#Continental Resources

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

House Democrats launch probe of Trump’s dinner with oil executives | The Washington Post

House Democrats are launching an investigation into Donald Trump’s meeting with oil executives last month at his Mar-a-Lago Club, where the former president asked the executives to steer $1 billion to his 2024 campaign and promised to reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental policies.

The probe comes after The Washington Post on Thursday first reported the fundraising dinner, where Trump said that giving $1 billion would be a “deal” because of the taxation and regulation the oil companies would avoid thanks to him, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

In letters sent Monday evening, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee asked nine oil executives to provide detailed information on their companies’ participation in the meeting. The Democrats voiced concern that Trump’s request at the dinner may have been a quid pro quo and may have violated campaign finance laws, although experts say his conduct probably did not cross the threshold of being illegal.

Lawmakers sent the letters to the CEOs of Cheniere Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Continental Resources, EQT Corporation, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Venture Global. They also fired off a missive to the head of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top lobbying arm in Washington.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, asked the executives to provide the names and titles of any company representatives who attended the Mar-a-Lago dinner, copies of any materials shared with the attendees, a description of any policy proposals discussed at the event, and a list of any contributions to the Trump campaign made during or after the event.

Raskin also asked the executives to provide a copy of any draft executive orders or policy paperwork that their companies have prepared for Trump or his campaign. Politico reported that oil industry lawyers and lobbyists have drawn up executive orders for Trump to sign in a possible second term, including directives aimed at boosting natural gas exports and offshore oil drilling.

Asked about the letter, Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, said in an email that the group “meets with policymakers and candidates from across the political spectrum on topics important to our industry that range from strengthening energy security to addressing persistent U.S. inflation.”

A Venture Global spokeswoman said of the meeting with Trump: “Venture Global regularly engages with government officials — both past and present — on a bipartisan basis and this meeting was no different. We would welcome a similar conversation with President Biden at any time.”

A spokesman for Cheniere Energy declined to comment on the letter. Spokespeople for the other oil companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Democrats on the Oversight Committee lack certain investigative powers because Republicans control the House. If the oil companies decline to turn over the information, Democrats will not be able to subpoena the firms, stymying their investigation.

Yet Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a vocal climate advocate who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, which wields subpoena power, has voiced interest in launching his own probe.

Trump’s comments at the dinner are “practically an invitation to ask questions about Big Oil’s political corruption and manipulation,” Whitehouse said in an emailed statement.

“Fossil fuel malfeasance will cost Americans trillions in climate damages, and the Budget Committee is looking at how to ensure the industry cannot simply buy off politicians in order to saddle taxpayers with the bill,” he added.

At the Mar-a-Lago meeting, Trump promised to immediately end the Biden administration’s freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in a second term, according to people who attended. He also pledged to start auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and to reverse restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.

Experts said Trump’s remarks at the dinner probably didn’t violate campaign finance laws as currently interpreted by the Federal Election Commission and the Supreme Court. They said a violation would need to involve a clear quid pro quo in which Trump promised to take a specific policy action in exchange for a specific campaign contribution.

“This alone is probably not enough to indicate the existence of a quid pro quo,” said Dan Weiner, director of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school.

Trump “was doing what candidates often do, which is saying, ‘Please give me money, and I will do the things that I know you want,’” Weiner added. “The brazenness is still quite astonishing, and it certainly flies in the face of the spirit of the law, if not the letter.”

Former Obama White House ethics adviser Norm Eisen, a Trump critic and prominent supporter of the four criminal cases against him, agreed.

“I’m not saying it’s a violation of the law,” said Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House’s first impeachment of Trump. “But it raises serious questions, and it’s a reminder of why we have those laws on the books.”

[reportwire]

CLR Stock Price | Continental Resources Inc. Stock Quote (U.S.: NYSE) | MarketWatch

CLR Stock Price | Continental Resources Inc. Stock Quote (U.S.: NYSE) | MarketWatch

Continental Resources Inc. Continental Resources, Inc. is an independent oil producer engaged in the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas. The firm’s operations include horizontal drilling and protecting groundwater. The company was founded by Harold G. Hamm in 1967 and is headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK. Source link

[o-craven-canto]

Selected recurrent patterns or "laws" of evolution, of potential use for speculative biology. List compiled by Neocene's Pavel Volkov, who in turn credits its content to Nikolay Rejmers (original presumably in Russian). These are guidelines, and not necessarily scientifically rigorous.

Dollo's Law, or irreversibility of evolution: organisms do not evolve back into their own ancestors. When mammals returned to the sea, they did not develop gills and dermal scales and change back into fish: they became whales or seals or manatees, who retain mammalian traits and show marks of land-dwelling ancestry.

Roulliet's law, or increase of complexity: both organisms and ecosystems tend to become more complex over time, with subparts that are increasingly differentiated and integrated. This one is dodgier: there are many examples of simplification over time when it is selected for, for example in parasites. At least, over very large time scales, the maximum achievable complexity seems to increase.

Law of unlimited change: there is no point at which a species or system is complete and has finished evolving. Stasis only occurs when there is strong selective pressure in favor of it, and organism can always adapt to chaging conditions if they are not beyond the limits of survival.

Law of pre-adaptation or exaptation: new structures do not appear ex novo. When a new organ or behavior is developed, it is a modification or a re-purposing of something that already existed. Bone tissue probably evolved as reserves of energy before it was suitable to build an internal skeleton from, and feathers most likely evolved for thermal isolation and display before they were refined enough for flight.

Law of increasing variety: diversity at all levels tends to increase over time. While some forms originate from hybridization, most importantly the Eukaryotic cells, generally one ancestor species tends to leave many descendants, if it has any at all.

Law of Severtsov or of Eldredge-Gould or of punctuated equilibrium: while evolution is always slow from the human standpoint, there are moments of relatively rapid change and diversification when some especily fertile innovation appears (e.g. eyes and shells in the Cambrian), or new environments become inhabitable (e.g. continental surface in the Devonian), or disaster clears out space (e.g. at the end of the Permian or Cretaceous), followed by relative stability once all low-hanging fruit has been picked.

Law of environmental conformity: changes in the structure and functions of organisms follow the features or their environment, but the specifics of those changes depend on the structural and developmental constraints of the organisms. Squids and dolphins both have spindle-shaped bodies because physics make it necessary to move quickly through water, but water is broken by the anterior end of the skull in dolphins and by the posterior end of the mantle in squids. Superficial similarity is due to shared environment, deep structural similarity to shared ancestry.

Cope's and Marsh's laws: the most highly specialized members of a group (which often includes the physically largest) tend to go extinct first when conditions change. It is the generalist, least specialized members that usually survive and give rise to the next generations of specialists.

Deperet's law of increasing specialization: once a lineage has started to specialize for a particular niche, lifestyle, or resource, it will keep specializing in the same direction, as any deviation would be outcompeted by the rest. In contrast, their generalist ancestors can survive with a marginal presence in multiple niches.

Osborn's law, or adaptive radiation: as the previous takes place, different lines of descent from a common ancestor become increasingly different in form and specializations.

Shmalhausen's law, or increasing integration: over time, complex systems also tend to become increasingly integrated, with components (e.g. organs of an organism, or species in a symbiotic relationship) being increasingly indispensable to the whole, and increasingly tightly controlled.

[pendwelling]

The Master of the Mage's Tower always passes by to pay Her Grace a visit.

"Mother hates the colour red,

... so why...?"

The Archmage of the Empire and the Master of the Mage's Tower: Isfrid Skirmen van der Toorn.

(YES, Lady Isfrid has a thing for Her Grace.)

(NO, Her Grace isn't aware of this...)

Chest window on full display yet the Grand Duchess only ever privately wonders if the Tower's Archmage can feel the cold (they're up north 😭...)

Additional trivia if you haven't been following my IG Stories! :

Upon joining the Mage's Tower, mages renounce their familial ties (and even nationalities) in order to declare themselves as neutral in the Empire's political sphere, therefore announcing themselves as fully dedicated to the Tower and their duties. There is some leeway, however, as magically-supported businesses/public conveniences requiring the use of magical artifacts /do/ require the help of mages (money has to be made to earn livings, after all).

The mages who join thus discard their original surnames and oftentimes as a result either: 1.) pick a new one to symbolize new beginnings and ambitions, or 2.) use the Tower's epithet as a stand-in ("Van der Toorn" can be considered just as prestigious and honourable as a Duke's surname, after all, so there's no true loss in the end! Becoming part of the Tower means you are one of the elite and highest-grade mages—former nobles and commoners alike are on equal grounds, in an atmosphere of collaborative learning and (generally friendly) competitive magical academia, with many helpful and support resources provided for them.)

