#so I substituted something similar and benign

[slightly-awkward-sunshine]

Coming to terms with the fact that doing my ocd compulsions “just in casies :)” does not in fact mean I’m managing my ocd well lmao

For example, I know rubbing the door knob a certain way before leaving the house does not *literally* make leaving the house any safer for me. But it’s the fact that if something bad did happen on the day I decided not to do it, I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever give it up and therefore have to do it every time 😅 as it turns out that means I am still in the trenches

[candiid-caniine]

I'm in a position where I can't really get any sex toys, specifically for insertion and that's like 90% of what I need and I need something and idk what to do I'm going insane. Do you know anyone who makes like, under cover toys or know of any at least temporary solution Oh Bug with your infinite horny knowledge I pray thee, I need to be full and there's nothing to be full of

ahahaha this made me giggle! i can't promise to have infinite horny knowledge, but i will try my best to help. it's a travesty whenever a sweetheart out there in the world has to be empty <3

note: i'm working off the assumption you're talking about a vagina; if not, i apologize, but i don't think i'd feel comfortable recommending anal toy substitutes anyway due to the higher safety risk!

first, let's talk about materials if your best bet is household items:

top of the list in terms of safety is glass. i'd also say steel, but household objects made of steel aren't necessarily made of body-safe steel/surgical steel, so glass is really my top pick. it's non-porous, can be infinitely sanitized and re-used, and has some fun things you can do with temperature play too ;)

second favorite is gonna be plastic. it (and any other material) is 100% safe for insertion WITH a barrier like a condom, but if you can't get those for similar reasons you can't get a sex toy, use plastic sparingly; it is porous, so it can trap bacteria, which...i'll be honest here. i've never heard of this happening to people, even when they use the same hard plastic toy over and over, if they wash it a lot in between. thousands of people across the world have used a hairbrush handle, one of those 10-color pens (lol ask me how i know), and other items available to a kid in their teenage years. often repeatedly. my theory: yes, plastic can trap bacteria...but it's mostly gonna be bacteria from your body, and unless you're switching holes, i think the risk of that bacteria being non-benign is low; additionally, if you're washing it immediately afterwards and storing it in a safe place, the risk of it coming into contact with external bacteria is also low. regardless, it's safest to think of plastic as a temporary solution, and to replace it fairly often. good news is it tends to be cheap!

third best bet: a vegetable in a condom. could never do this bc i hate wasting food. could also never do this bc i was in a similar situation to you at the time, and in my case i couldn't get condoms, and no way was i putting pesticides up my vag!

i know it may seem weird that i'm putting silicone last. it should be first. food-grade silicone is probably insertion-safe, but the reason it's last on the list is that it's hard to find food-grade silicone items in the right shape lol.

now for some ideas of common items that might work/be easily concealable or explainable:

those big bubble wands (plastic). empty them out first lmao. make sure the bottom of the tube, where it was likely cut from the assembly line, doesn't have any weird rough edges. bonus points that you can put a bullet vibe in it if you have one, and if it's too light to fuck satisfyingly, try putting something heavier inside :)

the world of guasha and acupressure massage implements is wide and varied lol. from amazon, here is a steel one that's plain and simple. if you like odd shapes, here's whatever this is.

one of the pitfalls of household insertables is the shape; they're often ramrod-straight, which a vagina isn't, and rigid, so they don't bend to you. if you're confident in your pelvic floor strength, i recommend these guys! you may not exactly be able to fuck yourself with them, but they're an excellent way to feel full :)

check out the handle on this dude. is this anything? hell if i know lmao.

i've found pervertables on amazon before by just searching "[material] tools" or "[material] [shape]" or just in general typing in the material, then clicking around in random sections of Amazon and seeing what pops up! i've also found them by just wandering around stores and looking at objects in the context of what they'd feel like inside me, or being used to hit me, etc.

now for some actual, purpose-made toys that are discreet from Etsy:

carrot lmao. it's expensive, and i think primarily meant for anal insertion, but there you have it.

here's a simple but effective idea. why sacrifice good, plain function when you could just hide it well instead?

toy disguised as a paperweight with a DP option :)

i guess you could reasonably claim that this one was a gag gift or something. maybe get one of those little silicone hand puppets shaped like a real dino head and put it on there when you're not using it.

tis the fucking season!

dear lord. this is how i used to hide my weed lol. listen, i'm begging you, at least once it would be so funny to pretend this dog is a representation of me and i'm holding ur dick for you and looking at u with them sad puppy eyes okay?

hear me out, stay in this space with me; consider just hiding your dildo really effectively. here / are / some / really neat stash boxes i found on etsy. afaik the teddy ones are easy to diy; i made mine by cutting a hole in the bum of a big old stuffed pig i had and packing in my entire weed jar and then refilling it lol.

i hope this helped, or at least gave you some ideas! thank you for asking! <33

[script-a-world]

How can I do cuisine in sci-fi, especially taking into account food that are toxic or allergic or cultural prohibition in different species? How can I make up believable toxic or allergic stuff that isn't just plug whatever you want?

Tex: Substitutions, mainly - you can probably play around with quantities, where an amount that’s fine for Species A is a lethal dose for Species B, but the flavours wouldn’t meld together quite right and the recipe would need adjusting for ingredients Species B can use to achieve the same flavour profile as Species A’s original recipe.

As an example, say that Species A has a renowned recipe for spinach pie. Species B would be able to eat spinach, but not in the amounts required for an entire pie. Maybe they adjust the ratios - make an empanada with extra ingredients as filler, or maybe they swap out the spinach for a series of different plants to achieve the same texture, with some addition of spices or cooking method to get a similar taste as spinach.

On a fundamental level, nearly any imaginable species that can develop something so complex and requiring of communication as a cuisine is likely to have a generally similar process of cellular metabolism. The ratios comprising an ideal homeostasis might change, but the format should be highly similar. For something to be outright lethal for one species and homely on another would indicate such physically different biologies as to make their cuisines incompatible. An otter and an ape might find similarities, but an otter and a sea sponge are going to have some more difficulties.

Utuabzu: This is not an uncommon thing in nature. Plenty of species are able to consume things that are toxic to others - eg. koalas can eat eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic to just about everything else. Sometimes this even evolves as an evolutionary strategy for the organisms involved, like how chilis evolved to have high levels of capsaicin - the hot, spicy chemical - to deter most animals from eating their fruit, with the exception of birds, which are unaffected (and humans, who are known freaks), thus ensuring that their seeds would be spread far further than they might have been otherwise.

When you start dealing with ecosystems evolved on entirely different planets, this could be very much exaggerated. What is lethal to everything in one biosphere could be vital to another. Add in pressure and temperature differences and you could really have some fun - to a species that evolved on a cold world like Titan, with hydrocarbons acting as their solvent and with 'land' made of ice, a human drinking a cup of tea would be horrifying, lava heated almost to vapour with some more insanely hot liquid from a plant in.

Even in more Earthlike situations, it wouldn't be that strange for a planet where the main oxygen-transporter is something like hemocyanin (a copper compound used by some marine invertebrates instead of hemoglobin) to have plants and animals with copper levels high enough to poison humans (copper poisoning is a thing, it's why you shouldn't use pure copper pots and pans unless you really know what you're doing). Or a cold planet might have a form of antifreeze in all organisms (some polar organisms on Earth have this), which could again be toxic to humans. Even something benign in our biosphere could well be toxic to an alien species.

I would suggest looking into poisonings for some ideas about what you could use here.

Now, with that out of the way, if you're looking for how multispecies dining might work, I suggest you look into how migrant food cultures, particularly those from more than a century ago, work. Generally, if an ingredient was unobtainable (or impractically expensive) it would either be omitted or substituted. If it wasn't that important to the flavour profile it would likely be omitted, but if omission would unbalance the dish something similar would be sourced instead from what was locally available. In this case, this could mean trying to find roughly equivalent flavours and textures among the food items of another biosphere, or just accepting that everyone is going to eat separate things. Sharing a meal could well mean just eating in the same space at the same time rather than actually sharing a meal.

All this of course assumes that the species in question are all heterotrophs with similar social/psychological associations around eating. Obviously, an organism that primarily feeds via photosynthesis or chemosynthesis or passively filter feeds isn't going to really have a concept of a 'meal' or 'cuisine', and many species, particularly predators, prefer to eat alone and can become aggressive when others are near their food - they might have a concept of cuisine, but its suitability for other species would be of pretty minimal concern to them.

Feral: It’s important to note that there is a difference between a food that is toxic and an allergen. Whether or not someone experiences an allergy appears to have to do with that particular person’s gut biome. In theory any one person can be allergic to any one thing - though, of course, there are certain “common allergens” individuals are more likely to be allergic to. The point is that allergens would likely be worked around in a sci-fi setting the same way they are worked around now. The individual would be responsible for identifying whether a given ingredient is present, but there may be government regulations in place that would make it required for a food label to call out any common allergens that are present.

Toxicity in a plant or animal will be far more generalized to a given population. These are generally defense mechanisms that evolved to protect the given organism from destruction, but not all toxins are created equal. There is a very thin line between toxic and medicinal in some cases, like with digitalis from the foxglove plant. In other cases, what is toxic to some or even most animal species isn’t toxic to others, like with rabbits safely eating belladonna berries. And in some cases, humans just don’t particularly care whether or not something is toxic because either low enough levels cause some other, pleasurable effect, like with alcohol, or because the safe consumption of it can be used as a status symbol, like with pufferfish.

Another avenue to consider is food intolerance. And real world lactose intolerance may be a good jumping off point for your cultural considerations for intolerance, allergies, and toxins in a sci-fi setting, since its prevalence is so ethnically correlated.

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Headcanons: Grim

As necessary as setting up the Resurrect ‘Ems was and despite how his spa business boomed after the fact, Grim was still pretty reluctant about using them at first--not just because it goes completely against his job as the Reaper, but because he’s seen what this sort of thing can do to people.  Mortals live and die: It’s a natural cycle, and those who go against it often suffer heavy consequences. Still, any underworlder or supernatural dealing with the souls of the living could see how the war with Planet Fusion was basically a rigged game, since fusions/fusion monsters could respawn in-mass whereas Earth’s forces would ultimately be overwhelmed. To save the planet, they had to even the playing field.  Grim’s just glad he’s not the one having to deal with all the paperwork regarding which mortals are safe from reaping and which aren’t.   

Once the Resurrect ‘Ems were set, there actually wasn’t too much work Grim had to do afterward.  The only thing he sometimes has to keep an eye out for is if a soul somehow goes missing.  While rare, the Resurrect ‘Ems still aren’t a 100% guarantee for survival.  There are several beings who would eagerly capture a mortal soul if given the chance, so the part of Grim’s responsibilities that focuses on locating and protecting them has taken a bigger focus than in the past.    

Even after the events of the “A Fusion in our Midst” mission arc, his reception among people tends to be lukewarm at best.  The rumors about him being a possible traitor were hard to squish, but he’s also still the embodiment of death.  Fusion Fighters might be safe from his scythe for now, but there’s no promise of safety for when the war is over.  As such, people will naturally keep their distance for “professional reasons.” It’s probably not best to get too comfortable around him simply due to hard feelings later.  Grim’s used to it at this point though, so he doesn’t really mind beyond uttering a complaint here or there.  He prefers tormenting the people around him with the occasional, ominous comment anyway--reminding them of their inevitable suffering/death at some point or another.

Normally, he won’t fight off fusions/monsters unless it’s personal.  He’s done his job and it’s bad enough people keep bothering him during his vacation. If you’re stuck in Orchid Bay, fighting for your life against a wave of Tentakillers, and call to him for help, don’t expect him to.  More likely, he’ll pull up a lawn chair with some popcorn and enjoy the show. 

The Grim Reaper doesn’t often get much of a vacation just because it’s not like people stop dying or there’s a real substitute for him.  He can only flex his schedule around so much.  So, if it seems like his vacation is going on for forever, it’s because he kinda keeps...extending it.  For one, use of the Resurrect ‘Ems has really shortened his quota and, since Billy and Mandy are both doing their own things in the war effort and calling him for whatever they want less often, he’s taking full-advantage of the time away from them--especially since he feels like he’s never completely allowed to enjoy the time off as it is. However, it doesn’t stop Billy from phoning him regularly whether it’s over the most random, benign thing he pulled out of his head or just to check in.   

Part of Grim’s in-game dialogue is a simple greeting, welcoming new players to Orchid Bay.  While this isn’t much, it can hint to two things: First, that Grim does try to maintain at least some civility despite how other treat him and his own mean streak, and second, that he might actually play an active role in the area--possibly with some authority.  (I make the latter point because a greeting like that isn’t common for someone to make if they’re just a vacationer: You would only really welcome someone to a place if you yourself held some footing/felt at home enough there. This seems to be a situation more along the lines of how you would welcome a new employee to your team or, in this case, fellow Fusion Fighter.)  While Grim of course is head over the Resurrect ‘Ems, I think his influence in Orchid Bay in-particular may have something to do with the area’s population of supernatural beings--who would heed Grim’s instructions as a famous figurehead and someone with as important a role to the war effort as he does.         

While Grim’s uncertain of any nano with a revive ability--as he views it as a way of cheating death potentially beyond what was agreed when he made the Resurrect ‘Ems--he’s particularly wary of the nanos modeled after himself.  He’s bound to have noticed that their IE Donors have a much stronger affection toward the little doppelgangers than they’d ever show him, but he’s more concerned about the consequences those bonds might to lead to if they win the war and life--and its cycle--returns to normal.  There’s a strong possibility the nanos would interfere with his job to protect their companions, and their similar abilities to himself could be a challenge.  He’s wary of other demonic-based nanos for similar reasons.       

