here are their places, each a source of lesson on its own.

Just as the tidings of the past given by Quran are definite and correct, the tidings Quran gives us about the future are as important and each a miracle on its own. For instance, as Quran announced that Mecca would be conquered and that the Kaba would be visited safely many years before it happened in the verse: “you will certainly enter the Sacred Mosque, if God wills, in full security, with your heads shaven or your hair cut short” (Al-Fath Surah, 48:27); Quran declared that Islam would be victorious over all fake systems in the verse: “He it is Who has sent His Messenger with the Divine guidance and the Religion of truth that He may make it prevail over all religions. God suffices for a witness (for the truth of His promise and the mission of His Messenger).” (Al-Fath Surah, 48:28). Likewise, Quran proclaimed that the Sasanids, who were seemingly victorious over Romans that day, would be defeated and that at the same time Muslims would rejoice over the victory of Badr, with the good tidings: “The Byzantine Romans have been defeated; In the lands close-by, but they, after their defeat, will be victorious; within a few (nine) years – to God belongs the command (the absolute judgment and authority) both before and after (any event) – and at the time (when the Romans are victorious), the believers will rejoice.” (Ar-Rum Surah, 30:2-4), and when the time came, it turned out just as Quran said. In the same way, with the verse: “O Messenger (you who convey and embody the Message in the best way)! Convey and make known in the clearest way all that has been sent down to you from your Lord. For, if you do not, you have not conveyed His Message and fulfilled the task of His Messengership. And God will certainly protect you from the people. God will surely not guide the disbelieving people (to attain their goal of harming or defeating you).” (Al-Ma’idah Surah, 5:67), the Prophet was promised a secure life although he was surrounded by enmities from his closest uncle to enemy nations and states, and it happened as was promised.

Quran expressed that with the discovery of diverse branches of science, the space and the self would be turned upside down and examined carefully, that scientific discoveries and new findings would force people to believe with the miraculous announcement: “We will show them Our manifest signs (proofs) in the horizons of the universe and within their own selves, until it will become manifest to them that it (the Qur’an) is indeed the truth. Is it not sufficient (as proof) that your Lord is a witness over all things (just as He is witnessed to by all things)?” (Fussilat Surah, 41:53); and today we are rapidly drawing close to that point.

Besides, although Quran has been challenging and irritating its enemies since it was revealed saying “Say: Surely, if humankind and jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they will never be able to produce the like of it, though they backed one another up with help and support.” (Al-Isra’ Surah, 17:88), it confirms its declarations and shows that it is a miracle that no one ever attempted and could attempt to produce the like of it, except for a couple of unfortunate.

In the first years Quran was being revealed, Muslims were poor, weak, and powerless and they had no idea about the future. They had neither a state nor the dynamics to gain sovereignty and to turn systems upon earth upside down and knew nothing of the power source of the new religion. However, with the verse: “God has promised those of you who believe and do good, righteous deeds that He will most certainly empower them as vicegerents on the earth (in the place of those who are in power at present), even as He empowered those (of the same qualities) that preceded them, and that, assuredly, He will firmly establish for them their Religion, which He has (chosen and) approved of for them, and He will replace their present state of fear with security (so that they can practice their Religion freely and fully and in peace).” (An-Nur Surah, 24:55), Quran showed them these great aims and gave them the good news of becoming the ruler over earth.

There are so many verses like these about the future, victories and defeats, progresses and regresses of Islam and Muslims that it is not possible to mention all of them here.

Most of the news about future given by Quran is comprised by the verses about the final limits various branches of science will reach. The news given by Quran in short signs about scientific findings is so wonderful and so superior that as it is not possible to overlook these expressions of it about this issue, it is not also possible to call it words a person.

As many works have been written about the wonders expressed by hundreds of verses directly, with proofs and as a sign, by referring the extensive explanation of this matter to them, we will record the points indicated by some exemplary verses.

1. The Creation of the Universe

The elevated truth explained by the verse: “Do those who disbelieve ever consider that the heavens and the earth were at first one piece, and then We parted them as separate entities; and that We have made every living thing from water? Will they still not come to believe?” (Al-Anbiya Surah, 21:30) is the most fixed and unchangeable principle about the creation, although different views about its details have been put forward. The result would not change whether the unity and the separation explained in the verse are in the fashion of whether the separation of bodies composed of gases into nebulas or its being separated into systems like the Solar System and then forming and its turning into systems perfectly in order with orbits, or the separation, diffusion and holding in control of a smoke. In respect to its content and style, the verse has always been a source of light for scientific researches; it retained its freshness although all claims, theories and hypotheses became worn out and were finally cast away; it reached this day and seems a candidate to rule over the future.

2. Astronomy

There are so many verses in Quran that would function as a base for Astronomy that it would require volumes of books to gather them together and analyze each one. We will suffice with the indications of a few verses.

“God it is Who has raised the heavens without pillars you can see, then He established Himself on the Supreme Throne; and He made the sun and the moon subservient to His command, each running its course for a term appointed by Him.” (Ar-Ra’d Surah, 13:2)

Just as the verse reminds the rising, extending and expanding of the heavens, it also expresses that everything is in order and face to face and side by side with the expression ‘without pillars you can see.’ Yes, it is true that there is no visible pillar that prevents the heavens from falling apart; however, it is not completely without a pillar. For, in order for bodies not to fall apart and not to collide with each other, the existence of such a pillar, in terms of principle and rule that would form the basis for the present order, is vital, whether it is visible or not.

With this expression, Quran makes us think the principle of centrifugal force between masses; and it makes no difference whether this matches the principle of pull by Newton or the relativity by Einstein.

It is especially interesting that the verse expresses that the Sun and the Moon run its course and it is worth pondering on. Quran makes it clear that the Sun, the Moon and other planets were created according to an order, represent a harmony and are based on a set truth with the verses: “The sun and the moon are by an exact calculation (of the All-Merciful).” (Ar-Rahman Surah, 55:5); “It is He Who has created the night and the day and the sun and the moon. Every one (of such celestial bodies) floats in its orbit.” (Al-Anbiya Surah, 21:33); “And the sun runs the course appointed for it for a term to its resting-place for the stability of it(s system); All (the celestial bodies and systems) float in an orbit (determined for each).” (Ya-Sin Surah, 36:38-40)

The Roundness of the Earth

The verse “He wraps the night around the day and He wraps the day around the night (until one covers the other completely)” (Az-Zumar Surah, 39:5) explains the day and the night following one another with the word ‘wrap’; as light and darkness wrap the earth like a turban. In another verse, the furthest point is shown to researchers with the expression: “And after that He has spread out the earth in the egg-shape (for habitability).” (An-Nazi’aat Surah, 79:30)

About the Expansion of Space:

“And the heaven, We have constructed it mightily, and it is surely We Who have vast power, and keep expanding it.” (Adh-Dhariyat Surah, 51:47). It would make no difference whether this expansion happens the way Einstein explains it or the way Edwin Hubble explains as the distancing of nebulas from the galaxy which contains the sun. What is important is that Quran points out the main subject and then reaches the peaks far above the sciences based on discoveries and from there sheds light on their ways.

3. Meteorology

Weather currents, intensification of clouds, polarization of the weather, flashing of lightening and the formation of thunderbolts are among the mostly mentioned subjects in Quran sometimes in reminding the favors of God and sometimes in warning people. For example, “Do you not see that God gently drives the clouds, then joins them together, (completing the formation of a circuit between them,) and then turns them into a thick mass, and consequently you see rain-drops issue out of their midst. He sends down hail out of snow-laden mountains (of clouds) from the sky, and smites with it whom He wills and averts it from whom He wills.” (An-Nur Surah, 24:43)

By reminding the peak of rain, as in every part of it, here also Quran explains the way rain and hail form and then their falling down in relation to certain disciplines, in order to show the bestowing hand behind the phenomena that set the heavens in uproar and that inspire awe and frighten like clouds, rain, lightning and thunderbolts and in order to call souls into wakefulness in the face of all these and it does this in such a way that nearly everyone understands the way rain and hail form without contradicting with what is known today and admires the style of Quran. It does not occupy itself with such details as two electric currents different in kind pulling one another, with two electric charges identical in kind pushing one another, with winds coming into action and uniting these clouds that push one another, with the occurrence of electrification as a result of the unification of positive charged currents with the electric present in the air hole and at this point the descent of vapor as drops of water. It handles the main event and the essential subject; and leaves it to the explanation of time to disclose and name the details.

The verse in the Al-Hijr Surah: “And We send the winds to fertilize, and so We send down water from the sky, and give it to you to drink (and use in other ways); it is not you who are the keepers of its stores (under earth).” (Al-Hijr Surah, 15:22) adds a new dimension to the issue and not only points out the function of winds in the pollination of trees and flowers, but also reminds especially their function of fertilizing clouds. However, when Quran was revealed, the needs of neither the grass, the tree, the flower nor the clouds were known; and no one was aware that winds fulfilled this important duty, either.

4. Physics

The material, which is the main component of existence, and its properties of being either single or in pairs are among the subjects Quran deals with.

For example; from the verse: “And all things We have created in pairs, so that you may reflect and be mindful.” (Adh-Dhariyat Surah, 51:49), it is understood that everything is created in pairs and that this is an important principle addressing all times in respect to the content Quran makes use of. In another verse in Ash-Shu’ara Surah it is said: “Have they not considered the earth, how many of every noble kind We have caused to grow therein in pairs?” (Ash-Shu’ara Surah, 26:7) and thus hundreds of thousands of pairs that are re-created every year before our eyes are pointed out and the favors of God are reminded. The verse in Ya-Sin Surah is more general and more interesting: “All-Glorified is He (in that He is absolutely exalted above having any peer or partner), Who has created the pairs all together out of what the earth produces, as well as out of themselves, and out of what they do not know.” (Ya-Sin Surah, 36:36) and it is made clear that as well as the creatures in pairs we know of and have discovered, there are many other pairs we have yet to know.

God invites us to contemplate by reminding us that everything is in pairs except Him, whether alive or lifeless, whether in the heavens or on the earth, with whatever properties they are equipped with, from humans as male and female, to the pairs of grasses and trees; from the duality of electron and nucleus in atoms to the opposite pairs of material and anti-material, which serves as a reminder of all his favors.

There are so many other divine declarations aside from the verse we mentioned above just to give an idea that owing to the fact that they are each a miracle on their own, they clearly prove both that Quran is the utterance of God and that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is His messenger.

With its peculiar style and in such a pithy and supreme way, Quran handles its content from the start of life upon earth to the pollination and reproduction of plants, from the creation of groups of animals to certain principles with which they continue their lives, from the mysterious worlds of the honey bee and the ant to the bird’s joys of flying, from the ways how the animal milk is formed to the phases the human undergoes in the mother’s womb; that leaving aside our interpretations, whenever they are applied to, it will be seen that Quran stays always fresh and young and that it shows the furthest goals the sciences can reach.

