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jewish-sideblog · 7 months

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hey, so im Palestinian and a strong activist for my people's liberation. i wanted to ask for some info/advice on avoiding antisemitism in my activism for Palestine. im on anon bc i don't want to be called a racefaker for caring about Jewish ppl. i know antisemitism is on the rise right now (and generally over the past few years) and i want to make sure i'm not unintentionally contributing to it.

Hey there! I wanted to start by genuinely thanking you for asking this question. Partially because I don't actually get any well-intentioned or helpful questions in my inbox anymore, but also because I understand the amount of bravery it takes to reach out with a question like that at a time like this.

Next, I want to apologize to all my followers who hate long posts. Judaism is a very complicated ethnoreligious group, antisemitism is a very complicated form of bigotry, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is arguably the most complicated international issue that has ever existed. I'm going to try to go through everything as succinctly as possible below the cut-- I am also going to ask other Jews to contribute to and make edits to this list as needed.

And finally-- I'm writing this as though I were speaking to someone with very little knowledge of the subject. I understand that as a Palestinian, you probably know a lot about what's going on here. But I want to make sure that I'm covering bases for anybody else who might need to use this post. So if you're like, Yeah, Obviously I Knew That. Please remember that a fuckton of people on tumblr are engaging in Israeli criticism without obviously knowing that.

There are two primary forms of antisemitism in anti-Zionist spaces-- antisemitic conspiracy theory, and criticism of Israel that no other country receives. The first kind is the easiest kind to pick out, and it makes a nice bulleted list, so we'll start there.

Dual Loyalty. A global stereotype that has skyrocketed since the establishment of Israel, but it's been around for a lot longer than that. Simply put, it's the idea that Jews are more loyal to Israel (or some global secret kabal) than we are to the countries we currently reside in. With I/P, it manifests as the idea that All Jews are directly responsible for Israel or the idea that All Jews secretly support Israel. If you see a Jew who isn't directly engaging in I/P topics, don't ask them what their stance is. Plenty of us have never even been to Israel, and it's fucked up to assume that we're all experts in geopolitics.

The Holocaust was a Fabrication or a Lesson. The idea that Jews made up the Shoah has been around since the Shoah was still happening, and it's always been ridiculous. Today, you'll see three primary lines about this. Either it's that Jews made up the Shoah as an excuse to establish Israel, that the Jews deserved the Shoah because of what's happening in Israel today, or that the Jews "should have learned their lesson from the Holocaust" because now Jews are "the new Nazis". Frankly, I wish goyim would stop treating the deaths of millions of Jews like a TV show. Palestinian deaths are genuinely horrible, but this isn't some kind of "narrative parallel" to the Shoah.

The Kazars Theory, or All Jews are White. This is the DNA test nonsense. The idea is that Israel (or Jews at large) are only pretending to be indigenous to the Levant and that secretly Jews as a whole are actually indigenous to Eastern Europe. It's a lie, started by a German professor of Russian history in the early 1800s. Meanwhile, the vast majority of genetic, historical, and archaeological evidence points to Jewish origins in the Israeli/Palestinian region. There have been literal hundreds of genetic studies on this. Most of them suggest that Jews, even "white" Ashkenazim, are nearly genetically identical to Palestinians.

World Domination. The idea that Jews control the world began with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in 1903. If you're encountering criticism of Israel that suggests that world governments, particularly European or American ones, are being controlled by Jews, you've got yourself antisemitism. White supremacists like to use the term "Zionist Occupied Government" or "ZOG" as shorthand for this conspiracy. The next two points are born out of this same ideology.

Controlling the Media. The idea that Jews are in charge of Hollywood and/or major news organizations around the world. Regarding I/P, I've seen a bunch of people say something like "Western media outlets won't cover this! (Because you know who controls them!)" only to look online and see... Western media outlets covering it. See also: "My source is tiktok! I don't trust the news!" While it's obviously a fair criticism to say that some Western news outlets certainly have a pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias, it's certainly not every single one of them. Reuters and the AP are once again my go-to's here.

Controlling the Financial World. I haven't actually seen this come up regarding I/P, but considering how things have been going, it's only a matter of time. We don't control the banks. We don't control the stock market. We're not in charge of American aid being sent to Israel. HaShem knows that if we controlled all the money, I'd certainly be living larger than I am now...

Those Bloodthirsty Jews. This one arguably started with Blood Libel in the 1100s, when Christians started accusing us of stealing and eating their babies. Straight up, I have met Christians who still believe this in 2023. You see this a lot with I/P-- the Al Ahli Hospital is the biggest example. More than a month later, most reliable intelligence organizations agree that a misfired Hamas rocket landed in a parking lot, killing about 100 people. But a ton of people are still saying that Those Bloodthirsty Jews intentionally bombed the hospital dead on, killing 470 people. I want to be clear-- Israel is killing a lot of civilians. But if you see a bandwagon of people focusing on the one group of deaths that Israel probably actually didn't cause? Consider why.

Causing wars, revolutions, and calamities. Hamas has straight-up got this one in their founding charter. No, the Jews are not responsible for any major global conflicts, revolutions, or counter-revolutions that don't directly involve Israel. We didn't do WWII. We didn't do the October Revolution. See above-- we're not secretly plotting massacres on Shabbat. A lot of people are saying that Netanyahu and Likud let Hamas in to justify the invasion of Gaza... I'd be shocked if that was the case. All evidence points to a classic intelligence failure. We're not orchestrating bloodbaths.

Section 2: Criticisms only levelled at Israel

It's important to recognise that Israeli civilians are no more collectively responsible for the actions of the Likud coalition than Palestinians are collectively responsible for the actions of Hamas. No Palestinian deserves to be stripped of their rights to self-determination in their ancestral lands because of the October 7th attack. Likewise, no Chinese person deserves to be displaced from China because of the CCP's human rights violations in Tibet, Uyghur and Hong Kong. No Russian person deserves to be ethnically cleansed from Russia because of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. But plenty of people do believe that Jews should be stripped of their rights to self-determination in historically Jewish indigenous lands because of the actions of the Israeli government.

After October 7th, I've seen people argue that Israeli babies deserved to be kidnapped because of their national origin. I've seen people argue that Israeli women deserved to be sexually abused because of their nation of origin. I've seen people argue that the seven million Jews living in their ancestral homeland deserve death or displacement because of their nation of origin. Justifying or allowing brutal harm against people because of their national origin is hateful.

I want to make this part very clear-- I do not have an issue with calling out Israeli war crimes or crimes against humanity. But I do have an issue with treating Jewish civilians differently than civilians of other nations responsible for similar horrors. Amplifying bias against a particular group because of that group's nation of origin is called bigotry. Taking a stand against Israeli settlements in the West Bank is anti-Zionism. Collectivizing the label of "white colonialism", and forcing that label upon refugees forced to move to Israel, or Mizrahim with uninterrupted 8,000-year histories in Israel, is antisemitism.

Part 3: Moving Forward

So where do we go from here? If advocating for the destruction of Israel is advocating for the elimination of Jewish self-determination in our ancestral lands, but advocating in favour of the Israeli government is advocating for the elimination of Palestinian self-determination in your ancestral lands, then we must find some middle ground. A solution that allows seven million Jews and five-and-a-half-million Arabs to share the same holy land, without fear of persecution, displacement, or death. For me, this means a few things.

First of all, the recognition that most Israelis disagree with Netanyahu's approach to Palestine, and most Palestinians disagree with Hamas's approach to Israel. And that brings up a question-- why are Likud and Hamas in charge of Israel and Gaza respectively if most people disagree with them? Without getting into the complicated intricacies of the Knesset and the PNA on an already very long post (and without explaining your own government to you), the simple answer is international funds.

Israeli crimes against Palestinians are bankrolled by American Evangelical Christians, who believe that when Palestine is gone, all the Jews will go to Israel, and Jesus will come back to kill the world's infidels. They actually fucking believe that. Meanwhile, Hamas is bankrolled by Iran, which believes that the more often Jews and Sunni Muslims kill each other, the easier it will be for Iranian Shiite Jihad to take over the world. They actually fucking believe that.

So what steps can we take during our advocacy? Not for the destruction of Israel nor the destruction of Palestine, but for America and Iran to get their noses out of our damn business. I genuinely believe that a defunded Likud and a defunded Hamas will allow Israelis and Palestinians to work together for a peaceful two-state or joint-rule solution. Something that will keep my Palestinian friends from feeling like they can't safely travel from Jaffa to Tel Aviv. Something that will allow my Jewish family to visit and pray at the Cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebecca and the Temple Mount. Something that will let Israeli children from Kibbutz Nirim and Palestinian children from Khan Yunis play on the same playgrounds together, instead of sheltering from missile fire.

Frankly, we nearly had that when the Supreme Muslim Council and the Assembly of Representatives began collaborating against the British Mandate instead of against each other. Clearly, it's possible, we just need to stop being pitted against each other by foreign powers.

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skulljackxiii · 2 months

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TDA-Gonta Gokuhara

Support me over at Patreon: www.patreon.com/skulljackxiii ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Contestant No. 5: Gonta Gokuhara

Bio: The most innocent participant in the group. He specializes of all forms of knowledge revolving around insects and animals, making him useful in times of trivia based challenges. Though his more practical use is when it comes to his physical prowess and keen eyesight, making him a powerful unit that helps in all kinds of physical situations that his team faces. Other than his body, Gonta's mind isn'y fully there when it comes to judgement and planning. Despite his massive frame and intimidating presence, Gonta is such a soft spoken and gentle person that welcomes and converse with others in such a polite manner. In every interaction he has with anyone, he's generally happy, honest, and tries his best to be as gentlemanly as possible. He's not someone who's easily angered, but because of his simple nature he's very much easily fooled by anyone's words, even the words comes from someone that he knows shouldn't be trusted.

Goal: He didn't think much about the prize money at all because he already comes from a very wealthy background, so he might just donate it to help others instead. His true goal is to be on global television so that his biological family can finally see how prim and proper he truly is. For years now after being rescued from the wilderness, Gonta's parents have always deemed him to be feral and uncultured after witnessing how incapable he is about speaking and acting properly for high society standards (though they themselves never made the effort to help guide him, only able to come home about 2-3 times a year because of their work). So to prove to them how proper he truly is, he tried his best to learn everything about being a gentleman and showcase his hard work to his parents, wherever they are, through a famous tv series like Total Dangan.

#total drama #total drama island #tdi #fanart #danganronpa #drv3 #danganronpa v3 #total drama action #gonta gokuhara

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mauveflowers · 4 months

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Hi, see, lady gaga said to her ex, ‘Someday, when we're not together, you won't be able to order a cup of coffee at the f***** deli without hearing or seeing me.' If you are determined to take revenge on someone, you will become famous and rich. If you want someone to forget you, you will disappear into thin air. Unlike Riette, Yoohyun doesn’t become a rogue hunter who raids dungeons without the public's knowledge, but makes sure that Yoojin sees his face every time he turns on the TV and can’t walk down the street without hearing his name or seeing his face on a billboard. He is getting richer and more famous every day, and his brother is getting poorer and more humiliated. How did he imagine that being right in front of Yoojin's eyes while being far away could make Yoojin forget him and start a new life?

