#Founder of First Line Education

[bfpnola]

definitely a longer piece so these excerpts are far from showcasing everything this piece has to offer! read the whole thing on your own time, and in general, just check out jewish currents, an educational, leftist, anti-zionist jewish magazine!

Every August, the township of Edison, New Jersey—where one in five residents is of Indian origin—holds a parade to celebrate India’s Independence Day. In 2022, a long line of floats rolled through the streets, decked out in images of Hindu deities and colorful advertisements for local businesses. People cheered from the sidelines or joined the cavalcade, dancing to pulsing Bollywood music. In the middle of the procession came another kind of vehicle: A wheel loader, which looks like a small bulldozer, rumbled along the route bearing an image of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi aloft in its bucket. For South Asian Muslims, the meaning of the addition was hard to miss. A few months earlier, during the month of Ramadan, Indian government officials had sent bulldozers into Delhi’s Muslim neighborhoods, where they damaged a mosque and leveled homes and storefronts. The Washington Post called the bulldozer “a polarizing symbol of state power under Narendra Modi,” whose ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is increasingly enacting a program of Hindu supremacy and Muslim subjugation. In the weeks after the parade, one Muslim resident of Edison, who is of Indian origin, told The New York Times that he understood the bulldozer much as Jews would a swastika or Black Americans would a Klansman’s hood. Its inclusion underscored the parade’s other nods to the ideology known as Hindutva, which seeks to transform India into an ethnonationalist Hindu state. The event’s grand marshal was the BJP’s national spokesperson, Sambit Patra, who flew in from India. Other invitees were affiliated with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the international arm of the Hindu nationalist paramilitary force Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of which Modi is a longtime member.

...

On December 6th, 1992, a mob of 150,000 Hindus, many of whom were affiliated with the paramilitary group the RSS, gathered at the Babri Masjid, a centuries-old mosque that is one of the most contested sacred sites in the world. Over the preceding century, far-right Hindus had claimed that the mosque, located in the North Indian city of Ayodhya, was built not only upon the site where the Hindu deity Ram was born but atop the foundations of a demolished Hindu temple. The RSS and its affiliates had been campaigning to, in the words of a BJP minister, correct the “historical mistake” of the mosque’s existence, a task the mob completed that December afternoon. “They climbed on top of the domes and tombs,” one witness told NPR. “They were carrying hammers and these three-pronged spears from Hindu scripture. They started hacking at the mosque. By night, it was destroyed.” The demolition sparked riots that lasted months and killed an estimated 2,000 people across the country.

The destruction of the Babri Masjid was arguably Hindu nationalism’s greatest triumph to date. Since its establishment in 1925, the RSS—whose founders sought what one of them called a “military regeneration of the Hindus,” inspired by Mussolini’s Black Shirts and Nazi “race pride”—had been a marginal presence in India: Its members held no elected office, and it was temporarily designated a terrorist organization after one of its affiliates shot and killed Mohandas Gandhi in 1948. But the leveling of the Babri Masjid activated a virulently ethnonationalist base and paved the way for three decades of Hindutva ascendance. In 1998, the BJP formed a government for the first time; in 2014, it returned to power, winning a staggering 282 out of 543 seats in parliament and propelling Modi into India’s highest office. Since then, journalist Samanth Subramanian notes, all of the country’s governmental and civil society institutions “have been pressured to fall in line” with a Hindutva agenda—a phenomenon on full display in 2019, when the Supreme Court of India awarded the land where the Babri Masjid once stood to a government run by the very Hindu nationalists who illegally destroyed it. (Modi has since laid a foundation stone for a new Ram temple in Ayodhya, an event that a prominent RSS activist celebrated with a billboard in Times Square.) The Ayodhya verdict came in the same year that Modi stripped constitutional protections from residents of the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir and passed a law that creates a fast track to citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants, laying the groundwork for a religious test for Indian nationality. Under Modi, “the Hinduization of India is almost complete,” as journalist Yasmeen Serhan has written in The Atlantic.

To achieve its goals, the RSS has worked via a dense network of organizations that call themselves the “Sangh Parivar” (“joint family”) of Hindu nationalism. The BJP, which holds more seats in the Indian parliament than every other party combined, is the Sangh’s electoral face. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is the movement’s cultural wing, responsible for “Hinduizing” Indian society at the grassroots level. The Bajrang Dal is the project’s militant arm, which enforces Hindu supremacy through violence. Dozens of other organizations contribute money and platforms to the Sangh. The sheer number of groups affords the Sangh what human rights activist Pranay Somayajula has referred to as a “tactical politics of plausible deniability,” in which the many degrees of separation between the governing elements and their vigilante partners shields the former from backlash. This explains how, until 2018, the CIA could describe the VHP and Bajrang Dal as “militant religious organizations”—a designation that applies to non-electoral groups exerting political pressure—even as successive US governments have maintained a warm relationship with their parliamentary counterpart, the BJP.

...

The most extreme figures in the Hindu nationalist and Zionist movements were especially frank about the nature of their partnership: “Whether you call them Palestinians, Afghans, or Pakistanis, the root of the problem for Hindus and Jews is Islam,” Bajrang Dal affiliate Rohit Vyasmaan told The New York Times of his friendly relationship with Mike Guzofsky, a member of a violent militant group connected to the infamous Jewish supremacist Meir Kahane’s Kach Party.

...

In 2003, Gary Ackerman—a Jewish former congressman who was awarded India’s third-highest civilian honor for helping to found the Congressional Caucus on India—told a gathering of AJC and AIPAC representatives and their Indian counterparts that “Israel [is] surrounded by 120 million Muslims,” while “India has 120 million [within].” Tom Lantos, another Jewish member of the caucus, likewise enjoined the two communities to collaborate: “We are drawn together by mindless, vicious, fanatic, Islamic terrorism.”

[collapsedsquid]

My sense is that Silicon Valley has developed in just the opposite direction. My dearly missed friend, Aaron Swartz, was arguably the most genuinely open-ended intellectual to come out of modern tech. And he hated living in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s. He used to complain (sample here - he would expound on this at great length if you prompted him) about how intellectually dull Silicon Valley was, how disinclined people there were to talk about ideas, and how much happier he was after he moved to Boston, a place where people actually cared about books. Aaron was a member of the first class at Y Combinator. However, his broader intellectual interests were not only irrelevant to founder culture as it was back then but made him an actively bad fit, so that he ended up wandering off in a very different direction. In fairness, he was an awkward customer in all the right ways, and might very likely have lit out for other places no matter what. Silicon Valley has changed remarkably in the intervening two decades. Its culture now centers not simply on technology but the exercise of power. Powerful founders and funders not only aspire to make lots of money, but to reshape the world along better lines. They see themselves as a political elite as well as a financial one, and they are looking to educate themselves, often in ways that reinforce their own values and understanding of their own benevolent role. They want to be formed, and accidentally or consciously form others too. Tanner talks a lot about the classic Greek concept of paideia (education/formation). Its most prominent elucidation, the Cyropaedia, was written by Xenophon to support Athenian conservatives, who favored the rule of the few, in their struggles with the democratic faction. Xenophon’s notion of elite education was the model for the “mirror of princes,” a genre of mediaeval texts providing guidance for the education of rulers.Latin texts were similarly bastardized in the nineteenth century to mould the young gentlemen who would rule the British Empire, and through them influenced the anglophile East Coast elites who populated the State Department and the OSS. And that helps explain the creation of a canon. Founders who model themselves on Augustus Caesar, and engineers who aspire to reshape the world in their image, will not find what they need to know in textbooks on optimization. Nor, however, will they find it in the cultural precepts of the mid twentieth century WASP ruling class. Those were different times, and different values. Hence, they’re crafting their own mirrors from found materials - science fiction, biographies of great men, rationalist and libertarian tracts, and books about themselves. And there are lots of the latter, reflecting and refracting their own culture right back at them.

[coyotetatertot]

Promotional for Tate's company in my interp of A Better World AU.

