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9622 · 1 month ago

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Kuzmenko and Fiala - a primer

just a note before we get into the nitty gritty… i’d like to say that me and @ak11996 have been compiling these bits of information as efficiently as we could over the past two-ish months following kuzy’s trade. we tried (and will try) our best to link everything so that this primer can also serve as an archive for them (and us). apologies for any incoherence or missing media, it was not easy digging or compiling things in different languages. that aside, there’s not much else to say – go wild!

ON KUZMENKO Andrei Kuzmenko is an undrafted forward originally from the KHL and was born February 4, 1996. During his formative years in Russia, Kuzmenko played for the MHL, VHL, and KHL before developing interest in the NHL, and eventually, becoming NHL bound. He was drafted in 2013 as 45th overall, wearing jersey #95 during the exhibition game.

Here is Kuzmenko in the 2011-2012 season wearing jersey #10, one of his common numbers during his juniors outside of #96 for Moscow Selects u15.

In the 2012-2013 season, Kuzmenko would go on to play in the MHL for Krasnaya Armiya Moskva as #96. It was around this time that Kuzmenko went on to compete at the WHC-17 Russia u17 team as #4. Kuzmenko would also play at EYOF wearing the same number.

He’d make a return to the MHL with Krasnaya – racking up 41 Pts, 20G, and 21A respectively, in 37GP. During this season, he would go on to play for Russia’s u20 team in the International-Jr as #16 with only 2GP. Nothing notable happens in the 2015-2016 season, but Kuzmenko would go on to play at the WJC as #21 and boosted Russia to second place, earning him silver.

BONUS: here’s an article involving a 21-year old Kuzmenko on his WJC trials.

Kuzmenko has also been noted wearing #60 during the 2017 Deutschland cup with Russia - it was in the same season (17-18) that he would enjoy notable progress in his career, with the 2017-2018 season serving as a breakout season for Kuzmenko, with him representing Russia's secondary team. It was at this time that Kuzmenko was traded to SKA. Internationally, Kuzmenko would total up to only 1G and 1A during this.

In the 2019-2020 season, he would play 6 games at the olympics and tally 4 points for Russia. In the following year, he’d return to Worlds but play only 2 games. The succeeding year was his best with the KHL, tallying 53 points before signing with the Vancouver Canucks where he would eventually meet with Kevin Fiala - however not as teammates.

ON FIALA Fiala was born the same year as Kuzmenko on July 22. Similar to Kuzmenko, he has been known to scatter between multiple jersey numbers. He’s documented to have worn #23, #81, #9, #13, #68 and #17. Although not much media can be found, here’s a run down of all of the numbers he has donned per his tenures:

Fiala played as #68 with the Swiss Eastern Selects (2008-09), #9 with the ZSC Lions u17 (2010-11), #17 with the Swiss u18 team, #81 with the Malmo Redhawks j20 (2012-13) #23 with the Swiss u20 team, and #13 with the Swiss team (2013-14). Fiala, before getting drafted to the NHL, would play with HV71 as a loan wearing #18 before being selected #11th overall by the Nashville Predators and debuting with #56.

Although notorious for jumping between numbers, as Fiala continued on in his career, he would become most known for wearing #22 and #21, which has been widely documented across his senior play. #22 most often with and in the NHL, while he’d wear #21 internationally, notably with the Switzerland international team.

In his juniors, like Kuzmenko, he was known to play wearing #10. Notably, he wore #10 with the Swiss u17 team for EYOF during the 2012-13 season. Additionally, here is Fiala in the 2013-14 season playing for the Swiss u18 team wearing number 10. But during his time with Nashville, Fiala would bounce between their AHL affiliate team (the Milwaukee Admirals) and play #12.

He would then be traded from the Nashville Predators to the Minnesota Wild and stay there from the 2019 season through the 2022 season where he was traded to the LA Kings. This was the turning point for Fiala as, immediately after, he signed a 7-year contract under an NMC. Fiala, as a Predator, finished with 96 Pts across all his seasons played with Nashville. Kuzmenko currently has 22GP as a King.

FIRST MEETINGS On November 18, 2022, the Canucks beat the Kings 1-4. Kuzmenko would rack up 2 Pts off assists to Elias Petersson’s goals. Below is Kuzmenko and Fiala sharing the same ice for the first time.

Kuzmenko's next meeting with the Kings would be on March 18, 2023 where the Kings would face the Canucks at their home arena where Andrei Kuzmenko would score the GWG in a shootout, the score 3-2. Fiala was not on the ice for this, nor was he in the lineup. This was the fate for many previous meetings between the Kings and Canucks as both Fiala and Kuzmenko would either be scratched, or injured. Likewise, their following meetings would be sparse, with Kuzmenko often becoming a healthy scratch and utilised incorrectly under Tocchet – thus nothing relatively remarkable happened between the two during Kuzmenko's remaining tenure as a Canuck.

And after a struggling sophomore year, Kuzmenko would be traded to the Calgary Flames, where, still, he would not make many notable appearances on the ice beside Fiala – however, would watch. It’s at this time that Kuzmenko's NHL playing style would grow, and would shape up to become similar, and, eventually, complementary to Fiala’s.

BONUS: Here is a comparison of their plays – although not exactly replicas as Fiala's pass would go through Doughty before Kopitar, the two would play in similar sequence.

AS KINGS Despite next to nothing happening between the two within the Flames-Flyers timeline, Kuzmenko and Fiala would go on to enjoy their careers independently (in, admittedly, similar fashion) before Kuzmenko would be traded to the LA Kings by the Philadelphia Flyers on March 7, 2025. He would debut against the St. Louis Blues on March 8, 2025 as the Kings would win in OT, 1-2. This would mark the first time Fiala and Kuzmenko would share colours and teammates. And, funnily, the two share an agent.

Ironically, the only time Fiala and Kuzmenko would play together would be on the PP1 unit, as Kuzmenko would be on the same line as Kopitar and Kempe. Obviously, they’d not garnered much chemistry quite yet. This period of time was reminiscent of their former days as opposition, however, this would be bound to change.

