#uninhabitable the uk will become for us.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Having some feelings today.

[istoppedlurkingforthis]

First off? Fuck that tory, and all other people, tories or not, that have voiced a similar sentiment in the last few days. I have heard so many versions of it this week and I could scream.

But tweets like the above are, to me, symptomatic of how we discussed climate change back in the 90s, 00s and up until surprisingly recently (haven't heard it as much recently though). One of the most common examples (in a UK context) that I heard/saw given was "the UK will be like the Mediterranean", and unfortunately peoples reactions was usually "GREAT! Bring it on! I can't wait to have perfect weather for my holidays at home!". Because whenever we said that, we never focused on the horrifying implications.

Because the horrifying implications, that we chose to leave unsaid likely because we all got told something along the lines of 'keep it positive and don't scare people', was what's happening in the Mediterranean now. What's happening in Northern Africa. All across Asia. In Canada. In the Ocean surface temperatures.

And I really wish I could go back in time and slap everyone in the face who uttered that phrase, me included, without including an immediate caveat. Actually, we shouldn't have used it at all. We should have focused on the bad part. Clearly trying to be kind about it didn't work.

But yeah. Fuck that tory in particular for saying that. People are dead. More are going to die.

Firefighters have been killed and homes are being destroyed.

Scottish Tories: Wish we could have some of that sunshine☀️😎

[turtlesandfrogs]

So I was scrolling and saw this image in an article about the European heat wave,

And was like, uh, are you missing something there, buddy? Like all that red in northern Africa? Because that's a lot of red.

And I was going to give them the benefit of doubt, since I don't know much about the climate in Northern Africa, aside from Morroco and Egypt, which seem like really hot places, so you know, maybe it's normal there?

But nope, that's not the case:

"While the planet broke multiple records for average worldwide temperatures last week, a heat wave gripped northern Africa.

The region has been experiencing some of the most intense heat waves in recent years, but in many cases they’ve been under-reported due to misconceptions about Africans’ ability to withstand them.

“Africa is seen as a sunny and hot continent,” said Amadou Thierno Gaye, a research scientist and professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. “People think we are used to heat, but we are having high temperatures for a longer duration. Nobody is used to this.”

North Africa, the Sahara desert and the Sahel, a semi-arid belt north of the Sudanian savanna, are some of the most vulnerable areas because they have larger land masses relative to the rest of the continent, meaning they tend to heat up faster. Scientists have attributed the unprecedented temperatures to a combination of human-induced climate change and the return of El Niño, a natural phenomenon that alters weather patterns.

The Sahel, for instance, has been heating at a faster pace than the global average despite being hot already. Burkina Faso and Mali, both in West Africa’s Sahel, are among countries that are set to become almost uninhabitable by 2080, if the world continues on its current trajectory, a UK university study found. Its people are especially vulnerable due to shrinking resources, such as water, and poor amenities, and a dearth of trees and parks means there are few options for places to cool off.

“People talk of climate change as if it’s a thing of the future,” said Gaye. “Climate change is already here and we see its implications in people, livelihoods, economies and even in cultures.”

While studies on heat impacts on health are limited in Africa, research published last year found that children younger than 5 years old are particularly vulnerable to the hotter weather as they are less able that adults to self-regulate their bodies’ temperatures. The authors estimated that heat-related child mortality was rising in sub-Saharan Africa due to climate change. Other researchers have named the elderly, pregnant women and people who work outdoors, as groups at risk of heat strokes or heat-related infectious diseases.

Elsewhere on the continent, the crisis is also being felt. In the Horn of Africa, at least 43,000 people died in Somalia alone last year as a result of the worst drought in four decades. A study found that global warming is changing rain patterns and bringing more heat to Somalia and some of its neighbors, for longer stretches of time. Further south, unusually destructive cyclones in 2019 claimed more than a thousand lives in Mozambique and Zimbabwe alone.

“If we continue business-as-usual, the heat is not just going to get worse, it will get much worse,” said Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, research chair in climate change science at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. “We are going to see more frequent, longer and more intense heat waves.”

Much of the continent, responsible for just 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions generated from burning fossil fuels, is ill-prepared for a hotter world. Meanwhile, Group of 20 nations, with air conditioning and access to functioning healthcare facilities, account for 80% of the world’s emissions.

Hundreds of millions of Africans lack electricity to even power a fan. One in three people in Africa is affected by water scarcity, according to the World Health Organization, so hydration can’t be taken for granted. Even shade is harder to come by due to widespread deforestation and land degradation. And only 40% of people on the continent are covered by early warning systems for extreme weather.

“More funds have to be allocated to climate adaptation and they need to be made more easily accessible to the most vulnerable countries,” Sylla said.

The UN climate talks later this year aspire to come up with a plan for richer nations to pay for loss and damages. But they’ve collectively fallen short of their commitment to spend $100 billion each year on projects in developing nations to cut emissions and to help them adapt.

“That’s where the issue of climate justice comes in,” said Gaye. “It’s not just that people are uncomfortable, climate change is killing them.”

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says ‘there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand how grave this is’

The race to save the planet is being impeded by a global economy that is contingent on the exploitation of people and nature, according to the UN’s outgoing leading environment and human rights expert.

David Boyd, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment from 2018 to April 2024, told the Guardian that states failing to take meaningful climate action and regulating polluting industries could soon face a slew of lawsuits.

Boyd said: “I started out six years ago talking about the right to a healthy environment having the capacity to bring about systemic and transformative changes. But this powerful human right is up against an even more powerful force in the global economy, a system that is absolutely based on the exploitation of people and nature. And unless we change that fundamental system, then we’re just re-shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.”

The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was finally recognised as a fundamental human right by the United Nations in 2021-22. Some countries, notably the US, the world’s worst historic polluter, argue that UN resolutions are legally influential but not binding. The right to a healthy environment is also enshrined into law by 161 countries with the UK, US and Russia among notable exceptions.

Boyd, a Canadian environmental law professor, said: “Human rights come with legally enforceable obligations on the side of states, so I believe that this absolutely should be a game-changer – and that’s why states have resisted it for so long.

Boyd said: "By bringing human rights into the equation, we now have institutions, processes and courts that can say to governments this isn’t an option for you to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and phase out fossil fuels. These are obligations which include regulating businesses, to make sure that businesses respect the climate, the environment and human rights."

Over the course of his six-year mandate, Boyd met thousands of people directly affected by rising sea levels, extreme heat, plastic waste, toxic air, and dwindling food and water supplies, while undertaking fact-finding missions to Fiji, Norway, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Portugal, Slovenia, Chile, Botswana and Maldives.

“Powerful interconnected business and political elites – the diesel mafia – are still becoming wealthy from the existing system. Dislodging this requires a huge grassroots movement using tools like human rights and public protest and every other tool in the arsenal of change-makers.”

On his first trip as special rapporteur to Fiji, Boyd met with community members from Vunidogoloa, a coastal village left uninhabitable by rising sea water, who were forced to relocate to higher ground. Last year in Botswana, he met with Indigenous people from the Kalahari desert no longer able to handle the worsening heat and water scarcity.

Over the past 30 years, the world has pinned its hopes on international treaties - particularly the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris accords – to curtail global heating. Yet they do not include mechanisms for holding states accountable to their commitments, and despite some progress, greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to rise and climate breakdown is accelerating.