Essentially they're magical researchers and/or.... public servant hermits......... Though they do assist the Crown, the Head of the Tower is the one everyone truly answers to. If Lady Skirmen disapproves of an Imperial Decree, who is the Crown to rebuke her? What are they going to do? What CAN they do? This is why political neutrality is important for such powerful beings.... Thankfully, Isfrid isn't interested in world continental domination haha (her interests lay solely elsewhere... 👀)

[avissapiens]

How to be a Muscle Bull Ch.8: Elements

(Model ID : Fabrizio Dossantos// https://www.instagram.com/fabrizio_dossantos/?hl=en)

Immovable, massive, yearning. That pure mountainous bull mass you’ve attained always driven by that tectonic urge for even more. Treating your body and your identity like a natural wonder of the world. Sculpted and built back up over and over to be something awe-inspiring. A resource that others want so badly to ascend. A continental force of single-minded obsession that draws everyone to you. Sturdy and steadily you’ve placed layer after sedimentary layer of mass onto your frame. Patiently metamorphing it through heat and pressure, only to let it all bubble and leak to the surface with igneous heat and pleasure. On the surface holding the steady processes over eons to produce the results set into stone and fossilized. But underneath that molten core and mantle fluxing and glowing with pure lust and unhinged obsession. As hard as diamond, shredded striated perfection. Carved like a marble statue. Increasing like a limestone pillar. Towering and blocking out the sun with those plateau-like pecs and the Vista of your lats. Veins streaking under your skin like fissures after an earthquake. Reaping the fruit of your constant grinding, effort from that rich fertile soil. 

Let your whole life be caught up in the avalanche of bull obsession. Building muscle at any cost and exposing it to the world for show. Bigger and better. That size attracts more size like a gradually growing celestial body. Letting more and more of your life be eroded away for the purpose of bulging rock hard muscle and inhuman, More-than-natural mass. 

To find resources to help embody your Bull Journey you can check out the Bull Archetype guide on my Patreon for free .If you’d like to support the creation of files like the one in this story, or you’d like access to exclusive files and files earlier than the rest of the world, then please, Support me on Patreon, And go and follow me on Youtube for more files. Also, be sure to join me and my community on Discord. 

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Europe without trade, a worldbuilding exercise

This exercise pissed off a bunch of white people for all the wrong reasons, but facts are facts and I can link you to all the major resources. You all should be insulted at the idea that Europe can't trade, that melanin dictates that white people can't get along and find ways to trade. But that's not why they were upset. They were upset at the idea that a single region couldn't provide for people. And that's the wrong thing to get upset about. And I'm telling you that's white supremacy ideology you need to boot. Europe, too, traded and used people from other regions who migrated and were physically there on foot. Stop thinking that your lack of melanin is a force field.

So the exercise goes like this: Shortly after Homo Sapiens interbred with the Neanderthal and migrated to Europe, there was a magical force field put around Europe to cut off Europe from the Middle East, Africa, etc. ^^;; I'm sure people from the Caucuses aren't very pleased with this since they get commandeered into this exercise which racists somehow love. Later people also deemed them inferior (which takes a while to travel through but there is a wikipedia page dedicated to the term Caucasian meaning white [link] that goes over this ranking thing and the racist origins and ties to Nazis). But whatever, Nanowrimo a*holes were determined to argue against trade, fine, let's play this game and cut the whole of the Middle East/West Asia.

The other rule is that the Gulf Stream still exists, so you can have that unusual European climate which is a fluke. (This also ticked off people? But seriously, to get the gradient of Europe that far north, you need to Gulf of Mexico otherwise the latitude range would look more like the US than Europe, more south, and larger, much larger. And most people don't make a continent that large. Why people get ticked off at true facts is a whole thing.)

If you cut off the Gulf of Mexico, which a lot of world building of European-like continents do, you get Siberia. So the Gulf of Mexico has to stay for our Hypothetical Europe. (Not getting into continentality either.)

We're not counting the little bit of Turkey here, BTW. Turkey gets to stay whole. And Russia gets kicked out because it always gets kicked out anyway and besides, people were preaching about stupid things when these racists were posting, like all of Russia is white. And then people were arguing over if Russia counts. Fine. We'll kick Russia out. BTW, Australia was called all white. Haha. Aboriginals don't exist according to them. Like WTF. But whatever.

The question is what civilization can Europe grow with only the resources found naturally in Europe? Can you build a European civilization with only things found naturally occurring in Europe?

The first issue is STAPLE CROP.

Yeah, if you notice, you've cut off all of the major grains to Europe. You've also cut off the Beaker people. Oops.

Some Anthropology here, Beaker people brought agriculture to Europe. They were also from Turkey.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2018/february/the-beaker-people-a-new-population-for-ancient-britain.html

So, Stone Henge, Long burrows, and all of that are suddenly cut off.

Honestly, this one is terrible to overcome. Most of the BBC docs I watched argued that the ancient people of Britain before Brown people from Turkey brought agriculture and the Cheddar Man, were boiling and eating reeds. Think like cattails type of thing, which is really hard to eat.

Upside, you still have fire in the form of rush lights, though you can't use tallow or beeswax--comes from outside of Europe. And horses are too lean. So, likely the European bison? However, this limits technology quite a bit as advancements can't be made by night and only by camp fire. (Fire is safely pre-modern humans—homonins and some say Homo Erectus, though still debated. But at least Homo Hedelberengensis)

Without a staple crop, you're going to have it tough to make enough surplus to build anything. You need free time and enough food supply to build things like castles.

The closest you might get is maybe peas? The best you get is pea flour, and have you worked with pea flour? It doesn't do anything like the wheat family does. Nutritionally, it's also low carbs, which is great if you're on a low carb diet, but not great for a civilization. Pea flour: 100 kcal, 18 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 0 g fat, and 8 g protein

White rice:

Total Fat 0.4 g

Saturated fat 0.1 g

Cholesterol 0 mg

Sodium 2 mg

Potassium 55 mg

Total Carbohydrate 45 g 15%

Dietary fiber 0.6 g

Sugar 0.1 g

Protein 4.3 g

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/brown-rice-vs-white-rice

68-82 amounts of energy in rice.

So peas aren't a bad choice, but the problem is that you don't have a binder. You need a binder to make bread, etc. Even this one here: https://www.powerhungry.com/2024/02/06/split-pea-bread-vegan-oil-free-gf/ Uses a binder from India. But the majority of your people aren't eating Bread. The recipes I can find include non-European things like rice or things outside of Europe. This severely hinders your tech advancements. Being able to eat on the job and not have it take forever is really hard. The portability of bread is a plus for technology. And peas can get mushy and if cooked can mold.

There are Lactofermented peas:

https://www.beetsandbones.com/lacto-fermented-green-peas/

But they aren't widely eaten and include things like garlic, which is out. Bay leaves are not from Europe. Garlic is a difficult one since garlic kills so many bacteria, but you can cope with oregano, I suppose, which kills a high amount of bacteria according to a well vetted study since it was published (original study was 1999, but followup studies since then):

Preservation is a huge part of production and an upside of grains.

Also, how are you going to produce alcohol? This makes water safer to drink. You'd have to convert to teas. (Raspberry leaf tea is a thing.) Peas are not high starch enough, as cited to hold together bread. It's not good enough to make alcohol.

But now you're thinking, OK, we got peas as a staple, they just won't make bread out of it.

Peas, a major protein source, you don't need cows, pigs, etc as much. (Though you're still kinda lacking in vitamin B12, but I'll cover that later.) And your people make a new type of pea plant (BTW, legumes is the largest plant family on Earth.)

Might limit you to not be able to carry it around easily and it's hard to rehydrate, but eventually your people get there. (If you're thinking, but lentils, yeah, not Europe. Deal).

Subsequent agriculture

Tanning leather, BTW, you need oak trees with high tannins, but this tech originated from Western Asia (or Southwestern Asia, if you want to call it that)

Oak trees are found on five continents, but it's a bit fuzzy on how they got there. Humans have a habit of picking up seeds and spreading them about. My own great grandfather loved collecting seeds and planting them. You also have Johnny Appleseed.

The processing time to make acorn flour is pretty terrible (You have to boil it a long, long time to remove the tannins, this is why I didn't suggest this as a staple), but at least you have leather.

The major other crops are out:

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, hazelnuts, walnuts, corn, wheat, rye, barley, strawberries? (This one is questionable.), pears (China), apples (Central Asia), Pomegranates (Iran), and major fruits you can think of. Think of a major fruit. Look it up and you'll find it doesn't come from Europe, though it might be grown there.

Most of the spices and herbs are out (sage, oregano, rosemary, and thyme stay in.) No, you can't have garlic. Most allium comes from outside of Europe. Animals are also out: pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, llamas, alpacas.