Yoohyun didn’t begin his career as a hunter with an agenda of hurting Yoojin. Additionally Yoohyun did not get famous as a method to antagonize his brother, either. With so few s-class hunters in Korea just being one will net you notability as a natural byproduct. They’re regarded as a symbol of that nation’s global power status, since so few people awaken as one. So taking that into account it’s not fair to say Yoohyun was trying to get famous on purpose. He would have anyway just by being an active hunter in Korea. Song Taewon, one of the more lowkey Korean s-class hunters, doesn’t go out of his way to show off either but he is still well-known.

In fact the reason Yoohyun chose to stay in Korea as opposed to being untethered like Riette was solely for Yoojin’s sake. Not to make him feel bad, but to protect him: if he left the country to act on his own he’d have no way to help Yoojin. Even in the later years of preregression Yoohyun does not leave the country even to participate in ranking tournaments because he doesn’t want to leave Yoojin alone.

If Yoojin wasn’t in the picture Yoohyun would be operating just like Riette. But since Yoojin is there Yoohyun made roots in Korea. He’s stated before that the whole reason he even founded a guild was because of Yoojin. Not to make Yoojin feel small, of course, but as a means for Yoohyun to gain power and influence. He’s the leader of Haeyeon and can use his guild as a sword and shield if need be. Someone like Moon Hyuna, who is the guild leader in name only, is unable to wield that kind of power.

This power is also a deterrent for anyone scheming something unsavory. Yoohyun’s face is everywhere, but that isn’t to make Yoojin feel bad. Rather if Yoohyun flaunts his prowess people might hesitate to trouble Yoojin. The threat of Yoohyun’s potential revenge is enough to make someone smaller consider the consequences.

In short, Yoohyun would have been famous no matter what he did. It’s not feasible to stay in your home country as an s-class hunter and not accrue some level of notoriety. Yoohyun didn’t do this with the intention of hurting Yoojin, though. And even though Yoojin does have to see his brother’s face all over the place, in some ways that might be better for him. If Yoohyun left the country and went underground Yoojin would probably be worrying about him night and day. At least with the media trailing him Yoojin can keep tabs on his brother and know that he’s safe.

#tsctir #sctir #s classes that i raised #ask #hyh #Han yoohyun #hyj #han yoojin

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writingquestionsanswered · 1 year

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I deleted the "telling the story from the villain's perspective" ask.

I get so many questions where people suggest ideas that don't work from a fundamental perspective, like, "I'm writing a 750k word story where nothing happens but a clown picking their nose, how do I make this work/believable/not cliche/balanced..." and the problem with these types of asks is that we have MILLIONS of popular stories in the world that tell us some basic fundamentals about how stories work, and 750k words where nothing happens but a clown picking their nose does not fall in line with what fundamentally works in storytelling. So then what happens is I spend ten, or fifteen, or twenty minutes trying to explain how stories typically work so that the person will understand why 750k words worth of a clown picking their nose isn't a good story, only to have the person retort that this just doesn't work for them because that's the story they want to write, now how can they do it in a way that works.

And... here's the thing...

Does a 750k word story about a clown picking their nose work based on the known fundamentals of storytelling? No. Does that mean it absolutely can't work? That it might not be the next most popular thing since the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it's so popular that there's nose-picking-clown merch and countless movies and TV shows about clowns picking their noses... I can't tell you that because anything is possible. I can only tell you what has been true based on millennia of storytelling, and what I know to be true from my own experience with popular storytelling in the Western world, and western stories that resonate globally.

So, write the stories that you want to write. But if they are so fundamentally outside of how stories typically work, it's your job to figure out how to make it work/balanced/believable/not cliche. Because I have 30-something asks sitting in the ask box, not to mention critique partners whose manuscripts I'm reading, paid commissions I'm working on for other members of the WQA community, and my own stories to write. So it isn't fair to them or to myself to have to take even twenty minutes out of my day to figure out how a 750word story about a clown picking their nose could be made to work, be balanced, be believable, or not be cliche. If you want to tell that story, I encourage you to do so, because we can't push the boundaries of what's known to work if we don't write those stories. But it's also your job to figure out how to make it work.

I'm just here to help people write stories that work within the known and most typical knowledge about what currently works with storytelling. ♥♥♥

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runningpsychic · 3 months

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Why Venba resonated with me so much

First of all, I want to preface this article with who I am. I am not Indian nor Tamil, but I am an Taiwanese immigrant living in the Netherlands, and I also spent some of my childhood in the US.

Using food as the through line for the story is genius. Food really represents so much about a culture. By moving abroad, I feel I am broken from that lineage. My grandmother worked as a chef, and my mother learned from her too. But now that I am abroad, I don't have access to the same ingredients, and often it is just easier to cook the same way as the locals do. There's a very limited number of dishes I remember how to cook, and it's hard to even get inspiration. I only wish I could've learned more from my mom, or have a cookbook passed down from my grandmother. Seeing Venba and Kavin try to remember their home dishes reminds me of trying to recreate a flavor I had in my childhood, with nothing but a blurry memory, and my general knowledge of Chinese cooking principles.

When I was born, my parents felt that Taiwan didn't offer enough chances, and they want me to be a global citizen, so they taught me English, by only showing me English TV shows, and later on, we got to live in the US for a couple years. But when I returned, I no longer fit in. Even though I spent most of my childhood in my own country, I felt like a foreigner. I related to internet culture more than my home culture.

I cried a lot when Kavin said he felt like a fraud, because he tried not to be Tamil when it was inconvenient. I also wished that I was born in western europe. I thought it would make things much easier. I'd already know the culture, the language, the way of life, and have citizenship. I do not blame Kavin for wanting to distance himself from that culture. If anything, the fault lies in the locals not being accepting of foreign cultures.

This game reminded me that there is something unique in having a foot in both doors. I have a unique perspective on cultures that most people don't have. And that is why it's so important to tell these stories in games. Like Rosa's trans immigrant story from Goodbye Volcano High, it helps others understand my experience, and it helps me understand and accept myself.

#venba #venba game #indie games #immigrants #foreigner #taiwan #chinese

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studentofetherium · 1 year

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@previous anon: FUCK YOU

Serial Experiments Lain (stylized as serial experiments lain) is a Japanese anime television series created and co-produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura. Animated by Triangle Staff and featuring original character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe, the series was broadcast for 13 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from July to September 1998. The series follows Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl in suburban Japan, and her relation to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the internet.

Lain features surreal and avant-garde imagery and explores philosophical topics such as reality, identity, and communication.[3] The series incorporates creative influences from computer history, cyberpunk, and conspiracy theory. Critics and fans have praised Lain for its originality, visuals, atmosphere, themes, and its dark depiction of a world fraught with paranoia, social alienation, and reliance on technology considered insightful of 21st century life. It received the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 1998. Contents1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Production 3.1 Writing 3.2 Character design 3.3 Themes 3.4 Apple computers 4 Broadcast and release history 4.1 Episode list 5 Reception 6 Related media 6.1 Art books 6.2 Soundtracks 6.3 Video game 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Plot

Lain Iwakura, a junior high school girl, lives in suburban Japan with her middle-class family, consisting of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her emotionally distant mother, and her computer-obsessed father; Lain herself is somewhat awkward, introverted, and socially isolated from most of her school peers. The status-quo of her life becomes upturned by a series of bizarre incidents that start to take place after she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from a dead student, Chisa Yomoda, and she pulls out her old computer in order to check for the same message. Lain finds Chisa telling her via email that she is not dead but has merely "abandoned her physical self" and is alive deep within the virtual realm of the Wired itself, where she claims she has found "God" there. From this point, Lain is caught up in a series of cryptic and surreal events that see her delving deeper into the mystery of the network in a narrative that explores themes of consciousness, perception, and the nature of reality.

"The Wired" is a virtual realm that contains and supports the very sum of all human communication and networks, created with the telegraph, televisions, and telephone services, and expanded with the Internet, cyberspace, and subsequent networks. The series assumes that the Wired could be linked to a system that enables unconscious communication between people and machines without physical interface. The storyline introduces such a system with the Schumann resonances, a property of the Earth's magnetic field that theoretically allows for unhindered long-distance communications. If such a link were created, the network would become equivalent to Reality as the general consensus of all perceptions and knowledge. The increasingly thin invisible line between what is real and what is virtual/digital begins to slowly shatter.

Masami Eiri is introduced as the project director on Protocol Seven (the next-generation Internet protocol in the series' time-frame) for major computer company Tachibana General Laboratories. He had secretly included code of his very own creation to give himself absolute control of the Wired through the wireless system described above. He then "uploaded" his own consciousness into the Wired and "died" a few days after, leaving only his physical self behind. These details are unveiled around the middle of the series, but this is the point where the story begins. Masami later explains that Lain is the artifact by which the wall between the virtual and material worlds is to fall, and that he needs her to go into the Wired and "abandon the flesh", as he did, to achieve his plan. The series sees him trying to convince her through interventions, using the promise of unconditional love, romantic seduction and charm, and even, when all else fails, threats and force.

In the meantime, the anime follows a complex game of hide-and-seek between the "Knights of the Eastern Calculus" (based on the Knights of the Lambda Calculus), hackers whom Masami claims are "believers that enable him to be a God in the Wired", and Tachibana General Laboratories, who try to regain control of Protocol Seven. In the end, the viewer sees Lain realizing, after much introspection, that she has absolute control over everyone's mind and over reality itself. Her dialogue with different versions of herself shows how she feels shunned from the material world, and how she is afraid to live in the Wired, where she has the possibilities and responsibilities of an almighty goddess. The last scenes feature her erasing everything connected to herself from everyone else's memories of her and everything else that has happened since the premiere. She is last seen, unchanged, encountering her oldest and closest friend Alice once again, who is now married. Lain promises herself that she and Alice will surely meet again anytime as Lain can literally go and be anywhere she desires between both worlds. Characters

Lain Iwakura (岩倉玲音, Iwakura Rein) Voiced by: Kaori Shimizu (Japanese); Bridget Hoffman4 The titular character of the series. Lain is a fourteen-year-old girl who uncovers her true nature through the series. She is first depicted as a shy junior high school student with few friends or interests. She later grows multiple bolder personalities, both in the physical world and the Wired, and starts making more friends. As the series progresses, she eventually comes to discover that she is, in reality, merely an autonomous, sentient computer program in the physical and corporeal form of a human being, designed to sever the invisible barrier between the Wired and the real world. In the end, Lain is challenged to accept herself as a de facto goddess for the Wired, having become an omnipotent and omnipresent virtual being with worshippers of her own, as well as an ability to exist beyond the borders of devices, time, or space.