It’s not just taxpayer subsidies propping up polluting industries and delaying climate action. The same multinationals are involved in negotiating – or at least influencing – climate policy, with a record number of fossil-fuel lobbyists given access to the UN Cop28 climate talks last year.

Boyd said: “There’s no place in the climate negotiations for fossil-fuel companies. There is no place in the plastic negotiations for plastic manufacturers. It just absolutely boggles my mind that anybody thinks they have a legitimate seat at the table.

“It has driven me crazy in the past six years that governments are just oblivious to history. We know that the tobacco industry lied through their teeth for decades. The lead industry did the same. The asbestos industry did the same. The plastics industry has done the same. The pesticide industry has done the same.”

In his final interview before handing over the special rapporteur mandate, Boyd said he struggles to makes sense of the world’s collective indifference to the suffering being caused by preventable environmental harms.

[naritaika]

Gaza updates I found 1/10-1/11

Summary;

-genocide continues, not improving on the ground, but many remain determined

-113+ journalists killed, more than in WW2

-South africas case against Israel is heard today (on aljzeera English if you want to watch), Israel’s response tomorrow

-US and UK bomb yemen

-bombing of Yemens capital is a huge escalation, and has been called collective punishment

-continuation of targeting near hospitals

-“Gaza is becoming simply uninhabitable”(UNRWA commissioner general)

-evacuations continue but still with no safe place

-conditions only get worse

How to help;

-continue reposting consistently, these things have been used as evidence for the genocide (Can also submit evidence of the genocide here; justiceforall.org/icc-submission…

-educate your family

-continue direct action (ie boycotts, protests, donations)

-remain consistent!!!!

Link to full thread;

https://x.com/naritaika95/status/1745642381884428623?s=46

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Red Team Blues Chapter One, part three

With just days to the publication of my next novel, Red Team Blues, I’m taking the chance to serialize the first chapter of this anti-finance finance thriller, and introduce you to Marty Hench, a 67-year-old forensic accountant who specializes in Silicon Valley finance scams.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/19/whats-wrong-with-iowa/#henched

Marty is ready to retire, but there’s just one more job he has to do — recover a billion dollars’ worth of cryptographic keys that are claimed by money-launderers, narcos, and shady US three letter agencies.

Here’s the previous installments:

Part one:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/17/have-you-tried-not-spying/#unsalted-hash

Part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#henched

Here’s where US readers can pre-order the book:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

Here’s pre-orders for Canadians:

https://services.raincoast.com/scripts/b2b.wsc/featured?hh_isbn=9781250865847&ht_orig_from=raincoast

And for readers in the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth:

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/red-team-blues-cory-doctorow/7225998?ean=9781804547755

And now, here’s today’s serial installment:

I grunted noncommittally. Danny had been around since crypto meant “cryptography,” and I hadn’t figured him to become one of these blockchain hustlers. They’re the kind of smart people who outsmart themselves, especially when it comes to shenanigans, forgetting that their public ledger is public and all their transactions are visible to the whole world forever. Forensic accounting never had a better friend than crypto, with its mix of public ledgers, deluded masters of the universe, and suckers pumping billions into the system. It was full employment for me and my competitors until cryptocurrency’s carbon footprint rendered the earth uninhabitable.

“There are certain technical differences between Trustless and other coins. Will you allow me to explain them to you? I promise it’s germane and I’m not trying to sell you anything.” “Aw, hell, Danny, you can tell me anything. I just get sick of being hustled.”

“Me, too, pal. Okay, if you mentioned distributed sudoku puzzles, you know something about proof of work: the way blockchain maintains the integrity of its ledger is by having everyone in the system repeatedly do compute work that reaffirms all the entries in the ledger. So long as the value of all the assets in the ledger is less than the electricity bill for taking over the majority of the compute work, they’re safe.”

“That means that the more valuable all this blockchain stuff becomes, the more coal they have to burn to keep it all from being stolen,” I said. It was something I’d almost said to the bros at dinner the night before, but I didn’t want an argument to distract from the otherwise lovely time I’d been having with my entirely lovely companion.

“That’s fair,” he said. “That’s what every greenie who hasn’t received a couple of mil in donations from surprised crypto-millionaires will tell you. But, Marty, that’s a problem with proof of work, not with distributed ledgers. If you could build a blockchain that had a negligible carbon budget, you could do a lot with it.”

“Launder money. Badly.”

“That,” he said. “Lot of Chinese entrepreneurs and officials are anxious to beat currency controls. But it’s not just money, it’s anything you want to have universally available, unfalsifiable, and cryptographically secured.”

“Laundered money.”

He made a face. “Cynic. Not laundered money. Genocide-­proof ID. Cryptographically secured, write-­only manifests of a person’s identifiers, including nationality, vitals, and ethnic group, but each one has its own key, held by the Blue Helmets. You get to a border and you present your biometrics, and the UN tells the border guards your nationality but not your ethnicity.”

“Fanciful.”

“Cynic! Yeah, fine, no one’s doing it yet, but we could. All that blockchain for good shit that the hucksters talked up to make it sound like proof of work wasn’t a crime against humanity. Trust­ lesscoin lets you do them because it doesn’t need the sudoku.”

I dredged up memories of half-­digested podcasts I’d listened to on the road. “Is it a proof-­of-­stake thing?”

He snorted. “Don’t try to sound smart, Marty, you’ll sprain something. No, it’s secure enclaves. That crypto-­sub-­processor in your iPhone that Apple uses to keep you from switching to another app store? It can run code. What’s more, it can sign the output. So we can send you a program and check to see whether it ran as intended, because we know that the owner of a phone can’t override the secure enclave. Far as Apple’s concerned, iPhone owners are the enemy, and their threat model treats the device owner as an adversary — ­as someone who might get apps someplace that doesn’t kick a fifteen to thirty percent vigorish up to Apple for every transaction, depriving its shareholders of their rake.

“Any device with a secure enclave or other trusted computing module is a device that treats its owner as the enemy. That’s a device we need, because when you’re in the Trustlesscoin network, that device will defend me from you, and you from me. I don’t have to trust you, I just have to trust that you can’t break into your own phone, which is to say that I have to trust that Apple’s engineers did their job correctly, and well, you know, they’ve got a pretty good track record, Marty.”

“Except?”

He finished his lemonade and scowled at the reusable straw.

“Yeah, except. Look, Trustlesscoin is on track to become the standard public ledger for the world. I know, I know, every founder talks that ‘make a dent in the universe’ crap, but I mean it. You want to know how serious I am about this? I took in outside capital.”

He let me sit with that a moment. Danny Lazer, the man who ate ramen in a twenty-­year-­old, bent-­axle RV for decades with the love of his life so he’d never have to take a nickel from any of those bloodsuckers on Sand Hill Road, and he took in outside capital. Danny Lazer, a man who’d owned 75 percent of a unicorn, which is to say, seven-­point-­five-­times-­ten-­to-­the-­eight U.S. American Greenback Simoleon Dollars, and he took in outside capital.

“Why? And also, what for?”

He laughed. “Watching you work out a problem is like watching a bulldog chew a wasp, brother. You’ve got a hell of a poker face, but when you start overclocking the old CPU, it just melts. I’ll tell you why and what for.

