#that is such a loose motive w such limited context

[urahara-lovepage]

honestly fuck aizen but you know how insane and sicknasty it would have been if kubo gave him a better motive than “loneliness” or at least explained it better. you’re not getting me w some sob story abt how he had no equal so he committed mass murder and colonized a place. that’s straight nonsense.

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers DARK FATE ー Ayato Ecstasy [Prologue]

ー The scene starts in the guest room at Banmaden

Cordelia: ...

Yui: ( I am so glad she only suffered minor injuries... )

( Vampires really are sturdy. I was worried since I could only do first aid, but I’m pretty sure it’ll suffice... )

Cordelia: ...Karl...

Yui: ( She really must love him deeply to call out his name in her sleep... )

( Karlheinz... )

( I wonder what he is like? )

...

ー The scene shifts to the outer area of Banmaden

Ayato: ...Haah...Fuck...

( Why is she so worried about that woman? )

( Why...? )

( ...Why am I feeling this complicated as well...? )

...Lame...

ー Ayato steps away as the scene shifts back to the guest room

Cordelia: ...Nn...

Yui: ( Ah... )

Cordelia: ...Aah...

Yui: ...Um...How do you feel?

Cordelia: ...Oh...I’m not dead yet, am I...?

Yui: ...You were lucky to survive, so please don’t say that.

Cordelia: ...You...

...Hmph. There is no point in living in a world where Karl isn’t by my side...

Ayato is a fool as well...I’m sure he held back somewhat. That is why he is a failure.

Yui: ...

Cordelia: But...You are the biggest fool out of everyone. You had the perfect opportunity to get rid of me, yet you decided to be a miss goody-two shoes and treat my wounds? Do you have a few screws loose.

Yui: When you put it like that, perhaps my efforts have been in vain but...

I did not want you to disappear.

Because I can relate to you...and your strong feelings for someone else.

Cordelia: ...

...Hmph. This is exactly why I dislike having to deal with ignorant little girls who have yet to find out how this world works. Your naivety makes me sick.

Your own feelings are disgusting. Could you not group them together with mine?

My love is...My love for Karlheinz...is more beautiful than anything else in this world.

Yui: ( To think she feels for him so strongly... )

...Um...What kind of man is Karlheinz-san exactly?

Cordelia: ...Excuse me? Are you trying to compete with me?

Yui: I-I’m not!

It’s just...I’m just curious what the person you love so strongly is like.

Cordelia: Hmph...

Yui: ( I guess she won’t tell me after all... )

Cordelia: ...

...Karl is...

Yui: ...!

Cordelia: ...He genuinely was kind to me always.

He treated me quite well after our marriage. He would listen to every single one of my selfish requests.

Nfu~ I am not a fool either. I had a faint suspicion that he might have some sort of ulterior motive...

...But...

I was happy...I felt blessed just by being together with him.

Once he flashes his smile, not a single woman can escape his grasp...

Yet, on the bed, he would only talk to me...It felt like a dream.

Every time he did, I could feel my love for him grow stronger.

At some point...I began to desire his everything.

So much so that I wanted to be the one to eventually end his life, since you only get to experience death once...!

I doubt you can understand that? The feeling of loving someone to dead...

Yui: ...

Cordelia: My cruel behavior towards Ayato and his brothers was all done out of spite towards him as well.

Seeing the children of the woman you love get treated in such a way should at least do something to you, no?

I could care less about words like ‘I like you’ or ‘I love you’. 

There was only one thing I wanted. ーー His heart. (1)

I wanted his heart to overflow from emotions for me, burning with love to the point of madness.

...But...Right now, I have not achieved anything. I...

Yui: ( Cordelia... )

Cordelia: ...Uu.

Yui: ( She truly did love Karlheinz...This strongly. )

( As for him...I wonder how he felt? )

( Did he...not love her back? )

( If he could not love her, then why didn’t he just genuinely tell her so? )

( Cordelia described him as ‘kind’, but I... )

...

*Thud*

Yui: ...I-Is someone there...?

( ...Am I hearing things...? )

...

ー The scene shifts to the entrance hall

Ayato: Haah, haah, haah...

( ...What was that just now...? )

( Why was she crying like that...!? )

( You’re supposed to be a thoroughly despicable wench beyond saving, no!? )

( Yet right now, that same woman is... )

...

( ...The Old Man... )

( Does he know everything? )

( Nothing is a mystery to him. )

( Right, he knew...Yet he never gave her what she truly wanted... )

( He simply put a sweet smile on his face, continuing to keep her by his side. )

( In that case... )

( In that case, the root of all evil isーー )

Monologue

Everything Cordelia has done up till now.

I wonder how many people have been hurt,

or twisted by her behavior?

Said reality cannot be altered.

However. 

I have found out,

about Cordelia’s feelings

towards Karlheinz-san.

So...

I could no longer bring myself to resent her.

I wonder if that means,

I am betraying Ayato-kun

in one way or another?

No, I’m not.

I love Ayato-kun,

so very much.

However, I wonder how I should convey,

these complicated feelings to him...?

Yui: ( Where did Ayato-kun go...? )

( Ah, there he is...! )

( But...What should I say to him? )

...

Ayato: ...Nn...?

Oi, Chichinashi! What are you doing standin’ ‘round over there?

Yui: Ah...!

ー Ayato approaches her

Ayato: Hm? What’s wrong?

Yui: W-Well...

( I wonder what happened to him? He looks as if he got a breakthrough or something... )

Ayato: Cat got your tongue or something?