It's debatable about horses. One thread people debated back and forth on horses, so I'll lay that out.

This leaves you likely with dogs, which probably came with early modern humans. Yeah, ummm... there's a question here, and maybe I shouldn't touch it, and the answer is likely no, probably not eating them. Not unless people get desperate. The Cambridge History of Food also questions the archaeology from Western Asia, but the archaeology also says the only time humans ate dogs were in desperation and the layer in question came at the heels of a drought? (I took a picture of the page, pretty easy to look up since it has an excellent index.).

This leaves deer. Not a good animal to domesticate, but let's say Reindeer. (Thinking Evenk here).

I'm adding in carob.

So Round up of what we have?

Staple crop: Legume, likely related to peas.

Secondary crops:

You have brassica (mustard family)

Olives

Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

sage

horseradish, maybe.

Acorns—makes leather

carob

currants

gooseberries

raspberry

blackberry

turnip, possibly beets

parsnip Stinging nettle Dandelion (European and edible from roots which make a substance said to be similar to coffee to the buds.)

Brassica family, mainly Brussel sprouts, but possibly they would invent others.

BTW, carrots originally weren't orange until William of Orange, who gets his name from a plant native to Southern China-ish.

But other berries—cranberry, is from the Americas. And strawberry, while found in Europe, was originally domesticated in the Americas. This one is a question mark. Because it was found on both continents, but was only domesticated in the Americas.

The majority of the foods you find are domesticated in West Asia, Southern China and the Americas (mostly central Americas and Northern South America.) Welcome to the downside of temperate climates.

Pies? Nope. "What about Shepards Pie" Yeah, where are you getting the potatoes? Also the iron works is in question here. (later)

Short list. You're losing your mind, no pizza? Yep. No pizza. (lol Someone got mad when I pointed this out with links). Tomato is New World, Wheat is West Asia, Cows domestication is West Asia and Northern Africa. Horse milk you can't form into cheese without camel rennet. Camels, you guessed it, not Europe.

Possibly new legumes to maximize it. (They grow tall as trees, make peanuts, etc, so it's possible a culture under pressure would make new ones. BTW, peanuts is new world.)

Domesticated animals: Dogs, deer, maybe horses—horses are debated. European rabbits, yes, though don't make for good domestication since they are really difficult to work with which you'll have to look up. Look up a rabbit care video. But at least breed fast. Low amount of fat for candles, though.

You'd also have seafood. Only one type of seaweed is poisonous in the world and that is in England. But it's highly nutritious. (The native seaweed in India is apparently nasty, but edible).

You don't need as much with the pea family anyway.

European Bison are not easily domesticated, BTW, but would give you tallow-ish stuff if they succeeded or an ethnic group decided to be nomadic pastoralists with them.

For sweet taste, carob. Easy to process, and you don't need sugar beets, which is harder to process and were only invented as a source in the late 19th century. Mediterranean. The seeds are edible so just grind it up. Though it's easier to grind the pods. So it's easier to process and use in other recipes.

The other options are out: Honeybee domestication originated in China, there's a form in Northern Africa, but the frame design was late 1800's, so Victorian. Even if you had it, it would be for rich people.

Sugar cane is tropical.

Carob mildly tastes like chocolate. This is your chocolate substitute. No fermentation required. However, it doesn't have the properties of chocolate melting, etc. The fat content is much lower, but the production is much higher.

Dates, BTW, are from 4000 BCE in West Asia, fertile crescent. It's out. https://foodandnutrition.org/from-the-magazine/dates-an-ancient-fruit-rediscovered/

The problem with horses

This part is really difficult to climb through.

The first part is that horses were likely domesticated outside of Europe. Also, the invention of the saddle, etc was also outside of Europe. You need a good staple crop to have enough time to mes around with it. You would also have a smaller population if it stays in Europe.

This part got heated in the original. So the evidence is this:

Horses were domesticated outside of Europe (It's on the border of Europe, so hotly debated)

Horses were killed off in the Americas by Indigneous people before being reintroduced. https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/horses-part-indigenous-cultures-longer-western

The technology to domesticate the horse further was outside of Europe (saddle, stirrups, etc)

But horses exist in Europe, wouldn't they want to breed them?

But maybe only for food? (recent scandal at the time)

Would they be burden animals? You need burden animals fro agriculture to advance and higher production.

So yeah... without cows, pigs, goats, sheep, large questions arise about this.

Would the population split into eating and noneating? Would it not?

Yeah, limited foodstuff. Limited calories, but your people are making it, but maybe not turning white yet? Well, in Southern Europe. Introduction of grains and farming was said to be the thing that tipped people over.

Agriculture is really difficult to achieve without a staple crop like grains or starchy tubers.

But for the sake of argument, let's say they get there, and manage to never break the force field, no matter what, because racists win or whatever. No food importation in or out, no new ideas.

What now?

Arches, as an idea, came from outside of Europe. Rafts do predate humans (Homo Erectus again), but boats, was likely Phonecian. And metal working and stone working also came from outside of Europe as ideas. Beaker people, love them.

Metal working came from Northern Africa, BTW, but say they figure it out, and we let them slide.

You get stunted in Maths since ideas of math came from Babylonians. Later Migrations of Minoans don't count anymore. Linear A isn't invented, but OK, OK, there was written language invented in the Americas, so it's possible, if they get through agriculture and get up to what? Trade, they might have language. But wait, you (Nanowrimo person) just said trade is evil, so maybe they don't have a written language? In all instances of language being created it was on the back of what? trade. Maths awas also created on the back of mostly trade. Sumerians created their written language on trade. The oldest tablets we have is a trade dispute.

Look up Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir. In another words, written records were for keeping track of ledgers, one of the oldest types of writing on record.

These people think trade is too complicated and evil to exist in Europe. So OK, no written language for you, though seriously, I don't know how that works. Is Northern Europe a different subsistence system than Southern Europe?

You all are fighting for diminishing resources (considering 1500's Europe and a BBC doc about how trees were fought over and laws about not cutting down trees) each other while the rest of the world is trading back and forth on ideas and not getting imperialized. Fine. Let's play that game.

The amount of technology gets cut down severely when you disconnect Europe from the rest of the world. You don't get the iron age without some knowledge about smelting. And you need those "dirty Africans" or whatever racist thing they were thinking in order to get that smelting. You don't get masonry without PoCs (Most masonry, as an idea came from West Asia, and they would literally import those people to work on castles, see the docs on Guédelon Castle from British TV). Whatcha going to do?

Let's move onto clothes...

Flax (for Linen), silk, ramie, hemp (for clothes which is a different cultivar), coir, Abaca, Angora (rabbit)*, Angora (goat), wool (obviously), bamboo, banana fiber, cashmere (the goat), sisal, camel hair (obviously), kapok, mohair, kenaf, yak, Qiviut, vicuña,Hibiscus cannabinus, Lyocell, Modal (AKA Rayon) *, Piña (pineapple), and Soy protein are out. All of them occur outside of Europe or require an industrial society. Byssus AKA sea silk, Chiengora (dog hair), spider silk*, is in.

However, notice how expensive and difficult it is to make clothes of these things. So only rich can access them.

dog* hair often requires wool to be added to make the hairs stick together. And sheep wool, in particular has really good spinnable fibers.

Spider silk also kinda takes higher technology to produce into clothing. Look it up and some might find it cruel to do it that way.

Byssus also known as Sea silk was produced by the Greeks and Romans, but only for the super rich.

This means for poor people: Leather and stinging nettle fabric is what they have left. You can see a video of that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-usU7-WjUU So your people have clothing. They aren't white except for the nomadic people to the north unless you can advance their agriculture and slide the pea family to replace the major nutrition somehow.

And making clothes is torture for the common populace who have to pick stinging nettles for their clothes.

You're thinking, but Angora Rabbits? Yeah, this is possible, though not likely called that since the rabbits originated from Turkey, which is outside of the scenario, but it would be maybe possible your people come up with something similar given human nature as long as they pause the rabbit breeding long enough and have enough surplus to tinker.

So poor people are running around with stinging nettle fabric, rich are wearing most likely sea silk, and you can see the misery compared to growing something like flax.

I doubt anyone can afford to be vegetarian with limited resources. Pescitarian, maybe closer to the shore.

*Dogs were domesticated outside of Europe, but are often attributed to why humans outpaced Neanderthal and date back far enough in time that early humans likely took them to Europe when they first arrived. Cats, however, were domesticated in Africa and are OUT. (Making the majority of writers cry since there seems to be more cat people than dog people among writers).

Conclusion

You're stuck with the Humours, but does Greek civilization even exist without grains? So much collapses when you don't have the subsistence infrastructure. I mean there is a reason people made bread and carry grains and we don't eat peas as a staple.