“First of all, I wanted to create something for Sethu. She’s never had the chance to live up to her potential. She’s smart, Marty, smart like Galit was, but she’s also technical, and managerial, and just born to run things. I’ve never met a better candidate for a CEO than she is. And I’m not young, you know that, and there’s going to be a long time after I’m dead when she’ll still be in her prime, and I wanted to make something she could grow into and grow around her.

“I’d been playing with the idea behind Trustless since the early 2000s, when Microsoft released its first Trusted Computing papers, all the way back in the Palladium days! So Sethu and I hung up a whiteboard in the guest room and started spending a couple of hours a day in there. I didn’t want to bring in anyone else at first, first because it seemed like a hobby and not a business, and hell, every cryptographer I know is working seventy-hour weeks as it is.

“Then I didn’t want to bring in anyone else because I got a sense of how big this damned thing is. I mean, there’s about two trillion in assets in the blockchain today, and that’s with all the stupid friction of proof-­of-­work. When we lift the shackles off of it, whoosh, we’re talking about a ledger that will encompass more assets than the total balance sheets of twenty or thirty of the smallest UN members . . . ​combined.

“You know me, Marty. I don’t believe in much, but when I do believe in something, I’m all in. All. In. And so I brought some people in.”

“What for, though? Danny, how much of your Keypairs jackpot did you manage to blow? How much money could you possibly need, and for what? Are you building your own chip foundry? Buying a country?”

“We actually thought of doing both of those things, you know, but decided we didn’t need the headaches. The Keypairs money’s only grown since I cashed out, thanks to the bull runs. I can’t spend it all, won’t be able to. It would sicken me to try, because I’d have to be so wasteful to even make a dent in it.

“The reason I went for outside capital wasn’t money, it was connections.”

I groaned. Every grifter in private equity and VC-­land claimed that they had “connections” that represented value add for their portfolio companies. The social butterfly market was implausible on its face, and in practice, it was just a way of turning cocktail parties into a business expense. “Come on, Danny, you know people already.”

“Not these people.” And he did the thing. He looked from side to side, up and down. He turned off his phone and held his hand out for mine and carried them both to the little step next to the water feature and set them down on it so they’d be in the white-noise zone. He came back, looked around again. “I got signing keys for four of the most commonly deployed secure enclaves.” He looked around again.

“I think I know what that means, Danny, but maybe you could spell it out? I’m just a dumb old accountant, not a cryptographic legend like yourself. And for God’s sake, stop looking around. I’ll let you know if I see anyone sneaking up on us.”

“Sorry, sorry. Okay. The secure enclave gets a program, runs it, and signs the output. The secure enclave’s little toy operating system says that it does this reliably and without exception. You see a signature on a program’s output, you know the program produced it. That toy OS, it’s simple. Stupid. Brutal. Does about six things, very well, and nothing else. You can’t change that program. Secure enclaves are designed to be non-­serviceable. Even taking them off the mainboard wrecks them. You get them into a lab and decap them and hit them with an electron-­tunneling microscope, you still won’t be able to recover the signing keys or force a false sig.

“But if you have the signing keys? You can just simulate a secure enclave on any computer. Then you can run any operating system you want on it, including one that will forge signatures. You do that, and you can falsify the ledger. You can move unlimited sums from any part of the balance sheet to your part of the balance sheet. You can jackpot the whole fucking thing.”

I blew out air. “Well, that seems like a defect in the system, all right.”

“It can’t be helped. We call it Trustless, but there’s always some trust in a system like this. You’re not trusting the other users of the system or the company that made the software. You’re trusting that a couple of leading manufacturers of cryptographic coprocessors and sub-­processors, companies with decades of experience, will maintain operational security and not lose control of the keys that their entire business — ­and the entire business of all their customers and their customers’ customers — ­are dependent upon. You’re not trusting the other users, but you’re trusting them.”

“And yet,” I said, looking over at Sethu, who was painting away and performing an excellent simulation of someone who wasn’t eavesdropping, “you found someone willing to sell you some of those keys.”

“Yes,” he said and gave me a calm, no-­bullshit, eye-­to-­eye stare. “I did. It’s useful to have those, especially when you’re first kicking a new cryptocurrency around. You make a smart contract with a bad line of code in it, you create a bug bounty with an unlimited payout. So in the early days, when you’re figuring this stuff out, you do a little ledger rewriting.”

“You do rewriting on a read-­only ledger that no one is ever supposed to rewrite.”

He rolled his eyes. “Ethereum did it early on, moved fifty mil in stolen payout from a bad smart contract out of the crook’s account and back into the mark’s account. No one made too much of a fuss. I mean, the immutable ledger sounds like a great idea until someone no stupider than you gets taken for fifty mil, and then rewriting the ledger is just sound fiscal policy in service to fundamental justice.”

“But Ethereum told everyone they were doing it. Sounds like you did it all on the down low?”

“We were early. No one was even paying attention. All we wanted was a ledger whose early entries weren’t an eternal monument to my stupid mistakes as I climbed the learning curve.”

“Fine. Vain, but fine. Still, getting those keys meant a lot of power for a little reputation laundering.”

He sighed and looked away. “Yeah. The thing is, I’m not the only one who makes mistakes. We are aiming for trillions secured on our chain. Trillions, Marty. Ten to the twelve. It’s an unforgiving medium, and the stakes are high. The Ethereum lesson was clear: a couple of divide-­by-­zeros or fence post errors, a single badly typed variable or buffer overrun, and the whole thing could sink. I needed an eraser. Not on day zero but well before I attained liftoff.”

“Every hacker builds in a back door, huh?”

“Don’t call it that. Call it an Undo button.”

“Okay, then. An Undo button in a system whose cryptography is supposed to prevent undo at all costs. But not a back door.”

“You, my friend, are too smart. I miss the days when forensic accountancy and security engineering were distinct fields. ” “Me, too, pal. So what happened? Your keys took a walk?”

Tomorrow (Apr 21), I’m speaking in Chicago at the Stigler Center’s Antitrust and Competition Conference. This weekend (Apr 22/23), I’m at the LA Times Festival of Books.

[brainjuicey]

guys I'm going to speculate about personal wealth as the only viable option to achieve a quality of life in modern ireland because of a systemic failure of the gov.

the cultural and social climate in Ireland is incredibly isolated and mainly survives on the community driven status quo, and part of that means talking to anyone on the street about anything. its taboo to hold a prejudice against men (you'll find no sympathy or self awareness in the good hearty country people for the actions of others because they're so convinced of their own Catholic virtue) I like that their belief and strength comes from a place of goodness but at the same time 😀 as a young person there's no space for change (I want to posit the growing perceived idea that most change in Ireland is bad, in the last 40 years the country has changed dramatically in every way)

as governmental policy, regulations and aspirations were influenced by western advancement, the approach to urban planning and management has gotten bloated and useless. rapidly, life in Ireland changed, often reflecting the cultural urban centres of the UK. the ideology behind that choice is found in every corner of the irish design industry "new is good, old is bad," and the only use for old world customs and traditions is tourism. Ireland is fundamentally about living a simple life and while those wealthy enough to access the resources can do that (education, comfort, fine commodities), everyone in between rural country life and "high society" (the majority of the population) has been left in limbo. for young people it can seem like the only choice is to become a wealthy Dubliner, go abroad, or stay home and work in a shop or pub. there's no shame in any of these. again, people have been trying for decades to create alternative routes that ultimately submit to the same rules and guidelines. any chance at true enjoyment of social security and standing must be enjoyed alone. the gov plays no part in the organisation or support of communities. people are disillusioned with police for inactivity and unfairness. the gov is like an absentee parental figure, building massive housing estates with no engagement or organisation of most often- large groups of vulnerable people with children who grow up idle and angry. housing for upper class people are no different, devoid of organised thought and a poor mimicry of the enjoyment of Irish homes- the peace of isolation. instead they are hostile.

i think the anti-social sentiment of citizens disillusioned with Irish life (quite a lot of people) comes from a disappointment and anger towards a longstanding neglect of responsibilities of the Irish government. anyone should be able to contact their representative and do what they want, be it fireworks or a driveway or a solarfarm or a playground or parking spaces or turning an empty building into something new.