[theseerasures]

i am intrigued by the controller!naomi thing, and also as someone whose sole source of serotonin for the past three or four months has been rwby i feel like i'm obligated to ask about the robyn and winter one

serendipitously you picked the two that are essentially fanfics OF fanfics

what if Naomi was a Controller and not Tom: inspired by this post, except what if it were a substitution instead of addition? i started it mostly as an exercise in writing the Animorphs as a team in the early days, when they weren’t as bonded by trauma and didn’t have that many reasons to hang out, but also because a) The Stranger (the one where Rachel’s dad tells her he’s moving and wants her to come, and also the Ellimist is there) made a huge impression on me as a kid, and b) i was always kinda bitter than Tom was such a huge deal but Rachel’s family kinda faded into the background, especially in the middle books. there are obviously hashtag ramifications, like how Jake would be VERY different in a world where Tom was still fine, but what i ended up writing was something like: weekly dinners with Cassie’s parents, because Cassie told them that Rachel and Jordan and Sara were ~having a hard time. Rachel gives up gymnastics much earlier and has to tell everyone, insisting that it’s the smart thing to do, because she has no time for it anymore, and she’s too tall to have a future in it no matter what her dad keeps telling her. she and Marco have an even weirder intimate-but-hedgehog’s-dilemma thing.

five times Robyn bailed Winter out and also it’s Star Wars: inspired by this fic but also this post. Raven and Winter are two people who are JUST different and JUST similar enough to each other in canon that they would not be able to fucking stand each other, so obviously my brain went “what if Winter and Qrow were the Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to Raven’s Anakin” and then it just went...off the rails from there. the roles OBVIOUSLY don’t fit perfectly, but that’s what makes an AU interesting. Winter is the Perfect Post-Ruusan Jedi, which means she is utterly insufferable; she and Raven clash literally all the time but (Winter thought) have a respectful intimate relationship because of that. Robyn and the Happy Huntresses i envisioned as being highkey Corellian, mostly trying to help the little people during the War. the first time Robyn bails Winter out is the first time they meet, early during the Clone Wars and it’s just. none sexual tension with left belligerence, because the Jedi were doing some benign colonizing bullshit, Robyn only ends up rescuing them because she owes Qrow a favor. the rest carry us through Order 66 and the Rebellion years, as Winter struggles (mostly fails) to figure out what it means to be a Good Jedi in a world where there are no more Jedi (she tries to train Yang at one point and it is. a mess, because they’re both jealous of each other for the ways Raven abandoned them), and Robyn...ends up building the New Republic out of her bare hands. my middle school self who obsessively thought about Old Republic Jedi and lightsaber forms comes out to play

[fyeahbatcat]

Just finished Batman: Hush the animated movie. What are your thoughts on it?

Alright, everyone. Here we go:

Batman: Hush Movie Full review

To begin, as I’ve stated here previously, Batman: Hush is a very important story to me. It was the first Batman comic that I ever read many years ago. In the sixteen years since its original publication it has undergone at least nine different editions and is still one of the most recommended and critically praised Batman stories of the modern era. It was the starting point for many people in the Batman fandom, and I still believe that it is the most pinnacle story regarding Batman and Catwoman’s relationship. The fact that it’s still so influential, nearly twenty years later, in indicative of its importance and merit.

When DC Comics announced last summer that they were officially making Hush into an animated movie I was happy, but I cannot say that I was excited. This was due to unrelated factors that were happening simultaneous to its announcement that obliterated my faith in DC Comics as a whole. You can imagine my dismay when I learned that instead of creating a direct adaptation, in the same vein as Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Year One, they would be changing the story to fit in with their current New 52 inspired animated universe.

As anyone whose been following me for a while may have observed; I’m highly critical. I can usually find the good and bad in something and when I’m giving my take on things from my perspective it’s pretty fair and balanced. I was fully aware that the Hush movie made changes to the story and knew going in that I would have to temper my expectations, but I still gave it a chance.

Many will say that the film should be viewed on its own merit, and I generally tend to agree. If not held up to the book the movie is watchable and very easy to enjoy. But it’s an adaptation. An adaptation of one of the best and most popular Batman stories of all time. An ambitious and operatic year long event from Jeph Loeb, and one that I personally hold in the highest regards. Completely divorcing the movie from its source material is unfeasible.

With that said; as I review this movie I will be critiquing as loosely inspiredimagination of the Batman: Hush comic, and only making comparisons to demonstrate potential compromises of the story or the characters.

***Obvious spoilers ahead***

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

After many years of begging, pleading, rumors, and teasing the Batman: Hush animated film was finally released during SDCC weekend. The basic plot remained intact: a mysterious new villain named Hush targets Batman’s crime fighting career as well as his personal life, which is further complicated by his burgeoning romance with Catwoman. While making concessions that range from minor to pivotal the movie manages to be different while maintaining a degree of familiarity. All the most iconic scenes are there in one aspect or another, with only one notable exception; the Jason Todd graveyard scene.

There’s not much to say about the general plot. It for the most part, stays true to the essence of the story, while being different in execution. Most changes were traversable, while others were pointless and baffling. The first questionable change occurs early in the movie, when Catwoman delivers the stolen money to Poison Ivy; Ivy kisses Catwoman, which she does not reciprocate. In the original script for the book, I believe, that Ivy did kiss Catwoman, but Jeph Loeb was told by editorial to remove it, because it was “too much.”

It was clear in the comic book that Ivy was using her powers to mind-control Catwoman. In that context kissing her would have made more sense. In the movie the extent of her influence over Catwoman is unclear. It appears that she is blackmailing Catwoman. Catwoman’s coldness and irritation afterwards implies that she has maintained some degree of self-awareness. Her use of coercion rather than force renders the kiss pointless, and its intention to merely be salacious.

Other needless changes involve swapping out characters. Bane, for some reason, has taken the place of Killer Croc. Damian Wayne has taken the place of Tim Drake, and Amanda Waller makes a token appearance, but both proceed to only have one scene.

As Rick Austin from FortressofSolitude put it:

Some changes to the original story are surface-level questionable, making you wonder why they changed them at all – like substituting Killer Croc for Bane, for instance. Presumably it was done for recognition and name value, and barely has any relevance to the story. Huntress is replaced by Batgirl, probably for the similar reasons, but that’s more important and naturally means Oracle’s role in the story is gone. Slowly but surely, the small tweaks begin to have a big knock-on effect. Important lines of dialogue have been jettisoned, some elements have been removed and some characters replace others just to make this fit with other recent DC animated films.

The movie takes a more action/adventure route rather than a character driven mystery, chugging along at breakneck pace making several plot concessions along the way. What it does manage to improve from the book, as far as a Batman and Catwoman shipper can see, is it beefs up Batman and Catwoman’s ill-fated romance, by way of a montage depicting adorable, if at times out-of-character, domesticity that even involves matching his and hers robes. Its inclusion was more fan-servicey than plot driven, but the ship isn’t doing well right now so I’m not about to complain about that.

What I will complain about isn’t what was added to the romance, but what was excluded from it. The film cuts out all the most important scenes that demonstrate why the dynamics of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship works for them. Yes, we get the rooftop kiss that has graced a thousand screensavers and Batman ultimately making the decision to reveal his identity to Catwoman, but everything in service of Catwoman’s perspective are removed entirely.

The scene from the book when Catwoman admonishes Batman for saving her instead of going after the Joker after she is shot at the opera, is changed to Catwoman merely telling Batman to go after Harley Quinn.

If you ever choose to rescue…me again over catching the bad guy…I swear I’ll scratch your eyes out. I’m not some kid you took in and trained.

This scene is important because this is where Catwoman affirms how she sees herself in this relationship: she is Batman’s equal and she expects– demands– that he treat her as such. These changes seem benign at first, until it becomes clear later why they were made. More on that in a bit.

The original script for Hush also included a tasteful post-coital scene that was ultimately cut by editorial. The scene makes its way back into the movie in lieu of some of the more emotionally intimate moments, like Selina dialoguing with Alfred in the bat-cave. The dialogue also fails to compensate for this. Batman and Catwoman’s pillow talk topic include how Batman used to think Catwoman was a kleptomaniac.

“You were beautiful, intelligent, and brilliant,” he tells her. “I assumed if you were stealing it was because you couldn’t control it.” I see this come up in fandom every now and again, and Catwoman cannot be a kleptomaniac because kleptomania is an impulse control disorder. Catwoman steals for profit and executes elaborate premeditated heists. I can see why other people would make that mistake, but the world’s greatest detective should have more cognizance.

Most of the changes to film are surface-level and trivial, but where the movie majorly fails is when they attempt to fix things that weren’t broken to begin with.

The most major change doesn’t occur until the final act of the movie when it is revealed that Hush is actually the Riddler. At first, I thought this was a misdirect, but no. The Riddler is really Hush and Tommy Elliot was just a plot device, and he is really dead. Like in the book, Riddler gained knowledge of Batman’s identity while in the Lazarus Pit, and decides to take revenge by going after Bruce Wayne’s friends and loved ones.

This change is nonsensical and renders Tommy Elliot’s role in the movie essential meaningless. He is a mere plot device, a shamefully underdeveloped plot device, intended to provide Batman with angst. Villains targeting Batman’s loved ones is all too familiar occurrence, but audiences barely get to know Tommy long enough understand the depths of Batman’s grief and mourning.

As I’m sure all of you are aware at this point that in the book it is revealed that Hush is Tommy Elliot. Substituting Tommy for Riddler diminishes the impact of the reveal and Hush’s motivations. Tommy, Bruce’s close childhood friend, has a personal vendetta against Bruce. He uses his friendship, familiarity, and access to Bruce Wayne to attack him both personally and as Batman. It also complicates Batman’s relationship with Hush as a villain. The Riddler being Hush is just a theatrical Gotham villain pretending to be a different theatrical Gotham villain for no reason whatsoever.  

Towards the end of the movie Riddler kidnaps Catwoman and tries to kill her in an elaborate trap. Since Bruce was damseled early in the movie, I didn’t so much mind that they did the same to Catwoman. I like that Batman and Catwoman can depend on each other, and it demonstrates a degree of equality in their relationship. However, while Batman was only incidentally damseled for maybe 60 seconds, Catwoman was subtly threatened with rape for intervening on his behalf and later got the full-on woman-tied-to-railroad-tracks-treatment. Predictably Batman shows up and saves the day.

THE UGLY

Batman: Hush made several missteps that I was willing to overlook, and almost got through its entire 82-minute run time before doing the only thing that I considered truly egregious.

After the ensuing fight the building begins to collapse and Catwoman leaves Riddler to die, after Batman attempts to save him. Batman argues that they could’ve saved Riddler instead of letting him die. Catwoman becomes angry. “You’re crazy! You’re absolutely insane,” she exclaims melodramatically. Batman and Catwoman decide that their moral differences are too stark and break up, but leave the door open for the future.

This is where the movie took an unexpected turn for the worse. This is where the reason why so many changes to Catwoman’s character becomes clear.

Batman goes out as the voice of morality and looks like the hero, and Catwoman is completely thrown under the bus to make it happen.

Early in the movie during the famous battle of Metropolis when Superman is under the influence of Poison Ivy, Catwoman throws Lois Lane off a building to snap him out of the spell. Later when Superman is out of earshot Batman tells Catwoman that throwing Lois off the building was not part of the plan and that he did not approve of her methods. In the book it was Batman’s idea to throw Lois from the building. This moment frequently makes appearances on Worst-Things-Batman-Has-Ever-Done lists on comic sites.

During the opera scene Catwoman attempting to stop Batman from killing the Joker in a fit of rage was also cut. Here it was Batman who was acting morally questionable, and Catwoman was the reasonable and morally righteous one, so to speak.

These, along with Catwoman allowing Riddler to die, are intended to make Catwoman seem like she has a cursory attitude towards killing, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. All of this inevitably shifts all the blame for the relationship not working out on Catwoman. Catwoman’s flaws are irreconcilable while Batman is the blameless voice of reason. This is abominable at best, and sexist at worst.  

The book ends similarly and yet profoundly different. Upon the announcement of the film some people were hoping for the ending to be changed to something presumably happier for Bruce and Selina. In the book Batman and Catwoman break up, but under much different circumstances.

I personally feel that the ending to the original was appropriate for the story. Batman sabotages their relationship pushes Catwoman away because he realized was not ready for the vulnerability required in that type of relationship, It ends  on a bittersweet note. Batman and Catwoman can have a relationship “someday.” All they need is a little more time, and it’s Batman who need to be a little bit different.

Even as things end Loeb simply and perfectly sums up why Batman and Catwoman work:

We are who we are. That’s why this works.

The film makes fundamental differences, that can only be remedied by Catwoman changing herself, are the root of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship dysfunction.

The changes to Catwoman’s character occur only to justify the ending. The filmmakers went to great lengths to villainize Catwoman to make it seem like it was all her personal shortcomings that ended things instead of Batman’s to make him seem more heroic. It relegates Batman and Catwoman’s relationship  to a tool to demonstrate Batman’s inflexible moral code.

To add insult to injury, as Batman and Catwoman’s relationship comes to an end, Selina tells Bruce bitterly that she changed herself to be with him and was willing to continue changing. This robs Selina the agency of having reformed on her own, in a film that has already diminished much of her voice and independence.

It’s almost laughable that Selina once told Huntress that reforming was worthwhile, “as long as you’re doing it for yourself, and not for what someone else thinks of you,” in the same book the movie was based on.

Some dude (and it’s a dude; I checked) read the book, saw this panel, then decided to have her say literally the opposite. I wish I was making this up.

On its own the Batman: Hush movie is watchable. The casual viewer and batcat shippers alike can easily find something to enjoy. But watchable is a low bar to pass when based on one of the most popular Batman stories of our era. What should have been an exceptionally easy recipe for success did not exceed the bare minimum. It’s drab, bland, and dark animation style does not hold up to Jim Lee’s iconic penciling or Scott Williams’ colorful fills. The changes to the story are generally acceptable, until the final act of the movie when things go off the rails.

Ultimately the movie exceptionally fails at capturing the dynamics of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship, trading in much of the depth and intimacy for shower sex and pet names. On its own Batman: Hush stands as a mindlessly entertaining adaptation, loosely inspired by a Batman story of mystery and intrigue. Held up to the source material, it’s a pale and grotesque imitation.  

