#which is true of women too but men have the physical capacity to carry it out

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

I feel like I'm missing the crux of the man vs. bear debate because it's so silly. of course I would pick the man, because neither my Sig nor jiu jitsu is going to take down a bear

[wdi-usa-official]

Motherhood is an Exclusively Female Status—Article 2 of The Declaration

(the following is a repost from the WHRC USA webiste)

The second article of The Declaration reads:  “Reaffirming the nature of motherhood as an exclusively female status.”

Some governments have, in recent years, embraced the fiction that men can be mothers.  This is not a dated metaphor for “Mr. Mom” or a nurturing, stay-at-home Dad.  It is meant so literally that some governments are printing it on the birth certificates of newborns.  This happens when the father, because he claims the “gender identity” of a woman, requests to be listed as “mother” on his child’s birth certificate.  It also happens in cases, such as that of David Furnish (husband of singer Elton John) in the UK, in which the man neither claims a female “gender identity” nor has any biological relationship to the newborn, but requests the legal designation of “mother,” nonetheless.

Because this practice is so new, we do not yet understand the long-term psychological effects of wildly inaccurate family designations on children.  An authentic sense of identity, however, is recognized by the United Nations in Article 8 of its Convention of the Rights of the Child.  To designate a man as “mother” on a birth certificate is contrary to this right. It is also contrary to reality.

Protecting maternal rights and services

Article 2 of The Declaration states:

Maternal rights and services are based on women’s unique capacity to gestate and give birth to children. The physical and biological characteristics that distinguish males and females mean that women’s reproductive capacity cannot be shared by men who claim a female “gender identity.”

Motherhood is a uniquely female experience.  It is women, not men, who give birth to children after carrying them in our wombs, and it is women, not men, who have suffered through forced pregnancy and childbirth, maternal mortality, and obstetric violence.  It is women, not men, whose wombs are increasingly exploited by men (and some wealthy women) through the practice of surrogacy.  Too, it is women, not men, who have the capacity to breastfeed our babies, thereby providing perfect nutrition and unique immunity benefits.  It is poor and enslaved women, not men, whose breastfeeding ability has been exploited throughout history through the practice of wet nursing.

If we wish to advocate for the rights and needs of women, we must recognize the reality of womanhood and, by extension, motherhood.  In order to examine, critique, and ultimately overcome patriarchy, we must understand that men’s oppression of women is based on their exploitation of women’s reproductive capacity.  This has been true from the time of the agricultural revolution and is accelerating with the rise of commercial surrogacy in our own time.

Ensuring accurate language

Article 2 of The Declaration concludes by stating:

States should ensure that the word ”mother,” and other words traditionally used to refer to women’s reproductive capacities on the basis of sex, continue to be used in constitutional acts, legislation, in the provision of maternal services, and in policy documents when referring to mothers and motherhood. The meaning of the word “mother” shall not be changed to include men.

Unfortunately, the actions taken by the United States government in 2021 could hardly be more contrary to this guidance.  On January 1, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-MA) of the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled a rules package that included a commitment to “honor all gender identities by changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral.”  That is, instead of honoring the reality of motherhood (or any other unique familial relationship), the House of Representatives now honors the fiction which states that identity can be based on self-assessed conformity to “gender,” i.e. a sex stereotype.

The executive branch, too, is accelerating its use of woman-erasing language.  The Biden Administration followed its infamous “day one” executive order (compelling all federal agencies to recognize “gender identity,” without regard to consequences for women and girls) with decisions to change the word “mothers” with “birthing people” in its proposed 2022 budget and to omit all sex-specific language from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo about pregnant and nursing “individuals.”

These actions highlight the convergence of the movement to reduce the act of giving birth to a commodifiable function (as in the commercial surrogacy industry) with the movement to reimagine womanhood as a drag routine that can be performed by anyone, regardless of sex. They are also hard to square with an administration that claims to have science as its guide.

We must demand a reversal of this misogynist course.  We must demand that our government use sex-specific language that reflects women’s unique ability to be mothers.

To read the Declaration in full and become a signatory click here.

[lilflowerpot]

I have a question about Galra parenting! I know in previous posts, you've talked in length, about colonies who's job is to raise Galra children, and that their parents, if soldiers, request to be put on planet, as a form of guard. If so, who raises Galra children, since they are mostly raised in group? Is there an assigned nanny of sorts? What qualifies a care taker to be put on a planet such as that? Is there a more maternal subcategory of Galra that is known to fill the position? Part 1

(cont.) Would the caregiver have any children of their own? Human society tells us that females make better caregivers. Is that true for Galra? Followup question what would a misdeed as a child be? What would be considered misbehavior? As a human getting into fights would warrant punishment but for Galra this isn't the case. And what would an appropriate punishment be? For humans, unfortunately, spanking is commonplace. Is this the same/similar to Galra? Ignore me if you've covered this before.

-

The Galra are very much a collectivist culture in that the needs of the Empire as a whole are prioritised over the needs of the individual, and so the practice of communal child-rearing has long-since been considered the norm because it’s always made sense for the community to look after their young as a whole rather than expect individuals to do so while simultaneously juggling full time employment. It’s also both physically and mentally beneficial for young Galra to be surrounded by other kits as opposed to suffering isolation, but as Galra genetics are aggressive to the point of limited fertility (dual-foetus pregnancies being virtually unheard of, as one typically absorbs the other), having more than one sibling is relatively uncommon and more than two a rare occurrence indeed, so by the time a second conception occurs the first child might have been alone for many decaphoebs: ergo, nursery colonies are the obvious solution, allowing young Galra to socialise regularly with a large group of peers.

Your average Nursery Colony might have 40,000 children (all Imperial citizens but not necessarily all Galra), an equal if not greater number of parents doubling as educators, and a handful of specialists (likely a hundred or less) who are there in leadership roles as the most educated in the Empire: these are the Dayak [i] [ii], scholars held in the highest regard as they possess a deep knowledge of many subjects.

Galra parents may apply for a position upon any given nursery colony alongside their child/children providing their trade will benefit the community there rather than solely drain its resources (and the Galra abhor idleness, it goes against their entire culture as a very physical people, so this is not usually a problem): this includes soldiers, yes, but also agricultural workers, engineers, scientists, artists, and scholars most of all. Imperial children are provided the best of all things, and chief among these is a top-tier education as they are the future of the Empire. Rather than having designated “teachers” the Galra believe in a hands-on approach to cultivating their youngest minds (kinetic learning is generally the most effective method for rambunctious little kitlings who would riot if kept at a desk from dawn til dusk) and so they’ll have people of all professions on-planet for the express purpose of allowing the children to really experience the world rather than just hear about it second-hand. They express an interest in science? Let’s go and see the new shuttles being built! Art? Well there’ll be no understanding how sunlight plays on water if you haven't witnessed it for yourself! Agriculture? This is how we plow the fields and moderate the ph of the soil to produce only the finest food for the Empire! History? The druids have kept archives dating back millennia, and many of the recent ones take the form of AI, so why not ask your questions of Empress Zetian herself? 

In humans, the whole “women are better caregivers” thing is a distortion of the fact that way back when humans were a hunter-gatherer people, men were sent out to do the actual hunting & gathering while women stayed back to care for the young. Why, you ask? Not, as many people seem to believe, because the females of our species are predisposed to be weaker than the males, but rather because they are more valuable on a biological bases. In terms of ensuring the longevity of a clan’s bloodline, one woman could realistically carry no more than one pregnancy per year, whereas one man could impregnate any number of women: this means that if all the clan’s men went out hunting, and only one returned, the group would replenish and survive, if the reverse occurred, they would almost certainly die out. Ergo, that lingering belief is a product of misogyny, because there is no reason that being biologically one sex or another should make you a better/worse caregiver in modern society.

...Which is a long-winded way of saying that no, the Galra firmly believe that the best caregivers are the most educated and naturally nurturing, which has absolutely nothing to do with sex or gender or anything other than an individual’s personality.

As for misbehaviour, it’s less about the physical act of fighting and more about the way in which the child conducts themselves (once again linking back to the Galra code of honourable conduct): sparring against a playmate or even brawling in a group? Good! Acting with your peers to victimise one child and/or not allowing the individual you are sparring with to yield? Absolutely not. While corporal punishment is used within the military - lashings for acts of insubordination or misconduct, typically - it is not done so outside of that, and never against children. As I’ve said, they’re considered to be far too precious, and additionally where an adult Galra has the mental capacity to understand that X action results in Y punishment, and will therefore know why they are being subjected to physical repercussions, for children this is not always the case and considered quite uniquely cruel because of it. When a kit misbehaves, they would instead be subjected to a sort of "time out” (the worse / more frequent their misconduct, the longer they would be kept separate from their peers) and as the Galra are incredibly social creatures, this threat of isolation is typically an ample deterrent.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

The fallout from the story of Trump calling soldiers “suckers” and “losers” continues. Yesterday, Trump told reporters that military leaders don’t like him because they want to funnel work to defense contractors. “The top people in the Pentagon… want to do nothing but fight wars so all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy,” he said. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows tried to spin this as Trump’s attempt to protect soldiers from “the military industrial complex,” a phrase Republican President Dwight Eisenhower used to warn against funneling tax dollars into military contracts. Trump then retweeted posts comparing himself to Eisenhower.

In fact, Trump has made military build-up and selling U.S. weapons abroad key to his foreign policy. His Defense Secretary, Mark T. Esper, is a former top lobbyist for the defense contractor Raytheon, and last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared an emergency to push through $8.1 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates after lawmakers of both parties objected to the sale.

Trump’s about-face from boasting how he has built up the military to saying he opposes military build-up seems most likely to be simply another angle of attack against a story that is not dying. Yesterday, in The Atlantic, conservative columnist David Frum published a story titled “Everyone Knows It’s True.” Frum noted that while the First Lady, Cabinet secretaries, and Fox News Channel personalities have all insisted the story is false, the people who worked closely with Trump on military matters have remained resolutely silent.

Frum wrote, “Where are the senior officers of the United States armed forces, serving and retired—the men and women who worked most closely on military affairs with President Trump? Has any one of them stepped forward to say, ‘That’s not the man I know’? How many wounded warriors have stepped forward to attest to Trump’s care and concern for them? How many Gold Star families have stepped forward on Trump’s behalf? How many service families? The silence is resounding.”

Today, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen released his new book. It, too, spoke of a disconnect between Trump’s public words and his private attitudes. “The cosmic joke was that Trump convinced a vast swath of working-class white folks in the Midwest that he cared about their well-being,” Cohen wrote. “The truth was that he couldn’t care less.” “Everyone other than the ruling class on earth was like an ant, to his way of thinking, their lives meaningless and always subject to the whims of the true rulers of the world,” he said.

Trump’s apparent tendency to treat women as subject to the whims of others was in the news today as his attempt to get rid of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit is threatening the rule of law. In 2019, Trump denied he had raped Carroll, a journalist, more than 20 years ago, saying he had never met her and suggesting she was making up the story for publicity to sell a forthcoming book “or carry out a political agenda.” In November 2019, she sued him in New York for defamation.

Trump tried to stall Carroll’s lawsuit, arguing that a president was immune from civil lawsuits in state court, but in August, a federal judge rejected his bid and allowed the case to proceed. Carroll’s lawyers have asked for a DNA sample to match against material on clothing she was wearing when she says he assaulted her.

Today, lawyers from the Department of Justice asked to take over the case, arguing that Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied knowing Carroll and thus should be defended by the DOJ, which is funded by taxpayer dollars. CNN legal analyst Elie Honig called this “a wild stretch by DOJ.... I can’t remotely conceive how DOJ can argue with a straight face that it is somehow within the official duties of the President to deny a claim that he committed sexual assault years before he took office.” He continued: "This is very much consistent with Barr's well-established pattern of distorting fact and law to protect Trump and his allies.”

According to University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck, the argument that Trump was acting “within the scope of his employment” when he defamed E. Jean Carroll is an attempt to get the suit dismissed altogether, because the government itself cannot be sued for defamation. Slate’s legal writer Mark Joseph Stern called the move “shocking and profoundly disgusting… and appalling and irredeemable debasement of the Justice Department, a direct threat to the very legitimacy of an agency that is responsible for enforcing federal law.”

The corruption of the DOJ was in the news in another way today, too, as White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News Channel personality Maria Bartiromo that he has seen “additional” documents from John Durham’s investigation that spell “trouble” for former FBI officials who began the inquiry into the ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham to investigate the FBI after the agency’s independent inspector general reported that the Russia investigation was begun legitimately (the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee agreed). "Additional documents that I’ve been able to review say that a number of the players, the Peter Strzoks, the Andy McCabes, the James Comeys, and even others in the administration previously are in real trouble because of their willingness to participate in an unlawful act and I use the word unlawful at best, it broke all kinds of protocols and at worst people should go to jail as I mentioned previously," Meadows said.

But observers were quick to note that the White House chief of staff should not have seen any documents in a pending DOJ criminal investigation. Meadows might be making up the story that he has seen such documents. He has been in the news before for a loose relationship with facts: he represented that he earned a four-year college degree when, in fact, he earned a degree equivalent to two years at a community college. Or his comments might mean the DOJ is coordinating with the White House. Neither is good news.

Three drafts of a report from the Department of Homeland Security reviewed by Politico today give some insight into the upcoming election. They warn that Russia is trying to spread disinformation in the U.S., saying that “Moscow’s primary aim is to weaken the United States through discord, division, and distraction in hopes of making America less able to challenge Russia’s strategic objectives. Some influence activity might spill over into the physical world and motivate domestic actors to violence.” The report predicts foreign cyberattacks on the 2020 election, focusing on the personal information of voters, municipal and state networks, and state election officials. It notes that “Russia already is using online influence operations in an attempt to sway US voter perceptions” and to drive down minority participation in the election.

Even more striking, though, under “terrorism,” the first draft of the report says “Lone offenders and small cells of individuals motivated by a diverse array of social, ideological, and personal factors will pose the primary terrorist threat to the United States. Among these groups, we assess that white supremacist extremists—who increasingly are networking with likeminded persons abroad—will post the most persistent and lethal threat” throughout 2021. They will use “simple tactics—such as vehicle ramming, small arms, edged weapons, arson, and rudimentary improvised explosive devices” to encourage violence within the United States.” The report warns that they might well target campaign activities and election events.

According to the first draft report, white supremacists are more dangerous than foreign terrorist groups, which are “constrained.” The next two drafts watered down the words “white supremacist extremists,” calling them “domestic violent extremists.” But all three drafts note that white supremacists have killed 39 of the 48 people judged to have died from terrorism in the U.S. between 2018 and 2019.

None of the three reports refers to any threat from “Antifa,” the loose group of anti-fascist activists the Trump administration often describes as the instigators of recent unrest. Instead, two of the drafts say that rightwing extremists are trying to escalate lawful protests into violence.

