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Head is from LELUTKA : Zo.
Available in Lelutka Mainstore !!!
Zo's versatility and compatibility with both male and female mesh bodies allow for seamless integration with your desired appearance. The timing couldn't be more perfect as Lelutka team launch Zo during Pride Month, further honoring this special occasion. To commemorate Pride Month, Lelutka is delighted to offer Zo and their previously released head, River, at a 25% reduced price throughout June.
Please note that Zo head will be exclusively available at Lelutka Mainstore . Remember to try out a demo before making your purchase, as an informed decision is always the best decision. Lelutka look forward to seeing you soon!
Skin is from AVAROSA: here and here !!!
Visit Avarosa Mainstore !!!
"The flehmen response in elk involves curling back their upper lip to expose their front teeth, which helps them analyze chemical signals, particularly pheromones, from their environment. This behavior is especially important during mating season, as it allows bulls to assess the reproductive status of females and make informed decisions about courtship"
DuckDuckGo
It had been brought to my attention by Thomas Coulombe and Brian Plant that NS H61 had been running south out of East Binghamton in the afternoon. After having my fill of EL C425s in the morning (to be fair they were going from Bridge 60 to Taylor and back in poor sun angle) I made a slightly informed decision (thanks Nate) to head north for the big bridges. Anywho, here's H61 crossing Martin's Creek Viaduct at Kingsley.
OUT NOW!!!
Taxi: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LeLutka/126/126/37
Exciting Announcement! We've reached the final letter "Z" of the alphabet, and we couldn't be more thrilled to introduce Zo, our newest family member! Zo is a non-binary head that embraces inclusivity and self-expression. We are proud to celebrate diversity and provide individuals with the opportunity to express their unique identities authentically.
Zo's versatility and compatibility with both male and female mesh bodies allow for seamless integration with your desired appearance. The timing couldn't be more perfect as we launch Zo during Pride Month, further honoring this special occasion. To commemorate Pride Month, we are delighted to offer Zo and our previously released head, River, at a 25% reduced price throughout June.
Please note that Zo head will be exclusively available at our main store. Remember to try out a demo before making your purchase, as an informed decision is always the best decision. We look forward to seeing you soon!
For Chat, Community, Customer Service and more join us on DISCORD: discord.com/invite/yhGZdKA
Earth has a new lightning capital, according to a recent study using observations from the Lightning Imaging Sensor onboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission.
Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela earned the top spot receiving an average rate of about 233 flashes per square kilometer per year, according to the study. Researchers had previously identified Africa's Congo Basin as the location of maximum lightning activity.
The research team constructed a very high resolution data set derived from 16 years of space-based LIS observations to identify and rank lightning hotspots. They described their research in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
"We can now observe lightning flash rate density in very fine detail on a global scale," said Richard Blakeslee, LIS project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "Better understanding of lightning activity around the world enables policy makers, government agencies and other stakeholders to make more informed decisions related to weather and climate."
To read the full article, click here.
To learn more about NASA Earth science, click here.
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These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
HFF! "Stormwater management is a critical aspect of urban planning and environmental stewardship.
By implementing effective strategies, property owners and municipalities can mitigate the impacts of stormwater runoff, protect water quality, and enhance community resilience against flooding and erosion.
Understanding the principles and practices of stormwater management empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions that benefit both the environment and public health."
The Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite carries a suite of state-of-the art sensors that deliver a wealth of information to monitor our changing world, but this image was captured with its ocean and land camera. With a swath-width of 2700 km, this instrument delivers images that can span several countries, as we see here.
From east to west, the image features the islands of Corsica and Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea, Italy and across the Adriatic Sea to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and to the western edges of Romania. To the north and partly obscured by clouds, lie Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Alps.
South of the Alps, haze hovers over Italy’s Po Valley. Following the Po River to the east, the sediment it carries can be seen entering the Adriatic Sea. In fact, sediments line most of the eastern coast of Italy, giving it a greenish blue frame, while the western coast is mostly sediment-free.
As the colours in this image suggest, the camera can be used to monitor ocean ecosystems and vegetation on land – all of which will bring significant benefits to society through more informed decision-making.
Sentinel-3A will soon be joined in orbit by its twin Sentinel-3B, which is scheduled for liftoff from Russia on 25 April. The pairing of identical satellites provides the best coverage and data delivery for Europe’s Copernicus programme – the largest environmental monitoring programme in the world.
The image, which is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured by Sentinel-3A on 28 September 2016.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Grand Gulch / Cedar Mesa area in Southeastern Utah is littered with old ruins of Ancient Pueblan dwellings and granaries. Many ancient cultures such as the Mayans and Ancient Pueblans succumbed to droughts, as we're seeing spread in Africa, China, and the Western U.S.. Some leading scientists are forecasting a crash in global human population to 500 million by the end of this century. We're seeing clear changes and acceleration now in places like Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland, and many of us will live to see them affect global economies and societies. The survival of our children, and their children, are the stakes.
Global scientific collaboration is starting to gain an understanding of how natural (climate) and human (deforestation. topsoil erosion, population) forces have shaped human history. This will help us more completely understand, and hopefully influence, our future.
Projects such as the Integrated History of People on Earth (IHOPE), International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), and the American Quaternary Association (AMQUA, devoted to studying all aspects of the Quaternary Period, the last 2 million years of Earth history) promise to give us the knowledge and tools to make more informed decisions about our future.
After 20+ years of largely ignoring the evidence (such as presented in the watered-down government-reviewed IPCC reports), we may no longer have the luxury of being able to wait and see what happens before our fate will be decided for us.
Sentinel-2A captured this image of Mount St Helens in the US state of Washington on 8 February.
The active volcano is known for its 18 May 1980 eruption. The event claimed some 57 lives and damaged homes and infrastructure. The eruption was caused by an earthquake that lead to a massive landslide of the volcano’s north face, exposing it to lower pressures. The volcano then exploded, depositing widespread ash and melting the mountain’s snow, ice and glaciers that formed a number of volcanic mudslides – or lahars.
Some of these lahars are still visible, particularly in the upper left in pink.
In this false-colour image, snow cover appears light blue while pink represents areas with little to no vegetation. In the lower-central part of the image, we can see how snow cover ends in the rectangular areas as the elevation drops closer to the river.
The rectangular areas show land division, possibly for timber extraction, with the blue and red areas revealing where the trees have been cleared.
Sentinel-2 can be used to manage natural resources, to check rates of deforestation, reforestation and areas affected by wildfire. Information from Sentinel-2 can help governing bodies and commercial enterprises make informed decisions about how best to manage, protect and sustain our important forest resources.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme .
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
This image has been inspired by the dreadful situation that is Brexit. A situation that had no need to happen, created by people who are xenophobic and wanting to prevent, not control immigration into the UK.
The UK, once Brexit happens will also collapse because what the British Government are failing to understand is that there are four seperate countries involved in the Union and that two of them decided that they wanted to remain a part of the EU.
It looks like the UK Government will be defeated again in the House of Commons with their Brexit plans but sadly that won't necessarily mean that we will remain in the EU, it means that we are more likely to fall out of the EU with no net to catch us when it happens.
This goverment peddled lies to the people during its campaigning for Brexit, it sold an idea but never once sold what the hard facts actually will be and now we have reached the cliff edge, the UK Government hopes that the EU will blink even at the last minute no matter how many times it has been told categorically that this is not going to happen.
I hate the fact that there is such division in Ireland, I only hope that peace there will prevail and we do not see a return to the bad old days where there is a physical border between the north and south and the reigniting of the troubles of the past.
Each of the four nations of the UK have their own very independent and different cultures, politics, histories (even though with many links) and needs for the future.
Britain leaving the EU will not only make the nation poorer, it will make its people poorer, it will set back all parts of society many years, crime levels will increase, medications will be in short supply or run out and public disorder will become the norm.
It's not looking good for this little island, my simple wish is that people should now be able to vote for the deal now that we know exactly what it means and make an informed decision on Brexit and not the party in government who is behaving like a dictator.
The EU is not perfect, it never will be and it will forever require to be updated but it much better to be a member of it than being outside of it operating under WTO rules.
tomorrow is a big day for all of us in super tuesday states. please take some time tomorrow to cast your vote if you live in one of them.
i have gone through all of the candidates and i have chosen the person that i am voting for tomorrow. but something that i have noticed the past couple of days down here on the streets of atlanta is the hate that exists, i am talking about political hatred.
please consider opening your mind to other people's views. you may see things differently, in fact the other person may see things differently. to be able to have civil discussions, share your thoughts, have spirited debates and see and hear new ideas is the cornerstone of our country.
just because someone is voting differently from you, please don't disregard them as a friend, neighbor, co-worker and general human. all sides have some good ideas and all sides have some crappy ones too, but if we the people won't listen to each other and work together to make informed decisions, change will continue to be slow or never happen.
if you haven’t decided, please take a look at these websites and take some time to compare (and don't take one of those inaccurate online quizzes to help you decide!!):
democrats:
republicans:
Please vote with your mind and your heart, whatever the outcome, you will have made a difference!
The recently launched Sentinel-3A satellite takes us over the United Kingdom, in this false-colour image acquired on 9 May.
Made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the UK is an island nation in northwestern Europe.
At the top centre of the image, we can see aircraft contrails – water vapour condenses around the small particles in the aircraft exhaust to form ice crystals.
The result is the formation of an elongated cloud-like condensation trail in the sky, unmistakable in the centre of the image.
At top right, some snow cover in southern Norway is still evident. At bottom right, part of the Netherlands with the unmistakable 700 sq km Lake Markermeer is clearly visible.
In the southern North Sea/English Channel, an algal bloom is distinguishable in shades of light blue and green. Meanwhile, closer to the coast we can see brown sediments where rivers and streams run into the sea.
The Scottish Highlands at the tip of the United Kingdom appear light brown, representing bare soil and rock formations, with some vegetation. The rest of the island, as well as the visible part of Ireland, are very green, representing dense vegetation.
Sentinel-3A’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument is a new eye on Earth, monitoring ocean ecosystems, supporting crop management and agriculture, and providing estimates of atmospheric aerosol and clouds – all of which will bring significant benefits to society through more informed decision-making.
This image is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016]/ processed by ESA
The #FlickrFriday #Gratitude challenge
"It has been said that the English nation was to be found, not in the castles but in the cottages, and they knew very well that day that the angel of death spared neither one class nor the other"
- Sir Laming Worthington-Evans MP 1923
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Before The First World War the war dead of The United Kingdom were remembered (or not) in ad hoc ways. Memorials would be erected locally, often in churches, and tended to concentrate on officers whose families could both afford to erect them and had the influence within their communities to do so. The rank and file were frequently overlooked. Even when this was not so, the social distinctions among the regiment were recorded by the fallen being listed in order of rank. Britain very much had an officer class. While obtaining a commission was possible by raising through the ranks, mess bills and the cost of dress uniforms must have been rather a disincentive for those of humble backgrounds.
When the Napoleonic Wars ended, the UK expressed its gratitude to returning soldiers facing unemployment and destitution by passing The Vagrancy Act 1824 which prohibited begging and being abroad at night while being unable to give a good account of oneself. Officers were seldom affected. They usually had comfortably off or even wealthy families to return to, so this gesture from a grateful nation was reserved mainly for the other ranks. Parts of The Vagrancy Act remain in force to this day.
The Great War 1914-1918 was to change all that. This war had not been fought in faraway colonies by a few thousand troops who had joined up to serve their country having made a conscious and informed decision to do so. It was fought close to home for the most part by hundreds of thousands who who had been conscripted, given basic training and then sent to the trenches. It was close enough even for occasional air raids against the UK itself by primitive aircraft and Zeppelin airships. Some coastal towns, Whitby for example, were shelled by battleships. Great Britain, for so long isolated from the wars it had fought by being an island defended by the greatest navy the world had (up to then) seen, finally found war delivered to the populace.
Those who volunteered to serve in summer 1914 confidently predicted that they would be home by Christmas. That didn't happen. Instead conscription followed. Millions were enlisted. The entire country went on a war footing leading to the astounding necessity for women to go to work, often in factories and upon the land, taking jobs men had left vacant, and performing new work making munitions. Those ladies, their skin tinted yellow from TNT, were nicknamed Canary Girls. Some found themselves with long term health conditions. This was a new and very grim kind of war.
The UK lost 750,000 (mainly) men along with many gravely injured. That the whole country was affected is demonstrated by the fact that only about 50 of more than 10,000 parishes welcomed all of their enlisted men home. Returning veterans brought stories of their hardship and memories of those they left behind. Many of their characters had changed, some exhibiting conditions then regarded as lack of moral fibre (or cowardice) but which we now recognise as PTSD. Those who were not shot at dawn often got short shrift. "After all, Bert served and he's OK." But was he?
It was decided that it was impossible to repatriate hundreds of thousands of war dead, their graves (where they had them) often being only vaguely recorded. Only those who had been repatriated injured and who died here were buried in home soil. The vast majority of the bereaved had no grave to visit.
The public mood changed but was doing so even before the war ended. Wayside memorials of varying design and quality were appearing at road junctions, churchyards and in gardens as the magnitude of the slaughter became clear..
The war ended in 1918 and The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was created to properly and democratically record and commemorate Empire deaths during The War. The Commission undertook the mammoth task of finding the fallen, re-interring many into immaculate new cemeteries near where they fell and commemorating those whose identity is unknown and those who remain missing in action. The Commission also cares for the graves and memory of those lost in The Second World War. Its cemeteries are cared for by gardeners and stonemasons. Today The Commission administers 23,000 memorials and cemeteries commemorating 1.7 million casualties.
This Commonwealth War Grave is one of two in my local churchyard. It is distinguished from all the others by its white stone, its military emblem (the Royal Air Force in this case) the name, rank and number of the serviceman commemorated, a religious symbol and a brief personal epitaph making it stand out from a distance. Corporal Hart, who is remembered here, served with RAF Bomber Command Ground Crew in The Second World War. Ground crew undertook duties such as refueling, rearming and maintaining aircraft and the airfield. As a gunner, Corporal Hart's particular responsibilities may have been to airfield defence. He died in Westminster Hospital of pneumonia, aged 26, having served for 4 years. His sacrifice and those of 1.7 million others allow Brits like me to wander free and, among other things, take pretty much whatever photos we wish. Thank you.
Australia is full steam ahead for the second stolen generation.
And just like the first the verdict is in “...it has been decided, that in a court you are not represented in, that for the benefit of your children, you will not raise them…”
Just blame everything on the rich?
As much as Elon Musk, and the other space venturing billionaires are criticized for their effort to commercialise space, unless we are successful in finding by an absolute miracle a remarkably similar planet, we will all suffer a horrible and inevitable fate. Mathematically it is a certainty that in the future, there will be no reproductive freedom as is currently known in the west. Unless we find another habitable planet, and exterminate more innocent living things, reproductive freedom as we know it will end. Can we not just terra form like the Weyland corporation of the Alien movies? Well terra forming is going to take an age, and we do not have that much time. It is a scenario, that l contemplated while studying the arts at university, ironically not one I was introduced to while studying the sciences. While studying the arts my lecturer, a doctorate holder in the arts, instructed me that the world population had been predicted to be held, or plateau at fourteen billion, a number l found horrific. The same lecturer once asked a class l was in, if we were a feminist or not, and to raise our hands if we were. Although it seemed like a name and shame process for those that did not, l raised my hand because l was, and it should be noted, l still am. Additionally it must be said that this writing that contains some of my dairy musings, is not an attack on feminism but a defence of it. Why would l be seemingly critical of feminism? Because feminism is floundering. Why was this number of fourteen billion so horrific to feminism in my opinion? I thought it was horrific, not just for the sheer distress it will place on the planet, but for the fact that when we as a planet hit a population of fourteen billion, the beauty of having children will not be available for all women, nor all men. Reproductive freedom will end; and with it, sex as we know it too, thus leaving sexual freedom to become a misnomer.