Well, there’s something I have to tell you, so you appeared just on time.

Yui: Tell me...?

Ayato: Exactly!

It’s ‘bout that shitty hag.

Yui: ...

Ayato: How should I put this...I feel like it’s gonna be kinda odd comin’ from me ...or rather I’m in no position to say this...

But...You know...

Thanks for treatin’ her injuries.

Yui: Ayato-kun...!

Ayato: Let me tell you just in case! I haven’t forgiven that old hag for everythin’ she did!

However...I can’t put it into words very well, but I came to a lot of realizations myself.

...I’m sure she must have had it rough as well.

Yui: ...Yeah...

( He hasn’t forgiven Cordelia. He can’t forgive her. Yet... )

( I can tell that he is trying his best to face her. )

( Rather than keeping it all to myself, I should have put more faith in Ayato-kun and talked to him on how I felt about the situation. )

( I’m sorry, Ayato-kun. And also... )

ーー I love you.

Ayato: A-Aah!? The fuck are you sayin’ all of a sudden...!?

Yui: I felt as if I just had to tell you that right now.

Ayato: H-Hm...Well, it’s not like I didn’t know already that you’re head over heels for me!

Yui: Yeah. But, I grew to love you even more. I really do love you, Ayato-kun.

Ayato: ...

ー He suddenly bites her

Ayato: S-Shut up! Nn...!

Yui: Ah...

Ayato: ...Haah...Nn...

Yui: ...Nn...

Ayato: ...Hah...Nn...Phew...

Hehe, what’s wrong, Chichinashi? Look at that ecstatic expression on your face. How does it feel, huh?

Yui: That’s...Well...

...It feels good.

Ayato: Wha...!?

T-The fuck has gotten into you!? What are you sayin’...!?

Yui: I-I mean...It’s you who’s biting me after all...! So...

( T-The words just slipped out of my mouth, how embarrassing...! )

Ayato: You idiot! You’re too damn cute...Nn...

Yui: Ah...

Ayato: ...Nn...Haah...Nn...Phew...

Yui: ( Ayato-kun... )

( I really...do love you... )

ー The scene shifts to the balcony

Shin: Haahー... Look at them getting it on in plain sight...Don’t they realize we’d rather not have to see that...

Carla: ...

Shin: Say, Nii-san? Why are we letting them do as they please? I’ve reached my limit. 

At this rate, they’re only going to deepen their bond and head straight towards their happy end, no?

Carla: ーー That is fine.

Shin: Eh...?

Carla: Everything is progressing smoothly. All that is left is...

ー Carla steps away

Shin: Ah...Nii-san!

ー Shin chases after him

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) 心 or ‘kokoro’ is a very difficult term to translate in Japanese because it can mean a lot of different things from ‘heart’ to ‘soul’, ‘mind’ and even ‘feelings’. In this context, I think Cordelia just wanted Karlheinz to show her any other emotion than his usual ‘gentle smile’ which charms all of the ladies. 

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

<- [ Maniac Epilogue ] [ Ecstasy 01 ] ->

[goteamanalysis]

Hello, Could you please do an analysis of Kurosaki Makoto? Thanks ^w^

Canon Information for this Character

To recruit him you must have:-In Inazuma Eleven GO–Item: Nekketsu Coach no Oshie–3 players: Amase from his team along with two kids from unknown schools Nasu and Hikoushi

-In Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stone–Topic: Round Table handed down (found in Arthur’s Castle)–Record: Keshin Family (use Keshin 100 times)–Item: Holy Road Directory (get from a battle at the Holy Road parking lot)–You must meet Kurosaki! (at the Holy Road parking lot)

Game Description:-Japan: “The footballer with the perfect emotional strength and body technique. He’s exactly "a heaven-sent child of god of soccer”.“-Europe: "A perfect football player in mind, body and technique. Truly blessed.”

Additional Info:

-He is a SEED and a 2nd year.

-He can use Bakunetsu Storm

Popular Fan ThoriesIt is speculated that Ishido, himself, taught Kurosaki how to use his Keshin and Bakunetsu Storm.

Incidentally, his trainer Saginuma Osamu can also learn Ballista Shot, but it’s unclear if this intentionally implies Kurosaki learned the move from him.

He bears similarities to Aphrodi in being based off a God and being a tall, effeminate final boss character.

AppearanceHe is consistently associated with Gods/Titans, as is his entire team. This can be related to how ethereal his design is: having very fair skin, slanted pretty eyes, and thick lashes. His hair is also very long and portrayed as soft and flowing. He is extremely petite and is described as having a “very feminine and delicate” design. A notable characteristic is the white headband he wears, it most likely functions as a sweat band (a type of headband designs to soak up sweat when practicing or playing sports that is later removed and washed).

His nose is lower and given more definition on his face. This is supposed to make him look mature and like his features are starting to fill out more. The visual effect of this tactic makes him feel like a bigger opponent for Raimon bc he seems like he would be older than them, therefore more experienced and more powerful.

Following that, in Japan ‘hana ga takai’ (lit. nose is long) is a compliment given to people with prominent noses, which implies something along the lines of ‘noble nose’ or ‘stylish nose’. Most Japanese naturally have “low noses” (low at the nasal bridge) and may feel that this is an ‘unstylish’ feature.

His shoulders are small but his chest is wide, making his small waist seem to take a dip inward. His lower half seems to be even to the width of his chest, making him seem more even in shape. This is also to exemplify him (visually) as a well-balanced (therefore stronger) opponent.

