#Articles

[animefeminist]

Love, Agency, and Androids: A Chobits Retrospective

Content warning: discussion of sexual objectification, infantilization, groping, fictional age-gap relationships

Spoilers for the Chobits manga and anime

Before Siri and Alexa or movies like Her, the 2000 series Chobits introduced its viewers to an alternate present where highly advanced humanoid robots, called persocoms, serve the role of personal computers and cell phones. Chobits uses its post-humanist storytelling to ask questions about the highly personal relationships that humans can develop with something that looks human or shares human qualities, but can never exactly be human. Because the persocoms are almost all built to look like young women, it also creates a space to ask questions about gender roles in relationships and how those perceived as female can be literally objectified. At times, Chobits presents a very compelling and empowering narrative around love, personal choice, and sacrifice. Yet, simultaneously, Chobits fails to reckon with the very questions it raises. 

The series is a CLAMP classic, with many of the visuals and themes we’d come to expect from the four-women team who penned and illustrated Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knights Rayearth. However, Chobits differs from the young-girl centered stories many expect when they think of CLAMP. Chobits has a teen male protagonist and the manga was serialized in the seinen Weekly Young Magazine. Because the target audience is adult men, the series features frank discussions about relationships, sex, and heartache. Although, this added maturity also leads to many visuals or gags based around fan service or, at times, more disturbing incidents of sexual objectification.  

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[lexipoo]

https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn-womens-basketball/article/paige-bueckers-wnba-ruth-wang-championship-net-20383082.php

[kolejnylangblr]

[prototypesteve]

As an aromantic & asexual person, I move through a world filled with sexuality and romanticism that I know I understand how wonderful those things are supposed to be, even though I’ve never felt either the way nearly everyone else does. But I’m fine with that. I’m like, “This is who I am and it’s different, but not broken. I’m happy for you, because I have my own sources for aroace joy.”

As a left-handed person, I live in a world where fountain pens have become a novelty luxury, but still… when I see articles like this, I feel the scratching sensation burnt into my memory from countless failed experiments, and I’m like, “Fuck all of you and your amazing world that I’m forever cursed to never truly feel, with my nib-demolishing, ink-magnet hell-claw that forces me to settle for my iPad which performs beautifully but just isn’t the same filling and cleaning experience.”

Ngl i prefer the 2016 version purple on the right.

[soracities]

absolutely enraptured rn

[briery]

The four species of lynx; from top-left, clockwise: Eurasian lynx (L. lynx), Iberian lynx (L. pardinus), bobcat (L. rufus), Canada lynx (L. canadensis).

[butchniqabi]

Situations where you exhibited cruelty?

I don’t know if it would be cruelty, but anger, rage, certain desires that would have never exhibited in my brother. There was a moment when I was 15 — I’ve been trying to articulate this for so long, and your question is putting me down the slippery slope. I’ve been trying to articulate it, because it’s important, but I’ve been ashamed. People ask me, why did you become a writer? I give the answer that makes sense: I went to Pace University, I tried business school because I wanted to help my mother. I couldn’t do it, and I went to Brooklyn College and to an English department, and then I became a writer. That’s not untrue, although I don’t know if it’s honest, and your question is now bringing me to this idea of cruelty and goodness. There was this one event when I was 15 that I think altered the course of my life, although at that time it was not an epiphanic moment. But the desire to be a writer probably started with the desire to commit myself to understanding suffering. What was the moment?

I’m trying to be eloquent. I don’t know if I will be. I’ll say it first, then describe it. When I was 15, I decided to kill somebody. Oh, my God.

I didn’t do it. Ah, my God. [Long pause.] I was working on the tobacco farm, and I rode my bike every day. It was five miles out. You wake up at 6 in the morning. I rode my bike, and I went to work mostly with migrant farmers. You’d get paid under the table, and if you show up every day, you get a $1,000 bonus at the end of the season. It was this hot July evening. I was in my room and I look out the window and see that someone has stolen my bike. It was someone I knew in our neighborhood. He was a drug dealer. You would put your bike outside on the stoop when you’re running in and out, and this guy was known to grab your bike, and there’s nothing you could do about it. But I snapped that day. I saw him, and I was so angry, because I knew: I’m not going to get this back, I’m going to lose my $1,000. For context: My mom made $13,000. I go outside and say, “Give me back my bike.” And essentially he said, “Eff off.” I lost it. I went across the street to my friend Big Joe’s house. I knocked on his window. I remember putting both of my hands on the windowsill. I have no shirt on. I’m sweating, I’m so angry, and I said, “Please let me borrow your gun.” [Vuong begins to cry.] I’m so sorry. Can I give you a hug? [Vuong and I embrace.] I appreciate that you’re being honest, but if it’s too much, we can stop. OK?

I think what I’m trying to get at is that I didn’t become an author to have a photo in the back of a book. Writing became a medium for me to try to understand what goodness is. Because when I was begging my friend, “Please give me your gun,” he said: “Ocean, I’m not going to do that. You need to go home.” What was so touching to me is that I was not responsible for that. Someone else’s better sense saved me.