FULL TEXT BENEATH THE CUT‼️‼️

God, I love exploring what he can do if he hadn't suffered through his father abandoning them and then YEARS of caretaker burnout as he tried in vain to heal his dad. What if he hadn't learned to fear his intellect and skill. What if Appalachia hadn't been cut out of him by being raised in the Bay Area. What if his abilities and cultural identity were both nurtured and encouraged by loving parents and a strong educational support system. What then. 👁️

I think he definitely still has his issues, because public figures often do lol. Fame causes so many problems. But fuck if I don't wanna let this lil scruffy genius out of his mental cage of repression, burnout, and depression. I think he's wild, enthusiastic, and has so much heart and spirit underneath all those layers of bullshit. 30 years of suffering and he is in his 30s, the divergence of the AU puts him on a radically different path from childhood and that makes him a TOTALLY new person.

On the highest peaks in the world, the strongest tethers aren't your rope, but the emotional ties which unite your climbing team and keep you connected to those waiting for you back home. Whether it's by blood or by choice, Tater Higgs McGucket understands the importance of family. Son of revolutionary inventor and co-founder of the Institute of Oddology Fiddleford Hadron McGucket, Tate describes his father as his closest friend, collaborator, and mentor. In collaboration with family friend and other co-founder of the Institute Stanford ("Ford") Pines, the three first designed their renowned supplemental oxygen delivery system after an expedition studying anomalies in the Himalayas.

"Our investigation took us to Camp 1 of Manaslu," Tate described in an exclusive interview with Mountaineering Monthly last week, "And I was shocked by the amount of traffic. This was some of the roughest terrain on the planet, but we saw more people out there than on some of my hiking trips back home in Oregon. . . Ford was our interpreter, and after talking with the locals, we realized that there were all these companies selling tickets to the top — with sherpas puttin' themselves on the line just to ferry tourists to the summit."

The influx of inexperienced climbers has had disastrous consequences, as Tate witnessed firsthand. "A lot of these people, they're physically and mentally capable of makin' that kinda climb, but maybe they don't follow best practice. You can summit without any oxygen, if ya stop and acclimatize along the way. But that takes a while, so it can be really temptin' to ignore your body and throw an oxygen bandaid at the problem. But then you're puttin' yourself in an emergency situation if it fails. While we were there, one of those climbers ran out, and a sherpa had to run more oxygen up there. I told him there was a storm a-comin', but he went up anyway. And we ended up losin' 'em both."

Tate's growing twang was underscored by a nervous bouncing of his leg, and he took a moment to collect himself before resuming the interview.

"Dad and I had a look at these open circuit breathing apparatuses. While they were reliable, we saw they were plum wasteful. Knew we could make somethin' better. There's a growin' culture of risk-takin' 'round them mountains. And maybe we cain't stop the industry that's causin' these problems, but we can at least make it safer for them climbers. 'Cuz at the end of the day, regardless of what ya think about these people? With an accident like that, there’s people left behind that're a-hurtin' somethin' fierce. Partners, friends, kids without parents. I mean, just the thought of losin' my dad like that is enough to break my heart — but that's reality, for both the families of that climber and the sherpa who died tryin' to save him. . . Naw, I reckon we can do better."

That was how the youngest McGucket, who had become a household name in the 1990s for his work in designing personal computers with his father's company, first ventured into the world of alpinism. But what he hadn't expected was to fall in love during the process.

"I always needed nature," he explained, "I get overstimulated awfully easy, and so I go out there to clear my head. Been hikin' and fishin' since I was a kid. . . And so, after workin' with climbers to test this equipment — I saw a lot of them eight-thousanders up close, right? And one day, I just knew I had to see it from the top."

But having become familiar with the dangers involved, Tate knew that preparing himself for such a climb would be no easy task.

Luckily, he found a trainer in Ford's twin brother, Stanley Pines.

“Stanley is a stand-up guy. Real old school. Throws a hell of a punch, catches a hell of a catfish.” Tate said of his mentor, “He’s a fighter. So I knew I needed him, because all it takes is one slip up or act of god for these expeditions to turn life-or-death. And he’s been great. Neither of us knew much about rock climbin’ or mountaineering before all this. But we’ve learned together. And having summited a few eight-thousanders now, I can tell ya, I wouldn’t be here without his help.”

Also aiding in his expeditions were his prototype real-time weather and vital monitoring systems, which have since become standard issue in all McGucket brand protective wear. But Tate is most proud of his high-frequency beacon system, which allows climbers to communicate with their partners and first responders — even from inside perilous crevasses.

"The danger of avalanche or serac collapse is real. There are times when your life just ain’t in your own hands. Our systems allow climbers to communicate when they’re entering or exiting a perilous area, and can send out an SOS. They’re also constantly pinging, so in the event somethin’ does happen, they’ll help your climbing partners or first responders find you.”

But high altitudes aren’t the only place you’ll find the twin peaks of McGucket Mountaineering. Tate’s inventions have seen heavy use by first responders of all stripes, from firefighters to wilderness search and rescue — and he has recently signed a contract to manufacture respirators for medical use.

"At the end of the day, it’s all about making it home safely.” Tate concluded, “You gotta prioritize what matters most. You can do incredible things in this world, but none of it matters if you can’t share them with the people who love you.”

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Yamakawa Hitoshi! (December 20, 1880)

An influential Japanese socialist theorist and a founder of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), Yamakawa Hitoshi was born in Kurashiki, in Okayama prefecture. While still fairly young, he became the first person in Japan to be jailed for lèse-majesté, and he would radicalize further after that, already having embraced progressive ideas in his education. He became a Marxist while imprisoned and became an associate of the prominent Japanese socialist Kotoku Shusui after his release, working for Kotoku's newspaper Heimin Shinbun. The Russian Revolution became an inspiration for Yamakawa, converting him from anarchist socialism to Bolshevism. Initially cautious of the overtures of the nascent Comintern, as left-wing politics were still subject to suppression in Japan, in 1922 Yamakawa became one of the founding members of the JCP, writing its initial manifesto. He withdrew from the JCP in 1924, as he felt that the conditions in Japan were not yet at a point where revolution was possible. Believing that the socialist movement in Japan needed to form a broad base of support before engaging in political action, Yamakawa's supporters became known as the Rōnō-ha (the Labor-Farmer Faction), opposed to the Kōza-ha (Lecture Faction), which hewed closer to the Comintern line. In 1937, Yamakawa was jailed once again as part of the Imperial Japanese government's crackdown on dissent, released only after the end of World War II. After the war, Yamakawa became a supporter and advisor to the left wing of the Japan Socialist Party, before his death in 1958.

[coochiequeens]

Currently, “national statistics tell us that over 60,000 Black women are missing, and Black women are twice as likely than they appear to be victims of homicide,” - Brittney Lewis

Minnesota state lawmakers are moving forward with a bill that would establish the nation’s first office to investigate cases of missing Black women and girls as tens of thousands of women of color remain missing in the U.S.

On Feb. 20, the Minnesota House voted 110-19 in favor of advancing House Bill HF55. “And it is on the fast track this year to be signed into law,” Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party), the bill’s author, told Yahoo News. “This is part of the governor's budget, and it's one of his top priorities. So we are excited to be at a point where we can finally get this across the finish line.”

In previous years, similar bills passed in the Minnesota House but failed in the Senate. If the legislation is signed into law it would require the Bureau of Criminal Apprenticeship to operate a missing person alert program for Black women and girls.

The Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls would review missing persons and cold cases, and the first-of-its-kind project is expected to cost roughly $2.5 million.

In the United States, Black women only make up 13% of the female population but studies found that they make up 35% percent of missing women in the country. In 2020, during the pandemic, nearly 100,000 of the 250,000 women that went missing in the U.S were women of color.

Currently, “national statistics tell us that over 60,000 Black women are missing, and Black women are twice as likely than they appear to be victims of homicide,” Brittney Lewis, co-founder of Research in Action, told Yahoo News. “In the state of Minnesota, Black women are three times more likely to be murdered than white women in Minnesota.”

According to the state report completed by Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Task Force, created in 2021, Black women are less likely to receive media attention when they go missing.

“What we’re finding is that people are disappearing for a number of reasons: sex trafficking of our young girls, increase in domestic violence, mental health reasons, and there are a lot of systemic reasons,” Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, a nonprofit organization that brings awareness to missing people of color, told Yahoo News.