Masami Eiri (英利政美, Eiri Masami) Voiced by: Shō Hayami (Japanese); Kirk Thornton4 The key designer of Protocol Seven. While working for Tachibana General Laboratories, he illicitly included codes enabling him to control the whole protocol at will and embedded his own mind and will into the seventh protocol. Because of this, he was fired by Tachibana General Laboratories, and was found dead not long after. He believes that the only way for humans to evolve even further and develop even greater abilities is to absolve themselves of their physical and human limitations, and to live as virtual entities—or avatars—in the Wired for eternity. He claims to have been Lain's creator all along, but was in truth standing in for another as an acting god, who was waiting for the Wired to reach its more evolved current state: Lain herself. According to another Lain, however, he has never truly existed all along and would not have had any self-obsessed ideas about being God if he had.

Yasuo Iwakura (岩倉康男, Iwakura Yasuo) Voiced by: Ryūsuke Ōbayashi (Japanese); Barry Stigler4 Lain's father. Passionate about computers and electronic communication, he works with Masami Eiri at Tachibana General Laboratories. He subtly pushes Lain, his "youngest daughter", towards the Wired and monitors her development until she becomes more and more aware of herself and of her raison d'être. He eventually leaves Lain, telling her that although he did not enjoy playing house, he genuinely loved and cared for her as a real father would. Despite Yasuo's eagerness to lure Lain into the Wired, he warns her not to get overly involved in it or to confuse it with the real world. Miho Iwakura (岩倉美穂, Iwakura Miho)

Voiced by: Rei Igarashi (Japanese); Dari Lallou Mackenzie4 Lain's mother. Although she dotes on her husband, she is indifferent towards both her kids. Like her husband, she ends up leaving Lain. She is a computer scientist. Alice Mizuki (瑞城ありす, Mizuki Arisu) Voiced by: Yōko Asada (Japanese); Emily Brown4 Lain's classmate and only true friend throughout the series. She is very sincere and has no discernable quirks. She is the first to attempt to help Lain socialize; she takes her out to a nightclub. From then on, she tries her best to look after Lain. Alice, along with her two best friends Julie and Reika, were taken by Chiaki Konaka from his previous work, Alice in Cyberland. Mika Iwakura (岩倉美香, Iwakura Mika)

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese); Patricia Ja Lee4 Lain's older sister, an apathetic sixteen-year-old high school student. She seems to enjoy mocking Lain's behavior and interests. Mika is considered by Anime Revolution to be the only normal member of Lain's family:[5] she sees her boyfriend in love hotels, is on a diet, and shops in Shibuya. At a certain point in the series, she becomes heavily traumatized by violent hallucinations; while Lain begins freely delving into the Wired, Mika is taken there by her proximity to Lain, and she gets stuck between the real world and the Wired.[6] Taro (タロウ, Tarō)

Voiced by: Keito Takimoto (Japanese); Brianne Siddall4 A young boy of about Lain's age. He occasionally works for the Knights to bring forth "the one truth". Despite this, he has not yet been made a member, and knows nothing of their true intentions. Taro loves VR games and hangs out all day at Cyberia with his friends, Myu-Myu and Masayuki. He uses special technology, such as custom Handi Navi and video goggles. Taro takes pride in his internet anonymity, and he asks Lain for a date with her Wired self in exchange for information. Office Worker Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba A top executive from Tachibana General Laboratories. He has a personal agenda, which he carries out with the help of the Men in Black. He looks forward to the arrival of a real God through the Wired, and is the man behind the Knights' mass assassination. There are many things he does not know about Lain, but he would rather ask questions about her than disclose his agenda. Men in Black Karl Haushoffer (カール・ハウスホッファ, Kāru Hausuhoffa), Voiced by: Jouji Nakata Lin Suixi (Chinese: 林随錫; pinyin: Lín Suíxī), Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki The Men in Black work for the above "Office Worker" in tracking down and murdering all of the members of the Knights. They are not told the true plan, but they know that Masami Eiri is somehow involved, despite having been "killed." They see no need for an almighty, all-powerful God—let alone Lain—in the Wired. Chisa Yomoda (四方田千砂, Yomoda Chisa)

Voiced by: Sumi Mutoh (Japanese); Lia Sargent4 A teenage girl who committed suicide at the beginning of the series. After her death, she e-mails Lain, Julie, and a few other kids, saying that she is still alive in the Wired, leading to the series events. Reika Yamamoto (山本麗華, Yamamoto Reika) Voiced by: Chiharu Tezuka (Japanese); Lenore Zann4 One of Alice's friends from school. She does not seem to care for Lain, since she harasses her quite a lot. She is more serious than Julie, and also somewhat meaner. Julie Kato (加藤樹莉, Katō Juri)

Voiced by: Manabi Mizuno (Japanese); Gracie Moore4 Another friend of Alice. She also harasses Lain, but not as severely as Reika does. She is sometimes insensitive to other people's feelings. Masayuki (マサユキ) Voiced by: Sora Fujima (Japanese); Dorothy Elias-Fahn (English) Taro's best friend. He is usually seen hanging out with Taro and Myu-Myu. Myu-Myu (ミューミュウ, Myūmyuu)

Voiced by: Yuki Yamamoto (Japanese); Sandy Fox (English) A young girl who hangs out with Taro and Masayuki at Cyberia Café. She has feelings for Taro, so she gets jealous when he flirts with Lain. Narrator Voiced by: Takashi Taniguchi (Japanese); Paul St. Peter (English)

Production

Serial Experiments Lain was conceived, as a series, to be original to the point of it being considered "an enormous risk" by its producer Yasuyuki Ueda.[7]

Producer Ueda had to answer repeated queries about a statement made in an Animerica interview.[6][8][9] The controversial statement said Lain was "a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after World War II".[10] He later explained in numerous interviews that he created Lain with a set of values he took as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures. When he discovered that the American audience held the same views on the series as the Japanese, he was disappointed.[9]

The Lain franchise was originally conceived to connect across forms of media (anime, video games, manga). Producer Yasuyuki Ueda said in an interview, "the approach I took for this project was to communicate the essence of the work by the total sum of many media products". The scenario for the video game was written first, and the video game was produced at the same time as the anime series, though the series was released first. A dōjinshi titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication" was produced by Yoshitoshi ABe and released in Japanese in the artbook An Omnipresence in Wired. Ueda and Konaka declared in an interview that the idea of a multimedia project was not unusual in Japan, as opposed to the contents of Lain, and the way they are exposed.[11]

Writing

The authors were asked in interviews if they had been influenced by Neon Genesis Evangelion, in the themes and graphic design. This was strictly denied by writer Chiaki J. Konaka in an interview, arguing that he had not even seen Evangelion until he finished the fourth episode of Lain. Being primarily a horror movie writer, his stated influences are Godard (especially for using typography on screen), The Exorcist, Hell House, and Dan Curtis's House of Dark Shadows. Alice's name, like the names of her two friends Julie and Reika, came from a previous production from Konaka, Alice in Cyberland, which in turn was largely influenced by Alice in Wonderland. As the series developed, Konaka was "surprised" by how close Alice's character became to the original Wonderland character.[12] A young girl in a white shift sits with her back to us in the dark, focusing her attention on many glowing computer screens which surround her. Lain's custom computer features holographic displays and liquid carbon dioxide cooling.

Vannevar Bush (and memex), John C. Lilly, Timothy Leary and his eight-circuit model of consciousness, Ted Nelson and Project Xanadu are cited as precursors to the Wired.[11] Douglas Rushkoff and his book Cyberia were originally to be cited as such,[6] and in Lain Cyberia became the name of a nightclub populated with hackers and techno-punk teenagers. Likewise, the series' deus ex machina lies in the conjunction of the Schumann resonances and Jung's collective unconscious (the authors chose this term over Kabbalah and Akashic Record).[10] Majestic 12 and the Roswell UFO incident are used as examples of how a hoax might still affect history, even after having been exposed as such, by creating sub-cultures.[10] This links again to Vannevar Bush, the alleged "brains" of MJ12. Two of the literary references in Lain are quoted through Lain's father: he first logs onto a website with the password "Think Bule Count One Tow" [sic] ("Think Blue, Count Two" is an Instrumentality of Man story featuring virtual persons projected as real ones in people's minds);[13] and his saying that "madeleines would be good with the tea" in the last episode makes Lain "perhaps the only cartoon to allude to Proust".

[14][15] Character design

A young girl in a white shift kneels facing us with scissors in her hand, and hanks of her own hair on the ground, leaving one forelock uncut. The background is blue. ABe came up with Lain's hair by imagining Lain cutting it herself and making a ponytail of what was left.[8] This was later included in his An Omnipresence in Wired artbook.[16]

Yoshitoshi ABe confesses to have never read manga as a child, as it was "off-limits" in his household.[17] His major influences are "nature and everything around him".[6] Specifically speaking about Lain's character, ABe was inspired by Kenji Tsuruta, Akihiro Yamada, Range Murata and Yukinobu Hoshino.[8] In a broader view, he has been influenced in his style and technique by Japanese artists Kyosuke Chinai and Toshio Tabuchi.[6]

The character design of Lain was not ABe's sole responsibility. Her distinctive left forelock for instance was a demand from Yasuyuki Ueda. The goal was to produce asymmetry to reflect Lain's unstable and disconcerting nature.[18] It was designed as a mystical symbol, as it is supposed to prevent voices and spirits from being heard by the left ear.[8] The bear pajamas she wears were a demand from character animation director Takahiro Kishida. Though bears are a trademark of the Konaka brothers, Chiaki Konaka first opposed the idea.[12] Director Nakamura then explained how the bear motif could be used as a shield for confrontations with her family. It is a key element of the design of the shy "real world" Lain (see "mental illness" under Themes).[12] When she first goes to the Cyberia nightclub, she wears a bear hat for similar reasons.[18] Retrospectively, Konaka said that Lain's pajamas became a major factor in drawing fans of moe characterization to the series, and remarked that "such items may also be important when making anime".[12]

ABe's original design was generally more complicated than what finally appeared on screen. As an example, the X-shaped hairclip was to be an interlocking pattern of gold links. The links would open with a snap, or rotate around an axis until the moment the " X " became a " = ". This was not used as there is no scene where Lain takes her hairclip off.[19] Themes

Serial Experiments Lain is not a conventionally linear story, being described as "an alternative anime, with modern themes and realization".[20] Themes range from theological to psychological and are dealt with in a number of ways: from classical dialogue to image-only introspection, passing by direct interrogation of imaginary characters.

Communication, in its wider sense, is one of the main themes of the series,[21] not only as opposed to loneliness, but also as a subject in itself. Writer Konaka said he wanted to directly "communicate human feelings". Director Nakamura wanted to show the audience — and particularly viewers between 14 and 15—"the multidimensional wavelength of the existential self: the relationship between self and the world".[11]

Loneliness, if only as representing a lack of communication, is recurrent through Lain.[22] Lain herself (according to Anime Jump) is "almost painfully introverted with no friends to speak of at school, a snotty, condescending sister, a strangely apathetic mother, and a father who seems to want to care but is just too damn busy to give her much of his time".[23] Friendships turn on the first rumor;[22][24] and the only insert song of the series is named Kodoku no shigunaru, literally "signal of loneliness".[25] A series of drawings depicting the different personalities of Lain—the first shows shy body language, the second shows bolder body language, and the third grins in an unhinged fashion. The different personalities of Lain have their names written using different scripts.