The documents were leaked to Ben Wittes, the editor in chief of the national security website Lawfare, a leak that suggests someone at DHS is concerned about the administration’s apparent encouragement of rightwing extremists. (The citation for the first draft of the report is in tonight's notes. It’s worth reading.)

Finally, on Rachel Maddow’s television show tonight, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen confirmed something that many of us have suspected all along. "Trump never thought he was going to win this election, he actually did not want to win this election,” Cohen said. “This was a branding deal. That's all that the presidential campaign started out as, this was a branding opportunity in order to expand worldwide."

Heather Cox Richardson

Notes From An American

[witchyaqua]

planets in the 3rd house

DOMAIN OF THE 3RD HOUSE

Learning (reading, listening, studying, researching, analyzing) and communication of your first language (writing, speaking, signing, singing)

Motor skills, such as running, walking, crawling, and dancing (anything involving dexterity and coordination, really)

“Short-distance travel”, meaning travel around familiar environments or close to home

Logical challenges: taking things apart and putting them back together, puzzles, and games that require mental skill

Children your age; siblings, cousins, and neighbourhood, daycare, or elementary school companions

Early childhood environment from birth to the toddler years, and your earliest memories

SUN IN THE 3H:You found your self-worth lied in being smart and well-spoken, and in doing so found power in being intelligent. Speaking, reading, writing, teaching, learning, and listening all become you, as the exchange of information is a large part of who you are as a person. Your mind is active and very easily bored, and so is always looking for something mentally stimulating to latch onto.Aside from communication, you also do well in fields where you work with your hands. You don’t just talk the talk – you have plenty of practical skills to back it up too. Stereo-typically, women with this placement tend to be more communication-oriented, while men tend to be more trade-oriented. But that has more to do with how our culture teaches each sex to behave more than it does inherent qualities of Sun in the 3rd House. Both men and women alike can enjoy writing stories, poetry, song lyrics, essays, speeches, jokes. And both men and women can make a living for themselves in mechanics, computers, video games, electrical, carpentry, cooking, crafts, and other trades. 

MOON IN THE 3H: Having your moon placed in the third house indicates that you saw your mother more like a big-sister than as a parent herself. Often this placement is given to the most responsible child which is closest to the parents. Taking on a parental role yourself (such as the oldest sibling looking after their younger ones, or the only child who sees their parents more like roommates than actual authorities) you sit on equal terms with your mother, seldom looking to her for emotional comfort or security. But this aloof detachment from your nurturing caregiver can lead to problems in your intimate relationships later on in life. Being rational, logical, and intellectual is not a bad thing, certainly!

MERCURY IN THE 3H:Your brain is very good at absorbing a multitude of things at once, allowing you to change from one thing to the next without missing a beat. You are a collector of facts and figures, the type of person that likes to know a little bit about everything. Nothing escapes the grasp of your curiosity. Your attention span may not be very long, but it is long enough to get the basic idea before continuing on. You pick up on things quickly, after all, and you do not waste time studying once you understand. In turn you may become fickle and finicky with boredom when forced into patience. It is not your fault for wanting to keep moving forward in search of more exciting activities! And it isn’t your fault that you have a lot of interesting things to say and you want to say all of it right now! But, you could still stand to settle, meditate for a moment, and focus on one task at a time. After all, how can you apply your mind constructively if you refuse to listen and build your skills?The best route for you is to exploit your mind’s capacity for taking in and expelling information. There are several different ways you can do this, beginning with communication. You love to talk. You always want to chat about the things you know and have others tell you their thoughts in exchange. An element of performance can make it all the better, especially when combined with some speaking role. This can make for exciting work as a writer, journalist, speaker, host, educator, or even different kinds of customer service. Of course, spending all day every day around people may or may not be your favourite thing. So you may instead look for work where you are doing something, uniting your brain with your body and producing some set of manual skills. Singing, acting, dancing, and playing music are all examples where breath meets self. Sports and crafts are two examples of coordinated movement. There is a recurring correlation between the people who need lots of mental stimulation and the playing of games, particularly video games and puzzles. You can be any of these, or all of them. The basic fact that unites all of these activities is this: You need to connect with other people by communicating with them, and you need to figure things out.

VENUS IN THE 3H:Conversation keeps you alive – deep, thought-provoking conversation, light-hearted discussions, hearty debates, casual small-talk. Sometimes you prefer to just stick close to your partner or your best friend. Other times you may gather around a group of friends and family and mingle from one person to another. If you thoroughly enjoy people, you can be found chatting up strangers in crowded streets, clubs, pubs, or big social events. Your relationships take you travelling on trips both long and short, and love seems to find you when you leave home and venture out into the world. And both love and friendship find you often when you travel away from home. You tend to be attracted to other Gemini-types of people who love to talk, learn new things, and who think intellectually about the world. You find yourself drawn to mentally alert, logical, rational people with enough wit and charm to get away with saying anything.Venus in the 3rd is also highly centred around learning and communication, as these are the basic tenets of this house. When gentle, beautiful, beauty-loving Venus dances here, she gifts you with eloquent speech. You can be a bit of a flirt, of course. You take pleasure in reading, writing, and speaking to people. Nothing pleases you more than time by yourself with a book, writing down a story that has been stuck in your head, crafting poems or songs, or visiting with loved ones.

MARS IN THE 3H: As a younger child, there was conflict between yourself and your siblings, cousins, neighbours, and other school children your own age. Sometimes it was competitive, sometimes it was defiance, sometimes it may even have been violence. Other times it was you being valiantly protective of them. This was your first testing ground for flexing your Mars inhibitions, strength, and aggression. Later, Mars comes out in others ways. You drive too fast and too recklessly, too impatient when you want to get somewhere. Your thoughts are consumed by sex and anger alike. You take many trips to new cities and back, likely making these short travels a part of your life. Disagreements with teachers, debates, rebelling against the rules, and challenging conventional thought have always been your ways of expressing your own thoughts and ideas about the world. You have always had a strong, wilful mind and your own way of thinking, and for those who sought to mould you into a certain type of thinker you proved challenging. Perhaps this is why you have always been attracted to Gemini-types of people. They talk a lot, have just as short of an attention span, are mentally and physically always on the move. You can verbally spar with one another and then suddenly move onto a conversation about something else. They make excellent lovers and companions for you.

JUPITER IN THE 3H:As a young child you likely travelled or moved often and changed schools frequently, which further spurred your tendency to flirt with several disciplines at once but quickly move onto the next thing soon after. You also have good relationships with your siblings and your cousins. But the main point of Jupiter in this house is for you to use the power of words to communicate Jupiter to the rest of the word. It is not easy, as you will read here, but it is your higher purpose.Jupiter and its 3rd House home are uncomfortable with one another, each one hindering the other. For example, you tend to exaggerate when you communicate. Important facts and details are glossed over so you can bend the rules to fit with your expanding mind, giving rise to impractical ideas and reckless reasoning. You are also cursed with a mind that is all over the place trying to contain an abundance of thoughts, both big picture and small. Always busy with several intellectual interests at once, your energies are left scattered and restless. Your thirst for learning is never quenched, and since you are forever learning and seldom doing, your efforts are basically unproductive. You may even feel as though you are the perpetual student. When will you finally know enough? How do you marry abstract ideas to logical reasoning?  How do you communicate with flair while still sticking to the facts? These are questions you must harmonize with in your lifetime. What remains true is your incredibly optimistic outlook and your openness to understanding. These two items are what will carry you through on your journey to personal enlightenment, wherever that journey may go.

SATURN IN THE 3H:Saturn here is a weight placed upon your young shoulders, signalling difficulties in school and conflict with other children. Those younger than you were a burden, a responsibility you did not want, a chore you had to look after and play with. Those older than you were cold, strict, and unloving. If you had brothers and sisters your relationship with your siblings was “limited” or “restricted” in some way, either due to divorce, death, physical separation, or emotional barriers erected between you. If you were an only child growing up you likewise felt lonely being in your family all by yourself. Regardless of whichever category you fall under, you felt isolated, lonesome, and burdened by your solitude. Likewise in school you had problems learning and studying at pace with the other students in class. You may have been mislabelled as stupid or accuse of having a learning difficulty when things took you longer to do. But while getting yourself an education was difficult, it was not because you were unintelligent. In fact, as time would tell, you were actually quite the opposite.Saturn, wherever it is placed, forces you to slow down, set a goal, and work towards it gradually. It is a planet of security and safety, of work ethic and achievement, of being grounded and taking things seriously. Your mind mirrors the way Saturn works. You think very deeply about a limited number of subjects, becoming an expert on a handful of things. On those things you achieve practical intelligence, accumulating a wealth of knowledge that can be put to good use. Contemplative, thoughtful, conscientiousness, and observational – these are the qualities that help you to think deeply and seriously about the world around you. It is true that put off decision making as much as you can, procrastinating to make sure you pick the right one, as if you don’t trust yourself and need to make sure. Insecurity in your own intelligence has forced you to become a hard-lined intellectual (or else, alternatively, to reject intellectualism altogether). And at times, it has cost you. In trying to be realistic, you have become pessimistic. The cold hard facts, so unforgiving and dispassionate, colour your vision in shades of grey. The heart of Saturn in the 3rd House is that when you are exploring, relating to, and engaging with your surrounding environment, you are apprehensive at every moment. Fear is what keeps you quiet with your nose in your studies, ever doubting your own intelligence.

URANUS IN THE 3H:Unlike other people who may use only logic or only emotion to decide what it right and what is true, you are able to blend your thoughts and feelings together. This is the stem from which your insight sprouts its leaves and your creativity blossoms. You emerge with a very different way of processing the world, and end up with a very original personal style at the end of it. You are constantly reorienting your view of the information in front of you, looking at items from every possible angle and dissecting every little thought to its core. You come up with new and enlightened ways of understanding every time you learn something. Every new fact you uncover, every new opinion you discover, every new point of view leads to you drastically change the way you see the world.But your intelligence does come with its own kind of moody eccentricity, as it often does. In early education you sat, slumped in your desk, bored and unable to concentrate. Dry academics left you no room to be creative, no room to add your own unique twist. And purely creative subjects gave you no structure to tear down and change. Uninspired, restless, and wanting more from life, you got distracted easily and struggled to focus in your studies. Having a strong, independent mind and rebellious attitude towards your learning also do not help your relationship with teachers. You got into trouble with authority for what you said and what you thought, especially when you demanded equality, spoke out during class, and tried to shake up your learning environment to make it more interesting. You are always on the lookout for fresh and exciting experiences; your inability to be bored means that you always leap from one interesting discussion to the next. All your life you keep encountering similar struggles when pitted against a person that tells you how to think. But as you get older the tension that exists between you and other people is more to do with your unconventional ideas, “weird” personal tastes, and your failure to focus on one thing at a time.

NEPTUNE IN THE 3H:If you had brothers and sisters growing up it may have been that one of them was a “difficult” child (having some behavioural problem or a disability of some kind). In this case, you had to sacrifice some degree of your own happiness to adjust to them. If you had a sibling which died, you may carry some sort of guilt or responsibility for what happened and how it affected your parents. Alternatively, you may have been separated from your siblings through divorce, physical distance, or emotional severance, forcing you to give up your relationship with them. If you did not have siblings you still shared the loneliness in regards to your peers. Neptune in the 3rd inevitably concludes with personal distance between you and others, as if you are contained within your own personal bubble of fog.In response to this early distance from others your own age, you retreated inward, into the comforting chaos of your own mind. On the outside it seemed as though you were shy when you in class; teachers may have even though you suffered from learning disabilities from the confusing way your mind seemed to work. Others see you as delusional, confused, gullible, easily impressed upon, and unrealistic in your expectations. Some may even accuse you of being mentally unwell or unstable. They see you as far too emotional and not logical enough. Being so empathetic, their words come to you as truth, and you begin to believe them. For much of your life you are pressured to favour hard science, logic, rationality, and dry intellect, and forced to learn and speak the way people think you should. You may even come to worship knowledge and science as if it were an unquestionable religion. But at some point in your life curiosity is bound to overtake to, and you will fall deep into your fascination with spirituality, magic, fantasy, the occult, and other ancient practices. The intellectuals of the world will tell you believe in these things is foolish. But to you and the way you drink in the world, they are as real as anything, and they explain so much.

PLUTO IN THE 3H:You were made for penetrative research and investigation into the unknown, for your mind sneaks into the darkness of a person’s emotional mind and pulls out truths one at a time. You have a knack for sniffing out secrets. Everybody has a sore spot – abuse, trauma, loss, sex, death, births, relationships gone bad. You have a hungry need for knowing the underlying psychology of every person you meet, and you will not rest until you’ve “figured them out”. Often you fall into the trap of thinking people are more deadly, more secretive, and more complex than they actually are. You come at them with invasive questions like a prosecutor examining a criminal, hoping to get everything out of them over the course of your relationship. Your intentions of exposing a person’s worst qualities and darkest secrets right off the bat is a testament not only to your paranoia, but to the negative way in which you view the world.Your mind can turn against you in the way it works sometimes. You may be one of many who suffer from some sort of mental illness or instability, which you know about but try to hide from other people. Intrusive thoughts which are obsessive, anxious, angry, destructive, or sexual turn over in your mind incessantly. Resentment which should have cooled long ago still burns inside of your heart, and you dwell in violent fantasies whenever your darker emotions are stirred. None of these patterns of thought are healthy, nor are they constructive uses for the mind. A surprising way you can turn your outlook around? Travelling. Each trip you take marks a specific turning point in your life. By forcing you out of your comfort zone and surrounding you with new cultures, new foods, new people, and new experiences, your mind can renew itself in a new place. Perhaps you get out of a slump by moving away to a new city and leaving behind an old environment that was detrimental to your mental health. Maybe you revitalize a tired mind by picking up a book or a new area of study, going back to school, or taking a short trip to clear your head. 

-all the information i found is from canaryquillastrology.com

[yogaadvise]

10 Yoga Myths Dispelled

Yoga is popular nowadays. Preferred. According to a current Yoga Journal survey, over 20 million Americans technique yoga on a normal basis, up from 15.8 million in 2004. Yoga exercise technique has clearly found its stride as well as is attracting more followers everyday. While numerous people are enjoying the benefits of yoga, there are many others that are unfortunately scared off due to ill-founded misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding what yoga is. Like any type of other popular task, yoga can come down with stereotyping as well as brushing up generalizations if you're resistant to look below the surface area to really experience the significance of the practice. When you dig a little much deeper, however, you soon find a straightforward as well as extensive reality: yoga is for everyone.

The complying with are several of the most preferred misconceptions and also misunderstandings bordering yoga as well as its method. If you are a yogi, perhaps you once held one or even more of these incorrect ideas prior to experience changed your mind. If you're brand-new to yoga exercise or pussyfooting and uncertain concerning taking the dive, check out these myths and also see if they might be holding you back from finding your put on the mat.