Wilson says she is working to bridge the gap so that all missing women have the same media attention and resources. “We’re trying to eliminate this barrier because what we’re finding oftentimes with our communities [is that] race, zip code, where you live, education, your economic status — all of these things are barriers,” Wilson said.

In 2016, when 21-year-old Keeshae Jacobs went missing in Richmond, Va., her mother said she faced barriers that made her feel like she was the only one searching for her child.

“Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one fighting here,” Toni Jacobs, Keeshae’s mother, told Yahoo News. “When I went to go file the police report that she was missing, it felt like the police officer didn’t believe me.”

“

People [said] ‘oh she had a boyfriend. She just ran out. She was pregnant and she was scared to tell me.’ I mean, these are the first things that come to my mind and I’m like this is not fair,” Jacobs said.

According to experts, cases that involve missing Black women and girls stay open four times as long compared to other cases involving white people.

“People are taking them because they know they’re not getting attention,” Jacobs said. “I shouldn't have to wait six years and I honestly believe I’m fighting by myself to bring my daughter home.”

In 2014, 8-year-old Relisha Rudd went missing in Washington, D.C, and still has not been found.

“If a white girl with blond hair and blue eyes goes missing every light comes on. [But] when a black girl or black woman goes missing you never hear about it,” Dr. Verna Price, founder of Girls Taking Action, a nonprofit organization in Minnesota that mentors young girls, told Yahoo News.

Experts say this is known as “‘missing white woman syndrome” — a term that refers to the unequal amount of coverage that white women receive compared to women of color.

In 2021, MSNBC host Joy Reid called the coverage of Gabby Petito a prime example of missing White woman syndrome. “Why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?” Reid asked.

According to Lynnette Grey Bull, founder of Not Our Native Daughters, “White people were more likely to have an article written while they were still missing,” she said on MSNBC.

Price says this is not just a problem in Minnesota as Black women and girls have been targeted nationwide.

“In this country, Black women since slavery have been dispensable and it is high time that we protect us,” Price said.

Richardson and supporters of the legislation said they are hopeful that the bill will pass and spur other states to take action on the issue.

“We believe that this is a blueprint for a national response,” Richardson said. “We are hoping that we can help to lead the way to ensure that Black women and girls are extended the same protection and the same support and the same energy that we see in coverage of other cases.”

By

Jayla Whitfield-Anderson

[scotianostra]

19th February 1792 saw the birth on Shetland of Arthur Anderson.

Anderson was a businessman and Liberal Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland. He was the first Shetland-born man to represent the Isles.

Born in the Böd of Gremista at Lerwick, the son of a fish curer who had come from Unst, Anderson joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16, and fought in the Napoleonic wars. Moving to London he was co-founder of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company which became the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He tried to persuade the British government of the value of building a canal linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea but failed, and it was not until a year after his death than the French built the Suez Canal. Anderson introduced the concept of cruising for pleasure, rather than simply a means of transportation.

Arthur Anderson also formed the Union Steam Ship Company to supply coal to his P&O ships. This later became the core of the great Union-Castle line.

His various philanthropic gifts included endowing the Anderson Educational Institute (now Anderson High School) in Lerwick which opened in 1862.

His company was broken up during mergers and takeover, with P&O Cruises having merged with the Carnival Corporation in 2002, the P&O Nedlloyd container business sold in 2004 and P&O Ferries owned by Dubai World since 2005.

Read the full story of Anderson here https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/…/arthuranderson.html

[wordsarefakeokay]

What does capitalism taste like

Does it taste like white picket fences and 2.5 kids

What about a dog in the backyard and BBQs on the weekend

Knowing all your neighbors names and having the HOA on speed dial

Does it taste like the life you want to live?

Are the HOA in your contacts because they keep calling you

Or are you calling them

Does that complicated C word taste the homogeneity in your neighborhood

Where the police arrive in 2 seconds flat, with a gate and a patrol to match

Does it taste like "I'll wait here for your manager" and weekends at the golf course

Does it taste like a martini because the trophy spouse has a long day?

Does it taste like security cams and a ranch on the property with the stable boys and the guest house to the side with the cabana ones?

Does it taste like equestrianship is in your blood from birth? What about fencing?

Does it taste like ivy league vines crawling up babies spines from birth?

Does it taste like "Harvard is your dream not mine" and then rebellion

Does rebellion look like a fully funded backpack trip to Europe with your first great love

Or does it look like "I'm going to work for my parents equally rich rival company"

Or does it look like different freedom, independence, simply a different life

Where you can still ask your parents for money because you reached a happy ever after in the movie

What does capitalism taste like

Happily ever after is fake for us real folks so it must hold true for those up top right?

People in gated communities who's stepford mother's figures are earned with the local book club

Who's menopause kicks in at the same pace because we're all just clucking hens bonding together aren't we

Aren't we all just girls looking to connect with other girls in line for the bathroom?

Let's be honest, we all have some kind of mommy issue don't we? #justgirlythings

And what about the men? Is it really just an opportunity to measure up?

Is it a subtle side eye to measure manhood, even tho bro code states "thou must not make eye contact with another bro I'm the bathroom"

Doe you feel like enough when you see a guy like your ex is now dating

Do you feel reassured when you notice your manhood is better?

Why does size matter?

Why am I automatically called "a little lady" by cowboys who are raised to believe "bigger in Texas" really means better

Is this what capitalism does

Does "be a man" follow men into the bathroom like "don't be a pussy" does for women?

Why must public communal bathrooms make us decide a gender right at that moment

Can't we measure a bathroom by the content of their room?

Stalls or urinals? Privacy or not? Right this way fellow citizen

Citizen. Human. Person. Life.

What does capitalism taste like

Does it taste like legislation against the gays?

No cakes no websites no space no homos

No healthcare no rights no sports pro bono

Hare dare anyone use pronouns! Fake news!

Them libs want you to think you can be referred to anything but your name. It's the devil's work

Didnt you hear that song? Call me by your name? He was a devil in the music I daresay! The devil!!

I'd let the devil fuck me

At least he would treat me right and show me a good time

What has capitalism done

This thing we fought for so that all our founders' legacies might have a future

Future away from tyranny and taxation and being slaves to our king

We have no kind any more, no crown jewels to protect, but we act the same

Why is the one who's always on top always the winner who writes the history

The winner who's educated

from a family with money

who were taught good Christian values

with a fencing rapier in hand and

Shakespeare in their veins

Is this what capitalism does

Dilutes us to the elite

Homogeneous suburbia and "all you need is fairy tales and you can be rich too"

Political correctness and "just find a man to solve your problems"

Register to vote and "be a man or you're not good enough"

It's not just little girls who get told their not good enough

The gender non conforming community has definitely unlocked a whole cheat code on life

That and the furries who have been the scientific backbone of this country for eons

But why do my apples taste not like what an apple tree looks like in the movies?

The one in the corner of Mamma Mia on the isle in Greece

Where my problems were solved by not getting married but traveling the world as a skinny white woman with her Kenough manly man

Singing voice for character wink

Why don't my apples taste like those on the Grecian island where the stories of the locals are forgotten to the American story, the American dream

I escaped my mom and became one myself

I'm a self made woman now

With a mortgage she can't pay and life problems that were clearly solved by marrying the man who hurt her the most in life

Why doesn't my apple taste like how that apple tree looks?

Why doesn't it taste like the apple from the garden?

Why doesn't it taste like the freedom eve must have felt when she disobeyed

Why is the taste of temptation diluted in my cheap apple from the superstore in the fruit section

Does it taste like pesticide and FDA regulations

Who keeps them in check? The CDC? WHO?

The DOJ or FBI or NAFTA or the Geneva convention

Was it a Geneva suggestion or a line from the treaty of Versailles or did agent orange bring us here

How many babies were born deformed before I ate this apple

And how many nat GMO products have I consumed that my human body has endured?

What does capitalism taste like? Because I swear, remaining tribal lands must not be like this

Forgotten poor African villages eat different

Forgotten poor native south America cultures remain intact on top of mountains that the white or Spanish or French have not yet learned to monetize

And now they will never because the people on the ground know better and are stronger

And capitalism stays the same

Progress is progress no matter how small

But all this progress

Is it good for us

Good for our taste buds

They say to beware vaccines and microchips but aren't we already a cyborg because we carry a favored microchip in our hands?