[odaofiga]

an Oda of Iga, continued

Genre: Fluff, AU Characters: Nobunaga, Mitsuhide Word Count: 1,251 A/N: I really didn’t want to post this, part two, without the third portion of the chapter, but some difficulty with dialogue is holding it up. As it doesn’t contribute much to the plot, I may just scrap part 3 if I can’t figure it out by week’s end. As for Chapter 2, I’d like to get a few pieces up explaining Ai’s backstory before moving on to her time in Kai so expect an origin story next.

Chapter 1, Part 2

A soft ‘hmph’ of dissatisfaction curling his lip, Lord Nobunaga flung the offending letter toward the pair of retainers in his doorway. With a deft hand, Ai caught the parchment before it could touch the floor and help it open between her forefinger and thumb. Even as she angled it to catch the fire light enough to read the short skrawl within, her brother saved her the effort of deciphering its origins.

“...the puppet continues to buck his strings,” he hissed with contempt.

Ai’s gaze lingered on the brasen red of the shogun’s seal in the letter’s corner, leaving no doubt to its authenticity. At its head, bold, brush strokes left the identity of the recipient just as clear; Takeda Shingen, and the candid passage in between held a familiar, sequential air.  It was no wonder then that Nobunaga sat clicking his tongue with such obvious irritation. This was further proof Yoshiaki was attempting to rally his benefactor’s enemies against him. Though his secret correspondence with Uesugi and Mori was suspected as well, it seemed the tiger of Kai, at least, had an willing ear.

Mitsuhide had slid the door firmly closed behind them and now took the letter solemnly as Ai offered it. He read it just as quickly as she had, a troubled look tightening his brow, but before he could voice whatever thoughts he might have had, Nobunaga spoke again. A decision had evidently been made before they had even arrived.

“Mitsuhide, gather my retainers,” he commanded.

Mistuhide hesitated, having just bent a knee to kneel. “Milord?”

“We move for Sakamoto by weeks end.” With his intentions made clear, Lord Nobunaga’s eyes moved firmly to Ai and missed the slight blanch that appeared on his chief retainer’s cheeks. Ai, on the other hand, was close enough to hear the breath catch on his lips and flicked her gaze to him expectantly, knowing a rare rebuttal was sure to follow.

“Milord… would it not be more prudent, with the threat from Kai, to wait-”

“I will deal with the tiger,” Nobunaga’s growled, his response was immediate and harsh. “I will not allow the shogun the time to incite my enemies further. The rebellion is rooted in Mt. Hiei and it will end there. Now go.”

The fierce conviction in his words and the sudden darkness in his eyes left no room for further comment. With another low bow and leaving the letter on the tatami mat before him, Lord Mitsuhide took his leave. Tension was still evident in his shoulders as he pulled the door to in his wake.

“Ai.”

Her name, spoken in such soft contrast to his harsh words before, brought her attention back to her brother. His gray eyes were still alight with conviction, but the fire was fading. He was looking at her with a reluctance that she rarely saw, and he seemed momentarily content to merely stare at her. She decided to break the silence instead, settling back into a comfortable kneel.

“Be careful, Brother,” she said softly, glancing meaningfully at the door. “Even Mitsuhide’s loyalty isn’t boundless. And he won’t be the only one reluctant to raze Enryakuji.”

Nobunaga gave a tolerant smile that he wasn’t likely to have shown anyone but family. Choosing to ignore her comments completely, he said instead, “I have a mission for you.”

“...regarding Mt. Hiei?”

He shook his head only once. “No. You won’t be accompanying us to Sakamoto.” When Ai cocked an eyebrow in quiet surprise, he continued. “I need you to deal with the tiger of Kai.”

A silence stretched between them as she let his weighty words hang in the air, staring evenly back at her brother. Infiltration was a common mission allocated to Ai, her upbringing making her particularly suited to the task. The finer mission details frequently included anything from benign reconnaissance to target elimination, in the provinces of allies and enemies alike. Nobunaga had sent her into territories much more perilous than Kai, with far slimmer odds of survival or success, and still… a mission assignment had never been accompanied by such a weighty look of concern from her liege lord. There was something far too ‘brotherly’ in the way his eyes surveyed her now, something very unlike him.

“...you want me to kill him?”

“Takeda’s movements are of more value to me than his life. For the moment.” Nobunaga took a moment withdraw a small glass bottle from within his robes, the familiar colorful star-candy visible inside. He shook a few into his hand and transferred them to his mouth, sucking on the sugary treat to steel himself for his next words. “Ingratiate yourself to the Takeda. The tiger… has a notorious appetite.”

Ai’s lips pressed into a firm line behind the mask as understanding took hold. It wasn’t to food that he was referring, she’d heard similar rumors herself, and suddenly his hesitancy made sense. Injury and death for a mission were expected, but this was the first time she’d been tasked with warming an enemy bed in order to further his path to divine rule. Ai took a moment longer to accept than she normally would have, lowering her eyes to the tatami mats once again.

“I understand,” she said. Then, with a half glance back up, “...and… the Lady Nō?”

Another span of silence lapsed as he considered, broken only by the brief rattle of sugar stars as the bottle was set down. The Nōhime in question was the Lady Oda, Nobunaga’s official wife; though the original woman to hold the title had not lived long enough to enjoy it. The daughter of a political ally at the time, the bride to be, Lady Nō, had proven little more than a well-dressed assassin and paid with her life for it, by Ai’s own blade in fact. To avoid an untimely conflict, her crime, and her execution, had been concealed, and her public role supplemented by the only trustworthy substitute at the time; Ai. Though it had never been intended as a lasting role, the permanently-filled position of a Lady Oda had proven too beneficial to ignore; whether in deterring the odd marriage proposal or in having a ready-made, and potentially lethal, hostage to offer. So whenever ceremony demanded his wife’s attendance, Ai continued to fill the Lady Oda’s lavish robes. But if this mission was to be an extended one, her absence would need to be explained.

“Tomorrow...Nōhime will be moved to Kiyosu, to excuse her absence. You have until then to make preparations.” His words had returned to a clipped manner, but a lingering rasp in his tone made her sure his hesitancy wasn’t as easily forgotten as he wanted her to believe. Nevertheless, he presented a stout posture as he rose to his feet and gestured for her to do the same. Together they moved to the door, and Ai opened it for him, eyes appropriately lowered as he passed through.

“I will send word once I arrive.”

Only a slight lift in his jaw gave any indication he’d heard as Lord Nobunaga strode away toward the main hall. Despite the clear dismissal and the ready-made excuse not to attend the war council, she had the urge to join him and found herself lingering in the hall, eyes locked on his scarlet cloak long after it had disappeared from sight. In truth, she was far more concerned with his safety in the coming assault of Mt. Hiei than she was with her own.

[rametarin]

Casual overuse of the term, ‘fascist.’

To properly explain what I mean, so people don’t sprout bambi eyes and go, “Oh, whatever do you mean? We only hate fascists. Isn’t hating fascism the good, logical, right thing?” and then adamantly refuse to see reason, in bad faith;

All I need to do is parallel the usage of such terms to another completely benign, harmless, perfectly viable and normal term in the English language. The word: Degenerate. And how words can be taken, appropriated, given their own inflection by the shared culture and philosophy of the people using them to impress that view on the mainstream.

We both know that terms can be loaded and have their own in-group association, inflection and significance, and we both know that when certain people, or people with certain mentalities and shared group beliefs use these terms, they are NOT just using the generic, general meanings of the term.

We both know when members of the alt-right, or similar ethnosupremacists, or “traditionalists,” or any of a multitude of ways these particular people share the same beliefs about A.) sexual and cultural purity B.) Pluralism in a region, usually to nation C.) obligate and culturally specified and reinforced rules for roles among males and females, the word, “degenerate” usually means someone that is bad for falling outside this view of how things are, “supposed to work.” According to them. And often the same sort of person that wonks and moans about “degeneracy” believes the root of it eating away at [area of the globe and society here, usually the west], is an anti-semitic oriented conspiracy theory about the Jews sewing discordant and deviant sexuality just to break up non-Jewish cultural strongholds by enabling depravity.

So the word and phrase, “degenerate” stops meaning just a sexual deviant and an asshole, and starts meaning something else, entirely.

And similarly, the sorts of people that liberally throw around the term, “fascist.” That sort of profile of the bat swinging, black and red done up “anti-fascist.” Or rather, the pro-communist and/or socialist (depending on how quibbly they feel like. ‘Syndicalist’ if they’re feeling particularly quibbly) running around screaming about how everything that is not moving towards, “proper social justice” is just religious ethnocentric fascism and patriarchy. Everything that is not proactive movement towards their goals, objectives and beliefs is fascism or enabled fascism.

It serves the same in-group galvanizing purpose as running around calling people degenerates, or sinners, or any kind of snappy in-crowd term that means, “other people bad for not living how we see as correct because ideology.”

And the effect of that shallow, manipulative “gotcha” where if you disagree with them, you find yourself on the backfoot and trying to argue, according to them, that being, “pro-fascist” is the correct path. Because they’re anti-fascist, therefore if you oppose them, you must be pro-fascist. Right? The same kind of shitty logic that goes into, “if you aren’t for God, you’re just promoting Satanism and enabling ungodly behavior.”

Unless someone is actually and actively calling themselves a fascist on the basis of fascism, I cannot take people that use the term fascist seriously. No more than I would ever agree that someone whom happens to be gay and obnoxious is a “degenerate” with someone that reveals themselves to be alt-right, because they use these neutral terms with an in-house, charged defintion that all homosexuals are perverts and wrong. So casually throwing around the term, ‘fascist’, or any other colorful pattern of substitition (like substituting comrade with, ‘bestie’) sends up red flags of exactly what I’m dealing with.

Unfortunately these people view themselves to be clever, and not just manipulative and disingenuous liars, so undoubtedly if people start voicing irritation about their overuse of fascist, they’ll start moaning about how people are, “becoming warm to the idea of fascism in SOCIETY,” and trying to find new words that have the same charge and demand the same logical conclusions. That anything that isn’t radical sexual revolution is cisheteronormic fascism, anything that isn’t class struggle theorist rooted feminism is male chauvinism, and anything that isn’t anti-white, pro-black and brownness is racism and white supremacism.

[lindoig8]

Wednesday-Friday, 15-17 September

I mentioned going to dinner at the Beach Club when we arrived in Onslow last Sunday and the fact that Heather had seen an advertisement on the drink coasters. It was for a regular 3-day excursion to the Mackerel Islands that we had never heard about. It sounded interesting so we did some research and got very enthusiastic about going there. After quite a bit of reorganisation, we booked and are now going out there next week. Not sure if there are any Mackerel Islands, but we will be on Thevenard Island, one of about 8 in the group. We suspect that Mackerel Islands is just a trading name used by the company that leases at least some of them.

The ferry leaves from Onslow, but we have a few days in Exmouth before that so will come back to Onslow for a couple more days and leave our van connected to power in the van park here while we are out on the island. We have become quite excited about it and it is probably the final straw that will see us cancel our proposed Ningaloo expedition next year. This will probably substitute for it and we may even visit the Abrolhos Islands next month as well - we are still looking at other options too.

We were anticipating a long drive today (actually only 420 kilometres so not really huge) so we planned to get away a little early - but with one thing and another, it was after 11 am before we started out and we needed to get some fuel. That turned out to be cheaper than expected because I think someone else paid our bill and we paid theirs. We bought 111 litres but only got billed for 106. I suspect the woman taking our money had billed the guy ahead of us for our fuel and we got his slightly smaller bill. We drew it to the woman’s attention, but she said she couldn’t change it so we got almost $10 of fuel for nothing.

Then it was basically a long hot drive east, back to the highway at Nanutarra, south past Yannarie, west to Bullara, north to Exmouth and back south-west to Yardie Creek where we are camped. It was basically a big (square) circle to bring us back to only 106 kilometres as the crow/raven flies from where we started.

Thursday

It was a very wild night with extremely strong winds and I had to get up at 3 am to roll in the awning. The wind kept up until early afternoon, but surprisingly, it didn’t seem to make a huge difference to the sea – it still seemed rather benign despite the gale blowing.

There are quite a few places between Yardie Creek Station and Exmouth where you can access the beach so we explored most of them on our way back to Exmouth. One of the first we called in at was Bauden beach - probably the most interesting one. There was some beach there, but there was a broad fringe of rocks and we spent some time exploring them. The tide was coming in so we eventually had to retreat, but the rocks had an interesting array of shells, corals and other rocks embedded in them – actually now part of the rock itself. There were other intricate imprints of elaborate sponges and other marine creatures on the surface of the rocks, but how the rocks had captured the shells and other items and grown around them was quite a puzzle. They were obviously not ancient fossils: rather they seemed to be quite recent developments – probably in years rather than centuries ago.

We called in at quite a few of the other beaches, but none were as interesting. The whole coastline is called the Jurabi Coast after the three species of turtles that nest there – and we were only a week or two early or we probably could have seen them. There is a turtle display at one place and we walked in to see it – but we explored this area pretty well 4 years ago so were more interested in the few birds and interesting flowers than the turtles this time.

We drove up to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse that affords fantastic views across the ocean and back to Exmouth – probably at least 300 degrees. We ate our lunch there and reread many of the interpretive signs there – about turtles, World War II, the North-West Cape Communication site and other items of possible interest. Last time we were there, we saw dozens of whales a long way out to sea (you can see for many miles so high up on the headland) but this time, we didn’t see any.

We drove out to the wreck of the Mildura, quite a lot of which is still visible and quite close to land. That was interesting and one thing we read was that it has the distinction of having been fired on more times than any other ship in history – although there was not a lot of detail about that. For me though, it was also interesting in that I saw 4 more bird species on the beach to add to our trip-list.

We ended up in Exmouth town (about 40 kilometres from Yardie Homestead) where we bought a few groceries (there are two IGA supermarkets almost immediately opposite each other across a narrow mall – odd that they are competing so close together) and we took our purchases back to the car. It was very hot and I had seen a craft brewery a little further along the mall so we left our groceries to cook in the car while we enjoyed a very cold drink at the bar. The beer didn’t have a lot to recommend it apart from being icy cold, but Heather had a cider that really was nice.