Name MeaningHis given name “Makoto” means true, pure or just, which could allude to him being a truly perfect soccer player ‘in mind, body and spirit’.

PersonalityHe speaks very formally and is generally very polite.

The amount of other players that you have to recruit before him could be implications of him being a very social person who likes to be surrounded by friends/comrades.

The topic of the Round Table is needed to recruit him in Chrono Stone which implies an interest he has in Romance or even his qualifications to be a knight during the King Aurthur arc of the series.

He is described as having “perfect emotion strength” which could hint to him being very strong willed and level headed.

He is a great sportsman, being focused and enthusiastic about playing in the finals regardless of the scores. He also faces Tenma before the match and is very respectful despite the revolution and what Tenma is fighting for.

Popular Tropes Associated with this CharacterPure Is Not Good: In Japanese Media, this trope is likely rooted in the philosophical concept of “Makoto”, which loosely means "pure (heart/mind/soul/motives)”. It basically means a mind free of distractions, unnecessary thoughts, doubts, or fallacies and is mostly used in context of hard work, loyalty, determination, and intense emotion. “Makoto”, while considered a “good” thing, is not limited to good intentions. Their dedication is “pure”; their goals, not so much.

This trope is solely for “pure of heart” where purity does not necessarily denote goodness.

[ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is]

Hi, Em! I am in dire need of help with my mbti type. I am 18, have been struggling w/ my type for 4 years. Think I am a Ji-Pe user, lean towards Ti, but that's probably because I like to think I am logical and not necessarily because it's true. But I do enjoy that stereotypical Ti nerd shit. I constantly procrastinate because I have a hard time motivating myself and am lazy. Have a hard time working in a "non-work environment". Rn I'm procrastinating 4 papers I had to do months ago (1/?)

I am also constantly late because I am a bad judge of time, underestimate the amount of time I take on certain tasks and the amount of time it takes me to get somewhere. I was also raised in a household where everyone is constantly late. I like learning new things, and can enjoy most subjects at school as long as the stuff is presented in an interesting manner. I also do well with short term stress and am very unfazed by stress and function well under it like in tests. But in longer term (2/?)

I become very demotivated. Hence procrastinating 4 papers from months ago + 3 new ones. When I am stressed I dissociate from it (am a 9w1 core sp/so) and ignore it, which is why I constantly appear to be completely calm and collected (most everyone hates me rn because if it). I also am bad at communicating about anything that's not working out because of it. I will not only ignore the work I am late on but also the relevant teacher for that work. I like listening to music a lot (3/?)

Especially if said music can fill my headspace and overwhelm me. I like technical rock music (art rock, jazz rock) but most of it is super chill. I like a lot of psychedelic rock. I love music that I myself couldn't play (I am learning to play the guitar). I also like masterful mixes. I also enjoy a lot of synth pop and organ sounds because they have this huge sound and are just so pleasant to listen to. I also like going on long walks and thinking. Can't really function without that. (4/?)

It clears my head and allows me to organize my thoughts. I can say that I have had a loose plan for the near future (coming 10 years) for the previous 3 years, I know what I want to study (theoretical physics) and have my contingency plan (music production/audio engineering). My interests don't really change often, and while I am not very good at working on them, I do have a focus. I am good at working within limitations, but not really when a widely defined task is given to me. (5/?)

When I am working on a project I try to narrow down my "playing field" first and then build on that. I don't tend to change my original base idea, but tweak stuff on top of it. I tend to follow instructions but loosely and usually my end product does end up looking different from the way it's supposed to. I will also try to work in a way that may be more challenging (why oh why do i do this to myself) but my own. I do hope this is helpful and if you can help this is christmas a week early (6/6)

----

Hey! So, going through this it is hard to tell definitively from what you gave me but I can talk about what I do see and what could help:

I think Ti does make sense, though not from the nerdiness (that’s one item of advice: Ti and nerdiness are separate and people mistype themselves as Ti users because they’re nerds a lot). I think it fits well with the procrastination, analysis, and actually on working within limitations: in talking with Ti users I find a lot find limitations helpful in setting some kind of goal that forces a natural end solution if they actually want to complete something, and they enjoy the challenge of putting their spin or messing with those limitations.

I’m not set on Se vs. Ne, mostly because you have a lot of traits that fit both and then some that seem a little more Se, but some that seem a little more Ne with lower Si. So:

Procrastination: fits both Se and Ne well

Good under pressure: is a skill/depends on the kind of pressure but doesn’t fit into any specific MBTI type without further context

Raised in a house of people who were late/still does this: could be lower Si, could just be behavior you’d have otherwise.

Music: I liked the description but ultimately one’s response to music is kind of like one’s childhood in that once you’ve typed yourself you can look back sometimes and say “Oh, yeah, that makes sense” but it’s hard to type yourself from it.

Loose future plan: also kind of just a thing many people have. Ni users often have hyper-specific plans, but otherwise there are few people who genuinely live day-to-day with no broader general plan. Type comes in more when it comes to how good you are at actually sticking to it vs. changing it and how you go about it, and even then there’s a lot of complicating factors. It’s also especially hard to make a judgement at 18 about that plan.

The discussion of music and walking does make me think Se but not exclusively or definitively; I’d need to know more.

Similarly your studies both stereotypically fit into to areas (theoretical physics being more associated with intuition and music production more with sensing) but at your age I wanted to go into theoretical physics. A good question would be why you want to go into theoretic physics.