The scenario led me to question both the process and motives for procreation. It led me to explore the politics and motives for state sanctions, state subsidies, and or the construction of the system that takes children away from their parents. In my research and study, l realised, l was not alone, and that much of what l was contemplating was nothing original. Many have contemplated the issues l looked at, and many have considered those issues before me; but l do not think, that it was comprehended that a second stolen generation, had, or would have, occurred. In the supposed emancipation of woman, who would have thought, that in the attempt to achieve it, children would be abducted by the state once again. Mournfully l do not think that it is possible to talk freely about it without ridicule, and the sadness that means for us all. It causes a lot of personal introspection about the motives of the people who perpetrated it, and who would have a vested interest, in a process that lost its way. One that has and manages to cause so much damage. But what has occurred too once again cause the theft of children? What would be the motive for this? Has the scenario of breeding been high jacked with well-meaning state sanctions, and its mutation, promoted with it, the prostitution of motherhood, via well-meaning state subsidies? Was this a repeat of the old colonial system? Despite the necessity for a safety net, the family unit was, and is prostituted with state subsidies here in Australia. And I contemplated heavily about a presumption that it might be said that those involved where both bad men and bad woman. I thought that this thought pattern would be a simplistic one, when the state had caused it, with state overreach. It was, and is promoted with, populist political pork barrelling of the individual…
With those in custody of their children paid more money by the state to not stay with the person they had their children with, what other choice was there? I understand the conundrum of the safety net, and the position everyone is in, but the sanctions, and subsidies, have caused a radical shift, and that shift has occurred in a noticeably brief period of time. It has changed where the centre of the gaussian curves to produce children are positioned. Gaussian curves that took thousands of years to position, with both nature and nurture… This new positioning of the centre of the gaussian curves, has widely occurred in countries where neo feminism is practiced, as opposed to where feminism was being applied. It has become a process promoted with postcolonial western dogma, for some countries in the west, including Australia. Is it part of the decolonisation of west? Is part of postcolonialism to take children away from their fathers, and to dismantle the family unit? One of the reasons why l contemplate why it happened, is that it goes against what the world’s greatest feminist, my grandmother, and what she had taught me by her example. She taught me that you do not expect others to pay for your privilege, you earn it. The Questions are, who has, or will shoulder the cost of this new system? Who is paying for the repositioning of those mathematical bell-shaped curves? And as always, there are rhetorical questions, such as. Is, or was it, a finite system, for both monies, and the custody of the children? Did it become a system where you rob Peter to pay Paul? And in this experiment of monumental size, and consequences, are the social scientists making up numbers like the reserve banks of the world? And do they not consider that unlike the digital world where money has no limit, in the real-world people do.
The academic narrative is that the old patriarchal system used to run men into cannons in the name of nationalism. The men were called cannon fodder. It was said that they, the patriarchy, were leading lambs to the slaughter. A modern term seemed to morph from this, and it was sheeple. But with the destruction of feminism’s admirable objective, that of equality of opportunity, a new group of cannon fodder or sheeple has been produced, and it has occurred via a second stolen generation. In counting people like numbers of a herd, instead of as individuals with inalienable rights, are the sheeple, being treated anything less than statistical cannon fodder? The question is who or what does this new stolen generation serve? Could the feminists have been deliberately misguided to a non-beneficial objective or was it an initiative-taking result of neo feminist dogma. Neo feminism that is in opposition to my grandmother’s example and the feminists of her era, seems to feature heavily in the neo feminist movement. Were the results inevitable once the contributions that males make to their families were disrespected. The result of that disrespect is that it has produced a second stolen generation. And just like the first stolen generation it comes from the undervaluing of a parent’s right to raise their children, and how valuable that contribution is in the future wellbeing of the child or children. The statistics are that in Australia 45% of court proceedings result in sole custody being awarded to the mother. In contrast only 11% of fathers will receive sole custody. Only 3% of court cases result in a Court Order that mandates no contact with one of the child’s parents, 83% of the time the mother ended up with custody.
Like the old government Aboriginal protection board, the new system is weighted in favour of children being taken away from those deemed as unessicary, unessicary for anything other than their labour. In the old protectorate system, children were taken away from Aboriginal mothers who were the predominate raisers of children. And just like the current stolen generation it is was said to have been done for the greater good. To paraphrase the band Midnight Oil’s song and its themes, what a “…Short Memory…” Under the new government child protectorate board, woman are receiving custody, at a rate that makes feminism seem like a pathetic ideal. Feminism was sold as being about equality of the sexes, but this is far from what has been achieved when it comes to who receives child custody of the children. With most children being taken away from their fathers by the court or given up by their fathers due to a financial reality. The reality is that his family, would get more money on single parent benefits while he worked and subsided the family while in isolation. The result of this process involving court rulings and financial stimulus, is that the numbers of this second stolen generation far exceed the first one. The first stolen generation saw approximately 100 000 Australian Aboriginal children taken from their families. And it was horrific. The new system sees 1 in 3 marriages end in divorce, on average, at the 12-year mark. Every year around thirty-nine thousand marriages are broken, a statistic that does not include unmarried couples. (It is a poor statistic, but l tried typing in “…how many children are taken away from their fathers in Australia…” and got back metaphoric crickets chirping. I wanted a definitive number, a number that would drive home the scale of the incident or crime.) Of those marriages that have children they predominantly go to the mother both by court edict, and or end up with the mother, as it is more economically advantages, under the Australian state subsidised system. Yes, the state here in Australia pays a person to separate from their child’s other parent. In Australia, the state pays you to break apart your family.
But where is the word sorry? Who will say sorry to a group of people systemically discriminated against, and reduced to nothing more than a pay-packet? Where is the word sorry for repeating the atrocities of the past? It has been said, like a paraphrase of the old system, and to reiterate, “…it has been found, in a court that you are not represented in, that for the benefit of your child, you will not raise them…” How are men not represented in a court that has predominately male judges? Well, it is not certainly their peer group. How many blue-collar men are actively recruited to work at the court other than as guards, let alone employed to give decisions on where children go? No, the decision making is left to university educated individuals. Individuals with the majority of their self-experience of the struggle of modern-day blue-collar males, being their meetings in the court, where the men are under extreme duress. It is not just the court, it is also a state-run social system, ran by a populist mob, with a populist rhetoric all its own. To herd the sheeple, all you need to know are the trigger words, trigger words which enable you to dog whistle the submissive into position. With most separations happening in lower socio-economic groups, there is a chasm between the have, and the have nots. That chasm extends to where the have nots children end up doing their domestic service, or labouring jobs for the rich, and it is starkly statistically evident. Yes, just like the first stolen generation, the stolen children are prepared for a life of service. A life of service to those considered better than them. On the modern-day mission, constructed of state sanctions, is a subsidised commission house, the state subsidised school, the state subsidized childcare, state subsidized health care, and state subsidized and promoted single parent further education. Under this system of reward, where is the incentive to allow children to grow up in close, and constant contact, with their father? The result is state built expectations for the dreams of the children involved. As a parent, Martin Luther King may have had a dream for his children, but in Australia, if you are blue collar, the state does it for you, not the parents. They will on average, never go onto receive equality of opportunity, when it comes to raising their children. Fathers that are someone’s son, uncle, nephew, grandfather, brother, and father, will never see feminism’s final objective, when it comes to equality of opportunity. Because it currently does not exist and has not existed. At lower wages, and lower salaries, there is no financial incentive for a woman to stay with the father of her children. The only incentive is that her children will be statistically less likely to go to jail, and or have better social outcomes on average if she stays with her male partner. Ironically, this does not seem to be enough. The fact is, the math is simple, and commonly known in the lower socioeconomic groups of both woman and men. The subsidies push for a separation of the family. The accounting is not hard, and it is in gross favour of the destruction of the family unit.
The result of this neo feminist abuse in the name of feminism, has resulted in most men who separate from their partners being denied the human right, of raising their children. For some men it is deprived even on a part time basis. Most will have their children taken away from them by the state, one way, or another. With what is a rebirth of the processes of the old Aboriginal state protectorate board, children are stolen regardless of race from their parents. It is done under the guise that it is for the benefit of both the children and society. It is part of the state propagated and sponsored system, and it is backed by the social sciences. What type of science relies on statistical outliers for the absolute stifling via political debate on the subject? Given the growth of jails, jails first filled with the males of the first stolen generation, that now filled with males of the second stolen generations, when will this process of child abduction be admitted, that it is an unmitigated failure by the social sciences. If it cannot be seen for what it graphically is, what would be the motives for this? If the plan were to have as many men in jail as possible, they have backed the proverbial winner. If the plan were to produce as many single mothers as possible, they could not have tried harder or been much more successful. How can the raising of children be reduced to political catch phrases, catch phrases that site statistical outliers as the average or the norm? It has produced a state sanctioned system, that with huge sweeps of the political and social broad sword, has decimated the functioning of Australian family units. So, who was put to the metaphoric sword for crimes they did not commit, denied basic human rights, that where legitimized with legal judgments? Legal judgments that ended in deaths for many of those subjected to their mandates? And to be utterly factious. Who would have thought that stealing or abducting a person’s child, or children, would drive so many to commit suicide? If death was an all-too-common outcome, did this new process become a process of statistically generated murder, or wilful collateral damage. Was this the cost for an objective that did not and does not serve the greater good of society? Add in a social narrative, where the patriarchy is responsible for all the world’s past evils, and it becomes highly ironic, that the reality is, that many Aboriginal missions were staffed by mostly woman, and that most schools are currently staffed by a majority of woman. Do not let the labelling or othering misdirect you though, all you need to do is just do a few substitutions for the new perpetrators of the new stolen generation, and you will get the picture. And it should be noted, that trying to find out the number of women involved in the first stolen generation is another statistic that the internet seems to have put off the search engine radar. How many women were involved or were instigators in both stolen generations? Well, the internet does not seem to have a number. It is essentially a narrative omission, one that suits a university spread historical take on the evils of colonialism and the patriarchy. I suppose the women involved where just following orders? An excuse that Nazi prison guards of the World War two death camps where not allowed to use. What will be the excuse, when it is widely recognised, that a second stolen generation has occurred? Who will be blamed, and who will say sorry? And when will it be admitted that the children of the second stolen generation suffer just like the first.
The ethical and moral dilemma did not end there, it has turned into a veritable sexual, and reproductive Smorgasbord, with one in five woman having children to more than one father in the west. Just turn the lazy Suzanne past the not so tasty ones. Males once catered for in the antiquated old system of marriage, are not so much anymore. More concerning was, and is, the beath of blood lines, with some men fathering many children to many women, and some men fathering none. These males are among the unseen, and not so readily available statistics, of state sanctioned or generated genocide. A genocide of undesirable breeding males? Why would these statistics be hard to find? It must be unpopular to count the numbers of dead males, and to attribute those dead people a cause of death, let alone to count, all the millions of children, and their descendance, that have been adversely affected. Why would a university, which teaches the universal evil of males, instruct about the abuses inflicted on males? Who will pay for those statistics on crimes against humanity to be generated, and who will make them publicly available? What arts faculty which preaches ad verbatim the evils of the patriarchy, will disseminate those statistics? When will relevant word searches find or highlight those statistics, without wading through irrelevant internet search results, search results carefully worded about the inadequacies of men? Search results, not related to the theft of their children, and the death of those fathers. Men who were someone’s son.
Considering the worst-case scenario is like reading the communist manifesto, of Marx, with a few modern twists. Was it a deliberate act by those in positions of power to create a new proletariat class, and have them used as statistical cannon fodder? Was it a heinous statisticians act to use expendable males in a new form of class warfare? Class warfare where they were written off, and culled with hidden statistics? If the males did not like it, will they be given a metaphoric white feather like those that were non-combatants of the first world war? Ridiculed for their lack of new age moral stoicism? Just like a war, the theft of children has caused many men to die. And to ask a rhetorical question. Does that number exceed some of the West’s modern wars?
The theft of children has undoubtably once again caused a deprivation of human rights, in a systemic process, of state sanctioned discrimination. More children than the number who suffer a process of state sanctioned, and state subsidised bastardisation of their children have been affected. Is it systemic state sanctioned discrimination? Yes. And just like the first stolen generation we are seeing a higher incidence of crime and incarceration produced. Additionally, like the first stolen generation, we also see education standards dropping. As a result of the enforcement of this new well-meaning sate sanctioned atrocity, those that instigate and enforce it via law, do it without due regard for the on average poorer outcomes that it produces for all families. For if they cared, why would they keep doing something they know fails. Why would they keep applying dogma, that on average fails to produce good outcomes? It is yet another well-meaning state system that has failed. In the process of its production, they did not shatter the nuclear family; they attacked or mutated all types of families in the west. And like most cellular mutations they were predominantly unfavourable mutations; mutations that resulted in a cancer or a sickness. Is this what has become of the feminist movement? The destruction of the family unit, replaced by the pseudo utopian fallacy that a village raises a child? It made me consider the satirical proposition. Where is this magical Smurf village? In a world where mega cities contain approximately half of the world’s population? Cities so large, that they metaphorically step over the living dead in the street. Where is the humanity in this lie, a lie that sees children once again stolen from their parents? Children stolen from their parents for their best interests, and for the greater good.
Is this what feminism has become? Not equality of opportunity like my grandmother taught me, but a process where the males in neo feminists societies pay disproportionality for the privileges of males and females they were never to be included in the lives of? And do those newly acquired rights, include the ability to destroy the lives on average of those stolen children? The rhetorical question is, did a minority of men and the majority of woman gain rights in a finite system, and thus take away justice from the innocent males in their own families? Did they gain their freedoms by taking away rights from someone else’s male children, including their own? What has happened, does not even approach equality of outcome, let alone equality of opportunity. For if that was the objective of neo feminism, it has failed! There is no equality in a system that steals children from their parents, and then sees the children on average worse off.
With the race now on to hit fourteen billion, l asked the question who will be allowed to breed when we hit that number? Will it be the children of broken families? Families that on average show a higher chance of both having poor social outcomes, and being burdens on society? Did they, (they, being those that help set up this democratically undebatable hot potato,) know selective breeding will or must happen, and did they not inform the public? If they are not truthful and forth right with the public, how does, or will, democracy work? How will democracy function, when its most fundamental asset its citizens, cannot make an informed decision? When will informed consent be allowed, and thus given? And was, or has informed consent been taken away from lower socio-economic sons, fathers, uncles, brothers, and grandfathers? It is a rhetorical question, as how can they consent when they have no other option? Consent cannot be given when only one option is presented. Without informed consent the neo feminists have done exactly that, they have taken away informed consent. For some men, or sons, it is a death sentence. For some families it is a form of genocide, with no chance of their males having male children.
In this now neo feminist western world, is every position of power to be held or filled with a failed neo feminist? One that expects the freedoms they push for, to be paid for by someone other than themselves? Is not that a variation of the old class system? Are all positions of power to be held by a social engineering arts degree holder, as opposed to the mathematician, scientist, or the no academic? Modern day neo feminism has become not about gaining equal personal rights and freedoms like traditional feminism wanted, but taking those rights away from others, and having others pay for those newly acquired rights. It was a finite system, and once equality was exceeded in the family court, it was boys and men in families that paid the price. They paid for it by becoming involuntary subjects in an experiment, an unethical experiment. It saw them become indentured labourers, or logic gated like cattle, for both breeding and function. As a result, they have had their children stolen on mass. Logically it forced me to think of a foul consideration if l had a son, the consideration was, “would I like the chance that my son was to be considered a steer, a steer in a cattle yard, presented with little choice but the slaughter gate in a system that is manifestly designed not to serve them?” Or do we, including me, believe he whomever he is, as in your son, my son, is, or will be, the breeding bull? This degradation of human rights, involving the theft of children, has become about men paying for those newly acquired breeding powers of the state. Not the breeding powers of females. And it has seen many men written off as genetically unworthy, financial burdens, and or unfashionably undesirable.
Who paid for this power transfer? In the majority in the west, and to reiterate ad nauseum once again, it was the brothers, the sons, the fathers, the uncles, and the grandfathers, of lower income families. Who does it tax? Mostly, new sons. And who is most likely to die? Mostly, new sons. Just like in the world wars. Recently it was repeatedly and publicly stated in the US, that society should be about emotive feelings and not mathematics. In that math less future that selectively counts the dead, have the West’s female neo feminists and their male sycophants become the ultimate narcissists? What used to be about the feelings of the majority as in democracy, has become the feelings of a minority, and the majority are not being served. And to sight the doctrine of Engels and Marx, there is an oppressor and the repressed. Not so ironically Engels and Marx where right, the ruling class can and sometimes do become the oppressors. Just like the first stolen generation, those in power, took the children away from the those with no power, and the market economy that produced both these travesties was politics. And just like the first stolen generation the second stolen generation are used for sex, and bred like cattle, by those in positions of power. Was this all done in the name of so-called reproductive and sexual freedom? To produce on mass, a modern-day proletariat class. Was it done for feminist rights? Who were these new freedoms for? Freedoms that with absolute mathematical certainty will end unless Musk and Co can find us a new planet? What a dark period in history it will be remember as. What type of blindness sees the facade of reproductive freedom used so that breeding in all countries will be eventually limited, to a certain few. If we extrapolate for its occurrence, it is already happening. And who will be this breeding few? Do the people instigating this system think it is them? In a derivation of Marx and Engle’s conversation on economy, the ruling class no longer deal in money, they deal in children. And if the ruling class’s children are competing against the children of single mothers, they statistically have a better chance of attaining positions of power over them. But unlike the old class system, as identified by Marx and Engels, those classed as better in the future, will have an increased chance of breeding if it comes down to an engineered fallacy of social or genetic merit. Future breeding events may not ironically include neo feminist blood lines regardless of their families’ countries of origin or race. Are these people and their political associates’ regardless of sex, poor at mathematics? Do they believe that they are the chosen ones, as they surround themselves with sycophants, in an echo chamber?