On March 22, 2025, Kuzmenko would register his first point as an LA King against the Carolina Hurricanes with a primary assist to Anze Kopitar's PPG. Shortly after, he’d record his first goal as a King late into the first. This was around the time that chemistry between the new PP1 unit (and between Fiala and Kuzmenko) would shift.

Following the 7-2 win over the Canes — what would come out of it would be Kuzmenko’s first helmet picture, and his very iconic helmet video that would also reveal that Fiala and Kuzmenko are stallmates.

Transcript of the helmet video below.

MOORE: Great game boys, Ritter, great job out there, but I’m gonna give it to the new guy. [APPLAUSE] KUZMENKO: Thanks boys, thanks for the support– FIALA: Can you say thank you? Thank you. On! KUZMENKO: Ah. KEMPE: Ayo… KUZMENKO: It’s a great game everybody, good job, good game. [mumbled] Prepare tomorrow! [APPLAUSE].

The following night, on March 23, 2025, the Kings would win against the Boston Bruins at home, the score 7-2, and this video would come out, showing that the pair were evidently getting along.

That marked a turning point for Fiala and Kuzmenko, as on March 25, 2025, when the Kings were set to play a game against the New York Rangers, the Kings would post a photo series that would map out their “roles” on the 5F power play and display their (apparently not so) newfound connection.

Per the game, Kuzmenko would feed Fiala on the power play to tie the game in the exact same manner they rehearsed — and Fiala would go on to score an empty-net to top the Rangers 3-1. This net-front presence and flank set-up would carry onto the next games within the season, with Fiala and Kuzmenko occasionally alternating roles and seeing the same success with little risk.

The two would celebrate their goal, Fiala mouthing something along the lines of "fucking right."

The two would also share a moment following their win.

Of course, Fiala went on to do media following the win wherein he was asked about Kuzmenko. Specifically, he was asked about the jump he gives to the power play, his creativity, and what Fiala had personally noticed.

“Well, a lot, I mean, he’s very skilled. He can make plays, he can shoot the puck, you know, even five-on-five, you know. He’s been… awesome, [he] brought a lot to us, to our team, we appreciate him for sure. Um, you know, he’s… talking, he sees stars, so it’s been awesome. I mean, the goal for me today, I had an empty-net. It was an awesome, awesome play by him.”

On April 5, 2025, the Kings would meet with the Edmonton Oilers and the Kings would post this video. The Kings would shutout the Oilers, 3-0. The two would exit the ice with a goal each, Fiala named second star of the game, and Kuzmenko, the third star.

The two would make magic on the ice following this, as on April 10, 2025, the Kings would face a rival of theirs – the Anaheim Ducks – where Fiala would net two goals, his 31st and 32nd, with number thirty-one being off Kuzmenko on the power play.

BONUS: the two are supposedly benchmates, as seen here.

Two days later, on April 12, 2025, Fiala would net another two against the Colorado Avalanche, and, like clockwork, he would showoff on the power play, with the pass dished from Kuzmenko along the boards. Fiala, pre-PPG, was also trying to get Kuzmenko's attention. Succeeding the goal, the pair would celebrate along the boards, too.

On April 14, 2025, the Kings would visit the Edmonton Oilers to shutout the home team 5-0. The Kings would release this photo series.

The two would continue to build on this chemistry before the Kings would clinch a playoff berth, and for the fourth year in a row, play the Edmonton Oilers. April 21, 2025, would be game one between the longtime rivals. It was in this game that Kuzmenko would net his first playoff point, a power play goal. Kuzmenko was the first scorer of the game. It would be a tip-in on Fiala’s shot, a retelling of previous goals they have factored in on. The two would share a moment on the bench right after.

April 23, 2025, game two, would see the same success for the Kings, with them finishing with a 2-0 lead. They would both continue to celebrate each other's successes within these games, even if the other hadn't been part of any assists or goals.

On the night of game three, April 25, 2025, the Kings would release another photo series.

(BONUS: Fiala and Kuzmenko are both known for struggling as two-way players, with Kuzmenko often being labelled a defensive liability while Fiala often ends up in the box.)

And for the sake of putting this somewhere, the two are usually spotted together in the background of each other's walk-ins, photos involving the other, and have pretty much just gravitated toward each other since the Canes game. Here's a compilation of every helmet picture, walk-in, and miscellaneous media involving the duo.

little bonus: since playing at Worlds, Fiala has also taken up a similar role to Kuzmenko, often playing net-front rather than his usual flank position.

Bonus from 6/01/25: the two have also followed each other back on Instagram after going the entire season without doing so. Kev also liked his Bali dump

as of 6/03/25, this is all for now! this will be updated any time anything significant happens :)

#andrei kuzmenko #kevin fiala #ak96 #kf22 #la kings

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transspeciesculture · 2 years ago

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We keep mentioning how transspecies as a term has existed long before the radqueer & transID communities formed, and started claiming it as part of those communities despite it's actual usage within nonhuman/fictional/unusual human species identifying spaces and objections from said spaces.

As a sort of quick thing to back this up, here are some examples before the year of 2020 (estimated beginnings of the radqueer/transID community)!

All of this excludes troll posting/mockery, and is focused on NH/FICT community's discussions. Some additional content warnings are provided for some of the e-mails, however.

This is not extensive, feel free to show us any other finds (excluding alt.horror.werewolves e-mails, we've already scoured trough everything. There is actually more mentions via that, but all from the same person).

Mentions of term:

01 - "Gender-bender" e-mail, 1999. Included in this section due to the unclearness of if the original author of the e-mail identifies as otherkin or transspecies personally.

[Link] [Link 2] [Archive] [Archive 2]

02 - "On cosmic surgery and personal identity" e-mail, 2005

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

03 - "Da Jakkal's work revisited" e-mail, 1999. Warning: has some outdated terminology/beliefs.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

04 - "Re: Introduction" e-mail, 2002

[Link] [Archive]

05 - "Re: Shifters: in need of Help." e-mail, 1999. Warning: thread has mentions of an un-nameable native American creature.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

06 - "Re: Musing of the Week" e-mail, 1999

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

06 - "Re: define were" e-mail, 1997. Warning: thread has mentions of an un-nameable native American creature. (This is the second time we've have to issue this CW. Sucks.)