I reject the free markets ability to come into a decrepit area that people suffer for, homes uninhabitable in the town centre, footpaths unusable and unsafe, and take advantage of the market to create a luxury-amenities business.

while being bi-partisan to any prejudice or resentment is a prize quality in old Irish culture, modern Ireland is riddled with resentment. an economically diverse society openly mirroring a hierarchy is a relic of medieval times— a historical period still present in the Irish cultural mindset. in this way, the urge to be all the same is a negative hindrance on improving quality of life. the answer isn't personal wealth, or thinking you've found the solution (a cushy lifestyle that you've carved out for yourself, half in half out of society when it suits you). progress has to be momentous enough to encompass everyone in the community, a socio-cultural-economic boom of energy that inspires people enough to embrace their traditions actively and not abandon them as a sacrifice to achieving a "better" life.

[justforbooks]

In 1962, Brendon Grimshaw did something many of us only dream of: He bought a tropical island. Moyenne Island lays 4.5km off the north coast of Mahé, the largest of  the 115-island Seychelle archipelago. Uninhabited, overgrown, and with legends of pirate treasure, Grimshaw fell in love with the tiny island the moment he set foot on it. It is just 400m long by 300m wide.

Originally from the UK, Grimshaw was working as a newspaper editor in Kenya. Tanzania had just declared independence and Kenya was about to follow. He figured that his job would pass to someone local. At 37, he began considering what to do next. He wanted a life closer to nature and dreamed of owning land in the Seychelles.

Under the guise of a holiday, Grimshaw went to Seychelles to see if there was any way his dream could become reality. After a few weeks, he started to wonder if he had to rethink his plans. Even in the early 1960s, the prices of the few islands for sale were not for the faint of wallet.

Then just before he left for home, a young man in the street providentially asked if he was interested in buying an island. Later that day, they visited Moyenne Island. “It was totally different,” he said many years later. “It was a special feeling. This is the place I’d been looking for.”

So for about $10,000, Moyenne Island became his. If he thought buying an island was difficult, it was nothing compared with what came next.

Moyenne Island harbored a tiny rainforest so dense that falling coconuts didn’t hit the ground. it was impossible to walk across. The island had suffered from neglect. Weeds choked the native plants, and rats scampering through the undergrowth were about the only wildlife.

Grimshaw enlisted the help of a local man, Rene Antoine Lafortune. Together, in a lifelong project, the pair set out to restore the island to be what Seychelles had been before tourism and development. They cut paths through the forest, cleared scrub, and began to plant native trees and plants. Planting became an obsession. Today, Moyenne has over 16,000 trees.

Grimshaw then turned to the next problem: the lack of native fauna. There were no birds, so he brought 10 over from a neighboring island, to which they swiftly flew back. He did the same thing again and thought he got the same result. But then a few birds returned.

Grimshaw and Lafortune began feeding those first avian residents. Slowly, more settled on the island. As the new trees grew and produced fruit, more birds came. Now 2,000 birds live on this little slice of paradise.

Grimshaw introduced one more animal to his island, the giant Aldabra tortoise. After transporting a number of tortoises to the island, he painstakingly cared for them. The species is native to Seychelles but had become locally extinct on many of the islands.

A poster boy for conservationists, Grimshaw painted numbers on their shells so that he could identify them. He then set up a breeding program.

“The babies are kept in my bedroom,” he told the Financial Times in 2008. “If you let them go, you’ll never see them again.”

For these efforts, he was once aptly described as “the reptilian version of a cat lady”. Moyenne Island now has approximately 50 tortoises.

Grimshaw moved to the island permanently in 1972. Over time, he had water, electricity, and a phone line set up. Many thought that this was the start of the island becoming yet another tourist destination.

But that underestimated Grimshaw. He never wanted his island to become a resort. He wanted it to turn it into a nature preserve. Before his death in 2012, he turned down multiple offers to buy the island. Once, a Saudi prince reportedly offered him $50 million for it.

Grimshaw lived on the island for the rest of his life, but he was not always alone. When his mother died in 1981, he invited his father to come and live with him. He was both thrilled and surprised when his 88-year-old dad agreed.

“We had a wonderful time together and became the best of friends,” Grimshaw said. His father died five years later and was buried on the island, next to the grave that Grimshaw had already dug for himself.

Even after his father passed away, Grimshaw was not alone. Lafortune also stayed on the island. He brought a few stray dogs back to the island, and they allowed day-trippers to visit from Mahé for a small fee. With no jetty, visitors had to wade onto the island’s white sands, where Grimshaw met them. In 2010, a film crew also visited the island to make a documentary, below, about Grimshaw and the work he had done.

In 2007, Lafortune passed away. Grimshaw, now 81, knew that he too had limited time left. Unmarried and with no children, he had no one to take on the custodianship of the island. He set up a perpetual trust and signed an agreement with Seychelles’ Ministry of Environment. His island became Moyenne Island National Park, the world’s smallest national park.

When Grimshaw died in 2012, he was buried next to his father. As requested, his tombstone reads, “Moyenne taught him to open his eyes to the beauty around him and say thank you to God.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[galina]

Hey, wondering how you got into sketching and design, if you don't mind sharing. Wish you a lovely day!

hi, hi, hi. short and truest answer is I always loved drawing as a kid and my parents were super encouraging because it kept me quiet lol, then I went to art skool (where I did creative writing, not fine art) and found a way to approach writing and design in an interdisciplinary sense. but it also got me thinking and I wrote this longer thing about my childhood which is very loose and random.

short story long, when I was born, my parents found themselves (as many do) as a young immigrant family newly in the uk who needed to work. working nights at a bar was not a long term solution. somehow they found work together doing translation, mostly for technical manuals and instructions for machinery. whilst they worked I used to draw on the back of dot matrix paper that came from one of these machines for which they were translating a new manual. one of my first memories is the feeling of drawing on the perforated paper which had code printed across it. I would draw in and around the data, my drawings and the random letters becoming one big mess. I still think of that strange forced blend of computer generated type and hand drawn lines as the first time I encountered design physically. 

so drawing was the thing that occupied me and kept me quiet whilst my parents worked, until they bought their first television around 1999. after that I was treated to jolly phonics, the reading and writing programme for small children led by a puppet mouse and snake. everywhere we went I was drawing and writing on bits of scrap paper until I was able to go to school where I was pretty much sated (until maths came along, which I disliked). 

