#classification paragraph

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

GMMM!!! now that u are a little bit into worm & have had the first instance of the word being used & such, im curious as to what u think the title means! why do u think it's called worm so far? :333

I DONT ACTUALLY KNOW. BUT THAT IS SOMETHING IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT !!!!!!! i always think the "OUAHGH THEY SAID THE TITLE IN THE THING" type jokes are really funny so i locked onto the word right away LMAO. catch me keeping track of every use of the word worm in this million word long story . its a good word !!!!!!

ANYWAY. my first thought now is obv like... something to do with taylors powers??? but im not sure if she can actually control. worms. not to get too biology brained about it but the vague knowledge i have so far is that she can control BUGS but that is not specifically limited to *insects* . because she can also control spiders which are arachnids (though they are also usually lumped into "bugs" which is not a real classification it just kind of refers to things that people find creepy crawly) HOWEVER . the thing that arachnids and insects have in common are being *arthropods* which is like. the overall classification of Things With An Exoskeleton. WORMS are not arthropods they are . well it depends actually. worm is kind of like bug in the fact that its a general word for things that are kind of similar and not the name of a specific group. bc youve got earthworms which are annelids and . like. mealworms which ARE insects but still called worms. so maybe she can control worms also!!!! i really like this sort of . playing with the meaning of the word i guess. some people colloquially will call worms bugs as well even though theyre not. so it becomes a rhing like. are her powers based in LOGIC or science or whatever or are they based in. perception. i guess. because taylor is Bug there can also be Worms. does this make any sort of sense. this might be absolutely nothing bro is burning the food bro is not cooking the kitchen is empty 🔥🔥🔥

it could also be like... worm as a word not meaning the animal. like a cartoonishly evil guy referring to his minions as worms. or like the context in that sentence i posted like. worming your way in somewhere. which now that i think about it makes a lot of sense considering taylors whole plan to join a villain group undercover. wait. i may have just . rendered my whole biology paragraph useless. sad! well there are other insane things i could talk about i guess

all this to say i think shes gonna do something super fucked up with worms in the bug way. i hope <3

THIS IS A FUN QUESTION THOUGH because i know the other story is called ward. and i already have somewhat of an idea of what THAT means bc of armsmaster. so i can assume at least a little bit of what that story is about. but its cool that i dont have that same context for the one im CURRENTLY READING

[jurrasicoresposts]

wikipedias become so much of a worse service over the years huh

[todaysdocument]

Letter from the National American Women Suffrage Association to Senator Charles Dick

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. SenateSeries: Petitions and Related Documents That Were Presented, Read, or TabledFile Unit: Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Tabled

[handwritten] Harriet Taylor Upton

National American Woman Suffrage Association.

MEMBER NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN.

Honorary President, Susan B. Anthony, 17 Madison Street, Rochester, N.Y.

[handwritten] 4

President, REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW,

7443 Devon Street, Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, Pa.

Vice President at Large, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT,

205 West 57th Street, New York City.

Corresponding Secretary, KATE M. GORDON,

1800 Pyrtania Street, New Orleans, La.

Recording Secretary, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, 3 Park Street, Boston Mass.

Treasurer, HAPRIET TAYLOR UPTON [handwritten circle around name], Warren, Ohio.

Auditors {LAURA CLAY, Lexington, Ky.

CORA SMITH EATON, M.D., Masonic Temple, Minneapolis, Minn.

National Press Committee, ELNORA M. BABCOCK, Dunkirk, N.Y.

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, WARREN, OHIO. Nov. 17, 1904.

[stamp/seal partially illegible]

...grahical

UNION LABEL 2

...

Hon. Chas. Dick,

Akron, Ohio.

My dear sir;-

Well, now that the election is over and that

it was as much of a surprise to you as to any of us laymen,

I hope you can and will give your attention to a matter

about which I am writing. Please use our influence to have

the [begin handwritten underline] Territorial Committee strike out either the word sex [end handwritten underline]

in the clause of the Statehood Bill which classes women with

criminals and lunatics, or the whole paragraph. Some people

say if the word sex is stricken out it will foce the Ter

-ritories to consider the question of woman suffrage. Of

course I should not mourn if this were done, but I am not

asking the Territorial Committee to do anything so radical.

Territories have been admitted in the past without any such

clause, and, although it is true that we are politically

classed just this way, somehow it looks a little worse when

we see it in black and white. It is wonderful how stirred

up the conservative women, the club women, woman of missio-

ary societies and all that are over this action. I know

that if you reply to me that you will give this matter your

attention, you will do so. I am therefore not sending any

words in pressing you or in presenting any arguments to you.

Nobody knows better than you do that women of the great

southwest deserve something better than this classification.

Most truly yours,

[handwritten signature]

Harriet Taylor Upton

[wirsindkrieg]

Person ≠ Human = Person

(For clarity, that title should be read as "Person does not equal Human equals Person".)

I've seen a fair few posts over the years I've been involved in the community where someone gets upset by the use of "people" as an umbrella term, generally also claiming that "person" refers exclusively to humans, and therefore the term excludes non-humans.

That is wrong, and it shows that there is a very important conversation that should be happening but isn't.

First thing's first, [this] is the Wikipedia article on "Personhood". I'm going to recommend reading it in full, but if you don't have time or don't want to, the most relevant parts for this are the opening paragraphs (up to the "Philosophy" header) and the sub-headings "Non-human animals" and "Hypothetical beings", both under the "Debates" heading. Those sections should provide some insight into what I'm going to be talking about here, and give you an idea of that conversation that should be happening.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what it means to be a "person", and why it's wrong to claim that it's synonymous with "human". The state of being a "person" (that is, personhood) is less of a biological classification and more of a social one. A person is someone who is deserving of basic rights and decency, which I would hope we can all agree is not a category exclusive to humans. Exactly where the line between "person" and "non-person" lies has been debated extensively for a very, very long time, but there is at least one solid standard that everyone should be able to agree with:

A person is a sapient, thinking being capable of recognizing itself as being a person.