Myth 1: Yoga Exercise Is Nearly Stretching

While on the surface, yoga exercise may seem an easy stretching or calisthenics regular, it is far, much more. The yoga exercise positions or asanas that the majority of individuals relate to stretching just comprise a tiny part of a very arrant viewpoint, science, and means of life. The word yoga means union-- the union of body, mind, spirit, breath, and also setting. It develops an all-inclusive as well as comprehensive worldview.

The vast warehouse of Vedic as well as yogic thought comprises a body of understanding that upholds yoga as a total as well as complete path of liberation. The classic 8 limbs of yoga exercise enumerated by the fantastic yogic sage Patanjali consist of rules for:

Social behavior

Personal observances

Mind-body combination exercises

Breathing techniques

Focusing of the senses

Mastery of focus as well as intention

Meditation

Experience of pure awareness

Myth 2: Yoga Is Only for Women

There's no question that yoga is more preferred with females than men. The majority of yoga exercise courses have far a lot more women than male individuals. This wasn't always the situation. In the documents of time, yoga exercise was traditionally practiced almost solely by men in old India. With its arrival in the West nonetheless, yoga exercise began to draw a huge lady following. No matter, yoga exercise is not a gender-specific task. Guy and women alike can practice as well as gain from a routine yoga practice.

Myth 3: You Need to Be Flexible and also fit to Practice Yoga

Many potential yogis obtain frightened off from yoga exercise method by photos of extremely adaptable or in shape yogis beautifying the covers of magazines or website write-ups. They see someone in an asana as well as erroneously presume that versatility as well as toughness are prerequisites for the practice. In truth, flexibility and also health and fitness come as results of yoga exercise, not as requirements.

While it holds true that yoga poses can develop toughness, flexibility, and equilibrium, you can practice yoga exercise without having those skills or qualities and also still receive all the terrific mind and body benefits. Yoga exercise is for every single body, no issue what body you offer the technique. High or brief, thick or slim, young or old, yoga exercise is suggested to adjust to you, not the other method around.

Myth 4: You Required Fancy Garments and Floor Covering to Exercise Yoga

The popularity of yoga worldwide has actually developed an one-of-a-kind as well as unanticipated offshoot-yoga gear. Entire companies now exist to provide yogis with specialized apparel, mats, gear bags, and sweat towels. While these add-ons can be wonderful, they remain in no other way needed to exercise yoga. Take into consideration that the ancient yogis once carried out yoga on beds of leaves in a forest using only loin cloths. You don't need to be that marginal in your practice, it's essential to remember that yoga exercise is an "inward stroke"-- taking your understanding within.

External looks like that showy brand-new floor covering or those fashionable new yoga trousers exist on the material-level of your recognition, while the actual method of yoga coaxes you to go deeper. Yoga can be exercised in whatever feels comfortable for you, with or without a mat, with simply a couple of feet of void in which to move.

Myth 5: Yoga Is a Religion

Because of its ancient Indian roots and connections to Hinduism, yoga exercise usually obtains misidentified as a religion. It is in fact much more like a scientific research (In India, yoga is typically assumed of as a science of Self-Realization). Thus, yoga exercise technique is likened to a laboratory in which you are both the subject and the object of your experiment, the objective of which is to awaken your very own internal capacity as well as the divinity within.

The stereotypical ideas in some cases invoked via rules, chants, or pictures of a particular deity are indicated to awaken the inactive potential of those states of awareness that stay within you. But those techniques are not called for to gain from yoga practice, neither does their use carry a religious undertone. Yoga is not regarding external praise, it has to do with inner exploration.

Myth 6: Yoga Is Too Easy

Those that check out yoga with a totally physical lens may assume it's also mild or moderate to be of any benefit. The "No Discomfort, No Gain" attitude so typical in the contemporary fitness culture paints an image of results based upon effort and also battle. While yoga, particularly restorative yoga exercise practices such as The 7 Spiritual Laws of Yoga, can concentrate on doing less to achieve extra, it does not suggest that yoga exercise is very easy or passive.

The mind-body control needed during yoga method differs from many various other kinds of workout because your complete interest is involved and existing in each movement. Unlike running on a treadmill while enjoying television, yoga involves all facets of your being, making it more tough than it might show up on the surface area. Yoga exercise links your:

Mind

Body

Emotions

Senses

Breathing

Environment

Myth 7: Yoga Is Too Hard

At the opposite end of the spectrum are those who avoid yoga due to the fact that they fear it will certainly be as well tough. Being afraid that their bodies "do not go this way," numerous will pull out of yoga exercise and also lose out on its many benefits. Provided, some yoga exercise presents can appear intimidating, but the gorgeous aspect of the practice is that it meets you where you are. The suggestion is not to force yourself into a yoga exercise posture - it has to do with adapting the position to fit your body where it is today.

There are always alternatives to any offered pose. Yoga motivates you to pay attention to your body's signals of comfort and discomfort, and also pick those presents that really feel best for you. As you become more comfy with yourself in the method, you can check out more tough poses, and also frequently, to your shock, they end up being much easier to acquire than you once believed.

Myth 8: Yoga Will Make You Self-Conscious

Performing any kind of brand-new activity with people you don't recognize can mix up insecurity and also self-consciousness, yet prospective yogis shouldn't fear this. Bear in mind that yoga exercise is concerning deepening the conversation in between your mind and body-it's a personal journey. Bothering with what others think maintains your awareness stuck at the degree of the vanity as well as personality.

Yoga has to do with being fully existing as well as knowledgeable about who you are in the minute. The technique encourages genuine credibility and self-acceptance. The even more you start to accept yourself in the practice, the earlier you'll observe a much deeper bond creating between you and also your other schoolmates. Everyone is a wave on the substantial ocean of Spirit. Yoga permits you to express yourself with openness, compassion, and vanity.

Myth 9: Your Physical Condition Prevents You from Exercising Yoga

While there are some contraindications for doing yoga, it is on the whole an extremely obtainable method that nearly anyone, at any type of age or problem can exercise. Once once more, it is necessary to consider yoga exercise as flexible to your life and who you are. Take what you require, as well as enable yoga exercise to provide you its gifts.

There are various styles of yoga exercise, each with an one-of-a-kind focus or analysis of these ageless teachings, so if one yoga exercise institution or class does not work for you, try another until you discover the appropriate fit. On top of that, take into consideration chair yoga or the usage of yoga exercise props such as blocks or bands to assist you in your method. If you can't go to a course, try a DVD or on-line video clip. The alternatives are many if you're eager to try.

Myth 10: Yoga Is Just a Fad

Although yoga may appear to be simply one more stylish workout program that will be replaced by the following gimmick to hit the scene, it's really much from being a brand-new point, as well as it's not likely to go out of appeal anytime quickly. Yoga exercise has been around for countless years. While modern books, classes, video clips, and workshops are fairly new methods of connecting its classic mentors, yoga exercise has actually been an established as well as proven means to incorporate all the layers of life as well as stir up human potential for countless generations.

The determination of yoga's charm is quite simple-- it functions. Whether in the research laboratory of scientific study on mind-body and awareness study or in the subjective framework of an individual's life, yoga has actually stood the examination of time and also will remain to do so.

Spend a long time reviewing these misconceptions. If several of these mistaken beliefs has actually been holding you back from attempting yoga exercise, embrace the truth behind them and fear say goodbye to. Jump off that fencing and also step onto the mat. You won't be sorry.

Experience a deep type of yoga that combines body, mind, and spirit as Deepak Chopra and Chopra Center master teachers assist you through the 7 Spiritual Laws of Yoga at Seduction of Spirit. Learn More.

[magnificenttitanic]

Was Malinda Borden, a black woman, on Titanic?

In this post, I will be looking at the story of Malinda Borden, a black passenger claimed to have died on the Titanic, and the various claims within the story. The standard response from many Titanic enthusiasts and historians is to just brush this off with “hoax” or “not true.” That’s not really good enough. When I heard about this, I wanted to dig as deep as I could to see what I could find. The short answer is: The story is not true, it’s entirely fabricated. For the reasons why, and in-depth analysis for the claims, please continue reading. If there are any updates, I will add them to the end of this post as they come.

This is a long post, so I’m putting most of it under a cut. Given the nature of the story, its claims, and the sensitive issues it involves, it may be triggering. Continue at your own discretion. With that in mind...

This post has been making the rounds on Facebook lately. For those who don’t know the Titanic story beyond what they remember from the movie, it might seem plausible, but is it true? What’s the full story? Where did it come from? What’s the evidence? Let’s jump down the rabbit hole!

The story in its above form is the most popular version with 43,000 shares on Facebook, and it's been shared and tweeted in plenty of other places. Snopes debunked it, but they didn’t really look into the story very far. When you dig deeper, you’ll find the story seems to have its roots in a series of posts on Facebook made by someone named Helen Griffin in early 2016. She claimed to be a descendant of Malinda Borden, that this story was passed to her via her grandfather, and that she has a letter telling the story from a black survivor. Griffin posted versions of the story in various places, and one version was featured on a black culture Facebook page:

There’s a lot to unpack there, but there are a number of problems that can be pointed out with the main claims, your standard debunking, including:

There’s no record or account of a Malinda Borden being on Titanic beyond these Facebook posts, in any capacity, on any list, and no body of a black woman was ever found or documented. That doesn’t prove she wasn’t there, necessarily, but all we have to go by are the claims themselves.

The lifeboats were not segregated by race. There is no record at all of that being a policy. In fact, people of color did get into or were rescued by lifeboats, primarily the two half-black children of the one black man who was on Titanic, a Japanese man who jumped into a boat, and six third class Chinese men.

There is nothing to indicate any number of black crew anywhere, in any list, manifest, name, photo, reports, or testimony, nor is there anything in records, plans, or testimony to indicate the presence of a “negro cabin” for black crew. Nor is there evidence for any substantial number of black servants or passengers. Titanic’s manifests have been poured over many times since the disaster, every name studied, every background looked into, and only one black man (along with his two half black children and white wife) have thus far been proven to be on board.

There’s no evidence that black crew would have only been listed on post-sinking lost property lists. Any people on board had to be rigorously documented, be they passengers, servants, or crew. The laws at the time were very strict about this, and the White Star Line and immigration authorities took the careful documenting of all people on board ships very seriously as an issue of health. On top of that, nobody has ever found anything listed on post-sinking claims for lost property (or in any cargo manifest) that could be described as a human being.

While people of color on board would have certainly experienced some level of prejudice, the idea that black crew or passengers were tied to heavy objects and thrown overboard is pure absurdity. Nowhere is anything like that ever mentioned anywhere, by anybody, at any time since the sinking beyond the few Facebook comments made by this one person.

The story has its issues, but that’s not even all of it. The supposed source of the story, the long version as detailed in the letter Griffin claims to have, is most telling about the story’s legitimacy (or lack thereof) because it contains the most claims and details, and if there’s one thing that’ll kill a bad fake story right quick fast in a hurry, it’s detail. The letter contradicts known, proven facts about what happened aboard Titanic, and makes some rather absurd claims. Here is the letter as posted by Griffin in 2016:

The Titaniacs reading this might notice a couple issues right away, but for the uninitiated, here are the things that stand out the most as being historically and factually problematic:

It claims Borden was a nurse. If she’s supposed to be part of the crew, that doesn’t work. Titanic didn’t have any nurses, be they men, women, black or white. There were only two surgeons and a male hospital steward, and their cabins/bunks are accounted for on plans of the ship.

Titanic had six lookouts, all of whom survived to tell their stories. The lookouts worked on strictly scheduled shifts, with none allowing for additional unlisted lookouts. None were black, none were women. In fact, women were generally barred from taking such positions, so even if black people were barred as well, they still wouldn’t let a woman do the job. Of course, if you claim there was a segment of secret unlisted crew who wouldn’t appear on any manifest and who have been hidden from history, I guess you can claim anybody was a lookout, eh?

The letter asserts that only white immigrants and Americans were allowed to leave the lower decks. This is not entirely true, as there were quite a few non-white passengers, especially women, who quite easily made it to the upper decks, although some - along with white passengers - did run into issues with less-bright crewmen and crew who told them to go back below decks in an attempt to keep some semblance of calm (or perhaps because they were racist, who knows).

It also propagates the claim of gates below decks used to keep passengers down. This is mostly a fiction of the 1997 film. While a few Bostwick gates and a couple other types of barriers were used to close off crew areas and separate alternating areas of the classes, there were no gates or barriers preventing people from going up on deck from their respective classes, and some of the below decks access points were even open. The only issues with gates were outside, up on the decks of the ship, far from the lower decks, which were waist-high gates to divide the outside promenades into classes. If there were any issues with gates, it would be there, out in the open with lots of witnesses. Funny, no survivor ever mentioned people being gunned down at the gates.

“A big fat white crew member” - No comment.

What would a crew member be doing with his wife on board? Nothing like that has ever been documented, which you’d expect even in this story since they’re white.

Additionally, there’s no account of anybody ever being in labor or giving birth on the Titanic at any point, least of all during the sinking.

“White female” - Yes, exactly how people talked.

I don’t know how much plastic was on the Titanic or how many poor crew women would have had bras, but plastic and mass-produced, cheap bras were quite new at the time, especially the bras, so that is a very odd line given the context.

I already addressed the black people being tossed overboard, but that absurdity of that line just needs to be pointed out again.

Many hours…” - They’d likely be dead after only a few dozen minutes in the freezing water. A few did survive longer, including one man who may have been more or less in the water for a couple hours, but that was rare.

The boats did not refuse to pick up non-white people. There were very few picked up from the water in the first place, but one of the last ones to be recovered alive from the water was a Chinese man. There are no accounts of the boats refusing to pick up or beat back people who were black after the sinking.

The letter claims one black man flipped an entire lifeboat full of people over, drowning everybody on board while the man survived. Meanwhile, back here in reality, Titanic had 20 lifeboats, all of which were accounted for, with all of them having passengers who survivived. Only one boat ever capsized, and that happened when it was pushed off the roof of the officers’ quarters. It still floated and a number of people found refuge on the overturned lifeboat.

10 hours in the sub-freezing water without dying of hypothermia? And I’m the reincarnation of Titanic’s center anchor.

A homemade lifeboat? What the…

The very existence of the letter itself is problematic. Grammar, for one thing. The author’s posts, in general, have the same kind of bad grammar, spelling, caps, etc., so one might assert it just carried over in the transcription. But then what people in 1912 talked like that? It honestly sounds like something a modern person just made up based on some stuff they remembered from the film and details they pulled out of their rear. Grammar aside, is there a physical letter? If it’s real, there would be a physical letter she transcribed from. Why not show the letter? Even bad fakes in the past have been physical letters you could look at, with effort taken to look old. They didn't just make a badly-written post on Facebook. Has it been studied by experts, verified? (No letter was ever shown as far as I can tell, just this text in a Facebook post.)