So you'd have to build everything from scratch starting around ~45,000 BCE or earlier (when Homo sapiens came to Europe by estimates) and you don't even have those really white people then according to science except the Evenk ancestors who show white about 10K years ago? (No, it's not the Caucuses—in what right mind do you think white people developed in the Caucuses when you know about Vitamin D and darker melanin generally around the equator due to skin cancer, etc issues and so on.)

Umm, the lesson here is that Europe was never cut off and people should stop going into that fantasy. Like how did you get apples, plums, honey, etc without trade? And also, people shouldn't be afraid of trade and keep in mind temperate climates (Middle/Northernish Europe) aren't the only biomes in Europe. No matter how much fantasy wants to focus on Western Europe and ignore the Scandis. Seriously, I'm so bored of people assuming everything is like Germany or a less rainy England in fantasy. (And I do mean England, not Scotland or Wales). Can't we get some variety? You have the Mediterranean, but you also have Scandinavia, and you're doing Europe? Where are they? You also had foragers and Nomads in the history of Europe. The Romani from North Western India, for example. And some say that early Celtic groups could have been partial foragers before the coming of Beaker people.

But even in an alt sci-fi, you have to trim all of those accomplishments of PoC and then argue that your people killed all of the PoCs on the way to the planet, and really, that makes no sense. But I suppose then you can murder Bibimbap into tatertot disgusting mess later on. But really?

But even say, you had an organically grown planet that happened to grow a humanoid species, how are you going to grow it without some level of cooperation? And the majority of the food stuff is going to come from those warmer climates: Southern China, West Asia and Central-ish Americas. They don't have a winter to worry about. So it would be imperative for your people to trade.

While you're at it, I'm really squicked by the idea that people put in 16 year old girls to marry much older guys in fantasy and then call it acceptable. You can change at least those rules.

I don't get why people work so hard to cut out LGBTQIA, disability and PoCs from fantasy? Like people should have maimed legs from all the battles written.

BTW, I am amused by the idea that in Star Trek times they didn't have birth control. lol thousands of years and haven't perfected birth control? That one I can't believe. Picard didn't know how to use a condom. lol.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I realized that if I'm disappointed in the transmission of real information about Sudan and the Congo, I can just make the posts myself!

I am not surprised that people haven't been provided a strong understanding of the violence in the global south, but I *am* mad about it.

So let's talk about Sudan and the Congo

Since 2003 or so, an estimated 450,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to Chad, looking for safety from routine waves of ethnic cleansing committed by the Rapid Support Forces and their state/civilian allies.

While the Massalit make up the majority of those attacked, many other ethnicities are included amongst victims. It is NOT a religiously motivated cleansing, as most of those being victimized as well as most of those doing the victimizing are Muslim, and communicate the foundations of the violence as being the result of ethnic-cultural divides in the region current social system. Many of those speaking against the ethnic cleansing occurring agree, and also add that economic interactions appear to be major driving factors in who is targetted and when.

The Congo, meanwhile, has been going through it's own ethnic cleansing. One that has been more or less ongoing since 1996. An approximated 6mil people have been killed since.

Due to this relationship between economic motives and targets, ongoing desertification has been exacerbating violence in the region for years by making resources scarcer, more precious, and less stable to access.

The primary factors being credited with responsibility for this desertification and resultant resource volatility?

Climate change and human impact on the environment (via societal features such as urbanization, agriculture, waste management services, social welfare services, deforestation and bush removal, etc)

From FairPlanet ^

Funny how the global north causes lethal climate change but the global south is forced to die from it.

Funny how the global north forces the environmental recovery conversation to avoid study of environmental imperialism and remain solely focused on "incremental changes that can protect future generations". Whose future generations? What about the people dying NOW because of environmentally toxic industries??

And Nasreldin Atiya Rahamtalla via the International Journal of Social Sciences and Conflict Management says the following:

Hmm, I wonder why local power and social welfare infrastructure in Sudan and especially in Darfur might be diminished from previous governance:

It's almost like the British had a habit of pitting different regional communities against each other along enforced ethnic lines while pillaging some and sparing others, then blowing the whole governance network in a temper tantrum on their way out the door during decolonization, a method of inflicting one last violemt devastation and sabotage peaceful futures most often epitomized by Rwanda and the Belgian Empire:

It's almost like the imperialist businesses that feed off African continental resources and were installed during colonization as a form of economic imperialism were often THE ONLY PARTS of the social system left largely functional after withdrawal and "decolonization". It's almost like imperialism and colonization never actually stopped!!! It just??? Changed shape ☆->¤ still a fuckin crime against humanity my guy!!! Especially when child slaves are dying in your mines!!!

Sudan's economic imperialism comes in the form of Blood Diamonds! You know. The reason that none of us are buying earth mined diamonds anymore when lab made are literally the same goddamn thing RIGHT????????

Oh! They also have oil. The thing we're using to fuel our climate change machine. The climate change machine that's KILLING THEM.

And unfortunately for those of us with Nickel allergies, gold and silver have the same problem. If you haven't already switched to surgical steel, you might wanna. Of course, then we're right back to climate change since steel production allegedly creates a whopping 7% of global emissions due to relying on coke (coal) as a fuel source. So. I dunno really. I like my jewelry as much as anyone. But do I like it enough to know people are dying so I can have it?????

Not really. I'd rather save that risk addition for surgical steel being used in ACTUAL surgeries like the plates, pins, and screws that reattached my foot, or the replacement knee joint that my mom got. At least until we have a body-safe material for these things that ISN'T a source of devastation in the global south.

My point is, basically, that historically militerized conflict almost always stems, at least, in part, from efforts to control resources. It's the most timeless reason to go to war. To make sure you and the people you care about can guarantee themselves access to survival need-meeting. As consumerist and capitalist societies, it is DEEPLY important that we understand the price we ask other people to pay for our luxuries. For our right not to be made uncomfortable by too much radical change too quickly. We need to make that causal link A LOT more visibly explicit and unavoidable, because as it stands, allowing the hierarchy to go unspoken is going to kill billions.

I don't want that on my hands.

I highly recommend learning what civil disobedience and mutual aid infrastructures of care look like. How can we hold corporations (and the individual people who work there) accountable for the countless deaths directly attributable to their profit margins? How can we maximize our local resource distribution to ensure everyone has what they genuinely need to survive, even if that means we take a little less from the community resources for ourselves, or we have to give up things that can't be fully replaced by regionally sustainable alternatives.

I promise that we will adapt.

The dead can't.

[transmutationisms]

along w ur plato post uve also mentioned disliking marxist syllabi that make you go chronologically just to understand one author (ie greek philo - hegel - marx)

i was planning to go down this route this yr to combine both my long overdue dive into theory and philosophy, and i actually found this to be less overwhelming than immediately diving into say, continental philosophy or critical theory. i wonder then what other route you'd suggest for philosophy? (since for marxist theory youve pretty much alr answered it in a past ask)

are greek philosophers still "useful" to read for beginners or is it much better off to start with contemporaries? is this a case of "we've actually been doing the math curriculum wrong this entire time" or is it just personal preference. help

depends what you're trying to accomplish, but if someone's in my inbox asking how to get started reading theory or philosophy then i think it's a) unhelpful, and b) needlessly deferent to received ideas of 'canonicity', to perpetuate the notion that there's a single correct order in which to read, and it begins with the same 20 ancient greeks writing about geometrical forms and elemental tetravalence. like, it's worth remembering what's missing from a typical global north university's philosophy syllabus: perhaps most obviously, reams of islamicate scholarship and centuries of dialogue between 'western' and 'eastern' writers often suppressed in favour of a 'dark ages' narrative that just sort of jumps up to the 'renaissance'... and there are so many other, egregious, historically unjustifiable lacunae like this.

it's noble enough to want to know where an idea comes from or what its genealogical lineage is, but to try to discover this by reading through a list drawn up by classicists or philosophy departments is dangerously optimistic about the politicking that shapes and perpetuates such lists. even just reading the works that an author is openly citing or arguing with is lacking: what about, say, hegel, whose idea of freedom and enslavement developed partially in response to reading newspaper coverage of the haitian revolution? he didn't exactly announce that in the text! to read the phenomenology of spirit as merely the next intellectual step after kant is deeply distorted; for that matter, kant's own intellectual influences came not only from a supposed philosophical canon but also from the scientific and anthropological discourses underpinning his biological theory of race and defence of racism.

my issue with the "read chronologically" approach isn't that it's bad to follow a topic over a process of historical change. it's that these received lists of 'canonical' thinkers are artefacts of their own social and historical contexts, and are both produced to certain ideological ends, & then appealed to later in order to enforce and even naturalise those ideologies. if what we want is the context to understand what hegel or marx or adorno were really talking about, we need to engage with the texts as historical documents and with the histories as products of imperfect, biased, and ideologically laden human labour.