The ones we avoid calls from home on and instead laugh at cat videos

We share, bare our souls online to strangers but the people in our lives could never break our pokerface

But if we were born this way

Would we ever know what capitalism tastes like

If we don't ask someone else?

Does capitalism taste like the additive sugar in a fun size bar of crunch

Does it taste like the chocolate take over energy found in the Nestle headquarters

Or does it taste like the cocaine they put into coca cola to keep people buying more

I'm not convinced that the girl scouts didn't take that idea for themselves

Does capitalism taste like the working conditions of these massive corporate overlords

Or the factories where they bottle and bag and package comfort for 1.25

Does it taste the endless metallic conveyor belts

Or the chance that peanuts were used in any of those products

Does it taste like our countries trade deal for cheap products made from other companies

Does it taste like the the sweat shops that make your favorite new shirt or those fashionable high tops

Does it take like the abused labor that built this country

Does it taste like all the ghost statues of people who should have been memorialized instead of forgettable white men from history

Does it taste like the rust they should have earned all along

Or does it taste like the pain of forgotten artists

The heart of Harlem the beasts of Boston the cheeps of the Cherokee

Does it sound like the ones who's names we forget

The neglected breaks of the Oregon trail the gentrification of the only pockets of culture in this country

The Japanese internment camps

Border patrol and the place where there was almost a wall

Are the tears of all the family members of witches still a part of Salem

What about the hurt caused by the fights for gender equality that excluded black women

Does capitalism taste like Jim Crow or strange fruit

Just because it's rotting in the back doesn't mean it's in our past

These caged birds still sing can't you hear?

I fear for my brother and my niece and my nephew daily, their lives matter too

Friends neighbors family

They're still part of your labor or did you forget what The 13th taught us

Toni Morrison, Frederick Douglas

Miles Davis, Billie Holliday

MLK and Malcom X

HER and Missy Elliott

They run in our veins

The revolution is not televised

Stonewall certainly can't be told by anyone else

Nor can we forget the power of black trans women in the creation of pride spaces

What about the flyover cities that are meant for rural living with signs screaming "no airport here"

The pain of the indigenous people who's land a mindless mall was built over

Being given back land that belonged to those born here ages past

Ancestral home can be yours with a side of steak knives

And while I'm here can I interest you in the Book of Mormon

What about their tears? Their blood their breaks their pain

Does capitalism taste like that?

The endless lost even now and memorialized in art with a red handprint to their portrait

The lack of water and resources to land promised back

Ancestral home returned but you're on your own. Unless you're ready to hear about our Lord and savior

When will we realize we aren't a savior to begin with

Is this what capitalism tastes like?

Institutions built for white people who forgot that the land isn't theirs and never was

Home of the brave where those with the most force and money can get anywhere

We're the underdogs, the land of opportunity, come on by

You just have to follow these few simple rules

So if you're not perfect or cookie cutter, don't worry we'll just sand around the edges

So you'll fit into these boxes and society can know what to do with you

But if you're too much or not enough be ready to hate the rest of your days here

Welcome to the country of goldilocks and fuck you if you're not "just right"

What does capitalism taste like for you?

[beardedmrbean]

A Polish tech entrepreneur's global project, aimed at getting more children into computer programming, has been endorsed by Pope Francis.

Miron Mironiuk, founder of artificial intelligence company Cosmose AI, is drawing on his own experience of coding transforming his life.

He said the "Code with Pope" initiative would bridge "the glaring disparities in education" across the globe.

It is hoped the Pope's involvement will attract Catholic countries.

"We believe that the involvement of the Pope will help to convince them to spend some time and use this opportunity to learn programming for free," Mr Mironiuk told the BBC.

The initiative will champion access to coding education through a free online learning platform for students aged 11-15 across Europe, Africa and Latin America.

After 60 hours of dedicated learning, children will be equipped with the basics of Python, one of the world's most popular coding languages.

In the digital age, programming skills have become as fundamental as reading and writing.

World Economic Forum data released in 2023 revealed that "the majority of the fastest growing roles are technology-related roles".

However, a severe global shortage of tech skills threatens to leave 85 million job positions unfilled by 2030.

As a result, increasing access to high-quality programming education has become a necessity, particularly in low and middle-income countries - many of which are Catholic.

A large percentage of the Polish population identifies as Catholic.

The 33-year-old millionaire Mr Mironiuk told the BBC that he was proud of his Polish heritage and to be part of a crop of successful Polish people working in technology.

The country is making significant strides in the tech scene, particularly in AI, with companies like Google Brain, Cosmose AI and Open AI having significant numbers of Polish employees.

But Mr Mironiuk is also aware that many countries are not as fortunate, and hopes this educational programme could help change that.

The programme will be available in Spanish, English, Italian and Polish. It is expected to reach children all over South America except Brazil, and in English speaking nations in Africa and South East Asia.

This is not the first time the Pope has encouraged young people to get into coding, having helped write a line of code for a UN initiative in 2019.

Mr Mironiuk will meet the Pope at the Vatican. But he admits he's not anticipating the pontiff to emulate his students in acquiring new skills.

"I don't expect him to know Python very well, at least," he said. "But he will get a certificate for his efforts in helping start the programme."

[not-harukal524]

Who founded NRC and what does Ramshackle dorm have to do with it?: A Translated Theory

Hello, my name is Haru, and it seems I’m in one of my better moods and have been dishing out many translated theories about Twisted Wonderland. This is the second big installment of a series I like to call “A Translated Theory” which you can also check the hashtag on my page to find the first installment “Rook Hunt’s True Nature,” along with other smaller theories.

The credits for this theory go to Alai_Legends, and here is the source video. Please enjoy!

In this video, Alai touches on three questions: 1) Who founded the Night Raven College? 2) What kind of history does NRC have? 3) Why was the Ramshackle dorm unoccupied for so long?

Touching on the last question first, according to Headmaster Crowley, the students were scared of the ghosts and did not want to stay at the Ramshackle dorm. However in reality, it seems like the ghosts aren't actually scary, were a helpful and cooperative bunch for the Prefect, and even in the Ghost Marriage (Phantom Bride) event, many of the students at NRC considered ghosts as 'troublesome' rather than 'scary.' 

This leads to the hypothesis that maybe there was some other reason that the Ramshackle had been unoccupied for so long, and is the beginning of our theory.

Moving back to the first question of 'who founded NRC,' there is usually a large statue erected for the founder of any place that is as renowned as the college. Yet, so far we've only really seen the Great Seven lining the Main Street on campus. If any of the Great Seven were to have taken part in the founding of NRC, we should have received information on this already. Even if someone with great magical prowess like Maleficent were to have been involved in any part of beginning the NRC, they naturally would be treated a bit differently from the other figures. Additionally, Headmaster Crowley himself has said (I can't tell when, but there is a very clear screenshot in the video) that he is simply looking after the school upon the board chairman's request.

As we move further into this hypothesis, we'll take a quick detour to the rival school, Royal Sword Academy. The RSA has very clear motifs from The Sword in the Stone, and headmage Ambrose LXIII seems to take inspiration from Merlin in that movie. Merlin, in fact, is someone who would fit the role of the 'Great Founder of the Royal Sword Academy' in many ways. He can do great feats of magic with the flick of his wand, has the ability to peer into the future, and is a talented mentor. Merlin is able to see Wart's potential and teaches him many things, including the strength of knowledge, which is very teacher-like for him. Thanks to his teachings Wart eventually becomes King Arthur of England in the movie. In conclusion, he is a great sorcerer with phenomenal power, and also has the heart of a passionate educator.

Now then, who would also be a founder that has great magical power and has the essence of an educator? Surprisingly, in the history of Disney stories, there are very few true 'magicians,' and those who can use magic fall under the category of 'fae that an grant wishes' (ie; Maleficent or the Fairy Godmother) or 'witches that can create things imbued with magical qualities' (such as the Wicked Witch or Ursula). One can easily speculate that the rival from The Sword in the Stone, Madam Mim, has the magical prowess to fulfill the role of founder. However, her personality has no inkling of being an educator, and wouldn't fit the bill quite right.