Mental illness, especially dissociative identity disorder, is a significant theme in Lain:[19] the main character is constantly confronted with alter-egos, to the point where writer Chiaki Konaka and Lain's voice actress Kaori Shimizu had to agree on subdividing the character's dialogues between three different orthographs.[19] The three names designate distinct "versions" of Lain: the real-world, "childish" Lain has a shy attitude and bear pajamas. The "advanced" Lain, her Wired personality, is bold and questioning. Finally, the "evil" Lain is sly and devious, and does everything she can to harm Lain or the ones close to her.[12] As a writing convention, the authors spelled their respective names in kanji, katakana, and roman characters (see picture).[26]

Reality never has the pretense of objectivity in Lain.[27] Acceptations of the term are battling throughout the series, such as the "natural" reality, defined through normal dialogue between individuals; the material reality; and the tyrannic reality, enforced by one person onto the minds of others.[22] A key debate to all interpretations of the series is to decide whether matter flows from thought, or the opposite.[22][28] The production staff carefully avoided "the so-called God's Eye Viewpoint" to make clear the "limited field of vision" of the world of Lain.[27]

Theology plays its part in the development of the story too. Lain has been viewed as a questioning of the possibility of an infinite spirit in a finite body.[29] From self-realization as a goddess to deicide,[14] religion (the title of a layer) is an inherent part of Lain's background.[29] Apple computers

Lain contains extensive references to Apple computers, as the brand was used at the time by most of the creative staff, such as writers, producers, and the graphical team.[12] As an example, the title at the beginning of each episode is announced by the Apple computer speech synthesis program PlainTalk, using the voice "Whisper", e.g. say -v Whisper "Weird: Layer zero one". Tachibana Industries, the company that creates the NAVI computers, is a reference to Apple computers: the tachibana orange is a Japanese variety of mandarin orange. NAVI is the abbreviation of Knowledge Navigator, and the HandiNAVI is based on the Apple Newton, one of the world's first PDAs. The NAVIs are seen to run "Copland OS Enterprise" (this reference to Copland was an initiative of Konaka, a declared Apple fan),[12] and Lain's and Alice's NAVIs closely resembles the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh and the iMac respectively. The HandiNAVI programming language, as seen on the seventh episode, is a dialect of Lisp; the Newton also used a Lisp dialect (NewtonScript). The program being typed by Lain can be found in the CMU AI repository;[30] it is a simple implementation of Conway's Game of Life in Common Lisp.

During a series of disconnected images, an iMac and the Think Different advertising slogan appears for a short time, while the Whisper voice says it.[31] This was an unsolicited insertion from the graphic team, also Mac-enthusiasts.[12] Other subtle allusions can be found: "Close the world, Open the nExt" is the slogan for the Serial Experiments Lain video game. NeXT was the company that produced NeXTSTEP, which later evolved into Mac OS X after Apple bought NeXT. Another example is "To Be Continued." at the end of episodes 1–12, with a blue "B" and a red "e" on "Be"; this matches the original logo of Be Inc., a company founded by ex-Apple employees and NeXT's main competitor in its time.[32] Broadcast and release history

Serial Experiments Lain was first aired on TV Tokyo and its affiliates on July 6, 1998, and concluded on September 28, 1998, with the thirteenth and final episode. The series consists of 13 episodes (referred to in the series as "Layers") of 24 minutes each, except for the sixth episode, Kids (23 minutes 14 seconds). In Japan, the episodes were released in LD, VHS, and DVD with a total of five volumes. A DVD compilation named "Serial Experiments Lain DVD-BOX Яesurrection" was released along with a promo DVD called "LPR-309" in 2000.[33] As this box set is now discontinued, a rerelease was made in 2005 called "Serial Experiments Lain TV-BOX". A 4-volume DVD box set was released in the US by Pioneer/Geneon. A Blu-ray release of the anime was made in December 2009 called "Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box| RESTORE".[34][35][36][37] The anime series returned to US television on October 15, 2012, on the Funimation Channel.[38] The series' opening theme, "Duvet", was written and performed by Jasmine Rodgers and the British band Bôa. The ending theme, "Distant Scream" (遠い叫び, Tōi Sakebi), was written and composed by Reichi Nakaido.

The anime series was licensed in North America by Pioneer Entertainment (later Geneon USA) on VHS and DVD in 1999. However, the company closed its USA division in December 2007 and the series went out-of-print as a result.[39] However, at Anime Expo 2010, North American distributor Funimation announced that it had obtained the license to the series and re-released it in 2012.[40]

Episode list

No. Title Directed by Original air date

1 "Weird" Ryūtarō Nakamura July 6, 1998 A high school girl commits suicide by jumping off a rooftop late at night. A week later, students are getting emails from the girl, named Chisa Yomoda, which claim that she only gave up her body, but is actually still alive inside the virtual world known as the Wired, saying that there is a God that exists there. After getting one of these emails, introverted fourteen-year-old Lain Iwakura becomes much more interested in computers and asks her techie father, Yasuo Iwakura, for a new NAVI computer system. When she returns to school the following day, the blackboard writes a subliminal message, inviting her to come to the Wired as soon as she can, revealed to be written by Chisa herself.

2 "Girls" Ryūtarō Nakamura July 13, 1998 At Cyberia, a hardcore techno club, a man buys a nanomachine drug called Accela. On the way to school the next day, Alice Mizuki, along with her friends Julie and Reika, tell Lain they saw her during their first visit to Cyberia, but with a far more vigorous and forceful personality. Lain has her father set up her NAVI computer system at home later that evening. After some persuasion, Lain decides to join Alice at Cyberia that night to prove that she was not there before. However, Lain becomes involved with a shooting in the club by the same man under the influence of Accela. She approaches the man, saying that everyone is connected in the Wired no matter where they are. This leads the man to shoot himself out of psychological shock and trauma.

3 "Psyche" Jōhei Matsuura July 20, 1998 The following day, Lain is scolded by her cold mother, Miho Iwakura, for waking up too late. When she leaves the house, she believes she is being spied on when she sees a black car parked near her house. Furthermore, she hears a voice calling out to her when she enters the train, telling her that she is not alone. Her life is thrown into further disarray when she is anonymously sent a mysterious computer chip. She asks her father what it is, but he says he does not know. When she goes to see Taro, with his friends Myu-Myu and Masayuki, at Cyberia, he recalls seeing Lain on the Wired once, noting her Wired personality being the complete opposite of her restrained real world personality. Mika Iwakura, Lain's older sister, comes home the next day, only to see Lain not acting herself as she starts to modify and upgrade her NAVI computer system.

4 "Religion" Akihiko Nishiyama July 27, 1998 Rumors are flying around school and on the Wired in regards to numerous senior students of various high schools committing suicide, with each of the deceased being addicted to the online action game known as PHANTOMa. Interested, Lain investigates only to discover that the game was glitched with a tag game for kids, in which a little girl scares the students to their deaths. Moreover, she finds out that the deaths were most likely caused by the elite secretive hacker group known as the Knights of the Eastern Calculus. Later at night, she senses the Men in Black, who had been spying on her earlier. When she tells the two to go away, a sound wave penetrates through her window, causing the two to fall back and drive away in their black car.

5 "Distortion" Masahiko Murata August 3, 1998 Amidst the events surrounding Tokyo having its traffic information transmission system hacked to cause deliberate accidents, Lain experiences a series of hallucinations that teach her the nature of the Wired in relation to the real world, by means of inanimate objects in her room and eventually her parents. In the meantime, Mika is driven to terror from the Knights repeatedly communicating in unusual ways for her to "fulfill the prophecy."

6 "KIDS" Ryūtarō Nakamura August 10, 1998 At night, when Yasuo checks on Lain, he sees a dramatic change in her room arrangement and the upgrades on her NAVI computer system, which worries him. As Lain hangs out with Alice, along with Julie and Reika, in the district, she notices that children are looking up into the sky and raising their arms, only to realize that they are looking at an image of herself that appears in the sky. Lain searches for the reason behind the strange happenings and finds Professor Hodgeson, the creator of KIDS, an experiment that started fifteen years ago that tried to gather psi energy from children and store it, though the result of the project destroyed the children. Now it seems that the Knights have gotten hold of the project's schematics. When the Men in Black return, Lain goes outside to see them. The coolant system in her room bursts, leading the Men in Black to confirm that the Knights planted a parasite bomb there.

7 "SOCIETY" Jōhei Matsuura August 17, 1998 As Lain gets more and more involved in the Wired world, albeit at home and at school, Alice starts to worry about her closing up again. It is reported that the Knights cracked the firewall of the information control center of the Wired. As the activity of the Knights begins to surface, the network is in search for Lain. The Men in Black ask Lain to follow them to an office in the Tachibana General Laboratories, where the Office Worker in charge of the Men in Black, after her help of fixing his computer, shows Lain a projection of herself in the Wired taking out one of the members of the Knights. After the Office Worker deduces that Lain in the real world and in the Wired are one and the same, he questions her about her origins. However, she breaks down for not knowing, altering her timid personality to that of a more serious one before she shoves her way out of the room. 8 "RUMORS" Shigeru Ueda August 24, 1998 Lain's family has been acting weird lately, much to her surprise. Upon further investigation, Lain disbelieves that she is omnipresent in the Wired, while she is merely a body, more or less a projection of herself, in the real world. A rumor is spread in the Wired about Alice having sexual fantasies about a male teacher, and a second one says that Lain has spread the first. To cope with the distress of rejection, Lain acts directly on reality for the first time, finding out that she can "delete" the event of the rumors. A lookalike duplicate of herself with its own distinct personality starts appearing more frequently, which leads her to question her own existence.

9 "PROTOCOL" Akihiko Nishiyama August 31, 1998 Throughout the episode, background information is being shown from "archives". Information regarding the Roswell UFO incident, the Majestic 12, which was formed by President Harry S. Truman, engineer Vannevar Bush, who developed what is called memex, physician John C. Lilly, who conducted experiments with dolphin communication, pioneer Ted Nelson, who founded Project Xanadu, and the Schumann resonances are all mentioned, explaining how the human consciousness can be communicated through a network without the use of a device. It is also noted that a man named Masami Eiri has suddenly committed suicide. During that time, Lain gets a computer microchip from J.J., the disc jockey from Cyberia. She then asks Taro on a "date" and takes him to her home, where she asks him about the microchip. After becoming frightened, he admits it is a computer code made to disrupt human memory, and it was made by the Knights. Although he defends them, he admits not knowing much about them. He later kisses Lain before leaving. 10 "LOVE" Masahiko Murata September 7, 1998 As both are seen to have switched bodies, Eiri introduces himself to Lain as the creator of Protocol Seven, saying that Lain no longer needs to have a body in order to be alive. As she, back in her own body, comes home, Yasuo says his farewell after realizing she knows the truth behind her existence. Eiri is considered the God of the Wired because he explained that he is worshiped by the Knights. Knowing this, Lain deals with the Knights once and for all by leaking a list of all of its members onto the Wired, leaving a trail of murder by the Men in Black and suicide in its wake. Even with the Knights gone, Eiri still claims he is the God of the Wired, since he says that the real Lain exists in the Wired, not the real world.