i'm not here to tell you not to read whatever you were planning to read. for one thing, sometimes the intellectual influence named in the syllabus is a useful one (there are certain questions about marx and marxian ideas that are easier to understand and answer if you have read at least a little bit of hegel). but, in the context of the overwhelming gatekeeping of knowledge, and the hegemonic use of ideas about canonicity and the 'right' way to read 'classics', if someone asks what they need to do in order to read xyz, i'm pretty much never going to default to "start by reading plato". read things that are interesting to you, however old they are; read about their authors; make liberal use of online resources like the SEP if you need a crash-course on certain concepts or jargon. you certainly don't need to be afraid of reading one text to better understand another. i just don't think you need to be beholden to that mode of reading, either, especially not in a context where the common wisdom on whose work belongs in such a genealogy is predicated on centuries of colonial and imperial scholarship and disseminated by institutions structurally positioned to defend the idea of an enlightened and ennobling western intellectual tradition.

in a certain twisted way, these 'standard' (to whom?) or 'traditional' (since when?) reading lists are often presented as the shortcut to the 'correct' understanding of landmark texts or authors—only, this is a 'shortcut' that considers ideas as disembodied from their real contexts, relating only to one another in an intellectual realm and developing in more or less linear fashion often to some teleological end; and, by dint of the sheer amount of material involved, it's also a 'shortcut' that many people will never actually traverse. i don't have an inherent problem with reading chronologically. i just don't automatically defer to these kinds of syllabi, and i think dethroning them could do us all a lot of good.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Okay every time I read one of your celtophobia posts I am filled with immediate and incandescent rage, enough to propulse the responsible idiots into space but not to bring them back again. I'm really sorry about the """""lecturer"""""" you had to sit through this morning, and any other instances that happen. Hugs.

That said, I am very worried of doing the same thing and want to make my utmost sure I don't, so I thought it'd be okay to ask someone from a language that has to fight for space for politeness tricks. Apologies if this is not okay!

Context: I'm from continental Europe, which means English is my second language (I speak three languages and a half ish, the half is in process, because #languagenerd). I'm moving to Ireland come September, and I'm absolutely terrified of offending the good Irish people when I don't know how to pronounce their names, surnames, street names, or anything else; or, worse, try and end up butchering them in the manner of the British.

Dilemma: How can I ask for help when pronouncing things in a delicate way? I was thinking of signing up to Irish courses once I'm there, but for now I'm panicking about the actual move so I can't get a head start with that because my brain space is limited, and other than watching YouTube videos with the most common Irish names/words ahead of arriving, I honestly don't know. I want to be culturally sensitive and make sure they feel respected and not Colonised, Part Three Hundred, but also they shouldn't have to bear the weight of my lack of cultural knowledge and Teach Me? Idk. Just thoughts.

Good question! I suppose it's a two-part procedure:

Step 1: Learn a pronunciation guide. By that I just mean get to grips with the alphabet, common phonemes, etc and how those are said. With something like Welsh it's super easy (because phonetic), something like English it's super hard (because not phonetic); Irish is a bit more complex than Welsh, but still more phonetic than English. You might not be able to get to a "perfect every time" place, but you can get yourself to a "right most times" place.

Step 2: If you encounter a name you aren't 100% sure of, offer your best educated guess when asking. This shows that you have done the work, you are making a genuine attempt, but you still have the humility to ask to make sure.

When I say "best educated guess", I mean it's clear that you're guessing based on a working knowledge of the language rules in question. In Welsh, for example, if someone asks me how to pronounce "Cymru", there is a world of difference between someone saying "Sim-roo" (based on English pronunciation rules transposed onto Welsh) and "Kim-ree" (based on Welsh pronunciation rules, they just forgot which pronunciation of 'y' to use for the syllable it's in.) If someone says to me "How do you say that? Sim-roo?" then I know they haven't attempted any prior learning (though points for being interested enough to ask.) But if they say "Am I right in thinking it's Kim-ree?" then I know they've made the effort themselves, they've done the work, they just have a carry error that's skewed the answer.

Plus, you may well be right! And will be right more and more often the longer you're in Ireland.

If it helps, there's an Irish pronunciation guide here that's pretty good (or was back when I used it), and teanglann.ie is a pretty good resource for this, as it's a dictionary that lets you hear the words aloud and explains grammatical uses. (Irish people please feel free to add any other resources to the notes if you feel so inclined!)

As a final note, mind, given that you don't have time atm to dedicate brain space to this, speaking as a Welsh person I would be absolutely fine with someone saying to me "Sorry, I haven't had chance to learn yet, how do I say this?", or some variant thereof. Or, frankly, anything that's just... a polite request, and not laughing about it. I would take a thousand instances of "How do I say that? Sim-roo?" over even one "I don't know how to say that, haha" because the former is still caring enough to ask. So don't panic! A polite request will see you right.

[whencyclopedia]

Treaty of Paris of 1783

The Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783 by representatives from Great Britain and the United States, was the peace agreement that formally ended the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and recognized the United States as an independent nation. The treaty was considered generous to the United States, fixing its border at the Mississippi River and thereby doubling its territory.

Background: The World Turned Upside Down

On 19 October 1781, the battered British army marched out of Yorktown, Virginia. Dressed in resplendent new uniforms freshly issued for the occasion, the British soldiers passed between the French and American armies to throw their muskets onto a steadily growing pile of surrendered arms. Emotions were running high; some British soldiers wept as they laid down their weapons, while others haphazardly threw their muskets onto the pile in the hopes that they would smash. Lord Charles Cornwallis, commander of the surrendering British army, was not present at the ceremony, having pled illness. It was left to his second-in-command, General Charles O'Hara, to offer his sword to American General George Washington, who refused, instead motioning for O'Hara to give the sword to his own second-in-command, General Benjamin Lincoln. According to legend, as the ceremony took place, the military bands played a tune aptly titled "The World Turned Upside Down".

As this dramatic scene suggests, it was immediately apparent that the Siege of Yorktown marked an important turning point in the war. But in the direct aftermath of the siege, few could have anticipated just how significant it had been. Despite Cornwallis' surrender, the British army certainly had the military capacity to continue fighting, as they still possessed sizable military presences in New York City, Charleston, Canada, and the West Indies. Indeed, King George III of Great Britain (r. 1760-1820) and Prime Minister Lord Frederick North, had every intention of planning a campaign for the upcoming 1782 season. The king and his ministers knew that the fledgling United States was on the verge of failing. The Continental currency issued by Congress was worthless, and many of the underpaid soldiers of the Continental Army were close to mutiny. To top it all off, the treasury of the Kingdom of France was running dangerously low, leading the French to hint that they would have to exit the war if peace was not soon concluded. All King George III and Lord North had to do was prolong the war for a year or two more, and the American rebellion would collapse in on itself.

But unfortunately for the king and his ministers, the British people had long been experiencing war fatigue, and the defeat at Yorktown was the final straw. This attitude was reflected in Parliament when it reconvened after its Christmas recess in January 1782. While many in Parliament did not necessarily approve of an independent United States, they were more concerned about the negative impact that the war was having on British resources and international prestige, particularly after the conflict had taken on a global scale with the entry of France and Spain in 1778-79. Year after year, members of Parliament had listened to Lord North give excuses as to why British arms had failed in North America during the previous campaign season, before promising that a British victory loomed just over the horizon. Now, when news of Cornwallis' surrender reached London, they had finally had enough. In February 1782, colonial secretary Lord George Germain was forced out of the cabinet, with Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, losing his position soon after. The house of cards finally collapsed on 20 March, when Lord North resigned rather than face the indignity of being removed from office by a vote of no confidence. George III himself even considered abdicating the throne but was persuaded against it.

Lord North

National Portrait Gallery, London (CC BY-NC-ND)

North was replaced as prime minister by Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, whose political faction, known as the 'Rockingham Whigs', had opposed many of the policies of the North ministry including the war in North America. Supported by influential British politicians like Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke, Lord Rockingham immediately took steps to end the war upon coming to power; the king, who despised Rockingham – indeed, the two could not even be in the same room – could do nothing as the new ministry set about bringing seven years of war to an end. In April 1782, Rockingham sent a representative to Paris to begin informal peace talks. When Rockingham unexpectedly died the following July, the Earl of Shelburne became prime minister and took up the supervision of the negotiations.

Continue reading...

[anghraine]

The BFF wanted to celebrate Independence Day by watching Independence Day, the formative film of his childhood (we're the same age but it wasn't so much Young Anghraine's thing), so he, Ash (our housemate, his other closest friend, who had never seen it), and I just finished watching the whole thing.