So: I think high Ti is the right call but Ne/Se are hard. I’ve recently posted about this but a couple things that might be helpful are: how do you learn? What about activities like music and walking attracts you to them?

[ladystylestores]

The Next American Terrorist

The Growing Irrelevance of Organizational Structure for U.S. Domestic Terrorism

Bruce Hoffman, Terrorism Expert, Professor, Georgetown University

Bruce Hoffman is a professor at Georgetown University and the Shelby Cullom and Kathryn W. Davis Visiting Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served as a commissioner on the Independent Commission to Review the FBI’s Post-9/11 Response to Terrorism and Radicalization, a Scholar-in-Residence for Counterterrorism at the CIA, and an adviser on counterterrorism to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2004.

Colin Clarke, Senior Fellow, The Soufan Center

Colin P. Clarke is a Senior Fellow at The Soufan Center where he studies terrorism, extremism, and political violence. He is also an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT)- The Hague and an adjunct senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

For decades, America’s primary terrorist threat came from groups based abroad.  Today, a new crop of terrorist actors is emerging from within our own borders. What was mostly a monochromatic threat from Salafi-jihadist groups like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (IS), and those individuals they sought to inspire, has now become a kaleidoscope with new threats from “boogaloo bois,” white supremacists, neo-Nazis, shadowy anarchist elements, and the extreme fringe of violent incels—politicized involuntary celibates fueled by a hatred of women.

Although diverse and for the most part unconnected to each other, this often bewildering array of anti-government extremists, violent misogynists, and left-wing militants share a common objective of disrupting society and in the process, overturning existing norms if not the entire political, social and economic order.

Unlike the identifiable threats we have faced from hierarchically-organized, groups like al-Qaeda and IS, the new emerging groups of individuals are devoid of the command-and-control apparatuses that counterterrorism practitioners typically seek to disrupt. Command and control is the mechanism by which terrorist groups plan, coordinate, and execute attacks and is a key component of the group’s organizational structure. For the past two decades, the United States has relentlessly targeted the leaders of terrorist groups with decapitation strikes, which has disrupted their organization’s infrastructure, and interdicted their finances. But this new collection of terrorist adversaries possesses few of the attributes that proved so vulnerable to counterterrorism actions.

Thus, bureaucratic organizations with hierarchical leadership structures and clearly-defined objectives have been supplanted by loosely networked movements with amorphous goals that exist across the ideological spectrum that we are only now beginning to understand. Moreover, members of these networks are more susceptible to what terrorism expert Daveed Gartenstein-Ross calls “fringe fluidity,” where an experience with one form of extremism can lead to a distinct radicalization pathway and thus, facilitate the movement of individuals from one form of militancy to another. There are several high-profile examples, including Nick Young, the Northern Virginia transit cop who was enamored with both Nazi Germany and the Islamic State. In May 2017, a neo-Nazi turned Islamic State supporter named Devon Arthurs killed his two neo-Nazi roommates because they mocked his newfound zeal for radical Islam after formerly being a member of Atomwaffen.

Popular theories like accelerationism, whose proponents believe in the complete destruction of current systems of government, appeal to individuals that claim allegiance to movements on both the far-left and the far-right. Taken together, this perhaps suggests the growing irrelevance of organizational structure when assessing U.S.-based domestic terrorist threats. For neo-Nazi groups like The Base and Atomwaffen Division, as well as the boogaloo movement and many far-right extremists, a confluence of ideological affinities is more powerful in inspiring and provoking violence than the

hierarchical terrorist organizational structures of the past. The merging of concepts that motivate individuals to engage in terrorism, no matter how quixotic, is likely to prolong the threat and complicate effective countermeasures. One immediate implication of this ideological mélange is that it makes it more difficult to identify tangible grievances and therefore craft appropriate policy responses.

This trend has been abetted by the continued emphasis on lone wolf or lone actor attacks. Originally articulated by American far-right extremists as a “leaderless resistance” strategy it was subsequently embraced with intensified fervor by Salafi-jihadist groups like the Islamic State, which encouraged followers to be both entrepreneurial and opportunistic in launching attacks in the West. The result was a shift in tactics, techniques, and procedures, including a spike in vehicle attacks against unsuspecting pedestrians along with other demonstrably crude attacks using commonplace weapons like axes  and machetes. Both white supremacists as well as violent incels, for instance, have each used cars deliberately to harm civilians without being instructed or trained to do so by a terrorist leader. Since the protests began over the murder of George Floyd, there have been nearly three dozen reported cases of vehicle attacks, including one allegedly perpetrated by a high-ranking Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member named Harry Rogers in Richmond, VA.

Although we have seen this less clearly defined organizational structure among some domestic terrorism threats in the United States in the past, the current iteration is unprecedented. In the 1980s and 1990s, violent, extremist far-right groups like The Order and the Phineas Priesthood adopted the leaderless resistance strategy and operated clandestinely to conduct bombings and assassinations and commit crimes including bank robberies. But such groups were short-lived or had limited impact. Today, the dimensions of these diverse threats present new challenges to Federal law enforcement agencies and their state, local, and tribal partners.

Even without a robust and identifiable organizational structure in place, Federal law enforcement is still tasked with mapping how the individuals and small cells belonging to these movements communicate, delegate tasks, procure weapons and equipment, and maintain operations security. Yet even when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is successful in disrupting plots through the use of informants, the fact that these individuals do not belong to an actual organization or group, per se, means that the arrests, while critical to keeping Americans safe, can only have a limited impact in reducing the overall domestic terrorism threat. This is precisely what the strategy of leaderless resistance was designed to ensure.