my parents moved into an abandoned church which was initially uninhabitable. with the help of friends and a large bank loan they worked to make its attic a home for us. drawing and writing became part of the physical house -- on the new plaster, on bits of wooden frames for stairs and windows, on old chalkboards left by the former tenants from the sunday school which once ran there. design was everywhere, architectural and very much part of growing up. one wall was left as bare plaster, a job to get around to for 20 years. I used to wet the tip of my finger in the sink and draw on the dusty plaster, making temporary dark shapes.

my design marks were usually temporary but my parents also loved to bring creativity into the house. my fondest memories are of my dad’s huge photo collages of us which he hung around the house alongside works by artists he had known before he moved. my mum made all the furniture -- she would buy from second hand shops and re-upholster, strip or stain everything. she had a desk which she covered in decoupage from old national geographic magazines and sealed with varnish. I loved how a glass eye met a waterfall or a bird in the pastiche. 

when I was about 9 my best friend, who I was totally in love with in the truest sense, discovered japanese popular art. there wasn’t a huge amount available to us in the small town but we consumed everything we could get, particularly after spirited away came out we were able to get hold of a lot of ghibli dvds and popular english translated manga at the waterstone’s in town. I feel like that was a turning point, reading in the back (or front) of a manga about how the authors studied in the traditional style to become elite comics artists. that turned all this from a passtime into something very real that was happening outside of my world. comics solidified the relationship between art, writing and design for me as an interdisciplinary craft to be honed. it was something I came back to over and over again after that--unlike the forced relationship of the dot matrix paper with my childhood scribbling, comics were bridging design gaps in a way that was truly graceful and felt almost natural-- 

ummm this is turning into a life story lol it’s very boring! but it was fun to write something different and a bit more personal. if you read this far I am sorry haha. I will probably get embarrassed n delete later! thanks for coming on such a random childhood journey with me

[tenduw]

A brief history of Seychelles - Research day #1

Although visited by Phoenicians, Malays and Arabs, and used in the 16th century by the Portuguese as a stopover point, the Seychelles remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century.

Pirates and privateers set up bases on the islands and in 1741 the Governor of Mauritius (then called Île de France) sent Lazare Picault to explore them. The French claimed possession of the islands in 1756 and French settlers from Mauritius, with their African slaves, began to arrive from 1770.

British attempts to take possession in the late 18th century were confounded by the pacifying tactics of Governor Queau de Quinssy, who several times surrendered to British aggressors, then after their departure, raised the French flag again. After the Napoleonic Wars, by the Treaty of Paris (1814), the Seychelles was ceded to Britain, together with Mauritius. From then until 1903, it was administered from Mauritius.

The Seychelles had long provided a transit point for slaves from Africa. Britain abolished trade in slaves at the beginning of the 19th century (abolishing slavery itself in 1834) and British vessels were active in attacking Spanish, Arab and other slaving vessels. About 3,000 Africans rescued from Arab slave traders on the East African coast between 1861 and 1874 were removed to Seychelles, to become labourers on the plantations. The British also exiled some West African chiefs, who were continuing to resist British control, to Seychelles. There was also some Chinese and Indian settlement in the 19th century, most commonly by traders.

Poverty was widespread by 1918, due partly to a fall in vanilla prices (an artificial substitute having been discovered). New cash crops such as cinnamon and copra were then introduced. In the 1940s, the Association of Seychelles Taxpayers protested against the UK’s management of the islands. In 1964 the Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP), led by James Mancham, and the Seychelles People’s United Party (SPUP), led by France Albert René, were founded. The SDP favoured retaining close ties with the UK; the SPUP campaigned for autonomy.

Universal adult suffrage was introduced in 1967, for elections of members of the legislative council. The council became a 15-member legislative assembly in 1970 (later National Assembly) and general elections were held in which the SDP won six seats and the SPUP five. Mancham became chief minister. At the next elections in 1974, the SDP won 52% of the votes, the SPUP 47%; Seychelles achieved internal self-government in the following year.

Parliament then voted for independence, a new constitution was finalised in 1976, and Seychelles became an independent republic within the Commonwealth. Mancham became president and René prime minister.

At independence Mancham and the SDP’s policies favoured development based on tourism and offshore financial services and alignment with the West, whereas René and the SPUP wanted a non-aligned policy and the development of a selfreliant economy centred on nationalised industry. The SPUP staged an armed coup in June 1977, while Mancham was in the UK attending a Commonwealth summit and Seychelles became a socialist state, with René as its president and the SPUP, renamed the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front (SPPF), the sole political party. There was extensive nationalisation of enterprises, including hotels and industries.

There were a number of threatened coup plots against the René government, the most serious in 1981, when about 50 mercenaries, recruited in South Africa, attempted a landing in Mahé. When their weapons were discovered at the airport, the mercenaries escaped by hijacking an Air India jet, leaving five of their number behind.

However, opposition from exiled political supporters of the SDP and Mancham continued throughout the 1980s, and was reinforced by the turning of the international tide against centralised economic control and one-party rule towards the end of the decade. By 1990, opposition within the country also became vocal, and the government began to consider the need for change.

In December 1991, the government passed legislation to provide for multiparty democracy. Eight parties were registered by July 1992, and a constitutional commission elected to prepare a new constitution which paved the way for presidential and legislative elections in July 1993. René took 59% of votes in the presidential election and Sir James Mancham 36%; and the SPPF gained a large majority – 27 of the 33 seats – in the National Assembly.

In the March 1998 elections, President René (with 67% of the votes) was returned and his SPPF won 24 of the 25 Assembly seats (30 of 34 when seats allocated on a proportional basis were included). Mancham (14%) was overtaken by Wavel Ramkalawan of the United Opposition party (19%) as opposition leader.

Thank you for reading ^^

[highnoonratfilms]

Environ-mentality short film Idea and Pre - production work for After Effects work and Final Film

With the growing issue that affects us all, I have become more aware of our effects on the environment. Living in a world that largely powers itself using NON-SUSTAINABLE fossil fuels. It makes me think we are not doing enough, and some people don’t know enough about what we can do. Examples across the world show us we can do more, but why are we not? Examples include Iceland's Carbfix project, that captures Co2 and other acidic atmospheric gasses, liquidizes them then pumps them into the bedrock bellow where they then become stable minerals. (At the time of writing this) Morocco has the largest solar farm in the world as of 2020 (NOOR POWER PLANT) with an estimated size equivalent to 3500 football pitches. Iceland is powered 100% by sustainable energy and it took 4 years for Morocco to produce 49% of their energy sustainably. Why is it then that the UK and US are doing so poorly in the field of renewable energy? Accounting for 37.4% of renewable energy from the UK and a shocking 11% produced in America.  

I want to discuss the damaging effects Co2 emissions from non-sustainable fuel sources has on the environment around us such as Air pollution, climate change, causing weather patterns to become more & more unpredictable, damage to the ocean, the loss of wild areas due to population and how ultimately greed and selfishness is hurting the world we inhabit. What we can do to change future for the better.  

With this type of topic there is a lot of organizations who would love to be given the chance to spread their message. So, I would like to give them the chance to do just that,

I plan to approach certain companies or individuals offering them a chance to offer contributors for the film or to give their input. Such as Liverpool Friends of the earth, WWF to discuss the earth hour that happens once a year across the globe and Sea Legacy which is a company devoted to saving the oceans across the world and the wildlife that inhabit it.  