Now that a book shows even the points further than the point thousands of people could reach after the working and trials of I don’t know how many centuries, that gives the outline and basis of the issue in a commanding manner; it is not possible to attribute this book even to the efforts of hundreds and thousands of geniuses dealing with different branches of science, let alone to a person fourteen centuries before. Especially if this book is rich in content, remarkable in expressions, supreme in style and divine in accent, like Quran…

Let us turn back and ask our addressee: From whom did this person, renowned for his illiteracy, learn the way milk is formed in living beings, in that age of ignorance when no school or book was known? How could he know that winds act as fertilizers, that they fertilize plants and clouds, and the points at which rain and hail form? Who taught him that the earth is in an elliptical shape? In which observatory and with which great telescopes did he discover the expansion of the universe? In which laboratory did he learn the elements of atmosphere and that the more we ascend upward, the less oxygen there remains? With which instruments of X-ray did he find out the phases the embryo goes through in the mother’s womb in the exactly correct way? And then he told all these and many others to his addressees with the air of a scientist who knows the details of all this knowledge and who is expert in his field and in an unwavering, doubtless and confident manner?

Just as Quran guides Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) explaining his duties, responsibilities and authorities; it here and there warns him according to his level and thus leads him, as well.

For instance; since he permitted the hypocrites though he should not have, Quran warned him: “May God give you grace! Why did you give them leave to stay behind until it became clear to you who was speaking the truth and you came to know the liars.” (At-Taubah Surah, 9:43). And it also warned him about his application in the issue of the slaves of the Badr War: “It is not for a Prophet to have captives until he has widely exhausted the enemies in the land. You (O believers) seek the fleeting gains of the present, worldly life, but God wills that the Hereafter will be yours. God is All-Glorious with irresistible might, All-Wise.” (Al-Anfal Surah, 8:67) and; “Had there not been a previous decree from God (concerning that gains of war are lawful and captives can be released in return for ransom), a tremendous punishment would surely have touched you because of what you took (the gains of war, and the captives taken in expectation of ransom, before the enemies’ power in the land had been sufficiently suppressed and exhausted).” (Al-Anfal Surah, 8:68)

Once, because he said ‘I will do this tomorrow’ without referring it to the ordaining of God, Quran issued the commandment and the warning: “And do not say about anything (you intend), "I will do it tomorrow," Without (adding) "If God wills." And remember and mention Him (straightaway) should you forget (to do so when expressing an intention for the future). And say: "I hope that my Lord will guide me to what is nearer to right conduct than this (forgetfulness of mine)."” (Al-Kahf Surah, 18:23-24); and another time it made the warning that it is God who should be feared: “…you were feeling apprehensive of people (that they might react in a way harmful to their faith), while God has a greater right that you should fear Him…” (Al-Ahzab Surah, 33:37)

When he swore not to drink honey sherbet due to the behaviors of his wives in an issue, Quran warned him harshly: “O Prophet (you who are the greatest representative of Prophethood)! Why do you forbid (yourself) what God has made lawful to you? You seek to please your wives. And God is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.” (At-Tahrim Surah, 66:1)

In many more verses like these, while, on the one hand, the limits of his duty, responsibility and authorities are set; on the other, at the times-though few-when these limits are not complied with and the duty and the responsibility were not carried out as it should be, he was warned and here and there harsh warnings were made.

Now, is it possible that a person publishes a book and then puts expressions of warning and of condemnation in its certain places. Of course not! This book is the book of God and this person is its honorable conveyer.

The Noble Quran is a miracle of eloquence and has no equal in this field. In this respect, it is not possible to ascribe it to a human.

There were a great many poets and authors who could attract crowds when Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) came up with prophethood. The majority of them were enemy against him. From time to time, they would come together and try to devise a way to put forth the like of Quran and at any cost to defeat it. Furthermore, they would sometimes consult with the learned from Jews and Christians. They resolved to do anything that occurred to them to stop the waterfall of Quran. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), who continued his upright way for all these obstructions and obstacles and for all the oppositions that escape imagination, would answer back every kind of unbelief only with Quran and completed his struggle with victory, especially for all these enemies.

In such a time that the great representatives of eloquence together with the learned from Christians and Jews united as a single front and thus set everywhere in uproar, Quran entered the hearts of its addresses with its supreme eloquence, with its charming utterance, dazzling style and with its awe-inspiring depth of meaning and spirituality; it became a voice so great as to echo from atom to the universe. It ceaselessly warned and challenged its enemies: Although it calls out: ‘You, too, put forth a book like Quran, at least something equivalent to one of its surahs, or at least a similar verse; otherwise scatter and clear off!’ and although it has been repeating the same challenges with the verses: “If you are in doubt about the Divine authorship of what We have been sending down on Our servant (Muhammad) (and claim that it is the work of a human being like Muhammad who is illiterate), then produce just a surah like it and call for help to all your supporters, all those (to whom you apply for help apart from God), if you are truthful in your doubt and claim.” (Al-Baqarah Surah, 2:23); “Say: "Surely, if humankind and jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they will never be able to produce the like of it, though they backed one another up with help and support.” (Al-Isra’ Surah, 17:88); “Or they say (about the Messenger): "He fabricates it (the Qur’an)"? Say (to them): "Then produce ten invented surahs like it (in eloquence, meaningfulness and truth), and call to your aid whomever you can, apart from God, if you are truthful (in your claim, not deluded or just making up excuses to justify your unbelief).” (Hud Surah, 11:13); there have been no answer to the challenge of Quran except by some unfortunates, which shows that it is not of human origin. As is recorded in history, even though the enemies of Quran tried to do every evil against it and its conveyer Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), they did not even imagine producing the like of Quran. If they could, they would have deadened the voice of Quran and would not have chosen the way of war which is full of dangers.

It is the clearest evidence to the fact that the like of Quran cannot be produced that these great masters of eloquence chose the way of war putting their most valuables like honor and even chastity in jeopardy. If it were possible to produce the like of it, they would have preferred to resist this way rather than to fight and would never have put their lives in danger.

When it was understood that Arabian poets and authors could not produce the like of Quran, it is an expression of despair to search a source for it among Jews and Christians. Moreover, if Christians and Jews had the capacity to prepare a book with such a content and richness in expression, why would they ascribe it to someone else? They would have said all the better: ‘We made it’ and would have thus taken pride in it.

Furthermore; in spite of a couple of careless or malicious Western scientists and idolaters, a good many scientists, researchers and intellectuals could not hide their admiration for Quran’s richness of content and power of expression and applauded it.

Charles Milles; In terms of the richness in its style, Quran has an air so supreme that the like of it cannot be produced, nor can it be translated…

Victor Imberdes; Quran possesses such a rich content as to be a source for all the principles of law…

Ernest Renan; Quran made not only a religious revolution, but also a literary one…

Gustave Le Bon; Sent through Quran, Islam issues the purest creed of oneness to the world…

CI. Huart; Quran is the word of God and it was conveyed to Prophet Mohammad via revelation…

H. Holman; Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is the last one of God’s prophets, and Islam is the last one of the revealed religions...

Emile Dermenyhem; Quran is the prominent miracle of the Prophet (PBUH), and it is an impenetrable mystery in respect to its literary beauty…

Arthur Bellegri; Quran conveyed by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is the work of God Himself…

Jean Paul Roux; The biggest miracle of the Prophet is the Noble Quran sent by the angel…

Raymond Charles; Quran is the still valid and the most lively one of the scriptures God revealed to believers…

Dr. Maurice; Quran is a wonder and a miracle high above any kind of opposition and criticism; moreover, it is a literary source for the people interested in literature, a treasure of expressions for linguists and a source of inspiration for poets…

Manuel King; Quran is the sum of the commandments the Prophet received from God in the course of his prophethood…

Mr. Rodwell; One is amazed as long as he reads Quran…

Answer 3:

Virtually, Allah’s Word does not resemble the way men talk by any means. Firstly, while we are talking, we use our tongues, mouths, teeth, vocal cords and lungs which Allah bestowed us. In the meantime, the brain organizes the coordination between those organs and our feelings through a mechanism the mystery of which we have not discovered yet. Then, with Allah’s permission, we load, in the way Allah taught us, our words and expressions to the air, which is His creation too, and send them to listening ears. Our ears, which are designed like private stereophonic studios for each of us, collect the voices and transmit them to the brain. Codes are deciphered in the brain and we comprehend the meaning of what we hear in the limits of our knowledge.

We need particular organs and equipments for both talking and listening. Moreover, our talking and listening has limits. We can talk in the rate of our knowledge and as much as we can express ourselves. We use our voice as much as our vocal cords permit. Our ears cannot hear the voices which are under or over certain levels. Additionally, we make sense of the voices we hear in comparison to our knowledge and comprehension.

Allah who taught us to talk can surely talk. He who bestowed us the ability of hearing can hear definitely. However, his speech and listening do not resemble ours. If they resembled, He would need what we needed. However, He is the One who creates all what we need. Would the Creator need what He created?

After distinguishing Allah’s Word from men’s talk with exact boundaries, we find ourselves being addressed the following question:

As human beings who need many things for talking and hearing, how can we hear and how can we comprehend the speech of Allah Who needs nothing?

We cannot exceed the bestowed abilities no matter how much we want. Our eyes recognize light but cannot see radio waves, which indeed have similar nature. In addition, our eyes have an endurance limit for light. Trying to exceed this limit could yield being deprived of our eyes forever: for example, looking at the sun for a long time during the day!

Consequently, there are two ways in order to be able to hear Allah’s speech: either Allah will bestow us such abilities to provide hearing His Divine speech, or He will talk in the form which we can listen and understand.

The first way, as we learned from the Quran, is an extremely exceptional incidence which was bestowed as a miracle upon Hazrat Musa (Moses). Since not every individual human being can be a Moses, the second way is chosen lest entire human being should be deprived of Allah’s words. Actually, the second way was preferred. The Quran was revealed as a book in the form of which we can comprehend by reading, we can make as the point of reference for every stage of this world and the Hereafter and we can learn and teach one another. If it were not in the form of human speech, how could we hear it? Even if we heard it, how would we recite and repeat it? If we did not read it, how would we benefit from it? If we did not benefit from it, what wisdom (reason) would exist in its revelation?

Apart from his miracles and special attributes, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a human being in all his actions, conducts, and behaviors. He submitted to and complied with the Divine laws and commands manifested in creation. He too suffered from the cold, experienced pain, and so on. His deeds and attributes were not all made out of the ordinary so that he could be the leader of his community through his actions, its guide through his conduct, and instruct it through all his behaviors. If he had been out of the ordinary in all his conduct, he could not himself have been the leader in every respect, the total guide of everyone, the 'Mercy to All the Worlds' through all his attributes.

Similarly, the All-Wise Qur'an is the leader for people having mind and consciousness, the guide for the believers of jinn and men. He is the teacher of those attaining perfection, and instructor of those seeking reality. Therefore, it is the necessity of the wisdom that it should be in the same form as man's talking and understanding style. Men and jinn learn their worshipping their prayers from it; they express their concerns in its language, and learn from it the rules of social behavior, the laws and the secrets of the universe. Everyone has recourse to it. If, therefore, it had been in the form of the Divine speech which the Prophet Moses heard on the Mount Sinai, man could not have endured listening to it and hearing it, nor could man made it the point of reference and recourse. Hazrat Moses, one of the five greatest prophets, could only endure to hear a few words.