The photo posted with the “letter” is also questionable. It’s a picture of a picture, ensuring that no reverse image search can pull up anything. Doing such a search pulls up no previous examples of the photo, and searching with “Titanic” shows only two links where the story is repeated. No other versions have surfaced so far. The name is a mystery, too. One person claimed this as proof:

But if you go back through her lineage, there’s nothing to indicate anything more than that she was born in 1874 in a family from a series of marriages going back to 1770s Virginia. The family’s probably not even African American. She wasn’t the only Malinda Borden, either. Another post from Griffin suggests “Malinda Mary Borden” as the full name, for which you’ll find the following page:

Funny, they don’t seem to have died in the Atlantic ocean in 1912, but in Alabama in 1930. Regardless, without more information on the first Borden, it just doesn’t prove anything.

One of the main claims of the story, and one of its biggest problems, is that there was a shadow crew of all-black people on board Titanic, kept off manifests and listed only as property, housed in segregated cabins. The claim is further detailed in the below comment left by Griffin on a Titanic blog:

The issue here is that we have extensive, detailed lists of every single crewmember aboard Titanic. Historians have spent decades going over the manifests, of people or otherwise, compiling lists, removing people who were proven not to be on board, adding people who were, combing through cemeteries, recovery and death records, records of recovered bodies, finding people’s original names, their families, comparing with accounts and finding records of all sorts. At the same time, we’ve also compiled detailed, well-researched deck plans of Titanic and her identical sister ship, Olympic, so we also know what parts of the ship housed what classes of people and crew, and how many of each type of crew were in the various crew dormitories. When you compare the capacities for the lowest and mid-level boiler and engine room crew with the manifests, you get the following:

161 firemen capacity - 161 on manifest

72 trimmers capacity - 73 on manifest

34 greasers capacity - 33 on manifest

15 leading firemen capacity - 13 on manifest

Doing the same with all other categories of crew on the manifest will give similar results. Nearly every alotted crew bunk is taken, and ever spot on the manifest has a name, and each name has been researched over the decades. None of the listed boiler room crews are known to be black. They were called the “Black Gang,” but that was due to their tendency to get covered in coal dust. 

The claim, of course, is that black crew were unlisted except on manifests of lost property, but that’s still a problem. The spaces allotted for the crew were full when accounting for everybody on the manifest. Where would this extra crew stay? The claim is there was a segregated cabin, but nothing like that has ever been found on any plan, in any record, in any testimony, by any researcher. They wouldn’t be kept in 1st class, or 2nd class, or in aft 3rd class (where single women and families were kept apart from single men). That leaves forward 3rd class. Would the White Star Line really house whole teams of black-only stokers they didn’t need in facilities that were generally nicer than those for the rest of the stokers and adjacent to the rest of 3rd class, taking up cabins from paying passengers for the highly lucrative immigrant routes at the time? The stokers worked in specific shifts, distributed across the boiler rooms so all the furnaces could be serviced, with trimmers moving coal about. They didn’t need an extra all-black cache of super secret unlisted stokers.

But this all leaves an important question: What IS the actual evidence for this story?

Nothing is offered by Griffin beyond the Facebook posts the story comes from and the occasional comment repeating the story. The supposed letter is never shown. The photo isn’t elaborated on. No corroborating details are given about Malinda Borden’s life, nor about the other people mentioned in the letter.

The most you get from its believers is “Google it.” I did just that. With a Google search for “Malinda Borden Titanic”, I got 5 pages of results. Only the first page or so had relevant results. Of those, most were reposts or links to the story. Then there’s the Snopes page debunking it, and a few pages linking to the Snopes page. Finally, there are a couple of original posts of the story and one or two comments from the author. All results point to short versions of the story. To find the full letter, you have to look through Griffin’s Facebook page going back to 2016. There, nestled among hundreds of repeated posts about politics, punctuated by many graphic, horrific photos of lynching victims every few posts, you’ll eventually find the original posts for this story and the text letter.

Beyond that and what I’ve shown here? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Titanic has also been intensely studied since the disaster. It’s quite literally one of the most written-about subjects in modern history. Thousands of historians, authors, and enthusiasts from all walks of life, races, classes, and political affiliations have studied Titanic and written about it. Every aspect of Titanic has been studied front to back, left and right, up and down. Every minute of the sinking has been scrutinized, every word of every survivor account from both inquiries and countless interviews and news pieces analyzed, every detail carefully pieced together. Nowhere is there a gap or an anomaly that would point to the sort of hidden history this story claims exists.

It’s also important to remember that Titanic wasn’t an isolated thing. Stories about Titanic are often larger than life, as if it was a singular, special thing. But it was just a ship that met an unfortunate end. It had an identical sister ship at the time, as well as one that would follow later. The White Star Line had dozens of ships around the world. There were many shipping lines in Britain, Ireland, America, Germany, France, and more. If the policies hinted at in this story were real, we wouldn’t just have to look at Titanic. Olympic sailed until the 1930s and for almost year before Titanic, you’d think there would be something somewhere by now about the secret all-black groups of stokers in the boiler rooms, or the mysterious, unlisted black cooks, stewards, nurses, etc.

This is all to say that, if this story were true, SOMETHING of that would have been discovered in the last 108 years. Some historian would have uncovered this story, or hints of the details told within. And not everyone would sit on that. Some historians would love to overturn what we think we know about history, and something like this would revolutionize and overturn our understanding of the Titanic story. Instead, the only evidence for this story is the story itself as told in a Facebook post from 2016; poorly-written, full of holes, and utterly unconvincing and unsupported. The only thing that props it up is its own vaguery and reliance on conspiratorial unfalsifiability.

In order to believe this story, you have to not only go against a century of some of the most rigorous research and a massive body of evidence, you also have to believe that literally everybody involved in Titanic’s story - every surviving crewmember, every passenger, every builder and White Star Line official, everybody from that time, until the death of the very last survivor in 2010 - and literally everybody involved in Titanic research and publication of any kind in the last 108 years - from Walter Lord to James Cameron and everybody between - is in on a grand, far-reaching conspiracy of coverups. Surely, the story’s apparent originator isn’t a conspiracy theori-

Oh... FUCKING. OOPS.

That’s right. The ROTHSCHILDS. An anti-semitic conspiracy theory you’ll often find favored by, you know, Nazis. The intentional sinking theory that’s only been debunked 44,765,334,896 times, the theory that’s supposedly been covered up by the Jews and the government. Oh and also that nonsense about the bunker fire taking down the whole ship, which was supposedly covered up by the WSL, now mixed in with a super secret unknown crew of black firefighters, whose story has supposedly been successfully covered up by all white people everywhere until one person on Facebook posted it. What’s next, Titanic was switched with Olympic which was then sunk for insurance money, then covered up by the 10,000 workers at Harland and Wolff and the WSL?

And like all conspiracy theories, this story is written in such a way as to make it both unprovable and unfalsifiable. “You can’t prove or disprove it because there are no records and all traces have been covered up.” Some eschew any sort of research in favor of simply believing based on what they feel, like this person:

In the age of Trump, fear, and increasing social and political tensions, in the world of bite-sized tweet-n-share social media, it’s a story that can easily gain traction despite there being no substantiated evidence at all for it. Its believers and defenders do the utmost minimal level of research (”I Googled it and found more than one link for the story!”), make assertions of coverups and use appeals to feelings and numerous fallacies while accusing the story’s skeptics of being racist, ignorant, or in on the grand conspiracy to keep these stories under wraps. (Some people who refute the story probably are racist and ignorant and haven’t offered much beyond “IT’S NOT TRUE DUMBASS!” But that has no bearing on the facts.) To the believers, none of this matters. If someone believes this, why does that matter, even if it’s not true?

Except it should matter. While people focus on this fake story, they miss out on the real stories of real people that were often overlooked until recent decades, stories that are supported by mountains of evidence and documentation.

Like the real story of Titanic’s Chinese passengers:

Eight of them boarded in 3rd class, six survived, with one of them being one of the last people rescued from the water. That rescue was even featured in a deleted scene from the 1997 film. “The Six” as they’re known fell into obscurity upon returning to China, with their story only recently being pieced together in a documentary slated to be released later in 2019.

Or the real story of Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese man on Titanic:

He boarded in 2nd class and, after initially encountering a crewman who wouldn’t let him on deck because he was assumed to be 3rd class, eventually made it up on deck and into a lifeboat. He faced a great deal of shame upon returning to Japan.

Or the real story of Victor Giglio:

He was the half-Egyptian valet to Benjamin Guggenheim, staying with him in his 1st class stateroom, who “dressed in his best” along with Guggenheim, with both refusing a lifeboat in favor of “going down like gentlemen.”

Or the very real and tragic story of Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche:

Laroche was, as far as we know from nearly 108 years of research, the only black person on the Titanic when it sank, although you could say there were three if you count his two half-black daughters. He was an engineer from Haiti who studied in France and was heading back to Haiti in 2nd class along with his pregnant French wife and two daughters, seeking job opportunities that were denied him due to racism in France. They were originally supposed to travel on a French ship, but the line’s strict policies on children made them change their tickets for a voyage on Titanic. During the sinking, Laroche made sure his wife and children got into a lifeboat, but like many other men that night, he stepped back and stayed on board with the hope that rescue would come for the men and others who remained on the ship. It did not, and Laroche died in the sinking.

Titanic’s story isn’t free of prejudice. From antisemitism and anti-Italian sentiments among crew to racism and abuse directed at non-white and poor passengers to some extent or other, as well as the simple fact that almost certainly many on board were just plain racist (it was 1912, after all). Meanwhile, the stories of non-white passengers have indeed often been overlooked, sometimes due to the disinterest and racism of reporters at the time. But despite all that, these stories came out, and really were known to an extent all along, their evidence easy enough to find. That’s just not the case with the Malinda Borden story. The fact is, there were not many people of color on the Titanic, and even fewer black people. Making up and propagating likely false stories about there secretly being tons of black crew and passengers based on literally no evidence at all (the only evidence offered for this story is the story itself), I believe, takes away from the precious few stories that are true.

Nor is there nothing to be woke about. White people in positions of power and in general have covered up or ignored all sorts of racist acts and black history. Education has utterly failed in that regard. The lessons from black leaders have been diluted into soundbites white people can feel good about. COINTELPRO, Jim Crow and more on the government side, a long history of segregation and discrimination on the business side. There are many proven, documented, substantiated examples of genuine coverups and covert racism in government and business, disenfranchisement, and more. This story, however, is not one of them. Be woke, just don’t be so woke that you fall out of the bed, hit your head on the nightstand, and pass out again.

You don’t have to accept or believe any of this, though. Few of those faced with refutations of the story did, appealing to attacks and fallacious arguments instead. A Titanic researcher friend of mine was told to go “jack off to a Trump poster” for doubting this story. Do with this (and that) what you will.

UPDATE 1:

In the months since posting this, there definitely has not been anything to prove anything with this story. In fact, much of the “evidence” I covered here no longer exists. The Facebook page of Helen Griffin no longer exists and their posts are gone, and it’s possible some other posts about this vanished as well. I was going to add something about how you can do your own research on this if you feel it necessary, but that’s apparently impossible now. All that’s left of this story on social media now are the various reposts of the short summaries of the main claim. This Tumblr post, and possibly a few buried comments on one of the Facebook posts linked here, are the only places you’ll likely be able to find the full version of the story that sparked these claims. Of course, the original content may be gone, but the story they spawned will no doubt continue to be spread.

[haphapner]

The Madonna of Allentown

It happened again at Big Len's place in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  A steady flow of true humanity came through there every day.  Big Len's specialized in cold beer to go and weekly room rentals, an odd mix but it had been around for years.

I had just returned from buying a carton of cheap cigarettes.

It was my daughter’s sixteenth birthday.  I hadn’t been pregnant for fifteen years, eleven months and nineteen days.  On that morning, I experienced a miraculous conception.  What would come from my womb some months later would not, indeed could not, be, from a man.

Long ago, I recognized that one should take these things as they come.  The years and more than five-hundred-fifty pregnancies have tempered my weariness and bone crushing sadness with wisdom.  Inexplicably I felt driven to invest in this child so that it would be more successful than all the others combined.

One minute, I was walking up the backstairs to my bug-infested room, a communal toilet and shower down the hall.  The next, a fresh new soul spontaneously generated in my ancient womb.  The cigarettes slipped from my grasp and bounced down the dingy stairs, bounding higher as they picked up speed.  The carton cracked against the door and burst open spewing cellophane wrapped pleasure across the sun-lit landing.

“Shit!”

I can’t explain it; I just knew it had happened again.  It’s like Zen, if you’ve experienced sartori, you get it; otherwise, you’re shit-out-of-luck.

I sat down three quarters of the way up the steep stairs.  “Shit, shit, shit … I’m too tired for this.”  I slammed my elbow against the wall; dingy, faded wallpaper fluttered. “How does this always catch me off-guard?”  I took a long drag on a generic cigarette, my last.  “So many myths about gods becoming men and walking among us, the gods of mythology were too chicken-shit to become women.”  I ripped at a piece of wallpaper exposing years of corrupted paint.  “Woman’s work my ass,” a sarcastic laugh slipped out. “Men should try motherhood.”

My story starts in the mists of time, before I conceived the collective unconscious of humankind. Known by a thousand names – Eve, Ishtar, Isis, Mother Earth – I am the Oracle of Delphi who doled out visions, generation upon generation, ad infinitum.  The Greeks referred to me as Gaia, the one who sprang from Chaos and became the mother of all things.

Myth cloaks the truth trapping humanity in ancient prisons of ignorance.  A son once said, “The Truth shall set you free.”[1]  I have born more grief than the mind can conceive.  In vain, I have staggered through humanity searching, always searching for true companionship, a true equal.

Jung wrote, “Whenever the earth mother appears it means that things are going to happen in reality; this is an absolute law.”[2]  His words were confused.  I do not appear.  I never disappear.  I keep moving, looking into eyes that cannot see, listening for words that convey meaning. Carl understood one thing.  For those who come to know me, reality takes hold.  Through the mind-numbing millennia, I have witnessed pockets of hope, people whose peaceful coexistence drew me toward the mainstream.  Such communities were but flickering flames blown out by human progress.

Every sixteen years I become pregnant and carry the baby to term – which is usually some time during the twenty-fourth lunar month.  I neither consult nor require a patriarch to participate in these sacred events. These children of fiat are my offering, my sacrifice to humanity, gifts meant to foster evolution so that humanity might come to a full realization of their divine nature.

Through the centuries, I have mothered some famous and infamous people.  Ishmael and Isaac, those naughty boys who denied the goddess, were mine.  Siddhartha and Jesus were my sons as were Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, and Mohamed. You see, I am doomed to have sons, boys and men who must throw off the fear and oppression of women or die.  Warriors, orators, gurus, and shaman alike I have birthed, but very few wise men.