How quickly, these persecuted pacifists or people of peace, have ascended to positions of power. But if we are permitted, or allowed, to count the dead, or those in prison, they are far from peaceful, nor powerless. Despite the numbers of the dead, and the sure failure of their new breeding system, the fallacy of reproductive freedom is still being sold and wielded by neo feminists. Like snake oil salespeople they and their political associates sell it as one of the panaceas for all the world’s problems. But wholistically, it is a betrayal of their families, themselves, and especially their sons. If they say they cannot do exponential population growth extrapolations, they are either lying or incompetent. It produces a graph, one that l have been instructed at university level, will end at a very blunt fourteen billion. Provided that the narcissist neo feminist’s mirror has an immediate sexual gratification, who should care about the brutal reality of maths, and what will most certainly happen? Provided someone other than mothers pay for the raising of their children, l suppose it is clear sailing till we hit an iceberg, an iceberg that is the size of a mountain sitting in plain sight. An iceberg with two thirds of its body hidden below the surface of the water. An iceberg, hidden in the dark unnoticed due to hard to acquire statistics, and unavailable definitive finite numbers. And to paraphrase Edward John Smith, (the captain of the Titanic), it is “…full steam ahead…”, “…this ship is unsinkable…”, while the rich danced, and the poor where locked in the lower decks to drown.
“Short memory” ...
Earth Observation image of the week:
Sentinel-3 gives us a nearly cloud-free view of France and the surrounding countries.
Much of the landscape is covered with agricultural features. In fact, farmers manage nearly half of Europe’s land area. While agriculture brings benefits for economy and food security, it puts the environment under pressure. Satellites can help to map and monitor land use, and the information they provide can be used to improve agricultural practices.
On the right side of the image we can see the snow-covered Alps, while the Pyrenees mountains are visible near the bottom.
To the west of the Alps a green area of mountains and plateaus is visible, called the Massif Central. The region has more than 400 volcanoes, considered by scientists to be extinct.
On the right side of the image, the light brown area flanked by dark areas is the Rhine River forming part of France’s border with Germany. The dark area to the east is the Black Forest, while the dark area to the west are the Vosges Mountains.
Just above the centre we can see Paris – the site of ESA’s headquarters as well as the Paris Air & Space Show taking place this week.
This image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument on 7 April 2017. The instrument monitors ocean ecosystems, supports crop management and agriculture, and provides estimates of atmospheric aerosol and clouds – all of which bring significant benefits through more informed decision-making.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2017), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
After months of research and insanity trying to decide what company and system, I decided on a Sony A-300. This is the scene on my dining room table. Already really impressed, and so excited with all the learning and fun ahead of me.
Thanks to all of you who helped me make an informed decision; and support me in my craft.
Will be spending more time in the field (or at Sony School) in the next while.
Couldn't go wrong with a Canon or Nikon. Love them both. Really almost bought the Olympus 510. And Sony, after disrespecting them because they are a giant company (so is Canon), and recognizing Sony employs most of the former Konica Minolta Engineers...and countless reviews: Sold.
Sentinel-2A takes us to the Vanuatu archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, roughly 1700 km east of Australia.
The islands we see are Pentecost to the north and Ambrym to the south.
Looking closely at the coastline, the white of breaking waves is more evident on the east coasts of the islands than on the west coasts. This is a common observation on islands that lie in the zone of the trade winds blowing mainly from south-easterly directions in the southern hemisphere.
Zooming in on the dark area on Ambrym, red-hot lava lakes can be seen through the clouds. This volcano has two active volcanic cones and we can see smoke drifting out over the ocean to the west.
The last time the Ambrym volcano erupted was in 1913, prompting the evacuation of nearby towns.
Ambrym’s 12 km-wide caldera was created around 50 AD by a large Plinian eruption – also called a ‘Vesuvian’ eruption because of the similarity with the explosion of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius that destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. These types of eruptions are marked by columns of gas and ash that extend high into the stratosphere. They also eject large amounts of pumice.
The volcano’s slopes appear black owing to the presence of basalt. As we move further away from the volcano the land becomes greener owing to the increased vegetation cover.
Sentinel-2 is able to systematically map different classes of cover such as forest, crops, grassland, water surfaces and artificial cover like roads and buildings. This information can be used to manage natural resources, to check rates of deforestation, reforestation and areas affected by wildfires. It can also help governing bodies and commercial enterprises make informed decisions about how best to manage, protect and sustain our important forest resources.
This image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite on 24 June 2016.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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Step into the enchanting world of Tarot every Thursday from 10am to 12pm slt and unlock the secrets that the Universe has in store for you. Join us for an extraordinary journey as Arcadia Golightly, our trailer park Witch, delves into the depths of the cards to illuminate your path.
Whether you seek guidance, clarity, or simply a glimpse into the unknown, Arcadia invites you to embrace the mystical energy that surrounds us. With her intuitive insights and deep connection to the Tarot, she will unravel the mysteries of your past, present, and future, empowering you to make informed decisions and navigate life's twists and turns with confidence.
Each reading is a personalized experience tailored to your unique journey, offering profound revelations and transformative wisdom. Let the ancient powers of the Tarot illuminate your path and inspire you to embrace the magic that lies within.
You can find her at Le Chateau Trailer Park - Trailer #4
See ya there sugs! ♥ Arcadia Golightly
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secondlifesyndicate.com/2021/03/23/a-pack-of-rippers-expo...
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I'm not on a witch hunt, but a fellow few designers and I have recently talked about these people, and this issue.
I have been tracking a few of these over the last 6 months, as I look for assets for a person close to me, in the SL Marketplace Full Perm area.
I've been meaning to do this post on Second Life Syndicate, for some time now, but the discussion has lead me to actually do it.
I just want people to be able to make informed decisions on where their money is going, and it should go to Trusted Kit Creators, not people out to get a quick buck on other people's hard work.
Please wait for the link of the post, and read it, before you all decide to rip me a new one.
In 2000, my wife and I sat on the edge of our bed watching CNN. The Supreme Court had just announced that time had run out on the weeks-long series of recounts for Florida’s 25 electoral votes. George W. Bush had beat Al Gore and was declared the winner in the state. Bush won the Electoral College and the presidency by one electoral vote. Disappointed? You bet. But I remember thinking, “The office of President is one of compromise. Those around him will temper the effects of his decisions.” I was wrong.
Twenty-one years later, I sat on that same bed watching as Trump loyalists, incited by President Trump and others, stormed the Capitol shouting, “Stop the Steal” and “Hang Mike Pence.” After Trump’s 2016 campaign, his four years of authoritarian reign, and the aftermath, I no longer believed that Constitutional checks and balances would hold back the right. Our culture had changed. In the Republican Party, conspiracy theories replaced common sense and critical thinking. This is the world of Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. How did we get here?
The Road Downhill: Lee Atwater
We find deceit at every level of American politics. As mass media developed, backroom deals gave way to more public dirty tricks. In the 1980s, Lee Atwater was this strategy’s most prominent disciple. As South Carolina Republican Congressman Floyd Spence’s campaign consultant in his 1980 re-election bid, he released the results of a fake survey aimed at White suburban voters. The survey showed that Spence’s opponent, Tom Turnipseed, was a member of the NAACP. At a press briefing, he hired a fake reporter to say, “We understand Turnipseed has had psychiatric treatment.” Atwater replied that he “got hooked up to jumper cables,” referring to electroshock therapy Turnipseed had as a teen. Spence was re-elected.
Atwater went on to greater notoriety later that decade by suggesting Ronald Reagan could extend the GOP’s Southern Strategy (a racial appeal to White Southerners) without it appearing racial. In an anonymous interview for political scientist Alexander P. Lamis’ book The Two-Party South, he said,
“Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigg*r, nigg*r, nigg*r.’ By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigg*r’—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”
As Atwater’s star rose in the GOP, its zenith was the infamous Willie Horton television ad during George H. Bush’s 1988 presidential bid. In 1976, Bush’s opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, supported a prison furlough program for felons started by Republican Governor Francis Sargent in 1972. The state legislature passed a measure outlawing the practice, but Dukakis vetoed it. Shortly after that, the state released convicted murderer Willie Horton on a weekend furlough when he assaulted, robbed, and raped a couple.
The ad showed prisoners going through a revolving exit from prison. Only one was African American, and he was the only one who looked directly into the camera. “That’s the guy to be afraid of,” said ABC newsman Sam Donaldson. Atwater used this incident to suggest that Dukakis was too liberal and soft on crime. He vowed to “strip the bark off the little bastard” and “make Willie Horton his running mate.” Dukakis’ seventeen-point summer lead vanished, and Bush won the race.
Slash and Burn: Newt Gingrich
Lee Atwater’s vision was to get Republicans elected no matter what it took. The man who led those Republicans on a slash and burn sortie into our legislative process was Newt Gingrich. Running in his first successful race for Congress in 1978, he told college Republicans, “One of the great weaknesses of the Republican Party is we recruit middle-class people. Middle-class people, as a group, are told you should not shout at the table, you should be nice, you should have respect for other people, which usually means giving way to them.” He admonished the students to “raise hell” if you’re going to be in politics. And during his twenty years in the House, raising hell was precisely what he did.
Gingrich upended the niceties and conventions of Congress. As Congressional scholar Thomas Mann has stated, “Most members still believed in the idea that the Framers had in mind. They believed in genuine deliberation and compromise … and they had institutional loyalty.” Gingrich’s focus was less on legislation and more on tactics to discredit Democrats and moderate members of his party. He did this by ignoring etiquette, sensationalizing issues for TV viewers, and using ethics regulations to spotlight one’s political enemies. “He thought a lot about confrontation and saying things that were explosive because he believed that the more confrontational, the more outlandish you were, the more the media would cover you, and the more the media would replicate what you said about your opponent—whether it was true or not true,” according to Julian E. Zelizer, in his book, Burning Down the House.
We can credit Gingrich with the “fierce, institution-destroying partisanship” that gave birth to the tactics of the Tea Party and Donald Trump. Newt sent out a memo to aspiring Republican candidates entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control,” in which he listed words for them to use to describe Democrats. They included words like sick, pathetic, lie, anti-flag, traitors, radical, and corrupt. When you hear Trump give people obnoxious nicknames like President Biden’s “Sleepy Joe,” that comes directly from Gingrich’s playbook.
Release the Kraken: The Ginny and Clarence Thomas Story
In our present rarified atmosphere, when laws do get passed, partisan objections often end up on the docket of the Supreme Court. As the ultimate arbiters in legal matters, we hope justices base their opinions on their interpretations of the Constitution. But unlike lower court judges, there are no ethical standards by which they must abide. Each justice determines their own ethics. The only safeguard we have for a rogue justice is impeachment. That has only happened once.
The founders of our country envisioned a court that rose above the politics of the Legislative and Executive branches of government. But partisanship has seeped into the court with justice nominees’ confirmations decided by today’s factional Senate. In February 2022, Justice Neil Gorsuch gave a speech behind closed doors to the Federalist Society, a group of conservatives and libertarians. So what did he speak about? We’ll never know. The Society barred the media from the Justice’s talk. That veil of secrecy only magnifies the aura of politicization, questioning the court’s impartiality.
This is the backdrop to Ginni Thomas’ power and activism. As the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, she has been a forceful advocate for Trump’s attack on our democratic process. She firmly believes the Democrats stole the election despite a long list of dismissed court challenges to the election results. Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham confirmed Ms. Thomas’ direct access to President Trump on a recent episode of The View. She said that Thomas would often have lunch with the President, bringing lists of people who should be fired and hired. Grisham described the damage control the staff would have to do after these meetings.
Two days after the 2020 election, Ms. Thomas texted Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, Mark Meadows, to “Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.” In mythology, a Kraken is a gigantic sea monster that resembles a giant squid or octopus. #ReleaseTheKraken is a tag used by conspiracy theorists to discredit President Biden’s victory.
She also texted Meadows, “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!... You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.” Also, “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc.) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition. I hope this is true.” (emphasis mine). She wants a revolution!
Thomas and Meadows exchanged twenty-nine texts he released to the House committee investigating the January 6th Insurrection. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times, said, “It is one thing, experts in legal ethics said, for the spouse of a Supreme Court justice to express political views, even ones shot through with wild conspiracy theories. That may not by itself require the justice’s recusal from cases touching on those views. . . . But the text messages from Ms. Thomas . . . revealed something quite different and deeply troubling.” The texts Thomas sent to Meadows clearly showed she was directly involved in the attempt to overturn the election.
So should her husband recuse himself in any case about the 2020 election? Any judge with close relationships with people or institutions associated with an issue should do so. That’s what Justice Elena Kagan did when she ascended to the bench in 2010. Because of her former job as Supreme Court Solicitor General (the court’s chief legal representative to the court and lower appellate courts), she recused herself in 25 of 51 cases during her first term.
Justice Thomas has not recused himself in at least one case concerning the 2020 election. In January 2022, he was the lone dissenter in litigation Trump brought to the Supreme Court to prevent the January 6th Committee from obtaining his presidential records. The US Code of Laws expressly prohibits judges from participating in cases where their impartiality might be questioned. Title 28, § 421(5) states that judges shall disqualify themselves when a spouse is likely to be a material witness. Yet there are no penalties when a Supreme Court Justice violates this law.
The Thomases are very close and share many political views. In his memoir, Justice Thomas wrote that he and his wife are “one being—an amalgam.” They call each other their best friends. If he’s ethical, he has a moral obligation to stand down in any proceeding concerning the 2020 presidential election, including the January 6th Insurrection. If he doesn’t, he should resign or be impeached. Thomas’ sole job is to interpret the Constitution. There’s no room in American jurisprudence for activist judges. Isn’t that what conservatives say?
The System Is Broken. What Can We Do About It?
What can we do when people like Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows (political elites with direct access to power) strongly believe in these conspiracy theories? Or when our legislators aren’t interested in solving the economic and social issues that affect millions of Americans. This animosity is destroying our country. Having to call for Clarence Thomas’ recusal on cases where his wife is deeply involved reveals a much larger problem.
The Problem
Sixty percent of Americans approve of a woman's right to an abortion. Sixty-four percent support a “wealth tax” to fund public programs. Seventy-six percent of the public wants to protect LGBTQ rights. Why can’t we have reasonable gun control legislation when 84% of Americans approve of universal background checks (including 77% of Republicans)? The effects of climate change concern 60% of Americans. These issues are under attack or considered unimportant in Republican-run states. Yet the majority of Americans support them.
Negative partisanship is creating an existential threat to our democracy. “In today’s environment, rather than seeking to inspire voters around a cohesive and forward-looking vision, politicians need only incite fear and anger toward the opposing party to win and maintain power.” According to the Economist magazine’s “Democracy Index 2021,” the United States is no longer considered a full democracy. We’re now considered a “flawed democracy.” Eighty percent of Americans have no confidence in our legislators.
In a Princeton University study, Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, the impact of average citizens’ influence on public policy is near zero when compared to economic elites and organized interest groups. This is the fundamental problem with our political system.
The Answers
RepresentUs suggests that fixing our elections and ending political bribery will restore influence to the American people. Consulting with Constitutional scholars and strategists, they found that 87% of all Americans (no matter their party affiliation) supported an anti-corruption law that would reduce the influence of special interests. Their model, The American Anti-Corruption Act, provides a plan for ending bribery at all government levels, restores the public's influence over moneyed interests, and fixes our broken elections.
Enact Campaign Finance Reform. The costs of a political campaign are staggering. Congresspeople spend 50% of their day fundraising instead of legislating. Political candidates are beholden to large donors to win elections. In 2020, only 1.44% of Americans donated more than $200 to political campaigns and political action committees. Mega-donors have more clout, while the public has little to none. And with these high rollers come the strings of special interests. Lobbyists ply politicians with money to ensure their support. So, instead of legislating on issues important to most Americans, they pass laws that favor these special interests. Where’s health care reform? Why are drug prices so high, and why is Medicare prevented from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices? Because “Big Pharma” makes sure any attempt to change the system will be defeated.
RepresentUs hired Tulchin Research, a polling and strategic consulting firm, that polled a diverse group of Americans on the financial problems with our elections. Their findings are revealing.
While we’re aware of the deep divide in American politics and ideology, voters across the board agreed political corruption is rampant. Instituting reforms is critical to restoring health to our system. Reframing political finance reform as ending political corruption was compelling to poll respondents.
Conflict of interest reforms are most important to voters. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision damaged financial election reform by allowing corporations and other groups to contribute unlimited funds to elections. This exacerbated the advantage that wealthy donors have and increased the use of “dark money” in our elections. The top three anti-corruption measures supported by those polled were: prohibiting politicians from taking money from the industries they regulate, reducing how much money lobbyists can contribute to political campaigns, and instituting clear limits on unregulated Super PACs.