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

07 - "Re: Fun with Faith" e-mail, 1997. Same warning as above, unfourtunately.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

08 - "Re: Questions on Were's/Shifting/etc" e-mail 1997. Same warning, a lot of early instances of the word being used seem to all be from this one being, sorry.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

09 - "Re: Slithering into AHWW" e-mail, 1997

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

10 - "Re: Odd Dreams" e-mail, 1998

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

11 - "Shifters: WereBreeds" e-mail, 1999. Warning: has some outdated terminology.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

12 - "On the appropriation of trans narratives by therianthropes" article, 2013. Contrary to the title, it is supportive. It does mention the native creature again due to excerpting an AHWW member's ramblings, so thread with caution.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

13 - "An Introduction to Animality" article, 2009

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

Usage of term for clear self identification (flags and symbols are included):

01 - "Re: A question to everyone out there" e-mail, 1997. Warning once again for mentions of an un-nameable native American creature, and questionable identity that may or may not be considered cultural appropriation (we have no place to say as we are not native). Still, it is an clear account of identification with the label and experiences that'd come to be associated with it.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

02 - "Chewing and biting (and intro)" e-mail, 1999. The poster at the time of posting already specifies that they do not identify with the label anymore, but used to.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

03 - "Transspecies Pride stamp" flag/pride graphic, 2017.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

04 - "Transspecies Flag" flag, 2018

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

05 - "Why I call myself Transspecies" personal article, 2018

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

06 - "Gender: Furry II (Now With More Scales)

[Archive]

07 - "Real Dragons: Transspeciesism" article, 2001

[Archive]

#tsc-resources #transspecies culture is #transspecies #transspecies community #antiradq transspecies #anti radqueer #anti transid #anti transx #nonhuman community #nonhuman #alterbeing community #alterbeing #alterhuman community #alterhuman

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Privacy raises some thorny, subtle and complex issues. It also raises some stupid-simple ones. The American surveillance industry's shell-game is founded on the deliberate confusion of the two, so that the most modest and sensible actions are posed as reductive, simplistic and unworkable.

Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are credit reporting bureaux and data brokers. Both are unbelievably sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember Equifax, the company that doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

Equifax's competitors are no better. Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

These companies follow you everywhere, including to abortion clinics, and sell the data to just about anyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

There are zillions of these data brokers, operating in an unregulated wild west industry. Many of them have been rolled up into tech giants (Oracle owns more than 80 brokers), while others merely do business with ad-tech giants like Google and Meta, who are some of their best customers.

As bad as these two sectors are, they're even worse in combination – the harms data brokers (sloppy, invasive) inflict on us when they supply credit bureaux (consequential, secretive, intransigent) are far worse than the sum of the harms of each.

And now for some good news. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, has declared war on this alliance:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/cfpb-looks-to-restrict-the-sleazy-link-between-credit-reporting-agencies-and-data-brokers/

They've proposed new rules limiting the trade between brokers and bureaux, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, putting strict restrictions on the transfer of information between the two:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers/index.html

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, this is long overdue and meaningful. Remember all the handwringing and chest-thumping about Tiktok stealing Americans' data to the Chinese military? China doesn't need Tiktok to get that data – it can buy it from data-brokers. For peanuts.

The CFPB action is part of a muscular style of governance that is characteristic of the best Biden appointees, who are some of the most principled and competent in living memory. These regulators have scoured the legislation that gives them the power to act on behalf of the American people and discovered an arsenal of action they can take:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Alas, not all the Biden appointees have the will or the skill to pull this trick off. The corporate Dems' darlings are mired in #LearnedHelplessness, convinced that they can't – or shouldn't – use their prodigious powers to step in to curb corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

And it's true that privacy regulation faces stiff headwinds. Surveillance is a public-private partnership from hell. Cops and spies love to raid the surveillance industries' dossiers, treating them as an off-the-books, warrantless source of unconstitutional personal data on their targets:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/16/ring-ring-lapd-calling/#ring

These powerful state actors reliably intervene to hamstring attempts at privacy law, defending the massive profits raked in by data brokers and credit bureaux. These profits, meanwhile, can be mobilized as lobbying dollars that work lawmakers and regulators from the private sector side. Caught in the squeeze between powerful government actors (the true "Deep State") and a cartel of filthy rich private spies, lawmakers and regulators are frozen in place.

Or, at least, they were. The CFPB's discovery that it had the power all along to curb commercial surveillance follows on from the FTC's similar realization last summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling

I don't want to pretend that all privacy questions can be resolved with simple, bright-line rules. It's not clear who "owns" many classes of private data – does your mother own the fact that she gave birth to you, or do you? What if you disagree about such a disclosure – say, if you want to identify your mother as an abusive parent and she objects?

But there are so many stupid-simple privacy questions. Credit bureaux and data-brokers don't inhabit any kind of grey area. They simply should not exist. Getting rid of them is a project of years, but it starts with hacking away at their sources of profits, stripping them of defenses so we can finally annihilate them.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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goalhofer · 7 months ago

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Longest tenured NHL player by team: 2024-25