Sid was a rebellious boy in the beginning.  Jesus died too soon.  I fled the Christian lands after seeing so much harm done in his name.  Humans constantly teeter on the brink of madness.  After the first jihad, Mohamed tried to honor me in his book, “Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him.  His mother was a woman of truth.  But they had both to eat their food.”[3]  Can you imagine?  My own son did not understand the divine reality of the one who bore him into this world.  With a broken heart, I slowly made my way north and west.

Sadly, most of my sons turned out to be self-centered egomaniacs.  Tragedy seemed my only companion.  Witnessing their utter lack of respect for women and the goddess, I began to desert my boys by their sixteenth birthday.  Hitler broke my heart long before he broke the world.  I fled to the west.

I arrived in the new world just after the turn of the century.  My next child, Sunnyland Slim, soulfully interpreted my heart through his fingers and songs.  But the moral decay and utter inhumanity of the last several centuries had brought me low. I took a long vacation, which brought me to Big Len’s with my only daughter.

Human potential for greatness is exceeded only by its arrogant individualism.

Around each child’s thirty-third birthday, when the calendars of the sun and the moon align, is a powerful opportunity in their lives.  At those times, the collective unconsciousness draws toward the surface of conscious thought throughout the earth’s inhabitants.  At that time, every generation faces the great question – will they accept their maker as she is.  Only during that powerful alignment of the lunar and solar phases, is vision able to break the bonds of human limitation and broach the domain of collective reality.  That unified vision is the key to human evolution.

I loved the renaissance when men nearly grasped the divine nature of humanity.  Rubens honored me, and all women, with his exquisite art. Things had always been dicey with the boys, but they really went downhill fast during the industrial revolution. My son Karl wrote about a community of equals, but he was no Jesus.  He thought economics could alter the human condition.  He could not see that lasting social change will only come through an evolved race.

For thousands of years, since the men of this species overthrew the goddess, violence toward women and children has run rampant.  The prehistoric patriarchal revolt disfigured the male capacity for love, trust, and connection.  In the process, my heart fractured and so began my perpetual search for wholeness.

The myth of the ages is that human men become mature. Their adult lives are lived as an extension of their boyhood.  They do not mature they merely age.  Their deeply buried true self rarely surfaces.  Panic ensues in the hearts of men when they glimpse their feminine side. The fear of homosexuality is but a disguise.  Their terror lies in something sinister and primal that they cannot face.

They fear me in them.  In the gap between Eden’s fall and recorded history, they knew me as the goddess of all things dark and uncanny.  Men’s hearts filled with fear, knowing I could strike them down with arrows of conscience even from afar.  In rebellion against the true nature of all things, they have subjugated women since the dawn of human history.  Once they seized control, they denied their essence and proclaimed their superiority.

To survive I had to go on the lam.  Of course, modern humans have no recollection or understanding of these things.  Primeval instinct leads men to oppress and deny their nature and needs.  They do not comprehend that their claims of physical superiority and manifest destiny are born of fear.

Men need not fear.  I am the self-existent One.  Ex nihilo I made all things.  I am woman and man, the beginning and the end, the lover of all things.  I draw many into oneness creating a race of divine equals, who knowing their origins choose to embrace their divine nature.  I alone procreate – the divine begetting the divine.

A sign flashed above my head, Sacred Heart Hospital.  I floated along into an elevator.  Everything smelled clean and white.  Doors parted, closed, and opened again.  People rushed past my horizontal floating frame.

“She’s in trouble.  Get her into surgery.”

Who could they be talking about?  How long had I been here?

I hear my daughter’s voice, “What is it?  What is wrong?”

“She’s hemorrhaging.  We need to take the baby now.”

“Looks like a lot of scar tissue, possibly an acute ectopic. Get the on-call surgeon.

“Blood pressure’s dropping, pulse is dropping.”

“She’s going into shock; we’re losing her.  Come on people!”

~

The doctor explained that they had done a “clean house” hysterectomy.  I would never have another child.

My firstborn daughter, now eighteen stepped forward and looked into my eyes.  She held her new little sister with pride and hope.  “Mama, she’s the one; the last one.”

[1] Holy Bible, New International Version, John 8:38

[2] Douglas, Claire, Editor.  Visions: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1930 – 1934 C.G. Jung. Princeton University Press.  1997. Page 790.

[3] Koran 5:75

[kehoebates6-blog]

From a 4 year aged rehearsing their alphabet to a Underwater sharpening his capturing skills, video gaming are an integral and helpful element of the world right now. Whatever you decide to are generally making use of games for, the following report will help you strike it a notch and get the most bang for your personal video games buck.

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[kynaswhereabouts]

A Visit At Our Lady of Penafrancia Museum

Location: Corrner Penafrancia Avenue, Magsaysay Avenue, Naga City

Opening Hours: Tuesday-Saturday (9:00am-5:00pm)

Contact Person: Ms. Rosette -09082395191

The Our Lady of Penafrancia Museum has been here for a long time. In fact, it was said that the museum edifice was completed way back in 1993 (I wasn’t even born by that time). The Penafrancia Pilgrimage Foundation has collaborated with the Penafrancia Association and established a joint management board to supervise the affairs of the of the museum. Several donors and contributing artists was able to make this possible. I have been wanting to visit this since then because I had always been curious of what is inside it. I usually see it with closed gates back then and it was only today that I got the chance to finally be there because I saw that the gates were opened.

When I got there, I saw that there was a minor construction going on. I was able to meet the caretaker of the museum, Ms. Rosette. I asked her first if the museum was open to public and said yes. I paid an entrance fee of 15 pesos and was asked if I was the only one, I told her that I just happen to pass by and thought of featuring it here on my blog so she gladly led me to the exhibit. She let me be on my own as I started to roam around.

I have always been a Nagueno, I was born here but I spent half of my childhood in Manila. It was only when we moved back in Naga, when I was taught in school (in Religion classes mostly) about the Marian faith and devotion of Bicolanos to Our Lady of Penafrancia. I have been able to learn about it but I am not that knowledgeable about it by that time. As I grew up and took all those required Religion classes, I have that grown familiarity to the story of the devotion. I was able able to read several versions of the stories too which is why going here today seemed to have enlightened me with the right knowledge.

I first went to this gallery where they exhibited the mantos (capes/robes of Ina) as well the dioramas of the story on how the devotion to Our Lady of Penafrancia first started.

Here are some photos of the mantos. To define it as stated here, “Manto is the mantle, cape or robe that befits the Queenship of Mary signifying protection. A religious practice has evolved where devotees wish to be imposed with the mantle of Ina for healing with other personal petitions, an expression of fiducial trust under the protection of Ina. This meticulously knitted crochet captures a timeless effort and personal touch of specialness put into preparing the manto of Ina.”

Now, I’ll take you back in time and tell the story of how the Devotion to Our Lady of Penafrancia started through the dioramas. (Please bear with me, I will be brief on this but I will try to summarize and explain it as much as I can with accuracy based on what the description per diorama says).

1.       Invasion of Spain by the Moors (711-713)

During this time, there was a war between the Moors and the Christians in Spain. When the Christians got defeated, their homes and churches were burned so they fled and settled in the mountains along with their priced possessions including their sacred images. They may have been defeated but their faith and devotion has never faded. The place where they settled (between Salamaca and Caceres) was named Pena de Francia.

 2.       Simon Rolan “Vella” (Paris, 1428)

Simon Rolan “Vella” is a Franciscan lay brother. One night, a voice came to him in his dream telling him to look for the image of Our Lady of Penafrancia so upon waking up, he searched for it. He spent 6 years looking for it in the mountains of France.

 3.       Market Scene at Salamanca, Spain (1434)

There was a woman and a man caught in a fray who provided clues to Simon on where to find the mountain Pena de Francia. A churchgoer showed him the way.

 4.       Discovery of The Sacred Image of Penafrancia (May 19, 1434)

While on his search, Simon had a head wound for inflicting a falling rock and then had a dream again. In his dream, the Lady appeared and told him where he can find him. Simon followed what he saw in his dream, and together with his 4 friends, they found the image of Mother and Child.  They venerated the sacred image and they were cured of their ailments.

 5.       Spread of Devotion to Penafrancia in Nueva Caceres (1700)

Miguel de Robles Covarrubias is a sick UST seminar. Upon reading a book on the Virgin of Penafrancia, he became a devotee and vowed to build a stone chapel at the riverbanks of Pasig, Manila however, he wasn’t able to make it happen there because he was transferred to the Diocese of Nueva Caceres where he got ordained and later, got appointed to be the parish priest of Cathedral and Vicar General. When the Cimarrones of Isarog requested for a chapel, they slowly built it then a local artist carved an image of Our Lady of Penafrancia and painted it by a dog’s blood. Miraculously, the decapitated dog came back to life. The devotion spread during the tenure of Bishope Felipe de Molina (1723-1738) and the renovation of the stone chapel was completed during the time of Bishop Isidro de Arevalo (1742-1751).  

 6.       Devotion to Divino Rostro and the Cholera Epidemic (1882)

There was a time wherein the Cholera Epidemic in Manila reached Bicol. Because of this, Vicar-general Pedro de la Torre introduced the novena to Divino Rostro (which was also practiced in Spain) at the height of the epidemic.  The simultaneous novena to the Dib\vino Rostro and the Penafrancia took place to implore heavenly intervention. A procession of Divino Rostro was held and by then, the Divino Rostro and Penafrancia are to carried together during processions.

 7.       Penafrancia Celebration and The Filipino- Spanish Revlot (September 19, 1898)

The San Francisco Church became the last refuge of the fleeing prominent Spanish and Bicolano families on the night when the first revolt in Naga happened at midnight of September 18, 1898 during the Penafrancia Festivities led by Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo. When the Spaniards finally yielded, it marked the end of the Spanish Colonial rule in Bicol. The success in turnover of government was facilitated by Vicar-General Fr. Gonzales.

 8.       Traslacion Procession  (1853)

The widespread of devotion had caused increasing number of pilgrimage. It was in 1853 when Bishop Manuel Grivajalo decreed that the image of the Penafrancia be brought in procession from Penafrancia Church to Cathedral for novena from Saturday to Thursday and the transfer was called “traslacion” which means transfer. Bishop Francisco Gainza decreed on September 1, 1864 to extend the novena until Saturday to be followed by a fluvial procession back to Penafrancia Chruch. However, in 1905, Bishop Jorge Imperial Barlin be transferred from July to September (there was a time that the Penafrancia festival was celebrated on July).

 9.       Fluviual Procession of the Pagoda of Ina and the Colgante Bridge Tragedy (September 16, 1972)

It was on the afternoon of September 16, 1972 during the Fluvial Procession when the wooden Colgante Bridge collapsed just before the Pagoda reached it. There were a total of 138 casualties on that day. There were some stories that aside from the old wooden bridge can no longer support itself and there were many people in it, there was a divine work. Some stories say that there was a woman at the pagoda and it angered Ina. Only men were said to be allowed to join during the Fluvial procession. (I was able to ask the caretaker about this one if it is true. She said that it was just a rumor. Clarifying that, Ina was also a woman so why would she be angry? However, it has been a tradition that the men devotees are the ones who brings her home. She said that women devotees have a Fluvial procession too being held during May).

 10.    Sacred Image of Penafrancia Stolen (August 16, 1981) and Recovered (September 5, 1982)

The image of Penafrancia in Salamanca, Spain was once stolen way back in August 17, 1872. The Bicolanos has gone through it too when the image was also stolen on August 16, 1981 and was recovered on September 5, 1982 dismantled in 6 parts. Not knowing who stole it and for what reasons, the devotees without question braved the Typhoon Ruping and brought home the Image of Ina the next day after it was recovered.

 11.   Canonical Coronation of Our Lady of Penafrancia as Queen and Patroness of The Bicol Region (September 20, 1924), 1949 Silver, 1974 Golden and 199 Diamond Jubilees

June 10, 1895- Our Lady of Penafrancia was proclaimed Principal Patroness of the City of Caceres by Pope Leo XII.

May 13, 1920- Pope benedict XV decreed the official coronation of the Penafrancia as Queen and Patroness of the whole Bicol Region.

September 20, 1924- The coronation took place at the Cathedral grounds with Papal Legate Guillermo Piani and Bishop Manila Michael O’Doherty gracing the occasion. The award winning “Himno a la Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia” also known as “Resuene Vibrante” written by Maximo Heguera CM was sung on the occasion.

September 13, 1974- The Golden Jubillee of the Coronation was commemorated at Plaza Quezon of Naga City.

September 16, 1999- marked the Diamond Jubilee of the Coronation commemorated at the Quadricentennial Arch of the Naga Cathedral.

 12.   Virgin of Penafrancia, Ina of All Times

On May 22, 1982, The Basilica Minore at Balatas Road was inaugurated and blessed. It is Ina’s new home. Basilica became a beacon of hope for the down-trodden, solace for the suffering and a sanctuary for those yearning for physical and spiritual healing.

 After going through those dioramas, I went to the next gallery where the crowns and aureola were exhibited. These were those that were used in several occasions.

And lastly, the pagoda. This pagoda was the one being used every Traslacion procession. I was only allowed up to this point since they were cleaning it that time. This museum is its official residence. According to the caretaker, the pagoda has a carrying capacity for 200 passengers. Before the Fluvial Procession they have a list of people who can join and have access to it. They are the only ones allowed in the pagoda.

There were words spreading around saying that all the items exhibited here will be transferred to still being constructed museum beside the Basilica Minore however, it is still fully undecided yet by the archdiocese if they will be moving out. One of the reasons was the pagoda which can’t be moved there. No final decisions has been made yet. But the soon to open museum near the Basilica church will be another Ecclestiastical Museum dedicated to Bicolano Devotion to Our Lady of Penafrancia,

Might as well visit the Penafrancia Museum here in Naga City and learn more about the rich history of faith and devotion that has shaped us, Bicolanos as well as made Naga City, a Pilgrim City.  

[magicdragonkiddize]

The Best Cheap Recreational Kayak - 5 Things To Look For

You wish to buy a kayak, but your budget is limited. You understand that you need to throw some lakes and a couple of rivers that are not white water, but what type of kayak do you purchase? How do you know you're getting a whole lot on a kayak? Will you even need to use this kayak in a year? Let us answer all those questions and more to help you get the best cheap recreational kayak available. 

First, let's make sure you know what a recreational kayak is, before we get to the point of speaking about the best cheap kayaks on the market. As its name suggests, recreational kayaks are for the recreational user. They are fantastic for the hobbyist who wants to get out on the water for enjoyment, exercise, recreation and mental health. I just threw the psychological health in there because it sure is true. Kayaking can be a tremendous stress reliever, but that's another post for another day! A recreational kayak is versatile enough to use on flat water and a number of rivers.