Counterterrorism strategies must adapt to the range of traditional and emerging threats from a multiplicity of international and domestic adversaries. In some cases, domestic and international milieus will intersect and overlap. There is undoubtedly an interplay between foreign countries like Russia interested in stirring the pot domestically in the United States, and violent non-state actors operating on American soil, even if the actual linkages are murky and difficult to uncover. The leader of The Base, Rinaldo Nazzaro (aka Norman Spear), for instance, is an American citizen believed to be living in St. Petersburg, Russia and the United States recently listed the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) as a specially designated global terrorist organization or SDGT—an important step that falls just short of the ultimate sanction of a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO. A U.S. citizen and white supremacist named Matthew Heimbach has been linked to RIM in the past, thus underscoring the eroding distinction between foreign and domestic when Americans lead and are of members of State Department-sanctioned terrorist groups.

The law has failed to keep pace with either the social media technology that facilitates and abets radicalization or terrorist adversaries that defy traditional conceptualizations. It may be worth considering legislation focused specifically on domestic terrorism that would create a category facilitating the prosecution of crimes that in an international context are considered terrorism. Equally importantly, such legislation might standardize the collection and analysis of data on hate crimes and other acts of violence that should be prosecuted as terrorism to bring greater equity in the sentencing of foreign and domestic terrorists. Persons convicted in the United States of providing material support to IS, according to the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, receive sentences in excess of thirteen years in prison. Last February, a member of Atomwaffen received a twelve-month sentence for similar charges. The law should remain agnostic to the ideologies that fuel political violence while focusing on the actions themselves.

Since September 11, 2001, the so-called Global War on Terror saw the United States leverage its exquisite military and intelligence capabilities to focus on disrupting terrorist plots from North Africa to South Asia, even as organizations like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and their respective affiliates and franchise groups continue to adapt and evolve. Yet now, as evidenced by events that have played out over the first half of this year, there is a renewed sense of urgency to deal with actual terrorist threats percolating on American soil. Policymakers could consider the appropriate laws, authorities, and policies to ensure that the country is prepared to meet the ever-changing terrorism threat, including its most recent domestic permutations.

Read more expert-driven national security insights, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief

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[tachyonpub]

Lavie Tidhar’s breathtaking CENTRAL STATION is lyrical and imaginative

Photo: Kevin Nixon. © Future Publishing 2013

At the Polish site CZYTANKA NA DOBRANOC, Karolina Sulinska Escudo enjoys Lavie Tidhar’s John W. Campbell Award winning CENTRAL STATION.

CENTRAL STATION is one of the most breathtaking, surprising and imaginary stories I've read. The style of the author reminds me of the prose of Hannu Rajaniemi, although it is more lyrical and imaginative. Tidhar in his latest novel merged the previously published stories. It's back to the golden age of SF with a distinct retro note that makes the imaginary world incredibly colorful and rich. It combines the past with the future and makes the reader feel the longing for other works of this genre. Ba, even behind those unread. 

Polish edition

CENTRAL STATION is really a great book, but you can not approach it with the assumption that we hit a work of art, because it is a truly special novel, which will also receive a wide circle of critics. It seems to me that the idea for the book was the idea of ​​creating another, new and futuristic world, and the story itself was marginalized. This novel was made up of fragments of finished stories, which the author decided to loosely connect with each other. Each of the stories told is interesting, but there is no main motive to push the narrative forward. You can see the structure here, but we're going to lose all the pleasure of reading so deeply. Because it's not the heroes, not the events are important only the reality in which they play out. These stories are narrated in isolation from the events described, from a distance, which in practice limits and often even excludes the involvement of heroes. Often unfinished, taken out of context, are only part of a larger puzzle-picture of the future world. However, I will add that narration also plays an important role in this book, is an additional factor in the world of knowledge.

Tidhar has absorbed and digested so many science fiction genres to finally give us something new and innovative, something I have not met so far, a book in which you hear echoes of reading from the past. Spectacular, often poetic, prose made me unable to break away from her. I was so absorbed in the details of the world that I exposed, that practically to the last page I did not notice the lack of a plot. For me it was sensational and without it. Must read.

(Translation from Polish courtesy of Google)

The Portuguese site RASCUNHOS praises the novel.

Futurist, presenting the next step of human evolution in which one is born already with connections that allow the transmission of data, nevertheless achieves a somewhat reticent vision, with positive points but without great euphoria, in a scenario decadent in which humans continue to have their existential doubts, their intersections and communication failures. A story both futuristic and human;

(Translation from Portuguese courtesy of Google)

The Czech edition of CENTRAL STATION (CENTRÁLNÍ STANICE) is coming out in December from Argo.

For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

[theodorasresearchjournal-blog]

RESEARCH ARTEFACT // Research Update I - New Aesthetic Products & Objects

A look at New Aesthetic Objects and their underlying theoretical basis:

-Bruce Sterling’s position on the New Aesthetic:

The “New Aesthetic” is a native product of modern network culture. It’s from London, but it was born digital, on the Internet. The New Aesthetic is a “theory object” and a “shareable concept.”

-An argument for its contemporaneity:

Above all, the New Aesthetic is telling the truth. There truly are many forms of imagery nowadays that are modern, and unique to this period. We’re surrounded by systems, devices and machineries generating heaps of raw graphic novelty. We built them, we programmed them, we set them loose for a variety of motives, but they do some unexpected and provocative things.