The goal of the devil or the ones who ask such questions under the leadership of devil is to represent a resemblance as the sameness and by this way, to cheat man. Actually, they refer to a nonsensical way known as “paralogia” in psychology. Assume a patient saying, “a table has for legs, so does a cat. Therefore they are the same.” Similarly, the devil says “Men talk by means of words and sentences and the Quran is written by using words and sentences. Therefore, the Quran is a word of man.” and he attempts to deceit people. As a matter of fact, every for legged thing is not a cat; similarly, expressing oneself by means of words does not only pertain to man . The devil himself, deceived Musaylama by means of fabricating many irrational stuff resembling human talk and asserting them to be Allah’s words. As for The Lord of all worlds, He, more than anyone, has the power required for revealing the most beautiful exposition of all expositions with the words and expressions which He taught us.

[lestudio1-bernardbujold]

U.K. PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON MOVED TO INTENSIVE CARE By The Wall Street Journal Monday April 6, 2020 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self isolation. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab Is Deputizing for Prime Minister! LONDON—British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was leading the British government from his hospital bed on Monday, the government said, as the country’s health system braced for the crisis caused by the new coronavirus to reach its crescendo. Mr. Johnson, 55, who was taken to a hospital on Sunday night for tests after being in isolation for 10 days, has been suffering persistent symptoms from Covid-19, including a high temperature. Mr. Johnson had a “comfortable night” and “is in good spirits” in St. Thomas’ hospital in central London, receiving briefings and contacting members of his team, a government spokesman said. With Mr. Johnson absent, the prime minister’s designated stand-in, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, held Monday morning’s government crisis-response meeting. But the spokesman said Mr. Johnson was still making key decisions on the government’s coronavirus strategy. “He’s in charge,” Mr. Raab said Monday of Mr. Johnson. He added that the government is working “full throttle” to follow Mr. Johnson’s instructions. But he said he hadn’t spoken to the prime minister since Saturday. Asked whether the prime minister should step back from a full-time role to concentrate on recovery, Mr. Raab said Mr. Johnson will follow medical advice. “I’m in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe,” said a tweet from Mr. Johnson’s verified account on Monday. Mr. Johnson’s illness has come at a critical time for the government as it faces the worst health crisis in a century. The virus’s effects are expected to peak in the U.K. as soon as this weekend and questions are growing about the government’s belated decision to lock down the country and how the restrictions can eventually be eased. The number of confirmed cases and deaths in the U.K. has been climbing rapidly, though data released Monday showed the number of new cases falling from Sunday and 439 deaths related to Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours, the lowest daily figure so far in April. But scientists note that fatalities are a lagging indicator of the spread of the pandemic. “It really is too soon to see the effects of the big changes we’ve all made to our lives,” Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser said. She pointed out that the lockdown measures came into effect only two weeks ago and that it can take several weeks before an infected person’s symptoms worsen enough for them to need hospitalization. Britain doesn’t have the equivalent of a vice president who automatically takes over if the prime minister dies. It is up to the members of the U.K. cabinet to decide among themselves who should lead the country if the prime minister dies or falls gravely ill. Coronavirus Strikes Officials Around the World. Are Governments Prepared? Officials in the U.K., Brazil, Iran and several other countries have tested positive for coronavirus, raising questions about world leaders' exposure to the pandemic. Here are some of the challenges governments face as they ponder contingency plans. “It really depends on everyone just accepting that person has the same authority,” said Catherine Haddon, a constitutional expert at the Institute for Government. Mr. Johnson has smoothed some potential difficulties by designating Mr. Raab lead the cabinet in his stead. Should Mr. Raab in turn fall ill, the prime minister could—if he is able to—pick another member of his cabinet to replace him. The British government initially took a laissez-faire approach to the illness, eschewing some of the more stringent clampdowns that were being imposed across Europe in an effort to minimize disruption. The government’s pandemic plan, which was crafted by scientists over the last two decades, played down the need to rush to shut schools and ban mass gatherings, arguing they did little to stop a virus’s spread. Meanwhile, British epidemiologists initially underestimated how many people could require intensive care if they got ill, according to officials. Worried that the British public wouldn’t isolate for weeks on end, the government reasoned it was better to wait until the virus’s spread was accelerating to impose a lockdown. Even as evidence mounted about the seriousness of the virus’s spread, Britain’s crowded parliament and the warren of buildings around Downing Street, where Mr. Johnson both lives and works, were humming with people. “I am shaking hands continuously,” Mr. Johnson said at the start of March. “I was at a hospital the other night where there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody.” Downing Street continued to operate much as normal with briefings in the state room and meetings convened around crowded tables in the building’s drawing rooms. On March 16 scientists advising the government concluded that the clampdown needed to be accelerated following a series of reports by modelers showing the National Health Service would quickly be swamped. Even after Mr. Johnson locked down the country on March 23, he continued to attend cabinet in person. The same week he fell ill Mr. Johnson attended a “virtual” cabinet meeting sitting with both the health secretary and the country’s most senior civil servant. The virus then spread through his top team. Mr. Johnson’s chief of staff Dominic Cummings and the country’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty isolated with symptoms. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, subsequently fell ill. Mr. Johnson’s pregnant fiancée, Carrie Symonds, said she has also suffered symptoms of the virus. Most of Mr. Johnson’s team is back at work and Ms. Symonds tweeted at the weekend that she was now feeling stronger. Mr. Cummings isn’t back in Downing Street yet but is working. Mr. Johnson put on a brave face once in isolation. He published a series of videos in which he said he had mild symptoms. However, people who were in contact with him mid-last week were expressing concern about his well-being. Mr. Johnson continued to lead cabinet meetings via video link in his study. He also appeared outside his door in Downing Street on Thursday to join a nationwide applause of National Health Service workers. The government insisted that his symptoms were still mild but admitted his condition wasn’t improving. By Friday a pale-looking Mr. Johnson told the nation via a self-filmed video that he would continue to isolate because of a persistent fever. At 8 p.m. on Sunday, as Queen Elizabeth addressed the nation imploring people to follow social-distancing guidelines, Mr. Johnson was driven to hospital for tests. Mr. Johnson’s government is currently working to ramp up tests for the virus, after failing to stockpile the necessary equipment before the virus struck. On Monday it confirmed that millions of antibody tests it had ordered, which would check if people had gained immunity to Covid-19, didn’t function properly. The government is in discussion with manufacturers to refine them, an official said. The last prime minister to have to sound out his cabinet for a successor while ill was Harold MacMillan in 1963. He resigned shortly after. Any replacement to Mr. Johnson would need to be named by the Queen, requiring the cabinet to agree among themselves who can best command support of the country. That leader would likely be an interim prime minister until the ruling Conservative Party could choose a new head. -30- See full story The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-u-k-battles-to-contain-coronavirus-boris-johnson-remains-in-hospital-11586177542?mod=hp_lead_pos1

[patriotsnet]

What Republicans Are Running For President This Year

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-republicans-are-running-for-president-this-year/

What Republicans Are Running For President This Year

The This Sounds Crazy But Hear Me Out Wild Card

GOP Senator Roy Blunt Says 2022 Will Be a Great Election Year for Republicans

Mike Lindell

Donald Trump wasnt the first celebrity businessman without any experience in elective office who got traction in a Republican presidential primary. In 2012, it was former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman Cain. In 1996 and 2000, it was magazine publisher Steve Forbes. Back in 1940, utility executive Wendell Willkie snagged the GOP nomination.

Today, who is the most famous, politically active Republican businessman? MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. That may sound crazy, but no crazier than what we experienced in 2016.

Lindell is a leader of the bitter-enders trying to overturn the democratic results of the presidential election. He claims to have spent $1 million on legal work and Stop the Steal rallies to support Trumps delusional cause. On December 19, he tweeted out a call for Trump to impose martial law in these 7 states and get the machines/ballots! though he soon deleted the post.

He became a conservative darling in part because he heavily marketed his pillows on Fox News; in the second quarter of 2020, MyPillow was Fox Newss top advertiser, spending more than double the amount of the second-place company. But now he accuses Fox News, and its early call that Biden won Arizona, of conspiring to defeat Trump

What to watch for in 2021:While Lindell has been thinking about a Minnesota gubernatorial bid, he has managed to visit neighboring Iowa several times in 2020. Lets see which state he campaigns in more in 2021.

Filed Under:

Former Un Ambassador Nikki Haley

Haley gets a lot of buzz, and she has been actively courting attention since leaving the Trump administration almost two years ago. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump even considered pulling her in last summer to replace Vice President Mike Pence on the 2020 ticket to help with Trumps ailing numbers among women a move the husband-wife White House duo fervently denied.);

Haley moves up a notch based on consistent exposure since June, a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention on Monday night, and a strong showing of 11 percent support in the most-recent 2024 poll.;

The former South Carolina governor can stake claim to being popular among the world of Washington pundits and professional political types, many of whom were interviewed for this story and spoke very highly of her. But she has also been dinged by some operatives as more of a media creation than a serious contender for 2024.

Leaving the job was hard, but putting family first was more important. And I think now its about taking it a year at a time, she said earlier this year during a meeting of the Federalist Society.

William Henry Harrison Vs Martin Van Buren

Aware that Van Burens problems gave them a good chance for victory, the Whigs rejected the candidacy of Henry Clay, their most prominent leader, because of his support for the unpopular Second Bank of the United States. Instead, stealing a page from the Democratic emphasis on Andrew Jacksons military exploits, they chose William Henry Harrison, a hero of early Indian wars and the War of 1812. The Whig vice-presidential nominee was John Tyler, a onetime Democrat who had broken with Jackson over his veto of the bill rechartering the Second Bank.

Studiously avoiding divisive issues like the Bank and internal improvements, the Whigs depicted Harrison as living in a log cabin and drinking hard cider. They used slogans like Tippecanoe and Tyler too, and Van, Van, Van/Van is a used-up man, to stir voters. Harrison won by a popular vote of 1,275,612 to 1,130,033, and an electoral margin of 234 to 60. But the victory proved to be a hollow one because Harrison died one month after his inauguration. Tyler, his successor, would not accept Whig economic doctrine, and the change in presidential politics had little effect on presidential policy.

Recommended Reading: Percentage Of Americans That Are Republican

Im Running For President Because Its Time For New Leadership Because Its Time For New Energy And Its Time For A New Commitment To Make Sure That The Opportunities Getting Out There Being Able To Hear Peoples Concerns Address Them With New Ideas Has Been An Extraordinary Experience He Said

Biden thought hard about running in 2016, but he decided against it, being so soon after his son beaus death and. Running for president of the united states is an. But there is so much more to it. Joe biden opposed president reagans peace through strength that led to the fall of the berlin wall. And speaking of brand image i read the program of warren recently, and was tempted to give her a french honorary citizenship as she is trying to import.

Eight Republican 2024 Candidates Speak In Texas Next Week But Not Trump

WASHINGTON, April 30 A Republican Party event in Texas next week will hear from eight potential candidates for the partys presidential nomination in 2024, without former President Donald Trump, a source involved in the planning said on Friday.

The May 7 event at a hotel in Austin is being co-hosted by U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, to thank donors who helped fund a voter registration drive and get-out-the-vote efforts in the state.

High-profile Republican politicians who are considering whether to seek the partys nomination in 2024 are expected to speak to the crowd of about 200 donors.

They include former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and U.S. senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott and Rick Scott, the source said.