11 "Infornography" Jōhei Matsuura September 14, 1998 Lain lies exhausted in her room, and wakes up to find herself all wrapped in electrical cords. After a really long and complicated memory flashback, seen throughout the series, Eiri appears in her room and congratulates her, for having succeeded in downloading her NAVI into her own brain to see and hear all that is happening. However, he warns her about her "hardware capacity," and that she is merely a sentient and autonomous software computer program with a physical body in the form of a teenage human girl. Lain later appears to Alice in her room to make things right with her again concerning the false rumors. Lain declares that anything is possible now, as devices are no longer needed anymore to enter the Wired freely. The next day, nobody seems to remember the rumored incidents and Lain smiles at Alice's complicity.

12 "Landscape" Ryūtarō Nakamura September 21, 1998 Lain witnesses the frontier between the physical and the Wired worlds finally beginning to collapse. The Men in Black are approached by their Officer Worker, who gives them a final "payment" for their services, telling them to leave town away from any power lines or satellite coverage. After he leaves, both Men in Black suffer death from an image of Lain etched in their retinas. Alice enters Lain's eerie house and goes inside her room. Lain explains that she is actually a computerized program designed to destroy the barrier between the two worlds. Lain is still affixed on the fact that humans no longer need a physical body to stay alive, but Alice shows that her heartbeat proves otherwise. Suddenly, Eiri, first unseen to Alice, appears behind Lain, assuming she needs to be "debugged". Lain argues that Eiri was just an "acting god", for she is the true Goddess of the Wired. Eiri retaliates by transforming into a monstrous form to attain the vastly limitless power and strength that she possesses, but Lain manages to crush Eiri with her electrical equipment, wiping him out for good.

13 "Ego" Ryūtarō Nakamura September 28, 1998

Lain's attempts to protect her from Eiri's attack result in traumatizing Alice, Lain's only true friend; in order to fix this, Lain decides to do a "factory reset" on her life, deleting herself from everyone's memory. Distraught from doing so, Lain is determined to discover her true form and identity and takes radical action. She is confronted by her separate bolder self of the Wired, who reminds her that the Wired is not an upper layer of the real world. Her bolder Wired self then assures her that she is the true Goddess of the Wired, saying she is an omnipotent and omnipresent virtual being that can go and be anywhere she desires and merely watch the real world from afar. After causing her bolder self to disappear, Lain sees her father. Alice, now older with a spouse, spots Lain standing on an overpass, having some déjà vu about Lain but not recognizing who she is. Alice says goodbye and that she may run into Lain again someday. Lain asserts that this is true, since she is everywhere at once. Reception A suburban scene on a sunny day, showing houses and telegraph poles, but the shadows contain unnatural red splotches. Lain's neighborhood. The "blood pools" represent the Wired's presence "beneath the surface" of reality.[6]

Serial Experiments Lain was first broadcast in Tokyo at 1:15 a.m. JST. The word "weird" appears almost systematically in English language reviews of the series,[23][41][42][43][44] or the alternatives "bizarre",[45] and "atypical",[46] due mostly to the freedoms taken with the animation and its unusual science fiction themes, and due to its philosophical and psychological context. Critics responded positively to these thematic and stylistic characteristics, and it was awarded an Excellence Prize by the 1998 Japan Media Arts Festival for "its willingness to question the meaning of contemporary life" and the "extraordinarily philosophical and deep questions" it asks.[47]

According to Christian Nutt from Newtype USA, the main attraction to the series is its keen view on "the interlocking problems of identity and technology". Nutt saluted Abe's "crisp, clean character design" and the "perfect soundtrack" in his 2005 review of series, saying that "Serial Experiments Lain might not yet be considered a true classic, but it's a fascinating evolutionary leap that helped change the future of anime."[48] Anime Jump gave it 4.5/5,[23] and Anime on DVD gave it A+ on all criteria for volume 1 and 2, and a mix of A and A+ for volume 3 and 4.[42] Lain was subject to commentary in the literary and academic worlds. The Asian Horror Encyclopedia calls it "an outstanding psycho-horror anime about the psychic and spiritual influence of the Internet".[49] It notes that the red spots present in all the shadows look like blood pools (see picture). It notes the death of a girl in a train accident is "a source of much ghost lore in the twentieth century", more so in Tokyo.

The Anime Essentials anthology by Gilles Poitras describes it as a "complex and somehow existential" anime that "pushed the envelope" of anime diversity in the 1990s, alongside the much better known Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop.[50] Professor Susan J. Napier, in her 2003 reading to the American Philosophical Society called The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation (published 2005), compared Serial Experiments Lain to Ghost in the Shell and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.[51] According to her, the main characters of the two other works cross barriers; they can cross back to our world, but Lain cannot. Napier asks whether there is something to which Lain should return, "between an empty 'real' and a dark 'virtual'".[52] Mike Toole of Anime News Network named Serial Experiments Lain as one of the most important anime of the 1990s.[53]

Despite the positive feedback the television series had received, Anime Academy gave the series a 75%, partly due to the "lifeless" setting it had.[54] Michael Poirier of EX magazine stated that the last three episodes fail to resolve the questions in other DVD volumes.[55] Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network noted that the English dub was decent, but that the show relied so little on dialogue that it hardly mattered.[56] Related media

Art booksAn Omnipresence In Wired: Hardbound, 128 pages in 96 colors with Japanese text. It features a chapter for each layer (episode) and concept sketches. It also features a short color manga titled "The Nightmare of Fabrication". It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/SR-12W/Pioneer LDC. (ISBN 4-7897-1343-1) Yoshitoshi ABe lain illustrations ab# rebuild an omnipresence in Wired: Hardbound, 148 pages. A remake of "An Omnipresence In Wired" with new art, added text by Chiaki J. Konaka, and a section entitled "ABe's EYE in color of things" (a compilation of his photos of the world). It was published in Japan on October 1, 2005, by Wanimagazine (ISBN 4-89829-487-1), and in America as a softcover version translated into English on June 27, 2006, by Digital Manga Publishing (ISBN 1-56970-899-1). Visual Experiments Lain: Paperback, 80 full-color pages with Japanese text. It has details on the creation, design, and storyline of the series. It was published in 1998 by Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC. (ISBN 4-7897-1342-3) Scenario Experiments Lain: Paperback, 335 pages. By "chiaki j. konaka" (uncapitalized in original). It contains collected scripts with notes and small excerpted storyboards. It was published in 1998 in Japan.(ISBN 4-7897-1320-2)

Soundtracks

The first original soundtrack, Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack, features music by Reichi Nakaido: the ending theme and part of the television series' score, alongside other songs inspired by the series. The second, Serial Experiments Lain Soundtrack: Cyberia Mix, features electronica songs inspired by the television series, including a remix of the opening theme "Duvet" by DJ Wasei. The third, lain BOOTLEG, consists of the ambient score of the series across forty-five tracks. BOOTLEG also contains a second mixed-mode data and audio disc, containing a clock program and a game, as well as an extended version of the first disc – nearly double the length – across 57 tracks in 128 kbit/s MP3 format, and sound effects from the series in WAV format. Because the word bootleg appears in its title, it is easily confused with the Sonmay counterfeit edition of itself, which only contains the first disc in an edited format. All three soundtrack albums were released by Pioneer Records.

The series' opening theme, "Duvet", was written and performed in English by the British rock band Bôa. The band released the song as a single and as part of the EP Tall Snake, which features both an acoustic version and DJ Wasei's remix from Cyberia Mix. Video game Main article: Serial Experiments Lain (video game)

On November 26, 1998, Pioneer LDC released a video game with the same name as the anime for the PlayStation.[57] It was designed by Konaka and Yasuyuki, and made to be a "network simulator" in which the player would navigate to explore Lain's story.[12] The creators themselves did not call it a game, but "Psycho-Stretch-Ware",[12] and it has been described as being a kind of graphic novel: the gameplay is limited to unlocking pieces of information, and then reading/viewing/listening to them, with little or no puzzle needed to unlock.[58] Lain distances itself even more from classical games by the random order in which information is collected.[12] The aim of the authors was to let the player get the feeling that there are myriads of informations that they would have to sort through, and that they would have to do with less than what exists to understand.[12] As with the anime, the creative team's main goal was to let the player "feel" Lain, and "to understand her problems, and to love her".[11] A guidebook to the game called Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide (ISBN 4-07-310083-1) was released the same month by MediaWorks.[59] See alsoNoosphere

References

"Serial Experiments Lain BD/DVD Box Delayed 4 Months". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 28, 2018. Retrieved June 26, 2018. "FRUiTS October (No.15_1st/Oct./1998)". Cornell Japanese Animation Society. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2019.

Napier, Susan J. (November 2002). "When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain". Science Fiction Studies. 29 (88): 418–435. ISSN 0091-7729. Archived from the original on June 11, 2007. Retrieved May 4, 2007. "Serial Experiments Lain (1999 TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on January 31, 2022. Retrieved January 31, 2022. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information. "[SEL] Character Profiles". Anime Revolution. Archived from the original on March 23, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2006. "Otakon Lain Panel Discussion with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe". August 5, 2000. Archived from the original on October 26, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006.

Scipion, Johan (March 1, 2003). "Abe Yoshitoshi et Ueda Yasuyuki". AnimeLand (in French). Anime Manga Presse. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 16, 2006. The Anime Colony (August 7, 2000). "Online Lain Chat with Yasuyuki Ueda and Yoshitoshi ABe". Archived from the original on October 24, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006.

"Anime Jump!: Lain Men:Yasuyuki Ueda". Archived from the original on August 4, 2008. Retrieved September 26, 2006. Animerica, (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 29) Animerica, (Vol. 7 No. 9, p. 28) "Serial Experiments Lain". HK Magazine. Hong Kong: Asia City Publishing (14). April 2000. in "HK Interview". Chiaki J. Konaka. Archived from the original on November 24, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2010. and "HK Interview". Chiaki J. Konaka. Archived from the original on November 1, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2010. Serial Experiments Lain, "Layer 01: WEIRD"

"Movie Gazette: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume : Reset" Review". Archived from the original on May 21, 2006. Retrieved October 11, 2006. Yasuo: "I will bring madeleines next time. They will taste good with the tea." Serial Experiments Lain, Episode 13, "Ego". Lain has just erased herself from her friends' memories, while for Proust the taste of madeleines triggers memories of his childhood. ABe, Yoshitoshi (1998). "Hair cut 01-04". An Omnipresence In Wired (in Japanese). Pioneer LDC. ISBN 978-4-7897-1343-6. "Anime Jump!: Lain Men: Yoshitoshi ABe". 2000. Archived from the original on May 10, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006. FRUiTS Magazine No. 15, October 1998.