It's stable enough for a novice, and tracks well enough to be used for long paddles. It is a comfortable boat, with a great deal of storage space for your gear. The kayak is a fantastic option for 90% of the men and women who kayak! Whether you wish to find a sit or a sit in kayak, there are a couple of things you should look for. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to purchasing a recreational kayak. Just because I do not suggest getting a cheap kayak, that does not mean that you will need to spend a bunch of money. I would like you to find the best recreational kayak you are able to spend, and enjoy using it for quite a long time! 

5 things to look for in a recreational kayak:

 1. Comfortable Seating

Any kayak you purchase should have padding on the chair and a few adjustments which may be made to the chair. Never, ever get a kayak with just a plastic roto-molded seat. You may regret the decision halfway through your first paddle. You're stuck with the chair on any kayak which you get, so your money will be well spent by making certain your seat is properly cushioned and adjustable. 

2. Size Matters... 

not so much Kayaks come in various lengths for a reason. Typically, the shorter the kayak, the easier it is to turn and move. The more the kayak, the greater it monitors in a straight line. It's important to know what sorts of water you'll be paddling in before making a purchase. Recreational kayaks are usually between 10' and 12'. There is not going to be a enormous amount difference between a 10' and 12' kayak. Both dimensions work great in a number of kinds of water, so don't sweat too much over this selection. Remember that a bigger kayak will weigh more, so be certain you can pick it up on your own. 

3. Storage Space and Deck Rigging 

Anytime you're taking a look at recreational kayaks, you need to look closely at the available number of dry storage area built into the kayak. Trust me, you may want to take out things with you which you do not want to get wet, so this space will be extremely valuable. Examine the outside of the kayak. You might think these things aren't important, but they soon will be. You want to have places in your boat where you are able to store things and attach items that you might choose to use during your paddle. In addition, you must understand that deck rigging, paddle holders and other attachments can be added to almost any kayak once you get it. But you this may require expert installation. 

4. Price 

Realistically, you should plan on spending $500-$700 on a fantastic excellent kayak. There are loads of name brand models which have great recreational kayaks in this budget. In this budget, you can get decent storage space and amazing seating you will be pleased with for quite a long time. You may find kayaks considerably cheaper than $500, but frankly I wouldn't advise going with a kayak that's in the bottom of the cost range. They'll be a lot more difficult to paddle, they are going to have uncomfortable seats, and you won't have the storage space to be comfortable when you're out on the water. Bear in mind, we want to get you the most effective cheap recreational kayak, not the cheapest one on the market. 

5. Brands 

You won't ever regret buying a kayak out of a kayak construction company. I've seen tons of generic molded kayaks produced in factories across seas, which have a label slapped on them and they're commonly sold at low cost outlets all around the nation. There are a whole lot of reasons to prevent these kayaks, but the principal reason is they are not made by those who actually kayak. There are lots of US based companies which were started by trekking enthusiasts, and they make great kayaks. 

I want you to find the best recreational kayak you can, for the lowest price. It may mean you will need to shop around and search for deals. Purchasing from a kayak making business will mean that you get a great recreational kayak which you can use for several years to come. Here's a list of kayak makers that I recommend, as well as the recreational models that fall within the $500-$800 price range: Jackson Kayaks - Cruise 10 Wilderness Kayaks - Tarpon 100, Aspire 100 Perception Kayaks - Prodigy, Tribute, Impulse Liquid Logic Kayaks - Remix 10 Locating the best cheap recreational kayak, might not be an easy job, but if you do it correctly you'll have a kayak you will love for years to come!

Starting a Rewarding Career in Recreational Therapy

If you love helping people who are disabled, or suffering from the long term effects of injury or illness, then a career in recreational therapy may be ideal for you. Recreational therapists are an essential part of the healthcare professional community, and usually find their jobs to be extremely rewarding. Requirement for this place has been growing, so there's not any better time than the present for anyone interested in providing this invaluable service to enroll in graduate and schools to work in this important, yet underrated profession. 

What Recreational Therapists Can A typical job description may include helping patients such as physically and emotionally disabled individuals, older individuals, developmentally disabled children, emotionally handicapped individuals and much more. The principal significance of the job is in using recreation - drama, arts and crafts, dancing, sports, games, field trips and other activities - encourage active and interested participation from the individual. 

These activities help to improve and maintain physical strength, motor coordination and function, social skills and emotional well-being. By helping those needing to learn the very same things that other person learns, and to feel included in society, therapists play an significant role in enabling people with many distinct challenges to lead happier and more productive lives. Nursing care and skilled nursing centers employs many recreational therapists. Other people find jobs at regular hospitals and surgical centers. 

Furthermore, many find employment at state owned and private facilities for psychiatric care and substance abuse. Based on which sort of facility an individual is employed by, salary ranges from between approximately $25,000 annually to upwards of $63,000 annually. At present, the median salary for recreational therapists is just over $40,000 each year. Getting a Recreational Therapist The requirements have recently changed. 

Nowadays, there are two methods by which you can become a certified and accredited recreational therapist, people being to graduate from accredited programs, or through a work experience certificate, although the former is considerably more preferred. Associate's degree programs do exist, however, students should be warned they are being phased out; many employers are looking for graduates with the minimum of a Bachelor's degree consequently. 

There are also Master's and Doctoral degree programs are also available for people who would like to take their education to its fullest, but it's not essential for professionals to have those degree to become certified, accredited and used. Even though it's impossible to make a base level online, many applications do provide online portions; continuing education and advanced degrees can sometimes be carried out in an online format, however. 

As with almost any other profession in the medical and healthcare profession, attending only accredited programs is important in order for students to be assured they're gaining the most wanted and present training. Failure to attend an accredited institution may influence a potential recreational therapist's capacity to acquire certification, which may then negatively affect their marketability for job offerings; many centers seeking recreational therapists are interested in hiring only certified individuals. 

For this reason, it's highly advised that students confirm a program's accreditation status before they enroll.  Certification and Licensure To be able to become legally employed as a recreational therapist, people must be given a recreational therapy certificate, and then file for licensure in their state. Certification of those professionals is coordinated and overseen by the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC), and there are numerous paths which can be taken to make certification as a recreational therapist. 

Although most folks attend college and graduate among the many dedicated educational programs which are available, some candidates have the ability to acquire certification if they have a bachelor's degree that's not specific for recreational therapy, but includes a specific amount of recreational therapy courses, and they have work experience in the area also. Students fulfilling certification requirements, and passing the certification exam are subsequently awarded with the title of certified therapeutic recreation specialists, at which point they can then file for licensure and seek employment. 

Job growth is slightly higher than the overall job pool, with estimates that the profession will increase at a rate of 17 percent over the next few years (versus 14 percent of jobs total ). This implies that students who meet their educational needs and become licensed and certified as essential should have little trouble finding employment in their career. For people that are compassionate and enjoy helping people who need help in their everyday lives, a career in recreational therapy can be a fantastic option.

[miahpascual]

A Smile to Remember

Poem by Charles Bukowski

Themes

The themes that are present in the poem ‘A Smile to Remember’ are pain, domestic abuse, fear and death

Pain: This is one of the main themes of the whole poem. When reading the poem you can really feel the pain the mother is feeling through the author’s words. This is shown when Charles Bukowski writes, “Henry, smile! why don’t you smile? and then, she always did to show me how, and it was the saddest smile I ever saw upon the earth, like hell and hell and hell and hell, and nothing else.” This line shows us the weight of sadness and pain the mother is enduring in her home. She is trying to mask her pain by smiling and telling her son to smile even though she is breaking inside. This theme shows a contrast about darkness vs. light. The darkness which is displayed as the abuse and pain she endures from her husband. Whereas the light is displayed as the word ‘smile’ and the way she tries to inflict “happiness” onto Henry. 

Domestic Abuse: Another main theme in the poem is domestic abuse. This is seen in the poem when Henry describes the way his father is treating his mother. He says, “....my father beat her two or three times a week while raging through his 6 foot two frame because he couldn’t defeat what was attacking him.” This line really tells us about how bad his life at home really is. It also tells us how toxic his parent’s relationship is. This surprised me because I did not expect the poem to have such a dark meaning to it. In the beginning, I thought that it was just about a kid who lost someone and that it was about sadness and death. 

Fear: The fear presented in the poem is felt by Henry and his mother. This is evident when his mother is always telling Henry to smile. I think she does this so that they do not show that they are scared and that they fear his father because if they show this emotion it can result in more harm caused towards them. Being in a relationship where you feel like there is not an escape can cause fear in a person. Relationships that involve domestic abuse are never easy. Sometimes the abused person is so haunted and scared by their abuser that they don’t want to leave. They feel like the person might do something more horrible to them if they try to expose their actions. So they think that it is safer to stay in their current situation. I think this is why most victims of domestic abuse tend to stay quiet and not talk about their experiences because they don’t ever want to relive their experiences. 

Death: We see the theme of death at the end of the poem when Henry says that his fish have died. He says, “One day all the goldfish died, all five of them, they floated on top of the water, on their sides, the eye on each top side still open. While reading this line I connected his fish with his mother. So when I read that his fish had died I also thought his mom died. But after reading the poem a couple of times I finally understood that his fish was like a visual representation of his mom’s life and emotions. I understood this when the author writes, “We had the goldfish and they went around and around in the bowl on the table near the purple drapes across our front picture window.” It was like a picture of how his mother’s aura is lifeless and just spends her days wandering the house and doing the same thing every day just like the fish. Not being able to fight back and just sitting back and always smiling and not being able to say a word to her husband. Knowing that one day she’s going to die and her husband will just throw her out like he threw the fish to the cat.

Do you agree of disagree with the poem?

I agree with the poem and its message. It instills the message of a toxic relationship and the subject of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is a common subject that happens to millions of people around the world, especially women who get abused by a man in a relationship. Also sometimes even men who gest abused by women in a relationship. Domestic abuse can be inflicted in many ways such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, and mental/psychological abuse. In the poem, the mother experiences physical abuse which leads to mental/psychological abuse. She is getting beat constantly which affects her mental and psychological health. She constantly wonders why she is getting beat and why she isn’t worthy and good enough for her husband causing deterioration of her mental capacity. I also agree with the line, “ Henry, smile! Why don’t you smile?” I agree with this line because many people put up a frontier and just smile instead of showing their emotions. We never know if someone is breaking inside because they’re hiding their true emotions behind a smile. That’s why the eyes are a path to someone’s emotions, just like the saying, “the eyes are the windows of the soul.” When you look into someone’s eyes you can see the emotion they are feeling especially when they are sad.  

Favourite line or Image?

My favourite line in the poem is “It’s better to be happy if you can be.” This is my favourite line because I can relate to it so much and I feel like other people can too. It is just a small little phrase but it holds so much meaning to it. The meaning of this line to me is so deep and it refreshed many sad memories in my life. When I read this line it was like being hit by a truck. Being happy makes life so much easier but life throws so many obstacles in our way that sometimes it’s hard to always be happy. Many people, like myself, try to be happy but sometimes it’s just so hard. Constantly putting up a smile so that your friends and family don’t have to worry. I do this all the time which I know is so bad for my mental health. People can always tell you to be happy and smile but it is harder to act upon it when you are not feeling like yourself and feeling broken. This poem is probably one of my favourite poems that we have read so far in class because of all the emotions the reader can feel when they read it. We relate to the little messages so much that it draws us in. 

Personal Connections

A personal connection I can make with this poem is the way Henry’s mother is always trying to get Henry to smile even though they are in a tough situation. Growing up as a kid, I was always told that crying was a sign of weakness. I felt strong when I didn’t cry. I hated feeling vulnerable around my friends and family so that is why I never showed myself crying in front of them. I always acted unaffected in difficult times and just put a smile on my face or even just laughed it off. This was because I also didn’t want them to worry about me and seem like another burden being added to their problems. This led to a lot of bottled up emotions which really affected my mental health. I remember during elementary school, I didn’t cry a lot even though I got hurt. Not until I hit grade 8. This was when I realized that crying was not a sign of weakness, but the opposite. I realized that showing emotions and crying actually made a person strong because they are opening themselves up. Lol, I started crying left and right. I remember crying during our basketball tournament during regionals because my calves started cramping. It was one of the most painful things I have ever experienced, I couldn’t even walk to the bench, my friends had to carry me there. After this, I wasn’t afraid to show my emotions, especially when my favourite coaches left in grade 9 or when I got so mad during basketball I started crying in grade 10 or when I tore my MCL in my leg in grade 11. However, I do always start off by trying to laugh it off but sometimes my emotions just take over. This reminded me of how Henry and his mother had to act happy and smile their pain away. 

[theforbiz]

Guide to Buy Hiking and Mountain Pants

Buying a pair of best hiking pants women’s, or men, is not as easy as it seems. There are hundreds of brands and more technical fabrics every day. The price of a mountain pants can vary from much more than you can imagine. There are cheap pants, the price of which is suspiciously low, while others are prohibitive. It is not the same hiking pants for beginners than “advanced trekking” pants, which allows you to get away from the rainiest and coldest days of the high mountain.

Why a Jeans Pants is not worth it?

Many people wonder why jeans are not worth hiking. They are resistant fit the body well and you feel comfortable with them. However, a cowboy can cause you several inconveniences:

The first is that since it is made of cotton, its water resistance capacity is very low. They soak easily and take a long time to dry. If it rains, and there is no need for a heavy downfall, they will make your body cool, become heavier and move with them is very uncomfortable. Jeans do not allow freedom of movement of mountain pants, which usually include elastic fabrics in their composition.

Why Choosing Hiking Pants is not that Easy?

Unlike what happens with t-shirts and mountain jackets, the pants are a garment that is not put on and removed throughout the day. If it’s hot you can take off your jacket, and if it cools you can add another layer. This flexibility you do not have with the warm hiking pants women that, with some exceptions, you will wear all the time. If it’s too hot you’re going to get hot, and if it’s too thin and windy, the cold will leave you cold.

What do you want the Pants for: Hiking, Trekking, and Mountaineering?

There are several terms that are confusing: Hiking, hiking, trekking, mountaineering, … first it is better to clarify them.Hiking is the same as hiking. It involves activities on easy paths and the level of physical effort is low or moderate. They are usually one-day walks, of more or less kilometers.

Trekking implies more physical effort and the possibility of traveling off tracks and trails. The trekking became fashionable in the 80s and refers to the approach to the base camp of the climbers. It can last several days and the physical effort is greater. Also, the backpack is heavier since you have to carry all the clothes and material.

Finally, there is mountaineering, which can be considered an advanced trekking in high mountains. Climatic conditions are more severe because the altitude causes the temperature to decrease, exposure to solar radiation can be very high, and wind and rain can appear at any time. It also requires more physical effort, there are no marked roads, you have to climb steep slopes and sweat must be evacuated as quickly as possible.

How are Hiking Pants Different from Trekking or Mountaineering?

Although then I will go into more specific details, the main difference between a simple hiking pants and a good mountain pants is in the performance of the garment to meet the different demands of each activity.