Boston: Brad Marchand (2009-10) Buffalo: Rasmus Dahlin & Tage Thompson (2018-19) Detroit: Dylan Larkin (2015-16) Florida: Aleksandr Barkov (2013-14) Montreal: Brendan Gallagher (2012-13) Ottawa: Thomas Chabot (2016-17) Tampa Bay: Victor Hedman (2009-10) Toronto: Morgan Reilly (2013-14) Carolina: Jordan Staal (2012-13) Columbus: Boone Jenner (2013-14) New Jersey: Jesper Bratt & Nico Hischier (2017-18) New York Islanders: Casey Cizikas (2011-12) New York Rangers: Chris Kreider (2012-13) Philadelphia: Sean Couturier (2011-12) Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby (2005-06) Washington: Alex Ovechkin (2005-06) Chicago: Connor Murphy (2017-18) Colorado: Gabriel Landeskog (2011-12) Dallas: Jamie Benn (2009-10) Minnesota: Jared Spurgeon (2010-11) Nashville: Roman Josi (2011-12) St. Louis: Jordan Binnington & Colton Parayko (2015-16) Utah Hockey Club: Lawson Crouse & Clayton Keller (2016-17) Winnipeg: Mark Scheifele (2012-13) Anaheim: Cam Fowler (2010-11) Calgary: Mikael Backlund (2008-09) Edmonton: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2011-12) Los Angeles: Anže Kopitar (2006-07) San José: Marc-Édouard Vlasic (2006-07) Seattle: Matty Beniers, Will Borgen, Joel Daccord, Vince Dunn, Jordan Eberle, Yanni Gourde, Philipp Grubauer, Nils Larsson, Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak, Jaden Schwartz & Brandon Tanev (2021-22) Vancouver: Brock Boeser (2016-17) Vegas: Lars Karlsson, Brayden McNabb & Shea Theodore (2017-18)

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bumblebeeappletree · 3 months ago

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youtube

✅ Making cities resilient to floods

About 44% of all disaster events around the world are flood-related.

In our new explainer episode, we show how ‘sponging’ cities can help them overcome the challenge of flooding while strengthening the local ecology, and boosting the economic and social well-being of residents.

In this episode, you will learn:

🟡 What a sponge city is (and how it works)

🟡 The benefits of ‘sponging’ cities (beyond flood-resilience)

🟡 Projects that demonstrate the principles and benefits of a sponge city at various scales (and what we can learn from them)

🟡 Why developers should be in favour of sponge city initiatives (they can save millions in costs)

And much more!

💚 If you gain value from this conversation, we hope you will subscribe to the channel 💚

Thank you to Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction for supporting season 5 of Ecogradia.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:43 What is a sponge city?

02:08 Features of a sponge city

04:16 Is 'sponging' expensive?

04:44 Benefits of a sponge city

08:19 The man who pioneered sponge cities

09:01 Yanweizhou Park | Jinhua, China

09:46 Why Bangkok and Jakarta are sinking

10:39 Tebet Eco Park | Jakarta, Indonesia

11:36 Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park | Bangkok, Thailand

12:13 Copenhagen's Cloudburst Management Plan

13:14 Sankt Kjelds Plads | Copenhagen, Denmark

14:06 How sponge cities can profit: Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park | Singapore

15:46 How sponge cities can profit: Portland | USA

16:21 Outro

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This episode features the following projects:

Yanweizhou Park | Jinhua, China (2014)

Tebet Eco Park | Jakarta, Indonesia (2022)

Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park | Bangkok, Thailand (2017)

Sankt Kjeld's Square & Bryggervangen | Copenhagen, Denmark (2019)

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park | Singapore (2012)

Also featuring:

Fish Tail Park | Nanchang, China (2022)

Benjakitti Park | Bangkok, Thailand (2022)

Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park | New York City, USA (2018)

Houtan Park | Shanghai, China (2010)

High Plains Environmental Center | Loveland, USA

Thammasat Urban Rooftop Farm | Bangkok, Thailand (2019)

Khoo Teck Puat Hospital | Singapore (2010)

Shangrao Xinjiang Ecological Park | Shangrao, China

Telok Blangah Hill Park | Singapore

Interlace Apartments | Singapore (2013)

Jiangsu—Victoria Sponge City Innovation Park | Kunshan, China

Quzhou Luming Park | Quzhou, China (2015)

OCT OH BAY Retail Park | Shenzhen, China (2021)

Tanghe 'Red Ribbon' Park | Qinhuangdao, China (2007)

Sanya Mangrove Park | Sanya, China (2019)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

We are also available on

Spotify: https://open.spotify.c...

Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple...

Website

https://www.ecogradia....

Read about sustainable projects on

https://www.ecogradia....

Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter

https://ecogradia.us5....

No spamming here! :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Instagram: / ecogradia

LinkedIn: / ecogradia

Twitter: https://x.com/Ecogradia

#Ecogradia #Sustainability #Architecture #SpongeCity #FloodproofCity #ResilientCity #FloodProofCity #GreenSpace

[sustainability, architecture, sponge city, green spaces, floodproof city, resilient city]

#Ecogradia #solarpunk #sponge city #floods #flood #climate crisis #climate change #climate collapse #global heating #global warming #green infrastructure #blue infrastructure #China #Indonesia #thailand #denmark #Singapore #USA #Youtube

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stickybasementobject · 1 year ago

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Johnny Depp Horror Icon

01. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

02. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

03. Ed Wood (1994)

04. Sleepy Hollow (1999)

05. The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

06. The Ninth Gate (1999)

07. Corpse Bride (2005)

08. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

09. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

10. From Hell (2001)

11. Secret Window (2004)

12. Dark Shadows (2012)

13. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

14. Transcendence (2014)

15. Marilyn Manson: Kill4Me (2017)

16. London Fields (2018))

17. Tusk (2014)

18. Yoga Hosers (2016)

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autumnslance · 9 months ago

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LynMars's FFXIV Write 2024 Master Post

We're back again! The list and links for all of my completed prompts for this year's FFXIV Write. Stats and ramblings about writing will go under the Read More cut. Eventually these will be revised in some manner and tossed onto Ao3.

Asterisks again mean there's wolship nonsense happening.