Public Funding is critical to reform. The tax refund and public voucher model was the most supported by those polled. Many local jurisdictions are developing these types of programs. Seattle gives every voter a publicly funded voucher to contribute to candidates. And as the number of jurisdictions using public financing rises, this can eventually have ramifications on the national level.
We should also reinstate a nationwide matching fund program, and institute total fundraising and spending transparency. Former elected officials should be prohibited from working for lobbyists, and legislators should be banned from fundraising during working hours (they’re raising funds on our dime!).
Eliminate Gerrymandering. One of the most egregious misuses of power is gerrymandering. It makes races less competitive and reduces voters’ say. Several states (both Republican and Democrat) are being called to task for gerrymandering after the 2020 census. State courts are forcing both Republican and Democrat-run states to redraw their maps. Only 16% of Congressional districts are competitive (64 districts are still under review). So 75% of elected officials are winning office without having to communicate outside of their own party.
According to Gallup, Independents represent the largest group of voters in America. Yet registered Independents can’t vote in most Democrat or Republican primaries. Nor are third parties invited to take part in presidential debates. Not every vote is equal.
But a different way of holding elections would change that. Using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), you get to rank your choices for public office. This reduces voting for the “lesser of two evils,” candidates with similar platforms form coalitions, and campaigns become less divisive. Forty-three jurisdictions used RCV in their most recent elections.
We already know that voter participation increases when we make voting more accessible. But look at how many times the GOP challenged automatic voter registration and voting by mail during the pandemic. The party knows that if more Americans vote, they’ll lose support. Even Trump admitted that. In a Pew study, the number of voters in the US was 31st out of 35 developed countries. Full democracies encourage voter participation.
The Electoral College. As our country has developed, we’ve made changes to the Electoral College. We’ve refined the role of electors and allowed citizens to vote for these electors in every state (some states initially gave that role to their legislatures). In addition, we have expanded voting rights (initially, only White male landowners and taxpayers could vote). So the process for electing presidents is not historically set in stone. It’s time to consider making changes that reflect our present society.
Some of our Founders thought that most 18th-century voters didn’t have the resources to make fully informed decisions. So they rejected direct voter participation. They also feared mob mentality relying on the populous to make such an important decision. Today, mass media saturates society with information. And, as for mob rule, the Electoral College didn’t prevent the storming of the Capitol on January 6th.
Our Founders also believed that this system would stop a drawn-out national recount. But look what happened in 2020. Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the Electoral College and filed over sixty suits to overturn elections in crucial states. Eighteenth-Century concerns about the tyranny of the majority (another original reason for the Electoral College) have given way to the tyranny of conspiracy theorists today.
The Electoral College was a compromise when our founders first implemented it. Small states feared the power of larger states. Today, that dynamic has shifted. Now the system emphasizes the role of a few swing states. This means that candidates spend much more time and money in those areas than broadening their campaigns nationwide.
Since our country’s inception, there have been five presidential elections where the loser of the Electoral College received more popular votes. The 2000 election between Bush and Gore and the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the latest examples. Partisan politics would make it an uphill battle to amend the Constitution to change how we elect presidents. So, many states and the District of Columbia have signed on to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. They promise to give their electoral votes to the popular vote winner. This provision will go into effect when enough signatories’ electoral votes reach 270, the amount required for the Electoral College to declare a winner. So far, the Compact has 195 Electoral votes. They need only 75 more to implement the pact. But that could be an uphill battle, as the red states fear the voter's will.
Let’s Not Forget Ginni and Clarence Thomas
Ginni Thomas’ desire to overthrow our government is a clear example of a corroded political system. Justice Thomas’ refusal to recuse himself in cases that are apparent conflicts of interest should concern Americans. Together, their power undermines the foundation of the American ideal. It smacks of special interests and political corruption at the highest levels of our government.
As David Frum wrote in The Atlantic, “Washington has always been full of polarizing people like the Thomases, and always will be. What’s been different in the Donald Trump years has been the complicity and cowardice of the people who should have kept those polarizing figures in check.” My initial expectations about the people surrounding the president (or any government official) were correct. Trust in our politicians demands constant oversight.
It’s time we the people release our own Kraken.
Feel free to pass this poster on. It's free to download here (click on the down arrow just to the lower right of the image).
See the rest of the posters from the Chamomile Tea Party! Digital high res downloads are free here (click the down arrow on the lower right side of the image). Other options are available. And join our Facebook group.
Follow the history of our country's political intransigence from 2010-2020 through a seven-part exhibit of these posters on Google Arts & Culture.
The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over northern Serbia to the region of Vojvodina.
Click on the box in the lower-right corner to view this image at its full 10 m resolution directly in your browser.
The area pictured lies in the southern part of a region covered by the Pannonian Sea some 2–23 million years ago. Today, the land boasts a fertile soil – hence the plethora of agricultural fields visible as geometric shapes, reminiscent of cubist artwork.
The Tisza river snakes down from the north. Curved, brushstroke-like light green areas primarily along the east side of the river reveal its former course. Some of these areas are now used for agriculture, while others may still be too wet.
We can also see manmade waterways appearing as straight black lines – likely for draining the swamps, transportation and irrigation.
Nestled among the fields, there are a number of small towns with grid layouts. This type of city planning was invented by ancient Greece’s Hippodamus – known as the ‘father of European urban planning’.
The image captured on 28 August 2016 is clearly in false colour, and different colours indicate varying vegetative states. For example, yellowish patches indicate soil or freshly ploughed land, while shades of blue (primarily in the lower left) indicate either the same crop or different crops at a similar stage of growth.
Sentinel-2’s main instrument has 13 spectral bands, and is designed to provide images that can be used to distinguish between different crop types as well as data on numerous plant features, such as active chlorophyll content and leaf water content, all of which are essential to accurately monitor plant growth.
This kind of information helps informed decisions to be made, whether they are about deciding how much water or fertiliser is needed for a maximum harvest or for forming strategies to address climate change.
While this has obvious economic benefits, this kind of information is also important for developing countries where food security is an issue.
This image is featured on the Earth from Space video programme.
Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Hurricane Dorian...the worlds SLOWEST hurricane finally paid a visit here in Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina about two weeks after it was said it would be a Tropical Storm and not pose a threat! It was as if it had to prove a point...”I am NOT just a Tropical Storm and by Gosh I am going to show you just what I am made of!”
It wandered...it made slow and steady gains to it’s head of steam and meandered while growing more and more fierce. About two WEEKS of speculation ...will it keep growing, is it a threat, yes...no...maybe..no...maybe, yes. This storm kept seasoned weather forecasters guessing it’s next move over and over again, all the while defying the odds that it would ever grow into the monsterous CAT 5 that it did indeed grow into.
My sense of humor and firm belief that I can”t stop mom nature when she goes off her meds, actually helped me cope with all the uncertainty of whether my little home by the sea would still be here if and when this ridiculous storm finally made it here. The way it was acting enroute, gave everyone pause when it would do ANYTHING in an even semi-predictable way. I was beginning to believe it would arrive on the 5th of NEVER! Instead it finally chose the 5th of September! It began in a sneaky quiet way, sending feeder bands of rain late in the afternoon and into the evening it began to toss in wind to slam the rain against my exterior bedroom wall...loudly. I moved into a bedroom on the west side of my house and shut the door to be awakened by a 4am phone call from my husband ....AGHHHHHHHH! (to see how the storm was progressing because he, in Jersey could not sleep and was watching the weather reports on TV). I was less than thrilled with that, exhausted from prepping for this storm and then repressing in case we had to actually evacuate if it strengthened before arrival.
Dorian arrived in earnest around 9am this morning with the eye wall cruising by after totally inundating Ocracoke Island and Cape Hatteras, about and hour and a half , and an hour from me, respectively. Winds roared from 9 am-ish to about 2:30 pm Friday, Sept. 6th 2019...and made it’s statement loud and clear. 70 mph sustained winds and 80 to 90 mph gusts pummeled my little beach box and she stood strong to the assault. Once again I learned and grew as I prepped and watched Mikes Weather Page on FB...he really is genius and has such a way of informing that I learn and stay calm and then know what I am watching for so I can make informed decisions on what to do. No hype, no crazy talk, just sensible explanations done verbally and visually...Drunk Donkey Nation has become my go to page for weather, because this amateur weather dude is nearly always correct about what is going to happen. (he was the only one that called that Dorian would likely be a hurricane when everyone else said no)
Today I went to see Mom Nature off her meds, after Dorian passed by us. She did not disappoint, I am grateful to live here by the sea...and blessed that do. Now I concentrate on prayers for Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras that took a direct hit with the eye wall over them, and now are under water...totally under water that washed over the Island. That terrifies me and I pray they get help quickly to get to some sort of normal.
I will do what I can to help with donations...because nature, as beautiful and powerful as it is can also be devastating, and there before the grace of God go I.
Captured at 14:09 GMT on 29 February 2016 just two weeks after launch, the first image from the Copernicus Sentinel-3A satellite shows the transition from day to night over Svalbard, Norway. As well as showing the snow-covered archipelago, the image also details Arctic sea ice and some cloud features. The image was taken by the satellite’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument, which features 21 distinct bands, a resolution of 300 m and a swath width of 1270 km. The instrument’s new eyes on Earth will allow ocean ecosystems to be monitored, support vegetation, crop conditions and inland water monitoring. It will also provide estimates of atmospheric aerosol and clouds, all of which bring significant benefits to society through more informed decision-making. Sentinel-3A’s instrument package also includes a Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer, a Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter and a Microwave Radiometer.
Credit: Copernicus data (2016)
Review by Robert I. Hedges
3.0 out of 5
Living With High-Risk Conclusions
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2004
I have been mulling over this review for a while now, and am still undecided on the correct rating to award this book. On the one hand Perrow offers some genuine insight into systems safety, but frequently does not understand the technicalities of the systems (or occasionally their operators) well enough to make informed decisions and recommendations. In more egregious cases he comes to conclusions that are guaranteed to reduce safety (as when he argues that supertankers should be run by committee, and the usefulness of the Captain is no more) or are merely the cherished liberal opinions of an Ivy League sociologist (he teaches at Yale) as when he argues for unilateral nuclear disarmament, government guaranteed income plans, and heroin maintenance (distribution) plans for addicts "to reduce crime."
In the case of disarmament, remember this was written during the early 1980s while the Soviet Union was still a huge threat...complete nuclear disarmament would have resulted in fewer US nuclear accidents, but would NOT have made us safer as we would have been totally vulnerable to intentional nuclear attack.
He has great personal animosity toward Ronald Reagan, and makes inflammatory statements in the mining section that mining safety regulations would surely be weakened by Reagan, causing many more accidents and deaths. Later in the same section, though, he concludes that mining is inherently dangerous, and no amount of regulation can make it safe. So which is it? Any of this is, at very best, folly, but regardless of political bent (he is a self avowed "leftist liberal") has absolutely no place in a book ostensibly on safety systems.
As such I think portions of this book show what is so wrong in American academia today: even genuinely excellent research can be easily spoiled when the conclusions are known before the research is started. This is one of the many reasons that physical scientists scorn the social sciences, and it doesn't have to be this way.
Having said all that there IS a wealth of good information and insight in this book when Perrow sticks to systems and their interactions. The book contains the finest analysis commercially available of the Three Mile Island near-disaster, and his insight about how to improve safety in nuclear plants was timely when the book was written in 1984, though many improvements have been made since then.
Speaking as a commercial airline pilot, I feel his conclusions and observations about aircraft safety were generally true at the time of printing in 1984, but now are miserably out of date. (The same is true of the Air Traffic Control section.) I believe that he generally has a good layman's grasp of aviation, so I am willing to take it as a given that he has a knowledgeable layman's comprehension of the other systems discussed. As an aside, he never gets some of the technicalities quite right. For instance, he constantly uses the term 'coupling' incorrectly in the engineering sense; this is particularly objectionable in the aviation system where it has a very specific meaning to aeronautical engineers and pilots.
The section on maritime accidents and safety is superbly written. Here I am not an expert, but there seems to be a high degree of correlation with the aviation section.
His section on "Non Collision Course Collisions" by itself makes this book a worthwhile read. He presents very compelling information and reasoning until the very end of the section, at which point he suggests that since ships are now so big, large ships (especially supertankers) essentially should have no Captain, but should be run by committee. This is an invalid conclusion, and he offers no evidence or substantial argument to support that idea. Clearly, it is an idea hatched in his office and not on a ship (or plane.)
There always needs to be a person in a place of ultimate authority in fast moving, dynamic systems, or the potential exists to have crew members begin to work at direct odds with each other, making a marginal situation dangerous. Ironically, in the very same part of the discussion where he concludes that there should be no Captain, he has hit upon the key to the problem. He mentions that he was pleased to see that some European shippers were now training their crews together as a team, and that he expected this to lower accident rates.
He is, in fact, exactly right about that. Airlines now have to train crews in Crew Resource Management (CRM) in which each member of the crew has the right and obligation to speak up if they notice anything awry in the operation of their aircraft, and the Captain makes it a priority to listen to the input of others, as everyone has a different set of concerns and knowledge. In this way, the Captain becomes much less dictatorial, and becomes more of a final decision maker after everyone has had their say. It IS critical, though, to maintain someone in command, as there is no time to assemble a staff meeting when a ship is about to run aground, or a mid-air collision is about to occur. Many other well documented studies and books have come to this conclusion, and in the airline industry since CRM was introduced the accident rate has decreased dramatically.
Overall, if you have a desire to understand high risk systems, this book has a lot of good information in it; however it is woefully out of date and for that reason among others, I can only recommend it with reservations. A better and much more contemporary introductory book on the subject is 'Inviting Disaster' by James R. Chiles. Remember, this book was written over twenty years ago, and much has changed since then. There is knowledge to be gleaned here, but you have to be prepared to sort the wheat from the chaff.
One of the things I love about shooting the Milky Way, is how small it makes everything seem. It minimizes the drama of life. It makes me realize that my petty problems are just nothing in the general scheme.
I really liked this photo because it shows how momentus mankind seems, but yet how small it still is in comparison to everything else.
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Did anyone else here watch the Presidential Debates? I watched it for class. It was really fantastic. I think it is something that all Americans should watch to make informed decisions.
If you guys haven't already, you should definitely check it out. The moderator was bad, but the discussion was fantastic.
Hope you guys have a great weekend! I'm off to Seattle on Monday, so hopefully I'll have something to post Monday morning. :-)
We are so lucky to have so many freedoms in the US, including the right to vote and sign petitions to let our legislators know how we feel!
I chose to opt out of darkening my photos here on Flickr because two of my photos were already darkened when I got up this morning, before I even knew this would be happening today. I believe it would be a terrible thing if our ability to post and share photos of Blythe dolls holding Hello Kitty pens went away, but having another individual user darken my photos before I even had a chance to opt into this form of protest felt weird and personal to me...why my photos and why those two? I don't think of myself as a very political person and I don't often share my views here on Flickr (my happy place!), but I did want to share my own personal experience.
I highly recommend reading up on the two bills in question and making your own informed decision about whether to protest and how. That is what is so awesome about having a voice and a choice!
Images of Earth from space meet fashion last week as Vogue magazine features the ‘Fragility and Beauty’ exhibition in Milan, Italy. Through several satellite images, the Italian online edition of Vogue highlights how the exhibition creates a link between scientific research, space technology and art, focusing on the theme of climate change and sustainable development.
Organised by ESA and the Italian Space Agency and inaugurated in May this year, the ‘Fragility and Beauty’ exhibition can be seen at the Italian National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan.
This image of northern Serbia is just one of the many beautiful images from space included in the exhibition.
Originally featured on ESA’s Earth from Space video programme, this particular image was taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 28 August 2016. It is a false-colour image, and apart from being beautiful, the different colours indicate varying vegetative states. For example, yellowish patches indicate soil or freshly ploughed land, while shades of blue (primarily in the lower left) indicate either the same crop or different crops at a similar stage of growth.
The two Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites each carry an instrument that has 13 spectral bands, designed to provide images that can be used to distinguish between different crop types as well as data on numerous plant features, such as active chlorophyll content and leaf water content, all of which are essential to accurately monitor plant growth.
This kind of information helps informed decisions to be made, whether they are about deciding how much water or fertiliser is needed for a maximum harvest or for forming strategies to address climate change.
Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Briceus grunted as he finished lacing his iron-shod boots. He stood up and bellowed to his fellow soldiers.
“Faster! Inquisitor Morillo will be here soon and I don’t want my men looking like half-drunk slobs! Act like Mythronians!”