I knew of its reputation for being jingoistic but the rumors fell so far short of the reality that noticing it started to feel less like shooting fish in a barrel and more like shooting fish in a fishtank. I don't think I've ever seen a more U-S-A! U-S-A! film in my entire life.

I do appreciate that a) nukes turned out to not be the answer; RIP, Houston, b) there was emphasis on the mysterious murderous aliens being basically "just like us" (even their extreme resource extraction is readily comprehensible to the characters, though there's ultimately not really much to talk about with them even through the rachni-style conversation), c) the heroes don't actually prevent quite a bit of the damage to life and infrastructure, and the world is facing apocalyptic disaster no matter what, d) the explosions still look good even if they can be escaped by dogs and small children, and e) Jeff Goldblum was a bit of an obnoxious manchild yet also enjoyable in a vaguely "dude Entrapta with very slightly more social skills and a lot more environmental concern" way. Will Smith is also fun as the most intensely US American human being imaginable. And the use of Earth's own satellite system by the aliens was genuinely interesting as a device. It was kind of morbidly funny that they keep bringing up President Bill Pullman's unsightly youth and unpresidential sense of decency, though.

Mostly I laughed a lot at the sheer silliness of almost everything and the film's profound disinterest in anything happening outside a) the continental USA or b) space. (Me: It's been awhile since they heard anything from London, hope it's okay!) The BFF's childhood dream was growing up into Jeff Goldblum's character (a hot Jewish environmentalist geek hacker with minimal ambition but a lot of competence) and we definitely enjoyed him and his dad the most. (The BFF has decided "Nobody's perfect" will now be his standard response to dealing with Christian nonsense, lmao.)

Anyway I'm surprised a bald eagle didn't spontaneously materialize in our house or my pride flag turn into a star-spangled banner, but it was a good time for what it was.

[wosobronze]

since athletic article is paywalled

Lucy Bronze: ‘It took me 30 seconds to decide to join Chelsea. They’ve got everything here’ Katie Whyatt A new-look Lucy Bronze cuts through the throng of reporters for her first meeting with the media since returning to the Women’s Super League. We say new-look because this time she is in the blue of Chelsea, not of Manchester City or Barcelona or Lyon, and returns aged 32, two years on from a move to Barcelona that led to her becoming the only English footballer to win the Champions League five times.

The hope is that Bronze will turn out to be Chelsea’s missing link, having been part of the very Barcelona sides who have on three occasions denied the Londoners a first European crown.

Europe, of course, dominates the conversation that follows, as it dominates Bronze’s thoughts, given she has always wanted to lift the Champions League trophy with an English club. That, she says, would eclipse all the others. Surely it would for Chelsea’s fans, too, who spent the Emma Hayes era as the dominant team domestically but never went all the way at continental level.

Hayes’ replacement, the former Lyon head coach Sonia Bompastor, won the Champions League as a manager last season by doing the very thing her predecessor never managed to — beating Barcelona in the final. That Bompastor also won the Champions League twice as a player could, in Bronze’s eyes, “be the thing that takes Chelsea to another level”. In a bizarre swish of symmetry, Camille Abily, Bompastor’s assistant coach, herself won five Champions Leagues as a player.

“It’s the biggest push but the smallest little bit needed to try to win the trophy,” says Bronze. “Sonia said to me, ‘What do you think is missing at Chelsea?’. I was like, ‘Nothing, they’ve got everything’. Sonia replied, ‘I know. I thought that as well!’. This club has more things at their disposal than a lot of the teams I’ve played for.

“I always get asked, ‘How does it compare to Lyon and Barcelona?’. I’ve loved my time at both those clubs and the players and talent at those clubs was unbelievable, but they didn’t necessarily have all those resources in place to back the team. Chelsea have all the resources and the talent there. The environment, the setup… everything is 10 times what I thought it was.” 

Many of Chelsea’s rivals warn that the seven-time Women’s Super League (WSL) champions will be no weaker as they enter a new era. Hayes has found herself reinvigorated in her new role managing the United States’ women’s team. Bronze, too, was ready for a fresh challenge. She felt she “needed to come back to England one more time”.

“I’m not at the start of my career, so I had to make smart moves to try to accomplish these dreams that I have,” says the defender, who turns 33 next month. “I wanted to win the Champions League with an English team and Chelsea are the best team to do that with.

“Chelsea have been the best team in England for years, been dominant in the league and then getting Sonia Bompastor and Camille Abily in as the coaches — I spoke to them for 30 seconds and I was a Chelsea player.”

Bronze is at the point in her career where her thoughts turn to her legacy a little more frequently and, inevitably, people question whether she can still cut it more than a decade after winning her first WSL title. Her message to the detractors? This summer made for her first proper off-season in years and as a result, she returned “the least fit I’ve ever been”, but “still beat all the kids in the fitness tests”. Motivation, too, is not an issue. “I’m motivated by the fact that I absolutely love what I do,” she says simply.

Like most players, Bronze has had reservations over the gruelling schedule of the women’s game — she was back at St George’s Park for England duty less than 48 hours after winning that fifth Champions League in May — and earlier this year, wrote an open letter on behalf of FIFPro, the global players’ union, asking for proper rest periods in the calendar. She had just two days off before flying to the World Cup last summer.

“I knew that I was done with Barcelona when I saw that the season finished at the end of June,” she says now. “It was crazy. Going into the Olympics, I said that the Spanish team would struggle. They are the best team in the world and in that tournament, but, physically, it’s crazy. It’s too much. As a Barcelona player, I didn’t think I could keep going at that level and playing that number of games every year, and all the travel they go through.

“Coming back to England, there are fewer games — maybe they are a bit more intense each, but I have more time to recover, which is more important to me. I want to make sure that from the word ‘go’ to the very end of the summer next year, I’m in a good place. I feel really well looked after here and there is a good connection with the England national team as well. It’s been better than I could have hoped for.”

For now, she is acting as a de facto translator between Bompastor and Chelsea’s English contingent. She thought she had lost her French four years after leaving Lyon for Manchester City, but the company of Chelsea’s four French players has brought much of it flooding back.

“My football French is better than Sonia’s football English,” Bronze says. “She will say something in the team talk and then she will go, ‘Lucy, how would you say this in English?’. That’s what I used to do at Lyon — translate in football terms. The game the other day was Sandy Baltimore and Mayra Ramirez in the No 9 and No 10, and neither of them speak English. I was trying to shout in French and Spanish at the same time.” 

Down the line, Bronze’s role will be to humanise a Barcelona team who so often look untouchable.

“People think of Barcelona as this dominant team, and they are, but we played that final (in May) against a Lyon team that Barcelona had never beaten,” she says. “I can tell you every team have their nerves going into games and have to go past these barriers. Barcelona had that last year, with Lyon. Chelsea had that with (not yet) winning the Champions League but they have broken down so many by beating Lyon and beating Barcelona.”

On the biggest stages, Bronze will bring the know-how, the focus, the clearer head. “Sonia, myself and Camille can add that to Chelsea and push this team over the line, because the talent’s there,” Bronze says. “If we can get the best out of all these things that we’ve got and the talent that we’ve got, then we would be unstoppable against most teams.”

She has reason to be confident: this season will unite Bronze and her England team-mate Lauren James for the first time at club level. “I told her, ‘I’ll just pass you the ball and you take everyone on, score, and I’ll have 10 assists at the end of the season’,” Bronze says, with a half-joke that shows how seamless the transition to this brave new era could be for Chelsea if they get it right.

Indeed, Hayes’ fundamentals have remained and Bronze says there have been no teething issues.

“The first few weeks with new staff and players, everyone was a bit like, ‘What’s going on?’,” Bronze says. “But it just felt like home and a good team in a good place, and everyone’s very settled now.

“The players and the club have kept the good things that Emma’s set in place. The intensity of training, the winning mentality that Chelsea has — that’s not going to leave us overnight. Those things have stayed and the changes that Sonia’s brought in are just going to add to that.”

thank you so much for this you are the BEST xx

[clowncontroldev]

Field Report: Raptorian - Supplemental

Raptorians Overview

This is a supplemental document from Dr. Doppler's Field Report. Mature researchers only.

What can be said about Raptorians that hasn’t been said in works such as Mimicry and Me: So Your Voice Has Been Stolen?, Out of this World Fashion and the controversial One Flew Over The Raptorian’s Nest? Hailing from Raptoria, they entered the galactic fold a decade after the establishment of NOX and the end of the Military Age, citing “We weren’t sure about all the war, but if you’re going to relax now we’ll talk.”