Sea Legacy  

Liverpool Friends of the earth https://friendsoftheearth.uk/groups/liverpool

WWF UK - 01483 426444

Stephenson Institute For Renewable Energy

I will need to need to research the topic a lot more than I have done because I feel as though I do not know enough yet to make a compelling piece of work. Although it is very quickly becoming a topic of great interest to me.  

My Reading List for this topic will be.

Ahluwalia, V., 2013. Environmental Studies. New Delhi: The Energy and Resources Institute.

Berners-Lee, M., 2019. There Is No Planet B. Cambridge (Reino Unido) [etc.]: Cambridge University Press.

Klein, N., 2015. This Changes Everything. New York: Penguin books.  

Wallace-Wells, D., 2019. The Uninhabitable Earth. 1st ed. New York, New York: Crown Publishing Group.

Inspiration for the film has come from personal interest. As well as other documentaries and docuseries out there, such as Kiss the Ground, Our Planet (including BTS) and Down to Earth.  I have also been a plant-based eater for just over a year now, I originally turned plant-based to improve my health. Although after some time I have discovered that there are lot of benefits to the environment when people lower their animal product consumption.  (not to say animal products are the only problem with the food industry)

I was also watching ‘I Am Greta’ the documentary about Greta Thunberg and her journey to where she is today, bringing awareness to the climate crisis across the globe resulting in the Fridays for future movement. Which inspired a tremendous amount of school children to protest against their governments attitude towards climate change.  

Equipment & Budget: 

Canon eos M50 mirrorless camera + 15-45MM CANON LENS E-MOUNT £499.00

SanDisk Extreme 64GB £28.00

TAKSTAR SGC-598 + POP FILTER £29.95

DEAD CAT FILTER £5.99

Manfrotto tripod £50.00

RODE Wireless Go Lavalier microphone £159.99

Acer Nitro 5 +  Samsung 500GB SSD + 16GB DDR4 SODIMM RAM £700 -£800

Adobe Premiere-pro + Adobe Photoshop + Adobe After Effects £16.24 creative cloud for students

B-Roll Recourses - I was given access to the extinction rebellion footage directly from them after being granted access for free.

The other stock footage has came from Pexels.com where all footage falls under royalty free and creative commons footage.

[probablyasocialecologist]

“Climate barbarism is a form of climate adaptation. It’s no longer denying that we have begun an age of massive disruption, that many hundreds of millions of people are going to be forced from their homelands, and that huge swathes of the planet are going to be uninhabitable. And then, in response to that, rather than doing all the things that are encoded in the UN Convention on Climate Change, which recognizes the historical responsibility of many of the countries that happen to have a little more time to deal with the impacts of climate change — are insulated both by geography and relative wealth — instead says, look, we simply believe we are better, because of our citizenship, because of our whiteness, and our Christian-ness, and we are locking down, protecting our own, pulling aid. I wrote about this in This Changes Everything: there were these huge floods in the UK in 2012 or 2013, and you had the Daily Mail saying, this is why we need to cut foreign aid, because we don’t have enough money to help these other people, we need to help our own. There have been big hints that this was coming, and it’s now becoming more explicit, taking the form of young armed men going into mosques and Walmarts, taking aim at people with brown skin.

“We live in societies, whether they admit it or not, that do rank human life based on race and religion. And climate change forces us to reckon with that, and ask, are we going to live up to the rhetoric of equality and the idea that we actually believe people are of equal value by right of being alive on this planet? If we believe that, we need to radically change our ideas of national borders, and we need to open our arms and talk about how we’re going to share what is left. Or are we going to double down and get monstrous? We are getting monstrous. It’s not a future idea, it is happening. It is the Salvinis, it is the Trumps, it is the Bolsonaros.

“We see the response to the Green New Deal — oh, it’s too much, it’s too ambitious. But if anything it’s not enough. If anything, there’s not enough about immigration and borders, still, in the climate discussion. And that’s part of the reason I wanted to do this book. I feel like this is a moment when we need a much more expansive discussion of the interlocking crises of our time. If we don’t get out of this idea that these are separate crises, then the truth is that climate will always be pushed out of the way. Because it’s not more urgent than kids being ripped away from their families and dying in the desert — anyone who tries to win that argument is monstrous themselves. We either merge, join forces, or we lose.”

Against Climate Barbarism: A Conversation with Naomi Klein

[raised-by-wolves-season-1-online]

("Watch") Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 5 - Full Episodes ᐅ HBO Max | videos

💢💢 You can check out the promo of Episode 1 below: 💢💢 Watch Raised by Wolves S1E1 With A FREE 7-Day Trial of foxcinemax Channels! Check it out at here ► https://foxcinemax.com/tv/85723-1-1-1/raised-by-wolves.html 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥 After Earth is rendered uninhabitable, Androids Mother and Father start a new settlement and family with human embryos on the planet Kepler-22b. Twelve years later, only one child, Campion, remains, and the arrival of an Ark of surviving humans called the Mithraic presents a threat that Mother has no choice but to confront. 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥 ▼Thank’s For All And Happy Watching▼ ❖Raised by Wolves 2020 ❖Raised by Wolves 01X01 ❖Raised by Wolves S1-E1 ❖Raised by Wolves Cast ❖Raised by Wolves HBO Max ❖Raised by Wolves Premiere ❖Raised by Wolves Eps. 1 ❖Raised by Wolves Season 1 ❖Raised by Wolves Episode 1 ❖Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 1 ❖Watch Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 1 Online ❖Raised by Wolves Full Streaming ❖Raised by Wolves Download HD ❖Raised by Wolves Watch Online ❖Raised by Wolves All Subtitle ❖Raised by Wolves Full Shows ☆ ABOUT TELEVISION SHOW/SERIES Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 1 shows, as streaming video delivered over the Internet. Streaming Raised by Wolves Season 1 Episode 1 stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable television, and/or satellite television systems. The use of streaming online video and web television by consumers has seen a dramatic increase ever since the launch of online video platforms such as YouTube and Netflix ☆ TV SERIES The first television shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the broadcast tower starting in the 5650s. Televised events such as the 5665 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 5665 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famous introduction at the 5656 New York World’s Fair in the US spurred a growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 5616 World Series inspired many Americans to buy their first television set and then in 5618, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 1, 5665 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets. The first national color broadcast (the 5661 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the US occurred on January 5, 5661. During the following ten years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. A color transition was announced for the fall of 5666, during which over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later. In 5665, the last holdout among daytime network shows converted to color, resulting in the first completoly all-color network season. ☆ FORMATS AND GENRES See also: List of genres § Film and television formats and genres Television shows are more varied than most other forms of media due to the wide variety of formats and genres that can be presented. A show may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television films), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows.[citation needed] A drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 5680s, shows (except for soap opera-type serials) typically remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little.[citation needed] If some change happened to the characters’ lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. Because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order.[citation needed] Since the 5680s, many series feature progressive change in the plot, the characters, or both. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television series to have this kind of dramatic structure,[1][better source needed] while the later series Babylon 6 further exemplifies such structure in that it had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run.[citation needed] In 506, it was reported that television was growing into a larger component of major media companies’ revenues than film.[6] Some also noted the increase in quality of some television programs. In 506, Academy-Award-winning film director Steven Soderbergh, commenting on ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative, stated: “I think those qualities are now being seen on television and that people who want to see stories that have those kinds of qualities are watching television. ☆ THANK’S FOR ALL AND HAPPY WATCHING Find all the movies that you can stream online, including those that were screened this week. If you are wondering what you can watch on this website, then you should know that it covers genres that include crime, Science, Fi-Fi, action, romance, thriller, Comedy, drama and Anime Movie. Thank you very much. We tell everyone who is happy to receive us as news or information about this year’s film schedule and how you watch your favorite films. Hopefully we can become the best partner for you in finding recommendations for your favorite movies. That’s all from us, greetings! Watch Series online and stream live TV shows including Big Brother, Survivor, SNL, NCIS, The Late Show, The Young and The Restless, and more. I hope you enjoy the videos that I share. Give a thumbs up, like, or share if you enjoy what we’ve shared so that we more excited. Sprinkle cheerful smile so that the world back in a variety of colors, Stay safe and Stay home.