Manga Max magazine, September 1999, p. 22, "Unreal to Real" Benkyo! Magazine, March 1999, p.16, "In My Humble Opinion" "T.H.E.M.Anime Review of Serial Experiments Lain". Archived from the original on October 11, 2006. Retrieved November 24, 2006. "DVDoutsider Review of Serial Experiments Lain". Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2006. Toole, Mike (October 16, 2003). "Anime Jump!: Serial Experiments Lain Review". Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Serial Experiments Lain, Layer 08: RUMORS "List of Serial Experiments Lain songs". Archived from the original on January 13, 2007. Retrieved December 7, 2006. ABe, Yoshitoshi (1998). Visual Experiments Lain. Triangle Staff/Pioneer LDC. ISBN 978-4-7897-1342-9., page 42 Manga Max Magazine, September 1999, p. 21, "God's Eye View" Serial Experiments Lain, Layer 06: KIDS: "your physical body exists only to confirm your existence".

Study on Lain, Buffy, and Attack of the clones by Felicity J. Coleman, lecturer at the University of Melbourne. From the Internet Archive. "Conway's Game of Life". Carnegie Mellon University. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2009. Serial Experiments Lain, Layer 11: INFORNOGRAPHY. "Be, Inc". Archived from the original on November 28, 2003. Retrieved November 27, 2006. "Serial Experiments Lain – Release". Archived from the original on February 16, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2009. "Serial Experiments Lain Blu-ray Box RESTORE". ImageShack. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 14, 2015. "serial experiments lain Blu-ray LABO プロデューサーの制作日記". Archived from the original on December 26, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2009. "Playlog.jp Blog". Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved October 15, 2009.

"Lain on BD announced – Wakachan Thread". Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2009. "FUNimation Week 43 of 2012". Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. "Geneon USA To Cancel DVD Sales, Distribution By Friday". Anime News Network. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010. "Funi Adds Live Action Moyashimon Live Action, More". Anime News Network. July 2, 2010. Archived from the original on July 4, 2010. Retrieved July 3, 2010. Bitel, Anton. "Movie Gazette: 'Serial Experiments Lain Volume 2: Knights' Review". Movie Gazette. Archived from the original on August 21, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006. Robinson, Tasha. "Sci-Fi Weekly: Serial Experiments Lain Review". Archived from the original on July 20, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006.

Beveridge, Chris (July 13, 1999). "Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #1". Mania.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2006. Southworth, Wayne. "The Spinning Image: "Serial Experiments Lain Volume 4: Reset" Review". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved September 16, 2006. Silver, Aaron. "Anime News Network: Serial Experiments Lain DVD Vol. 1–4 Review". Archived from the original on March 25, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006. Lai, Tony. "DVD.net: "Lain: Volume 1 – Navi" Review". Archived from the original on September 20, 2006. Retrieved September 16, 2006. Japan Media Arts Plaza (1998). "1998 (2nd) Japan Media Arts Festival: Excellence Prize – serial experiments lain". Archived from the original on April 26, 2007. Retrieved September 16, 2006.From the Internet Archive. Nutt, Christian (January 2005). "Serial Experiments Lain DVD Box Set: Lost in the Wired". Newtype USA. 4 (1): 179. Bush, Laurence C. (October 2001). Asian Horror Encyclopedia. Writers Club Press. ISBN 978-0-595-20181-5., page 162. Poitras, Gilles (December 2001). Anime Essentials. Stone Bridge Press, LLC. ISBN 978-1-880656-53-2., page 28.

Napier, Susan J., Dr. (March 2005). "The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 149 (1): 72–79. JSTOR 4598910. Napier 2005, p. 78 Toole, Mike (June 5, 2011). "Evangel-a-like – The Mike Toole Show". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on October 10, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015. "Serial Experiments: Lain". March 16, 2002. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2015. "Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure". May 11, 2000. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved April 17, 2015. "Serial Experiments Lain – Buried Treasure". November 20, 2008. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015. "Serial Experiments Lain". Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved September 25, 2010. "Games Are Fun: "Review – Serial Experiments Lain – Japan"". April 25, 2003. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2006.シリアルエクスペリメンツレイン公式ガイド [Serial Experiments Lain Official Guide] (in Japanese). ASIN 4073100831.

Further readingBitel, Anton. "Movie Gazette: 'Serial Experiments Lain Volume 3: Deus' Review". Movie Gazette. Archived from the original on May 21, 2006. Retrieved October 11, 2006. Horn, Carl Gustav. "Serial Experiments Lain". Viz Communications. Archived from the original on February 19, 2001. Retrieved September 25, 2010. Moure, Dani. "Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #2". Mania.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2010. Moure, Dani. "Serial Experiments Lain Vol. #3". Mania.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2010. Napier, Susan J. (2005) Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation ISBN 978-1-4039-7052-7 Prévost, Adèle-Elise; Musebasement (2008)

"Manga: The Signal of Noise" Mechademia 3 pp. 173–188 ISSN 1934-2489 Prindle, Tamae Kobayashi (2015). "Nakamura Ryûtarô's Anime, Serial Experiments, Lain (1998)". Asian Studies. 3 (1): 53–81. doi:10.4312/as.2015.3.1.53-81. ISSN 2350-4226. Sevakis, Justin (November 20, 2008). "Buried Treasure: Serial Experiments Lain". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 25, 2010. Jackson, C. (2012). "Topologies of Identity in Serial Experiments Lain". Mechademia. 7: 191–201. doi:10.1353/mec.2012.0013. S2CID 119423011.

External links Wikiquote has quotations related to Serial Experiments Lain. Look up Appendix:Serial Experiments Lain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

this is definitely the new weirdest anon ive gotten

#in case you're wondering this is the entire text of the lain wikipedia article #asks tag

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y0ur-maj3sty · 1 year

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Project Blue Beam

Nasa has been working on aircraft that are real, but will become a part of the Global Holographic Alien Invasion/Light show. This may also include a staged 2nd coming of historical fugures; such as Jesus or Mohammed or Krishna.

BLUE BEAM Has 4 Steps:

Step 1

The first step concerns the breakdown of all archaeological knowledge. It deals with staging earthquakes at certain precise locations around the planet where supposed new "discoveries" will finally explain that the meanings of the basic doctrines of all the world`s major religions are wrong. This falsification will be used to make the population believe that all religious doctrine has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. For example, in the entertainment/movie industry, a falsification started with the film(s) 2001: A Space Odyssey, the TV-series Star Trek, the Star Wars films, and E.T., all of which deal with space invasion and protection. Another movie example is Jurassic Park which was released to push the Theory of Evolution.

Step 2

The second step deals with the gigantic space show: 3D optical holograms and sounds, laser projections of multiple holographic images in different parts of the world, each receiving a different image, according to its predetermined original national religious faith. This new "god" image will talk in all languages. As an example, the Soviets have manufactured the advanced computers and have programmed them with the Minute Psychological Particles based upon their studies of the anatomy and biology of the human body, as well as their studies on the anatomy, chemistry and electricity of the human brain. These computers have also been fed with the different languages of the world.

Step 3

The third step deals with telepathic electronic two-way communication, where ELF(Extra Low Frequency), VLF (Very Low Frequency), and LF (Low Frequency) waves will reach the people of the Earth through the insides of their brains, making each person believe that his own God is speaking to him from within his own soul. Such rays, from satellites, are fed from the memory of computers that store much data about the human being and his languages. These rays will then interlace and interweave with the natural thinking processes to form what is called Artificial Talk.

Step 4

The fourth step involves universal supernatural manifestations using electronic means. This step contains three different orientations:

The first one is to make mankind believe that an Alien Invasion is about to occur upon every major city on the earth. This is to push each major nation into using its nuclear capability to strike back. In this manner, it would put each of these nations in a state of full disarmament before the United Nations after the false attack.

The second is to make the vast Christian population believe that a major rapture is occurring, with a simple, orchestrated, divine intervention of an alleged "good" alien force coming to save the good people from a brutal satanic attack. Its goal is to get rid of all significant opposition to the New World Order.

The third orientation is a mixture of electronic and supernatural forces. The waves or frequencies used at that time will allow supernatural forces to travel through fiber optics cable, coaxial cable, electric and telephone lines in order to penetrate all electronic equipment and appliances that will by then all have a special microchip installed. The goal of this step deals with the materialization of satanic ghosts, spectres, and poltergeists all across the globe in order to push all populations to the edge of a wave of suicide, killing and permanent psychological disorder. After that night, humanity is believed to be ready for them to enter in a "New" Messiah to re-establish peace everywhere at any cost, even at the cost of their freedom.

#project blue beam #NASA #government #UFOs #jesus #holograms #aliens #alien invasion

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arieso226 · 1 year

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The racial aspects of Sci Fi, Fantasy and other forms media

NO. 1

One of the blog posts I have written before was titled ‘Mean World Syndrome’, which talked about how race and media affects everyone on a global scale. Racial aspects of sci-fi, fantasy, and other forms of media have long been a source of controversy. From the stereotypes of aliens in Star Trek to the whitewashing of characters in movies like Avatar, Prince of Persia, etc. these issues have been a major source of discussion in the media landscape. In many cases, racial stereotypes have been used to create a sense of ‘otherness’ for the characters of color in order to reinforce a sense of white superiority. This has led to criticism from fans, activists, and academics who have called for more representation of people of color in sci-fi, fantasy, and other forms of media.

NO. 2

In the entertainment business, inclusivity is hard to come by, and in some cases, the representation of characters of color in these genres is inadequate and often offensive. Characters of color are often relegated to the sidelines and made to serve as the backdrop to white characters’ stories, or they are depicted as tokens and stereotypes. This lack of meaningful representation has led to a push for more diverse casts in sci-fi, fantasy, and other forms of media. ‘‘Like many social sciences, international/intercultural/interethnic communication and media studies are primarily an Anglo-American media images have always been critically dissected, often by scholars with some kind of privileged tie to other cultures—Most makers of these blockbusters are mostly white males with English as their mother tongue, mutli-millionaires or aspiring to become one as soon as possible. They usually internalize a mid-Atlantic view of global history and geography, its central myths and legends. So many blockbusters remain ethnocentric, even today—they tend to make non-Westerners look at the world through Western eyes.’’

NO.3

In addition to representation in the stories themselves, the casting of actors to bring these characters to life has been another source of debate. Many actors of color have argued that they are often typecast into roles that are stereotypical or that do not reflect the true diversity of the world. Films or TV shows with fantasy/sci-fi themes on Netflix, like Chambers or Raising Dion are not being properly advertised because, like Inclusive Advertising: What’s Holding the Industry Back? claims, ‘‘The industry itself is not diverse: The advertising industry — across the ecosystem and at all levels — is not representative, which is itself a barrier to creating representative and inclusive content. Only 19% of in-house and 23% of agency survey respondents reported that their leader almost always considers the demographic diversity of their team when developing content. That, and individuals (in these marketing companies) lack awareness of and access to the knowledge, skills, resources, and tools to create representative and inclusive content. Individuals are confident in their ability to create representative and inclusive content, but only if provided with adequate tools and resources.’’

NO. 4

Of course, there will always be people who dislike seeing a more diverse setting, especially against the established order of Western ‘‘whiteness’’ ideologies. Ultimately, the best way to ensure diversity in these genres is to continue to create stories that feature diverse characters and cultures. If authors, producers, and casting directors make a conscious effort to create more imaginative stories that are inclusive and reflective of the real world, then audiences will be able to experience a more authentic and meaningful experience.