While some might call the general disposition of raptorians “cocky” and “vain,” they prefer “proud” and “worth it.” Xenosapients that are easily overwhelmed by colors and loud sounds should stay clear of Raptorian territory. If that doesn’t describe you, however, it is highly recommended to visit during any of their festivals and celebrations for a rich sensory experience. As long as it isn’t Ovumtide. 

Homeworld - Raptoria

Called the gem of the Garuda system, Raptoria is a temperate planet that orbits an A-class star. Dominated by oceans, waterways, and marshes, its extreme habitats are limited to its polar ice caps and deep ocean trenches.

The planet’s rings are important to the raptorian people, not just as an awe-inspiring skymark that makes afternoon walks more pleasant, but religiously too. The predominant religion believes that the rings are remnants of the Egg Mother when she hatched from her own shell. We now know it to be the leftovers of what used to be Raptoria’s only moon. 

Colony - Raptova

Called the diamond in the rough of the Phoenix system, Raptova by contrast is an arid mono-continental planet that orbits a similar blue main sequence star as Raptoria. It’s shared with the Scorpian people who live in the inland deserts. The settlement was brokered by NOX, to allow separatist Raptorians a safe place to self-govern.

Biology

Raptorians are warm-blooded, feathered bipeds. On top of their heads are erectile feathers that act as a way to focus in on sound, like a satellite dish. Their limbs end with black scaly webbed claws, the webbing having receded as they evolved to inland life. In their thick necks is an incredibly developed syrinx that allows unparalleled mimicry. 

A selection of different raptorian phenotypes.

It’s believed that raptorians originated as coastal predators, before gradually moving inland. They retained the slight webbing between their claws and their waterproof feathers, which doubled as an important way to retain heat during the cold months, which were extreme. 

Ancient Raptoria’s weather wasn’t the only cycle that shaped raptorian evolution. An aspect that’s unique to Raptorians are their estrous cycles. While xenos that go into heat will have these cycles last a week or three, Raptorians let loose for only one night of the year. The short window to breed causes Raptorians to endure a massive influx of hormones. While not as bad as the Kovlins, who go into self-described “sex madness” when in heat, Raptorians are on the lower end of the spectrum of lucidity during their cycle. 

But why go about breeding like this? If we look at the daily life of an ancient raptorian, it becomes clearer. Half of the year an ancient raptorian had to stay clear of cyclones and lightning, and the other half blizzards and hail.  The hostile weather conditions of the past only allowed for a very narrow time of the year in which looking for mates wasn’t a death sentence. For the rest of the year they only had a limited amount of time during the day where they could safely hunt. 

But raptorians weren’t the only ones hunting. Other environmental factors such as ancient predators trying to off any competition in gathering scarce resources could have had an impact on when ancient Raptorians felt it was safe to breed. 

However, none of this explains why multiple partners are encouraged during ovumtide. Were they promiscuous? And why is their fertility rate so low? Were they shooting blanks? The answer to both of those may lie in a retrovirus that seemed to have plagued Raptorians at the time. Whatever mutations it introduced were combated by this new way of breeding and raptorian researchers believe genetic variety was the only thing that could ensure the safety of their species, and mating annually.  

And as one can expect from a species only able to have sex once a year, they party like their lives depend on it. Multiple partners are expected in what most of the galaxy calls “the largest communal orgy in the Milky Way.” The Raptorians named that night Ovumtide, and it remains their most important spiritual and social event. 

Other than the pomp and circumstance, Ovumtide has the usual mating ritual aspects, such as decorating your breeding grounds and flaunting your assets, but also includes something Raptorians hold dear even today; pageantry. 

A flume dressed for Ovumtide

Pigmentation and feather patterns can be drastically different after centuries of intercontinental movement and different habitats. Raptorians are able to change the color of their feathers either with topical dyes, or a diet focused on certain compounds, such as the carotenoids in their seafood heavy diets. Blue and pink shrimps are popular choices for their wide range of hues, and due to the effort of committing to a diet for an entire year, are considered the classier choice. For the raptorian that wants to impress a mate during Ovumtide, a concentrated effort must be put into eating a singular natural pigment, so that their coat can coordinate with their Ovumtide outfit.

And like last year's fashion, they molt their feathers once Ovumtide ends, to begin styling for next year’s festivities.

Gender

Raptorians have two genders, flume and auct, which roughly translates to egg layer and soul giver respectively. However, despite the etymology, sex has been decoupled from gender for most of Raptorian history. Sapients that hail from cultures with a male/female gender binary often make the mistake of assuming aucts are men and flumes are women, mostly due to universal translators giving them masculine and feminine pronouns. Rather, it relates to their relationship with community and society at large.

Put simply: aucts top, and flumes bottom.

A typical auct.

Raptorian society is heavily influenced by dyads. The shell and the yolk, the feather and the talon, and so on. Balance between flumes and aucts is a crucial aspect to a functioning raptorian community. 

Work is divided by “talon” and “nest” and is defined by what is being manipulated. If a physical object is manipulated then its “talon” work, like moving cargo, crafting incubators, or repairing power lines. If what’s being manipulated isn’t real, like keeping ledgers, coding programs, or reading the voltage outputs on factory machines, then it’s “nest” work. The balance of this work is meticulously maintained, and if there aren’t enough flumes, aucts will change to better help the group in nest work. Likewise, if there aren’t enough aucts, flumes will do more heavy lifting. These expectations aren’t just societal, but biological as well. 

In a form of phenotypic plasticity, a lack of aucts or flumes will cause some from the majority to undergo hormonal changes. Muscle mass is gained when filling the role of an auct, while pattern recognition and eyesight improves for those that become flumes. What triggers these changes isn’t well known, but well documented. In one case study a group of aucts were sent to a research outpost in the polar ammonia lakes.  Due to unforeseen events, the all-auct team was forced to bunker down at the outpost for a year. Half of them lost 40% of muscle mass without a negative impact on their health, and gained improved hand eye coordination. During ovumtide they were accommodating. 

Another instance of this phenomenon occurred in a production town that specialized in leather and steel crafts. The assignment computer glitched out and filled the town with primarily flumes. In a short amount of time nearly half of them traded their stored fat for a high amount of muscle bulk in their arms and chest. Ovumtide wasn’t an issue for the town residents thanks to production tool crafting access. 

Because of this biological phenomenon, Raptoria’s governments and religions believe in what the body says rather than the mind piloting it. This became the cause for the mass exodus to Raptova—the belief that gender shouldn’t exist for the purposes of society, but rather the individual. 

The separatists believed that just because someone was physically an auct didn’t mean they wanted to do manual labor all day, or fill someone during ovumtide. Some were physically flumes, but spiritually aucts, and even without the added muscle mass could help their community like any ‘Talon Man’.

An ovumarch. They have went through the muscle loss of an auct turning into a flume.

On the separatist colony world of Raptova, a third unnamed gender arose. It was reserved for the Ovumarch, the leaders and guides of this new world. They act as both auct and flume as a way to say all forms of identity were welcome, as well as a way to see from the perspective of both sides. Physically, their bodies will still undergo the changes that will occur naturally. 

WARNING: AUTHORIZATION STATUS [18+]

If you have clearance with the above security check, you can learn more about Raptorians in Dr. Doppler’s Field Report.

[humanrightsupdates]

A Rights-Based Global Response to Mpox Emergency in Africa

Global Solidarity Needed to Ensure Equitable Access to Treatments, Prevent Further Spread

On August 14, following the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (Africa CDC) declaration of mpox as a public health emergency of continental security, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized it as a public health emergency of international concern.

Mpox, a highly contagious disease transmitted primarily through close contact with infected individuals, has seen a significant rise in cases this year, with more than 17,000 reported cases and more than 500 deaths, predominantly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Symptoms include a blistering rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, and muscle aches. Experts told Human Rights Watch the current variant of the virus seems to differ from previous outbreaks, with increased transmission occurring heterosexually and spreading to children through close interactions within families.

The Africa CDC has emphasized the need for global solidarity in combating this outbreak. Dr. Jean Kaseya, the Africa CDC’s director-general, has called on the international community to avoid punitive measures such as travel bans against African countries. There is a critical need for support, particularly access to vaccines, from countries with substantial stockpiles that are not experiencing any active outbreaks. “Don’t punish Africa,” Kaseya urged, pointing to the unfair treatment the continent endured during the Covid-19 pandemic and stressing the importance of a fair and equitable global response.

Global health experts have warned that the African continent is “always last in line for access to lifesaving tools.” The continent’s delayed access to HIV/AIDS treatments, Ebola response resources, Covid-19 vaccines, and now mpox interventions, underscores the persistent inequities in global health access. The response to the 2022 mpox outbreak, which primarily affected men who have sex with men, highlighted the risks of stigmatizing gay men. Human Rights Watch has previously warned that some actors exploit public health crises to marginalize vulnerable groups and stressed the need to place human rights at the center of any response.