01. Steer - Vignettes of less sociable times over Aeryn's life. 02. Horizon - WoL at the end of Ultima Thule, EW 6.0. 03. Tempest - WoL returns to Amaurot to contemplate, EW 6.4. 04. Reticent - C'oretta & Dark Autumn have a chat. Sort of. 05. Stamp - Aeryn finds a memento while cleaning, post-EW 6.0 06. Halcyon - Tanzel, Emelia, & understanding grief. Backstory. 07. Morsel - Zenos heading to Camp Broken Glass, EW 6.0. 08. Free Day! 09. Lend an Ear - Emperor Varis is very much alone. StB patches. 10. Stable - Hydaelyn as the avatar of Light. Endwalker. 11. Surrogate - Weird West AU. Unexpected new roles for the Strikers. 12. Quarry* - Dominants AU. Thavnair comes to Tural's aid. DT 7.0. 13. Butte - Dark Autumn versus seedkin in Xak Tural. DT 7.0. 14. Telling - WoL reflects on Emet-Selch's expected reaction. EW 6.0. 15. Free Day! 16. Third-Rate - Aeryn's annoyed by the Unbound. DT Role Quests. 17. Sally - Dark pays a final visit to a traitor, post-StB 4.1. 18. Hackneyed* - Aeryn, Thancred, & terrible literature. 19. Taken - A young wood warder tries to save his sibling. Backstory. 20. Duel - Wuk Lamat's challenge does not go as expected. DT 7.0. 21. Shade - WoL ruminates on some of their ghosts. Thru DT 7.0. 22. Free Day! 23. On Cloud Nine - A chocobo & her Warrior of Light. End ShB 5.0. 24. Bar - 2 different adventurers starting out. Legacy & ARR. 25. Perpetuity - Aeryn, Deryk, & questions of faith. EW 24man raid. 26. Zip - C'oretta helping out Hamon at the Coliseum. Technically DT. 27. Memory - In a future, music makes Iyna remember. EW Patches. 28. Deleterious - Aeryn & Shale discuss regulators & history. DT 7.0. 29. (Free) Deleterious 2* - Thancred & self-recrimination. ShB 5.0. 30. Two Heads are Better than One - Gulool Ja Ja muses. DT 7.0.

Previous years: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

Ended up a touch Aeryn-heavy this year, though Generic WoL, various NPCs, the other OCs, forays in the FC's AUs, and some supporting family cast members make appearances. There's even a callback to a previous FFXIV Write entry. Lots of Endwalker and Dawntrail due to recency bias, but it manages to span the spectrum from backstories through various expansions.

I only did 1 Free Day, due to having 2 solid ideas I ended up writing for that prompt. It was right at the end of my annual birthday vacation week, so I was pretty rested (may also be why they're among the longer entries!). Unusually, the rest of that week's works are not any longer than the others.

I'm also still working on some original writing, though, so that did cut into fanfiction time.

Below 500 words: #2 Horizon (347), #3 Tempest (415), #7 Morsel (499), #10 Stable (400), #13 Butte (477), #14 Telling (355), #17 Sally (464), #20 Duel (499), #24 Bar (462).

500 - 1,000 words: #1 Steer (944), #4 Reticent (581), #5 Stamp (588), #11 Surrogate (964), #12 Quarry (844), #16 Third-Rate (564), #18 Hackneyed (577), #19 Taken (915), #21 Shade (764), #23 On Cloud Nine (728), #25 Perpetuity (958), #26 Zip (592), #27 Memory (810), #30 Two Heads are Better than One (500).

Over 1,000 words: #6 Halcyon (2,479), #9 Lend an Ear (1,326), #28 Deleterious (1,099), #29 Deleterious 2 (1,231).

Shortest: #2 Horizon Longest: #6 Halcyon

Total: 20,382 words. Not my shortest but far from my longest. Comparing with the previous years, I can see a clear improvement in my grasp of both NPC and OC voices, and more confidence in general.

Even so, "Butte", "Sally", "Bar", and "Zip" were the hardest for me this year, and I may need to warm up to them. I love "Halcyon" for a lot of reasons, and am also fond of the lighter offerings in "Duel" and "On Cloud Nine." I like a lot of the others, particularly when trying to get into NPC heads (even if they're really weird places to be ffs, Zenos).

Not too many shippy entries this year, one of them for one of the AUs, one mostly talking about it rather than seeing it, but I like "Hackneyed" a lot as it's been awhile since I've written about Aeryn & Thancred's literary tastes (and opposite ways of treating their books).

These will eventually be revised and added to Ao3, and then we await next year!

#final fantasy xiv #FFXIVWrite2024 #Lyn Writing #Fanfiction #Prompts #Warrior of Light #Aeryn Striker #Dark Autumn #C'oretta Khell #Iyna Cauld

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ms-m-astrologer · 5 months ago

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Transiting Venus enters retrograde zone

Timeline

Friday, January 10, 09:59 UTC - transiting Venus’ greatest eastern elongation, 7°35’ Pisces

Tuesday, January 28, 20:22 UTC - transiting Venus enters retrograde zone, 24°37’ Pisces

Tuesday, February 4, 07:57 UTC - transiting Venus enters Aries

Sunday, March 2, 00:36 UTC - transiting Venus stations retrograde, 10°50’ Aries

Sunday, March 23, 01:07 UTC - Sun-Venus inferior conjunction, 2°39’ Aries

Thursday, March 27, 08:41 UTC - transiting Venus retrogrades back into Pisces

Sunday, April 13, 01:02 UTC - transiting Venus stations direct, 24°37’ Pisces

Wednesday, April 30, 17:16 UTC - transiting Venus re-enters Aries

Friday, May 16, 06:04 UTC - transiting Venus exits retrograde zone, 10°50’ Aries

Sunday, June 1, 07:34 UTC - transiting Venus’ greatest western elongation, 25°14’ Aries

*+=+*+=+*+=+*

Let me warn everyone right now - this is probably the only stand-alone post I’ll make about Venus Rx in 2025. What I plan to do instead is write more about each step in my weekly forecasts. So if it’s important to you, screenshot that timeline and write the dates down in your planner!

Astrologically, the timing and placement of this particular Rx Zone just boggle my mind. Here is Venus moving back and forth over late Pisces/early Aries - as the Lunar Nodes move from early Aries/Libra to late Pisces/Virgo - as Saturn and Neptune begin their year-long transition from Pisces to Aries - and as transiting Mercury gets in on the action, having its Rx Zone cover exactly the same Zodiacal ground beginning the day before Venus stations retrograde.

JFC.