Friday

It was very windy again and I had to wind the awning in at 2 am. Getting up to do this disturbs my sleep, but it is still preferable to laying awake waiting for the next gust to crash the frame into the bracket on the van or flap the canvas loud enough to wake people 4 or 5 caravans away.

We decided to do something similar to yesterday’s explorations, but in a southerly direction today. Before we started though, we drove a little way north to where there were a couple of tracks towards the hills (away from the ocean). We drove in on a very narrow winding track that just got worse and worse until we could see ahead to more than half a continuous kilometre of very rough rocks that really didn’t warrant the risk. Next trick was to find a place to turn around – I think it was a 9-point turn before we were eventually heading back to the main road.

We turned south and paid our entry fee and drove into the National Park and checked out a few of the ocean access points as we ventured 50 or more kilometres, but nothing really appealed to us. They were all essentially surfing spots with the carparks crammed with free-campers and surfers’ utes and wagons. We got out and looked at the beach a couple of times, but long sandy stretches with nothing to see just don’t excite us. We did find one track that headed away from the beach into a gorge and ate our lunch before exploring the area further. I then found a sign that persuaded us not to attempt to go into the gorge itself. I can’t recall the exact details, but it warned of steep rocky climbs with a high degree of difficulty and I think it was about an 8 kilometre trek taking 4 to 5 hours – definitely not something we wanted to tackle in close to 40 degree temperatures.

We eventually drove back to Exmouth to check out where we had to go tomorrow (more on that later) and found a sign to Pebble Beach on the outskirts. We drove in there and the whole beach is composed of small, white rounded stones, interspersed with patches of sand that runs for at least a few kilometres in both directions. We drove several kilometres along the beach and it was quite fascinating. We arrived at a place where the track became very sandy and there was an area of water just inland from the track. It really isn’t a formed track – just an whole series of wheel-tracks showing where previous drivers had felt offered the safest way through – and we didn’t think it likely that the next corner would offer anything more interesting so we turned back again. We added one more species to our bird list along the way – a Crested Tern, not uncommon, but surprisingly, the first we had seen since leaving home.

Driving back through Exmouth, we saw a Caravan Shop and called in and made a couple of small purchases – the main one being a new door handle assembly that we have been looking for during the past couple of weeks. I also got a little tutorial on how to replace it so that is scheduled to be a priority once we return to Onslow after our Island adventure.

The first thing I did when we got back to the caravan was to roll in the awning. I definitely didn’t want to get up in the middle of the night to do that! Needless to say, it was a wonderfully calm night with hardly a breath of wind from dusk to dawn and after.

[phantom-le6]

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 5 (6 of 6)

As we continue our run of episode reviews for Star Trek: The Next Generation, we now come to the last two episodes of season 5, beginning with the wide-acclaimed episode “The Inner Light.”

Episode 25: The Inner Light

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise finishes a magnetic wave survey of the Parvenium system and finds an unknown probe. The device rapidly scans the ship and directs an energy beam at Captain Picard, who collapses on the bridge and then wakes up to find himself on Kataan, a non-Federation planet. His wife, Eline, tells Picard that he is Kamin, an iron weaver recovering from a fever. Picard speaks of his life on the Enterprise but Eline and their close friend Batai try to convince Picard that his memories were only fever dreams and incorporate him into their society as Kamin. Picard begins living his life as Kamin in his village, Ressik, having children with Eline and learning to play the flute. Kamin spends much time outdoors and with his Dobsonian telescope studying nature. As years pass for him, he begins to notice that the drought is caused by increased radiation from the planet's sun. He sends reports to the planet's leaders, who seem to ignore his concerns.

 On Enterprise, the crew continues attempts to revive Picard. They try to block the influence of the probe but Picard nearly dies, so they are forced to let it continue. They trace the probe's trajectory to a system whose sun went nova 1,000 years before, rendering life extinct in the system. Years pass and Kamin outlives Eline and Batai. Kamin and his daughter Meribor continue their study of the drought. They find that it is not temporary; the extinction of life on the planet is inevitable. Kamin confronts a government official who privately admits to him that they already know this but keep it secret to avoid panic. The official gravely points out to Kamin that they have only recently launched artificial satellites using primitive rockets: their race simply does not possess the technology to evacuate people before their planet is rendered uninhabitable.

 One day, while playing with his grandson, Kamin is summoned by his adult children to watch the launch of a rocket, which everyone seems to know about except him. As he walks outside into the glaring nova light, Kamin sees Eline and Batai, as young as when he first saw them. They explain that he has already seen the rocket, just before he came there. Knowing that their planet was doomed, the planet's leaders placed memories of their society into a probe and launched it into space, in the hope that it would find someone who could tell others about their species. Picard realizes the context: "Oh, it's me, isn't it?", he says, "I'm the someone... I'm the one it finds", realizing that Kamin was the avatar they chose to represent their race.

 Picard wakes up on the bridge of the Enterprise to discover that while he perceived many decades to have transpired, only 25 minutes have passed. The probe terminates and is brought aboard the Enterprise. Inside, the crew finds a small box. A somber Riker gives the box to Picard, who opens it to find Kamin's flute. Picard, now adept at the instrument, plays a melody he learned during his life as Kamin.

Review:

Apparently, this episode was created by combining two ideas.  The first was Michael Piller wanting to do an episode where Picard lives a life he never really lived at all, and the second came from freelance writer Morgan Gendel wanting to do a story about Picard and Riker getting memories of a war beamed into their head in an anti-war story.  After multiple re-writes, the two ideas end up combined in this episode, and yet both also later appear in other episodes within Trek.  Picard ends up experiencing another life unlived in the episode ‘Tapestry’ in season 6 and within the Nexus during the film Star Trek: Generations, while the anti-war story would later be the centre of a Star Trek: Voyager episode.

 Until I saw the episode synopsis on Wikipedia, I for one thought the memory dump concept was somehow not quite realised properly; I thought it would make more sense for Kamin’s memories to be dumped verbatim into Picard and he’d just play along with them right from the start of the alternate life.  However, in actuality he’s not really getting a simple memory dump; rather, he’s living a kind of virtual reality simulation based on the collective memories of an alien world.  As such, the issue then becomes why isn’t that explained more explicitly, and how did they manage that technical feat when they were barely getting rockets up into space?  Basically, the containing premise for Piller’s idea sadly has a few technical flaws that slightly spoil the overall experience.

 That all being said, this is a great episode, especially in-so-far-as it never tries to get the audience to buy into Picard’s virtual life being any kind of substitute for reality.  There’s another TNG episode in one of the remaining seasons, and an episode of the Batman animated series from the same era that TNG was being made in, where the show seems to be trying to get us to buy into the idea that the reality of the show isn’t reality.  Frankly, I hate episodes like that; once a show establishes what its reality is, that has to remain constant or I get very angry and lose interest.  Reality is reality in all things, and while we might all perceive it differently, its most basic laws are immutable.  Our sun, for example, always exists until such time as it may burn out; the coming and going of night time or clouds cannot alter this. A kettle will always boil water after a set period of time according to its design and will only truly take longer when its components start to fail; whether it is watched or not will only make it seem like it takes longer; it will not actually take longer.

 Because the episode doesn’t ask us to buy into Picard’s alternate life ourselves, we can actually sit back and enjoy it, and it is an enjoyable episode in that Patrick Stewart delivers a great performance as Picard, and he is actually joined by his real-life son Daniel Stewart in this episode.  It’s very much a character piece, though, so don’t go expecting any kind of issue exploration.  The closest we get to that is inadvertent parallels between the on-going cover-up by the officials in Kaman’s life around the impending super-nova and how many people in real life react to the concept of climate change.  However, that matters even less when you also consider that the experience does change Picard somewhat, and it’s good to see Next Generation create something that can be called back to.  Even by the time of this episode, overarching continuity was something the show was reluctant to do, though the Deep Space Nine and Voyager spin-off shows would compensate for this.

 So overall, we have a great episode that for me almost manages to hit a top score, but falls just short through the technical flaws of the memory dump, though not by much.  My end score for this episode is 9 out of 10.

Episode 26: Time’s Arrow (Part 1)

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise is recalled to Earth on a priority mission regarding evidence of aliens on the planet 500 years before. They are shown a cavern near Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco containing 19th century relics, and the disembodied head of Data. Investigation reveals cellular fossils native to the planet of Devidia II, indicating a race of shapeshifters were visiting Earth's past. The Enterprise leaves for the planet, taking Data's second head. Upon arrival they discover a temporal disturbance on the planet. Though no life forms are visible, Deanna Troi senses the presence of suffering humans. The crew determine that the aliens are slightly out of temporal phase with them. Data notes that his android body has a phase discriminator that would allow him to see the aliens. Captain Picard reluctantly allows him to join the away team. Data establishes a means of communicating what he sees to the rest of the crew while in temporal sync with the aliens. Once in phase with the aliens, Data describes them as absorbing strands of light from a device in the centre of the cavern, appearing otherwise benign. He describes two aliens entering a time portal, that he is drawn into. Data finds himself on Earth in San Francisco on August 11, 1893.

 Data realizes he needs money to accomplish his goals. He wins a sizable amount beating card sharks at their own game in poker. Data takes up residence in a local hotel, befriending the bellhop (future author Jack London). Data claims to be a French inventor. He enlists London to acquire 19th century supplies under the pretense of building an automobile engine, when in fact Data is building a detector to find the aliens. Data sees a photo of Guinan, the bartender from the Enterprise, in a newspaper photo. He goes to a reception she will be attending, believing she also came back in time from the future. Data interrupts her speaking with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), speaking to her as if she is from the 24th century, which spark's Clemens' curiosity. Speaking privately, it becomes clear to Data that Guinan is native to 1893 and has yet to meet the Enterprise crew. Clemens is discovered eavesdropping on this conversation, and he becomes determined to discover the truth behind Data and Guinan.

 Meanwhile in the 24th century, the Enterprise crew has determined how to build a similar phase discriminator to Data's. This will allow them to see the aliens, and go back in time to rescue Data. Guinan convinces Picard to join the pending away mission, warning that otherwise Picard and Guinan will have never met at all. The away team activates the phase discriminator and see the aliens as Data described. The strands of light are human life forces, taken at the moment of death. The away team uses the time portal to travel back to investigate further and to hopefully find and save Data as well.

Review:

There’s not much to this episode; basically, TNG was trying to make sure that they ended on a cliff-hanger in order to quash rumours generated by the start-up of the DS9 spin-off series that Picard and his crew were on the way out.  Now in some respects, there’s a lot of elements that certainly drum up interest. You’ve got the idea of Data going back in time to late 19th century Earth and potentially dying, an encounter with a past Guinan that present-day Guinan suggests is pivotal to her mysterious acquaintance with Picard, random time-travelling aliens and the curious ramifications of having Mark Twain thrown into the mix.  The problem, however, is that beyond this there’s not much really going on.  There’s not much character development and no issue exploration, creating a cliff-hanger that is more about plot than these other things.  Granted, that’s a change of pace, but it’s not the stuff of great Trek. Hopefully part 2 compensates for this. Overall, I’d give this episode 7 out of 10.

[a-magpie-witchling]

Benign Blood Magick

Disclaimer: Artwork belongs to their respective owners.

Trigger warnings: blood (duh), needles and cutting, mentions of suicide (anti-suicide message) and violence, cancer, blood diseases, etc.

Blood Magick is evil, right? It’s one of THE grand taboos for witches that don’t consider themselves Bad Witches ©

You’re wrong.

In fact, you’re not only wrong, but you are missing out on some of THE most benign and altruist spells you could perform that will up your karmic balance several notches (see number 3 below). I don’t really believe in karma but point stands because it’s always good to help a stranger.

I hardly think there are many ways to be a gooder (? witch than through blood magick.

Plus look at that, being a blood mage is freaking badass

Let’s quickly clarify a few things before we start:

Blood magick consists, basically, of any sort of esoteric practice that involves your own blood or someone else’s.

If you come to shame blood mages here I WILL curse you with constipation or diarrhea and you won’t know which until it happens.

I don’t condone nor encourage cutting. If you’re depressed, suicidal, or addicted to self harm, please find professional help. I’ve been there. Trust me, you can get better.

Working with blood is DANGEROUS. Dried blood is AS DANGEROUS AS FRESH BLOOD. ALWAYS TREAT IT AS IF IT WAS INFECTED BLOOD EVEN IF IT’S YOUR OWN. USE YOUR FREAKING SAFETY EQUIPMENT AND STERILIZE YOUR SHIT, YOU DUMB AVOCADOS.

You can’t use your blood to represent another. It WON’T work no matter how much you try it. The only exception is your blood related direct family and here it’s quite the poor substitute. Although, spoiler alert, there’s a little exception to this rule. Your blood is, however, the most powerful representation of yourself you could use in any spell.

Blood cursing can fuck you up. Thread carefully and don’t mess with that shit if you’re a noob.

Blood willingly given is very different from blood forcefully taken. Don’t EVER try to involve robbed blood in spells that go against the owner’s free will. It WILL screw you over in ways you can’t even fathom. Blood has ways to defend itself.

Same way, dead blood doesn’t behave the same as living blood. Thus why animal blood obtained from your local butcher tends to be less potent, although still effective.

If you kill an animal to take its blood and don’t thank its spirit and/or make the best out of the rest, I will curse you with something far more serious than diarrhea, trust me.

Never, NEVER, NEVER! try to take blood from anywhere but your lip or the tips of your fingers unless you’re trained to draw blood. You can (AND VERY PROBABLY WILL) bleed out if you screw up. I’m not even kidding, people, I have first aid training. The smallest cut in the wrong place or under the wrong circumstances can cost you your life. 

If you’re thinking of committing ritual suicide by slicing your wrists or otherwise bleeding out, please don’t. Really, please don’t. Your life and blood could be put to much better uses. Once more: seek professional help.

If you’re gonna be drawing blood, I highly recommend you don’t take aspirins or any other vasodilatings close to the time of your extraction or ritual. Also avoid doing blood rituals while menstruating or anemic. If you carry any blood diseases, make sure to dispose responsibly of the elements used in the spell or sterilize them thoroughly. Get checked up regularly.