The event comes as Republicans wrestle with whether to try to move past Trump in the next election cycle or fall in line behind him. Trump told Fox Business Networks Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that he was 100% considering another run after losing in 2020 to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump was not invited to Texas, the source said. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was invited but was unable to attend, the source said.

Many Republican insiders doubt Trump will follow through on his musings about running for president in 2024, leaving a void that other party leaders will seek to fill.

Also Check: Kaine’s Lapel Pin

Notable Candidates Include Individuals Who Have Qualified To Appear On Enough State There Were 21 Candidates On The Ballot Each In Vermont And Colorado

Bush said in retrospect that the divisiveness of the primary challenge might have cost bush reelection. There are several people running for the republican nomination, but given the current president is a republican, he is the only one that matters. Notable candidates include individuals who have qualified to appear on enough state there were 21 candidates on the ballot each in vermont and colorado. While the republican and democratic nominees will be on the ballot in all states, independents must meet an array why is he running for president? Former congressmen joe walsh announces republican presidential primary challenge.

But it can be repaired by someone who can lead, and i ran for president to win and make a difference in our great country, swalwell photo: Since the current president is democrat, we already know who the democrat running for president will be . The only other person running worth mentioning is bill weld, former governor of massachusetts, who was the libertarian nominee for vp back in 2016. Other republicans have made it quite clear they dont see a path to the nomination for anyone but trump in 2020. I think that as a republican party, we have lost our way. mark sanford.

Lincoln Chafeewho Is He

The failson scion of a Rhode Island Republican family, Chafee served in the Senate as a Republican ; as governor, as an independent and then a Democrat ; and then ran for president as a Democrat in 2016.

Is he running? No. He filed papers to run for the Libertarian Party nomination on January 5, but dropped out on April 7.

Why did he want to run?

Who wanted him to run?

Could he have won the nomination? Given that he dropped his bid even without any serious rivals in the race, apparently not.

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Abortion Rights Drinking Age Drugs And More

At present, Weld is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Self-described as strongly pro-choice when it comes to abortion rights, he is also said to believe that drug use should not be considered a criminal offense. He feels the drinking age should be lowered but has not stated at what age it should be set.;

When it comes to matters of the military, Weld also draws a conservative line. He feels that America should withdraw its troops from foreign engagements and that the countrys efforts and resources should be refocused on domestic issues, in order to prosper.;According to Aljhazeera.com, Weld previously supported bans on assault weapons in the US.

Sen Elizabeth Warren D

Colorado’s only Republican governor elected within last 50 years says presidential race is over

After establishing a presidential exploratory committee just before New Year’s Day 2019, Warren officially joined the race in February with an event in Massachusetts.

“This is the fight of our lives,” the senator said. “The fight to build an America where dreams are possible, an America that works for everyone. I am in that fight all the way.”

The progressive candidate who ran against corruption and pumped out more than 50 policy proposals during her campaign, suspended her run after a lackluster finish in all four early voting states and on Super Tuesday — where she even came up short in her home state. Her best finish was in Iowa, where she came in third.

“I will not be running for president in 2020. But I guarantee I will stay in the fight for the hard-working folks across the country who’ve got the short end of the stick, over and over,” she told reporters at a media availability in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 5.

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Cancellation Of State Caucuses Or Primaries

The Washington Examiner reported on December 19, 2018, that the South Carolina Republican Party had not ruled out forgoing a primary contest to protect Trump from any primary challengers. Party chairman Drew McKissick stated, “Considering the fact that the entire party supports the president, we’ll end up doing what’s in the president’s best interest.” On January 24, another Washington Examiner report indicated that the Kansas Republican Party was “likely” to scrap its presidential caucus to “save resources”.

In August 2019, the Associated Press reported that the Nevada Republican Party was also contemplating canceling their caucuses, with the state party spokesman, Keith Schipper, saying it “isn’t about any kind of conspiracy theory about protecting the president;… He’s going to be the nominee;… This is about protecting resources to make sure that the president wins in Nevada and that Republicans up and down the ballot win in 2020.”

Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina’s state committees officially voted on September 7, 2019, to cancel their caucus and primary. The Arizona state Republican Party indicated two days later that it will not hold a primary. These four were joined by the Alaska state Republican party on September 21, when its central committee announced they would not hold a presidential primary.

Virginia Republicans decided to allocate delegates at the state convention.

Dwight D Eisenhower: Campaigns And Elections

The Campaign and Election of 1952:

During an extraordinary military career, Dwight D. Eisenhower had done some things that few, if any, Americans had ever experienced. But he had not done something that was extremely commonhe had never voted. Yet in 1948, many Americans hoped that the general would cast his first ballotfor himself as President. Even Harry S. Truman tried to interest Eisenhower in a run for the presidency. As the election year of 1948 approached, Truman, who became President when Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, seemed to have little chance of winning a full term of his own. In a private meeting, Truman proposed that he and Eisenhower run together on the Democratic ticket, with Eisenhower as the presidential candidate and Truman in second position. Eisenhower rejected this astonishing offer and probably thought that he would never again have to consider the possibility of a run for the White House. He also spurned requests from prominent Republicans that he seek the GOP nomination for President.

Campaign Difficulties

“There was a time when I thought he would make a good President… That was my mistake.”

President Harry Truman, 1952

The Campaign and Election of 1956

The President Prevails

Read Also: What Republicans Voted To Impeach The President

Presidential Campaign And 2011 Hints At Presidential Run

In 2000, Trump for nomination as the Reform Party candidate for the but withdrew from the race in February 2000. A July 1999 poll matching him against likely Republican nominee and likely Democratic nominee showed Trump with seven percent support.

In 2011, Trump against President Barack Obama in , making his first speaking appearance at the in February 2011 and giving speeches in early primary states. In May 2011, he announced he would not run, and he endorsed in February 2012. Trump’s presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at the time.

Trump As A Stalking Horse

Of course, there was plenty of speculation during the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination that Trump was trying to sabotage the GOP candidates by saying outrageous things and making a mockery of the process in a bid to help Hillary Clinton win the election.

“Donald Trump is trolling the GOP,” political reporter Jonathan Allen wrote. Trump also threatened to run for president as an independent, a move many believed would siphon votes from the Republican nominee as other, similar candidates have done in the past.

Recommended Reading: How Many Americans Are Registered Republicans

Former Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo

If the 2024 election turns into a foreign policy debate, the 57-year-old Pompeo is in a strong position with his background as former secretary of state and CIA director.

During Pompeos recent speech at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, he gave a preview of some of the lines that might end up in his presidential stump speech. He said hes spent more time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un than any other American, including basketball star Dennis Rodman, and talked about the threat he sees from China. His mention of the U.S. moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem during his tenure was met with applause.

Before serving in Trumps Cabinet, Pompeo blasted then-candidate Trump as an authoritarian. Pompeo made the remarks the day of the Kansas caucus in 2016, quoting Trump saying that if he told a soldier to commit a war crime, they would go and do it. Pompeo said the U.S. had spent 7½ years with an authoritarian president who ignored the Constitution, referencing former President Barack Obama, and we dont need four more years of that.

Pompeo served three full terms representing Kansas in the U.S. House before joining the Trump administration. He and his wife, Susan, have one child. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and Harvard Law and served in the U.S. Army.

Donald J Trump Vs Hillary R Clinton

The 2016 election was unconventional in its level of divisiveness. Former first lady, New York Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman to be nominated by a major party in a U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump, a New York real estate baron and reality TV star, was quick to mock fellow Republicans running for the nomination as well as his democratic opponent.

In what many political analysts considered a stunning upset, Trump, with his populist, nationalist campaign, lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College, becoming the nations 45th president.

Popular Vote: 65,853,516 to 62,984,825 . Electoral College: 306 to 232 .

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Former South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg first made a national name for himself with a bid for Democratic National Committee chair in 2017. He was the youngest candidate in the 2020 race, and could have become the first gay man to be elected president.

While he trailed many of his opponents in name recognition early on, Buttigieg argued that he could represent a generational shift in government, and speaks frequently of issues that will affect younger Americans, such as tax reform, gun control and climate change.

“I get the audacity of somebody like me talking about running for this office, but frankly it’s a leap for anybody,” Buttigieg said on ABC’s “This Week” in February. “And yet all of the people who had that job have been mortals who just bring their experience to the table. My experience is that of guiding a city through transformation, and I think a mayor at any level has the kind of executive frontline government experience and, by the way, problem-solving experience that we need more in Washington right now.”

Late on March 1, following the South Carolina primary and ahead of Super Tuesday, he said “the path has narrowed to a close” and announced that he was suspending his 2020 presidential campaign.

Trump Remains 2024 Candidate Of Choice For Most Republicans Poll Shows

How GOP retirements are making the 2022 midterm elections a Trump referendum

59% of Republican voters said they wanted Trump to play prominent role in party, but tens of thousands left after Capitol riot

If the 2024 Republican presidential primary were held today, Donald Trump would be the clear favorite to win big. That was the message from a Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday, three days after Trumps acquittal in his second impeachment trial, on a charge of inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

Among Republican voters, 59% said they wanted Trump to play a prominent role in their party, up a whopping 18 points from the last such poll, taken in the aftermath of the Capitol riot. A slightly lower number, 54%, said they would back Trump in the primary.

Tens of thousands of Republicans left the party after the Capitol insurrection, and a majority of Americans have told other pollsters they would like to see Trump banished from politics.

Though the 45th president will be 78 by election day 2024, he will be able to run again if he chooses, having escaped being barred from office after a 57-43 Senate vote to convict with seven Republican defections but 10 votes short of the majority needed.

Mike Pences life was threatened by Trump supporters at the Capitol, as the vice-president presided over the ratification of electoral college results confirming Trumps defeat by Joe Biden. He placed second in the Politico-Morning Consult poll, with 12%.

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[khalilhumam]

Survey: China’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Rebounded After the COVID-19 Lockdown, But Economic Problems Linger

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/survey-chinas-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-rebounded-after-the-covid-19-lockdown-but-economic-problems-linger/

Survey: China’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Rebounded After the COVID-19 Lockdown, But Economic Problems Linger

*/ This blog was first published by the International Food Policy Research Institute. Following the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei Province in late 2019, starting in late Jan. 2020 the Chinese government imposed draconian lockdown measures across the country to control the spread of the disease (Fang, Wang and Yang, 2020). Most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) suspended operations. Then, as the pandemic eased in April, China began lifting the restrictions. To understand the impact of the lockdown on China’s SMEs and the extent of their recovery, the Enterprise Survey for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China (ESIEC) project team led by Peking University conducted two rounds of telephone interviews in February and May 2020 with enterprises surveyed over the past three years. In general, the survey shows that the vast majority of SMEs were able to reopen and rehire workers once restrictions were lifted, exhibiting a V-shaped recovery. Yet a substantial number of mostly smaller enterprises closed permanently, leaving many unemployed, particularly in rural areas. The survey probed SMEs’ work resumption and production situation, the main difficulties they faced, their efforts to adapt, demands for appropriate assistance policies, and the reach of lockdown-related business assistance programs. Below are four major findings.

1. SMEs experienced a V-shaped recovery

China’s February lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19 initially hit SMEs hard, as I examined in an earlier post. By May, economic conditions had greatly improved. As shown in Figure 1, most businesses had reopened. Among those firms, employment reached an average of 86.4% of its pre-shock level. This is clearly a V-shaped recovery. Overall, smaller firms reopened at a lower rate in May across all sectors.