If you are reading this right now, I'm going to assume that you meet that definition, which makes you a person, and that is a good thing. It means you are a being which deserves basic rights like the ability to engage with society, own property, and exercise your free will. Saying you're not a "person" because you're non-human is saying that you shouldn't get to enjoy those basic rights, and that you should not be included in society and allowed to act as an independent being.

All humans are people, but that does not mean that all people are human. And it's worth noting that declaring categories of humans as not being people has been an important part of excusing the removal of basic rights from them. You see it in the way that slaves were talked about prior to the practice being outlawed, and in the way that fascists talk about the groups that they think should be killed en masse. Declaring those groups as not being "people" dehumanizes them, not because being a person means being human, but because being human means also being a person.

There very clearly needs to be an ongoing conversation in the community about non-human personhood, because it is a topic with a long history, with strong points made in favour of including all manner of non-humans under the umbrella of "person". This ongoing trend of declaring oneself to not be a person because of non-humanity is, put bluntly, foolish at best and actively dangerous at worst. Everyone has personhood. It came free with your being a sapient being, capable of thought and self-reflection.

And bonus conversation topic: The reason that anti-kin and related groups do the whole, "Oh, you're not human? Does that mean I can treat you like an animal?" bit is because they don't see non-humans as having personhood. Consider how it would affect how they approach our communities if they were open to the concept of non-human personhood, and how that could further benefit the community as a whole.

Discuss.

[feluka]

When you talk about "the global south" does that include Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa? Are people in Mexico, western Asia, northern Africa, and central America all priviledged in comparison?

At glance this reads to me like someone trying to be a smartass and deliberately missing the point, but I feel like the internet has made me bitter and cynical and there's a chance that the person who sent this is genuinely trying to learn (plus people are still up my ass about the "newborn in the notes" response) so here is a genuine answer:

"Global North" and "Global South" are sociopolitical terms. It does not mean "Northern hemisphere" and "Southern hemisphere", although the Southern hemisphere is very dominant in that category. It's an economic classification.

First few paragraphs from this wikipedia page cover this difference and give you an exact chart of which countries are included in each category.

[avelinos]

𝐻𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊

𝚃𝚊𝚗𝚓𝚒𝚛𝚘 𝚟𝚛. ✦ 𝚉𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚜𝚞 𝚟𝚛. ✦ 𝙸𝚗𝚘𝚜𝚞𝚔𝚎 𝚟𝚛. ✦ 𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚢𝚊 𝚟𝚛.

warnings: all parts are aged up to +20, thunder hashira zenitsu, x gn reader, fluff, brief mentions of blood and injuries.

wc.: ~ 700

Your mission had been a success, the demon had his head taken, the demon slayer corps would maintain the area under observation for a time, the village could sleep peacefully again, and you could return to the butterfly mansion. Only if your body had survived the rough attacks of the demon, you should be perfectly fine.

Aoi’s complaints in your ears about your usual careless behavior with yourself to put others first ringed in your ears as she cared your gashes, and once she finished you felt a little sad since she was right and now you have your body nearly covered in bandages and bruises, therefore in need of watchfulness from the helpers at butterfly mansion.

Some days passed, and the fatigue began to fade to a nice health feeling on your body. After eating and switching the bandages you were ready to rest and get some sleep since the salve was calming not only your bruises but your head, comforting and light, soft pillow under your head to lay with clean white sheets up on your body to keep your temperature, quiet sounds of leaves blowing within the wind broken by the heavy bang of the door and the shout calling out your name interrupted your rest.

The thunder hashira Zenitsu dashed to your bed. You could already see the tears falling from his eyes when he stepped into the room. 

“I’M SO SORRY, I SHOULD'VE COME HERE SOONER, BUT THE TRAINING WAS A MESS THESE DAY AND I ALSO MISSED YOUR ARRIVAL FROM THE MISSION. HAVE YOU DONE WELL? I KNOW YOU DID SINCE YOU’RE HERE NOW, BUT YOU ARE SO HURT I’M ANGRY JUST TO IMAGINE THAT BASTARD OF A DEMON HURTING YOU…” He yelled a paragraph of words in caps lock that made your head crammed like a glass overfilled with water, he only stopped after Aoi slapped his head enraged, yearning a squeak out of him, making you smile a little by the scene in front of you.

“Zenitsu I’m still recovering. Calm down, I'll be fine. I’m taking the best care here” you said dearly. Zenitsu massaged his head where it still hurts before raising his head to look at you, some tears still falling from his eyes, but this time you figured it was from the pain. You couldn’t be mad at him, all these years and he doesn’t change this outstanding way that you grew to adore, that he truly showed when he cared about the person, and you knew he couldn’t bear to have you hurt or lose you. Everytime you came back from a mission he came to see you and cried after seeing you hurt or even completely healthy, vowing to you that he will become stronger to protect you and the people who needed it. But how could the thunder hashira become stronger than his classification confirmed?

After calming down, Zenitsu wiped his tears and sat on the edge of the mattress by your side. “I was afraid that something happened to you. Kanao said you were hurt and needed some weeks to recover. I panicked a little, and that affected the training I was instructing.” You stopped his words and thoughts with a simple hand on his face, the blonde melted into your bandaged hand, tilting his head to kiss your hand, soft lips planting wet kisses down your arm on top of your bandages, carefully taking his time there in a quiet whisper for them to cure, passing to your shoulder and reaching your face. Your arm was freed and you laced on the back of his neck pulling him closer to you, Zenitsu kissed your lips softly, one time, two times, past this he got lost in the feeling of you sweet lips and desperately kissed you more. Passing his left arm on top of yours he held your face to deepen the kiss but ever so lightly fearing hurting you, his tongue poking out to ask for your permission to pass through before retracting as he shifted away from your lips. 