The troop lined up, spears and shields at the ready in their now sweaty hands. They had all heard stories of the quiet but eccentric Inquisitor; it was said he could extract an answer from anyone with only his deep gaze. It was his job to investigate matters pertaining to anyone attempting to harm the king in any way. The ‘resistance’, as it had been coined, was a group that was thought to have assassinated at least two nobles in the last three weeks. Being under the king’s direct service, Briceus’s troop was a small strike force consisting of twenty trained and fully armed men. They were usually used as personal escorts for nobles or royalty next to a secondary strike squad. That squad had been assigned to guard the king; Briceus’s squad was given the task of guarding the Inquisitor.
The clattering of horse’s hooves signalled the arrival of Sir Ranclin Morillo. He was of an average height with an unnaturally long and hooked nose which stuck out from under the brim of his hat. He strode up with an air of authority and pride, watching the soldiers from the corner of his vivid brown eyes; one might even say they were a slight orange or red. He stopped before Briceus, and silence filled the room.
“Excellent work, soldier; these men look in fine order. Name?”
“Briceus, Inquisitor Morillo. At your service, Lord.” He bowed his head in the usual Mythronian gesture of submission.
“Very good, Briceus. We are searching Reedus first, starting in the lower tier and moving to the upper. Are we clear?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. In fifteen minutes, I want your men assembled in the courtyard and ready to ride.”
“We’ll be there in ten.”
He smiled and nodded before turning on his heel and exiting the hall. Briceus’s squad swapped out some of their heavier armor plates for lighter ‘riding plates’ made of leather. Their iron cuirasses, however, with the prominent Mythron falcon displayed, were kept. As they rode out, Briceus allowed his mind to wander.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Searching the lower tier took up the better half of five days; a few people were deemed as possible threats and jailed for further questioning. After this the upper tier was searched, taking up two more days. None among the nobles who lived there were found guilty, but a few servants were thought to be associated. These were jailed as well, and by the time the search was complete the sun was sinking into the west on the seventh day. The soldiers were given their evening assignments, and Briceus, as the senior commander, went to report to Sadon, to whom he reported directly.
The throne room was nearly empty, as it often was near the end of the day. Sadon himself had just returned after a long day of meeting with ambassadors from various villages bringing their troubles to his feet. Briceus could read the lines of exhaustion on his face. He approached the throne, bowed low in respect, and stood straight up.
“Ah, evening Briceus. At ease. You have the weekly report?” He sighed.
“Yes, Lord. Seventeen Mythronians were found to be guilty of associating with the resistance in the lower tier. Six servants in the upper tier were also found to have ties with them. They have been brought in; the Inquisitor is questioning them now.”
“Good, good. Well, I’m going back my apartment for the night.”
“Yes sir.”
Briceus bowed again before turning to leave. His exit, however, was impeded by the stately form of the royal advisor, Lord Faromyl Huelin. Their eyes locked for a moment before the Lord brushed past him and proceeded into the throne room.
“Here, king, let me escort you…”
The soldier snorted. When elderly advisor Worthington died peacefully in his sleep, Huelin had risen in his place. According to Sadon he had been a great help to him in recent days, helping him to deal with the many frustrated village representatives. Briceus, however, couldn’t stand being in the man’s presence; he talked too much. He nodded to the two guards at the door as he passed out into the cool Mythronian night. His chambers were just a short walk from the throne room, so in case of an assassination attempt he would be near enough to the king for quick action. Compared to his fellow soldiers his room was slightly larger and more decorative, but Briceus did his best to keep himself close to his men on all levels. He ate with them, worked with them, and trained with them during the free days. In this way, they grew to greatly respect their commander and follow his every order. Removing his heavy plate armor, Briceus tossed himself onto the bed and closed his eyes, falling into an exhausted sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“No, please… we don’t have any ties to the resistance!”
Briceus furrowed his brow as his men finished cuffing the man and his wife.
“Well, these papers tell me otherwise.” The inquisitor held out a rolled parchment. “The crate of weapons in your basement doesn’t help your case either. Put them in the prison cart.”
Forlorn, they fell silent as they were loaded into the cart, joined by three other men and another woman. It was nearly midday on their second day of inquiry, and they had barely searched a third of the city. Morillo rode up next to Briceus.
“It is unfortunate to find so many unfaithful. Ten the first day, seven yesterday…”
“Indeed, sir.”
The Inquisitor smirked. “Not the talkative type?”
“No, sir.”
“Fair enough. I was never much a man of words either; actions speak louder.”
“Indeed.”
“Well, back to work.”
They had reached the next street of housing by the time their short conversation was over, and the searching began anew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The torches embedded in the walls flickered as Briceus strode down the long hall. On the other side were barred cells, each holding somewhere between one and three prisoners. He and the two armed guards beside him stopped at the second-to-last cell, which housed a disheveled husband and wife. He tried not to look into their frightened eyes as he undid the lock and opened the creaky door.
“Your turn,” he said, his voice shaking ever so slightly.
They followed him down the narrow corridor and around a turn. A guarded door to the left was opened, and they entered. The room was lit by a wooden chandelier hanging from the ceiling, while a table filled most of the vacant space on the ground. On the other side the inquisitor sat, gazing at his next subjects with his hands folded on the table.
“Welcome,” he said. “Cooperate and this shouldn’t take long.”
The prisoners looked at each other fearfully.
“When did you first hear of the resistance? What made you support them?”
There was silence for a moment before the husband spoke up.
“We…” his voice cracked. “The resistance came to us. They knew of my position as the head of mailing in Meids. Letters, uh, were brought, and they wanted me to quietly get them to the other groups in various other cities. At first, I rejected them, but then news came in of two homesteads burned to the ground by Mythronian soldiers by order of the King. I was frightened, and began to question my loyalty to such a figure; I had never even met this man, yet he had almost complete control of my life. He could have ordered my execution for no reason other than that he felt like it and his soldiers would have carried it out. Should all that power belong to one man? Now, I don’t think so. His power should be held in check, by… something. I don’t know.”
He fell back in his chair. The inquisitor remained silent for a moment.
“By law, this is treason. Treason is punishable by death.” The man tensed in his chair. “Fortunately, the king does not wish for the wanton destruction of his subjects. As such, you have two choices; hard labor in a Mythronian prison for the next twenty years, or deportation to outlaw country.”
The man’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth in protest but was cut off as he inquisitor continued.
“You have one day to decide. Take them back to their cell, and get all of them a warm meal.”
The twosome were quickly escorted out. A bit of wax dripped from the chandelier; the candles were burning low.
“I’ll escort you back, sir,” Briceus broke the silence.
“Oh, yes. Yes that’ll be fine.” The inquisitor broke from his deep thought.
As they exited the room, Briceus turned to the wiry frame that stood beside him.
“Do you trust the king?”
Morillo paused. “Yes. Having spent time with him I find that he is a noble man, well worth respect and loyalty.”
“I agree,” Briceus replied. “One must admit the power he has, though.”
“Indeed, but that is why he has advisors and the like. They help inform and shape his view so that he might make the best and most informed decisions.”
“Yes, I suppose.”
“Anyhow, goodnight, Briceus, I’ll see you in the morning for more interrogations. Bright and early as always, as you know.” The inquisitor left down a side path back to his own housing.
“Very well, sir.” Briceus bowed and turned the other way, heading towards the barracks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, this is focused more on story than build because school sucks up most of my time nowadays. CCP is tough. D:
C&C is appreciated!
The King reigns… And His Son!
~Reese~
365 from the archive~ day 20~ Congo
One of the most precious gifts we humans receive upon our birth is the gift of choice and free will...
We have the faculties that allow us to think, evaluate, compare, investigate, evaluate and then based upon our findings make an informed decision. It is a the first and most important principle for our freedom.
But when this gift is stolen, taken away, then we are forced to live in oppression and to become the involuntary players in the games of others.
This boy was destined to become a player in a game of war, not by choice, he is far too young and far too vulnerable to make his way towards his freedom. He is a prisoner in one ugly scheme and it has drawn the old man out of the little boy.
And the game is till being played...
"May the odds be in his favor"... the quote that still haunts me from the recent movie "the hunger games"
UPDATE 2: Vector version finished, please email me if you would like the file. Original one avail as well, just let me know. Hope you like it.
UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments, regardless of which side of the fence you're on. The ability for us to make informed decisions that directly affect our future is a result of the freedoms that this country affords us. Now, more than any other time in recent history, is the time for us to make our voices heard and counted. PLEASE register to vote.
Original post:
I whipped this up after watching her speech at the GOP Con. Best I could do in 15 minutes. I might attempt something more refined if I can find more time.
Is education a social ladder to personal and professional success in China? Here in Chinatown from Paris
OVERVIEW
The 20 year-old sock factory worker, Liu Yong, wants to save money to study anything that she wants. Her dream is to get an education and become a doctor. A disabled migrant worker in the episode "Getting Rich" states, "My son is three years old. No matter what, we want him to get some education when he gets older. I don't want him to go out to work somewhere else. I have high hopes for my son." How can these migrant workers and other economically disadvantaged groups in China change their lives and destinies through educational reform? Is education a social ladder to success? In the following discussion, we provide some background introduction about the Chinese tradition of selecting civil servants through examination as well as current problems that exist in education and society. The discussion questions will lead students to explore the many sides of these issues.
ISSUES FOR EXPLORATION
Education has been regarded as a ladder of social ascendancy in China since ancient time. The most famous saying about "study" in China is from a poem in Song Dynasty (960-1279) by Wang Zhu, literarily translated as "The emperor values heroes, book can teach you (how to be). Everything else is low-grade, only study is above all." This poem has been considered as the golden rule in China for hundreds of years. It encourages people to study. But why is "study" so important? There is also a poem persuading people to study from the Song Dynasty that says, "In the book, there is a lot of food, a house made of gold, and a pretty girl." It implies that studying can make you have enough to eat, a fancy house, and a beautiful woman. But what makes education so powerful in Chinese society? The imperial civil service examination is the answer.
The imperial civil service examination began in 605 AD in Sui Dynasty, developing and maturing in the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, and continuing to the Qing Dynasty, and lasting continuously for 1300 years. The imperial civil service examination had a huge influence on Chinese society. Even China's neighboring countries such as Japan and Vietnam imported this system. The civil service personnel examination in modern times also evolved from this system, although recent scholarship suggests that the civil service examination was less of a social ladder than an earlier generation of scholars believed. This imperial civil service examination selected officials for government. If a person studied well, he could pass the examination, and would have a chance to be selected to an official position. If someone became an official, he would receive respect from others as well as obtain the power and fortune from the position. So, the person's whole life was changed. Therefore, many poor scholars studied for years and years in the hope of passing the examination and obtaining a coveted official position. There were numerous stories about how the scholars worked very, very hard, and finally passed the examination and succeeded in getting official positions. These stories encouraged generations of generations of youth in China to study hard, making it into a tradition. The higher level examination that one passed, the higher official position one got. As a result, more power, more respect, and more fortune one would have achieved. The system became a social ladder. In Tang Dynasty, 80% of the prime ministers were from Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations). In 320 years time, Song Dynasty held 118 Imperial Civil Service examinations with more than 20,000 people passed the highest imperial examinations becoming Jinshi. In the 277 years of Ming Dynasty 89 examinations were held with 17,000 people passed the highest imperial examinations becoming Jinshi. In the 267 years of Qing Dynasty 120 examinations were held with 26,000 people passed the highest imperial examinations becoming Jinshi.
Although the imperial civil service examination has been abolished for over a 100 years, its influence on Chinese culture, education, people's behavior and thinking still exists. The college entrance examination in China now can be seen as extension and variation from the imperial civil service examination. Every summer the whole country holds the college entrance examination with the same examination questions of the same subjects on the same three days. If one gets a higher score, he or she can go to college. If one fails to pass the examination, he or she has to wait for a year to take the examination again or loses the chances of studying at a college. Whether one can enter a college to receive formal higher education becomes a bridge to a successful life for high school students in China. It is the symbol of success in the 12 year's basic education. It has become consensus of most of the high school graduates and their parents that getting into a famous university through college entrance examination is the way to obtain a high pay and dignified job nowadays.
Though it is every government's goal, providing Education for All is a tall order for the world's most populous nation. Despite pledges by the Chinese government that mass education is one of their priorities, after half a century of the People's Republic, China continues to be a country governed by a tiny educated elite while university education remains a dream for the greatest majority of population. In a country of 1.3 billion people, there are just 2.5 million university places. Only three or four of every 100 Chinese pass the entrance exams. Things were getting better in the past few years with all the universities and colleges having expanded enrolment, but the expansion was far from enough. Because of a high barrier at the university level, students compete to get into high schools that offer the best preparation. This determines a child's future from an early age. Severe competition begins at elementary school where children under 10-year-old struggle to get the best grades, spending long hours over school lessons and homework in order to get better grades. Only better grades in elementary school can make children remain in the competition from the starting points, and have the chance to get into a good high school, then from high school to college. School children in China have no leisure time to play in their childhood.
Noticing this problem, the Ministry of Education announced that primary school students were not going to get homework in the coming semester in 2005. The announcement that schools would boldly experiment with new teaching methods aimed at raising ''well- rounded'' individuals. It should have been a cause for jubilation but it made hundreds of Chinese parents worry. They feared their children might not get into high school and university. Moreover, they dreaded that new reforms would handicap their sole offspring for life, depriving them of the potential to get well-paid jobs. Educational reform needs to take many different aspects into consideration. The ease of educational burden must begin at the university level admission, noting that if the teaching process is to be made more humane, the educators should stop relying solely on the grades when admitting students to colleges. A research team with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently reported on social mobility in contemporary China has grabbed a lot of public attention. The report says social groups occupying higher positions on the social ladder have had a better chance of passing their title and positions to their children since the 1980s. At the same time, children from less advantaged classes are facing tougher and tougher challenges to make their way into these positions. These emerging trends in social mobility in China need to be taken seriously.
Social mobility, people's ability to move from one social stratum to another - which is mainly reflected in their economic status - is an index that gauges a country's social justice and openness. In developed countries it is relatively easy to become more affluent, and move up a class or two. In China this ability to move has radically changed over the last half century. Before the country embarked on its reform and opening up policy more than two decades ago, China's social mobility was political. Anything political - such as political leanings, political identity - at that time could have a deciding say on people's social status. When the reform and opening-up policies were launched, China shifted its focus to economic development. The move has meant that a person's occupation has replaced their political status in determining which stratum they belong to. Merit also has an increasingly important role in how a person's social status is fixed. The ideal social mobility pattern is one in which more and more farmers and workers switch to other higher social groups, increasing the middle class. Only after such a pattern is properly in place can China become a truly just and open society. To achieve this goal, educational reform is needed. China's wealth gap between urban and rural communities is among the highest in the world now. There exist the serious imbalances between primary and higher education in China. Efforts must be made to give top priority to primary education, particularly for the rural population. Currently, this has become the government's policy being applied in the poverty stricken rural areas in middle and western China and continued efforts are being made to improve primary and middle schools. Improving the educational level of farmers plays an important role in raising their skill levels and ultimately their incomes. Educational institutes should make the curriculum and the education system more relevant to the demands of the labor market, the establishment of community colleges for vocational training to disadvantage groups and enterprise training.
China's imperial civil service examination played an important role in Chinese history of education. It created a group of well educated officials serving the country. The system encouraged thousands of youths from both rich and poor families to study, to work hard in order to achieve success in career and life. It created comparatively equal opportunities and competitions in official selections. Modern civil service system and college entrance examinations still have a lot to learn from the old system. However, with social changes and economic reform continuing, new problems appeared. A new educational system is needed to meet the challenge of the modern society. We should think how to fill the wealth gap between urban and rural communities, how to help more and more farmers and workers switch to other higher social groups, increasing the middle class; and how educational reform can help people like the sock factory and motor factory workers in "China Rises" and thousands of migrant workers and their children to reach their dreams in getting better education, finding secured jobs and living a good life.
ON THE HORIZON
1. Questions about the imperial civil service examination and ancient view on "study": How does the imperial civil service examination affect Chinese society?
• What do you think of the imperial civil service examination? Is it a good or bad system? Why?
• If the imperial civil service examination is a good system, should China restore it in modern form? Why?
• If the imperial civil service examination is a bad system, what bad result did it make?
• Do you agree that the imperial civil service examination encouraged students to work harder? Why?
• Do you agree that in general Chinese students study harder than American students because of the influence of the saying
"Everything else is low-grade, only study is above all."
• Do you agree with the above old saying? Tell your reason.
• What can we learn from the imperial civil service examination system in modern time?
• Explore what systems were used to select officials in ancient China before the imperial civil service examination began.
• Find stories about how ancient Chinese scholars studied painstakingly to prepare for taking the imperial civil service examination.
2. Questions about the college entrance examination in China: How does the college entrance examination affect modern China's education?
• Compare the college entrance examination in China with the imperial civil service examination. Find similarities and differences.
• Compare the college entrance examination in China with the college admission process in the U.S. Find strong and weak points of each system respectively.
• Do you think the college entrance examination in China is fair for all the students? Why?