It is not the same to take a placid walk along a path with no slope at the foot of a mountain, then to climb over 2,000 meters in height and face the inclemency of the high mountain. Neither the effort is the same nor do the climatic conditions coincide. Therefore, a mountain pants is more technical than a hiking pants. This translates into the ability to perspire, to maintain heat, to resist abrasion, or to prevent rain from heating.

A mountain or climbing pants is more robust and resistant to abrasion. It is reinforced in places where wear can be higher, such as in the inside of the legs, where the use of crampons can cause tears.

What time of year do you want the Pants?

More than for what season: Spring, summer, autumn or winter, it would be better to ask under what conditions and in what places you will wear the pants. It is not the same a cool summer in the Pyrenean mountain that, despite being summer, the weather may be cool, then a rigorous summer in any mountain range in southern countries. In any case, there are pants for dry and warm weather, and others women’s cold weather hiking pants are better for cold or rain.

Autumn / Winter Hiking and Mountain Pants (Cold and Rainy Weather)

For cooler days, the Top rated hiking pant – The best hiking pants in the world must have thermal benefits. Too thin pants would be too cool to resist a winter day on the mountain. In addition, if it is windy, which is frequent on the mountain, you should not only check that the pants help you maintain the temperature, but also function as a windbreaker, otherwise you will be cold if the wind blows hard.

In case of Rain, there are 2 types of Hiking Pants that can serve you:

Softshell – they have thermal capacity and a certain capacity to prevent water from transferring them. They are versatile although they will not be worth it if it rains heavily.

Hardshell – are pants with waterproof membrane. They are the ones that offer the most guarantees against water since they act as a layer of protection against wind or rain, being breathable.

Hiking Pants for Spring Summer (Dry and Warm Weather)

For sunny days and in good weather, it might seem that you don’t need too technical pants. However, nothing is further from reality. When it’s hot, sweat can be a big inconvenience. If you sweat too much, you can suffer from dehydration, so it is best that the pants perspire well.

A second problem may be solar radiation. At higher elevations, it is closer to solar radiation and the skin is more vulnerable to ultraviolet rays. Therefore, a mountain pants must offer protection against UV rays, if you are going to use warm hiking pants women on warm and sunny days.

Short, Long or Convertible Hiking Pants?

A short hiking pants allows you to go cooler. However, it has some possible disadvantages:

Scratches and wounds – if you are going to travel away from roads and paths, plants or rocks can leave your legs quite bruised and full of scratches.

Solar radiation – They don’t protect your legs from the sun’s rays. They force you to wear sunscreen.

A short-insulated hiking pants women’s or mountain pants would be nice to walk tracks or easy trails. Instead, long pants protect you more in every way (insects, UV rays, rocks or branches).There is a third option that are convertible pants. Thanks to a zipper, you can remove each leg and leave them short or long as it suits you. They are very versatile and have some advantages:

Easy to wash – the dirtiest part can be washed separately.

Breathable – you can leave part of the zipper open for easy perspiration.

Now that you know the types of mountain and best hiking pants womens and men s that exist in the market and for what type of activity and conditions are more suitable, it is time to deepen the technical characteristics, which are the ones that will allow you to enjoy the Montana.

Water Resistance what is a Waterproof Hiking Pants?

Under the name of waterproof hiking pants, you will find a wide range of garments in which both the price and the benefits vary. A good insulated hiking pants women or for men, truly waterproof, is not easy to find for less than € 100. However, there are pants that can offer you some protection on a day of moderate rain.

Hiking Trousers with (Durable Water Repellent)

DWR means permanent water repellency. The tissues that carry it have a zig zag surface that prevents water from spreading throughout the tissue and soaking it. The water forms large drops that just shake the pants fall to the ground.

This treatment does not make the pants waterproof, although it helps you not soak up the first change, when it starts to rain. The DWR treatment deteriorates over time although it can be regenerated by washing the pants, or by applying a spray. There are many pants that have this treatment, although not all have a true waterproof membrane.

Hiking Pants with Waterproof Membrane

If you really need waterproof pants, you should opt for membrane pants. The best known and most effective is Goretex, which not only gives you a good resistance to rain, but allows you to perspire, something very important.

In the market there are other alternatives to Goretex. Many brands develop their own membrane. The problem is that it is difficult to know which one is the best because there is no standardized measurement system that allows comparison. However, some brands usually provide a measure of water resistance. It is the column of water that holds the pants before the water passes through the tissue.

Pants with Removable Inner Leggings

Some pants have a built-in inner gaiter, which provides a higher level of protection against water in an area that usually gets wet easily if you step on snow or if you move through areas of rain-wet scrub. This type of pants usually has a high resistance to water in the rest of the fabric and it is normal to carry some of the usual and best-known membranes.

Pants Breathability

It is important to check the ability of the tissue to evacuate sweat and allow good perspiration. Especially if it is waterproof pants. It is no use that the pants are waterproof if it is at the cost of not letting sweat escape. In the end you will end up soaked with your own sweat, especially if the temperature is a bit high and you have to make a physical effort climbing a slope to reach the top of a mountain.

In the most technical mountain and trekking pants, data on breathability usually appears. It is known as textile resistance to evaporation (RET) and measures the difficulty that sweat finds to go outside. The lower the data, the better because it tells you that sweat will go outside more easily.

Abrasion Resistance and Durability of Mountain Pants

The resistance of the pants depends on many details, starting with the seams, following the fabrics used and ending with the reinforced areas.

The seams of the Pants

If you turn the pants, you can check the quality of the seams. If the seams are simple and detect loose threads, it is very likely that the pants will wear off after a few uses. On the other hand, pants of a certain quality have double seams.

Windbreak

Wind protection usually coincides with water protection, although not always. You can find windproof pants that are not literally waterproof.

Depending on the type of fabric, you can find pants with Goretex membrane, which protects against wind and water, or softshell type pants, with a certain thermal capacity (depending on the thickness), and that gives you protection against the wind, although not so much in front of the water.

Thermal Capacity of the Pants

The inner part of the pants is usually a carded fabric that, depending on the thickness, can be more or less warm. There is always the possibility of using inner meshes to compensate in case the pants do not offer the thermal benefits you need. In this way you gain versatility, although you must always check that you do not lose freedom of movement and that the undergarment not only shelters, but also transpires well.

The Weight of the Pants

The weight of the pants is important depending on the activity you are going to do. For a day out of hiking it may be unimportant that the pants weigh 200 grams less. However, if you are going to do several days of mountain trekking, it is important to carry the minimum possible weight. Summer pants are lighter and may not exceed 400 grams. Instead, winter pants can double it.

The Pockets and Zippers

It is not given the importance it has. However, a mountain pants with several zippered pockets is safer when it comes to storing your belongings. In the mountains it is easy to lose things when you sit or climb some rocks. In these cases, pants with zippers in the pockets are better.

The Color of the Pants

It is important that you choose a color that you like. Today of any model you can choose between several colors. However, color also has its function. Darker colors are better for winter because they absorb heat better when the sun sets, while lighter colors reflect it and are cooler for warm weather or summer.

Trouser Adjustment

There are pants that fit more to the body (slim fit) and that are more comfortable because they do not easily hook in the branches or when you are climbing rocks. Others have a straighter cut leaving a greater margin with the body. There are also more baggy ones. These, although they may seem more comfortable, may not be so much compared to tight pants, especially when the latter is an elastic fabric.

What are the Best Hiking Pants for you?

The best mountain pants are not the most expensive, nor the cheapest. The best is the one that suits the type of activity you are going to do, the climatic factors, and of course your budget.

A cheap mountain pants can be very expensive. Its durability, it will be pock and may be unprofitable, and may not offer you the degree of comfort and protection you need. When the weather conditions are hard (rain, wind, cold), low quality mountain pants will jeopardize your own health, and prevent you from enjoying the mountain.

And you do not need to buy expensive mountain pants, which is very technical, if your usual activity is going to be hiking through easy terrain without leaving roads and paths.

There are more versatile and versatile men and women’s cold weather hiking pants that can be adapted to more situations and climates. These are never those of winter (too hot in temperate climates) or those of summer (excessively cool for cold weather), but those that have an intermediate weight and weight.

If you are looking for versatility, there are also convertible pants that allow you to adapt to the environment for certain terrains and climates.

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[stephaniekatejudd]

When We Are Far Away (📸 @lauleegreen) . Lorikeets speak with cascading chirps in haphazard song and even mountains speak in groans of ice and rock too wonderful for me to attain, and yet we women and men often spend our lives relegating our words to etchings and pixels. Those may well be the most accurate reflection of what we think, distilled and refined through careful reflection, but it is in the words we physically say to one another, flesh to flesh, incarnate and unmediated, that we speak the most vivid truth of who we are. Even God Himself, though revealed through ink scrawled on thin paper pages, preferred to take on lungs and lips to speak with His creatures. To commune with us. See, the spoken word is the truest disclosure of the human self. Generated by flesh and flung boldly or timidly into the world and onto other selves, particles knocking against other particles in waves that ripple out into eternity in patterns of causation that will only rarely show their hand. Vanishing vapour expired by vanishing vapour, they are raw and clumsy and of a blemished purity that is enchanting. Their beauty is that of the sun’s dip below the horizon; ephemeral and unrepeatable. All that is to say that I miss the sound of their voices. More than that, I miss the soundless words that are spoken by two bodies sitting in silent company. I feel the strain of the vast distances that lie between my body and theirs, my self and theirs. My voice can be carried to them through magical packages of sound waves, my thoughts delivered through pixels, but it is a reduction of our relationship because it is mediated rather than incarnate. Mediated friendships become about relaying what has happened, rather than living together through the things that happen. It is unavoidable, and not to be scorned because the alternative of no contact is far less palatable, but it is true that mediated relationships become bilateral, rather than communal. Rather than relating to one another in communities of multiple shared friendships, our relationships shrink and become two dimensional. On the other hand, when friendships are lived in physical community with others, veins of colour that are present in our personalities, but sometimes lie dormant because they cannot be accessed by any one person, are brought out. We are given the opportunity to express the fullest spectrum of who we are. So, even when I am far away from my closest friends, rather than mourning the loss and the distance, I will choose to be where I am planted, and engage with those who are before me. Flesh to flesh, incarnate and unmediated, in community - it is in those words that we speak the most vivid truth of who we are. That is a daunting thing to me, because I often feel underwhelmed by the self that is revealed through my everyday speech. Unrefined, disordered, scattered and dull, the words I speak when improvising conversation with you as I pass you in the street reveal someone who is for the large part ordinary and unprofound. But despite how bracing such self-disclosure may be, without it I cannot know the depths of incarnate friendships. And it is incarnate friendships, friendships borne of spoken words exchanged in physical proximity to the other, that allow for the truest and deepest of relationships. There is no substitute for friendships of immanence, Friendships in which it is safe to pour out the clutter of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, as Eliot wrote, “knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” It’s because of that, that incarnate friendships bring out the best version of our selves. The best version isn’t the shiniest version of ourselves. Neither is it the most poised, or well-thought out. The best version of ourselves is when, in our friendships, when we let one another down, we choose to assume the best of the other. When we choose to forgive. It is when we underwhelm one another with our witless speech, but still choose to lean in and seek the leading, brighter edge of another’s soul. For we are each of us good and evil, strength and weakness, consisting of a tremendous capacity for love and fear and various iterations and combinations of both those things. Life is the contest between these parts of our selves. And it is in those incarnate, communal friendships, in which we show grace and receive it in the mundane exchanges that comprise our lives, that we have the greatest opportunity to become that fullest version of ourselves. https://www.instagram.com/p/B1NU60OnO7TWjzqshuLRXdJb9dA1ktIhWoj8ak0/?igshid=j6qh070uhkrg

[awkawardmissie]

Luhan Personality Chart: The Planets

My first bias T_T.  Here we go...

Full Name: Lu Han

Exo Power: Telekinesis

Birth Day: April 20th, 1990

Birth Place: Haidian District, Beijing, China

Planets

Sun in Aries-Taurus Cusp

A/N: Tbh I don’t really like to say he’s born on a cusp, because a sign cusp is more of an expression than something that really exist. You’re either one or the other. But I was always a bit surprised that Luhan said on his Weibo that he was Aries. He always felt more of a Taurus to me, he seems to have much more softer, Taurean characteristics than aggressive and fierce Aries. So it’s either a cusp case, or a Taurus rising case. Because I don’t know his birth hour I’ll go with the cusp. (The Sun apparently changed from Aries to Taurus on April 20th, 1990 at 4:27 AM)

There’s a lot to say about this Sun position. Aries-Taurus cusp is named the Cusp of Power. This cusp’s natives are dominant people and natural born leaders. They don’t like to submit to others. They enjoy challenges of all types.

They are conflicted between their Aries and Taurus counterparts. On one hand, Aries is impulsive, energetic and intuitive, but on the other hand, Taurus is sensuous, practical and well-grounded. The Taurus counterpart can tone down Aries’s bold fierceness to a strong, determined realism, as well and make them more patient. 

With Aries intuitivity and Taurus ability to plan each details, those born under the cusp are good at strategizing. They can be blunt, they are bold and strong. They are methodical and logical, but assertive and stable at the same time.

With their Aries ruled by Mars (god of War), they are strongly independent and determined and have the physical stamina to stay their course. The Aries-Taurus represents well Mars’s leadership and initiative. With Taurus ruled by Venus, Goddess of Love, Beauty and Pleasure (she represented joy, happiness and appreciation of beautiful things), they have a great love for culture. It's important for them to feel good.

They often maintain extensive art collections and tend to be artistic themselves, sometimes through singing. They enjoy partnership and marriage, and use their charm - as well as their focused perseverance - to work toward harmony and personal security.

Taurus Mercury (Communication planet)

Mercury in Taurus build up impressions carefully. They speak slowly, but they are thorough. They are measured and placid. They are not the first ones to speak, but when they do, they demand attention. They are generally unscattered and not bubbling, which as a result make people listen to them. Their voice are generally pleasing to hear and their demeanor just as pleasant. Their expression is unlikely to be flowery or affected, but not harsh or abrasive either. They don’t yell or speak quickly. They have a pleasant tone and patient manner.

They are practical learners. They learn by doing the thing themselves. They work best in a relaxed environment where they're not in a hurry to make leaps of logic. They may be slow to start a new project, but they see it through the end. They have a one-track mind. They approach progress with caution, planning out each step to make sure it’s on solid ground. 

They may be hell bent on their decisions, and it might as well take an act of God to make them change their mind. They can get very passionate during an argument.

Pisces Venus (Relationship planet)

Venus in Pisces is the most romantic of the signs. They naturally seek out soul mates and kindred spirits. They are dreamy, soft-hearted charmers and can be very sensitive, not only towards their partners, but towards everyone. They are excellent listeners, with an amazing ability to empathize, but they might get over-involved in others’ emotions. 