The blonde breathed deeply as if to maintain his posture, his nose brushed along yours, maintaining an eskimo kiss, opening your eyes to find his amber eyes hazed in love. 

“I’ll be stronger, I’ll never let anyone hurt you anymore.”

You just smiled at him. You could never change his mind.

[thefirstknife]

Stuff about Nezarec from the TWID:

 CLASSIFICATION  - Disciple of the Witness   - Dread   - Prime Tormentor   - Resonant   - Unknown origin species   - Other names: (The) Purest Light, Darkest Hour, Whispering Nightmare 

Unknown origin species! Prime Tormentor!

INTEL  - Created from Rhulk’s blueprint, Nezarec was the first Tormentor from which all others owe their lineage. Nezarec relishes in sowing fear and pain, feeding off the terror of sentient beings. He can induce nightmares across entire worlds.  - Nezarec—in possession of the Veil—lead the Black Fleet as it assaulted Earth during the Collapse but was betrayed and killed by Savathûn. She separated, cursed, and entombed his Lunar Pyramid within the Moon and stole away the Veil. Guardians uncovered the Lunar Pyramid when the Vanguard mobilized to assault the Scarlet Keep, and they uncovered the Veil when they made contact with Neomuna on Neptune.  - For centuries, Nezarec remained buried. Then his disembodied head, held aboard the Witness’s Pyramid, was struck by a terraforming beam fired by the Traveler. It revitalized him as it reshaped the Pyramid, where an undaunted fireteam cut him down once more.  - Much that is known about Nezarec is derived from anecdotal experiences, engaged fireteam raids, and a tome recovered from the Golden Age that was entitled "Of Hated Nezarec.” 

Really interesting implications in the first paragraph. Created from "Rhulk's blueprint." What does it mean Bungie. Is he a result of Rhulk's experimentations? Or is this in the sense of the Witness using Rhulk's base biology to create something new? Or to corrupt some "unknown species"? What does it all mean.

OF NOTE   - An old Psion Exotic relic known colloquially as “Nezarec’s Sin” has long found its home among Warlock operatives. The helmet has known many owners throughout the years, all of whom have perished under mysterious circumstances, been rendered comatose, or have since relinquished their possession of the helm to another owner. This helm is currently believed to be in possession of the Guardian, [NAME REDACTED], a hero of few words.   - Mithrax, Kell of House Light, is currently afflicted with Nezarec’s curse despite Nezarec being destroyed. This occurred when the Kell led an effort to recover Nezarec’s scattered remains. He wants to distill Nezarec's essence into a mentally revivifying elixir while siphoning the corruptive elements into himself. Attempts to dispel or cure this curse are ongoing. CHA-319 was assigned to monitor it and report back any changes.   - Legends from the Dark Age speak of Lightbearers and non-bearers alike suffering night terrors when the Moon is at perigee. The legends detail rituals with the nearly extinct Earth-plant lavender, long thought to hold protective, calming, and cleansing properties. Furthermore, there are later legends detailing victims of these night terrors smelling lavender after waking, as if the nightmare mocked their attempts at protection. This led to a subsequent switch to a myriad of other panaceas. 

PSION MENTION!!!!!!! Nezarec's Sin is a Psion relic! Super cool information about it. Basically confirms that there's only one in existence and the YW has it.

Mithrax????????? Man. I was hoping that plot point turned not as terrifying as it originally sounded but nope. Apparently this is an active investigation into his wellbeing. Please. Don't do this. CHA-319 is Chalco Yong!

Love the silliness with lavender though. Incredible.

[utilitycaster]

You who are wise in the way of Exandria (helps run the readable wiki), maybe you could tell me or point me in the right direction. There's been several statements that the Pantheon gets their power from their followers, that feed on their faith/worship/prayers. One of the Vanguard says something to this effect, and Deanna seems to subscribe to this belief as well, and I think I sort of thought this as well pre-Downfall. But is there any actual evidence for this?

Hey anon, thank you!

The short answer: it's really unclear even from the text precisely what's going on, likely because this is foundational lore of Exandria that's existed since pre-stream and it's changed over time as different players and GMs have brought in new perspectives. The most I would say is that the gods of the pantheon do not require worship as a condition of their existence.

The longer answer:

The gods appear to be independently powerful, which would make sense, since they are effectively extra-terrestrial or extra-planar entities of possibility solidified into specific embodiments of concepts, ie, when in physical form on the material plane they are just creatures with their own power. We see that the Everlight's power during Downfall, for example, does not seem diminished even though nearly all of her worshipers were killed by Asmodeus.

However, we also see that when in mortal form, the avatars do gain power from worship and specifically from being in places where they are worshiped. We also know that while he's not of the pantheon, the reason Artagan has the ability to grant divine power as though he were a god is because he is worshiped as one by Jester.

My personal interpretation, and I want to stress this paragraph is very much only an interpretation and not canon, is that while the gods are in mortal form, they need worship to access those truly divine abilities, but while in full godly form they do not - ie, the pantheon doesn't seem to need to be worshiped to have the powers of a god, since that is simply what they are as beings, but should they limit their forms or should an entity who is not of that same classification of being (ie, Tengarian, mortal who has used the Rites of Ascension, or whatever the fuck the Chained Oblivion is) wish to have the powers of a god, they do need worship.

Now: the above relates to entities who are on the material plane. This isn't the case with the divine gate. Because the gods of the pantheon now must act through mortals, it is functionally true that unless they have worshipers within the world, their ability to influence anything in the world is greatly limited if they don't have worshipers. The wiki source on The Everlight's influence being weakened/diminished is a Reddit post from Matt 8 years ago and again, that's influence, not raw ability. When we encounter her in Campaign 1, The Everlight is still able to do everything any other god can do; she just isn't as well-known within Exandria.