• Do you think the college entrance examination in China provides equal opportunities for all the people who want to get higher education?
• How to improve the college entrance examination in China?
• Can the college entrance examination help China to fill the economic gap between urban and rural area? Why?
• Did the college entrance examination help people to obtain the ability of moving from one social status to another? Why?
• After studying about Chinese imperial civil service examination and the college entrance examination, please tell your view on what is an examination system with fair competition.
3. Questions about current educational reform: How can educational reform help create a fair, open and harmonious society in China?
• What are the major problems in China's educational system, those cause the imbalance in education between urban and rural areas?
• How can education help the economically disadvantaged group in China to change their life?
• In the past the Chinese believed that "Everything else is low-grade, only study is above all." Do you think it works in the same way in modern China as in ancient China? Why?
• With current educational system in China can the migrant workers and their children make their dream true to get a better life through education?
• What is the priority for educational reform in China?
• Are there any good points in the American educational system that the Chinese can learn?
• If you were the minister of education in China, what would you do to reform the educational system to help create a fair, open and harmonious society in China?
• If you were the minister of education in China, what would you do to change the educational policy to help create a fair, open and harmonious society in China?
• Imagine that you are in a small mountainous village to set up a Hope Elementary School. You are the only teacher with a group of 25 kids aging from 6 to 12. What do you plan to do to help these kids get equal education?
archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/ref/college/coll-chin...
Many families see school as the place where every child has an equal chance to learn, grow, and access future opportunities. We hope classrooms will open doors, nurture potential, and prepare children for a bright future. Yet conversations around the US education system suggest a more complicated reality. Schooling is not only about learning—it can also reflect deeper social structures, sometimes acting as an informal screening tool tied to social class.
Understanding how these dynamics work doesn’t mean losing faith in schools. Instead, it helps families make informed decisions, advocate effectively, and create richer educational experiences for their children at home.
Introduction
While schools aim to provide equal access to learning, the path through the system is not the same for every child. Differences in funding, curriculum decisions, available programs, and family resources mean that educational experiences can vary widely from one community to the next.
Exploring these complexities allows families to better support their children. This article outlines how and why the US education system sometimes functions as a sorting mechanism—and what families can do to navigate it more confidently.
The Dual Role of Schools: Learning Environment and Sorting System
Schools are designed to promote knowledge, critical thinking, and personal development. Ideally, every child would receive the same encouragement and tools needed to thrive. But in practice, schools often serve another function: sorting students into different academic or social pathways.
Researchers describe this sorting process as part of social stratification—a system where individuals are organized into layers based on factors like wealth, access, or opportunity. In schools, this can happen through the availability of resources, placement into certain classes, or access to extracurricular programs. Over time, these differences can influence a child’s future academic and career options.
How the US Education System Shapes Social Mobility
Social mobility refers to the ability to move up or down the social ladder. Education is widely viewed as the key driver of upward mobility. However, certain features of the US school system can unintentionally limit this movement—especially for students in under-resourced areas.
Funding disparities and resource gaps
Public school funding in many states is tied to local property taxes. Schools in wealthier neighborhoods benefit from higher revenue, which can translate into:
Smaller class sizes
Higher teacher salaries
Updated facilities and technology
More varied electives and advanced courses
Stronger college counseling or enrichment programs
Schools in lower-income neighborhoods often operate with fewer resources, affecting the depth and quality of educational opportunities available to their students.
Access to libraries, science labs, arts programs, or even full-time counselors can differ dramatically, shaping both academic preparation and long-term confidence.
Curriculum tracking and its influence
“Tracking” groups students into different academic levels—such as honors, AP, or general education. While the intention is to tailor instruction, placement can sometimes reflect more than academic ability. Socioeconomic background, early childhood opportunities, and even unconscious biases can influence track placement.
Once a student is placed on a particular track, it can be difficult to move to a more rigorous one. This can affect access to competitive colleges, scholarships, and advanced study.
Standardized testing: helpful measure or barrier?
Standardized tests are used to compare student performance, evaluate schools, and guide decisions like college admissions. However, these tests may reflect inequities in:
Access to tutoring
Test preparation materials
Enrichment programs
Early literacy or numeracy experiences
Critics note that standardized tests can unintentionally favor students with greater resources. Families can read more about the development and debates surrounding standardized testing on Britannica.
www.thethinkacademy.com/blog/edubriefs-unpacking-the-us-s...
'Seoul Learn' is a project that provides equal educational opportunities to the vulnerable population that has difficulties in accessing educational resources due to socioeconomic reasons. Educational inequality in Korea has been identified as the main culprit behind generational poverty. The project offers various educational services via public platforms to prevent education from causing inequalities.As the Covid-19 pandemic widened the educational gap, educational inequalities emerged as a serious social issue. At the same time, educational inequality has been identified as the main culprit behind generational poverty. Such disparity in education arises from unequal access to education and highly differs according to parents’ economic status. There is a deepening educational gap due to socioeconomic background, degree of private education outside of school, and support and educational resources provided by parents. Families earning 8 million won or more every month spend 5.1 times more on monthly private education per person (593,000 won) than those earning less than 2 million won (116,000 won) (Statistics Korea, 2021). Children of parents with fewer assets and education tend to underachieve (OECD’s PISA, 2018). '
Seoul Learn' is a welfare policy that provides various complimentary educational services to the vulnerable class through public platforms to prevent education from causing inequalities.The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) is pursuing three goals and following basic plans that were set while establishing 'Seoul Learn' policies:
Creating “a fair city of education” by focusing on supporting low-income families and tackling educational disparities induced by income levels
Creating “a sustainable city of education” by offering educational content customized for each life cycle
Creating “an innovative city of education” by building innovative educational platforms that combine different educational technologies
Prior to the project, the SMG evaluated the pre-existing online learning environment for teenagers from low-income families to achieve a practical outcome. It verified that underprivileged students had received learning devices, such as tablet PCs and Internet services from the city government and the office of education. The SMG and the office of education cooperated in providing the necessary support to those students to have seamless remote education amid the pandemic. When students needed additional support, Seoul introduced them to the “PC of Love” distribution project and ensured that they had immediate help.
After confirming that the physical environment was ready, Seoul prepared an administrative foundation by revamping related city ordinances. Then, it gathered together with the like-minded office of education and businesses to launch the website of Seoul Learn on August 27, 2021 and started to provide educational services.
Teenage Seoul citizens belonging to a vulnerable group (children of low-income groups, school dropouts, children of multicultural families, and others) can take an online qualification test and join Seoul Learn. Member students can choose up to three educational content providers (1 regular school subject, 1 language and certificate, and 1 reading) and enjoy all of their content without any limits. In addition, members can apply for 1:1 online and offline mentoring services affiliated with prestigious universities in Korea. Mentors from each college are helping teenage students with their learning plans, emotional stability, and career design. Private companies are also joining the project by providing learning materials, such as textbooks, as part of their corporate social responsibility activities.
Seoul aims to develop the website of Seoul Learn into an educational platform combining educational technologies by July 2023. This will allow the SMG to manage learning history, make it into data sets, and provide tailored education. The city government also plans to prepare interactive, hands-on remote educational programs.
oecd-opsi.org/innovations/seoul-learn-for-restoring-educa...
Gary was staying at Hotel Yeneka in La Paz, Baja at the same time as we. He has been travelling for three weeks in Mexico and was about to return home to Nevada. In the past he used to travel with his son, but this time he was on his own.
We were taking pictures of the colourful second floor where we met and I asked to include him in my photo project.
I then introduced him to my son-in-law and the two continued to talk while I made several pictures of this eccentric place.
www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g150771-d260696-Reviews-...
This is my 417th submission to The Human Family group.
Visit the group here to see more portraits and stories: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily.
Updating:
November 14th 2018. Almost two years later, I got today an email from Gary:
My background:
I am originally from the LA area, did undergraduate work in geography at California State University, Northridge...which I loved. I am a geographer at heart...but also love the earth sciences. My graduate work was in water resources at the U of Wyoming, and most of my career was at various offices of the US National Weather Service as a hydrologist. The NWS is responsible for forecasting all aspects of water...ranging from drought/water supply to floods and flash floods. I retired in January 2014 after 37 years; my most recent office locale was in Reno, NV, where my region of responsibility included all of the State of Nevada, along with the eastern Sierra in California. I loved my job...and in such a beautiful area!
Hobbies include travel, hiking, skiing, swimming and some photography.
What I'd like to share...words of advice: Strive for peace, justice, acceptance of diversity, protection of our planet (air, oceans, climate, land, unspoiled areas), heed the scientific data that we have been able to collect to make wise, informed decisions about all aspects of our Earth and life on it...to protect and make them better if possible. Pay close attention to where and how our leaders want to lead...it may not be the direction we personally want to or should go...so be involved in you local political life.
Advice to my younger me: Live life to the fullest while you are able...it is much too short. Love and family and making good memories are much more important than possessions and money. Travel as much as possible as you are able financially and health-wise, even if its just to enjoy your own locality.
secondlifesyndicate.com/2021/03/23/a-pack-of-rippers-expo...
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I'm not on a witch hunt, but a fellow few designers and I have recently talked about these people, and this issue.
I have been tracking a few of these over the last 6 months, as I look for assets for a person close to me, in the SL Marketplace Full Perm area.
I've been meaning to do this post on Second Life Syndicate, for some time now, but the discussion has lead me to actually do it.
I just want people to be able to make informed decisions on where their money is going, and it should go to Trusted Kit Creators, not people out to get a quick buck on other people's hard work.
Please wait for the link of the post, and read it, before you all decide to rip me a new one.
Post Scriptum
First off I have to say to myself, do not give up your day job for this new predictioning gig. You can be a witness of my predictioning disgrace a couple of posts back.
After-thoughts.
First time round people tried to comfort themselves saying, quoting David , “this is not America”. I never shared this sentiment always belonging to a school of thought - people deserve the rulers they have, regardless if it is a democracy or not. Putin is born out of Russia and Russians deserve Putin, same goes for Korean bloke or Chinese dude, or Hungarian fella. This time round even rose tinted glass wearers must admit “This is America”. And it would only be fitting to give the stage to the above mentioned David.
This has been and remains to be a story of people. Trump is only a preface to this story not worth of a lengthy narration, he is simple, clear, not interesting. He is a one pager. People are the the story. They presented a few questions I spent some time deciding on the answer to.
Who would you rather forgive , cynic or fanatic? What is more objectionable stupidity or ignorance? I also had to come to understanding that most, and I mean overwhelming majority, of people do not know shit and do not care. And they make their choice from this position of not knowing 1% of what I know or a few, very slim slice of folks, know, I.e. they simply wouldn’t know a thing about what Trump said or done, they heard a few YouTube clips and that is it. So , one would say , can you then blame them for their choice? They simply do not have a slightest idea of what you know and they just saw Trump saying a few populist things that they liked. And this is where my wheels grind to a halt.
I do not expect them to know and make informed decisions based on knowledge. But I do , Ok I did, expect humans to have self preservation instincts. Do not touch snakes. Do not hug hungry bears. Do not drink liquid that stinks. This sort of thing. There must be , I thought, things that you can see, hear, smell, that tell you “this is dangerous, this is foul”.
If a mum walking her kid from school sees a dude on the side of the road who is dressed in sexually ombigious and provocative clothes and he is making suggestive signs sticking his tongue out, her instinct , one would hope , would be get away from the dude as quickly and as far as possible.
That reaction probably does require some basic knowledge of facts of life but I bet it doesn’t require much, your human instinct tells you, the dude is foul, he is bad news, your kid and you are in danger.
That brings me to the point I was wrestling coming to terms with how my former compatriots, many ‘normal” people, came to accept Putin as anything but a foul creature he is. How is it his face, the way he speaks, the words he chooses, his gestures, everything about him do not tell a person “get away from him, this is a foul creature”. It was never about politics for me , it was about palpable foulness of a person on full display somehow not picked up by most people. It is like they have no sense of smell for foul souls.
Same conundrum I had with Trump. You do not need to be a MSNBC watcher or Bulwark podcast aficionado. You do not need to know much about politics or what Trump did. You just need to see him in a few tiktok clips or YouTube shorts and you will, I thought, smell the smell of a slimy conman, foul person. You will see, I thought, a person who you would not leave your cat with. Certainly a person you would not buy a washing machine from.
This is, I thought, on a level of basic human instinct of self preservation. Of staying away from a stinky stuff.
Sure this is not about folks who like him for exactly what he is , because he is vile, , or cynics who know full well what he is but they decided to abandon their humanity. This is about “regular” folks who vote with their payslip or rent bill. How the fuck can you not smell the foul smell and drink this shit?
That was what puzzled me for a bit. Not any more though. You live and you learn and one of the lessons I learnt, great deal of people, call it ⅓ of the stock, taking fanatics and cynics away, and a few sane ones like my good self, do not have a sense of smell when it comes to foul souls. It is weird, bewildering and saddening.
God help Ukrain, or wait I don’t believe in God, oh too bad , we are stuffed then.
WEEK 38 – Hdo WM, Post-Remodel, Set III
Rounding the corner, we find ourselves standing in front of the store’s milk coolers, designated by this cool BD2.0 sign above it. The image of the milk gallon itself is pretty plain, but in my opinion, those orange spark signs make a world of difference as compared to this same view in a BD2.1 store! Now, I could be somewhat biased as orange is my favorite color, but a big part of it is also what’s *not* on that sign – that is, the negative space, aka the fact that the spark logo is done up in white instead of yellow. The yellow overpowers the signs (especially when paired with the much bolder blue, as compared to the comparatively muted colors in this iteration of the décor), and as a result, that’s a big reason why I really don’t care much for BD2.1. (BD2.2, by the way, is another matter entirely – and I haven’t seen it enough to make a fully-informed decision just yet. But I’m sure I’ll form one soon enough, and once I do, you’ll probably hear my arguments and opinions on it again and again, just like you’ve heard these same BD2.0 vs. 2.1 reasonings of mine annoyingly many times :P )
(c) 2018 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
Tickets, or some kind of proof that a passenger has paid their fare, have been around since almost the birth of public transport. They provide proof that the passenger has paid the correct fare; and show that the conductor or person collecting the fares hasn't pocketed the money themselves.
Over the years there have been many systems tried to create the best ticketing solution. The aim has been to provide a ticket that's fraud-proof, by the passenger or the issuer; cheap to buy and maintain; fast to issue; and preferably provide good analytical information so that the transport operator understands where people are travelling, and give information that's useful for planning purposes.
The first stage was to provide fairly crude handwritten tickets; brass tokens; then pre-printed tickets that were 'punched' with a small hole to show how far the passenger had paid. In the 1930s, automatic ticket machines were invented, using a blank roll of paper upon which the fare details were printed by the ticket issuer (usually, on a bus, the conductor) turning a handle.
One of the most successful machines in the UK was the 'Setright', named not as a clever marketing slogan but after its inventor - the fortuitously named Mr Setright. It was used right up to the the 1980s and in the 1960s was one of three main bus ticketing systems used in the UK: the others were the TIM (Ticketing Issuing Machine) and the Ultimate, which was favoured by busy municipal operators with short, intensive services.
Manchester used all three of these systems at various times, and this poster shows a Setright ticket. It's not very easy for the unpracticed eye to decipher what each number meant, so MCTD put these helpful posters on their buses that used Setright machines.
One reason for the poster was to help passengers spot when something wasn't right - for example in decimal currency days, it wasn't unknown for an unscrupulous conductor to swap the stage number with the fare paid, so that the machine recorded a lower fare than had been paid. But this was a rare occurrence, and most conductors were (and are) completely honest and just wanted the paperwork and the cash taken to agree at the end of the shift.
In the 1980s these mechanical systems were swept away by electronic systems, and today contactless cards and phone apps both provide faster boarding, with less need to handle cash and give change; and better analytical information to help bus companies make informed decisions on when and how people travel.
The Museum of Transport Greater Manchester has a wide variety of fare collecting systems on display, even including a 'Bell Punch' ticket printing press. If you'd like to know more about the Museum of Transport Greater Manchester and its collection of vintage buses, go to www.motgm.uk.
© Greater Manchester Transport Society. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is strictly prohibited and may result in action being taken to protect the intellectual property interests of the Society.
“If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?”
“God knows what happens now. Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms… I want people to see the truth… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.”
-Quotes from an online chat attributed to Bradley Manning
Who is Bradley Manning:
---------------------------------
"Nobel Peace Prize nominee PFC Bradley Manning, a 25-year-old Army intelligence analyst, who released the Collateral Murder video, that shows the killing of unarmed civilians and two Reuters journalists, by a US Apache helicopter crew in Iraq. Manning also shared documents known as the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and series of embarrassing US diplomatic cables. These documents were published by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, and they have illuminated such issues as the true number and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq, along with a number of human rights abuses by U.S.-funded contractors and foreign militaries, and the role that spying and bribes play in international diplomacy. Given the war crimes exposed by these documents, PFC Bradley Manning should be given a medal of honor.