Anyway, during Venus retrograde times, we are meant to reflect upon our sense of self-worth and our relationships. Can’t have one without the other...? It’s comparable to the stories of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna descending to the Underworld (most likely woven around Venus’ Rx cycles) - Inanna ends up stripping herself (or being stripped) of all her outer accoutrements, in order to be reborn.

Some general warnings about this time period, based on Venus’ areas:

Arts - without fail, every time Venus has an RZ, I get an idea for some grandiose, complicated project for knitting or crocheting. And without fail, every time this grand project ends up abandoned. It’s okay to continue working on the art projects you already have going, but hold off on starting anything new.

Beauty - how many impulsive, disastrous makeovers have occurred during Venus Rx, I wonder? DO NOT CHOP OFF ALL YOUR HAIR. Instead, consider ways to revamp your wardrobe and image. Consider, but don’t act until Venus is direct again.

Love - traditionally, this is a time when past lovers reenter our lives. Equally traditional is the end result, namely, asking ourselves in horror, “What was I thinking?” Some love karma may not be quite as paid off as we presumed. It’s a good time to search out what it was we were supposed to learn from the experience.

Money - get-rich quick schemes based off our own gullibility. Throwing money away on whatever is our escapist vehicle of choice - booze, drugs, food, TV, gaming, the list goes on and on.

Look to the house(s) in your birth chart, which contain the sliver of Zodiac between 24° Pisces and 10° Aries, to see where the action will be. Natal 2nd House? Pay attention to your budget! Natal 7th House? Beware those returning past partners!

And since Venus Rx is cyclical, think back eight years to February-May 2017 - Feb-May 2009 - even Feb-May 2001 - and review what happened then. (These RZs are in my natal 5th House, and sure enough, I was exclusively concerned with my kids and their drama during those times.)

We have a week of Venus/Pisces before she moves on to Aries - a week of wistful daydreaming. Take note of what seems to pop up; you’ll revisit it during the next few months. Something wonderful you don’t want to let go - something wonderful you don’t dare believe could be meant for you.

There is also a spectacular set up between February 1-3, when Venus, Neptune, and the North Node all are conjunct in very late Pisces - joined on Saturday the 1st by the Moon attaining her Crescent phase, and all of them semi-square the Aquarius Sun. What Pisces-type quality are you lacking, or maybe have too much of, that holds you back?

#Astrology #Transiting Venus enters retrograde zone #Ms M astrologer

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meddlingmaez · 28 days ago

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Hadestown (in 4 Acts)

youtube

One of the biggest dilemmas being a Hadestown fan is deciding which soundtrack to have your friends listen to first. Each soundtrack has its advantages, and with such drastic song & character & story differences between productions, the soundtrack you choose to show a friend may lastingly shape what they think of the show.

Fan-compiled Spotify & YouTube playlists have been an answer to this problem, though a limited solution, as the show's story beats may not make sense when simply intercutting between the best versions of songs from different productions. Not to mention the best versions of some songs are not found on Spotify or any officially released soundtrack.

So, three years ago I made a fan edit of the soundtrack backdropped with minimalist visuals and featuring the lyrically best/most dramatically useful versions of each track (in my opinion) to help a new viewer understand the show's plot, aesthetic, structure, and dramatic heart; cutting out certain small story beats to gel individual songs within the context of all other tracks used. The end product is a sum of parts that creates a new shape and whole to my favvvvv musical :3

This is Hadestown (in 4 Acts), a semi-visual fan edit of the Hadestown soundtrack made with the intention of being the most accessible version of the show for someone who hasn't seen or listened to Hadestown before. This was made for you to send to your uninitiated friends, to be their first experience of the show.

Give it a watch and tell me what y'all think! ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶

(( i intended to publish this three years ago when i originally made the edit, but alassss, when i uploaded it to youtube the vid got an immediate copyright strike :\ figures. but !! i just discovered that at some point in the last three years the copyright strike was removed? idk why and i'm not gonna question it 😅. i'm pumped though to finally be sharing the edit [albeit three years late] !!!

i've thought in the years since about how i might make different editing choices [especially since the release of the west end soundtrack]. but unfortunately I lost the original premiere pro files on an old hard drive 😭💀😭 so this is sadly the final version. ))

Here's a work cited for the media used:

~ Font: Kraft Nine

~ Flower animation: from the Hadestown website

~ Background: from the Hadestown website

~ Songs:

01 – We Raise Our Cups (Instrumental) – uploaded to YouTube by EJM Instrumentals

02 – Road to Hell – 2019 Original Broadway Cast Recording (OBC)

03 – Any Way the Wind Blows – OBC

04 – Come Home with Me – OBC

05 – Wedding Song – OBC

06 – Epic I – Bootleg of 2016 New York Theatre Workshop Production

07 – Livin' it Up on Top – OBC/2017 New York Theatre Workshop Live Recording (NYTW)

08 – All I've Ever Known – OBC

09 – Way Down Hadestown – OBC/NYTW

10 – A Gathering Storm – OBC

11 – Epic II – NYTW

12 – Chant – NYTW

13 – Hey, Little Songbird – OBC

14 – When the Chips are Down – OBC

15 – Gone, I'm Gone – OBC

16 – Why We Build the Wall – OBC

17 – Way Down Hadestown (Reprise) – OBC

18 – Flowers – OBC

19 – Wait for Me – OBC

20 – Our Lady of the Underground – OBC

21 – Come Home with Me (Reprise) – OBC

22 – Papers – OBC/2010 Righteous Babe Records Concept Album

23 – Nothing Changes – Bootleg of 2016 New York Theatre Workshop Production

24 – If it's True – Phone recording of 2011 America Sings Hadestown Tour uploaded to YouTube by AugustWynde

25 – How Long – OBC

26 – Chant (Reprise) – NYTW

27 – Epic III – NYTW

28 – Lover's Desire – 2010 Righteous Babe Records Concept Album

29 – Promises – OBC

30 – Word to the Wise – OBC

31 – His Kiss the Riot – OBC/NYTW

32 – If You Wanna Walk Out of Hell – OBC

33 – Wait for Me (Reprise) – NYTW

34 – Doubt Comes In – NYTW

35 – Road to Hell (Reprise) – OBC

36 – We Raise Our Cups – OBC

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theskatingarchive · 2 months ago