The Vanguard member who says mortals are food for the gods is Tuldus in episode 44 and he does not explain how this is. Obviously he's not going to be an objective source here, as a cult member under interrogation with valid resentment towards whatever religious institution under which he was brought up, but we have not seen evidence of the gods needing mortal prayer or worship other than again, to act within the Prime Material Plane from the other side of the Divine Gate. FRIDA says that they believe their worship "charges" the gods (episode 52) but also doesn't provide evidence; it's just their belief.

So this is a long way to say that the gods do ask things of their followers, particularly those followers who gain powers from them, but that seems to be strictly for the purposes of acting within the world from behind the Divine Gate. Any feeding off of mortal worship when in full god form and not a mortal avatar form is purely speculative, and such worship of their mortal forms as we saw in Downfall was freely, if in SILAHA's case unknowingly given, and did not seem to drain his followers in any way nor even require them to know it was worship. In terms of having power as present physical entities either pre-Divergence or in their realms post-Divergence, we don't know if they require anything. At minimum they can go a very, very long time without major worship with no loss of power.

[diristine]

I keep seeing ur pookie's posts and going oh I should get into scp, but I just don't know where to start. I've tried in the past listening to scp readings on YouTube but I've felt lost as to. The point, I guess? I'm missing something. Where would you recommend starting to find that something?

OH BET!! I’ll do my best to answer with things Ive found over the years that I wished I had found sooner!! I too joined the fandom more lost than Odysseus on his odyssey but fear not! I am here to do my best to guide you!

For starters, I dont watch YouTube or consume SCP Spotify media so this will all be from the scp-wikidot. Ive always preferred reading this fandom from the source, it also has more tools than YT I think.

Now, we start with our first link.

Above is a wonderful Hub to find most, if not all, of the worldbuilding. Some things that are essential to understanding the Foundation are: Object Classifications, Security Clearance Levels, About the SCP Foundation, & the Departments (specifically Administration, cause the rest can be grouped into “Research” or “Security”).

Now the other recommended ones from here I would look at is the Personnel Dossier, Groups of Interest, and K-Class Scenarios. I’ll list the specific one’s Id personally look at so you can have a general understanding of the sillies and the fandom as a large.

For these, you do not need to click on the links attached to the synopsizes or paragraphs. Just read the general synopsis/description unless youre willing to go down a rabbit hole and start following links.

For Personnel Dossier fandom I’d Read: Dr. Glass, Dr. Clef, Dr. Kondraki, Dr. Crow, Dr. Gears, Dr. Light, Dr. Iceberg, Researcher Talloran, Agent Adams, Agent Dimitri Strelnikov, Agent Lurk, Director Moose, Dr. Bright/Shaw (same guy, just two names due to fandom drama that I wont burden you with)

For Personnel Dossier for me and hubs it’s: Dr. Glass, Dr. Clef, Dr. Kondraki, Agent Adams, Agent Lurk, Robert Carter, Ruprecht Carter, Chrysophilius Skitter Marshall, Amos Marshall, Mr. Dark

For Groups of Interest or GOI in general Id suggest: Global Occult Coalition, Serpents Hand, Chaos Insurgency

For me and hubs I’d read: Global Occult Coalition, Serpents Hand, Chaos Insurgency, Marshall Carter & Darke LTD, Orneiroi Collective

For K-Class scenarios the only one that matters is XK Class lets be real guys.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, the introduction to this universe and wacky world. One thing you must know from here on out, is that nothing is canon. Meaning that in actuality, everything is canon by nature. Sure it’s contradictory but that’s the fun in it, you get to pick and choose your favorite aspects about characters and what happened or didn’t happen. Sure theres widely accepted fandom headcanons and tales that are “canon” but if you dont like it, it doesnt have to be true to you.

These are separated in “Series” and its sorted by 999 objects to a series, so series I will have 001-999. Series II will have 1000-1999, and so on and so forth.

From here we start with some basic SCP items/objects that most people are aware of and get referenced in tales or the fandom to a certain extent. I would link them all but that takes forever so I’d just google search it if I were you.

Common SCP Objects to find in the fandom: SCP-999, SCP-001, SCP-076, SCP-096, SCP-173, SCP-682, SCP-049, SCP-035, SCP-073, SCP-106, SCP-105, SCP-963, SCP-939, SCP-4231, SCP-408, SCP-166, SCP-239, SCP-079, SCP-590, SCP-321, SCP-3999

Yes thats a whole lot of items to read through, its not mandatory by any means, its just highly likely you will run into these at some point during your stay and know them whether you want to or not.

List of SCPs I recommend for lore purposes: SCP-166, SCP-4231 (depictions of sexual assault in this one), SCP-408, SCP-590, SCP-321, SCP-963.

Those are the ones that end up carrying a lot of lore in certain characters and their interactions with one another.

Now onto tales!! The fun part of the Foundation that I personally ADORE and where I hope maybe to join the ranks of authors (I’ll only write fanfics lets be honest with ourselves).

If you want to find tales specific to a character, you can access the Tag Cloud! It’s where all the major tags are located, and it just becomes a game of whether or not you can find the character, object, or GOI you were looking for!!

Now here are some of the fandom-wide tales: Duke Til Dawn, SCP-239-b Incident-Clef-Kondraki, Major Tom, Unfinished Business, Unfinished Business II, Routine Psychological Evaluations By Dr Glass, Transcript of Dr Clef’s Seminar, “Reality Benders and You: How to Survive When Existence Doesnt.”

Some of those I dont include/base my headcanon and timeline off of, if you want the tales that mine are based on I’ll go insane cause theres so many but I will hand some over so you can get a better grasp on the lore/timeline we have concocted!

My recommendations: Routine Psychological Evaluations By Dr Glass, Tomorrow, Contingency, Number One With A Bullet, hawaiian shirts, so leave yourself alone, Transcript of Dr Clef’s Seminar, “Reality Benders and You: How to Survive When Existence Doesnt.”, An Apple A Day…, Robert Carter, Skitter Marshall, We Got A Good Thing Here, A Pound Of Flesh A Piece Of Meat

Now onto Canon Hubs!!