Not a single person has been harmed by the release of this information. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has called the effect of WikiLeaks’ releases on U.S. foreign relations “fairly modest.” Yet the Obama administration has chosen to persecute the whistle-blower rather than prosecute the war criminals who were exposed. While the prosecution has declared it does not intend to seek the death penalty, they do seek to lock PFC Bradley Manning away for life, with the most ridiculous charge of ‘aiding the enemy,’ even though chat logs attributed to Bradley by the FBI clearly show intent only to inform the public and promote “discussion, debates, and reforms.”
Soldiers are promised fair treatment and a speedy trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). However, the soldiers responsible for PFC Manning’s care took it upon themselves to abuse him by keeping him locked up in solitary confinement for the first 10 months of his incarceration. During this time, Bradley was denied meaningful exercise, social interaction, sunlight, and on a number of occasions he was forced to stay completely naked. These conditions were unique to Bradley and are illegal even under US military law, as they amount to extreme pre-trial punishment. In March 2011, chief US State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley called PFC Manning’s treatment at the Quantico, Virginia, Marine Corps brig “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He was forced to resign shortly after admitting this. Since resigning, he has stated that the prosecution’s heavy-handed persecution of PFC Manning has undermined the government’s credibility.
Bradley’s treatment sparked a probe by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez. Mr. Mendez stated that he has been “frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr. Manning.” After having his requests to visit Bradley repeatedly blocked, and after completing a fourteen month investigation, Mr. Mendez issued a statement saying that PFC Bradley Manning’s treatment has been “cruel and inhuman.”
It only took one week in April 2011 to have over a half million people sign a petition calling on President Obama to end the isolation and torture of Bradley Manning. The Obama administration’s ongoing persecution of Bradley Manning has served as “a chilling deterrent to other potential whistleblowers committed to public integrity,” and over 300 top legal scholars have declared that Bradley’s treatment was a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, as well as a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee against punishment without trial. Among the signatories is professor Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who taught President Obama. Professor Tribe was, until recently, a senior advisor to the US Justice Department.
Partially in response to public outcry, on April 21, 2011, Bradley was moved from Quantico to Fort Leavenworth, KS, where his conditions greatly improved. The very day he was moved, President Obama was surprised at a breakfast fundraiser by a group of protesters. At the end of the fundraiser, a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, Logan Price, questioned him about Bradley’s situation. The President stated that “He [Bradley Manning] broke the law.” This pretrial declaration of guilt that has caused concern among legal experts, who argue it is clearly a case of ‘undue command influence’. President Obama is the highest ranking military commander, and soldiers follow his orders and his direction. By declaring PFC Bradley Manning guilty, he set the tone and direction of the subordinate military prosecution. It is now difficult for soldiers to express support for PFC Bradley Manning, who like many soldiers who follow the lead of their commander-in-chief, assume PFC Bradley Manning is guilty. Finally, reinforcing the assumption of Manning’s guilt, no charges were filed against any of the soldiers who took it upon themselves to abuse Bradley while he was under their supervision.
Bradley Manning has a growing list of supporters who want all the charges against him dropped. Among the supporters is the famous whistle-blower, Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Recognizing the valor required to tell the truth, Ellsberg calls PFC Bradley Manning a hero and a patriot. We agree. Drop all the charges, and free PFC Bradley Manning.
We hope that you will join us as well. See what you can do to support justice in this historic time."
Source and for more information about Bradley Manning please visit:
BLM using satellites to study fishers in southern Oregon
By Toshio Suzuki, April 14, 2016
Capturing a fisher in an Oregon forest can be tricky work.
First off, there aren’t many of them.
Secondly, the cat-sized mammal sports retractable claws and a heart rate that can climb to 300 beats per minute when agitated — double a high rate for humans — and like most animals in the wild, they will defend themselves from capture, even if for scientific research.
“They are carnivores and they have amazing capacities of strength and endurance,” said Katie Moriarty, a research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service.
Moriarty is one of several partners helping the Bureau of Land Management in a first-of-its-kind research project: using GPS collars and satellites to track fisher movements in Oregon.
The end goal is to establish a baseline of habitat information for a species that has been in decline since the trapping and timber industries entered the Western landscape in the 1800s.
In 2014, the West Coast fisher received a “proposed threatened” status by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; but just this week the agency announced the fisher did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.
If land managers like the BLM can learn specific habitat characteristics, they will then be able to make more informed decisions and even potentially figure out why the member of the weasel family is in decline, said Bruce Hollen, a wildlife biologist for the BLM in Oregon and Washington.
“Something about their habitat is affecting their ability to disperse,” said Hollen. “We don't know how come their populations have stayed so small.”
Adult fishers can weigh about 3 to 13 pounds, and can be about 2.5 to 4 feet long. They eat seemingly anything smaller than them that can be discovered in the forest: birds, squirrels, mice, reptiles, insects, vegetation and fruit. They also have the unique ability to hunt and eat porcupines.
Porcupines love to eat Oregon trees and are the reason why there were several efforts to reintroduce fishers to the southern Oregon Cascade Range from the early 1960s to early 1980s.
Those reintroduced fishers were mostly from British Columbia, but also Minnesota, according to a 2003 study published in the international journal Biological Conservation.
Presently, there are only two known fisher populations in Oregon. One is native and one is the reintroduced population. Both home ranges for the distinct fisher populations are slivers in the southwestern portion of the state. Research data now indicates that native fishers have crossed the I-5 boundary from the west and made it into the historic range of the non-native population.
While wildlife biologists agree that any mixed breeding would be interesting, it isn’t always as easy as that for territorial animals.
Moriarty, who works at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, related the moving fishers to a typical American street: “You might be able to walk into somebody’s yard but you won’t be able to live there.”
Chicken meat bait is what draws the curious fishers into the multi-compartment traps. Once inside and anesthetized, the biologists have 30 minutes to affix collars and conduct a number of tests.
Blood, hair and tissue samples are taken for DNA testing. Feet are measured and a tooth is extracted to determine age. The wildlife biologists even check for fleas and ticks during the evaluation, all while monitoring the animal’s temperature.
“You only get them in your hands every so often, so you want to measure as much as you can,” explained Matt Broyles, a BLM wildlife biologist in Klamath Falls contributing to the ongoing research.
Out of the seven fishers captured last October, three adult females got the GPS collars and two adult males were fitted with regular radio telemetry collars. Juveniles were released. The females got priority for the new equipment because they tend to stay within the home range, while males “can decide to go for a long wander,” said Hollen.
“We really want to see what they are doing within their home range — how they use the landscape in that Klamath Falls area,” he said.
The GPS units provided real-time data points every 15 minutes, allowing the team to discern resting sites and den locations inside trees.
So far, the wildlife team, which includes specialists from Oregon State University and the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, is very optimistic about the research study that runs through this July.
“The benefits are exponentially phenomenal,” said Moriarty.
tsuzuki@blm.gov
Photos and videos captured between March of 2015 and April of 2016. All photos by BLM.
secondlifesyndicate.com/2021/03/23/a-pack-of-rippers-expo...
-------------------------------
I'm not on a witch hunt, but a fellow few designers and I have recently talked about these people, and this issue.
I have been tracking a few of these over the last 6 months, as I look for assets for a person close to me, in the SL Marketplace Full Perm area.
I've been meaning to do this post on Second Life Syndicate, for some time now, but the discussion has lead me to actually do it.
I just want people to be able to make informed decisions on where their money is going, and it should go to Trusted Kit Creators, not people out to get a quick buck on other people's hard work.
Please wait for the link of the post, and read it, before you all decide to rip me a new one.
I know I usually only post facedown shots on Tuesdays, but sometimes you just have to do it, don't you? We were so sprung! A nurse walked in and fell about laughing.
So why are we in a hospital? I went to visit with my oncologist this morning to get the bad news. I've known for quite a few weeks now that the drugs I've been taking had stopped working. I could feel the increased lesions, have become increasingly exhausted, and all I've really wanted to do for the past week is sleep. I've had stomach flu for the past couple of weeks, so that has contributed to how shitty I've been feeling. My oncologist is a great guy and left an important meeting to spend time with me this morning. I am priviliged to have had over 90 minutes of his time.
Anyways, the long and the short of it if you're interested: my cancer is a clever one, each time I take new drugs and chemos, it learns about them and then overtakes them in its quest to continue growing. I have not only increased liver lesions, but it has now spread to my lymph nodes.
I have three options, all of them IV chemotherapy.
Option 1: weekly chemo, guaranteed hair loss, fatigue, next to no immune system. It may help for a bit. It may not.
Option 2: chemo over a 4 week cycle, may lose my hair, may not. Same side effects as option 1.
Option 3: chemo, but it would be what I would describe as chemo-lite. No hair loss likely, no real benefits to taking the drugs because they don't usually make any difference.
I don't know what to do at the moment. I've been given until Tuesday to research each otion and make an informed decision about what to do. My oncologist is voting for option 1 to prolong life a bit longer. But me, I don't know if I can handle it. It'll be the third time in three years that my hair has falled out. And guys, this is not a vanity issue, it's about loss of identity and looking and feeling really shit. My hair has only just grown back and it looks truly awful, but I go out anyway, I ignore the stares and the sniggers, the "look at that dyke" comments. I feel like saying bollocks to cancer and cancer treatments, getting even further into debt (because goodness knows, we have spent everything we ever saved up over the past three years) and just getting on a plane and going somewhere I want to be for a week or two. The come home, have a big party, and die.
I wish there were an easy option to the decision-making process, I wish I could say 'answers on a postcard, please'. I just don't know what to do.
I know that Flickr isn't maybe the place for sharing these feelings, but I hope that I can make a difference to someone. I want all of you to get into the shower and check your boobs, doesn't matter whether you're a guy (because guys get it too) or a girl. Just do it. For me. I don't want anyone to get this damned disease, but seriously, if it happens to you your chances are so much better if you catch it early.
So I am sitting here, still smiling because I have a five-year-old to raise and he doesn't need to see his mommie falling to pieces. But I am mightily pissed off.
Cat :)
A U-2 Dragon Lady pilot assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing pilots the high-altitude reconnaissance platform at approximately 70,000 feet above an undisclosed location. The U-2 is a high-altitude, near space reconnaissance aircraft and delivers critical imagery which enables decision makers at all levels the visual capabilities to execute informed decisions in any phase of conflict. (U.S. Air Force photo by Lt. Col. Ross Franquemont)
I am a child born of love
So let Love remain in my heart and my mind
Let love and joy… I love listening to great music; there is a way it is just relaxing and it sparks the deepest of emotions in me. Soul In Mind has been my favorite this week, Lira does a wonderful job with the lyrics and vocals.
I have never given much thought for having children of my own. For some reason, the thought has never crossed my mind; and I’m sure I have not experienced baby fever yet. However, I love interacting with children, the adorable ones with big eyes and very long eyelashes. The ones who laugh for no particular reason, and when they smile, your heart is warmed. The children with kinky afros with no care for the troubles of this life. Children, they live in a world of their own, an ideal world, a place where all is pure bliss. I want to believe they are great therapy to the adult who is almost giving up hope.
Because people are self-deceiving machines. They like to like children. So they use the confirmation bias, which causes them to view only positive traits and behaviors of children and form a conclusion without consulting their evil traits. But generally speaking, children ARE less evil than adults. It is true that children are full of dreams and hopes, and that they believe these dreams can become true. Kids are innocent because they do not know the truth of life.
However, kids are not pure! They are very often mean and very well aware that their actions may hurt.
People usually like to believe that their kids are special, or that their kids are somewhat pure and different from everyone else but I’ve been working as a nanny for about seven years now and I’ve never seen a pure kid.
Innocent yes, but pure is a completely different story and I highly question adults who do not want to see that kids are human beings and therefore imperfect creatures like everyone else on this earth! Well, I knew some of those children you refer to. Some of them were sisters of mine. For the most part, I believe it’s an untruth parents tell those without children to trick them into having them.
Upon a time, I was an avid birdwatcher. There is a point to this story, so bear with me. You see, people who are birdwatchers will tell you that all you need is a guidebook and a good pair of binoculars. It’s not until you’ve already started to be interested that you find there is a much better pair of binoculars that cost 3 or 4 x more than the ones you have. Then you go on a tour, and there is someone with a scope on a tripod, and someone with the same scope on a tripod and a camera set up on the scope. One can easily lay out $10K to $15K for basic level expert birding equipment. That’s on top of trips to Goose Island and the High Island bird sanctuary. I’m luck enough to live in Texas, but there are people who come here from all over the world.
There was a delightful book I read about birdwatchers. The author told an anecdote about a brother who was merciless toward him as a child. His brother’s wife told him someolne recommended she take up birdwatching. He was about to tell her that it was a really expensive hobby if she wanted to be serious. But then he thought about his brother and told her, “Sure, all you need is a guidebook and a good pair of binoculars.”
It is a myth. Passed on by people who want to be grandparents.
Unfortunately, most people believe it even though these are the self-same people that told them, they were brought by a stork, there is a Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and Easter bunny.
The main purpose of this myth is cruel vengeance. They want you to have children, who are just like you and made their lives miserable when they were young. The healing recognition of your own and other’ spirituality and
The grace of innocence heals the illusion of guilt, thus removing the key cause of suffering and cruelty from the world. Where there is innocence, people act innocently, responsively and with awareness. This card, like the other Grace cards, can literally bring Heaven to earth, because, in recognizing our own innocence, we see others’ innocence. Thus we see all troubles merely as calls for help and love. Innocence cleanses and refreshes the world. Through it, we allow ourselves both to receive and to give, knowing that life is full of love, abundance and beauty.
Because they are in many senses of the word. Also these expressions are coming from the context of the religious aspects on sexuality. Kids have no sexual intentions until a certain age so they are innocent and pure.
I disagree that children would be mean spirited. I would rather say that they don’t count with consequences of their acts, specially when it affects someone else and not themselves. From and adult point of view it might seem mean but only if you have the same expectations towards kids as you do towards adults.
In my belief the difference is understanding. As soon as you understand the effects of your action (understanding is NOT equal with knowing) and you are still causing harm to others then you are mean spirited.
Using the card
If you receive this card today, you are asked to look at yourself through God’s eyes (whatever you understand Him to be). God, being perfect, sees only our Spirit and perfection, yet allows our Higher Mind to help correct and heal our mistakes. You are asked to let yourself be freed by innocence today, and to let those around you be freed by it also. The grace of innocence is trying to come to you today, if only you would let it… to free yourself and the world from judgment and suffering. Innocence is the way through.
See the world with the innocence of children.
Approach the world with the daring of children.
Love the world with the readiness of children.
Heal the world with the purity of children.
Change the world with the wisdom of children
Children are loving, truthful, kind, honest, adorable, forgiving and fearless. Children’s minds are simple, straight, open and transparent. Children are beautiful just as they appear to us, not because of the physical. Children live in a bubble, untouched by life’s reality. Children are still bursting with ideas and hopes and dreams. And they still believe those dreams can come true. Children possess what we have all lost over time while growing up; purity and innocence. This is the only reason we celebrate the birth of a child. We call them angels; how nice! I believe in this very cruel world, we need the slightest of evidence to remind us that good still exists. Children give us this hope. I think I envy those who are already on the parenting journey. Not to rush things though, I am preparing myself for when my time comes.
It is popularly said that with age comes wisdom. I would like to add that, age comes with cynicism and wickedness too. Adults are always scheming at one point or another, we are conniving beings, some of us warrant to be termed snakes. Where did the rain start beating us? Honestly, I have no definite answer to this question, save for the fact that there was no one around to nurture our child-like spirit and therefore it died prematurely.
There is nothing as beautiful as the heart of a child, there is nothing as encouraging as the character of a child, there is nothing as inspiring as the spirit of a child. Child-likeness is a quality I wish to never lose along life’s bumpy road. Let the storms rage, let the thunder strike, let the sun scorch, let the earth beneath my feet shake; I refuse to let the child inside me die. I will live to be 101 years old but still be of good cheer, I will keep loving everyone as I always do now. I choose the to be carefree about the things I can’t change/control. I am making an informed decision to pick joy and peace over anger and distress. I refuse to let the haters get to me, I choose to shut them out by ignoring them completely. I am learning to let people be happy about winning the battle, as I prepare to win the war.
A decade plus I have lived on earth, and the most important lesson I have learnt is that not every situation calls for your opinion/attention. Some things are better left unattended to, some questions unanswered, and some ties let to break. For as long as it makes you happy, and it keeps the child in you alive, keep doing it. No one will judge you for not combing your hair (of course we will), but then what business of ours is it? Go forth and live the life you have desired for so long, don’t allow people’s conditions to inhibit you. Be like a child (not childish), enjoy life as it comes. Take a step at a time; a day at time, with a glass of cheerfulness. At the end of it all, you will find that you are the happiest version of yourself. You will learn that you are living, and not merely existing.