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Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir

General Tag

Competitive Programs

2004/05 -> FD: Adiós Nonino

Canadian Nats 2005: FD

2006/07 -> OD: Assassination Tango, FD: Valse Triste

Worlds 2007: OD

2007/08 -> OD: Dark Eyes, FD: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Worlds 20008: SD, FD

2008/09 -> FD: Pink Floyd Medley

Worlds 2009: FD

2009/10 -> OD: Farrucas, FD: Mahler's Symphony No. 5

Olympics 2010: OD, FD

2010/2011 -> SD: Schenkst Du Beim Tango Mir Dein Herz, FD: Hip Hip Chin Chin

Worlds 2011: FD

2012/13 -> FD: Carmen

Worlds 2013: FD

2013/14 -> SD: Dream A Little Dream Of Me, FD: The Seasons

Olympics 2014: SD, FD

2016/17 -> SD: Prince Medley, FD: Pilgrims on a Long Journey

GPF 2016: SD, FD

2017/18 -> FD: Moulin Rouge!

Olympics 2018: FD

#organization tag

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seoul-bros · 11 months ago

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Jikook Week 31 Complete (09/07 -16/07/2024)

Their thirty first week in the military is now complete and time to celebrate this milestone with a look back at this week in 2023.

09/07/23 was ARMY Day and BTS released this photo to celebrate.

They also released Beyond the Story their 10 year anniversary book. It gave us some precious insights into how Jimin and JK's 2017 Tokyo trip came about and how Jikook treasure the memories of that trip.

It seems appropriate that we are remembering their Tokyo trip this week, when the release of Are You Sure?, which follows their 2023 travels together, has been announced. Those travels began this week in 2023 when Jungkook and then Jimin travelled to the US on 12/07 and 13/07 and were spotted together at a restaurant in New York City the same night that Jimin arrived.

It only took them six years to be able to travel simply and freely again but the mental health benefits of that travel were obvious in their pre-enlistment lives and in the content they have left for us while they complete their military service.

The big news this week though was the release of Seven.

There was a whole host of teasers for the release throughout the week sending everyone into a frenzy of speculation about the song.

The MV teaser came out on 12/07 and the MV finally landed on 14/07 and had everyone scrambling as it became clear that JK was making serious moves to ditch the maknae cutie persona and become the new king of pop with enthusiastic and wholehearted support from Hybe and his Seven collaborators.

youtube

He appeared on Good Morning America on the same day contending with bad weather, a nasty cold and limited sleep the night before. He was determined to give his best for all the fans that turned up to see him and that is exactly what he did.

After the GMA, he also came live briefly to celebrate Seven's release and teased the fact that he was off to shoot what we now know as "Are You Sure?".

You have to admire him. The promo schedule that he had between the end of June and the end of November 2023 was insane. Non-stop and super intense, he kept himself going with periodic IVs and vitamin supplements. No wonder Jimin was concerned about him.

With the benefit of hindsight, however, we know he achieved what he set out to do and that the release of Seven one year ago this week was only the beginning of his Golden era.

Post Date: 16/07/2024

#jikook #bts in the military #jimin #jungkook #seven #beyond the story #ARMY Day 2023 #GCF in Tokyo

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staydandy · 6 months ago

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Candle in the Tomb 4: The Lost Caverns (2020) - 龙岭迷窟 - Whump List

List by StayDandy Synopsis : Hu Ba Yi, Shirley Yang and Wang Pang Zi explore a mysterious tomb in the Shaanxi region. Shirley Yang travels to the Longling Maze Grottos to investigate unusual patterns on fossil fragments. On the way, she crosses paths with Hu Ba Yi who along with Wang Pang Zi have just escaped from the ancient city. The trio become companions in another tomb-raiding adventure. (MDL)

Whumpee : Hu Ba Yi played by Pan Yue Ming (3rd from left) • Wang Pang Zi played by Jiang Chao (far left) • Thomas played by Zach Ireland Splittgerber (small top group, torch) • Zhe Gu Shao played by Gao Wei Guang (small top group, blue light stick)

Country : 🇨🇳 China Genres : Action, Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Bromance

Notes : This is a Full Whump List • Adapted from the 2nd volume in the novel series "Candle in the Tomb" (鬼吹灯) by Zhang Mu Ye (天下霸唱). • End credits song : 乾坤暴躁-《龙岭迷窟》影视剧主题曲 by 潘粵明, GAI周延 • TW : Arachnophobia

Related Lists : Candle in the Tomb 1 (2016) - Full List • Candle in the Tomb 2: The Weasel Grave (2017) - Full List • Candle in the Tomb 3: The Wrath of Time (2019) - Full List • Candle in the Tomb 5: The Worm Valley (2021) - Full List • Candle in the Tomb 6: Kunlun Tomb (2022) - Full List

Episodes on List : 10 Total Episodes : 18

*Spoilers below*

03 : Hu Ba Yi & Wang Pang Zi knocked around on a ship in a storm, Pang Zi falls overboard.. Ba Yi exhausted after fighting a monster

04 : Ba Yi & Pang Zi in a fight

05 : (near end) Ba Yi & Pang Zi fall into a cave, tumbling down through a tunnel system

08 : [past] (this story with Thomas is so funny lol) Thomas slapped (Zhe Gu Shao getting shocked 😆).. poked in the stomach & force fed a medicine (all comedic) … Zhe Gu Shao & Thomas hallucinating, Thomas falls into a ravine, saved

09 : [past] (@ 1:30 this whole exchange is so funny 😆 - he's definitely one of the better english actors I've seen for a while in a chinese drama) (near end) Gu Shao spits up blood … Thomas falls & hurts his leg, Gu Shao's arm is eaten off by bugs (would totally watch a whole show of just Gu Shao & Thomas!)