Canon Hubs are just hubs of stories that exist in a singular timeline, essentially just helping piece together a linear storyline for us to follow. It makes it so much easier to get into this fandom with a canon hub, like genuinely. It’s a way to read a whole story without having to jump around too much. There’s not many the fandom like all agrees on seeing as people tend to just read tales n pick their canons from there so these will honestly just be my recommendations!

My Recommendations for Canon Hubs: Resurrection, Black Diamond Billions, Ship In A Bottle, Broken Masquerade, Daybreak

So yes, its a lot of reading, a l o t of reading. Im sure you can find podcasts or YouTube videos to aid if you just look up any of the stuff I suggested. I do hope that this was helpful in any manner, and please ask again if you have any questions. This was super fun to write and I am more than happy to clear anything up or rephrase something.

Welcome to the fandom! If you decide to stay, wonderful! If not? That’s perfectly okay too.

[jupiterswasphouse]

WASPS OF THE WORLD - A REVIEW

[Image ID: A photo of the cover of the book 'Wasps Of The World: A Guide To Every Family' by Simon Van Noort and Gavin Broad, a black and white cover with 12 in color photos of wasps of a multitude of different families /End ID.]

Howdy everyone! and happy Wasp Wednesday!

Yesterday, I finished reading through this book, and figured I'd share my thoughts and reasons to recommend it, given how recently published it is as of writing! (February 6th, 2024)

Read under the cut!

So, How Extensive Is It?:

The cover doesn't lie, for the most part, covering every family that one might traditionally consider to be wasps as of the publishing date, and more! Despite being simply titled 'Wasps Of The World', you may be surprised to learn that this book essentially covers all of Hymenoptera, to an extent.

The taxonomically minded of you might expect ants and bees to get at least a passing mention, also being wasps themselves, although their sections are less extensive than other well known families, and the bee families are not covered individually (I cannot yet speak for the quality of these books but this book recommends the publications 'Ants, A Visual Guide' by Heather Campbell and Benjamin Blanchard, and 'Bees Of The World' by Laurence Packer for more extensive reading).

What you might not expect however, is the section on suborder Symphyta, which is to say, sawflies! Each family of this suborder is covered in pages 30 - 59, just as extensively as those in Apocrita (Covered in pages 60 - 233). I must say this was a pleasant surprise!

How Is It Covered? (Extensiveness Continued):

The length of each segment tends to depend on how much is actually known about each family and how unique each species or subfamily is from each other within, and may range from a short paragraph to up to 4 pages. Images, with descriptions, are provided for each family, sometimes just one but usually two or more, as well as a section covering; Distribution (with geographic map), Genera, Habitats, Size, Activity, Reproduction, and Diet

Of course, with the species richness of an order like Hymenoptera, not everything about each family can be covered in a 200+ page book, but this book provides an absolutely fantastic framework of knowledge from nesting and parasitizing behavior, to their vast ecological benefits (or pest statuses in the few cases where applicable), as well as a glossary of some of the more technical terms used (Page 234) and suggested further reading (Page 235)

The book also contains a wonderful introductory section (Pages 6 - 29) covering generally common behaviors, anatomy, diversity, biology, conservation, classification, and even how wasps are photographed! (bonus points for the mention of iNaturalist)

Would I Recommend It?/How Good Is It For Someone Like Me (The Reader)?:

The short answer is Absolutely/Great!

The longer answer is yes, I would recommend it, as already mentioned, it provides an extensive amount of knowledge for those just getting interested in Hymenoptera or entomology in general, and provides plenty in the way of extra information that even someone who's been invested in the study for quite a while may not yet know, including more recent developments in each family's classification.

As the title might suggest, the book may also see some use as a field guide, or as an aid to teach others about wasps!

The book is also relatively cheap comparatively to some textbooks, available for $25 - $30 for an outright purchase

In Conclusion:

This is a wonderful book and I'm very happy with my purchase! It feels weird giving a star rating to non-fiction publications but if I had to give one, it would be

5/5

[isleofdarkness]

Naming a semitic character fucking Aryan is sooo ???? Like J*R naming her only Chinese character Cho Chang 😭

I'm pretty sure nobody involved in this cares anymore, they just want to keep making money out of an already dead franchise. Descendants was bad but at least it had a heart to it, this is just bad.

What the hell is going on in that writers room.

First off, I would like to apologize to any Jewish person reading this, this should not be happening and you should not be reading this because this problem should not fucking exist. I am sorry that this is happening. Take care of yourselves and I hope you're doing okay.

Trigger warning for below the cut, I am going to be discussing Harry Potter and JKR's terrible names (first paragraph,) the origins of the word Aryan and the implications behind using it (second paragraph,) and why this word popping up in this context is downright terrifying to me (third paragraph.) There is going to be talk about Naziism, eugenics, the second world war, a brief mention of the monster behind the second world war, and some speculation about what this could mean. Because I'm having a hard time rationlizing this and I do not think there are any excuses here. This is bad.

Weren't both Cho and Chang Korean last names? Like, the Chinese character's first and last names were both Korean and not even Korean first names but Korean last names? That was just stupidity. That was googling "Asian names" and going with the first two results that sounded slightly good together off of the first link in the search results. Yeah, that was bad. I am not denying that and I am also going to mention that this was actually not the worst name in her series (The Goldsteins and Kingsley Shacklebolt, but I'm not here to say what's already been said there.)