The New Aesthetic as contemporary equivalent to avant-garde movements:

“The New Aesthetic is a rather old, and hearteningly traditional, story about a regional, generational cluster of creative people who are perceiving important stuff that other, older, and dumber people don’t get quite yet. It’s a typical avant-garde art movement that has arisen within a modern network society. That’s what is going on.We’re all supposed to think that an avant-garde is impossible within postmodernity, so we don’t talk about it much nowadays; the very term “avant-garde” sounds musty and weird now, very old-fashioned future. However, time passes, and such things happen anyhow, because generations change and technologies change. Changes in personnel and the means of production will trump the formulations of an ageing philosophy. These avant-gardes pretty much must happen, and there isn’t any honest way to fob this problem off onto some romanticised vision-bots. The bots are just not going to carry that water-bucket. There’s an Uncanny Valley there.”

The question of aesthetics in the field of machine-generated imagery:

- The need for a “human” approach + a tendency towards the unification of mathematical aesthetics and the wider notion of aesthetics in the sphere of the digital :

Our human, aesthetic reaction to the imagery generated by our machines is our own human problem. We are the responsible parties there. We can program robots and digital devices to generate images and spew images at our eyeballs. We can’t legitimately ask them to tell us how to react to that.

You can have all the machinic imagery out of CERN that you want, but the question is: what does it mean, how does it feel, what you do with it, how can you create? Is is beautiful, ugly, worthy, worthless, how is that good or bad, how does it change us?

The “beauty” of mathematics is a fact of creative life. The beauty of software code is also a fact of creative life. Math people and coders both know that those beauties are real, real like anvils. Yet that is a truly deep and wicked aesthetic problem. A modern aesthetic movement who could resolve that problem would have a grand achievement. Instead of merely collecting weird seashells on the vast Newtonian shore, they’d be able to state that they had carried out a huge land-reclamation project.

A few, more critical, perspectives from “The New Aesthetic and Art: Constellations of the Postdigital”, an effort to critically establish the new aesthetic tendency:

A parallel between the New Aesthetic and Surrealism in terms of response generated by computational materiality:

“[...] like surrealism, with its emphasis on creating a level of connectivity between human beings through suggestive imagery, New Aesthetic images that are the product of glitches are creating a level of connectivity between human perceptual capacity and aesthetic response with autonomously and digitally generating entities, namely software packages that function independently of human intervention. At some level, responding aesthetically to a glitchy image grants a type of aesthetic, even artistic, autonomy to software as part of the increasing computational materiality of our civilisation.”

If our perception of the world is increasingly in a fluxual state of intertwined layers of algorithms and computation that defines contemporary society and culture then it’s increasingly evident that New Aesthetic experiences are becoming a dominant and driving force for that change.

The New Aesthetic didn’t just appear as an end result or a product of specific set of necessary technological innovations but that it’s been nascent in the very of idea of the digital for a long time, perhaps even embryonic in the very idea of mathematics and the beauty of mathematics.  => Similar to Sterling’s perspective of the aesthetic/critical challenges faced by this movement

Notes on New Aesthetic Objects:

- “individuals making New Aesthetic products are exhibiting an awareness of the increasingly pervasive effect of the digitalization of the world on our human experience” 

- “it too is an instance of the New Aesthetic in that the participants’ autonomy is clearly limited to the digital interaction aspect”

- ‘Given the examples discussed so far, with the emphasis on the autonomy of the software, the algorithms, and the digital interference into and selective emphasis on human activity, it would be reasonable to assume that mediated New Aesthetic objects are more difficult to identify; our description of their nature has often implied a digital agency separate from human agency, a position we continue to maintain.’

=> apart from illustrating the digital, new aesthetic objects must have a degree of autonomy 

- Each of the examples we discuss in this chapter present themselves either as digital products or as the resulting objects of digital processes, and importantly each example is clearly only associated with a New Aesthetic because of its dependency on its digital origins. 

- Each example further distinguishes itself as New Aesthetic from other experiences because its digital origins seemingly have a capacity to be self-sufficient and self-determinative, acting as an autonomous agent in the interplay between itself and the user. 

The New Aesthetic and reproducibility:

‘At the same time, something else occurs when literally millions of examples of art are made easily available through the most prevalent search engine in the world: the experience of art becomes potentially commonplace. This is not an assertion on our part of Walter Benjamin’s description of the loss of aura in his influential chapter ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ – which we are, nevertheless, remarkably sympathetic about, and which has been a major influence on the development of our critical perspective – in that we don’t readily subscribe to the idea that the value of artworks is necessarily lessened by their reproduction.’

=> an artwork’s value not necessarily lessened by it’s reproducibility

- A comparison to W. Benjamin and A. Danto’s ideas:

“Although Walter Benjamin had posited a loss of aura in the reproduction of physical objects in almost apocalyptic terms, couched in his further analysis of the rise of fascism, and Arthur Danto posited the death of art1 on the basis of art’s capacity to indistinguishably reproduce real objects in a way that parallels Benajmin’s decrying of modernist transformations of art almost to a level of apotheosis (though in a manner later disavowed but still retaining a certain feel of authenticity), it’s clear that auras and life both have remained in art.”