However, Yen Sid from The Sorcerer's Apprentice in a segment from the movie Fantasia could possibly be who we're looking for. Furthermore, he is even the mentor of the Mickey Mouse, and so this confirms that Yen Sid is surely someone with the heart of an educator. (While Yen Sid doesn't have any voice lines, his name is simply 'Disney' backwards, and his character design is supposedly created with an image of an angry Walt Disney in mind. Yen Sid plays a rather large role in the history of Disney, so to say.) This may also clear some mysteries concerning Mickey's continuous appearances in the Ramshackle mirror.

If this were to be true, then the Ramshackle dorm could most definitely have been a place for Yen Sid's apprentices to live and sharpen their magic skills. From there, it is easy to assume that this place of teaching became a school and that the Night Raven College was eventually founded... and yet, there is no trace of Yen Sid's influence on the school, and his name isn't mentioned in any shape or form. The Ramshackle dorm, which would've been a great historical relic has been completely discarded and forgotten, so why is that?

Also, just to be very thorough about this, we can assume that the Ramshackle dorm was the first dorm created due to its very close proximity to the main campus itself. For the other dorms, one must use a magical mirror to travel, but when the school just started there wouldn't be any need to have students teleport to and from a separate location for classes. Thus, we can reach the conclusion that the Ramshackle dorm is the first dorm to exist in NRC. Additionally, the Ramshackle dorm's motif is said to be based off of the movie Thru the Mirror which was released in 1936, which is a year earlier than Snow White in 1937, which is the motif for the Pommefiore dorm. 

Still there remains the question of who the founder of NRC can be, especially since Yen Sid is not necessarily a villain character. Alai speculates that perhaps someone had taken over the location and set up a school that put a lot of energy in developing students with dark magic, and eventually ending up with students that are based off of villains that we've come to know and love. Perhaps there was a certain someone who kicked out Yen Sid and his apprentices and decreed a learning place centered around the Great Seven instead.

And this is just a speculation, but maybe, the Prefect is someone who could have the soul and essence of someone who would've been Yen Sid's apprentice, and by fate had landed in the Ramshackle dorm.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist in the Trump White House who is at the forefront of the Republican march toward hard-right populism, is throwing his weight behind a movement to radically rewrite the US Constitution.

Bannon has devoted recent episodes of his online show the War Room to a well-funded operation which has stealthily gained ground over the past two years. Backed by billionaire donors and corporate interests, it aims to persuade state legislatures to call a constitutional convention in the hope of baking far-right conservative values into the supreme law of the land.

The goal is, in essence, to turn the country into a permanent conservative nation irrespective of the will of the American people. The convention would promote policies that would limit the size and scope of the federal government, set ceilings on or even abolish taxes, free corporations from regulations, and impose restrictions on government action in areas such as abortion, guns and immigration.

“This is another line of attack strategically,” Bannon told his viewers last month. “You now have a political movement that understands we need to go after the administrative state.”

By “administrative state”, Bannon was referring to the involvement of the federal government and Congress in central aspects of modern American life. That includes combating the climate crisis, setting educational standards and fighting health inequities.

Mark Meckler, a founder of the Tea Party who now leads one of the largest groups advocating for the tactic, the Convention of States Action (COSA), spelled out some of the prime objectives on Bannon’s show. “We need to say constitutionally, ‘No, the federal government cannot be involved in education, or healthcare, or energy, or the environment’,” he said.

Meckler went on to divulge the anti-democratic nature of the state convention movement when he said a main aim was to prevent progressive policies being advanced through presidential elections. “The problem is, any time the administration swings back to Democrat – or radical progressive, or Marxist which is what they are – we are going to lose the gains. So you do the structural fix.”

The “structural fix” involves Republican state legislatures pushing conservative amendments to America’s foundational document. By cementing the policies into the US Constitution, they would become largely immune to electoral challenge.

Were a convention achieved, it would mark the zenith of conservative state power in American politics. Over the past 12 years, since the eruption of the Tea Party, Republicans have extended their grip to more than half of the states in the country, imposing an increasingly far-right agenda on the heartlands.

Now the plan is to take that dominance nationwide.

Article V of the Constitution lays out two distinct ways in which America’s core document, ratified in 1788, can be revised. In practice, all 27 amendments that have been added over the past 244 years have come through the first route – a Congress-led process whereby two-thirds of both the US House and Senate have to approve changes followed by ratification by three-quarters of the states.

Meckler, working alongside other powerful interest groups and wealthy rightwing megadonors, is gunning for Article V’s second route – one that has never been tried before. It gives state legislatures the power to call a constitutional convention of their own, should two-thirds of all 50 states agree.

The state-based model for rewriting the US Constitution is perhaps the most audacious attempt yet by hard-right Republicans to secure what amounts to conservative minority rule in which a minority of lawmakers representing less-populated rural states dictate terms to the majority of Americans. Russ Feingold, a former Democratic US senator from Wisconsin, told The Guardian that “they want to rewrite the constitution in a fundamental way that is not just conservative, it is minoritarian. It will prevent the will of ‘we the people’ being heard.”

Feingold has co-authored with Peter Prindiville of the Stanford constitutional law center The Constitution in Jeopardy, a new book that sounds the alarm on the states-based convention movement. “Our goal is not to scare people, but to alert them that there is a movement on the far right that is quietly getting itself to a point where it will be almost impossible to stop a convention being called,” he said.

His urgency is underlined by how active the movement has become. A convention resolution framed by COSA has passed so far this year in four states – Wisconsin, Nebraska, West Virginia and South Carolina.

The group has also been busy around November’s midterm elections, using its muscle and some $600,000 (£528,252) of its reserves to support candidates amenable to the idea. “We have built the largest grassroots activist army in American history,” Meckler told Bannon, probably hyperbolically.

Bannon’s other guest on the War Room, Rick Santorum, a former Republican US senator from Pennsylvania who advises COSA, told Bannon: “This is something that can happen very quickly. We are a lot further along than people think.”

They are also much better funded than people might think. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which monitors the constitutional convention movement, estimates that it pulled in $25M (£22M) in 2020, the last year for which figures are known.

The funds were split between COSA and other influential groups on the right. They include the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a network of state politicians and corporate lobbyists which has taken up the cry for a constitutional amendment to force balanced budget restrictions on Washington.

Much of the income is dark money, with the origins hidden. CMD has managed to identify some key donors – among them the Mercer Family Foundation set up by reclusive hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, and a couple of groups run by Leonard Leo, the mastermind behind the rightwing land grab in the federal courts.

More than $1m (£880,265) has also been donated in the form of Bitcoin.

The attraction to these groups and donors of pursuing a states route to rewriting the US Constitution is easily explained. Over the past 12 years, since the eruption of the Tea Party in 2010, Republican activists have deployed extreme partisan gerrymandering to pull off an extraordinary takeover of state legislatures.

In 2010, Republicans controlled both chambers of just 14 state legislatures. Today, that number stands at 31.

“Republicans are near the high watermark in terms of their political control in the states, and that’s why the pro-Trump rightwing of the party is increasingly embracing the constitutional convention strategy,” said Arn Pearson, CMD’s executive director.

Should a convention be achieved, the plan would be to give states one vote each. There is no legal or historical basis for such an arrangement but its appeal is self-evident.

One vote per state would give small rural conservative states like Wyoming (population 580,000) equal leverage to large urbanized progressive states like California (39.5 million). Collectively, small states would be in the majority and control would tip to the Republicans.

Last December Santorum spelled out this minoritarian vision at a private ALEC meeting. In an audio recording obtained by CMD, Santorum said: “We have the opportunity, as a result, to have a supermajority, even though we may not even be in an absolute majority when it comes to the people who agree with us.”

Pearson decried such thinking as “a profoundly anti-majoritarian and anti-democratic strategy that gives small rural states most control”.

With the counting system skewed towards the conservative heartlands, the list of amendments that might be pursued is disconcertingly large. Though Meckler and his allies largely avoid talking about culture war issues, it is quite conceivable that a nationwide ban on abortion and a rescinding of gay marriage would be on the table.

More openly, advocates have talked about imposing balanced budget requirements on the US government that would dramatically shrink federal resources. Some have even proposed making income tax unconstitutional.