#racemedia #race in media #characters #inclusivity #social issues #anime #stereotypes #fandoms #identity #social justice #social theory #cultures #colonialism #politics

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longjiaojiao · 7 months

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Some of you have noticed that I repost something about supporting civilians in Gaza and against massacres, if these make you uncomfortable, just pull the plug. I try to control the number of reposts and not let politics dilute my fandom content, hope you guys can understand :)

Since I've post this, I'll say a few more words mainly for myself, as a record of some of my thoughts. The 20s of the 21st century was a time of social upheaval, with the outbreak of civil war in Burma, military coups in West Africa, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict trigger the problems in the global energy and food markets, so leaded the outbreak of crises in many countries, such as the bankruptcy of Sri Lanka and the mutiny in Burkina Faso. This year's Sudanese civil war, the mutiny in Niger, the mutiny in Gabon, and the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, perhaps it is also because of the epidemics that divert our attention from the fact that the world already become more unstable years ago.

Being concerned about the international situation is not a bad thing, but I think we ordinary people still need to learn the right way to cope with it. It's possible that the news won't make you panic, but there are still a lot of people who have anxiety because of politics. I'm a young person and 9/11 happened when my mum was pregnant, she still to this day tells me in a very emotional tone about how she was watching TV on the couch that night and the news report the images of 9/11, she thought it was a scene from a new Hollywood film, but it turned out to be a real life terrorist attack and it stuck with her till now. You see fear and shock are easily spread and people are much more sensitive to negative information than positive. It is necessary to realise what a fragile society we live in, and to realise how precious our life and happiness is.

What can we do for the world? I think protect ourselves from doomerism, maintain a positive attitude towards life, discover the beauty of the world and cherish the life we have now. The world has not been only getting worse, Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations, Syrian President returned to the League of Arab States summit and so on. UN is not useless, one-vote cannot hide other votes, UN still gives many small countries a chance to speak out.

The impact of imperialism is hard to disappear. After World War II, various countries became independent one after another, but after that, they still inherited the national boundaries and the economic system, and even the ideological steel marks designed by imperialism for them. The seeds of hatred were planted by the colonizers, many people still believe that only war and blood can resolve conflicts between faiths and races. So it is more important to understand, to keep thinking, to consider the possibility of communication before refereeing others, and never to believe that violence can solve problems.

I've seen a lot of people say "I hope what's happening in Palestine right now will make you radical" and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd rather people give themselves some attention first, look around, take a deep breath, where are you, how did your get to own all the thing you have right now? Before asking others to become radical, I sincerely hope all my friends will be more kind, more appreciative of life, happier when they laugh and stronger when they are sad. Protect yourself first, change the things you can change, desire for truth and knowledge, so you can have a louder voice for these who be silenced.

#suibianlao

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bumblebeeappletree · 6 months

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youtube

We are facing the greatest upheaval since industrialization. To stop climate change, the energy system must be transformed worldwide. Very little time remains to accomplish this. But there are places where this renewable future has already arrived.

The documentary explores the question of what needs to happen in terms of politics, policies, and society to implement what is technically possible, when it comes to renewable energy. To do this, the film visits two completely different places. One is in the US and the other, in Bavaria. These localities have two things in common: Both have completely converted their energy supply to renewables and as a result, both now have more money in their coffers today than before.

The documentary provides a global overview of the solutions that already exist for a worldwide energy transition. And it asks what challenges still need to be overcome -- not only in the laboratories and power plants, but also among the movers and shakers who must drive the change today.

Part 1:

• Will renewables stop t...

#documentary #dwdocumentary

______

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#DW documentary #solarpunk #green energy #clean energy #renewable energy #fossil fuels #global heating #global warming #climate chaos #climate crisis #climate collapse #climate change #climate emergency #USA #Bavaria #Youtube

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laresearchette · 3 months

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Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: LITTLE WING (Paramount+) TEEN MOM: FAMILY REUNION (MTV Canada) 8:00pm THE AMAZING RACE (CTV) 9:30pm

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

CBC GEM QUEEN OF THE DEUCE

NETFLIX CANADA BANDITS (MX)

MLB SPRING TRAINING (SN) 1:00pm: Pirates vs. Jays

TENNIS (TSN/TSN3) 2:00pm; Indian Wells - Round of 16 (TSN/TSN5) 9:00pm; Indian Wells - Round of 16

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 7:30pm: Predators vs. Jets (SN1/SNWest) 10:00pm: Capitals vs. Oilers (SNPacific) 10:30pm: Avalanche vs. Canucks

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN4) 7:0pm: Raptors vs. Pacers (SN Now) 7:30pm: Nuggets vs. Heat (SN360) 8:30pm: Warriors vs. Mavericks (TSN4) 10:00pm: Lakers vs. Kings

PWHL HOCKEY (TSN5) 8:00pm: Boston vs. Minnesota

WILD CARDS (CBC) 8:00pm (SEASON FINALE): Ellis is drawn into a case involving Max, her ex, and a world-famous Imperial egg, where a cat-and-mouse heist tests their friendship, their partnership, and their trust in each other.

FARM DREAMS (Nat Geo Wild) 8:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Indy Officinalis helps Grace and Will Lyons make their homestead a success.

ALLEGIANCE (CBC) 9:00pm: A call to a motel leads Sabrina and Vince into the underbelly of a migrant worker trafficking ring.

RED EARTH UNCOVERED (APTN) 9:00pm: Prior to leaving for Central Alberta to investigate strange encounters, Hayley speaks with a ghost expert for advice; guided by Doc's warning not to go out at night, Hayley probes mysterious evil sightings in Maskwacis.

LANDS ENCHANTED (APTN) 9:30pm: Lil'wat Nation members Maxine Bruce and Tammie Jenkins explore the sacred fishing grounds of Lillooet Lake, cherished by generations of Lil'wat fishers.

BIG BROTHER CANADA (Global) 9:30pm

TELLING OUR STORY (documentary) 9:00pm: The worldview of First Peoples, their ancestors, languages and traditional knowledge; the ingenuity that has been passed on for thousands of years through oral tradition.

FIXER TO FABULOUS: ITALIANO (HGTV Canada) 10:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Dave and Jenny travel to Italy to take on their biggest project yet, helping friends who've poured their savings into a Tuscan farmhouse rental; they begin to restore the villa, but soon find out how challenging a renovation across the world can be.

#cdntv #cancon #canadian tv #canadian tv listings #wild cards #allegiance #red earth uncovered #lands enchanted #big brother canada #telling our story #tennis #mlb baseball #nhl hockey #nba basketball

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rainingmbappe · 9 months

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This is amazing because I’ve been listening to the destroyer of world (ost form Oppenheimer today) and I had this sudden urge to learn everything i could about space, feeling so little and insignificant. Feeling like a tiny speck of dust amongst what is and what could be. What amazes me more than « what is already there » is the things «that could be », and the things we haven’t discovered yet. I do not know any fancy science words, i do not study science in college, but it is something that always moved me to tears from the youngest age. Stumbling onto a random NASA rocket landing when I was just a little child changed the trajectory of my life and clicked something in my brain. When I tell you it is something stronger than emotions, I cry so easily when I watch documentaries, not because I’m sad to be so insignificant, I cry because of the frustration of knowing that I won’t make it alive until we’ve discovered everything, and neither will my potential children be. I will cease to live eventually, and maybe some stars will die at the same time. And what I used to know will probably be refuted, and humanity will go further. I love science and I love humans.

First off, I love you so much, Anon. I love you for talking about this to ME. For giving ME a chance to talk about this.

I was in physics class when my teachers phone started ringing. It was destroyer of worlds from Oppenheimer. I was writing notes when it happened and anon. The WAY my head snapped up when I heard it. As I was getting so freaking excited to talk about the movie with my teacher, I noticed how no one around me seemed to care or notice. I mean, it was pretty loud, so I assumed that they just didn't care. I don't understand how. Oppenheimer is the best science related movie I've watched recently. It changed my life. It reminded me to wonder again.

I understand you to a caliber that no one understands me. The things that could be. That's what keeps me up at night. Things that already ARE and we are not aware of. Oh, that drives me closer to insanity every fucking day. This is going to sound cliché but watching interstellar changed the trajectory of MY life. It lit a dwindling fire I didn't know I had in me. I'm studying science now, and I have unapologetically made it my personality, haha. I mean. How can you not?? I could talk about the wonders of this weird little universe that we're trying to figure out, for absolute eternity.

Anon. I kid you not, I was talking about this with my friend YESTERDAY. About how celebrities dying is sad and musicians dying is sadder. But absolutely NOTHING is sadder than a scientist dying and never knowing the leaps that were made in their field. Let's take the man who changed my perception of absolutely everything forever, Carl Sagan. I genuinely thought that he passed away around 2015 or something. When I found out that that man left us in 1996, I instantly had tears streaming down my face. I have spent so soo many hours of my life watching his lectures and talks on YouTube. I have read so many of his books. I've watched the very old TV programs that he did. The way he talked, the way he conveyed his knowledge, the way he saw humanity for what it was, and what it would become. Years and years before, any of us saw it. He talked about it all. I genuinely thought that he was alive for the things he was talking about. Politics, religion, the future of science, global warming, you name it. He was years ahead of any of us. The fact that the person who made me infatuated with this magnificent world is no more to see the wonders we have achieved makes me just so unbelievably mournful.

I don't know if you know this anon but. My first love in science was and is biology. I don't talk nearly enough about the thing that amazes me the most and beyond any human terminology. I don't think I should even get into the wonders of beloved biology because I'd genuinely never stop. I just want to say how my world only revolves around magnificent wonders so humongous that it's beyond human perception and paradoxically enough, breathtakingly mcroscopic things that are very well beyond our perception too.

Anon, please come off anon so that we can talk forever about this. Or don't. But please don't stop sending asks. I could always talk endlessly more. You seem to very graciously let me indulge in my fanatic talks 😭🫶🏽

I love science and I love humans too.

Edit : fuck it I'm pinning this

#this became long real quick #it felt like i was talking to my friend #i have sososoososooooo much more to say anon #i could have talked in lengths about every point you brought up #this was massively satisfying #i want to thank you again for bestowing me with this ask #i feel so happy that you did #i cry too anon i definitely cry too #🔭🌌 anon #astronomy #science #carl sagan #anon asks

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maximumwobblerbanditdonut · 9 months

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Remembering David McCallum- Scottish actor and musician.

David McCallum, who became a heartthrob in the hit series ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,’ Dies at 90 💔 So sad a fine actor a great talent and a true gentleman.

An experienced character actor, he found fame in the 1960s as the enigmatic Illya Kuryakin. The British actor who played the mysterious secret agent Illya Kuryakin alongside Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo in the 1960s hit spy drama The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was a secret international counterespionage and law-enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement). The series premiered on September 22, 1964, and completed its run on January 15, 1968. The role turned the actor into a global sex symbol.