Other witches will tell you blood can be used as any other ingredient/correspondence in a ritual, just like adding rosemary or cloves! Personally I don’t agree. The same way you carefully pick the right herbs, either at the store or growing them, you should be aware of the limitations of your blood. If you’ve been going through a passing ailment, your blood will be less powerful than it can actually be (like withering herbs instead of fresh ones or broken crystals instead of whole ones). This is a very open criteria, to make your blood more potent you can exercise, eat healthy, have sex, get an endorphins rush etc. Just remember you will be literally spilling your blood for this, better make it as strong as possible!

Now let’s begin

Blood magick is very versatile, as much as crystal magick or herbal magick, so it all depends on your intent and how you handle this powerful raw energy. I’m only going to cover BENIGN blood magick in a couple of ways I’ve seen haven’t been addressed much or at all by other witches, since there are tons of resources for blood mages, so we can skip most of the typical uses and focus on less heard stuff.

1) Blood magick without extracting blood

Yep. No, I’m not crazy. Well, actually I might be but this doesn’t invalidate my point.

You can perform blood magick without taking a single drop of blood from anyone’s body. And this is very good for benign blood mages.

There are basically three ways of doing this:

- Waiting for the blood to come out naturally (through a fateful cut that just happens, menstruation, etc.)

-Working with your own body heat. Holding crystals and warming them up is as good as bathing them in your blood, after all, that’s what’s making them warm!

- Working with the blood inside the body. This is SPECIALLY good for spells cast over ourselves or healing magick. Hand impositions, crystal healing, chakra alignment, whatever. ALWAYS take into consideration the blood flow and use it to transport energy across the body. It’s an inner river, make the best of it and never swim against it’s current or you could harm the person.

2) Blood magick and meditation

Sit in silence. Close your eyes. Breathe steadily and slowly.

Feel that?

Your body swaying back and forth almost imperceptibly?

That’s your beating heart. Your heart LITERALLY moves your body when you’re sitting still.

Focus on that, that’s YOUR rhythm, that’s your soul’s tempo.

Related to point 1. Your heartbeat can be one of the most powerful tools to aid meditation. USE IT.

3) EXTREMELY POWERFUL BLOOD BLESSINGS: TANGIBLY AND TRULY SAVING LIVES THROUGH BLOOD MAGICK

Now this is the reason I’m writing this post.

I’ve never in my life performed a spell for myself. All of my magical practices have been targeted to someone else. So I’ve got some experience in altruistic magick.

And guys…

BLESSED BLOOD DONATIONS.

I personally donate blood at least twice a year since I’m 0+ so my blood can benefit anyone no matter their blood type. It’s a little ritual my mom and I have. We’re also organ and tissue donation advocates and are registered as bone marrow donors in our local children’s hospital.

If you’re not sure about blood donation because the syringes freak you out, try platelet donation!

Platelets are mostly destined towards cancer patients on chemo. The needles are a LOT smaller than in regular blood donation, and the process can a while.

You know what you can do in the meanwhile if you’re not interested in the awesome movies they play?

MEDITATE. 

Meditate and let all your energy flow through you. Perform a strength and purification ritual before the donation, let it get to others through your gift of blood.

HEAL through it. If you’re a witch healer, PLEASE use your blood in this manner. Lives could depend on it, and it could be you, IT COULD AND WILL BE YOU, that makes the difference.

I always try to donate as often as possible, and platelets donation has become my preferred method because unlike regular blood donation that shouldn’t take place more than once or twice a year, PLATELETS CAN BE DONATED EVERY FOURTEEN DAYS AND CAN BE THE EQUIVALENT TO EIGHTEEN REGULAR BLOOD DONATIONS.

As I said, I’ve never performed witchcraft for myself, but don’t think I’m calling myself some martyr witch. I just don’t NEED to.

When I started donating blood and platelets for my local children’s hospital’s leukemia center, I was suddenly blessed with the BIGGEST streak of good luck you could possibly imagine and it has repeated without miss since I started when I turned 18. From finding $700 innocently lying on the floor to making new friends that would later end up changing and indirectly saving my life, I was just on a roll and it repeats without a miss after donating blood. It lasts for about a week after donating.

And I think this comes from the relief and gratitude of the people you’re helping.

I’m a big fan of charities for a similar reason. Your life WILL be blessed if you bless someone else’s.

So, bless others through your blood, which is the closest physical manifestation there is of your raw soul.

How to do this?

As I said before, strength and purification rituals before the donation are really helpful. Pro tip: carry the strength card in your wallet or pocket while you’re getting your blood extracted.

The night before as you begin your fast, draw sigils on your skin using lotion, water or other things. I DON’T RECOMMEND USING INK. Some inks -even non toxic- can be absorbed by the skin and transferred through blood to the other person and it is still debated if it could cause complications. (This is not the reason people with tattoos that are less than a year old can’t donate, this is to prevent crossed contamination).

I personally use this sigil:

“Good health and happiness”

You can also bless the water you drink (and, seriously, drink as much of the stuff as you can, it’ll make it easier for the nurse to find your veins) or use (DRINKABLE!) moon or sun water. ESPECIALLY sun water. People that require blood transfusions sometimes have spent a long time away from sunshine.

Charge yourself with non-toxic crystals (always, guys, not just for this).

If you believe in spirits or deities, ask them to enter your body and let you borrow their strength to pass onto another (depending on what deities you believe in, don’t be an ass and pass your evil little fuckers along to other people, I told you I’ll curse you with constipation).

Before the donation, exercise, eat something yummy (out of fast time), watch a comedy movie, take a nice nap, enjoy your hobbies, laugh a lot, kiss somebody, joke a lot, have (PROTECTED!) sex. Pass those endorphins along, bring joy and happiness to the recipient of the blood. There’s debate on how long the endorpins last, so doing this within 4-5 hours before donating is recommended.

I always try to donate to someone I can follow up with (in case they need more platelets in the future). Keep them in your thoughts, cast healing spells in their name (you don’t need something from them to represent them now because your own blood is in their body! YOUR BLOOD IS THEIR BLOOD NOW! You can use it!).

Every time I donate, I feel myself grow stronger. The process is a bit depleting and requires rest afterwards, but guys

Your soul becomes mingled with other people’s

It spreads out and becomes larger, wider, the reach grows and grows

You wouldn’t believe the powerful magick behind blood rituals such as this. It’s wildly agreed that blood magick is the strongest kind regardless of the witch, but guys, this?

It’s something else altogether.

-Semiramis, the Magpie Witchling

[voxrepulsori]

The French Origins of « You Will Not Replace Us »