The V-shaped pattern can also be seen in firm entry data. As shown in Dai et al. (2020b), the number of firm entries plummeted to a nadir in the first week after the Chinese New Year week (the first week of lockdown). By the eighth week after the New Year, the number of entries rebounded to the level of previous years. Thanks to greater demand, agricultural SMEs experienced more rapid recovery in production capacity than did SMEs in other sectors (Cheng and Zhang, 2020[1]). Thanks in large part to the rapid recovery, entrepreneurs said they felt much less anxious and were significantly more optimistic in May than in February. Still, some SMEs were hit harder than others, and serious challenges remain for most SMEs.

2. COVID-19 restrictions took a heavy toll on SMEs and rural residents.

Our analysis shows that around 18% of SMEs closed for good between the two surveys. Given that SMEs generate 80% of employment in China, an 18% failure rate would send a shockwave through the labor market, chopping the national employment rate by about 14%. Because most employees of SMEs are from rural areas, which account for 57% of the country’s population, the rural job loss rate may be as high as 25%. According to another recent survey, of more than 700 villages (Wang et al., 2020[2]), 26% of rural households reported to have at least one family member who lost a job due to the pandemic and one out of six self-employed businesses were closed. Thus, the two different surveys yield consistent results. Clearly, it is rural people who suffered the most from China’s COVID-19 restrictions. Heavy job losses undoubtedly would lower rural residents’ consumption. 42% of rural households reported to have cut food expenditure, while 9% have reduced education expenditure. Residential service firms suffered the highest exit rate. Among the manufacturing enterprises, the failure rate for smaller firms (fewer than eight workers) is 2.5 percentage points higher than larger firms (eight workers or more). Among export firms, smaller ones exited at a rate 4 percentage points higher than relatively larger firms.

3. Major challenges have shifted from the supply side to the demand side

In the recovery, the survey shows, SMEs’ major challenges facing SMEs have been mostly on the demand side rather than the supply side. In February, logistics breakdowns and labor shortages ranked among the top challenges, in particular for industrial enterprises. In May, more than 70% of firms listed the lack of demand as the top challenge, while most supply-side problems, such as raw material shortages and labor shortages, had faded away. Except for agricultural enterprises, smaller firms reported more problems with lack of demand than their bigger counterparts. In general, agricultural enterprises recovered more rapidly (Figure 2) than the manufacturing, business service, and residential service sectors, which encountered more serious demand problems. Given there are 550 million rural residents (not including migrant workers who transit to urban areas), heavy job losses in rural areas likely explain the reduced demand for consumer goods and residential services: Those affected may have cut back on non-essential spending while trying to maintain their food budgets.

In addition, export firms were 10 percentage points more likely to report inadequate demand as their most critical challenge, largely thanks to shrinking international demand as COVID-19 spread to other countries. Despite the high reopening rate, low demand meant that many firms, particularly export firms, were still running at partial capacity.

4. Support policies did not reach a vast number of SMEs.

After the lockdown was imposed, the Chinese government launched various policies to help affected SMEs, including rent relief, tax reductions, postponing social security payments for employees, and direct financial support. Yet these programs often did not reach smaller firms. Most relief measures did not even apply to self-employed businesses, which, for instance, do not pay much in taxes and or social security for workers. Despite a commitment of 1.5 trillion yuan ($223 billion) in financial support for SMEs, on average only 15% of SMEs reported accessing some form of government assistance—only two percentage points higher than in 2018, when we did our baseline survey. Among self-employed businesses, the coverage rate was as low as 9%. More than 60% of SMEs wished to receive reductions in rent and other fees, yet the penetration rate for this form of assistance was below 30%. This is because most landlords are private firms or individuals also struggling amid the pandemic. Unemployment insurance, meanwhile, is only provided for workers at big corporations, and most SME workers do not have it. The survey also shows that small firms received less policy support than larger ones. In general, then, SMEs largely relied on themselves through the lockdown. According to Wang et al. (2020), 98% of rural residents had never heard about unemployment insurance. Once SMEs went bankrupt, most of their workers had to return to their home villages, largely unaccounted for in official unemployment statistics. China’s initial COVID-19 lockdowns dealt a heavy blow to SMEs, driving up unemployment in rural areas. But once restrictions were eased, many businesses quickly rebounded—showing the resilience of SMEs and offering some hope for how recovery can play out in other parts of the world once outbreaks are brought under control. (Reardon and Swinnen, 2020). But China’s SMEs still faced ongoing post-lockdown problems, with government assistance largely failing to reach a vast number of them, particularly the very small ones, and low demand persisting. Our survey suggests that policies that stimulate domestic demand by targeting consumers, particularly those with low incomes and the vulnerable in rural areas, would indirectly help SMEs and have broader economic benefits. Xiaobo Zhang is a Senior Research Fellow with IFPRI’s Development Strategy and Governance Division. He is also a Chair Professor of Economics at Peking University and a Visiting Fellow with the Center for Global Development and European Institute for Chinese Studies. The analysis and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author. This paper draws from Dai et al. (2020a)[3] and Cheng and Zhang (2020).

[1] Cheng, Zijun and Xiaobo Zhang, 2020. “V-shaped Recovery of Agricultural SMEs in China from Covid-19 Restrictions.” Working paper. Revised and resubmitted to Agricultural Economics.

[2] Wang, Huan, Markus Zhang, Robin Li, Oliver Zhong, Hannah Johnstone, Huan Zhou, Hao Xue, Sean Sylvia, Matthew Boswell, Prashant Loyalka, and Scott Rozelle. 2020. “Tracking the Impact of COVID-19 in Rural China over Time.” Working Paper. Stanford University.

[3] Dai, Ruochen, Dilip Mookherjee, Yingyue Quan, and Xiaobo Zhang, 2020a. EDI Policy Note.

[soysaucevictim]

Final week of current stuff~

-

June 20

I woke up before 9AM... somehow. (Itching + heat probs didn’t help.)

I rambled a bit on Twitter about grapefruit, felt a bit risky/curious about eating just a quarter of one this morning. (Was a bit concerned about drug interactions.)

Did some sketches, chatted, did some dishes, and made today’s Hello Fresh meal. Zucchini pomodoro penne bake an enjoyable meal, even moreso thanks to it’s relative ease to make.

I spent a few hours after that- chatting, playing KH, and steaming some leftover zucchini grandma brought us.

(Okay it was late, but I really jumbled up my exercise itinerary today...)

First, Day 25 of the CSP. Level 3, max rest. Counts were fast and form wasn’t stellar... but I’ll accept it. That was nevertheless intense. Also, had a few moments of “but wait, what side am I holding for again?“

Second , Day 25 of the MC. 15′ meditation + OM Mantra. I decided to sit against my bed and let my arms rest in lap. It went alright... got interrupted  twice and had a few moments where I think I was dozing off a bit. I’ll call it done.

Third , today’s DD. 1′ tree pose with EC. Out of order, since I barely remembered to get this one done before calling it a day. Breezy and fun work.

Last , Day 25 of the VP. Level 3, no rest. Pretty fun and breezy. Hip flexors felt it a little, too.

I regretted my decision to break out my 2DS... got to bed way too late again.

-

June 21

I woke up a bit before 2PM.

I believe the first thing I did waking up was accompanying brother to get some Subway. After some YouTube, I got started with today’s exercise.

First, today’s DD. 30 side-to-side lunges with EC. Just about manageable.

Second, Day 26 of the VP. Level 3, 30″. Arms needed some recovery time to work with, but got it done.

(After watching Lord of War, Dinner for Shmucks, and chatting with a friend...)

Third, Day 26 of the CSP. Level 3, max rest. I debated heavily on rain checking it, since it was past midnight. But I did it anyways. Also doable, but I felt I had to try to be a bit more quiet.

Last, Day 26 of the MC. 1′ equal breathing + 15′ meditation. Got a little impatient at the very end. But I did have a few moments of enjoying some ujjayi-style breathing sounds.

I then repeated yesterday’s mistake of playing more 2DS games, despite sense telling me not too... oh well.

-

June 22

I woke up around 2PM.

Ate dinner, just some Chinese fast food. I spent a few hours watching some YouTube and reading some cool SaSi analysis posts before getting started on exercises.

First, today’s DD. 1′ hollow hold with EC. Still not particular fond of this one, but can still manage.

Second, Day 27 of the VP. Level 3, no rest. A bit of stretching stuff, overall quite breezy~

(After chatting and passing some more time to allow food to go down...)

Third, Day 27 of the CSP. Level 3, max rest. That was pretty intense, but it was a good call to stall a bit for more food digestion beforehand. Honestly, quads got a good deal of action with the core/abs. But, consider it done.

Last, Day 27 of the MC. Backup & Restore + 15′ meditation. One thing I always like about B&R is the rush of cool you get after getting out of the second child’s pose. Did doze off a lil during tonight’s session and it took a bit for my right quads to stop trembling from fatigue to stay relatively still. Eventually stopped but did crush my left foot a tiny bit awkwardly (was sitting cross-legged).

After YouTube and some gaming, I decided I would try to actually get to sleep in the green zone. Despite the impulse to play more games crossing my mind. Yay!

-

June 23

... I woke up just shy of 5AM. Had a restless night’s sleep. Got to be PROFOUNDLY itchy. I think ti was because of the heat. =_=

After some deliberation on twitter, I ordered some OTC antihistamines, did some dishes, confirmed an appointment, and followed up on our census response. I then took a nap.

Woke up again at around 3PM.

Tanked my ENTIRE day playing Gemcraft and regretted it.

Got to bed obscenely late again, too.

-

June 24

I woke up before 1PM.

After a bit of YouTube and a phone call from my case manager, I started to play catch-up with my exercise stuff.

First, yesterday’s DD. 2′ jumping Ts with EC. Took a false-start trying to find a sustainable pace. But I eventually I nailed an exact 1/sec pace, 120 reps. "Forbidden Fruit" turned out to be a good tempo to work alongside. (As well as in terms of run-time.) :,D

Second, today’s DD. 20 up/down planks with EC. I went at this as fast as I could so I could get through it. Did wear some long sleeves for it. Elbows still had to look forward to doing more tho. :P

Second, Day 28 of the VP. Level 3, no rest. The heat plus those 2 DDs made this harder than it otherwise would be. Notably, especially at the start - doing balanced leg raises was hard and had a few drop-downs (still a self-imposed challenge there.).

(After a bit of time recovering from that with a bit of rest and pickle juice for electrolytes...)

Third, Day 28 of the CSP. Level 3, max rest. Elbows were not the most happy about more up/downs... but I was able to manage. If barely in the last couple sets.

Second, Day 29 of the VP. Level 3, 30″ rest. Arms were a bit tired after that, and this was an arms day. So I started off with that rest period, did think to close it after a couple sets... but eh. Might as well go a bit easier on myself after everything...

(After a bit of debate on whether to do more doubling up...)

Third, Day 29 of the CSP. Level 2, max rest. Accrued fatigue made me feel like Level 3 wasn’t happening today. Neck strain was probs the worst part to contend with here...

(After some dishes...)