“Whatever condition we are in, we must always do what we want to do, and if we want to go on a journey, then we must do so and not worry about our condition, even if it’s the worst possible condition, because, if it is, we’re finished anyway, whether we go on the journey or not, and it’s better to die having made the journey we’re been longing for than to be stifled by our longing.” ~Thomas Bernhard
Maintenance Contractor Water Truck Working on Dust Supression on BC Hwy 4 - Cameron Lake Wildfire Detour Route.
Highway 4 remains closed at Cameron Lake Bluff due to wildfire affecting the area.
A detour is in place and drivers are strongly encouraged to avoid travel in the area unless essential.
The detour will route traffic from Port Alberni through to Lake Cowichan via Bamfield using forest-service and privately owned industrial roads. The gravel detour route has narrow sections, sharp curves, single-lane bridges and challenging terrain. There is no cell service, gas stations or washroom facilities on the detour route.
Regular passenger vehicles, such as cars, vans and commercial vehicles weighing less than 63,500 kilograms, can travel through the detour corridor. No over-height or over-weight vehicles will be permitted.
The detour route extends travel by four hours and includes difficult driving conditions. It is strongly encouraged to wait to travel if possible.
For drivers who must travel for essential purposes, the Province urges preparation and patience. Drivers should fuel up, bring extra supplies, food and water to be prepared for the high temperatures at this time of year, and note that conditions can change quickly. Drivers are encouraged to plan trips during daylight hours and to drive with caution.
Detour signage and traffic-control personnel will direct travellers through the detour at key decision points. Government staff and maintenance contractors will regularly patrol the detour to assist motorists if required.
Information checkpoints for travellers will be set up at Youbou Road near Lake Cowichan and at Highway 4 at Aspeden Road near Port Alberni.
A map of the detour route will be available through an Emergency Travel Information button on the DriveBC homepage to help travellers make an informed decision about using the detour route. Drivers are reminded to use caution and respect the direction of traffic-control personnel in the area.
For up-to-date information about driving conditions, visit: www.DriveBC.ca
A fool can ask questions faster than the wisest man can answer them.
Why would you want to be anywhere else?
When I set out this morning it was a delightful -4⁰C. At a guess, it's a few degrees warmer now. There is no wind to speak of, and a crystal clear sky. I'm in good company, we have topics to discuss, and as it would turn out, even on Saturday, we have this trail entirely to ourselves. Why would you want to be indoors?
Starting out in the valley of the Gudgenby River at close enough to 890m ASL we're climbing here to cross the ridge and descend to the tributary Reedy Creek. It's been a gentle 60m ascent, or so, to this point — a heart starter. We don't need a rest, except to look back and ask: how good is that, and isn't it a shame this has all been burnt again? Neither wants to admit we'll not live long enough to see it recover.
After Reedy Creek, the real climbing starts, those poles we're carrying aren't for decoration, and the final layer will come off; bar the last one for sun protection and decency. We'll top out at just under 1100m before we drop down into the valley of Gudgenby Creek and on to Brandy Flat. Neither of us asks why. The ground is frozen for much of this way, the soil is lined by frost heaving and the remnants of the last snow crunches beneath boots. We agree that if anyone asks why, they don't get it. We are each and both in a happy place!
Ahead, the Booth Range rears up behind Gudgenby Creek. It's grey with the ghosts of dead, fire-killed snow gums; dotted with the unnatural fawn of heat-spalled granite and things that we agree would be better unseen. How can this happen over and over with such frequency? Why? Normally this scene would be at our backs as we walk to the northwest. But not today. Why? Over that way's a bit boggy, the days are short, and the risk of hitting a kangaroo in an afternoon extraction is too high. We make informed decisions; ones that come with age and experience.
Why walk this way, and not towards Bandy Flat from the south? Because that way is really steep, in and out. Here the return path is more down than up. That's why. By the end we'll have more than 11¼km in our legs, almost 400m of up and down, and maybe for the first time ever, my pace has got my companion panting! If you have to ask why…
Political Ignorance: How what we don’t know can hurt us.
In brief:
The theory of Political Ignorance (along with Public Choice and Complexity Theory) charts the limits to how much we can hope to accomplish through large, centralised organisations like most modern governments. Because of the complexity of politics, much of what occurs in political systems is ‘irrational’. Complex political systems lead people to rely on oversimplified worldviews based on ideology. These ideologies stand in the way of social progress by dividing people into ‘parties’ or ‘camps’ and ignoring important aspects of the world. Transcending them with results-based projects and good social theory is the job of radical social entrepreneurs.
One thread unifying all of these theories for radical social entrepreneurs is that human society is marvelously complex. Politics is no exception. But while people are not expected to understand sophisticated arguments from physics or biology to navigate the natural world, politics – especially democracy – demands that people make informed decisions in the social world.
As it turns out, evidence continues to mount that many people are surprisingly uninformed about the basic workings of government.
In my opinion "they" don't want you to know what's going on.
-----------------------------
Candid street shot, Beer, Devon,UK.
--Photo/video from May and June of 2016 -- story below from April of 2016:
Capturing a fisher in an Oregon forest can be tricky work.
First off, there aren’t many of them.
Secondly, the cat-sized mammal sports retractable claws and a heart rate that can climb to 300 beats per minute when agitated — double a high rate for humans — and like most animals in the wild, they will defend themselves from capture, even if for scientific research.
“They are carnivores and they have amazing capacities of strength and endurance,” said Katie Moriarty, a research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service.
Moriarty is one of several partners helping the Bureau of Land Management in a first-of-its-kind research project: using GPS collars and satellites to track fisher movements in Oregon.
The end goal is to establish a baseline of habitat information for a species that has been in decline since the trapping and timber industries entered the Western landscape in the 1800s.
In 2014, the West Coast fisher received a “proposed threatened” status by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; but just this week the agency announced the fisher did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act.
If land managers like the BLM can learn specific habitat characteristics, they will then be able to make more informed decisions and even potentially figure out why the member of the weasel family is in decline, said Bruce Hollen, a wildlife biologist for the BLM in Oregon and Washington.
“Something about their habitat is affecting their ability to disperse,” said Hollen. “We don't know how come their populations have stayed so small.”
Adult fishers can weigh about 3 to 13 pounds, and can be about 2.5 to 4 feet long. They eat seemingly anything smaller than them that can be discovered in the forest: birds, squirrels, mice, reptiles, insects, vegetation and fruit. They also have the unique ability to hunt and eat porcupines.
Porcupines love to eat Oregon trees and are the reason why there were several efforts to reintroduce fishers to the southern Oregon Cascade Range from the early 1960s to early 1980s.
Those reintroduced fishers were mostly from British Columbia, but also Minnesota, according to a 2003 study published in the international journal Biological Conservation.
Presently, there are only two known fisher populations in Oregon. One is native and one is the reintroduced population. Both home ranges for the distinct fisher populations are slivers in the southwestern portion of the state. Research data now indicates that native fishers have crossed the I-5 boundary from the west and made it into the historic range of the non-native population.
While wildlife biologists agree that any mixed breeding would be interesting, it isn’t always as easy as that for territorial animals.
Moriarty, who works at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, related the moving fishers to a typical American street: “You might be able to walk into somebody’s yard but you won’t be able to live there.”
Chicken meat bait is what draws the curious fishers into the multi-compartment traps. Once inside and anesthetized, the biologists have 30 minutes to affix collars and conduct a number of tests.
Blood, hair and tissue samples are taken for DNA testing. Feet are measured and a tooth is extracted to determine age. The wildlife biologists even check for fleas and ticks during the evaluation, all while monitoring the animal’s temperature.
“You only get them in your hands every so often, so you want to measure as much as you can,” explained Matt Broyles, a BLM wildlife biologist in Klamath Falls contributing to the ongoing research.
Out of the seven fishers captured last October, three adult females got the GPS collars and two adult males were fitted with regular radio telemetry collars. Juveniles were released. The females got priority for the new equipment because they tend to stay within the home range, while males “can decide to go for a long wander,” said Hollen.
“We really want to see what they are doing within their home range — how they use the landscape in that Klamath Falls area,” he said.
The GPS units provided real-time data points every 15 minutes, allowing the team to discern resting sites and den locations inside trees.
So far, the wildlife team, which includes specialists from Oregon State University and the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, is very optimistic about the research study that runs through this July.
“The benefits are exponentially phenomenal,” said Moriarty.
By Toshio Suzuki, tsuzuki@blm.gov
Photos and videos captured between May and June of 2016. All photos by BLM.
secondlifesyndicate.com/2021/03/23/a-pack-of-rippers-expo...
-------------------------------
I'm not on a witch hunt, but a fellow few designers and I have recently talked about these people, and this issue.
I have been tracking a few of these over the last 6 months, as I look for assets for a person close to me, in the SL Marketplace Full Perm area.
I've been meaning to do this post on Second Life Syndicate, for some time now, but the discussion has lead me to actually do it.
I just want people to be able to make informed decisions on where their money is going, and it should go to Trusted Kit Creators, not people out to get a quick buck on other people's hard work.
Please wait for the link of the post, and read it, before you all decide to rip me a new one.
Briceus grunted as he finished lacing his iron-shod boots. He stood up and bellowed to his fellow soldiers.
“Faster! Inquisitor Morillo will be here soon and I don’t want my men looking like half-drunk slobs! Act like Mythronians!”
The troop lined up, spears and shields at the ready in their now sweaty hands. They had all heard stories of the quiet but eccentric Inquisitor; it was said he could extract an answer from anyone with only his deep gaze. It was his job to investigate matters pertaining to anyone attempting to harm the king in any way. The ‘resistance’, as it had been coined, was a group that was thought to have assassinated at least two nobles in the last three weeks. Being under the king’s direct service, Briceus’s troop was a small strike force consisting of twenty trained and fully armed men. They were usually used as personal escorts for nobles or royalty next to a secondary strike squad. That squad had been assigned to guard the king; Briceus’s squad was given the task of guarding the Inquisitor.
The clattering of horse’s hooves signalled the arrival of Sir Ranclin Morillo. He was of an average height with an unnaturally long and hooked nose which stuck out from under the brim of his hat. He strode up with an air of authority and pride, watching the soldiers from the corner of his vivid brown eyes; one might even say they were a slight orange or red. He stopped before Briceus, and silence filled the room.
“Excellent work, soldier; these men look in fine order. Name?”
“Briceus, Inquisitor Morillo. At your service, Lord.” He bowed his head in the usual Mythronian gesture of submission.
“Very good, Briceus. We are searching Reedus first, starting in the lower tier and moving to the upper. Are we clear?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. In fifteen minutes, I want your men assembled in the courtyard and ready to ride.”
“We’ll be there in ten.”
He smiled and nodded before turning on his heel and exiting the hall. Briceus’s squad swapped out some of their heavier armor plates for lighter ‘riding plates’ made of leather. Their iron cuirasses, however, with the prominent Mythron falcon displayed, were kept. As they rode out, Briceus allowed his mind to wander.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Searching the lower tier took up the better half of five days; a few people were deemed as possible threats and jailed for further questioning. After this the upper tier was searched, taking up two more days. None among the nobles who lived there were found guilty, but a few servants were thought to be associated. These were jailed as well, and by the time the search was complete the sun was sinking into the west on the seventh day. The soldiers were given their evening assignments, and Briceus, as the senior commander, went to report to Sadon, to whom he reported directly.
The throne room was nearly empty, as it often was near the end of the day. Sadon himself had just returned after a long day of meeting with ambassadors from various villages bringing their troubles to his feet. Briceus could read the lines of exhaustion on his face. He approached the throne, bowed low in respect, and stood straight up.
“Ah, evening Briceus. At ease. You have the weekly report?” He sighed.
“Yes, Lord. Seventeen Mythronians were found to be guilty of associating with the resistance in the lower tier. Six servants in the upper tier were also found to have ties with them. They have been brought in; the Inquisitor is questioning them now.”
“Good, good. Well, I’m going back my apartment for the night.”
“Yes sir.”
Briceus bowed again before turning to leave. His exit, however, was impeded by the stately form of the royal advisor, Lord Faromyl Huelin. Their eyes locked for a moment before the Lord brushed past him and proceeded into the throne room.
“Here, king, let me escort you…”
The soldier snorted. When elderly advisor Worthington died peacefully in his sleep, Huelin had risen in his place. According to Sadon he had been a great help to him in recent days, helping him to deal with the many frustrated village representatives. Briceus, however, couldn’t stand being in the man’s presence; he talked too much. He nodded to the two guards at the door as he passed out into the cool Mythronian night. His chambers were just a short walk from the throne room, so in case of an assassination attempt he would be near enough to the king for quick action. Compared to his fellow soldiers his room was slightly larger and more decorative, but Briceus did his best to keep himself close to his men on all levels. He ate with them, worked with them, and trained with them during the free days. In this way, they grew to greatly respect their commander and follow his every order. Removing his heavy plate armor, Briceus tossed himself onto the bed and closed his eyes, falling into an exhausted sleep.
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“No, please… we don’t have any ties to the resistance!”
Briceus furrowed his brow as his men finished cuffing the man and his wife.
“Well, these papers tell me otherwise.” The inquisitor held out a rolled parchment. “The crate of weapons in your basement doesn’t help your case either. Put them in the prison cart.”
Forlorn, they fell silent as they were loaded into the cart, joined by three other men and another woman. It was nearly midday on their second day of inquiry, and they had barely searched a third of the city. Morillo rode up next to Briceus.
“It is unfortunate to find so many unfaithful. Ten the first day, seven yesterday…”
“Indeed, sir.”
The Inquisitor smirked. “Not the talkative type?”
“No, sir.”
“Fair enough. I was never much a man of words either; actions speak louder.”
“Indeed.”
“Well, back to work.”
They had reached the next street of housing by the time their short conversation was over, and the searching began anew.
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The torches embedded in the walls flickered as Briceus strode down the long hall. On the other side were barred cells, each holding somewhere between one and three prisoners. He and the two armed guards beside him stopped at the second-to-last cell, which housed a disheveled husband and wife. He tried not to look into their frightened eyes as he undid the lock and opened the creaky door.
“Your turn,” he said, his voice shaking ever so slightly.
They followed him down the narrow corridor and around a turn. A guarded door to the left was opened, and they entered. The room was lit by a wooden chandelier hanging from the ceiling, while a table filled most of the vacant space on the ground. On the other side the inquisitor sat, gazing at his next subjects with his hands folded on the table.
“Welcome,” he said. “Cooperate and this shouldn’t take long.”
The prisoners looked at each other fearfully.
“When did you first hear of the resistance? What made you support them?”
There was silence for a moment before the husband spoke up.
“We…” his voice cracked. “The resistance came to us. They knew of my position as the head of mailing in Meids. Letters, uh, were brought, and they wanted me to quietly get them to the other groups in various other cities. At first, I rejected them, but then news came in of two homesteads burned to the ground by Mythronian soldiers by order of the King. I was frightened, and began to question my loyalty to such a figure; I had never even met this man, yet he had almost complete control of my life. He could have ordered my execution for no reason other than that he felt like it and his soldiers would have carried it out. Should all that power belong to one man? Now, I don’t think so. His power should be held in check, by… something. I don’t know.”
He fell back in his chair. The inquisitor remained silent for a moment.
“By law, this is treason. Treason is punishable by death.” The man tensed in his chair. “Fortunately, the king does not wish for the wanton destruction of his subjects. As such, you have two choices; hard labor in a Mythronian prison for the next twenty years, or deportation to outlaw country.”
The man’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth in protest but was cut off as he inquisitor continued.
“You have one day to decide. Take them back to their cell, and get all of them a warm meal.”
The twosome were quickly escorted out. A bit of wax dripped from the chandelier; the candles were burning low.
“I’ll escort you back, sir,” Briceus broke the silence.
“Oh, yes. Yes that’ll be fine.” The inquisitor broke from his deep thought.
As they exited the room, Briceus turned to the wiry frame that stood beside him.
“Do you trust the king?”
Morillo paused. “Yes. Having spent time with him I find that he is a noble man, well worth respect and loyalty.”
“I agree,” Briceus replied. “One must admit the power he has, though.”
“Indeed, but that is why he has advisors and the like. They help inform and shape his view so that he might make the best and most informed decisions.”
“Yes, I suppose.”
“Anyhow, goodnight, Briceus, I’ll see you in the morning for more interrogations. Bright and early as always, as you know.” The inquisitor left down a side path back to his own housing.
“Very well, sir.” Briceus bowed and turned the other way, heading towards the barracks.
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Well, this is focused more on story than build because school sucks up most of my time nowadays. CCP is tough. D:
C&C is appreciated!
The King reigns… And His Son!
~Reese~