Their flirting style is sweetly playful, moody and sometimes irregular. They appreciate romance and poetry, and they prefer to “feel out” both his partner and the relationship shared. They like romance and tenderness. 

They tend to fall in love at first sight, but they don’t see red flags, and even when someone treats them badly, they will choose to see them through rose-colored glasses. They love unconditionally, and they want their partner to know it. They have a capacity to forgive people, no matter what. Their genuine kindness make people trust them, and meet them with open heart.

They have a talent for art. They have a vivid, very colorful imagination. They can inhabit the feelings of others, making them naturals for performing art.

They don't care about status, but about what is inside. They are attracted to those who need help. They like to save people, and they like to be the one being saved. They find it hard to commit, even when they want to.

Unclear Mars (Pisces or Aquarius) (Planet of sex, instinct, anger and competition)

On April 20th, 1990, ~5AM, Mars was changing from Pisces to Aquarius. I don’t know Luhan’s birth hour, so I’ll put both and let you make your own conclusion. Long section ahead. 

Pisces: They are gentle and mild. They prefer to go with the flow. They are so open and sometimes without boundaries that many instinctively protect themselves by staying in the background. There, they observe every aspect of what’s happening so they can make a move at the right time. 

They need a way to express themselves creatively, or they can create quite a mess through indirect aggression. They run on emotions, and theirs can be quite unpredictable and intense. 

Sexually their sensitivity helps them be very responsive to their partner. They are very sensuous, and need a lot of affection, and lots of touching and romance. Without it, they feel sex is cold and emotionless. They are willing to please, but they are not aggressive. They like lots of details when they fantasize, creating intricate storylines and sidelines.

Mars in Pisces men are usually very beautiful and mysterious. They are usually well-liked and respected by other men, because they’re admirable but not intimidating. They are usually very admired by women as well. Women usually want to follow them, look after them, care for them. They can be very wishy washy though, and think that their personal drama is the most important of all. They may or may not be very competitive, but if they play sports, it goes without saying that they will be very passionate about it, but they aren’t the type to boast or be cocky.

They usually internalize their anger. They tend to turn it on themselves. It doesn’t mean they won’t fight if someone picks on them, but they’re not naturally confrontational. They usually find an indirect way to confront. And because Mars in Pisces are often very artistic, they may transform their anger into a beautiful piece of art.

Men on this sign are often insecure about their masculinity and sometimes try to overcompensate by acting really tough or being really athletic.

Aquarius: They’re inventive and original, sometimes borderline eccentric. They are altruistic and idealistic, tending to resent traditional authority figures. Tried-and-true methods are boring to him. They are however open to new ways of doing things… as long as you don’t force it on them!  They value freedom and individuality and are willing to let people be themselves. 

They don’t get angry easily. They are often frustrated with a group, especially when out of sync. They often vent their anger on a cause or a group of people, they never pick fights with individuals. They like mental and intellectual pursuits, so fights are more verbal, but they can get very verbally violent. They are not aggressively competitive, but are still very willful. They are rather creative at getting what they want.

They are not really touchy-feely or sentimental. Sexually they are outside-the-box, inventive and are rather detached from the act. They may like sex acts with no contact (phone, internet…). They’re willing to try everything once. They might be into group sex or open relationships. They don’t like to feel tied down or owned, and are not jealous or possessive. They need their relationships to remain light and mentally stimulating, no emotional drama.

Honestly methinks he’s Pisces but what do I know

Cancer Jupiter (Planet of luck and growth)

They need to be emotionally secure in order to grow. They are happiest when their entourage support them and boost their morale.

They attract most good fortune when they are sympathetic, charitable, use their power to save and accumulate, and comfort others (they are gifted at this). They can create a homelike environment anywhere.

They rely most on gut instinct when they pursue goals and business success. They know how to make the most of something.

However they tend to live in the past and hold onto traditions. Sometimes they prefer to do things in a more conventional way, but they know change is a given, and won’t hold on old things too much.

Capricorn Saturn (Limitations, fear, sense of responsibility)

They are very serious-minded and mature, and have the ability to take on responsibilities and to carry out duties. They are self-disciplined, hard-working, ambitious and hungry for power. They fear not being recognized for their efforts. They are always working, often for the benefit of others. If they find why they are so dedicated to the job above all else, they may be afraid of not being able to control their environment. They need to control it before it controls them. They are gifted with persuasion and may be effective speakers.

They are very practical and know how to manage resources. They’re excellent planners and organizers, but they might have difficulties to delegate and might do all the work themselves. They are cautious, meticulous, fair and impartial. They have a strong sense of duty but don’t always find joy in their duty.

They prefer unemotional, structured and quiet environments and they like rules. They tend to be insecure about social hierarchy, wealth and status.

Capricorn Uranus (where you stand out and change things)

Capricorn is a conservative sign, so this sign in the planet of change is contradictory.  They want to change and reform old structures, but want to be respectful of the past. The changes have to be well thought out, long-lasting and carefully planned.

They are great battlers, to a point where one might think nothing can defeat them. They are ambitious, stubborn, eccentric and radical. They might be restless or impulsive. They are tolerant of others’ differences and even-tempered.

They are responsible and handle power with ease. They have a natural talent to see upcoming trends and can pass as automatic innovators.

However they are unable to go with the flow and it’s hard for them to see plans not executed exactly the way they planned them to.

Capricorn Neptune (Dreams, intuition, psychic activity) ~Generational~

They idealize work, practicality, and the ability to attain reasonable goals, but also emphasize the need to be selfless and giving. They are discerning, wise, sensible and extremely rational.

They are reserved and refined in areas related to control, power, fame and success. They dream of wealth and power, even if they don’t really know how to attain it. They tend to focus on ways to increase wealth, power and influence.

They excel at organization and bureaucracy, and they are conscious of status. They like to be in authority. They may be a bit conservative and traditional. They reflect on spiritual matters, and are inspired by the Great Masters of art, music and literature. Many become cynics or critics.

Scorpio Pluto (Where you must seek change) ~Generational~

They are ruled by strong emotions. They react accordingly to their emotions but also to others’. They’re drawn to activities that involves them emotionally. Key-word: intensity.

The basic theme of the Scorpio generation is reform and transform. Both Scorpio and Pluto involve rebirth and new beginning. They involve making us face our demons and fears. They’re always looking deeper into any situation to see what’s really going on. They may as well see the darker side of things and are prepared for the worst.

Scorpio Black Moon Lilith [True/Osculating] (The dark side)

It’s not love if it doesn’t hurt. They love intensely, and when they are fooled, they can switch to a hate just as intense. They plan their vengeance and might even feel disgust.

Generally these people are talented for sex, of which they are aware, because it is only in sex, through the touch of two bodies, that they find satisfaction, which is why they later look for adoration and proof of love in sex.

They will go to extreme lengths to save, assist, rescue or win. They have a deep fear of losing. They take pleasure in knowing the secrets of others, but will keep theirs close.

Aquarius Moon (habits, reactions, instincts)

They are very observant and often shy. They are very compassionate, often towards a group or humanity in general. They often do volunteer work, and care a lot about people. 

They have a lot of knowledge in many areas. They’re intellectuals who are both intense and intuitive. They are kind-hearted, friendly and agreeable. They might be more comfortable about words and ideas than the sentimental side of life. They have a tendency towards objectivity and reason when it comes to emotional matters. They seem to lack compassion because they are incredibly independent.

What might surprise people is Aquarius’s ego. They are extremely proud of going against the grain, and anyone who insults that hurts their pride.

They value uniqueness, and they accept people who look, think and act differently. They’re experimental and avant-garde by nature and seek out edgy, daring new experiences. They’re playful and childlike and have a great sense of humor, but they must be cautious no to inadvertently hurt an other's feelings while trying to be funny. They are great dreamers, preferring to keep their head in the clouds at times.

[lazilyfreshtheorist]

Describe the difference between muscle strength and muscle power!

Difference strength and power in muscle building? Often strength training is called in the same breath with muscle building training. But it will forget something very important. These are two different sports with different goals. Difference strength and power starts with a description. Your muscle strength building program, force buildup serves to improve the entire physical strength. Mostly it can be achieved by building muscle through weight training. Strength training is physical exercise. There is resistance (dumbbell, weight) against muscle contraction. You can achieve this by gradually increasing the resistance. Press by using free weights, that is best for muscles. Machines are easier on the joints. Simply your own body weight. The training sessions are designed to overcome ever-increasing resistance. This normally promotes the development of muscle power.

What is strength training in difference strength and power?

Strength training often has significant functional benefits for improving overall health. This includes: Increased strength of bones, tendons, and ligaments Improved joint functions Lower risk of injury Bone density is increased Better metabolism and fitness Improved heart function. Strength as a basis Strength is the basis for muscle performance. A person who wants to build up strength must train because of the muscle fiber distribution in all areas of the force. You should have training goals for maximum strength, strength endurance, speed, and reactive power. The goal of speed is to perform a movement in as short a time as possible. The muscular coordination plays an especially important role. Reactive force is caused by a rapid succession, yielding and overcoming operation of the musculature an increased impulse of force. Strength endurance is the fatigue resistance at repetitive strains when the muscle is working. We can also say that the power of the muscles is maintained until it tires. Maximum strength is basis for speed Maximum strength is the basis for speed and strength endurance. This is the highest possible force that the nervous and muscular system can muster at maximum voluntary contraction. The maximum force is the power with which an athlete can only cope with a specific weight in training once. The so-called one repetition maximum (1-rpm) for the respective exercise.

What is muscle power?

Maybe you think muscle power is just the answer to the question: how strong are you? As an example, how much weight can you carry, brace or how many pushups I do in a row? However, a true definition of muscle power is a bit more complicated. We speak of power when the force values are above 30 percent of the individually realizable maximum. ACE According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), muscle strength is the maximum force that a muscle or muscle group can exert during a contraction. Muscle strength is usually measured with a 1-repetition maximum test (1-RM). During a 1-RM, a practitioner performs a repetition of a single exercise to see how much weight he or she can lift. But there are also other factors that affect how strong you are and how much strength you need for daily tasks or exercises. Stamina + Strength Definition ACE provides definitions for these terms related to muscle power: • Muscle Stamina: The ability of muscles to exert resistance to resistance over a long period of time. • Muscle strength: Combination of muscle power and movement speed. For example, the number of pushups depends partly on your muscle strength, but also on your muscle endurance. Like Dr. Lon Kilgore tests muscle power? Repeat maximum tests are the standard for measuring muscle strength. It is abbreviated as 1RM. To perform a repeat maximum test, Kramer and Fry (1995) have produced a widely used protocol. Bench press and press are most often tested to determine the muscle power of the upper and lower body. You can check your performance against benchmark standards. To perform a 1RM test, you warm up for 5 to 10 repetitions with a weight. It should make up about half the maximum weight that you want to lift in the exercise. Then take a short break and record about 75% of the maximum weight. You try to lift that three to five times. From there you add a small weight and lift it once. If you can handle it well, wait three to five minutes. You repeat this episode until you reach the maximum. Force measurement in physiotherapy and rehabilitation uses a simpler method.

Difference strength and power the factors influencing muscle strength

There are some factors influencing muscle strength. In the following, the width of the muscle fibers, neuromuscular factors influencing muscle strength are examined. This happens to depend on age, gender, and mental processes. Based on strength building. The muscle fiber bandwidth affects the force. Normally, the white, fast-twitch type II x + type II x a fibers (fast-twitch fibers) are a good prerequisite for muscle growth. The hypertrophic potential of the slow slow-twitch red fiber type I fibers (slow-twitch fibers) is largely unsuitable for this purpose. The distribution of muscle fiber types is mainly genetic. Athletes with a higher number of white muscle fibers usually have much better conditions for faster and stronger strength building. In animal experiments it could be shown that a partial transformation of type I into type II by training is possible. Physical processes The Neuromuscular Adaptation Prerequisite is the intra- and intermuscular interaction of the muscle fibers. Intramuscular Interaction Particularly important is the intramuscular interaction in maximal strength training. It is the interaction of the nervous-muscle system within a single muscle in a specific movement. Constant improvement in the synchronicity of the individual muscle fibers causes a faster mobilization of large innervation activities. This manifests itself in increased maximum strength. Intermuscular Coordination The intermuscular coordination is the interaction of agonists, synergists and antagonists in the desired movement sequence. Strength training improves intermuscular coordination. Especially beginners benefit from the neuromuscular adjustments at the beginning. Without this being attributed to morphological adaptations of the musculature. So it is possible that a strength athlete can increase the weight without the more muscle is visible. The power build-up by maximum strength training is also done by optimizing the time sequence. We are talking about synchronization, increased activation, and processed innervation impulses. Age and Gender Age and gender also play a role. Already between the age of 15 and 20, a person reaches his maximum muscle power. From the age of 40, muscle strength decreases. Men generally have more muscle power than women. On average, women have 70% of the power of a man. That's because of testosterone, the male sex hormone. It has also an anabolic effect and can positively influence muscle structure.

Psychic processes They have a big influence on maximum power development. Thus, power outputs are specifically influenced by the motivation of an athlete. This applies to both maximum strength and strength endurance. With strength endurance, a hyperacidity of the muscles can arise. The motivation to build up strength shows in the staying power despite considerable pain. This condition is referred to in endurance training. As capacity for suffering. High motivation increases the will to improve performance. It creates opportunities to mobilize additional power reserves. Finally that call for increased power output. Adjustment processes Strengthening leads to a structural adaptation of skeletal muscle. The muscle cross-section increases visibly, for example. The word for that: hypertrophy. The muscle fiber size increases. Thus the muscle volume too. These satellite cells are responsible for the process of hypertrophy. After receiving microtrauma (minor muscle injuries) through strength training, these satellite cells become active. They divide and migrate unerringly into the injured area of the muscle fiber. As a result, the satellite cells replaced no longer healthy muscle fibers with new and much stronger fibers. Neuromuscular level At the neuromuscular level, the recruitment and frequency of individual muscle fibers improve. More muscle fibers can be stimulated at the same time (intramuscular coordination). This improves the interaction of several muscles involved in one movement (intermuscular coordination). Hormon level At the hormonal level, several endocrine factors influence power output. Hormonal mechanisms depend on the performance level and training design. Furthermore the gender and genetic disposition. Finally on the individual adaptation potential. Cardiovascular factors Adjustments are also due to cardiovascular factors. Strength training mostly has a positive effect on blood pressure and heart rate. Strength training naturally causes muscle growth. It also causes body fat reduction. The body composition changes positively. Difference strength and power conclusion As a result weight training leads to a variety of effects on the entire organism. The physical performance and everyday life improve. Risk factors are reduced. Building muscle through strength training affects certainly the self-esteem of the athlete. It conveys self-awareness and self-confidence. The impact on the psyche or mood is positive. Read the full article