But Aryan? For a character who's probably brown with black hair and dark eyes? Not to mention, as you mentioned, the fact that Arab peoples are semetic. I get that Aryan did originally start out as a neutral term, used to describe groups such as Indo-Iranians and a lot of peoples and regions from areas like the Middle East, India, and parts of Asia, and it was originally not ties to race at all but rather a very diverse group of cultures and languages that spanned a lot of Eurasia, but my gods. When people hear the term Aryan they aren't going to think "Oh, like the Indo-Iranians,)" they're going to think "Oh, you know, caucasian, blond hair, blue eyes, measuring skulls, Nazi Germany shit." The term is irreparably linked to Nazi Germany and the idea of the Aryan Race, to death camps, ghettos, to the guy I don't even want to name himself. It's like the Swastika- it originally had a perfectly fine meaning, but then that evil got its hands on it and now using it at all looks extremely bad no matter what you mean by it. Like, regardless of the origin or what the term truly means, it's an extremely loaded term due to an incorrect usage during a very dark period in history and you can't be throwing it around like that because the first image that is always going to come to mind will be the Nazis. It is literally so easy not to use extremely charged terms like Aryan (I'm not going to get into the cases where it is acceptable for that term to be used because that is unimportant as this is not one of those cases.) They used it as a name- a codename, but a name, and it would have been the easiest thing in the world to simply NOT DO THAT. Babynames.com exists for a reason!

(I also have to wonder exactly how much research they actually did because I have spent hours over months doing research on this kind of stuff, linguistics and larger ethnic groups and classifications of ethnic groups, I know about the origin of the word and what it originally meant because I deliberately set out to learn that. And I have to wonder if these writers did that research, too, and just made the dumb choice to use the word's original meaning without considering the larger social connotations or if they did not do that research. Because if they did not do that research... either they didn't know what that word has been used for or they knew that, didn't know the ancient history, and used that word anyway. And considering the amount of research that has previously gone into this kind of stuff (looking at you, person who put a Chinese character in a Japanese kimono,) I'd say the chances that they did the reasearch into this term are extremely slim. And that looks very, very, very, very bad. As in I am wondering if one of those writers wants Jewish people dead bad.)

You wouldn't name a level three autistic character Hans Asperger. Naming a semetic character of colour Aryan is a million times worse than that. I knew this series had issues, but this? This is looking way, way worse than anything else I've ever talked about because this is no longer subtext and subtle. This is genuinely the worst thing I have seen from this series and that's not even mentioning how terrible a time this is coming at. I know I've said "I pray xyz" is false, just bad gossip, about this series and the rumours, but right now I am genuinely praying that this is fake. Because if it isn't...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Frank Vyan Walton at Dark Skies on the Horizon:

At last, Pete Hegseth has stepped forward to answer questions about the Secret Signal Chat which inadvertently included Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg. Each of the members of this controversy have come forward in the past to strongly criticize Hillary Clinton for her email scandal arguing that she clearly should be “Locked Up.”

[...] 1. Hegseth as head of an agency has the ability to declassify that agency’s information, as he has apparently done with the information from the chat. Hillary also had this ability, only she delegated it to her staff - which is allowed. They used it to downgrade the classification of notes they sent her from (C) "Confidential" - one of the lowest levels of classification to (U) "Unclassified." They left them as (C) to indicate that the source material had been Confidential, these markings would appear in paragraphs where these quotations from other documents were inserted. There were only 3 emails where this was the case. There were additional messages (110) which the FBI considerd “classified” at the time they were sent and (2,093) that were “retroactively” determined to contain classified information by the FOIA office, Hillary herself sent 104 of these messages — none of those were marked classified when created. This is not a small issue — decades ago I worked for 12 years in a classified environment and in that world every document had to have a classification mark of some type. Usually Confidention, Secret, Top Secret or Unclassified. The markings exist so that there is clarity as to how each document is to be treated and protected. For example, only Unclassified documents can go in the normal trash — everything else had to be disposed of in a “burn barrell.” All classified documents had to be stored in locked cabinets when not being read, used, or when unclassified personel were in the room. Xerox copies could not be made of classified documents. My job for the first 5 years included literally placing the classification markings on all computer printed documents. If a document was mis-marked when printed, it had to be destroyed. From what I can tell these message were not intended to contain classified info, but in the course of the back and forth discussions happening in those emails classified subjects were referenced. Again, having worked in a classified environment [albiet prior to the common use of email], the subject of the environment itself can come up in discussion. Specifically I worked as part of the B2 Stealth Bomber and other projects, and although the very existence of that bomber and project was technically “classified” — it was also common knowledge and theory that it existed and it was regularly referenced in the media. Just talking about the media reports as a part of doing their job could technically be considered a “classified” discussion, even if that wasn’t the intent. It really depends on exactly what was said and whether it revealed something sensitive that the media didn’t know.

Similarly, The fact that Hegseth’s messages weren’t “marked” classified doesn’t mean that they weren’t potentially damaging. The details of the attack were not known in the media. 2. Regardless of classification status, the legal statute relates to deliberate or negligent release of "National Defense" information which the Signal Chat certainly was so the fact that Hegseth has declassified them retroactively doesn't matter - either way, it should have been considered classified, and really, the fact that they claim that it isn’t is frankly a bigger scandal than a reporter being in the chat group. [...] Hillary's server was never breached or hacked although attempts were made and thwarted by her dedicated IT staff. This likely wouldn't have happened if she had used a service like yahoo.com or gmail.com, and she would have been hacked just as the State dept internal email system was previously hacked by GRU. If she had had an official State Dept email account — they would have already hacked her. GRU also accessed the White House email system as well as the DNC and Hillary's campaign chairman John Podesta fishing for the non-government emails from Hillary that had been deleted from her private server. [...] 5. Attacking Goldberg for the Atlantic correctly reporting on Russia's hacking and influence operations, or the Mueller investigation, cases and convictions is not "lying" about Trump. From what I’ve been able to find the Atlantic reported on the Mueller investigation and even criticized it at the time, but they didn’t engage in rank speculation and most of the stories weren’t written by Goldberg. So exactly why are they attacking Goldberg personally as a “partisan hack” when his name usually isn’t on the Byline? Well, except to generally discredit him. At the end of Mueller’s Russia investigation, 25 Russians were indicted for email hacking and using social media to influence the election, 8 Trumpers were convicted, 5 of them for lying under oath about their communications with Russians. If there was nothing to hide, exactly why were they lying under oath about Russia? Repeatedly, right from the beginning, Trump denied the involvement of the��Russians in the hack.