- Criteria for New Aesthetic Objects:

“The boundary between artwork that seems to be New Aesthetic and actually is New Aesthetic is very thin, and seemingly permeable, but there are some specific criteria that are involved. Perhaps the most important criterion is not the fact that the work often is digital but that the work is driven by the technology itself amidst a postdigital condition. This has two corollaries. First, the work doesn’t necessarily have to be digital but at least reflect the digital in its manifestation. Second, art of the New Aesthetic must be just as much a product of technology, the digital and/or the postdigital as it is a product of the artist; the technology involved must be more than an opportunity or inspiration to make new art but should be a fundamentally generative component independent from the imaginative capacity and artistic skills of the artist.”

=> the New Aesthetic Object as a product of both the artist and augmented technology

“Each of the examples we discuss in this chapter present themselves either as digital products or as the resulting objects of digital processes, and importantly each example is clearly only associated with a New Aesthetic because of its dependency on its digital origins. Each example further distinguishes itself as New Aesthetic from other experiences because its digital origins seemingly have a capacity to be self-sufficient and self-determinative, acting as an autonomous agent in the interplay between itself and the user. “

=> self-sufficiency of the artistic product ( real-time systems, generative and algorithmic art products)

=> uncritically embracing the digital as almost a natural language, thereby giving it an autonomous function determining artistic productivity

=> hyper-individualism as a key factor in the New Aesthetic:

“Taking the form of postmodernism at first and, when that new but shallow paradigm was shown to still be consistently linked to modernity, developing a sense of the contemporary that shattered any notion that centralized narratives or art worlds still existed, artists have spun themselves away into new games, new sets and subsets of games, so that hyper-individualism has become the new norm. It’s in this context that New Aesthetic art objects have appeared. “

=>art of the New Aesthetic must be just as much a product of technology, the digital and/or the post-digital as it is a product of the artist; the technology involved must be more than an opportunity or inspiration to make new art but should be a fundamentally generative component independent from the imaginative capacity and artistic skills of the artist. 

James Bridle notes in his 2012 presentation at SWSX :

One of the core themes of the New Aesthetic has been our collaboration with technology, whether that’s bots, digital cameras or satellites (and whether that collaboration is conscious or unconscious), and a useful visual shorthand for that collaboration has been glitchy and pixelated imagery, a way of seeing that seems to reveal a blurring between ‘the real’ and ‘the digital’, the physical and the virtual, the human and the machine. It should also be clear that this ‘look’ is a metaphor for understanding and communicating the experience of a world in which the New Aesthetic is increasingly pervasive.

Lev Manovich and the New Aesthetic:

“The perception of the visual presentation of digital information to human experience is revealed at an even more poignant and insightful level when it breaks into the real and achieves in its presentation a state that Manovich refers to as hybridity, where ‘software simulation substitutes a variety of distinct materials and the tools used to inscribe information (i.e., make marks) on these materials with a new hybrid medium defined by a common data structure’.”

=> hybridity as data structure / mark-making through the use of software

Lev Manovich writes:

After the novel, and subsequently cinema, privileged narrative as the key form of cultural expression of the modern age, the computer age introduces its correlate – the database. Many new media objects do not tell stories; they do not have a beginning or end; in fact, they do not have any development, thematically, formally, or otherwise that would organise their elements into a sequence. Instead, they are collections of individual items, with every item possessing the same significance as any other.

=> the case for the absence of a narrative within new media objects

“Furthermore, Manovich’s implication in suggesting the primacy of standardised modularity is the basis for his disavowal of traditional narrative structures that are normally considered an essential aspect of non-digital, traditional art. Manovich’s disavowal of narrative is an exclusionary theoretical strategy favouring an autonomous agency to digital objects that don’t create experiences but shape data sets.”

- on the validity of procedurally-generated art:

“Where we’ve arrived, interestingly, is at a place where New Aesthetic art is both viable but continuously uncertain. Procedurally generated art can be considered aesthetically valid and the current vivacity and slipperiness of the New Aesthetic can be summarised neatly with a quote from the Indian artist Gopakumar R. P.’s work Linguistic River (2015): ‘I believe the work of art should change the existing visual, intellectual and aesthetic sense and experiment with finding new visual phenomena.”

[tantmieuxloup]

Spinal fusion recovery tips

You’ll kind of figure everything out as you go but it helps to have some idea of recovery ahead of time. This is just a compilation, not super organized.

Context: I’m 16 and a female, my thoracic curve was around 50 degrees

IN THE HOSPITAL: -You’ll probably be too tired to read or craft or whatever but tv also made me pretty nauseous so I liked having long music playlists to listen to. Podcasts are also nice to stay entertained without having to actually do anything. -I had lots of visitors the day after my surgery and it was enjoyable because I still had my epidurals and I wasn’t in any pain, plus I was fairly awake. So that’s a good day for people to come. -We had all my visitors write down their bets for my new height and new curvature, winner gets a prize. Lots of fun. -If you still have your epidurals and catheter in and you’re feeling like eating a ton of food DON’T just take it slow because your system is still backed up and you will have to wait several days to poop it all out. Not fun. -Press the nurse button for whatever you need. It’s not just for emergencies. They want you to be comfortable so really let them know. And say thank you to them. -My catheter would sometimes get in a funny position and not drain so if your bladder is feeling full let the nurse know. -Always be thinking about your pain scale (1-10) When you constantly have a number in mind it makes it a lot easier for pain service to adjust your meds as necessary. -French braids were nice going into surgery but I kind of sleep on all sides of my head so I eventually just let my hair loose. It’s right at my shoulders and has been pretty easy for maintenance. -If you’re worried about privacy with catheters and stuff seriously I did not care when a nurse was keeping that area clean or whatever. You’re tired and they’re professionals. Don’t stress about it. -Get a light robe for walking in the hospital so your gown isn’t open in the back -Let people know if you feel like throwing up. I did a couple of times and I was lying down so I kind of just turned my head to the side to get it into the barf bag. Not a big deal. And luckily it didn’t really make me seize much so it was not painful at all. Don’t resist it, either. -Have your parent take lots of pictures and videos. Also I did some vlogging on my finsta to update my close friends, which was humorous for everyone.