THE NEW YORKER | 04.12.2017 | Thomas Chatterton Williams

The European thinkers behind the white-nationalist rallying cry. The Château de Plieux, a fortified castle on a hilltop in the Gascony region of southwestern France, overlooks rolling fields speckled with copses and farmhouses. A tricolor flag snaps above the worn beige stone. The northwest tower, which was built in the fourteenth century, offers an ideal position from which to survey invading hordes. Inside the château’s cavernous second-story study, at a desk heavy with books, the seventy-one-year-old owner of the property, Renaud Camus, sits at an iMac and tweets dire warnings about Europe’s demographic doom. On the sweltering June afternoon that I visited the castle, Camus—no relation to Albert—wore a tan summer suit and a tie. Several painted self-portraits hung in the study, multiplying his blue-eyed gaze. Camus has spent most of his career as a critic, novelist, diarist, and travel essayist. The only one of his hundred or so books to be translated into English, “Tricks” (1979), announces itself as “a sexual odyssey— man-to-man,” and includes a foreword by Roland Barthes. The book describes polyglot assignations from Milan to the Bronx. Allen Ginsberg said of it, “Camus’s world is completely that of a new urban homosexual; at ease in half a dozen countries.” In recent years, though, Camus’s name has been associated less with erotica than with a single poignant phrase, le grand remplacement. In 2012, he made this the title of an alarmist book. Native “white” Europeans, he argues, are being reverse-colonized by black and brown immigrants, who are flooding the Continent in what amounts to an extinction-level event. “The great replacement is very simple,” he has said. “You have one people, and in the space of a generation you have a different people.” The specific identity of the replacement population, he suggests, is of less importance than the act of replacement itself. “Individuals, yes, can join a people, integrate with it, assimilate to it,” he writes in the book. “But peoples, civilizations, religions—and especially when these religions are themselves civilizations, types of society, almost States—cannot and cannot even want to . . . blend into other peoples, other civilizations.” Camus believes that all Western countries are faced with varying degrees of “ethnic and civilizational substitution.” He points to the increasing prevalence of Spanish, and other foreign languages, in the United States as evidence of the same phenomenon. Although his arguments are scarcely available in translation, they have been picked up by right-wing and white-nationalist circles throughout the English-speaking world. In July, Lauren Southern, the Canadian alt-right Internet personality, posted, on YouTube, a video titled “The Great Replacement”; it has received more than a quarter of a million views. On greatreplacement.com, a Web site maintained anonymously, the introductory text declares, “The same term can be applied to many other European peoples both in Europe and abroad . . . where the same policy of mass immigration of non-European people poses a demographic threat. Of all the different races of people on this planet, only the European races are facing the possibility of extinction in a relatively near future.” The site announces its mission as “spreading awareness” of Camus’s term, which, the site’s author concludes, is more palatable than a similar concept, “white genocide.” (A search for that phrase on YouTube yields more than fifty thousand videos.) “I don’t have any genetic conception of races,” Camus told me. “I don’t use the word ‘superior.’ ” He insisted that he would feel equally sad if Japanese culture or “African culture” were to disappear because of immigration. On Twitter, he has quipped, “The only race I hate is the one knocking on the door.” Camus’s partner arrived in the study with a silver platter, and offered fruitcake and coffee. Camus, meanwhile, told me about his “red-pill moment”—an alt-right term, derived from a scene in the film “The Matrix,” for the decision to become politically enlightened. As a child, he said, he was a “xenophile,” who was delighted to see foreign tourists flocking to the thermal baths near his home, in the Auvergne. In the late nineties, he began writing domestic travel books, commissioned by the French government. The work took him to the department of Hérault, whose capital is Montpellier. Although Camus was familiar with France’s heavily black and Arab inner suburbs, or banlieues, and their subsidized urban housing projects, known as cités, his experience in Hérault floored him. Travelling through medieval villages, he said, “you would go to a fountain, six or seven centuries old, and there were all these North African women with veils!” A demographic influx was clearly no longer confined to France’s inner suburbs and industrial regions; it was ubiquitous, and it was transforming the entire country. Camus’s problem was not, as it might be for many French citizens, that the religious symbolism of the veil clashed with some of the country’s most cherished secularist principles; it was that the veil wearers were permanent interlopers in Camus’s homeland. He became obsessed with the diminishing ethnic purity of Western Europe. Camus supports the staunchly anti-immigrant politician Marine Le Pen. He denied, however, that he was a member of the “extreme right,” saying that he was simply one of many voters who “wanted France to stay French.” In Camus’s view, Emmanuel Macron, the centrist liberal who handily defeated Le Pen in a runoff, is synonymous with the “forces of remplacement.” Macron, he noted acidly, “went to Germany to compliment Mme. Merkel on the marvellous work she did by taking in one million migrants.” Camus derides Macron, a former banker, as a representative of “direct Davos-cracy”—someone who thinks of people as “interchangeable” units within a larger social whole. “This is a very low conception of what being human is,” he said. “People are not just things. They come with their history, their culture, their language, with their looks, with their preferences.” He sees immigration as one aspect of a nefarious global process that renders obsolete everything from cuisine to landscapes. “The very essence of modernity is the fact that everything—and really everything—can be replaced by something else, which is absolutely monstrous,” he said. Camus takes William F. Buckley, Jr.,’s injunction to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop” to the furthest extent possible, and he can be recklessly unconcerned about backing up his claims. On a recent radio appearance, he took a beating from Hervé le Bras, a director emeritus at the Institut National d’Études Démographiques, who said that Camus’s proclamations about ethnic substitution were based on wildly inflated statistics about the number of foreigners entering France. Afterward, Camus breezily responded on Twitter: “Since when, in history, did a people need ‘science’ to decide whether or not it was invaded and occupied?” Camus has become one of the most cited figures on the right in France. He is a regular interlocutor of such mainstream intellectuals as Alain Finkielkraut, the conservative Jewish philosopher, who has called Camus “a great writer,” and someone who has “forged an expression that is heard all the time and everywhere.” Camus also has prominent critics: the essayist and novelist Emmanuel Carrère, a longtime friend, has publicly reproached him, writing that “the argument ‘I’m at home here, not you’ ” is incompatible with “globalized justice.” Mark Lilla, the Columbia historian and scholar of the mentality of European reactionaries, described Camus as “a kind of connective tissue between the far right and the respectable right.” Camus can play the role of “respectable” reactionary because his opposition to multicultural globalism is plausibly high-minded, principally aesthetic, even well-mannered—a far cry from the manifest brutality of the skinheads and the tattooed white nationalists who could put into action the xenophobic ideas expressed in “Le Grand Remplacement.” (At a rally in Warsaw on November 11th, white-nationalist demonstrators brandished signs saying “Pray for an Islamic Holocaust” and “Pure Poland, White Poland.”) When I asked Camus whether he considered me—a black American living in Paris with a French wife and a mixed-race daughter—part of the problem, he genially replied, “There is nothing more French than an American in Paris!” He then offered me the use of his castle when he and his partner next went on a vacation. Although Camus presents his definition of “Frenchness” as reasonable and urbane, it is of a piece with a less benign perspective on ethnicity, Islam, and territory which has circulated in his country for decades. Never the sole preserve of the far right, this view was conveyed most bluntly in a 1959 letter, from Charles de Gaulle to his confidant Alain Peyrefitte, which advocates withdrawal from French Algeria: It is very good that there are yellow Frenchmen, black Frenchmen, brown Frenchmen. They prove that France is open to all races and that she has a universal mission. But [it is good] on condition that they remain a small minority. Otherwise, France would no longer be France. We are, after all, primarily a European people of the white race, Greek and Latin culture, and the Christian religion. De Gaulle then declares that Muslims, “with their turbans and djellabahs,” are “not French.” He asks, “Do you believe that the French nation can absorb 10 million Muslims, who tomorrow will be 20 million and the day after 40 million?” If this were to happen, he concludes, “my village would no longer be called Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, but Colombey-les-Deux-Mosquées!” Such worry about Muslims has been present across Europe at least since the turn of the twentieth century, when the first “guest workers” began arriving from former French colonies and from Turkey. In 1898 in Britain, Winston Churchill warned of “militant Mahommedanism,” and Enoch Powell’s 1968 Rivers of Blood speech alleged that immigration had caused a “total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of English history.” Anxiety about immigrants of color has long been present in the United States, especially in states along the Mexican border. This feeling became widespread after 9/11, and has only intensified with subsequent terrorist acts by Islamists, the Great Recession, and the election of the first black President. Meanwhile, white populations across the world are stagnant or dwindling. In recent years, white-nationalist discourse has emerged from the recesses of the Internet into plain sight, permeating the highest reaches of the Trump Administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the White House senior adviser Stephen Miller endorse dramatic reductions in both legal and illegal immigration. The President’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has returned to his post as the executive chairman of the far-right Web site Breitbart. In a 2014 speech at the Vatican, Bannon praised European “forefathers” who kept Islam “out of the world.” President Trump, meanwhile, has made the metaphor of immigrant invasion literal by vowing to build a wall. In Europe, which in recent years has absorbed millions of migrants fleeing wars in the Middle East or crossing the Mediterranean from Africa, opposition to immigration is less a cohesive ideology than a welter of reactionary ideas and feelings. Xenophobic nationalism can be found on both the left and the right. There is not even unanimity on the superiority of Judeo-Christian culture: some European nationalists express a longing for ancient pagan practices. Anti-immigrant thinkers also cannot agree on a name for their movement. Distrust of multiculturalism and a professed interest in preserving European “purity” is often called “identitarianism,” but many prominent anti-immigrant writers avoid that construction. Camus told me that he refused to play “the game” of identity politics, and added, “Do you think that Louis XIV or La Fontaine or Racine or Châteaubriand would say, ‘I’m identitarian?’ No, they were just French. And I’m just French.” Shortly after Trump’s Inauguration, Richard Spencer, the thirty-nine-year-old white nationalist who has become the public face of the American alt-right, was sucker-punched by a protester while being interviewed on a street corner in Washington, D.C. A video of the incident went viral, but little attention was paid to what Spencer said on the clip. “I’m not a neo-Nazi,” he declared. “They kind of hate me, actually.” In order to deflect the frequent charge that he is a racist, he defines himself with the very term that Camus rejects: identitarian. The word sidesteps the question of racial superiority and co-opts the left’s inclusive language of diversity and its critique of forced assimilation in order to reclaim the right to difference—for whites. Identitarianism is a distinctly French innovation. In 1968, in Nice, several dozen far-right activists created the Research and Study Group for European Civilization, better known by its French acronym, GRECE. The think tank eventually began promoting its ideas under the rubric the Nouvelle Droite, or the New Right. One of its founders, and its most influential member, was Alain de Benoist, a hermetic aristocrat and scholar who has written more than a hundred books. In “View from the Right” (1977), Benoist declared that he and other members of GRECE considered “the gradual homogenization of the world, advocated and realized by the two-thousand-year-old discourse of egalitarian ideology, to be an evil.” The group expressed allegiance to “diversity” and “ethnopluralism”—terms that sound politically correct to American ears but had a different meaning in Benoist’s hands. In “Manifesto for a European Renaissance” (1999), he argued: The true wealth of the world is first and foremost the diversity of its cultures and peoples. The West’s conversion to universalism has been the main cause of its subsequent attempt to convert the rest of the world: in the past, to its religion (the Crusades); yesterday, to its political principles (colonialism); and today, to its economic and social model (development) or its moral principles (human rights). Undertaken under the aegis of missionaries, armies, and merchants, the Westernization of the planet has represented an imperialist movement fed by the desire to erase all otherness. From this vantage point, both globalized Communism and globalized capitalism are equally suspect, and a “citizen of the world” is an agent of imperialism. When Benoist writes that “humanity is irreducibly plural” and that “diversity is part of its very essence,” he is not supporting the idea of a melting pot but of diversity in isolation: all Frenchmen in one territory and all Moroccans in another. It is a nostalgic and aestheticized view of the world that shows little interest in the complex economic and political forces that provoke migration. Identitarianism is a lament against change made by people fortunate enough to have been granted, through the arbitrary circumstance of birth, citizenship in a wealthy liberal democracy. Benoist’s peculiar definition of “diversity” has allowed him to take some unexpected positions. He simultaneously defends a Muslim immigrant’s right to wear the veil and opposes the immigration policies that allowed her to settle in France in the first place. In an e-mail, he told me that immigration constitutes an undeniably negative phenomenon, in part because it turns immigrants into victims, by erasing their roots. He continued, “The destiny of all the peoples of the Third World cannot be to establish themselves in the West.” In an interview in the early nineties with Le Monde, he declared that the best way to show solidarity with immigrants is by increasing trade with the Third World, so that developing countries can become “self-sufficient” enough to dissuade their citizens from seeking better lives elsewhere. These countries, he added, needed to find their own paths forward, and not follow the tyrannizing templates of the World Bank and the I.M.F. Benoist told me that, in France’s Presidential election, in May, he voted not for Marine Le Pen but for the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who shares his contempt for global capitalism. Benoist’s writing often echoes left-wing thinkers, especially the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote of “hegemony”—or the command that a regime can wield over a population by controlling its culture. In “Manifesto for a European Renaissance,” Benoist argues that white Europeans should not just support restrictive immigration policies; they should oppose such diluting ideologies as multiculturalism and globalism, taking seriously “the premise that ideas play a fundamental role in the collective consciousness.” In a similar spirit, Benoist has promoted a gramscisme de droite—cultural opposition to the rampaging forces of Hollywood and multinational corporations. The French, he has said, should retain their unique traditions and not switch to “a diet of hamburgers.” Despite Benoist’s affinity for some far-left candidates, “Manifesto for a European Renaissance” has become a revered text for the extreme right across Western Europe, in the U.S., and even in Russia. The crackpot Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, who promotes the ethnopluralist doctrine “Eurasianism,” has flown to Paris to meet Benoist. “I consider him to be the foremost intellectual in Europe today,” Dugin told interviewers in 2012. Earlier this year, John Morgan, an editor of Counter-Currents, a white-nationalist publishing house based in San Francisco, posted an online essay about the indebtedness of the American alt-right to European thought. He described Benoist and GRECE’s achievement as “a towering edifice of thought unparalleled anywhere else on the Right since the Conservative Revolution in Germany of the Weimar era.” Although Benoist claims not to be affiliated with the alt-right—or even to understand “what Richard Spencer can know or have learned from my thoughts”—he has travelled to Washington, D.C., to speak at the National Policy Institute, a white-nationalist group run by Spencer, and he has sat for long interviews with Jared Taylor, the founder of the virulently white-supremacist magazine American Renaissance. In one exchange, Taylor, who was educated in France, asked Benoist how he saw himself “as different from identitarians.” Benoist responded, “I am aware of race and of the importance of race, but I do not give to it the excessive importance that you do.” He went on, “I am not fighting for the white race. I am not fighting for France. I am fighting for a world view. . . . Immigration is clearly a problem. It gives rise to much social pathologies. But our identity, the identity of the immigrants, all the identities in the world have a common enemy, and this common enemy is the system that destroys identities and differences everywhere. This system is the enemy, not the Other.” Benoist may not be a dogmatic thinker, but, for white people who want to think explicitly in terms of culture and race, his work provides a lofty intellectual framework. These disciples, instead of calling for an “Islamic holocaust,” can argue that rootedness in one’s homeland matters, and that immigration, miscegenation, and the homogenizing forces of neoliberal market economies collude to obliterate identities that have taken shape over hundreds of years—just as relentless development has decimated the environment. Benoist’s romantic-sounding ideas can be cherry-picked and applied to local political resentments. The writer Raphaël Glucksmann, a prominent critic of the French far right, told me that such selective appropriations have given Benoist “a huge authority among white nationalists and Fascists everywhere in the world.” Glucksmann recently met me for coffee near his home, which is off the Rue du Faubourg SaintDenis, one of the most ethnically diverse thoroughfares in Paris. The Nouvelle Droite, Glucksmann argued, adopted a traditionally German, tribal way of conceiving identity, which the Germans themselves abandoned after the Second World War. The Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt argued that “all right is the right of a particular Volk.” In a 1932 essay, “The Concept of the Political,” he posed the question that still defines the right-wing mind-set: Who is a people’s friend, and who is an enemy? For Schmitt, to identify one’s enemies was to identify one’s inner self. In another essay, he wrote, “Tell me who your enemy is, and I’ll tell you who you are.” The Nouvelle Droite was fractured, in the nineteen-nineties, by disagreements over what constituted the principal enemy of European identity. If the perceived danger was initially what Benoist described as “the ideology of sameness”—what many in France called the “Coca-Colonization” of the world—the growing presence of African and Arab immigrants caused some members of GRECE to rethink the essence of the conflict. One of the group’s founders, Guillaume Faye, a journalist with a Ph.D. from Sciences-Po, split off and began releasing explicitly racist books. In a 1998 tract, “Archeofuturism,” he argued, “To be a nationalist today is to assign this concept its original etymological meaning, ‘to defend the native members of a people.’ ” The book, which appeared in English in 2010, argues that “European people” are “under threat” and must become “politically organized for their self-defense.” Faye assures native Frenchmen that their “sub-continental motherland” is “an organic and vital part of the common folk, whose natural and historical territory—whose fortress, I would say—extends from Brest to the Bering Strait.” Faye, like Renaud Camus, is appalled by the dictates of modern statecraft, which define nationality in legal rather than ethnic terms. The liberal American writer Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in his recent book, “Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy,” quotes Camus lamenting that “a veiled woman speaking our language badly, completely ignorant of our culture” could declare that she is just as French as an “indigenous” man who is “passionate for Roman churches, and for the verbal and syntactic delicacies of Montaigne and Rousseau, for Burgundy wines, for Proust, and whose family has lived for generations in the same valley.” What appalls Camus, PolakowSuransky notes, is that “legally, if she has French nationality, she is completely correct.” Faye’s work helps to explain the rupture that has emerged in many Western democracies between the mainstream right, which may support strict enforcement of immigration limits but does not inherently object to the presence of Muslims, and the alt-right, which portrays Muslim immigration as an existential threat. In this light, the growing admiration by Western conservatives for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is easier to comprehend. Not only do thinkers like Faye admire Putin as an emblem of proudly heterosexual white masculinity; they fantasize that Russian military might will help create a “Eurosiberian” federation of white ethno-states. “The only hope for salvation in this dark age of ours,” Faye has declared, is “a protected and self-centered continental economic space” that is capable of “curbing the rise of Islam and demographic colonization from Africa and Asia.” In Faye’s 2016 book, “The Colonisation of Europe,” he writes, of Muslims in Europe, “No solution can be found unless a civil war breaks out.” Such revolutionary right-wing talk has now migrated to America. In 2013, Steve Bannon, while he was turning Breitbart into the far right’s dominant media outlet, described himself as “a Leninist.” The reference didn’t seem like something a Republican voter would say, but it made sense to his intended audience: Bannon was signalling that the alt-right movement was prepared to hijack, or even raze, the state in pursuit of nationalist ends. (Bannon declined my request for an interview.) Richard Spencer told me, “I would say that the alt-right in the United States is radically un-conservative.” Whereas the American conservative movement celebrates “the eternal value of freedom and capitalism and the Constitution,” Spencer said, he and his followers were “willing to use socialism in order to protect our identity.” He added, “Many of the countries that lived under Soviet hegemony are actually far better off, in terms of having a protected identity, than Western Europe or the United States.” Spencer said that “clearly racialist” writers such as Benoist and Faye were “central influences” on his own thinking as an identitarian. He first discovered the work of Nouvelle Droite figures in the pages of Telos, an American journal of political theory. Most identitarians have a less scholarly bent. In 2002, a right-wing French insurrectionary, Maxime Brunerie, shot at President Jacques Chirac as he rode down the Champs- Élysées; the political group that Brunerie was affiliated with, Unité Radicale, became known as part of the identitairemovement. In 2004, a group known as the Bloc Identitaire became notorious for distributing soup containing pork to the homeless, in order to exclude Muslims and Jews. It was the sort of puerile joke now associated with alt-right pranksters in America such as Milo Yiannopoulos. Copycat groups began emerging across Europe. In 2009, a Swedish former mining executive, Daniel Friberg, founded, in Denmark, the publishing house Arktos, which is now the world’s largest distributor of far- and alt-right literature. The son of highly educated, left-leaning parents, Friberg grew up in a wealthy suburb of Gothenburg. He embraced right-wing thought after attending a diverse high school, which he described as overrun with crime. In 2016, he told the Daily Beast, “I had been taught to think multiculturalism was great, until I experienced it.” Few European nations have changed as drastically or as quickly as Sweden. Since 1960, it has added one and a half million immigrants to its population, which is currently just under ten million; a nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, has become the country’s main opposition group. During this period, Friberg began to devour books on European identity—specifically, those of Benoist and Faye, whose key works impressed him as much as they impressed Richard Spencer. When Friberg launched Arktos, he acquired the rights to books by Benoist and Faye and had them translated into Swedish and English. Spencer told me that Arktos “was a very important development” in the international popularization of far-right identitarian thought. Whether or not history really is dialectical, it can be tempting to think that decades of liberal supremacy in Europe have helped give rise to the antithesis of liberalism. In Paris, left-wing intellectuals often seem reluctant to acknowledge that the recent arrival of millions of refugees in Europe, many of them impoverished, poses any complications at all. Such blithe cosmopolitanism, especially when it is expressed by people who can easily shelter themselves from the disruptions caused by globalization, can fuel resentment toward both intellectuals and immigrants. The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who has long embodied élite opinion on the French left, sometimes falls prey to such rhetoric. A 2015 essay, which attempted to allay fears of a refugee crisis in Europe, portrayed Syrian refugees as uniformly virtuous and adaptable: “They are applicants for freedom, lovers of our promised land, our social model, and our values. They are people who cry out ‘Europe! Europe!’ the way millions of Europeans, arriving a century ago on Ellis Island, learned to sing ‘America the Beautiful.’ ” Instead of making the reasonable argument that relatively few Muslim refugees harbor extremist beliefs, Lévy took an absolutist stance, writing that it was pure “nonsense” to be concerned about an increased risk of terrorism. Too often, Lévy fights racism with sentimentalism. Lévy recently met with me at his impeccable apartment, in a sanitized neighborhood near the Champs- Élysées. In our conversation, he offered a more modulated view. “I’m not saying that France should have received all two or three million Syrian refugees,” he said. “Of course, there’s a limited space.” But France had involved itself in Syria’s civil war, by giving support to opponents of the regime, and had a responsibility to help people uprooted by it, he said. Recent debates about European identity, he noted, had left out an important concept: hospitality. “Hospitality means that there is a place—real space, scarce, limited—and that in this place you host some people and you extend a hand.” This did not mean that he wanted an end to borders: “France has some borders, a republican tradition, it is a place. But in this place we have the duty to host. You have to hold the two. A place without hosting would be a shrinking republic. Universal welcoming would be another mistake.” A necessary tension is created between “the infinite moral duty of hospitality and the limited political possibility of welcoming.” When I asked Lévy why the notion of the great replacement had resonated so widely, he dismissed it as a “junk idea.” “The Roman conquest of Gaul was a real modification of the population in France,” he went on. “There was neversomething like an ethnic French people.” Raphaël Glucksmann made a similar critique of the idea of “pure” Frenchness. He observed, “In 1315, you had an edict from the king who said anybody who walks on the soil of France becomes a franc.” This is true, but there is always a threshold at which a quantitative change becomes qualitative; migration was far less extensive in the Middle Ages than it is today. French liberals can surely make a case for immigration without pretending that nothing has changed: a country that in 1900 was almost uniformly Catholic now has more than six million Muslims. The liberal historian Patrick Boucheron, the editor of a recent surprise best-seller that highlights foreign influences on French life throughout the ages, told me that he had little patience for people who bemoan the country’s changing demographics. French people who are struggling today, he said, are victims of unfair economic policies, not Muslims, who still make up only ten per cent of the population. Indeed, only a quarter of France’s population is of immigrant origin—a percentage that, according to Boucheron, has remained stable for four decades. Boucheron sees identitarians as manipulators who have succeeded “in convincing the dominated that their problem is French identity.” For Boucheron, it’s not simply that the great replacement is a cruel idea; it’s also false. “When you oppose their figures—when you say that there were Poles and Italians coming to France in the nineteen-thirties—they say, ‘O.K., but they were Christians,’ ” he said. “So you see that behind identity there’s immigration, and behind immigration there’s hatred of Islam. Eventually, it always comes down to that.” But to deny that recent migration has brought disruptions only helps the identitarians gain traction. A humanitarian crisis has been unfolding in Paris, and it is clearly a novel phenomenon. This summer, more than two thousand African and Middle Eastern migrants were living in street encampments near the Porte de la Chapelle; eventually, the police rounded them up and dispersed them in temporary shelters. “We don’t have enough housing,” the center-right philosopher Pascal Bruckner told me. “The welfare state is at the maximum of its capabilities. We’re broke. And so what we offer to those people is what happens at Porte de la Chapelle.” Many liberals have downplayed the homeless crisis, rather than discuss potential solutions. “We turn a blind eye to this issue, just to look generous,” Bruckner said. At one point in my conversation with Lévy, he flatly declared that France “has no refugees.” Far-right figures, for their part, have relentlessly exploited Paris’s problems on social media, posting inflammatory videos that make it seem like marauding migrants have taken over every street corner. Jean-Yves Camus, a scholar of the far right in France (and no relation to Renaud Camus), told me that there is a problematic lack of candor in the way that liberals describe today’s unidirectional mass movement of peoples. “It depends what you call Frenchness,” he said. “If you think that traditional France, like we used to see in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, should survive and remain, then certainly it will not survive. This is the truth. So I think we have to admit that, contrary to what Lévy says, there has been a change.” But what, exactly, does the notion of “traditional France” imply? The France of de Gaulle—or of Racine— differs in many ways from the France of today, not just in ethnic composition. Renaud Camus recently told Vox that white people in France are living “under menace”—victims of an unchecked foreign assault “as much by black Africa as it is by Northern Islamic Africans.” Yet feminism, Starbucks, the smartphone, the L.G.B.T.Q. movement, the global domination of English, EasyJet, Paris’s loss of centrality in Western cultural life—all of these developments have disrupted what it means “to be French.” The problem with identitarianism isn’t simply that it is nostalgic; it’s that it fixates on ethnicity to the exclusion of all else. The United States is not Western Europe. Not only is America full of immigrants; they are seen as part of what makes America American. Unlike France, the United States has only ever been a nation in the legal sense, even if immigration was long restricted to Europeans, and even if the Founding Fathers organized their country along the bloody basis of what we now tend to understand as white supremacy. The fact remains that, unless you are Native American, it is ludicrous for a resident of the United States to talk about “blood and soil.” And yet the country has nonetheless arrived at a moment when once unmentionable ideas have gone mainstream, and the most important political division is no longer between left and right but between globalist and nationalist. “The so-called New Right never claimed to change the world,” Alain de Benoist wrote to me. Its goal, he said, “was, rather, to contribute to the intellectual debate, to make known certain themes of reflection and thought.” On that count, it has proved a smashing success. Glucksmann summed up the Nouvelle Droite’s thinking as follows: “Let’s just win the cultural war, and then a leader will come out of it.” The belief that a multicultural society is tantamount to an anti-white society has crept out of French salons and all the way into the Oval Office. The apotheosis of right-wing Gramscism is Donald Trump. On August 11th, the Unite the Right procession marched through the campus of the University of Virginia. White-supremacist protesters mashed together Nazi and Confederate iconography while chanting variations of Renaud Camus’s grand remplacement credo: “You will not replace us”; “Jews will not replace us.” Few, if any, of these khaki-clad young men had likely heard of Guillaume Faye, Renaud Camus, or Alain de Benoist. They didn’t know that their rhetoric had been imported from France, like some dusty wine. But they didn’t need to. All they had to do was pick up the tiki torches and light them.