Signalgate was a bigger breach of national security than Hillary Clinton’s emails ever were.

[todaysdocument]

Act of June 19, 1934 (Federal Communications Commission Act)

Record Group 11: General Records of the United States GovernmentSeries: Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress

S.3285

Public___No 416 73d CONGRESS

Seventy-third Congress of the United States of America;

At the Second Session.

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, the third day of January, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-four.

AN ACT

To provide for the regulation of interstate and foreign communication by wire or radio, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in the Congress assembled,

Title I -- General Provisions

PURPOSES OF ACT; CREATION OF FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

SECTION 1. For the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make available, so far as possible, to all people of the United States a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority heretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication, there is hereby created a commission to be known as the "Federal Communications Commission", which shall be constituted as hereinafter provided, and which shall execute and enforce the previsions of this Act.

APPLICATIONS OF ACT

SEC.2. (a) The provisions of this Act shall apply to all interstate and foreign communication by wire or radio and all interstate and foreign transmission of energy by radio, which originates and/or is received within the United States, and to all persons engaged within the United States in such communication or transmission of energy by radio, and to the licensing and regulating of all radio stations as hereinafter provided; but it shall not apply to persons engaged in wire or radio communication or transmission in the Philippine Islands or Canal Zone, or to wire or radio communication or transmission wholly within the Philippine Islands or Canal Zone.

(b) Subject to the provisions of section 301, nothing in this Act shall be construed to apply or to give the Commission jurisdiction with respect to (1) charges, classifications, practices, services, facili-S.3285--55

by the Commission, and may cause the closing of any station for radio communication and removal therefrom of its apparatus and equipment, or he may authorize the use or control of any such station and/or its apparatus and equipment by any department of the Government under such regulations as he may prescribe, upon just compensation to the owners.

(d) The President shall ascertain the just compensation for such use or control and certify the amount ascertained to Congress for appropriation and payment to the person entitled thereto. If the amount so certified is unsatisfactory to the person entitled thereto, such person shall be paid only 75 per centum of the amount and shall be entitled to sue the United States to recover such further sum as added to such payment of 75 per centum will make such amount as will be just compensation for the use and control. Such suit shall be brought in the manner provided by paragraph 20 of section 24, or by section 145, of the Judicial Code, as amended.

EFFECTIVE DATE OF ACT

SEC. 607. This Act shall take effect upon the organization of the Commission, except that this section and sections 1 and 4 shall take effect July 1, 1934. The Commission shall be deemed to be organized upon such date as four members of the Commission have taken office.

SEPARABILITY CLAUSE

SEC. 607. If any provision of this Act or application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

SHORT TITLE

SEC. 609. This Act may be cited as the "Communications Act of 1934."

[signed] Henry T. Rainey

Speaker of the House of Representatives

[signed] Jno N. Garner

Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate

Approved

June 19 1934

[signed] Franklin D Roosevelt

[crossdreamers]

On the Trump-administration's absurd and unscientific definitions of sex and gender

Over at Bluesky Ethel Weapon makes sense of the Trump-administration's arguments about there being only two "sexes":

She writes:

//This site includes the "clear guidance" that Trump's EO 14168 mandated should be produced within 30 days to expand on the definition of sex in that order. This is what the policies of the US Government will be based on. Let's take a walk through...

Sex based definitions

The document is called "Sex-Based Definitions". The definitions are at the end, and notably exclude some of the terms that were in the EO. We'll get back to that. The bulk of the document is the section about "Defining Sex" itself.

First of all, we start with a declaration that there are only two sexes *because* there are only two kinds of gametes. Transphobes start from this premise because all other sex-related biological characteristics (anatomy, genetics) have various expressions that lie on a continuum.

Asserting binary sex as a definition requires ignoring most or all of the characteristics of sex that are *actually* expressed in favour of focusing on a single characteristic that may not be. Many people don't produce gametes.

No motivation is provided for focusing on this single, patchily expressed, characteristic of biology. It's clear that the idea is to impose a binary classification, but even if "sex" is reductively defined in terms of gamete production alone, that doesn't mandate a binary model.

For example, here is a paper by Paul E. Griffiths that uses gamete production to define "biological sex" which characterizes sex as therefore being a transient, mutable characteristic tied to particular life stages of an organism.

Function of the reproductive system

Back to the first paragraph of "Defining Sex". We see that because gametes are not always produced by an organism, a much more nebulous characteristic is put forwarded, which relies on divining what the *function* of the reproductive system is.

But as I've already said, anatomy can lie on a continuum. For example, androgen insensitivity can result in a variety of anatomies that range between (typical) male and female types. You can see what this means in this description of the "Quigley scale"

Attributing a specific *function* of gamete production to each of the range of different anatomies that exist is not something that can be done in a principled way. The definition falls apart on this basis alone. But also on other grounds.

Attributing function to biology

Another weak point is that the definition relies on attributing "function" to biology. But the word "function" conflates two different notions: a. The purpose for which an object was designed b. An operation which an object carries out The first of those notions is not applicable to biology, which was the central insight that Darwin had.

There is no design in biology. Evolution is blind, and does not design towards goals: there is no teleology in biology. When we say an organ has a function, what we are characterizing is simply what it *does*, not what it is *supposed* to do, thus, "the heart has the function of pumping blood" means that this is what the heart *does*, not that this is what the heart is *supposed* to do. Biology is not designed, it is evolved.

The definition of sex put forwarded on this page, however, thinks that biological structures inherently have purposes. Thus it stipulates that even if a body does not function to produce gametes, it *ought* to. This is, at core, scientifically illiterate and certainly doesn't give a clear operational definition that maps from the continuum of expressed sex characteristics to a binary definition.

Thus we end up with the scrambled nonsense of "Having the biological function to produce eggs or sperm does not require that eggs or sperm are ever produced" as a core part of this definition. It's palpably weak.