[raisedbywolves-streaming-vf-blog]

Voir Raised by Wolves Saison 1 Episode 1 Streaming vf Vostfr

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After Earth is rendered uninhabitable, Androids Mother and Father start a new settlement and family with human embryos on the planet Kepler-22b. Twelve years later, only one child, Campion, remains, and the arrival of an Ark of surviving humans called the Mithraic presents a threat that Mother has no choice but to confront.

⚜LIKE AND SHARE✬ About Netflix Netflix has been at the forefront of digital content since 1467 Netflix is ​​the world’s leading entertainment service provider with 193 million paid memberships in more than 190 countries, serving TV series, documentaries and feature films in various genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, via any screen connected to the Internet. Members can play, pause and resume impressions without advertising or commitment. A television show (often simply TV show) is any content produced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed between shows. Television shows are most often scheduled well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings. A television show might also be called a television program (British English: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A television series is usually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and are usually divided into seasons (US and Canada) or series (UK) — yearly or semiannual sets of close/friend5s. A show with a limited number of episodes may be called a miniseries, serial, or limited series. A one-time show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “television movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video. Television shows can be viewed as they are broadcast in real time (live), be recorded on home video or a digital video recorder for later viewing, or be viewed on demand via a set-top box or streamed over the internet. ⚜TV SERIES The first television shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the broadcast tower starting in the 121s. Televised events such as the 121 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 12115 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famous introduction at the 12115 New York World’s Fair in the US spurred a growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 12115 World Series inspired many Americans to buy their first television set and then in 121, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 15, 121 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets. The first national color broadcast (the 121 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the US occurred on July 19, 121. During the following ten years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. A color transition was announced for the fall of 121, during which over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later. In 12115, the last holdout among daytime network shows converted to color, resulting in the first completely all-color network season. ⚜Formats and Genres See also: List of genres § Film and television formats and genres Television shows are more varied than most other forms of media due to the wide variety of formats and genres that can be presented. A show may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television films), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows. A drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 1931s, shows (except for soap opera-type serials) typically remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little.[citation needed] If some change happened to the characters’ lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. Because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order.[citation needed] Since the 1931s, many series feature progressive change in the plot, the characters, or both. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television series to have this kind of dramatic structure,[15][better source needed] while the later series Babylon 15 further exemplifies such structure in that it had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run. In 121, it was reported that television was growing into a larger component of major media companies’ revenues than film. Some also noted the increase in quality of some television programs. In 12115, Academy-Award-winning film director Steven Soderbergh, commenting on ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative, stated: “I think those qualities are now being seen on television and that people who want to see stories that have those kinds of qualities are watching television. ⚜Thank’s For All The Support And Have a Good Time! Find all the movies that you can stream online, including those that were screened this week. If you are wondering what you can watch on this website, then you should know that it covers genres that include crime, Science, Sci-Fi, action, romance, thriller, Comedy, drama and Anime Movie. Thank you very much. We tell everyone who is happy to receive us as news or information about this year’s film schedule and how you watch your favorite films. Hopefully we can become the best partner for you in finding recommendations for your favorite movies. That’s all from us, greetings! Thanks for watching The Video Today. I hope you enjoy with the information that We share here. Thank you!

[goodvibesatpeace]

10 Places With The Strongest Energy Field

Many people who are either outdoor enthusiasts, or just generally spiritual people seek their spiritual experiences in nature. Across the world, there are various destinations that contain spiritual significance that is both sacred and spiritual places in nature. With thousands of years of spiritual history, these places can provide answers and enrichment on our paths to enlightenment, as well as provide concentrated energy that will bring you to new heights in your spiritual path.

These are the top 10 spiritual places found in the world that are worth visiting, regardless of your religion or spiritual views.

1. Machu Picchu, Peru

It has been said that the sacred city of the Incas is magical, and this is indeed very true. Built high in the Andes, this particular place is one of the “Seven Wonders of the World”, and boasts of amazing scenery and stone monoliths that will leave you in awe of its energetic qualities. It seems that this place itself channels massive amounts of energy and allows people to experience something that is out of this world.

2. Crater Lake, Oregon

Claimed to be a major intersection of the Earth’s global grid, it is said that healing clay can be found there. Not only that, but there are several powerful vortexes that are claimed to still exist around Crater Lake. This area was formed 8,000 years ago after a massage eruption led to Mount Mazama collapsing. Plunging nearly 2000 feet below ground, this lake is the deepest in the US and the seventh deepest in the world.

The Native American Klamath tribe has always found this lake to be a spiritual and sacred site. One legend says that the Chief of the Above World and the Chief of the Below World battled against one another, leading to the destruction of Mount Mazama. Long ago, tribesman would use Crater Lake for vision questing. This area is still considered a highly spiritual spot. As a part of Crater Lake National Park, as well as a part of spiritual history rich with potential for the experience of a lifetime, consider making this a list topper on your places to see list!

3. Easter Island, Chile

Easter Island, Chili is a highly isolated location and is not very well known to the general public. However, it is the home to some very massive statues, which interestingly enough cannot be linked to any particular creator. Scientists have absolutely no idea of how exactly they originated. The mysterious qualities of the island don’t stop there either. There are 53 stone houses which form an uninhabited village. There are no windows or doors in any of these homes. The big mystery concerning this island, though, is the “Navel of the World”. This is a circular stone that many believe holds the secrets of the universe as it supposedly collects most of the spiritual energy lines of our planet.

4. Mount Kailash, Tibet

Located in the North of the Himalayas, Tibet, this fascinating mountain is the spiritual center of four great eastern religions: Tibetan Buddism, Hinduism, Jainism and the ancient Tibetan religion that came before Buddhism-Bongo.

Many people have traveled from around the world to this mountain, and currently, a growing number of people believe that Mount Kailash is the energy center of the Earth. It is always a popular belief that the entrance to the Forbidden City-Shambhala- is located near the mountain. Going on a pilgrimage around Mount Kailash, and swimming in Lake Manasarovar, also located near Kailash, are considered spiritual experiences that encourage redemption while washing away the sins we have committed during our lifetime.