Thomas Chatterton Williams

This article appears in the print edition of the December 4, 2017, issue, with the headline ““You Will Not Replace Us”.” 

Thomas Chatterton Williams, a contributing writer for the Times Magazine, is a Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is at work on a book about racial identity.

[orthoceras]

a bunch of terminal 00 ramblings under the cut 

ok first of all WHO is the person with the diamond head that popped up. what obfuscated their voices. whose voices. also ohhhh you’re gonna make us listen now I’m so scared. khgjfhgjgjfhk I love this site so much but it doesn’t really creep me out. not even the music box that’s playing on the page I’m on right now

I don’t remember seeing the chillout page before? might have just forgotten though

ooh yeah I think stuff changed or got added in that path thing. there’s more pages I definitely don’t remember but the music for this one right now sounds familiar?

who’s ‘we’. who are you. you seem benign because u haven’t tried to kill me yet like that thing in another place on the site but like, idk. looks like a fancy orb with a little chunk taken out of the side? someday I gotta write down descriptions of everything so I can actually figure out what’s going on lol

sol onset is apparently something that can be felt. I am no closer to understanding what sol onset is. there might have been something a while back that explained stuff about it but I don’t remember, maybe it’s in Assistance?

oh right it’s a disease jihgkjhgkh. what kind of disease is it if you can feel/sense it even if you don’t have it? or maybe the reader does have it... hmm

on one of the pages there’s this:

“Ｋｏｉｕｙｙｌｅ  ｅｎ  ｒｅｎｎａｓ  ｏｌｌｙｕｃｅｎｔ  ｅｉｎ   ａｎｎａｓｓｅｎｔ  ｔａｓｓｅｃｔ，  ｔｅｎａｎｎｔ  ｓｃｙｃｉｌ  ｕｎ  ｒｅｃｃａｎｔ． Ｒｙｕｅｎｔ  ｚａｎｎ  ｅｉｎｎａｓ  ｕｎｎ  ｏｌｌｒａｃ． Ｔｅｎａｓｓ，  ａｖｅｎ，  Ａｖｅｙａｓｓ  ａｌｌｙａ  Ｏｌｙｕｉｌ． Ｓｏｍｅｔ  ｎａｃ，  ｕｎ  ｓｏｌ  ｏｎｓｅｔ． Ｓｏｌ  ｏｎ ｓｅｔ．”

I wonder if anyone’s tried to figure out what this means yet. it looks like a language and not a code... prob a conlang but like idk. maybe we gotta read the chapters of the novel to pick up some words from it or something

okay krimson on http://eternalrevelation666.boards.net managed to convert that massive block of binary and the last line is “Tress un ellass, sol onset.” sooo not much overlap besides the ‘un’ which I’m trying to guess what it could be because maybe ‘en’ ‘ein’ and ‘unn’ are variants of it if it’s some word that changes based on context and stuff. maybe it means ‘and’ or ‘or’ but honestly idk.

hmm maybe ‘ein’ and ‘einnas’ are forms of the same word. the -ss from the ‘tress un ellass’ could indicate an imperative if un=and/or which would ‘tenass’ is also an imperative. aven in that case might be vocative? this is going to all be based on prior assumptions though so idk if I’ll get anywhere with this.

also if this is a language and not a code how similar is it grammatically to english. did this just get translated word for word because it’s faster or is there different grammar??

Brb gonna try a few substitution cipher things whatever they’re called just in case. back and I tried sol onset and open the gate, neither seemed to work

moving on and going 2 wordswords. questions from this are: what are the folds? again, who’s we? why are they unable to die? maybe those large probe-looking things are the ‘we’ being talked about hmm

gonna add more to this later bc I got inspiration for a different thing lol

[theyourclasses]

Daily Use New Vocabulary Words in English with Meaning For SSC, Bank Exams

New Post has been published on https://yourclasses.in/vocabulary-words

Daily Use New Vocabulary Words in English with Meaning For SSC, Bank Exams

(VOCABULARY)

  Dearth (Noun) –कमी

Meaning: a scarcity or lack of something.

Synonyms: lack, scarcity, scarceness

Antonyms: abundance, surfeit, superfluity

Usage: “there is a dearth of evidence”

  Upheld (Verb) –सही ठहराना

Meaning: confirm or support (something which has been questioned).

Synonyms: confirm, endorse, sustain

Antonyms: overturn, oppose, deprecate

Usage: “the court upheld his claim for damages”

  Benign (Adjective) –सौम्य

Meaning: gentle and kind.

Synonyms: kindly, kind, warm-hearted

Antonyms: unfriendly, hostile, repugnant

Usage: “his benign but firm manner”

  Fiddle (Verb) –बेला बजाना

Meaning: touch or fidget with something in a restless or nervous way.

Synonyms: fidget, play, toy

Antonyms: work, leave alone, execute

Usage: “Lena fiddled with her cup”

  Augur(Verb) –अच्छे या बुरे परिणाम को चित्रित करना

Meaning: portend a good or bad outcome.

Synonyms: bode, portend, herald

Antonyms: conceal, estimate, guess

Usage: “the end of the cold war seemed to augur well”

  Stipulated (Verb) –अनुबद्ध

Meaning: demand or specify (a requirement), typically as part of an agreement.

Synonyms: specify, set down, set out

Antonyms: optional, discretionary, elective

Usage: “he stipulated certain conditions before their marriage”

  Affluent (Adjective) –धनी या समृद्ध

Meaning: having a great deal of money; wealthy.

Synonyms: wealthy, rich, prosperous

Antonyms: poor, impoverished, pauperize

Usage: “the affluent societies of the western world”

  Paradox (Noun) –असत्याभास या विरोधाभास

Meaning: a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well-founded or true.

Synonyms: contradiction, a contradiction in terms, self-contradiction

Antonyms: accuracy, certainty, correction

Usage: “The uncertainty principle leads to all sorts of paradoxes, like the particles being in two places at once”

Unprecedented (Adjective) –अप्रतिम, बेमिसाल

Meaning: never done or known before.

Synonyms: unparalleled, unequalled, unmatched

Antonyms: normal, common, usual

Usage: “the government took the unprecedented step of releasing confidential correspondence”

  Curb (Verb) –नियंत्रण करना

Meaning: restrain or keep in check.

Synonyms: restrain, hold back, keep back

Antonyms: release, ransom, emancipation

Usage: “she promised she would curb her temper”

  Clusters (Noun) –समूह

Meaning: a group of similar things or people positioned or occurring closely together.

Synonyms: bunch, clump, collection

Antonyms: individual, one, solo

Usage: “clusters of creamy-white flowers”

  Punitive (Adjective) –अत्यधिक ऊँचा

Meaning: extremely high.

Synonyms: harsh, severe, stiff

Antonyms: reasonable, moderate, cheap

Usage: “a current punitive interest rate of 31.3 percent”

  Defection (Noun) –पक्षपलटा

Meaning: the desertion of one’s country or cause in favour of an opposing one.

Synonyms: desertion, absconding, decamping

Antonyms: enough, faithfulness, harmony

Usage: “his defection from the Labour Party”

  Bolster (Verb) –समर्थन देना या मजबूत करना

Meaning: support or strengthen.

Synonyms: strengthen, support, reinforce

Antonyms: undermine, weaken, challenge

Usage: “the fall in interest rates is starting to bolster confidence”

  Adjudicating (Verb) –निर्णय करना

Meaning: make a formal judgement on a disputed matter.