Last, Day 28 of the MC.15′ meditation. I did some slow breaths, counting upward for each inhale/exhale. Had a few brief moments losing count, but doing such does help to maintain a bit more deliberate focus.

After a bit of a headache setting things up, I streamed that chibi!Remus drawing. I wound up pulling an allnighter, by the time I finished it.

-

June 25

After posting that art and doing a bit of gaming, one of the first things I did was take a hot shower. Sleep dep made me feel my tired muscles more... taking a hot shower just now helped that for a bit.

I wound up staying up so I could get to the laundromat as planned and deal with clothes. Afterwards, spent time unpacking some deliveries, taking out the trash/recyclables, making dinner, feeding/watering dog, and putting away my laundry... honestly was too tired to be saddled with all that. But I did what I needed to do.

Very late, but one of the last things I spent energy on today was exercise.

First, today’s DD. 1′ climbers with EC. 130 reps were counted by the end. Given my food choices, I’m glad this was the only exercise on docket that could aggravate the stomach. And even then, it went without much issue.

Second, Day 30 of the Vitality Program. Level 3, no rest. Honestly, the only hard part here was probably the calf raises - given how sore my calves were getting (after those Jumping Ts and no sleep to recover from them). But this was just manageable.

Third, Day 30 of the Core Strength Program. Level 3, 30″ rest This was pretty breezy by this program’s standards. Was arguably too exhausted to mind how high I was targeting for the leg raises, but I won’t dock any points for it.

Last, Day 29 of the MC.15′ meditation + OM Mantra. Because tired, leaned against bed again. Did have a few moments of drifting focus from the mantra. But I did the best I could and appreciate the activity.

I went to bed in the green zone. Because my wall was hit.

-

June 26

I woke up proper around 1PM.

One of the first things I did today was make today’s HF dinner. Hoison-sesame roasted veggie bowls. I was thrilled that dad liked this one, given that he has stated not liking sweet potatoes / yams before. This def speaks to how much of a big deal is in HOW you cook stuff (than only just what's in it).

I then spent time doing dishes, before doing a little bit of exercise.

First, today’s DD. 40 raised leg circles. Just about manageable.

Last, Day 30 of the Meditation Challenge. 20′ meditation. Tried to focus on breathing, but I did have some trouble staying focused on it (was fidgety in thought and with my hands/arms)Observed left leg went to sleep and took a good minute or 2 to normalize sensation. Didn’t stop me from getting up and walking around, KNOWING after the first window where the sensation feels okay you get slammed with weakness/parasthesia. :,D

I then spent some time to clean the kitchen countertops and toilet. Did some logging and video editing before turning in. Pretty late, later than yesterday.

-

Summary of Experience:

I finished both my programs on time, in June 25.

The Vitality Program. was a good warm-up and mostly a breeze to get through! Easily managed Level 3 for the whole program. What I did note was how long I needed to rest between sets.

No rest for 25 days

30″ rest for 5 days (arm-centric days)

The Core Strength Program had a lot of days that kicked my ass a bit. But I’m happy with how far I could take it most of the time. I only needed to knock 2 days down to Level 2 (16 & 29) and did Level 3 for the rest. I also recorded the spread for how long I needed to rest between sets.

No rest for 3 days

30″ rest for 2 days

1′ rest for 5 days

1′30″ rest for 5 days  

Max rest for 20 days

I finished the in Meditation Challenge June 26. This was a good thing to rerun, for many reasons. I did it all to silence. I occasionally experimented with different sitting positions (largely determined by how tired I was). Focused on breath most of the time, counting them a couple times.

[bigyack-com]

White House Takes New Line After Dire Report on Death Toll

Sweeping new federal recommendations announced on Monday for Americans to sharply limit their activities appeared to draw on a dire scientific report warning that, without action by the government and individuals to slow the spread of coronavirus and suppress new cases, 2.2 million people in the United States could die.To curb the epidemic, there would need to be drastic restrictions on work, school and social gatherings for periods of time until a vaccine was available, which could take 18 months, according to the report, compiled by British researchers. They cautioned that such steps carried enormous costs that could also affect people’s health, but concluded they were “the only viable strategy at the current time.”That is because different steps, intended to drive down transmission by isolating patients, quarantining those in contact with them and keeping the most vulnerable apart from others for three months, could only cut the predicted death toll by half, the new report said.The White House guidelines urged Americans to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. That is a more restrictive stance than recommendations released on Sunday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said that gatherings should be limited to 50.The White House also recommended that Americans work from home, avoid unnecessary shopping trips and refrain from eating in restaurants. Some states and cities have already imposed stricter measures, including lockdowns and business closings. Asked at a news conference with President Trump about what had led to the change in thinking by a White House task force, Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the task force leaders, said new information had come from a model developed in Britain.“What had the biggest impact in the model is social distancing, small groups, not going in public in large groups,” Dr. Birx said. “The most important thing was if one person in the household became infected, the whole household self-quarantined for 14 days. Because that stops 100 percent of the transmission outside of the household.”Dr. Birx’s description of the findings were consistent with those in the report, released on Monday by an epidemic modeling group at Imperial College London. The lead author of the study, Neil Ferguson, an epidemiology professor, said in an interview that his group had shared their projections with the White House task force about a week ago and that an early copy of the report was sent over the weekend.The group has also shared its fatality estimates with the C.D.C., Dr. Ferguson said, including that eight to nine percent of people in the most vulnerable age group, 80 and older, could die if infected.“We don’t have a clear exit strategy,” Dr. Ferguson said of the recommended measures. “We’re going to have to suppress this virus — frankly, indefinitely — until we have a vaccine.”“It’s a difficult position for the world to be in,” he added.The report, which was not released in a peer-reviewed journal but was authored by 30 scientists on behalf of Imperial College’s coronavirus response team, simulated the role of public health measures aimed at reducing contact.“The effectiveness of any one intervention in isolation is likely to be limited, requiring multiple interventions to be combined to have a substantial impact on transmission,” the authors wrote.Dr. Ferguson said the potential health impacts were comparable to the devastating 1918 influenza outbreak, and would “kind of overwhelm health system capacity in any developed country, including the United States,” unless measures to reduce the spread of the virus were taken.The White House task force did not respond to requests for comment. Officials stressed that the federal government’s restrictive new guidelines would be re-evaluated after 15 days, although they hinted that they were likely to be extended.The study’s authors said their research made it clear that people in the United States might be advised to continue with draconian restrictions on their daily lives for far longer than Mr. Trump and the task force indicated on Monday.“The major challenge of suppression,” the British scientists concluded, is the length of time that intensive interventions would be needed, given that “we predict that transmission will quickly rebound if interventions are relaxed.”The authors said that so-called mitigation policies alone — isolating people suspected of having the virus at home, quarantining their contacts and separating the most vulnerable people from others — might reduce the peak demand on the health care system by two-thirds and deaths by half if applied for three months. But that would still result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and in health systems “overwhelmed many times over,” they said.This was why the authors also recommended measures to distance the entire population, such as school closures. Those interventions, they suggested, could be “relaxed temporarily in relative short time windows" and then reintroduced if new infections began growing.The researchers said that the long-term “social and economic effects” were likely to be “profound,” and that the measures were not guaranteed to succeed and could themselves have “significant impact on health and well-being.”“No public health intervention with such disruptive effects on society has been previously attempted for such a long duration of time,” they added. “How populations and societies will respond remains unclear.”Michael D. Shear contributed reporting. Read the full article

[crimsonreach]

Cables’s Inktober Master Post Thing

So I’ve been doing inktober and I figured i’d better actually post some of the stuff i’d done at some point. I’m following the official prompt list with the additional self-imposed challenge of choosing a different one of my fandoms each week and fitting the prompts to that. Week 1 i did Digimon. Week 2 has been Scooby Doo. This week (at time of writing (16th Oct)) i’m doing Thunderbirds and week 4 will be Batfam/DC. + There’s an extra three days at the end where I haven’t entirely decided what I’m doing yet, so i guess i’ll leave that as a surprise lol. Anyway: below is the list of prompts which will be edited to include links to the drawings i’ll be posting up once i’ve posted them. I’m hoping to queue up the posts to go twice a day until i’m caught up and since we’re halfway now that should work out? You also be able to use the inktober tag on my blog to find stuff if i get bad about updating this post...

I’ve added some additional meta thoughts and stuff below a cut at the bottom in case you’re interested in what materials i’ve been using and some more of me blabbing on about the challenge. 

Otherwise drawings and prompts (with bonus preview images for weeks that i’ve started posting) are linked now below: 

Digimon Prompts:

Day 01) Swift

Day 02) Divided

Day 03) Poison

Day 04) Underwater

Day 05) Long

Day 06) Sword

Day 07) Shy

Scooby Doo Prompts:

Day 08) Crooked

Day 09) Screech

Day 10) Gigantic

Day 11) Run

Day 12) Shattered

Day 13) Teeming

Day 14) Fierce

Thunderbirds Prompts:

[preview image to come] [[links coming soon~~]]

Day 15) Mysterious

Day 16) Fat

Day 17) Graceful

Day 18) Filthy

Day 19) Cloud

Day 20) Deep

Day 21) Furious

Batfam/DC Comics prompts

[preview image to come] [[links coming soon~~]]

Day 22) Trail

Day 23) Juicy

Day 24) Blind

Day 25) Ship

Day 26) Squeak

Day 27) Climb

Day 28) Fall

Misc/TBC/??? Prompts:

[preview image to come] [[links coming soon~~]]

Day 29) United

Day 30) Found

Day 31) Mask

And if you want to know more about the stuff i’m doing for inktober (materials and any other stuff i can think of to talk about) its below this here “keep reading” link~~~

So... its been a long time since i’ve really drawn anything using traditional media. The pens i’m using are once that i’ve had since high-school (read at least 10 years ago) and with some stuff thats even older again thrown in. Here’s a handy image with the most frequent material’s i’ve been using:

I’ve branched out and used a bit of colour in later drawings but i think i’ll mostly be sticking to the above assortment of fineliners and calligraphy pens for the rest of the challenge. Another thing is that since i’ve had so little time or motivation to draw in the pages ages, i thought i’d make it a bit easier for myself to actually have a shot at inktober and base all the drawings i do directly off screengrabs or composites of screen grabs/promo images for stuff. In the interest of comparison i’ll be adding the reference image i used for each drawing under a keep reading on each post. I’m sure there was more i wanted to say down here but i can’t remember or think at the moment lol. These comments will almost certainly be edited later though as i update the post :)

[acaseforpencils]

Danny Shanahan.

Bio: I've been cartooning for over 30 years. I started, back in the 80s, as the unofficial cartoonist for the United States Tennis Association, thanks to a good friend who was an editor for World Tennis magazine. Thankfully, he saw a glimmer of possibility in this Bleecker Street bartender's Kliban and Larsen knock-offs. And Mark McEnroe, then an intern at the magazine, also helped, showing me that cartooning was my true path, mostly by kicking my ass up and down a tennis court.

Find more of Danny’s work here.

It took my moving from Brooklyn to Albuquerque to sell my first cartoons to The New Yorker, (eye-catching return address) and after 7 years of self-imposed work/exile, my family and I moved back east to Rhinebeck, NY, where I remain to this day. I've worked for dozens of other publications, some of which are still, surprisingly, being published. Four collections of my own work, loads of anthologies, blah, blah, blah. My work hangs all over the place: galleries, museums, my studio, refrigerators, restaurant bathrooms, etc.