The success of the James Bond books and films had set off a chain reaction, with secret agents proliferating on both large and small screens. Indeed, Bond creator Ian Fleming contributed some ideas when the series was being developed, according to Jon Heitland’s book, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Television Classic (special introduction by Robert Vaughn)

David McCallum took his place among one of the most iconic casts Hollywood ever assembled, nothing in the film’s title, The Great Escape, He was playing naval officer Eric Ashley-Pitt in the 1963 Second World War epic about the mass escape of British and Commonwealth POWs from German Stalag Luft III camp, through another POW turn in Colditz (1972-1974).

David McCallum with Steve McQueen on the set of the WWII epic. The Great Escape brought him to a US audiences. (Image: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

In 1975, he had the title role in a short-lived science fiction series, “The Invisible Man,” and from 1979 to 1982 he played Steel in a British sci-if chiller “Sapphire and Steel” (1979-1982). Over the years, he also appeared in guest shots in many TV shows, including “Murder, She Wrote” and “Sex and the City, a romantic comedy-drama television series filmed in New York.

Later, in the 2000s as an eccentric medical examiner on “N.C.I.S.” he reached a new audience as Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the medical examiner in US TV drama NCIS. McCallum was known for playing a pathologist on the hit CBS TV programme NCIS, which went on to generate several spinoff series, for twenty years. NCIS is the third-longest-running scripted, non-animated primetime television series in the U.S that is currently on air.

He was a true Renaissance man — he was fascinated by science and culture and would turn those passions into knowledge. For example, he was capable of conducting a symphony orchestra and (if needed) could perform an autopsy, based on his decades-long studies for his role on NCIS.

The Scottish-born actor died in New York on Monday 25th September 2023. He lived in Manhattan. David Keith McCallum was born on 19th September 1933 in the Maryhill (Scots: Maryhull - Scottish Gaelic: Cnoc Màiri) area of Glasgow, to a father who was the first violinist for the London Philharmonic and a mother who was a cellist.

David won a scholarship to the University College School in north London and took up the oboe with a view to a classical music career. Thus he originally pursued a career in music, training on the oboe and studying for a time at the Royal Academy of Music, though he soon left and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After RADA he started performing with repertory theatre companies.

David McCallum was drafted into the British military in 1951 and served two years, including 10 months in what was a small-arms expert. Not long after his discharge, he signed with the Rank Organization, a British production company, and began acting both in movies and on television.

David McCallum a classically trained musician, created arrangements of popular songs of the day alongside a few original pieces and made four albums with forward-thinking producer and composer David Axelrod. Those groovy productions have been sampled a lot by trip-hop artists and more. In particular, “The Edge” from 1967’s

“The Edge” from 1967’s Music: For those who might have heard this song sampled elsewhere, you could have heard it in various places. From Masta Ace (“No Regrets”) to John Legend (“Actions”) his original was used in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, the 2017 film starring Ansel Elgort.

Check out the video below and listen for that familiar intro:

youtube

David McCallum - From The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to NCIS, and all performances in between, he was a multifaceted talent during 7 decades and 100 films and TV shows a True Legend.

R.I.P David 💔

1933-2023

#DavidMcCallum #Scottishactor #Britishactor #U.N.C.L.E. #IllyaKuryakin #TheGreatEscape #navalofficer #EricAshley #NCIS #secretagent #Edge #music #Ducky #DoctorMallard #actor #talent #gentleman #Legend #ripdavidmccallum

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uboat53 · 2 months

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I had a discussion with a friend of mine in the (US) military recently and it reminded me that most people in the US and, in fact, in the world, are almost entirely unaware that there is a new Cold War taking shape. I think more people should be aware of it, knowledge is power after all, and knowing about something gives you the opportunity to help shape it, particularly if you're a citizen of a country where your voice has an impact in government. I hope this LONG RANT (TM) helps someone better understand.

INTRODUCTION

As I said, there's a new Cold War beginning, and, like the previous Cold War, there's a strong component of ideology to it. Specifically, the world is beginning to fracture between liberal democracy and autocracy.

What makes this conflict particularly complex is that we're at the early stages. When thinking about the Cold War, capitalism vs communism, it wasn't until the 1950s, 1960s, or even the 1970s in some cases that it was really clear which side most consequential nations would end up on. It was pretty obvious that the Soviet Union and the United States would be the major communist and capitalist powers, respectively, but the status of many other nations didn't become clear until long internal political debates and outside interventions had a chance to play out.

So, without further ado, let's get into it.

WHY IS THERE A CONFLICT AT ALL?

This is one of the key questions and, honestly, it all comes down to the interconnectedness of the modern world. You see, modern autocracies that don't rely on the divine right of kings to justify their rule generally justify it by results. In order to make sure the results come out correctly, they control the information available to their people to ensure that their people are told that the autocratic rulers are giving them the best results, whether that's in terms of economics, culture, religion, or whatever else they want to focus on.

As my old boss used to tell me a decade and a half ago, "North Korea can't afford to allow YouTube to get to the average person even if the average person just watches stupid videos because it's going to become really obvious that, yes, this person is an idiot, but that idiot has a fridge, a TV, a car, and has obviously never missed a meal in their life; they can't possibly be poorer than us."

In the olden days that would be fairly easy. Radio signals only travel so far, so as long as you control the TV and radio stations and limit the ability of printed media to spread too widely, you could completely control what information your population receives.

Nowadays, however? Well, that's very different. The internet allows people from all over the world to talk to each other in an instant and it can even go a long way to easing language barriers. The advent of satellite internet means that even efforts to control internet traffic such as the so-called "Great Firewall of China" will be increasingly limited in their effectiveness.

Today, in order for an autocracy to control the information their people receive, they not only have to control the information environment in their own country, they have to control the information available in other countries as well. That's the reason you're seeing things like the Saudi Arabia's murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi, Russia's poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei and Yulia Skripal, a Chinese attempt to kidnap dissidents in the US, India's alleged killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and it's attempt to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

All of these were killings or other physical violence that took place in liberal democratic countries (except for Khashoggi who, though American, was lured to the Saudi embassy in Turkey where was killed) where what the individuals were doing was perfectly legal. This is the driver of conflict today, authoritarian nations attempting to maintain their monopoly on the information their citizens receive in a global information environment.

THE EARLY DAYS

We're currently in the early days of this autocracy vs liberal democracy competition and there are numerous nations currently in conflict over which side they're going to be on including, unfortunately, our own. In order to explain that, I need to get a bit technical over the difference between "democracy" and "liberal democracy".

Democracy, basically, can describe any situation where leaders are elected by some kind of popular vote. If you look closely at that for a second, you'll realize that it's such a broad category that even the autocratic Soviet Union technically qualified. Obviously, a category broad enough to include actual autocracies isn't really in opposition to them.

Liberal Democracy, on the other hand, is a Democracy, but with a whole bunch of other things as well. In general, a Liberal Democracy will feature multiple distinct candidates and/or parties in their elections, some sort of separation of powers between branches of government, the rule of law (law that applies equally to all), an open society (one in which individuals make choices rather than being controlled by tribes or other type of collectivism), a market economy with private property, universal suffrage, and the protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms for all people.

(That definition borrowed almost entirely from the Wikipedia article on Liberal Democracy, check it out if you're interested.)

In other words, Liberal Democracy is more than just "do people vote for leaders?", but encompasses just about everything we'd associate with individual rights and liberties and the structure of institutions to ensure them. People in an Illiberal Democracy may technically vote for their leaders but, without all of these other rights and protections, they can hardly be said to have truly chosen them. And, when you define it clearly, you can see that there's a bit of a disagreement about that in American politics right now.

The Republican Party, and particularly its MAGA wing, is increasingly of the mind that not everyone's vote is legitimate and has been putting in place barriers to voting that disproportionately affect disfavored groups. In addition, they're pushing to end much of the separation of powers, putting more unchecked power in the hands of the president at the expense of checks, balances, and sometimes guarantees of individual liberty. Democracy would continue, but Liberal Democracy would end.

To be clear, this isn't just an American problem, but one that is faced by nearly every Liberal Democracy today. As part of autocrat's efforts to control information outside of their own borders, they've been attempting to influence politics within Liberal Democracies and promote internal autocratic movements; usually right-wing nationalists. From the Republican Party's MAGA wing to France's National Front to Germany's Alternativ Fur Deutschland, just about every Liberal Democracy in the world now has a fundamentally autocratic right-wing party that is doing much better than it did just ten or twenty years ago and, if you scratch the surface, you will find support for them, both financial and otherwise, from autocrats around the world.

Of course, it's not just the far-right either, autocrats have been promoting the far-left in Liberal Democratic countries as well. While the far-right has had much more electoral success and is much more politically organized in the west and, thus, has received more attention, we can't ignore the fact that autocracy is largely neutral on the political scale and operates anywhere that conspiratorial thinking can take hold and distract people from the removal of their freedoms or even convince them that those freedoms hold no value in the first place.

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

Well, that's the trillion dollar question, isn't it?

Conflict will likely continue between autocratic and liberal democratic states, but the complexities are growing. Much like communism vs capitalism, autocracy vs liberal democracy is more of a spectrum than a hard binary and many states are actively sloshing around along that spectrum.

There's also the uncertainty of how different countries react to incidents like the ones we're seeing. Technically, killing a person on the soil of another country is an act of war, but not many people in the modern world are willing to go to war for the killing of one person. Most likely what we'll see is a gradual hardening of blocs as liberal democracies react to provocations by slowly pulling back from cooperation and connection with autocratic nations.

We're also likely to see countries switch sides. Unlike the rapid shift in allegiances that we saw during the Cold War, however, these are likely to be more gradual shifts like what we've seen in Hungary and Turkey where individual rights are stripped away gradually and a governing autocrat is slowly ensconced in power rather than a hard and fast coup. We could, of course, see countries go the other way as well, as in the case of Ukraine which has slowly strengthened individual rights and overthrown its autocrats.

All of this, the solidification of blocs and the shifting of countries within this spectrum, is going to create the opening situations for this particular conflict. Whether it becomes a conflict of more rigidly defined blocs or even sparks proxy wars remains to be seen.

CONCLUSION (TL;DR)

The days of a fairly open world, both in physical travel, the movement of goods, and in communication, is starting to come to an end as that openness begins to threaten the hold of autocrats on power. Those autocrats are attempting to keep both the openness and power by working to control the information available in countries that practice Liberal Democracy and generally guarantee individual liberties.

Over the next several decades, it is likely that we will see increasing separation between a bloc of autocratic nations and a bloc of liberal democracies, much as the Cold War saw separation between pro-capitalist and pro-communist countries. Some of that separation will likely not go smoothly and we will likely see at least some military tension and possibly even armed conflict as leaders react to changes or even try to distract from them with military force.

Just as importantly, we are likely to see tension within countries all over the world as autocratic political parties attempt to take control of liberal democracies and pro-democracy movements attempt to overthrow autocrats.

I'll admit this isn't the most hopeful vision of the future that we'd like to see, but I think it's fairly realistic given the current realities we see. I hope that this gives you some insight into what's going on and allows you to plan accordingly.

As always, let me know if you think I missed something or got something wrong, I'm always up for adjusting my thoughts, and I hope you enjoyed the read.

#politics #international politics #liberal democracy #democracy #individual rights #autocracy #cold war #new cold war #long rant (tm)

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