One of the more popular ideas circulating within rightwing constitutional convention circles, initially floated by the talk show host Mark Levin, is that states should grant themselves the ability to override federal statutes and supreme court rulings. It is hard to see how the federal rule of law could be sustained under such an arrangement with its unmistakable civil war undertones.

Under Article V, 34 states would have to call for a constitutional convention to reach the two-thirds requirement. COSA has so far succeeded in getting 19 states to sign up, with a further six in active consideration.

ALEC, which sets a narrower remit for a convention focused on its balanced budget amendment, has gone further with 28 states on board.

Either way, there is a shortfall. To address it, constitutional convention leaders have invented increasingly exotic mathematical formulas for attaining the magic number, 34. “We used to call it fuzzy math, now we call it wacky math,” Pearson said.

Advocates filed a lawsuit in Texas in February that tried to get the courts to force a constitutional convention on grounds that they had reached 34 states already – they cobbled together unrelated state convention calls, including some dating back to the 1800s. In July two bills were also introduced to the US House requiring Congress to call a convention immediately.

David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, said the willingness to adopt outlandish logic should sound further alarm bells. It raised the stakes even higher for the November elections.

“The midterms are crucial,” Super said. “Changes at state-level matter, but will not get them to 34 states. If they can take control of Congress, they could bridge the gap.”

Paradoxically, what happens to Congress in the midterms could have the biggest impact on the future prospects of a states-based constitutional convention. Should the Republicans take back control of the US House and Senate they would be in a position to advance radical Republicans’ demands.

“We’ve already seen a willingness to play fast and loose with the math on all sorts of things in Congress,” Super said. “I would not be surprised if they were to make a serious attempt to adopt one of these bizarre accounting theories should they take control of both chambers in November.”

That could mean a rapid dash for a convention before most Americans would have woken up to the danger.

“If the Republicans prevail in Congress, they could try to call a convention right away,” Feingold said. “People should know that when they go to vote in November – this could fundamentally undermine their rights in a way that is both disturbing and permanent.”

[cryo-lily]

BOLD the FACTS

Thanks to @imperial-topaz2003 & @thelealinhypehouse for the tags!

Doing this for Issie (Isadola) because No I haven't forgotten about her after.... a certain recent game release lol.

PERSONAL

Isadola's life has been a complicated one since the day she was born. Originally born to an exiled & former Sith Lord and a former/rouge Imperial Cipher Agent. Isadola only knew and was raised by her mother before her father (the rouge Cipher Agent) eventually learned of her existence and attempted to kill both her & her mother. Shortly after her mother's death she was found and taken in by the Jedi Order, where she went on to earn the title of Barsen'thor. Later leaving the Jedi Order to go on to help form and lead the Alliance as Commander. Slowly finding the happy life & family that was taken from her.

Financial: wealthy*/ moderate/ poor / in poverty

Born & raised poor during the first few years of her life before being taken in by the Jedi Order. *Later amassing significant wealth throughout her journeys.

Medical: fit / moderate/ sickly / disabled / disadvantaged/ non-applicable

A natural acrobat, and very fast. She may not be the strongest, but very few are able to catch her, let alone pin her down in or out of combat.

Class or Caste: upper/ middle/ working / unsure / other

Regardless of it's in her early life or currently, Isadola doesn't really care for her status be labeled as such, given how it's needlessly complicated things all her life.

Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other

Not really tied to any specific discipline, but still got a very significant education from her time with the Jedi where she has a very sharp mind you'd want in any intelligent conversation. Even if it's a topic out of her depth, Issie is a very quick learner.

Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed

Issie, is not a saint. There are some lines she will not cross, but for what crimes she has committed both during her time as a Jedi and after leaving the order, She has yet to be caught. She has even helped found her own Cartel that low-key starting to rival the Hutts. For her and her family's own safety she hasn't admitted to being one of Eridium Cartel's Founders that the Hutt Cartel has placed a significant bounty on. Tho the Alliance spy network has their hands constantly full keeping that fact under wraps.

FAMILY

In the Beginning it was very complicated, Born to a loving Mother that died protecting her against a Father that wants her dead for simply existing outside of his sphere of control. To later having the loving family life that was taken from her decades ago.

Children: had a child or children* / has no children / wants children

Post-Darth Nul plot, Isadola has the first of her 3 biological daughters with her wife Lana. Not long after having their first daughter, Kelsa, They go on to adopt an orphaned stowaway force-sensitive Chiss girl, Orla, that showed up on Odessen one day after she quickly stole their hearts.

Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s)*/ has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased

Issie is the only child of her mother, Tilera, and her father, Donovan. *Though she does have some half-siblings through her father, like her relationship with him, she is not close to them, by any means.

Affiliation: orphaned / abandoned / adopted / disowned* / raised by birth parent(s) / not applicable

Raised by her Mother for 5-ish years before being orphaned, Disowned by her Father almost since her birth (If he knew about her sooner), Donovan would sooner have her killed then having a progeny outside his sphere of control.

TRAITS & TENDENCIES

♦ extroverted/ introverted /in-between*

Issie is mostly a shy girl, unless you know her then those walls she's built up crumble so fast. Or she's just drunk/high off her ass.

♦ disorganized /organized / in-between

If things are disorganized, something is wrong with Issie and you should be concerned.

♦ close-minded / open-minded / in-between

99% of the time Issie tries to be open-minded, unless it's something that's against her personal moral code then not so much, though she tries to always keep an open mind.

♦ calm / anxious / in-between / highly contextual

Isadola under the calm exterior she's built up, is just a mess of emotions. Issie is one bad day away from losing the stoic exterior she's built up over the years.

♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in-between

Very situational, With Issie you can never really know unless you drop her in specific situations.

♦ cautious / reckless / in-between / highly contextual

Again, very situational. When it's a moment that requires thought or is very delicate she is very cautious. In combat, Issie can be VERY reckless, just ask Lana.

♦ patient / impatient / in-between

Very much depends on her mood on how patient Isadola can be.

♦ outspoken / reserved / in-between / highly contextual

Depends on the situation, But Isadola is very much both. Can be very outspoken most times, but she also knows when to hold her tongue.

♦ leader / follower / in-between

A natural leader but hates the labels that comes with it, but also able to take orders from those she respects.

♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in-between

Issie is very much both, just depends on the situation on which side you'll see. Issie is very empathetic (Even has the Force Empathy ability), but if you push her too far that side of her can switch off a little too quickly for comfort.

♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in-between

Despite her tragic beginnings, and her life up to recent events Isadola always tries to look on the bright side of things. If she doesn't she might fall down a dark hole she might never recover from.

♦ traditional / modern / in-between

Isadola & Tradition are 2 things that don't mix. Like full stop.

♦ hard-working / lazy / in-between

Issie needs to be reminded a lot it's okay for her to take a break a lot of times and that galaxy won't fall apart if she doesn't keep working. Though she is 100% a hypocrite when she tries to remind Lana of the same.

♦ cultured / uncultured / in-between / unknown

Issie is just Issie. She is a lot of things.

♦ loyal / disloyal / in-between / unknown

Loyal, to a fault. She will die for those closest to her against anything.

♦ faithful / unfaithful / in-between / unknown

Sure, her mind wanders sometimes, but at the end of the day, once she's committed to someone she's theirs till one or both of them drops dead.

BELIEFS

Raised by the Jedi sure, But she doesn't have blind faith in the Force.

Faith: monotheist / polytheist /atheist/ agnostic?*

*Sure Issie has seen all that the Force is capable of but she doesn't believe it is the end all be all of everything.

Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

Issie has seen a few, even has a connection with the dead, but hasn't had enough experience to form any strong opinions on them. (At least in her main Jedi path, Her Sith Inquisitor AU on the other hand...)

Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

"There is no Death, There is only the Force" Something that has been drilled into her by the Jedi since she was young, She doesn't quite believe in the words, even if repeating the words has given her some comfort from time to time.

Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care / in a manner of speaking

She'd like to believe so, in her mind, Life is wasteful just to end. She'd like to believe there's more to do, more to learn after one life is done.

Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

I mean, even though Isadola sees herself as Human, She is constantly reminded she's not so... it'd be weird if she didn't believe.

Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious

Isadola's life has been too complicated to be even remotely religious. Plus she has seen first hand how far such devotion can go. So not her style.

Philosophical: yes / no / highly contextual

Issie is a Philosophical nerd deep down. She has to catch herself sometimes for not sounding too philosophical.

SEXUALITY & ROMANCE

Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual/ bisexual / asexual / pansexual

Issie is a straight as a boomerang. Girl has like few brain cells around most women.

Sex: sex-repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable/ naive and clueless

Girl has problems keeping her hands to herself around her wife. Much to Lana's ire sometime when she's working.

Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious

Issie is a hopeless romantic deep down.

Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious

Isadola has had a number of encounters over the years before she met her wife.

Potential Sexual Partners: male/ female / agender / other / none / all

Isadola is a not so innocent Lesbean.

Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

See Above.

ABILITIES

Smart, Quick witted, and combat talented, just like her Mama.

Combat Skills: excellent/ good / moderate / poor/ none

Very talented with dual sabers, just like her Mother.

Literacy Skills: excellent/ good / moderate / poor / none

She found alot of comfort in books and writings when she was younger before she found some real friends.

Artistic Skills: excellent* / good / moderate/ poor / none

Isadola is an excellent singer if you can get her to do so. She's a pretty good Artifice crafter though when she wants to kill sometime.

Technical Skills: excellent/ good / moderate / poor / none

Issie is pretty good at most technical skills when she needs to be, but if something needs fixing or Slicing, she knows to leave the task to one of her more capable friends.

HABITS

Issie won't admit it but she is very much a closeted party animal. She has alot of steam to blow off from her life so far.

Drinking Alcohol: never/ special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / alcoholic/ former borderline alcoholic turned sober

Her go to way to turn off her brain after a stressful day.

Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker

Not her go to, but won't shy away from it if offered to her.

Recreational Drugs: tried some / never /special occasions / sometimes/ frequently / addict Former addict

Eridium Cartel party nights are lit. Issie only indulges if the party is really REALLY wild. Which is most times whenever her Eridium fam throws a party.

Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess

Issie is usually pretty healthy. Only rarely after a taking some serious injuries does she need to take some, if any.

Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / rarely / sometimes / frequently / binge eater

Again, Issie is usually pretty healthy, and eats like it too. It's a point of pride for her to be able to maintain her fast, acrobatic abilities.

Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic

Lana manages the credits for a reason, is all I'll say. Issie like shiny things a bit too much.

Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gamble

When the nightlife event starts, it would be a rare moment not to see Issie in the casino. She hangs around her smuggler buddy, Taskar, a bit too much where his luck has rubbed off on her.

No pressure tags for @girlstandstill @magicallulu7 @serenofroses

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Zack K. De Piero

Published: Dec 23, 2023

Looking for a job in today’s politicized job market?

Prepare to submit a résumé, cover letter, references — and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement: A page-long explanation of how you intend to bring those three seemingly benign principles into the workplace.

DEI statements have become standard practice in academia, but a tide might be turning: UNC and UMass Boston recently un-required mandatory DEI statements for student admission, employee recruitment and faculty promotion. 

Here’s hoping this sets an industry precedent — a step towards reining in DEI in every sector. 

When I taught at Penn State Abington from 2018-2022 as an English professor, their obsession with DEI created a hostile work environment teeming with discrimination.

Case in point: writing faculty were subjected to a video called “White Teachers are a Problem.”

After making my opposition known, I was retaliated against.

My perceived insubordination was branded on Affirmative Action Office notices, and I was sanctioned by HR as well as on my annual performance review. 

Penn State’s stance was clear: Blind loyalty is required by the DEI machine. 

The premier job board across academia, HigherEdJobs, shows how deeply entrenched compulsory left-think has become.

Whether you want to teach French at SUNY Oswego, Dance at Chapman, Soil Science and Nutrient Management at Colorado State, or Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse, your prospective employer will expect a DEI statement, so prepare to bend the knee. 

Even if you aspire to become the Beef Center Assistant Manager at Washington State University: Yep: DEI statement.

And these are just a few random examples posted since Thanksgiving.

It’s an epidemic. 

Make no mistake, the DEI machine has always been about toeing an ideological line — never any meaningful change.

Consider the case of Dr. Tabia Lee — a former faculty member of De Anza Community College in California.

While facilitating a “Decentering Whiteness” event featuring a BLM co-founder, Lee (who’s Black) made waves by allowing students to ask unscripted follow-up questions. For doing so, her tenure was sabotaged.

Despite being “diverse,” it turns out that Lee’s actual diversity didn’t gel with De Anza’s agenda.

A commitment to actual diversity requires respecting diverse viewpoints.

But wrong-think isn’t tolerated by the DEI Industrial Complex. 

Fortunately, federal law has something to say about that: neither De Anza nor Penn State has the authority to suppress Dr. Lee or my speech, nor can they discriminate on the basis of race.

That’s why she and I — supported by the nonpartisan group, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism — are bringing lawsuits against our former employers. 

Pull back this sacred academic curtain, and see the emperor’s new clothes for yourself.

In 2021, Pennsylvanian’s taxes and students’ tuition went towards workshops on microaggressions, intersectional feminism, anti-racism, and white privilege led by the Penn State Abington DEI grifters.

Its leader’s Juneteenth email directed white faculty and staff to “stop talking,” “find an accountability partner,” and “stop being afraid of your own internalized white supremacy.” 

Such DEI efforts ooze with divisiveness, so yes, DEI statements are clearly a form of compelled speech, and thus, a violation of First Amendment free speech protections.

[ Dr. Tabia Lee says her tenure-track position at De Anza College in California was derailed after she failed to conform to DEI orthodoxy. ]

What’s worse, though, is the type of educational environment that DEI-ified initiatives create for students — and the culprit is the “E”: Equity. 

Here’s how “equity” played out in the misguided minds of my DEI-obsessed former colleagues. A former supervisor, who endorsed the view that “reverse racism isn’t racism,” also announced that “racist structures” exist “regardless of [anybody’s] good intentions” and that “racism is in the results if the results draw a color line.”

The apparent guiding subtext here: students should be graded on the basis of race so all achieve similar outcomes.

Suppose you deflated the grades of Asian-Americans — a group that often disproportionately excels — much like Harvard deflated their acceptance rates until the Supreme Court put a stop to race-based admissions.

That’s somehow acceptable in the name of “equity?” Of course not, but disagree with enforced equity in education and in the eyes of antiracist activists, that makes you – you guessed it — a “racist.” 

Alternatively, performative equity could be achieved by inflating everybody’s grades — straight A’s all around! 

Harvard’s almost there: in 2020-2021, 80% of all grades were A’s, according to an October article in the Harvard Crimson. 

The road to equity is paved by the soft bigotry of low expectations.

And in a world where grit, labor, and integrity win the day, academia’s obsession with “equity” breeds a “survival of the weakest” mindset. 

Nevertheless, the DEI machine continues to reign supreme.

Over a five-year span, Ohio State’s DEI annual budget bloated to $20 million with nearly 200 DEI bureaucrats who cite the leftist scripture of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo.

But before we can enter their church, us natural-born sinners must repent by issuing performative DEI statements?

Yeah. No thanks.

Paradoxically, the more elite institutions obnoxiously virtue-signal their allegiance to DEI, the less committed they are to actual diversity and inclusion — and the more they obscure actual equality in the process. 

These institutions aren’t hiding what they’re doing.

Even in the throes of my lawsuit, Penn State Abington has doubled down on DEI: there’s now a sister office — the Office of Inclusive Excellence — complete with its own cabinet-level director. 

Folks: this isn’t going away unless you take action.

Here’s a start: if you’re ever asked to submit a DEI statement, don’t bend the knee to their “E” — Equity.

Reframe their game, and tell them how and why you stand up for the honorable “E”: Equality. 

Zack K. DePiero (Ph.D, M.Ed) teaches writing at Northampton Community College. 