Favorite Work: I don't really have a favorite work, but I'm very proud of the three Thurber homages (drawn for The New Yorker) that hang in the Thurber Museum in Columbus, Ohio. They were nice enough to make me an artist in residence for a brief moment; I not only got to sleep in Thurber's bed, I also promptly broke the rules and used his (strictly off limits) typewriter to write a quick note (strictly off-color) to Bob Gottlieb, the magazine's editor at the time.

Favorite Work of Another Artist: My Charles Addams high school report card (straight Cs, A in Art). 

Tools of Choice: I draw my roughs with a Uniball Vision (Fine) on regular copy paper. Finishes are done with Micron 08s, sometimes 05s, on Arches 140 Hot Pressed Watercolor paper. I add a little wash with varying shades of Windsor & Newton Lamp Black watercolor paint. I also love my cool little Japanese Okaya Pegcil referee pencils; just can't quite figure out how and when to use them without appearing overly judgmental. 

Tool I Wish I Could Use Better: I want to learn how to work on a tablet. Haven't tried it yet (finger drawings on my phone doesn't really count), but I'd love to "live cartoon" from a golf tournament, preferably a Major, preferably in the U.K. Favorite Tool(s): My New Yorker putter and Eustace Tilley golf ball.

Tricks: I don't have any tricks, per se, but I'll occasionally give myself a ludicrous challenge to get my writing going. Like maybe writing an entire batch using only one-word captions. Or trying to write just one more desert island cartoon (that challenge worked out well- it turned into a New Yorker cover). I write all of my own material, always have and always will, and totally agree with my buddy Roz in likening using a gag writer to "kind of like cheating". Misc: Okay, I admit that writing and drawing a Trump cartoon is pretty much the same thing as working with a gag writer. Website: On hiatus right now, but will hopefully be back real soon. You'll have to check out my work on The Cartoon Bank or at the Conde Nast Store.

[filbipott]

31 Days of Star Wars Sketches

A month ago I started a project to challenge myself and practice my art skills: draw a different Star Wars villain for every day in the month of May from both the movies and the Expanded Universe. I stopped posting them here on Tumblr because I wasn’t getting any feedback, but I did indeed complete my self-imposed challenge. I want to get all my sketches are together in one place, so I’m creating this post.

Also, my good friend @ingdamnit offered to ink some of my sketches, and I’m including the inked versions in this post as well. Ing is a really fantastic artist with a couple published comics under his belt, and he’s always looking for people to commission his art. Hit him up!

And so, with no further ado...

1) Darth Vader (Star Wars: A New Hope)

2) Grand Moff Tarkin (Star Wars: A New Hope)

3) Valance the Hunter (Marvel Star Wars)

4) Baron Tagge (Marvel Star Wars)

5) Borborygmus Gog (Galaxy of Fear)

6) General Mohc (Dark Forces)

7) Adalric Brandl (Star Wars Adventure Journal)

8) Boba Fett (The Empire Strikes Back)

9) Bossk (The Empire Strikes Back)

10) IG-88 (The Empire Strikes Back)

11) The Gorax (Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure)

12) Charal (Ewoks: The Battle for Endor)

13) Prince Xizor (Shadows of the Empire)

14) Jabba the Hutt (Return of the Jedi)

15) The Emperor (Return of the Jedi)

16) Lumiya (Marvel Star Wars)

17) Jerec (Dark Forces II)

18) Trioculus (The Glove of Darth Vader)

19) Blackhole / Lord Shadowspawn (Star Wars newspaper strip & Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor)

20) Ysanne Isard (X-Wing: Rogue Squadron)

21) Warlord Zsinj (The Courtship of Princess Leia)

22) Grand Admiral Thrawn (The Thrawn Trilogy)

23) Joruus C’baoth (The Thrawn Trilogy)

24) Carnor Jax (Crimson Empire)

25) Nom Anor (Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood)

26) Admiral Daala (The Jedi Academy Trilogy)

27) Exar Kun (The Jedi Academy Trilogy)

28) Desann (Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast)

29) Nil Spaar (The Black Fleet Crisis)

30) Thrackan Sal-Solo (The Corellian Trilogy)

31) The Triumvirate: Moff Disra, Major Tierce, and Flim (The Hand of Thrawn)

Extra: Animu Boyfriend Tierce for @ami-angelwings

[pullcarol0-blog]

2:00PM Water Cooler 9/28/2018

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Readers, as before, I got wrapped round the axle on Kavanaugh. I’ll have more in a bit. A kind reader said not to be apologetic, so I’m not! –lambert UPDATE 3:37PM All done!

Trade

“Nafta Isn’t Dead Yet, Despite Missed Deadline” [Wall Street Journal]. “President Trump has concluded that trade talks with Canada have reached an impasse, giving up on the self-imposed Sept. 30 deadline for completing a full rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement. As a result, the administration plans to publish as soon as Friday the draft of a Mexico-only deal that would replace the quarter-century-old trilateral bloc. Does that mean the imminent breakup of the continentwide free-trade zone? Probably not, according to people familiar with the process. A more likely result is some fudging of the deadline and procedures, and more talks with Ottawa over the coming weeks, and possibly months.”

Politics

2020

“Elizabeth Warren Introduces Plan to Expand Affordable Housing and Dismantle Racist Zoning Practices” [The Intercept]. “THIS WEEK, SEN. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, one of the most far-reaching federal housing bills in decades. The legislation calls for a half-trillion dollar investment in affordable housing over the next 10 years, creating up to 3.2 million new units for low- and middle-income families. The bill also expands the protections of decades-old legislation to reduce discriminatory banking, ban housing discrimination, and desegregate neighborhoods. … Warren’s bill comes on the heels of two other federal housing bills introduced this summer by Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, of New Jersey and California, respectively. Harris’s bill, which came first, aims to provide financial relief to renters by creating a new refundable tax credit. Booker’s bill would also establish a refundable tax credit….” • Tax credits. Feh.

“Elizabeth Warren for president? New survey shows Mass. voters don’t love that idea” [Boston Globe]. “Fifty-eight percent of likely Massachusetts voters said they don’t think Warren should run for president, according to a Suffolk University Political Research Center/Boston Globe poll…. Only 32 percent of those surveyed said Warren should run. That’s about the same level of enthusiasm generated by former senator John Kerry. He got the support of 33 percent of voters — and, unlike Warren, he isn’t on anyone’s short list for strongest possible challengers to President Trump.” • Bain Capital’s Deval Patrick got 38.4%.

2018

38 days until Election Day. 38 days is a long time in politics (as we are seeing right now with Kavanaugh).

A very important, nuanced thread, with lots of linky goodness:

I'm a sociologist who studies adolescent sexual violence. In this thread, I offer the basic facts everyone should know about sexual assault to make sense of the #Kavanaugh allegations. (And citations in case you want to read up yourself.)

— Nicole Bedera (@NBedera) September 26, 2018

Do read it all.

* * *

“White House spokesman: Can’t say ‘for certain’ that we have the votes for Kavanaugh” [Politico]. “A handful of key senators, including Republicans Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Jeff Flake, as well as Democrat Joe Manchin, are being closely watched to see where they land on Kavanaugh. All four have yet to announce how they will vote on the Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation.” • Collins is meeting with four assault “survivors” at noon.

“Kavanaugh advances, with Flake calling for a delay in full Senate vote” [The Globe]. “After a flurry of last-minute negotiations, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court after agreeing to a late call from Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona for a one week investigation into sexual assault allegations against the high court nominee… However, it’s unclear if Republican leaders — or President Donald Trump — will support Flake’s call for the investigation or might instead press forward with a full Senate vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. Trump indicated on Friday that he’d leave the decision for such a delay up to the Senate. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump called Christine Blasey Ford’s Thursday testimony both ‘compelling’ and ‘credible.'” • A jack move? Certainly unexpected…

“Democrats Walk Out” [Wall Street Journal]. “As Chairman Grassley read a statement praising Judge Kavanaugh and explaining his decision not to call further witnesses, several Democrats walked out: Sens. Whitehouse, Blumenthal, Hirono and Harris. As Mr. Grassley continued his statement praising the judge and criticizing the Democrats’ approach to the nomination, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont walked out. Then the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, took a seat in the back of the room.” • Pointless.

“Angry and embittered, Kavanaugh casts nomination in partisan terms” [Yahoo News]. “Rebutting Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault, Kavanaugh cast himself as the victim, bitterly attacking the 10 Democrats seated before him. He called the initial hearings into his nomination an ’embarrassment,’ suggesting that he was the subject of ‘left-wing opposition groups.’ Sputtering with rage, Kavanaugh went so far as to claim that his opponents were seeking ‘revenge on behalf of the Clintons,’ though he offered no evidence for that assertion.” • Well, on left-wing liberal oppo, he was right, wasn’t he?

“Rachel Mitchell’s disappearing act confirms GOP blunder” [Politico]. “The five-minute rounds of questioning — a request from Ford’s legal team that not every Democrat was comfortable with initially — didn’t help the GOP’s cause, either. Mitchell couldn’t establish any rhythm, clearly frustrating Republicans…. But Mitchell pursued some seemingly trivial rounds of questioning that didn’t elicit any information to undermine Ford’s testimony. Mitchell and Ford had a lengthy exchange over Ford’s fear of flying, although they established that Ford often flew for her job as a psychologist and to attend family events. Some of Mitchell’s precious time was used to question Ford about her fear of flying and to ask whether she’d been to Australia. She said she had not. Mitchell clearly suffered from the fact that neither the committee, nor the FBI had questioned Ford previously, which left Mitchell probing a lot of dry holes and sometimes drawing answers that were unhelpful to the GOP side.” • The call for an FBI investigation would look a lot better if [genuflects] Joe Biden hadn’t said they were useless in the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings.

“”If They Can, They Will”: The Ford-Kavanaugh Hearing and the Angry Politics of Now” [Susan Glasser, The New Yorker]. “Emotion does not win on Capitol Hill, though, where the majority rules. The Democrats supporting Ford and demanding a more thorough investigation of her charges before voting on Kavanaugh do not control the Senate, and they did not get to set the terms of the hearings. In Washington, process determines outcome, and in this case the outcome was very likely determined from the moment Republicans on the Judiciary Committee set up the process. The process was designed to give us the deadlock of he-said-she-said, and, in the end, that is exactly what it did. Ford said she was ‘a hundred per cent certain’ that Kavanaugh had attacked her; Kavanaugh said he was ‘a hundred per cent’ sure he had not. How could it have been any other way? There was no independent F.B.I. investigation; no other witnesses were called. Questions were limited to one five-minute round for each senator. Ford spoke first and Kavanaugh second; he would have the last word.” • FWIW, I think a functional Democrat party would have had the Senators co-ordinate their questioning and make it truly an interrogation (they didn’t), wouldn’t allow last-minute outside parties (Avenatti, the New Yorker) to drive the selection of potential witnesses, and would have something to say about Kavanaugh’s opinions. Instead we get empty performative gestures like walk-outs and a focus on effing process, and nothing on, say, Roe v. Wade, which is surely the subtext of the entire exercise for both parties. UPDATE Not to mention Kavanaugh’s seamy record with Ken Starr, or his role as a politlcal operative generally. As a result–

What normie voters saw was a man angry about being accused of assault & cagey, like presumably many normal folks, about discussing how much he used to drink. They didn't see a man dodging the actual details of the allegations because the Dems didn't really ask about them!