Synonyms: judge, adjudge, try

Antonyms: deferring, dodging, hesitating

Usage: “the Committee adjudicates on all betting disputes”

  Intervene (Verb) –हस्तक्षेप करना

Meaning: take part in something so as to prevent or alter a result or course of events.

Synonyms: intercede, involve oneself, get involved

Antonyms: combine, connect, ignore

Usage: “he acted outside his authority when he intervened in the dispute”

  Unequivocal (Adjective) –असंदिग्ध

Meaning: leaving no doubt; unambiguous.

Synonyms: unambiguous, unmistakable, indisputable

Antonyms: equivocal, ambiguous, vague

Usage: “an unequivocal answer”

  Intriguing (Verb) –जिज्ञासा या रुचि जगाना

Meaning: arouse the curiosity or interest of; fascinate.

Synonyms: interest, be of interest to, fascinate

Antonyms: bore, stupefy, weary, fatigue

Usage: “I was intrigued by your question”

  Expedite (Verb) –शीघ्रता करना

Meaning: make (an action or process) happen sooner or be accomplished more quickly.

Synonyms: speed up, accelerate, hurry

Antonyms: delay, hinder, latency

Usage: “he promised to expedite economic reforms”

  Opacity (Noun) –अपारदर्शिता

Meaning: the quality of lacking transparency or translucence.

Synonyms: opaqueness, non-transparency, lack of transparency

Antonyms: transparency, translucence, clarity

Usage: “thinner paints need black added to increase opacity”

Expeditious (Adjective) –शीघ्र

Meaning: done with speed and efficiency.

Synonyms: speedy, swift, quick

Antonyms: slow, gently, quietly, stilly

Usage: “an expeditious investigation”

  Revelation (Noun) –रहस्योद्घाटन

Meaning: a surprising and previously unknown fact that has been disclosed to others.

Synonyms: disclosure, surprising fact, divulgence

Antonyms: keeping, concealment, covers

Usage: “revelations about his personal life”

  Clause (Noun) –धारा

Meaning: a particular and separate article, stipulation, or proviso in a treaty, bill, or contract.

Synonyms: section, paragraph, article

Antonyms: lessening, subtraction, degradation

Usage: The risk fee covenant clause is associated with the incentive fees on contract.

  Unequivocal (Adjective) –असंदिग्ध

Meaning: leaving no doubt; unambiguous.

Synonyms: unambiguous, unmistakable, indisputable

Antonyms: equivocal, ambiguous, vague

Usage: “an unequivocal answer”

    (ONE WORD SUBSTITUTION)

  A building in which aircraft are housed – Hangar

A former student of a school, college or university – Alumnus

One who studies the art of gardening – Horticulturist

A pole or beam used as temporary support – Prop

Handwriting that cannot be read – Illegible

Words are written on a tomb of a dead person – Epitaph

 A list of luggage – Waybill

The line where the land and sky seems to meet – Horizon

Decorative handwriting – Calligraphy

A person difficult to please – Fastidious

Study of the nature of Gods – Theology

That which cannot be defeated – Invincible

The study of worms and insects – Entomology

A person who attends to the disease of the eye is an – Oculist

  (MISSPELT WORDS)

  (A) Alleg

     (B) Allegged

     (C) Aleged

     (D) Alleged

   2. (A) Dining

     (B) Dininng

     (C) Dening

     (D) Dieing

  (A) Genarelly

     (B) Genarally

     (C) Generaly

     (D) Generally

  (A) Neigbhour

     (B) Neighbour

     (C) Nieghbour

     (D) Neighbor

(A) Forfeit

     (B) Forfiet

     (C) Forfet

     (D) Fourfeit

  (A) Mispeled

     (B) Misspeled

     (C) Mispelled

     (D) Misspelled

(A) Disease

     (B) Diesease

     (C) Disese

     (D) Diesese

  (A) Advarsary

     (B) Adversiry

     (C) Adversary

     (D) Adversery

(A) Athletics

     (B) Ethletic

     (C) Atheletics

     (D) Ethletics

  (A) Ommission

     (B) Omision

     (C) Omission

     (D) Ommision

(A) Heinous

     (B) Hienous

     (C) Heinus

     (D) Hienus

  (A) Secratery

     (B) Secretery

     (C) Secretary

     (D) Secratary

(A) Auxilliery

     (B) Auxiliery

     (C) Auxilliary

     (D) Auxiliary

  (A) Marriage

     (B) Mariage

     (C) Marriege

     (D) Marrieg

(IDIOMS AND PHRASES)

    All fingers and thumbs:

Meaning: – If you’re all fingers and thumbs, you are too excited or clumsy to do something properly that requires manual dexterity. ‘All thumbs’ is an alternative form of the idiom.

Example: – I’m all fingers and thumbs when it comes to wrapping packages.

  2. All heart:

Meaning: – Someone who is all heart is very kind and generous.

Example: – Of course Jenna gave you her last dollar—she’s all heart.

Albatross around your neck:

Meaning: – An albatross around, or round, your neck is a problem resulting from something you did that stops you from being successful.

Example: – That old car is an albatross around my neck.

  All dressed up and nowhere to go:

Meaning: – You’re prepared for something that isn’t going to happen.

Example: – Why the Jill is all dressed up and nowhere to go.

“Stabbed in the back”

Meaning: – An unfaithful act that causes a big loss of one’s reputation, money or happiness.

Example: – I have done everything for her, but she left me because of that guy, she stabbed in my back.

  An old flame:

Meaning: – An old flame is a person that somebody has had an emotional, usually passionate, relationship with, who is still looked on fondly and with affection.

Example: – Last week Alec was seen dining with his old flame Janine Turner in New York.

Alike as two peas:

Meaning: – If people or things are as alike as two peas, they are identical.

Example: – Jane and Jenny are five years apart, but they always wear similar dresses. They are as alike as two peas in a pod.

  As a rule:

Meaning: – If you do something as a rule, then you usually do it.

Example: – As a rule of thumb, I do not start a new project on Fridays.

Age before beauty:

Meaning: – When this idiom is used, it is a way of allowing an older person to do something first, though often in a slightly sarcastic way.

Example: – It has been reversed to ‘beauty before age’ to create a comic effect.

  Be on the pig’s back:

Meaning: – If you’re on the pig’s back, you’re happy / content / in fine form.

Example: – We found ourselves on the pig’s back after our product gained such widespread success across the country.

Babe in the woods:

Meaning: – A babe in the woods is a naive, defenseless, young person.

Example: – Bill is a babe in the woods when it comes to dealing with a plumber.

  Baby boomer:

Meaning: – (USA) A baby boomer is someone born in the years after the end of the Second World War, a period when the population was growing very fast.

Example: – This is not the era of baby boomers, You must not be like them.

Add insult to injury:

Meaning: – When people add insult to injury, they make a bad situation even worse.

Example: – My car broke down in the middle of nowhere, then, to add insult to injury, it started to rain.

  Against the clock:

Meaning: – If you do something against the clock, you are rushed and have very little time to do it.

Example: – The team was working against the clock to finish the project on time

[containerhomeideas]

Managing the Risks of RG22 Foam

The risk of using resin generated (RG) foam to fill redundant tanks on forecourts lies mainly in the assumption that it is risk free.

Resin generated foam, in its many forms – RG22, RG8 and RG30 – is now widely used on fuel sites everywhere. RG30 is used to encase fuel tanks for extra safety and contamination protection. RG8 is used for filling de-gassed tanks on a very temporary basis, as it is claimed that it can be completely broken down with water. RG22 is the most prevalent, as it is widely used for the ‘permanent’ filling of tanks.

RG22 was first developed at a time when the solid fill material of choice was a 20:1 sand/cement slurry. To fill every part of the tank successfully with this, contractors needed to open the top of the tank, pour in the slurry and agitate it; otherwise it would settle as a cone with space all around. Sometimes part of the forecourt had to be dug up if the manhole was in the wrong position.

The advantages of RG22 were that it was claimed to be safe, environmentally friendly and could be pumped in through an exiting pipe or a flange on the manhole lid. This made it a big favourite with petroleum officers and oil companies, some of which began to insist on its use.

It was also cheaper than slurry and much lighter, which meant that the eventual excavation of the tank was claimed to be easier and less expensive.

The introduction of foamed concrete has eroded some of these advantages, as it is much lighter than its predecessor and has similar flowing properties. This means that, for most fuel site uses, there is now a viable alternative to RG22 that meets the requirements of oil companies and petroleum officers.

The main reason that we need an alternative to RG foam is that it contains formaldehyde – a probable human carcinogen. In 2002, formaldehyde was placed on the US Report on Carcinogens 11th edition, compiled by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service and the National Toxicology Program; something that holds only moral power in the UK and EU.

In Canada Urea-formaldehyde foam, which also uses formaldehyde as a curing aid, was used to insulate homes, particularly timber framed houses, but this has now been banned by the Canadian government after occupants complained of runny noses and sore eyes.

Because formaldehyde is used as a curing agent, while R22 needs to be handled with care at all times, the highest health risk does not occur when the foam is pumped into tanks in its liquid state, but rather when the so called ‘permanently’ filled tanks have to be excavated and removed, to allow a site to be decommissioned and used for some other purpose.

The concerns are two-fold: handling the foam itself and exposure to the formaldehyde gas that is given off when the tanks are excavated and cut up for disposal.

Because of its alleged properties, we were as interested in using RG22 as anyone else when it first came out. Our doubts began when we started excavating tanks that had been filled with the foam and discovered how difficult and expensive it was to dispose of.

We discovered that RG22 can shrink, letting air get back into the tank, which reduces the safety effects of RG22 and speeds up corrosion. We later also discovered that it gave formaldehyde gas a place to gather.

We have excavated tanks less than three months after they have been filled with RG22 and the foam had already shrunk considerably. On the other hand, we have excavated tanks that were filled with RG22 two years previously and found that some of the foam was still in a liquid state.

When our people opened the tanks they found the fumes were often overpowering and anyone who was unfortunate enough to touch the stuff received an unpleasant and uncomfortable skin rash as a reward. All our people now use an all-over bodysuit and breathing apparatus when dealing with RG22.”

The lightness of the foam was supposed to make excavation easier, allowing the tank containing the foam to be lifted straight from the ground and onto the back of a lorry. Unfortunately we discovered that there are only one or two disposal sites that will accept tanks with RG22 still inside. Even then, they will only accept small tanks, and then only when they can be placed in a deep part of the landfill site.

We will only attempt the all-in-one approach when our client insists, as we prefer the more environmentally friendly approach of sending the metal of the tank for recycling. This means that once it has been removed from the ground, the excavated tank has to be cut away, with the metal taken to one site and the RG22 to another – usually a hazardous waste site.

We are not the only ones to have concerns, another company in our sector told us: “RG foam is fine if the tank was never going to be opened again; the problem is that, these days, eventually, many tanks will need to be removed, if the site is to be sold on for development.

“My concern is, when we cut the tanks open there is a very pungent smell of formaldehyde and often an irritated feeling in the throat and eyes.

“We now use a different technique where we try to use heavy machinery to open the tanks up, keeping personnel away from the excavation.

“It would appear that the problem lies in the fact that during the curing the foam emits a fair amount of formaldehyde gas, which is trapped in the tank, to be released only when it is cut open.

“Our workforce also initially noticed some irritation through exposure to the foam and, indeed, the manufacturers’ data sheet says it is a ‘light irritant’.”

This company believes the main problem is that, as well as being an irritant, the material is light and friable, so, if precautions are not taken, it can get under clothing or even be breathed in.

“However,” says the company, “this part of the problem can be dealt with if contractors are properly forewarned. Like any other risk, they can deal with it, if they know exactly what they are facing, by elimination, in the first instance and, where not possible, control techniques such as wearing protective clothing, gloves masks, eye protection etc.

“A bigger problem is that fuel sites undergoing decommissioning are normally bounded by roads and pavements, often in built up areas, so there is a danger that the light friable foam can easily be blown off the site. These days we don’t remove these foams on a day when there is any wind at all.

“However, as I said, the problems associated with the foam itself can be dealt with using some simple precautions, our real concern is the formaldehyde gas that is given off when the tanks are cut into, as they must be when a site is decommissioned.”

Experience has shown us that air pockets occur, where the gas tends to concentrate, leading to a burst of gas being released when these pockets are breached.

Proximity is the real problem. Once formaldehyde gas is vented to atmosphere it will disburse to a harmless level, but if you are close to the tank when it is cut it is more worrying.

Environmental and personal monitoring was carried out by a company in our sector, looking at the level of concentration of formaldehyde gas on fuel sites being decommissioned when tanks are cut open.

In one of these tests, formaldehyde sensors were placed at four strategic points on the site. Three produced results of under the recommended level of two parts per million, but the nearest sensor, located 3m from the tank, registered 2.07 parts per million, which exceeds the UK workplace exposure limits (WEL) of 2.0 parts per million, currently listed in HSE publication EH40/2005 Workplace Exposure Limits.

This indicates that steps need to be taken to protect anyone going within that distance.

We also believe that the two parts per million limit itself needs examination, as there is, in my opinion, no real evidence for this level, one way or the other. Much more research is needed.

The message is to be aware of the risks and take the right precautions.

The main problem is the respiratory system and the eyes, so we use a helmet, with a visor and a power assisted respirator.

Their message to petroleum officers and oil companies is to not get seduced by the alleged advantages of RG foam, to look at where it is appropriate to use it.

RG foams have their place in the mix, they should not be seen as the first resort.

It may be slightly cheaper to use RG22 to fill the tanks in the first place, but any savings are outweighed by the extra disposal costs and precautions that have to be put in place.

Hierarchy of dealing with hazards.

1. Eliminate If the job is hazardous, does it really need doing?

2. Substitute If the job is really necessary, then can the hazardous material be substituted with something more benign, such as slurry, foamed concrete or polyurethane, which is now being sold as a substitute in the US, but not here yet.

3. Change working methods Using more machinery to reduce direct contact. Paying more attention to the weather on excavation days.

4. Control Increased use of personal protection equipment (PPE) and paying more attention to containment within the site.

Source by Jeremy Pursehouse Managing the Risks of RG22 Foam

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sti testing

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