AT HOME: -Walk walk walk. I like to walk in the morning outside which is also a good time to practice breathing deeply, both things my physical therapist was insistent on. Don’t go too far– just down your street- and do little laps if needed so you can easily go back home if you’re tired. -Put a pillow behind hard chairs when you sit on them. If you’re like me it’s still kind of gross to actually feel your back so it just helps. -Try to let your shoulders down when you’re upright. I keep mine tensed a lot and it puts stress on my back. -I had some bad nerve pain by my left shoulder blade for a while that limited my mobility with that arm but it went away within a few weeks. -Stools for your feet seriously help for pooping. This is a must for getting over constipation. Your body isn’t designed for sitting on a toilet normally– knees up is a much better angle for your intestines. Just keep your hands on the sides of the toilet for balance. And if you haven’t pooped in a while it might take like ten minutes but stay patient. And seriously if you have to take a five minute break and go lie down and then go back to the toilet do it. It’s worth it. -I have pretty mobile toes that can pick a lot of things up so maybe practice and see what you can do lol -Stretchy workout shorts are great to put on especially after using the bathroom. You can kind of just put your leg out and let them slide up a bit til you can pull them all the way without bending over. -Try to get back to eating normal foods pretty quickly. Not a lot of them, but they’re a lot more appetizing than crackers all day and help fill you up, especially fruits and vegetables. -Don’t take ibuprofen without eating!! It makes your stomach feel awful -I started to hate drinking water with a straw out of those hospital jugs so if just out of glasses makes you feel better do that more. -Find positions that make you comfortable but don’t stay in them all day. Walk or sit at the table or on the couch and then every so often return to your comfy spots for relief. Getting mobile will really help you recover. -Those gel ice packs that are flexible are a lot more useful than the hard ones -Problem spots for me were my ribs and my neck, probably because they had literally been moved during surgery, so find positions that give those a break. Also deep breathing helps get your ribs/ lungs back to full capacity. -I wasn’t up for having a lot of visitors when I got home but I still stayed in contact with my friends by texting and stuff, so don’t pressure yourself to company you can’t handle but don’t isolate yourself either. -For some reason sleeping with my arms above my head was comfortable. Just try things and see what works. -Start getting motivated to get better and setting a healthy routine within the first few days of going home. For a while I just sat in my chair and felt like I was rotting to death but if you get up in the morning and walk and drink water and eat at least a little bit you’ll have a much better day, even if that was the most you can do. Then take a nap :) -Get a comfy recliner!! I spent most of my time in mine for the first week and it took a lot of pressure off my back, and was more upright and accessible than a bed. A must. -Get a side table that can go over a bed. I have one with a flat section and a section that can tilt and it’s been perfect for watching tv on a laptop and eating and things. -Pebble ice is delicious and doesn’t make me nauseous since it’s just ice and helps take my mind off pain, and stay hydrated. -Those little sitting up pillows with the back and the sides are good for sitting up on couches. And putting big pillows under your arms helps too. -Get a wedge pillow for your bed!! It’s made everything so much better. -I swung between hot and cold a lot so having nice big fans was good for circulation and then I’d have blankets on hand for warmth if needed.

AROUND 3 WEEKS: -When you’re in charge of your own painkillers set alarms and stick to them -Start showering regularly and get back to your skincare routine or whatever. It makes you feel normal again to some degree. -I have to do a lot of summer homework which can be mentally taxing so start setting a plan for the day and include some of whatever you can do -Stay out of bed as much as possible. It helps you sleep better. Lie on couches or your siblings beds during the day so your brain recognizes bedtime more easily. -I’ve had trouble breathing at night so an hour before I go to bed I take an inhaler (I used it for asthma years ago, make sure it’s ok w/ parent) -Start trying to wean off your phone. It’s the worst I know. But replace it with coloring, homework, reading or even just watching tv on the actual tv for a bit every day. -Try harder to eat good food, now that you’re not just concerned with getting something inside you. If it takes too much standing time to prepare something quality have someone help you out. -I’ve started wearing bras again because I like them, but if you want to wear them stick to really soft comfy ones that won’t irritate your back, and if your breathing starts getting constricted, make it the first thing to go. -my period was supposed to be around the week of my surgery but it skipped and I ended up having a 43 day cycle, which is twice as long as it usually is. It was super light and only lasted 3 days. Idk what anyone else’s experience is but prepare for some changes in your cycle, if you menstruate. -start going out in public/ cars for short periods of time. Cars aren’t terrible in terms of jostling unless you’re on a really bad road, so don’t worry too much. -Don’t push your luck with walking around for too long too soon– I did and ended up not sleeping a wink that night because of terrible sharp pain. -You can start doing little bits of housework again, like unloading the top rack of the dishwasher.

REMEMBER your pain sucks but it’s getting better, not worse :)

I have yet to go to school starting in August and I’ll probably post a school list once I do.