[lboogie1906]

In the fall of 1907, on the campus of Howard University, which would become the mecca of Black Greek Life, there amid campus life were George Lyle and Ethel Hedgeman, who were both natives of St. Louis and graduates of Sumner High School, entered Howard University in the fall of 1905. Arriving there as high school sweethearts and becoming one of the admired couples on campus, both had matriculated now as juniors in their respective studies in 1907. In the winter of 1907, President of Alpha Chapter Jewel Eugene Kinckle Jones accompanied by Jewel Nathaniel Allison Murray arrived on the campus of Howard University on December 20th to establish the Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. The chartering line included 17 young men, two of which were Brother George Lyle and the First General President Brother Moses Alvin Morrison. AKA Founder Margaret Flagg was quoted as saying “Because of Lyle and his connection with Alpha Phi Alpha, Ethel conceived the idea of the sorority.” On January 15, 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was born. Brother Lyle and Soror Hedgeman both embraced the fraternity and sorority life, which led them to become presidents of the chapters in the fall of 1908 during their senior year.

Brother Lyle and Soror Hedgeman graduated in the Class of 1909. On June 21, 1911, they were married in New York, making their residence in Philadelphia and establishing careers in the field of education. This union solidified their connection as the “First Greek Couple”. The Lyles were very active in their organizations and communities. Alpha Phi Alpha and Alpha Kappa Alpha indeed hold a special place with each other in the love story of the Lyle’s, garnering the name “LYLE LOVE” that’s shared between the brothers and sisters of AΦA and AKA. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha #alphakappaalpha

[thevampyreking]

BASICS

FULL NAME: CHAKRII ARIKUN

» MEANING: Chakrii [ Means ‘king’ and is a very important name in Thai culture; pronounced JAK-gree. ] Arikun [ Possibly from Thai อารย (araya) meaning "superior, noble, civilized" and กุล (kun), a transcription of Pali kula meaning "clan". ]

VERSE: Night Shift; The Meaning of Forever;  Serendipity

NICKNAME(S): King

AGE: 213-years old but appears to be 30, he stopped aging at this age. And we want to bite his face.

DATE OF BIRTH: 1810 January 1st. My man's a Capricorn.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Bangkok, Thailand.

OCCUPATION: Founder of DUANG JAN AGENCY.

SPECIES: Vampire-human.

SEXUALITY: Bisexual; Biromantic.

GENDER: Cisgender male.

POWERS

Day walking

Fast healing

Superhuman strength

Doesn't have to drink blood to survive but he STILL has to drink it or he'll get weak

Slow aging; if he continues to drink blood, he can achieve immortality

I'm including richness coz his vamp family came from OLD MONEY, so he's mad rich, too, like, why not

PERSONALITY

STRENGTHS: Responsible, Disciplined, Self-control, Loyal, Trustworthy

WEAKNESSES: Unforgiving, Condescending, Stubborn, Obsessive, Controlling

APPEARANCE

FACE CLAIM: Max Kornthas Rujeerattanavorapan.

HEIGHT: 5′11 ft. [182  cm.]

WEIGHT: 143 lbs. [65 kg.]

BUILD: Athletic.

GAIT: TBA.

HAIR COLOR: Dark brown.

EYE COLOR: Brown.

BIRTHMARK: Yes.

OVERVIEW: » SCARS:  Various scars.

» TATTOOS: None but he'd like some. He got them in the past but they fade away quicker than on regular human.

BACKGROUND

HOMETOWN: Bangkok, Thailand.

RESIDENCES: Main is in Bangkok but he has houses all over the country. He spends a lot of time up-north where his mother was from.

NATIONALITY: Thai.

ETHNICITY: Asian.

FINANCIAL STATUS: Upper, upper, upper class.

EDUCATION LEVEL: University graduate.

DEGREES: Business management, human resources, etc.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: Thai is King's first language, he studied abroad and is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Russian. He can also speak Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese.

RELATIONSHIPS

PARENTS: Niah Chiasuk [miother, d. ]; Mongkut Arikun [ father ]

SIBLINGS: Several. He is the only part-human.

CHILDREN: None.

PETS: None.

SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIPS: » A young companion from the North.

FAMILY HISTORY: King was born to a human mother who was sickly. His vampire father loved his human mother but she never turned because she didn't see the point in it. She always said that "we use what we are given and make the best out of it." King's father respected King's mother's wishes but then they found out that she had a heart problem that cannot be fixed and either her or King would live if she was to continue living the way she was surviving.

Niah decided that she was going to sustain her child inside her while her sleeping body was being preserved, using whatever life was left in her to keep King alive.

The plan succeeded and King was born healthy and right after, Niah died.

King was raised by his mother's mother and mother's brother together with his vampire father who belongs to one of the noble clans in the country.

King was never made feel guilty of what happened to his mother. Instead, he was told of how his mother loved him that she nurtured him until she passed.

King grew up happy and encouraged to be who he wanted to be.

As he grew up, he was taught the way of their life, politics and business...

The Arikun Clan is one of the neutral clans in the vampire world. They campaign for peace and living side by side with other beings.

King became the foster child for that campaign which he fully took on as he loves the work. However, several problems began brewing, starting in a realm in South Korea and then Sanguine.

It was getting hard to be neutral and soon enough, King knew, he would have to pick a side.

ROMANTIC HISTORY: Arikun Clan has a tradition of taking in companions that will serve them. This tradition continues on but it evolves into a non-problematic situation mostly for the companion. The companions who came from a long line of loyal servants from thousands of years ago are no longer obligated to take on the job and are offered positions in various companies the clan owns.

King never really took on a companion and fed his needs whenever nature called. However, recently, a young northerner from the same line of servants caught his interest. He offered the young human's family a big 'dowry' which they accepted.

King is very fond of this companion and takes him everywhere.

THOUGHTS ON LOVE: “Something my mother had with my father...”

HEALTH

PHOBIA(S): None.

HANDICAP(S): None.

MENTAL DISEASE(S): None that he is aware of.

PHYSICAL DISEASE(S): None.

PREDISPOSITION(S): Alcoholism... His vampire family LOVES moonshine and all those strong local brews. He doesn't get drunk easily but he can get a really bad headache the following day.

[scotianostra]

On December 11th 1781 David Brewster was born.

Born in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire in 1781, to James Brewster, the rector of Jedburgh Grammar School and Margaret Key, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh, graduating MA in 1800. Although he was originally intending to be a Minister. Though a successful preacher in the Church of Scotland, his phobia of public speaking curtailed his involvement in the church. However, his faith continued to play an important role in his life, and his support for the Free Church of Scotland in 1843 nearly led to his dismissal from the University of Edinburgh.

Concentrating on the science of optics, Brewster made significant discoveries about polarisation of light and absorption spectra, invented the kaleidoscope and developed the stereoscope. His religious faith is also thought to have played a part in his scepticism about the wave theory of light.

In his lifetime, he published an impressive 315 scientific papers and articles, mostly on his pet subject of optics. His experiments in polarisation, which represent the bulk of his work, investigated in particular the different forms of polarisation that occur when light is reflected or refracted by various materials. Brewster's investigations of spectra included analysis of Newton's theory of colours and experiments on the absorption spectra shown in light shone through gases, and the similar lines seen in the sun's spectrum. He never abandoned the emission theory of light, and never accepted as true the theory that light was a wave - he preferred to see this as a convenient tool for calculation.

Brewster's invention of the kaleidoscope, popular as the instrument was, brought him little pecuniary benefit because of a botched patent application that left the design unprotected from unauthorised reproduction. He had a keen interest in photography from its infancy, and though he wrote about it and received a medal from the Photographic Society of Paris in 1865, he never found time to experiment properly with the chemistry of light. Brewster also promoted the use of the Fresnel lens in lighthouses, and oversaw a series of successful experiments with these in 1833. Brewster's finances were improved in his later life by his appointment as Principal of the United Colleges of St. Salvator and St. Leonard in St. Andrews in 1837, and his subsequent election by Edinburgh University as Principal in 1859, a post he held until his death in 1868. He was the first layman to occupy this post since Patrick Sands in 1622. Brewster was also a founder member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and a keen, active participant in it.

David Brewster contracted pneumonia at the age of 87. His life soon to pass, he simply stated, "I shall see Jesus and that will be grand. I shall see Him who made the worlds". On February 10th, 1868, at Allerby, Melrose Brewster did just that.