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) September 28, 2018

* * *

“The rape culture of the 1980s, explained by Sixteen Candles” [Vox]. “But if there’s one thing we can take away from the popular culture of the 1980s, when the alleged events took place, it’s that a sexual assault at that time might not have been immediately clear as what it was, for participants and observers alike. Some of the most popular comedies of the ’80s are filled with supposedly hilarious sequences that portray what in 2018 would be unambiguously considered date rape.” • An especially horrid incident played for laughs. One reaction–

I could not agree more. @constancegrady https://t.co/1tWI1vePBv

— Molly Ringwald (@MollyRingwald) September 28, 2018

• Making today’s outrage presentist?

UPDATE “Brett Kavanaugh’s Testimony Made It Easier Than Ever to Picture Him as an Aggressive, Entitled Teen” [Slate] • Henry the V without Prince Hal, as it were. That said, aggressive, entitled teens aren’t especially thin on the ground, and it’s a ways from a sense of entitlement to sexual assault. Now, an aggressive teen who, as an adult, is being nominated for the Supreme Court and has terrible opinions is quite another things, but the Democrats seem unable even to consider raising that issue. The norms fairy, perhaps.

UPDATE “The Editors: It is time for the Kavanaugh nomination to be withdrawn” [America]. “While we previously endorsed the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh on the basis of his legal credentials and his reputation as a committed textualist*, it is now clear that the nomination should be withdrawn…. Dr. Blasey’s accusations have neither been fully investigated nor been proven to a legal standard, but neither have they been conclusively disproved or shown to be less than credible. Judge Kavanaugh continues to enjoy a legal presumption of innocence, but the standard for a nominee to the Supreme Court is far higher; there is no presumption of confirmability. The best of the bad resolutions available in this dilemma is for Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to be withdrawn.” • A Jesuit magazine.

“Christine Blasey Ford’s GoFundMe campaign is surging after today’s testimony” [CNN]. • $410,000 and rising.

“I Wasn’t Assaulted” [Libby Watson, Medium]. “I wasn’t assaulted, but there are lot of ways to get hurt in bed when you’re a woman.” • It’s like the 80s were a national laboratory for bad sex. Although maybe that was the 70s.

* * *

At the margins….

The approval ratings of the past 4 US presidents from their inaugurations to their first mid-term elections pic.twitter.com/Bn9Im1yE2G

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 28, 2018

“Democrats dropping $21 million on Senate digital ads largely targeting health care” [NBC]. “So far this cycle, [Senate Majority PAC (SMP)] has been the top outside spender of either party on ads. It’s spent almost $40 million through Wednesday, according to data from Advertising Analytics, and has more advertising dollars booked from now through Election Day than any other outside group.” • Does make you wonder what would happen with #MedicareForAll if the powers that be spent any money on advertising it, instead of propping up the wretched ObamaCare.

ME Senate:

Just traveled overnight on a bus from Maine to DC with a group of bold activists urging @SenatorCollins to #StopKavanaugh. pic.twitter.com/SfPtSg1WFu

— Zak Ringelstein (@RingelsteinME) September 28, 2018

Ringelstein’s done this before, and kudos to him, though I loathe that focus-grouped word “bold.”

Stats Watch

Personal Income and Outlays, August 2018: “The refrain of “strong” throughout the FOMC’s assessment of the economy on Wednesday isn’t confirmed by the personal income and outlays report for August where modest-to-moderate is the better description” [Econoday]. And: “Consumer income growth year-over-year is insignificantly lower than spending growth year-over-year…. Overall, the data is little different than last month” [Econintersect].

Chicago Purchasing Managers Index, September 2018: “General economic growth in Chicago slowed in September” [Econoday]. “[S]till very strong.” And: “The results of this survey continue to correlate to district Federal Reserve manufacturing surveys – and generallly aligns with the overall trend of the ISM manufacturing survey” [Econintersect].

Consumer Sentiment, September 2018 (Final): “very healthy,” “down slightly” [Econoday]. “Income optimism across all groups is the strongest since 2004 and is getting a lift from declining inflation expectations and, with this, the prospect of rising spending power. And despite concerns over tariffs, which were cited by nearly 1/3 of the sample, consumers see economic growth continuing and unemployment falling. Note that among those who cite tariffs as a concern, confidence is generally lower.” And: “Final September 2018 Michigan Consumer Sentiment Little Changed From Preliminary” [Econintersect].

Retail: “Inside the New Amazon 4-Star Store, a Novelty Gift Shop” [Wall Street Journal]. “Reminiscent of a novelty gift store or an airport gadget shop, the new Amazon 4-star store on Thursday was selling his and hers mugs, candles, teapots, pet toys, ‘Star Wars’ droids and vegetable peelers… ‘Approximately 90% of all retail is still happening in the physical store,’ said Rob Garf, vice president of strategy and insights at Salesforce Commerce Cloud. ‘This is less about Amazon getting into a new genre or category of retail, I think this is Amazon testing and learning about physical retail.'”

The Bezzle: “How Dirty Money Disappears Into the Black Hole of Cryptocurrency” [Wall Street Journal]. “A North Korean agent, a stolen-credit-card peddler and the mastermind of an $80 million Ponzi scheme had a common problem. They needed to launder their dirty money. They found a common solution in ShapeShift AG, an online exchange backed by established American venture-capital firms that lets people anonymously trade bitcoin, which police can track, for other digital currencies that can’t be followed…. The company’s financial backers include Pantera Capital and FundersClub in California and Access Venture Partners in Colorado. Partners with Pantera and Access said their legal reviews satisfied them that ShapeShift is operating within the law. FundersClub and its partners didn’t respond to messages seeking comment…. A Wall Street Journal investigation identified nearly $90 million in suspected criminal proceeds that flowed through such intermediaries over two years.” • Lots of colorful characters in this story!

Tech: “Facebook Is Breached, Putting 50 Million Users’ Data at Risk” [New York Times]. “Facebook said it did not know the origin or identity of the attackers, nor had it fully assessed the scope of the attack. The company said it was still in the beginning stages of its investigation.” • And I’m sure we’ll be kept fully informed…

Tech: And speaking of Facebook, this Job Description:

Are you sitting down tweeps? Here’s a job ⁦@facebook⁩ . Director of Data Leaderhip “The Data Leadership Team's mission is to drive innovation in the responsible, ethical and lawful use of data to deliver economic, social and individual value for all” https://t.co/ckfSRsnsmu

— Privacy Matters (@PrivacyMatters) September 28, 2018

I think Facebook is already doing a pretty good job “driving innovation” in “ethics.” Is this new position really needed?

Tech: You don’t own anything digital unless you control the storage. Thread:

Me: Hey Apple, three movies I bought disappeared from my iTunes library. Apple: Oh yes, those are not available anymore. Thank you for buying them. Here are two movie rentals on us! Me: Wait… WHAT?? @tim_cook when did this become acceptable? pic.twitter.com/dHJ0wMSQH9

— Anders G da Silva (@drandersgs) September 10, 2018

Like giving you a rental voucher after stealing your house… .

Tech: “Google CEO will testify before U.S. House on bias accusations” [Reuters]. “Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has agreed to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee later this year over Republican concerns that the company is biased against conservatives, a senior Republican said on Friday.” • It’s biased against the left, too! But you won’t hear about that….

MMT

Simulcasting The Second International Conference of Modern Monetary Theory (#mmtconf18), Friday-Sunday, Sept 28-30, The New School, New York City (hat tip, DCBLogger):

Class Warfare

“Port Workers Plan Strike in L.A. to Challenge Logistics Firms” [Bloomberg]. “Warehouse workers and truck drivers at Los Angeles ports are planning to launch a three-day strike Monday, aiming to put pressure on logistics companies they claim owe them back wages. The strike is the latest effort by labor groups to focus on workers who companies don’t consider direct employees, or who get their paychecks from other firms in the supply chain. It also exemplifies how strikes in the U.S. have shifted toward drawing public scrutiny to corporate behavior and workers’ demands — such as the union-backed “Fight for $15″ — rather than directly disrupting their bottom line. Port officials have said that previous Teamster port strikes led to some shipments being turned away but had a limited impact on port operations. The union hopes that its mobilizations next week will heighten public pressure on the logistics firms and on their prominent clients, which the Teamsters said include Amazon.com Inc., Toyota Motor Corp., Puma and Rio Tinto Plc.” • Hmm. I wonder how the locals feel about that “public scrutiny” model. Still, nice to the Democrats all over this, supporting labor right before the mid-terms. Oh, wait…

“Pope defrocks Chilean priest at center of abuse scandal” [Associated Press]. “Francis sparked a crisis in his papacy earlier this year when he strongly defended one of Karadima’s protégés, Bishop Juan Barros, against accusations that he had witnessed Karadima’s abuse and ignored it Francis had claimed that the accusations against Barros were “calumny” and politically motivated, and he defended his 2015 decision to appoint Barros bishop of a small Chilean diocese over the objections of the faithful and many in the Chilean hierarchy. After realizing that something was amiss, Francis ordered a Vatican investigation that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups by the Chilean church leadership. Francis apologized to the victims, inviting Cruz and fellow survivors James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo to the Vatican for four days of talks. He set about making amends, including getting every active bishop in Chile to offer to resign. To date, he has accepted seven of the more than 30 resignations offered, including that of Barros.” • I’m glad some bishops resigned. In Chile. It’s a atart.

News of the Wired

For those who remember the terror alerts, post-9/11:

Current status pic.twitter.com/Gik6zg12nQ

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) September 28, 2018

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Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (AH):

AH writes: “This is the project my mom and I worked on this summer. The previous owner had built garden beds around the entire house, which is great. The problem, though, is that she (the previous owner) only planted hosta. It was hosta for days. Hundreds of feet of it, hundreds of plants. So I had to dig it all up in order to plant the gardens my mom is really good at creating. She designs gardens specifically where plants flower at different times throughout the summer. This picture is late summer where most of the garden had already flowered, like bleeding hearts and most of the bulb flowers (I suck at remembering the names of things). The garden pictured here is mostly from Spragues (our favorite nursery in central Maine), plus rocks pulled from the woods out back. We also found a small birch along the rock wall of the property (below the greenhouse). Personally, I would do without the cheesy garden ornaments, but it’s my mom’s house and she loves those things. We will repeat this every summer until all hosta has been conquered once and for all!” Spragues is where I got my first plants, too!

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Readers, I’m still running a bit short on plants. Probably a little soon for fall foliage, or wrapping up the garden, but I’m sure you can find something! How about a project you completed over the summer?

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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So do feel free to make a contribution today or any day. Here is why: Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of small donations helps me with expenses, and I factor that trickle in when setting fundraising goals. So if you see something you especially appreciate, do feel free to click the hat!

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If you hate PayPal — even though you can use a credit card or debit card on PayPal — you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check.

This entry was posted in Guest Post, Water Cooler on September 28, 2018 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/09/200pm-water-cooler-9-28-2018.html