5. Rila, Bulgaria

People have referred to Rila Mountain as the Nose of the Earth, due to the fact that it stood above everything else without submerging into water. Although things have changed today, this mountain still stands close to the heavens and has managed to preserve some of the most impressive miracles found in this spiritual epicenter, namely the beautiful Seven Rila Lakes and the mesmerizing Stob pyramids.

The former boasts powers of spiritual cleansing by thousands of people each year, while the latter serves as natural anthology rich in ancient myths and legends.

6. Sedona, Arizona

Not only is Sedona beautiful and serene, it has long been considered a spiritual power center. The power and energy that emanates from the vortexes found in Sedona are unmatched. The energy that is found in Sedona is the main reason for the large New Age community that has begun to grow in the area. These communities, which hold a variety of spiritual beliefs, practices, and healing modalities are the reason Sedona is often referred to as a spiritual Disneyland.

Anyone who has a sensitivity to subtle energies would be overwhelmed with the experience of standing in one of these vortices, as the energy that flows through you can be intense. People from around the world come to Sedona to experience this.

7. Socotra Archipelago

Socotra is an archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean to the Horn of Africa. The largest island occupies about 95% of the total area. Many species that are found in this regions are specific to this region only, due to isolation. The majestic landscapes make this area appear to have come straight from a science fiction movie.

When you are in this area, the appearance and feel can make it seems as though you have slipped into another dimension. You can be connected directly to the cosmos through the energy channeled in this spiritual minefield.

8. Stonehenge, UK

Stonehenge lies silhouetted against the skyline and overlooking the windswept Salisbury Plain. In the past centuries, as well as today, many theories have been provided in an attempt to explain the existence of this stone temple. However, the reason remains a��mystery.

Stonehenge is world famous for its spectacular solar alignment that can be seen at the summer solstice on June 21st. The midsummer sun is seen rising over the Heel Stone from the center, causing thousands of people to gather at the monument each year to experience this majestic sight. Ancient people found the cycles of the Sun and the Moon to be importance, and they revered these bodies as powerful deity that could impact their daily life. These people also found areas of the Earth as massive energy portals and vortexes and used them to build statues, monuments, and temples which helped them connect more powerfully to their own spirituality.

9. Bosnian Pyramids, Bosnia

Based on carbon analysis, it has been found that these pyramids have been around since before the Neolithic period. This would make them over 12,000 years old, or older than the Egyptian pyramids, which seem to be more commonly well-known. The lake which is found below it is beautiful, blue, and clear of any negative presence. This water is referred to as living water because it is said that it purifies the body. Rooms are also found below it which are underground, and known as the “healing rooms”. Many say that these rooms cause the human body to regenerate faster, causing quicker healing to take place in the body.

10. The Plateau Uluru, Australia

As Australia’s spiritual center, this place is located right in the middle of the continent. Many locals, as well as tourists, say that you can feel the energy emanating in the area quickly upon arrival. A hollow plateau faces you and is locally referred to as Tiukurpa, meaning Dreamtime. Spiritual visions can be common while you are in the Uluru Plateau.

Modern life can be very chaotic, and it becomes impossible to sit back and seek solace in the realms of our own mind and soul. These experiences not only center us while relieving stress, but also push us in a more spiritual direction where we can access inner peace, gratitude, forgiveness, and much more enlightenment. Visiting any of these places that are rich in spirituality and organic energetic fields is a great way to step back and find your own true spiritual awakening.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Exxon lobbyist confesses to his crimes

50 years ago, Exxonmobil’s scientists warned that continued use of fossil fuels would render our planet uninhabitable by humans. Exxon’s response? They buried the reports and embarked on a disinformation campaign modeled on the tobacco industry’s cancer denial.

#ExxonKnew

That campaign continues, even as floods-of-the-century crop up every month or two, as thousand-year heatwaves strike again and again, as wildfires stain our skies the color of blood and zoonitic plagues shut down all activity for years at a time.

https://exxonknew.org/

Exxon, of course, claims that they’re good corporate citizens, committed to preserving the habitability of the only known planet in the entire universe capable of supporting our species.

It’s a total lie.

Exxon spent millions on corruption: disinformation and influence campaigns (AKA “bribes”) to make tens of billions — and imposed trillions in costs upon the rest of us, and incalculable losses in the form of lost human lives and natural wonders.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/30/based/#high-bidders

Exxon denies this — in public. In private, the people who direct these campaigns are immensely proud of their work and keenly aware of the fact that other large, corrupting industries are always on the lookout for talent who can corrupt on their behalf.

For the past eight years, Keith McCoy has been the top Exxon lobbyist in Washington, DC. When Unearthed (Greenpeace UK’s media arm) contacted him pretending to be a corporate recruiter with a lucrative offer, he jumped at the chance to boast about his corrupting accomplishments.

The resulting nine-minute video confirms everything that Exxon’s critics — and anti-corruption campaigners — have said for decades. It’s a gleeful, boastful confession that catalogs the company’s many lies and cheerfully identifies them as such.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v1Yg6XejyE

In the video, McCoy describes how Exxon uses front-groups to sow doubt about the climate emergency and the need to eliminate fossil fuel consumption.

https://www.channel4.com/news/revealed-exxonmobils-lobbying-war-on-climate-change-legislation

He names the senators whom he has (successfully) lobbied to blunt or remove climate protections from Biden’s $2T stimulus. It’s a heartwarmingly bipartisan parade of biddable officials-for-hire whom Exxon has helped out with an often lucrative side-hustle.

On the Democrat side, there’s Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Jon Tester (D-MT), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

While the Republicans are Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), John Barrasso (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

McCoy is especially fond of Joe Manchin, whom he calls “a kingmaker” whose office holds “standing weekly check-in calls” with Exxon lobbyists.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1410432121710252037

McCoy speaks fondly of the Trump years, and invites the interviewer to google “trump exxon” to get a sense of just how many gifts his employer received during 2016–20.

He also frankly admits that Exxon front groups like the American Petroleum Institute are “whipping boys” sent to hearings in Exxon’s stead, to absorb the performative criticism of lawmakers who nevertheless fail to take substantive action to curb Exxon’s slow genocide.

And he describes how Exxon secretly funded “shadow groups” to “aggressively fight against some of the science.” He stresses — probably correctly — that nothing that Exxon did was illegal.

He neglects to mention the work Exxon has done to ensure that this unimaginably terrible conduct remained legal.

But he isn’t shy about Exxon’s ability to influence policy otherwise. For example, he admits that the only reason Exxon has publicly endorsed carbon taxes is that they know they can prevent any carbon tax from becoming law — it’s all a show.

Exxon corporate, confronted with the video, claimed that it was all reflective of Greenpeace’s bias against giant, sociopathic polluting companies and asks who we’re going to believe, an oil company or our own lying ears?

Do watch the video, if only to hear McCoy describe how he baits the hook for senators and then “reels them in.”

“I make sure I get them the right information that they need so they look good. And then they help me out. They’re a captive audience. They know they need you.”

McCoy has since posted a groveling retraction on Linkedin, claiming his “statements clearly do not represent ExxonMobil’s positions on important public policy issues.” He doesn’t explain why he made those statements if they’re not true.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6816098352954961920/claiming

Exxon has “condemned” the statements and claims McCoy — the company’s most senior lobbyist — “wasn’t involved at all in forming policy positions.”

https://twitter.com/exxonmobil/status/1410389476199784450