[salixsociety]

Germanic Paganism Resource Masterlist

Notes: - Updates will be beyond infrequent. - Feel free to pop into my ask box requesting resource recommendations at any moment. - Resources do not reflect my personal beliefs or practice. I may include otherwise great resources that include theories and ideologies I do not support (such as the 'sign of the Hammer'), because I make extensive use of cross-referencing, reflection, etc to determine everything I incorporate into my craft. - I will never consciously add resources written by (Neo-)Nazis and the like. If you spot them, feel free to let me know. - You may notice there is a seemingly disproportionate amount of sources also or primarily talking about Scandinavia and Iceland, and even some primarily covering England. This is because continental Germanic paganism has only barely survived the ravages of time, and one can only learn about it if they supplement their knowledge with the more complete pictures of Anglo-Saxon paganism and Norse paganism.

Legend: [No language identifier means the source is English.] [D] - The resource is written (primarily) in Dutch. [G] - The resource is written (primarily) in German. [ON] - The resource is written (primarily) in Old Norse. [OD] - The resource is written (primarily) in Old Dutch. [OG] - The resource is written (primarily) in Old High German. [L] - The resource is written (primarily) in Latin. [F] - The resource is written (primarily) in French. * - I have not read the resource in its entirety. ** - Read with caution. !! - There is more of the resource available/this is one part of multiple.

Historic Texts and References

Tacitus' Agricola and Germania

Tacitus' Annals

The Prose Edda

The Poetic Edda

The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus

Contemporary Books, Essays, Other Media

Myths and symbols in pagan Europe : early Scandinavian and Celtic religions - H.R. Ellis Davidson

Kleinere Altniederdeutsche Denkmälen - Heyne [G]*

Religion and Philosophy in Germany : a Fragment - Heine *

Deutsche Volkskunde - Adolf Bach [G]*

Teutonic Mythology - Grimm

Swedish Legends and Folk Tales - John Lindow

Scandinavian Mythology : an Annotated Bibliography - John Lindow *

Trolls : an Unnatural History - John Lindow

Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas - H.A. Guerber

Northern mythology : comprising the principal popular traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and The Netherlands - Benjamin Thorpe | VOL 1, VOL 2, VOL 3

From Myth to Fiction : the Saga of Hadingus - Georges Dumézil *

The Stakes of the Warrior - Georges Dumézil **

Gods of the Ancient Norsemen - Georges Dumézil **

Zum Tamfana-Rätsel - Edmund Weber [G]*

De Tijdstippen van de Cultische Jaarfeesten - Boppo Grimmsma [D]**

Nederlansche Volksoverleveringen en Godenleer - Van den Bergh [D, OD]*

Tales and Legends of Tyrol *

Germanic Spirituality - Bil Linzie

Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Auberglaubens - Baechtold-Staubl, Hoffman-Krayer

Goden van de Lage Landen - Gunivortus Goos [D]**

Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples - Dickins *

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe - H.R. Ellis Davidson

Old Norse - Icelandic Literature : a Critical Guide - John Lindow

Vikings : a Very Short Introduction - Richards *

Norse Mythology : a Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals and Beliefs - John Lindow

Antwoord op de Vraag, door het Zeeuwse Genootschap de Wetenschappen - te Water [D]*

Verhandelingen over het Westland, ter opheldering der Loo-en, Woerden en Hoven, benevens de natuurdienst der Batavieren en Friezen - Buddingh [D]*

De Goden der Germanen - de Vries [D]*

Norse Revival: Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism - Stefanie von Schnurbein (in the series Studies in Critical Research on Religion which I highly recommend)

Digital Libraries, Dictionaries and the Like

Digitale Bibliotheek voor Nederlandse Letteren [D]*

Digitised Collection of Historic Sources of the WWU in Münster [G, D, OD, OG]*

Oudnederlands Woordenboek [D, OD]*

Ons volksleven : tijdschrift voor taal-, volks- en oudheidkunde. Jaargang 2-12 [D]*

Het Rad - Digitale Bibliotheek voor Germaans Heidendom, Runen, Seidr [D]*

Volkskunde (search results on Delpher) [D]*

Goden van Eigen Bodem - Digitale bibliotheek voor heidens erfgoed van de lage landen [D]*

Godinnen van Nederland en België [D]**!!

Forgotten Gods - Reginheim **

The Rune Poems *

Kronieken van de Westhoek (Flemish Folk History) [D]*

Brabantse Folklore, bulletin van de provinciale dienst voor geschiedkundige en folkloristische opzoekingen [D]*

Project Gutenberg has a wealth of resources about pre-christian Germanic religion*

Mimisbrunnr.info has a wealth of information including starter guides.

Author Recommendations

J.R.W. Sinninghe [D]

John Lindow

Benjamin Thorpe

H.R. Ellis Davidson

The Grimm Brothers

J. Haver [D]

To be continued.

[kp777]

By Jessica Corbett

Common Dreams

Aug. 13, 2024

"Oil barons are bankrolling the Trump campaign because Donald Trump promises to impose their policy 'wish list' that will make them even richer," said the Harris campaign.

"Not familiar with Harold Hamm? You should be."

That's according to Washington Post climate policy editor Stuart Leavenworth, who shared the newspaper's Tuesday reporting on the fossil fuel executive's relationship with former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the November election.

"This oil tycoon is bringing in millions for Trump," the editor noted, "and is relaying to Trump what the fossil fuel industry wants."

The Post's Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow revealed in May that during an event in Florida, Trump vowed to gut the Biden administration's climate regulations if elected in November as long as the oil and gas industry put $1 billion toward his campaign—a revelation that sparked alarm and even congressional investigations.

In Tuesday reporting described by other journalists as " great" and "important," the pair exposed how "Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, called other oil executives and encouraged them to attend fundraisers and open their wallets" after the April dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida residence.

Hamm reportedly described the November contest as "the most important election in our lifetime" and "railed against President Joe Biden's energy policies." Following a disastrous debate performance against Trump, the Democratic incumbent passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has since secured her party's nomination.

Donna Brazille, a political strategist and former Democratic National Committee chair, used the new reporting to compare the candidates. As she put it, "This oil tycoon brings in millions for Trump, and may set his agenda."

Hamm's top priorities, according to the Post, are "opening up more federal lands to drilling, easing the Endangered Species Act, and curbing numerous regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency."

Brazille pointed out that "meanwhile, as attorney general in California, Harris prosecuted oil companies for leaks from pipelines and storage tanks, and even sued the Obama administration."

Harris has quickly garnered support from various organizations concerned about the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, including some that had declined to endorse Biden. Her running mate is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—a choice widely welcomed by green groups, despite his record on the Line 3 oil pipeline—while Trump picked Big Oil-backed Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

Both Trump and Vance have made clear that if they win, they plan to "drill, baby, drill," a promise that wealthy figures in the fossil fuel industry seem to be buying. The Post reported that thanks in part to introductions by Hamm, "Trump has now 'called almost everyone in the sector,"" and "the money has been flowing in," with the industry contributing over $20.3 million.

Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement that "oil barons are bankrolling the Trump campaign because Donald Trump promises to impose their policy 'wish list' that will make them even richer at the expense of the middle class and a healthy future for our children."

"Trump's extreme Project 2025 agenda will give handouts to billionaires, crush jobs, and send costs skyrocketing," Costello added. "America is more energy independent than ever under the Biden-Harris administration, and Vice President Harris is helping create hundreds of thousands of good paying energy and manufacturing jobs—a boom for working families that Trump would dismantle."

Hamm—who initially backed two Trump primary challengers: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley—did not respond to the Post's requests for comment while the campaign said that Trump "is proud to be supported by people who share his vision of American energy dominance to protect our national security and bring down the cost of living for all Americans."

More Perfect Union noted in response to the Tuesday reporting that Hamm is among dozens of billionaires backing Trump—who is also expected to push tax cuts for rich individuals and corporations if he returns to the White House.

As Sludge detailed last month, ultrawealthy contributors to the Trump campaign and related groups include casino mogul Miriam Adelson, bankers Andy Beal and Warren Stephens, GOP donors Scott Bessent and Stephen Schwarzman, real estate investor Richard Kurtz, Jimmy John's founder James J. Liautaud, and crypto industry twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

They are joined by associates of billionaire Elon Musk—who created a pro-Trump super political action committee—and others in the tech industry, including Palmer Luckey, Tom Siebel, and Kenny Trout, as well as "New York City retail and oil refinery owner John Catsimatidis, an old friend of Trump's who has been a public defender of the former president's character and public record."