Genetics

Genetics is also thrown into the mix to try and reinforce things, but the genome at conception doesn't neatly map to a "function" of gamete production in this way. Not just because phenotypes can be continuous, but also because genotype itself can be affected after conception, with conditions such as mosaicism affecting sex characteristics.

The definition moves on to stipulating that "sex" cannot be changed because "function" cannot be changed. Thus hormonal or surgical interventions - things that actually change a body physically - are deemed irrelevant, because they don't change what the body *is supposed to do* , which, in this worldview, is to assume a reproductive role which is somehow immanent in the body, regardless of the possibility of fulfilling such a role. This is, somehow, "objective biology". The physical effects of hormones and surgery are, I guess, just "subjective" in this world view.

This is the topsy-turvy place that this definition takes us to, where a hypothetical (and in practice undecideable) purpose of the body can be deemed to be "objective biology" whereas the actual physical state of a body is declared irrelevant.

The third gamete

This also goes to a favourite assertion of anti-trans thought, that the lack of a "third gamete" means that there is no "third sex", which is a strawman entirely.

Noting that a binary definition of sex does not adequately characterize the range of physical variations that exist in the sexual characteristics of bodies is not an argument that a "third sex" exists. It's just a call for "sex" to be accurately modeled.

But this is all about imposing a crude classification for political purposes. Partly it aims to eradicate the social reality that trans and intersex people exist. More broadly, it is part of imposing a complementarian "biology is destiny" ideology which defines who you can be in terms of "sex".

Protecting women

Thus we see a statement that "biological differences" require "sex-specific practices" in medicine which will, I predict, be broadly used to enforce gendered practices of all kinds under the banner of "health".

The broad nature of enforcement this implies is spelled out in the last paragraph, with the mantra of "protecting women" in place, which in practice will be very much "protection" in the vein of "we had to destroy the village in order to save it."

"Recognising the immutable and biological nature of sex" as something determined by genome at conception requires denying that everything after conception is relevant... that genetic mutation does not occur, that genetic expression is deterministic, that biology determines who we are entirely.

It is a scientifically and socially illiterate declaration, nothing more than a thin sprinkle of "sciencey" words being used incorrectly as a cover for brutal repression.

Female and male as functions

Almost forgot the "Definitions" themselves. They rely on defining "female" and "male" solely as nouns that relate to the "function" of the reproductive system, which as we've seen is an incoherent notion. The other definitions hinge on this idea: woman, girl, man, boy, mother, father.

Unsurprisingly, just a reiteration of the "adult human female" sloganeering of gender-critical fascism. What isn't included are definitions of "gender identity" or "gender ideology", which were included in the EO.

There's no need for defining "gender ideology" minutely. It is more useful to retain it as a floating signifier, a pejorative term that can be applied wherever it is needed. A precise definition of the boogeyman isn't needed - he just needs to be scary.

But as we've seen, in reality there are no precise definitions of any kind supplied in this document. It's foolishness throughout. Is it therefore important to dismantle it? Yeah, ability to do so is part of how pushing back against these EOs. We're already seeing that.

(Link)

Anyhow, hope this was useful. If you're interested, here is a deeper dive into some of the ideas in this thread, back from when we first saw such "gamete" based definitions of sex emerging in state laws.//

Bluesky thread here.

Photo: Rasi Bhadramani

[maerossi]

30 by 30

My self-directed reading challenge to finally get around to a bunch of classics by the time I'm 30(ish).

Classic #5:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, trans. Anthony Bonner

Random thoughts:

This book was so much fun. I wish I'd read Verne when I was a kid; I genuinely wonder if it would have helped me realize I was meant to be a STEM/outdoorsy person earlier in life

Was not expecting so much of the book to be dedicated to taxonomy

I tried to read this book in French before, and I felt really bad for not understanding it because I thought it was a kids book, but I definitely didn't realize how much of what I was reading was just paragraphs of stuff like "Among these precious hydrophytes, I noticed some whorled cladostephae, peacocklike padinar, caulerpae shaped like vine leaves, graniferous callithamnions, delicate scarlet-tinted ceramiaceae, fan-shaped agars..."

Would love an annotated version put out today that tells you how much of what Verne wrote is [still] true. Like, how have species classifications changed, etc.

Conseil seemed obviously very gay for Aronnax, but apparently people ship Aronnax/Nemo and Conseil/Ned Land???

Conseil literally only gets captured by Nemo because he insisted on followed Aronnax into the water when Aronnax was thrown overboard? Like???

Ned Land being much of the comic relief, and that comic relief being "I need meeeeeat," lol

Book felt like a mix of adventure/horror; at times it got really dark, and I could see Ari Aster directing a horror film adaptation of it

Captain Nemo's name being an Odyssey reference...and I'll be reading The Odyssey later this summer. ~It's all comin' together~

Rad Bradbury's foreword comparing/contrasting the book with Moby-Dick, which I'll also be reading~~

Nemo being an anticolonial crusader??? No one talks about this??

The fact that it's called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea because they travel under the sea over a distance of 20,000 leagues, not cuz something happens when they reach a depth of 20,000 leagues....je ne savais pas ça

A+ read.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

Meanwhile he had projected a new work: An Attempt at a Uniform and Pragmatic Classification of the Neuroses and Psychoses, Based on an Examination of Fifteen Hundred Pre-Krapaelin and Post-Krapaelin Cases as they would be Diagnosed in the Terminology of the Different Contemporary Schools—and another sonorous paragraph—Together with a Chronology of Such Subdivisions of Opinion as Have Arisen Independently.

This title would look monumental in German.

scott has jokes... also don't think i had the context to think this last time i revisited the novel in full but it's hard not to hear an echo, intentional or not, in dick's doomed-to-be-unfinished "uniform and pragmatic classification of the neuroses and psychoses" of casaubon's key to all mythologies