[skeith-platinumprincess]

Yuzu Pays $2.4 Million to End Nintendo Lawsuit

[wachinyeya]

https://ktla.com/news/california/goats-unleashed-by-san-manuel-tribe-as-part-of-fire-prevention-strategy/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaJJAE-Kl55wk4vm1cYc0zjGRUEv8w6ps0HX0z-rxwwa7YXnTDCsgIU2vs_aem_0djT-2NoD-E87Ic6UeeqGw

Firefighting goats have been deployed by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to protect tribal land and neighboring property from potentially devastating brush fires.

The goats are unleashed by the San Manuel Fire Department to eat up dry brush and grass that would normally be ideal fuel for fires — a recent fire was actually partially stopped once it reached an area cleared by the caprine crew earlier this year.

The herd, officials said, is about 400-strong and is made up of generations of goat families.

On Tuesday, the goats were treated to a feast of fruit before being sent on their brush-eating mission.

The goats will spend the next several months trimming and thinning out vegetation on the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Reservation and nearby properties in San Bernardino.

Tribal officials said the brush that covers the hillsides in and around San Manuel property is thriving and diverse, boosted by the recent history-making rainy season. The plant life is an ideal food source because goats prefer food that’s at their eye level.

The Tribe has used goats as a natural, environmentally friendly fire preventative tool since 2019; the plants get trimmed in a sustainable fashion, which allows them to survive and recover naturally overtime unlike most chemical sprays.

Tribal officials called the practice an extension of the Tribe’s “culture of lands stewardship.”

“Caring for the land is a sacred duty of the Tribe,” said Lynn Valbuena, chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. “Stewardship is a responsibility given to our people by the Creator. No matter who owns the land.”

San Bernardino County residents shouldn’t be surprised to see the goats in the mountains fulfilling this divine task from now through the end of fire season.

[foldbaron]

Another short Business Insider article dropped today where the cast finally answers the question of whether they're stepping back from CR.

The answer is a hard no. "We've had 10 amazing years — and it should be clear and known and declared that we're not going anywhere. We've got tons more to do," Travis Willingham, Critical Role's CEO, said. "I don't think we could hang up the towel even if we wanted to. I think we're all addicted, so you're not going to see any of the founders go anywhere," Marisha Ray said.

-Liam already has ideas for his character for the next campaign and hopes that someday they get to do a far future science fiction world of Exandria.

-Marisha is already figuring out what the next cofounder-led project to hit their streaming platform, Beacon, will look like.

-They're going to keep bringing new faces into CR, but also new crews and new projects. "After 10 years, one of the most exciting things is the opportunity to give storytellers a new spotlight," Willingham said.

[mimikyufriend]

please consider donating to the family to help alleviate the financial burden of this horrific situation they are in

[rebeccathenaturalist]

This is a salient argument for returning land stolen from indigenous people, written by a Caddo/Delaware writer who has spent over a decade as a ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. Our current situation with public lands at risk is yet another example where "we the people" have shown that we cannot be responsible for something so precious, and so the status quo cannot continue. The Landback movement--returning land to indigenous ownership--is one viable solution that has multiple potential benefits.

It's not just the land that has been grossly mishandled, but the rights and lives of indigenous people, too. The article states "It’s been argued that the United States violated every Indian treaty it signed. When a treaty is broken, much like when a home is repossessed, the property exchanged should be returned to its original owner for breach of contract." Landback is one way in which indigenous people are trying to get back at least a little of what has been violently stolen from them over the past few centuries.

Does it mean giving up control? Of course. But with current trends, we don't exactly have a lot of control when state or federal governments decide to allow clearcutting or strip mining on public lands. Will some places be closed off to the public if they end up back in indigenous hands? Perhaps, but at least they wouldn't be forcing the rest of us onto reservations, from which we were not allowed to stray. That's a more merciful treatment than they received.

Even if the general public were no longer allowed on a given piece of land, we would still benefit from its restoration and sustainable stewardship, through cleaner air and water, better biodiversity, and ecosystems allowed to return to more complex states over time. Moreover, indigenous communities would stand to benefit financially from the substantial tourism and other recreational activities on current public lands. Responsible management could balance access to popular sites with minimizing wear and tear, while ecologically fragile or culturally sensitive places could be off-limits.

Why not let something old become something new again, and see if we all fare better for it?

[acti-veg]

The Greenwashing of Leather and Wool

There is a great deal of money being put into the greenwashing of animal products, particularly leather and wool, and the purposeful erasure of any alternatives except for plastic.

Animal agriculture industries have been accused of using the same tactics as big oil corporations to sow doubt and downplay their own role in the climate crisis. It is frustrating to see this kind of corporate propaganda repeated so gleefully by so-called leftists in progressive spaces.

Here are three articles I’ve written in an attempt to counter this misinformation. Hopefully you can save these to help you respond to anyone peddling these industry myths later, and then maybe we can talk about literally anything else…

[butchfriend]

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College

[jstor]

The editors at JSTOR Daily have compiled all of their favorite articles for Black History Month!

Peruse the articles to explore historical contributions from Black Americans and the African diaspora at large–supported by scholarship from JSTOR.