11 : [present] Pang Zi captured, tied up, beat up [not shown].. knocked out … locked in a cage, bit by piranhas

12 : TW: arachnophobia @ 12:10-27:30

13 : (@ 2:05 😆 hahaha I knew it 😆) (TW: arachnophobia @ 2:14-2:22, 3:34-9:28)

14 : Ba Yi tries to hold a stone door dropping down.. Ba Yi & Pang Zi trapped in a room filling with mercury.. Ba Yi dizzy

15 : (TW: arachnophobia @ 21:18-32:53 (end of ep)) Ba Yi & Pang Zi fight a group of monsters; Ba Yi thrown by an explosion

16 : (TW: arachnophobia @ 1:30-8:16) Hurt/exhausted from fighting monster, helped to walk … passes out briefly

17 : Has to climb freestyle, barehanded up a wall with little to no experience.. exhausted … (TW: arachnophobia @ 32:16 (end of ep))

18 : TW: arachnophobia @ 1:32-2:11

#whump #whump list #full whump list #Asain whump #China #Candle in the Tomb 4 The Lost Caverns #Candle in the Tomb 4 #The Lost Caverns #龙岭迷窟 #Hu Ba Yi #Wang Pang Zi #Zhe Gu Shao #Pan Yue Ming #Jiang Chao #Zach Ireland Splittgerber #Gao Wei Guang

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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Naomi Alderman’s ‘The Future’

Naomi Alderman burst onto the scene in 2016 with The Power, an explosive and brilliant feminist apocalyptic parable. Now, seven years later, she's back with a chunky, propulsive second novel about a very different sort of apocalypse: The Future:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Future/Naomi-Alderman/9781668025680

The Power was a thriller about a mysterious force that gives women the power to administer violent electric shocks – even lethal ones – from the palms of their hands. As this power races around the world, the status quo is abruptly shattered. Abusers get nasty surprises. The Saudi government topples. Parents of teenaged boys demand sex-segregated classes to protect their sons from vicious girls:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/10/10/naomi-aldermans-the-power-in-which-fierce-power-of-women-is-awoken/

In The Future, we get a very different kind of apocalypse: the imagined apocalypse of the prepper. At the core of prepperism is a fantasy: that the world will experience a cataclysm that requires the special skills and supplies of the prepper themselves. Water chemists who turn prepper fantasize about attacks on the water-supply – not because there's any special reason to expect one, but because if terrorists attack the water supply, then water chemists become civilization-rescuing heroes:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/22/preppers-are-larpers/#preppers-unprepared

(And of course, if the world ends in such a way that marauding bandits rove the wasteland, eating their former neighbors, then macho, AR-15-obsessed musketfuckers get to reinvent themselves as warlords who defend the sheeple from "bad guys.")

This is what makes billionaire prepper fantasies just so weird – for most of us, it's hard to imagine how the skills of a billionaire are the one thing we'll need to see us through a crisis. But for billionaires themselves, the necessity of billionaires in rebooting civilization is so self-evident as to be unquestionable.

What's more, billionaires are convinced – more than any of us – that the world is about to end. As Douglas @Rushkoff puts it, these guys want to earn enough money to outrun the consequences of how they're making all that money. This is #TheMindset, the idea that your own position has jeopardized civilization itself, but that also, you must survive the cataclysm, because only you can survive it.

Rushkoff chronicles the real-world fantasies of luxury bunkers patrolled by mercenaries locked into explosive discipline collars in his book Survival of the Richest:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

But billionaires don't just suck at running civilization, they also suck at making up stories about its collapse. One thing that's striking about Rushkoff's ethnography of rich people preparing to outlive the end of the human race is how banal their eschatological fantasies are.

It's not that there aren't any exciting stories to tell about billionaire survival fantasies. The granddaddy of these is, of course, Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 "#MasqueOfTheRedDeath":

https://www.poemuseum.org/the-masque-of-the-red-death

I published an updated version with the same title in 2019 in my novella collection #Radicalized:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/14/masque-of-the-red-death/#masque

In The Future, we get a cracking, multi-point-of-view adventure novel about billionaires prepping for the end of the world. Three billionaires, the lords of thinly veiled analogs to Facebook, Google and Amazon, each getting ready in their own way. Stumbling into their midst comes Lai Zhen, a prepper influencer vlogger with millions of followers.

When Zhen becomes romantically entangled with Martha Einkorn, the top aide and chief-of-prepping for one of these billionaires, she finds herself in possession of an AI chatbot that is devoted to protecting a very small number of people from incipient danger. This chatbot determines that Zhen is being stalked by an assassin at a mall in Singapore, and guides her to safety.

The chatbot is a closely held secret among the tech billionaire cabal. It is designed to monitor world events and predict when The Event is imminent, be it disease, war, or other cataclysmic disaster. With the chatbot's predictive powers and its superhuman guidance, the billionaires, their families, and their closest confidantes will be able to slip away before the shit hits the fan, fly by different private jets to one or another luxury bunker, and wait out the apocalypse. Once the fires raging without have died down to embers, the chatbot's billionaire charges will emerge to assume their places as wise and all-powerful leaders of the next human civilization.

As you might imagine, not everyone who finds out about this plan – including various members of the billionaires' families who are fully aware of these rich, powerful people's fallibility – is enthusiastic about it. As we build toward a looming crisis, we cycle between these family members, Zhen and her hacker buddies, and members of an online prepper community where Einkorn is a kind of provocateuse and eminence grise.

Alderman skillfully maneuvers all these power players and blocs into position before detonating the crisis that sets off the book's second act, where we get into some damned fine Masque of the Red Death territory, but clad in Tony Stark mecha survival suits and against a backdrop of total disaster.

I won't give away any spoilers here, except to say that there are lots of twists (that won't surprise readers of The Power, which had its own excellent surprises). But without delving too deeply into the fake-outs, crosses, and turns that Alderman lays, I will say that this is a fantastic and incredibly satisfying comeuppance novel that gets very deep into the ideology of wishing the world would end, and dreaming that when it does, you will finally matter.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/07/preppers-of-the-red-death/#the-event

#pluralistic #naomi alderman #the future #books #science fiction #apocalypse #billionaires #abolish billionaires #big tech #maneki neko #preppers #gift guide

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