#Seems like a better model than basing expectations on SCHOOL structures...

[dawningfairytale]

okay so as i have learnt from @undescribed1mage in this post uranium city is a real town, and now i'm wondering how many people live in the town in the musical's canon. long post under the cut!!!

i either interpret the show as being set in 2009 (closest monday 14th of september to the show's creation) or the present day, kind of simultaneously. according to wikipedia, there are no statistics on the population in exactly 2009 or 2022, but it had a population of 105 in 2011 and 91 in 2021. according to the uranium suite in the citadel theatre version, "the town was broke by '99", so we can assume the same population between 2009 and 2011. so i'll average it to 98. before going further, i want to clarify that i'm not viewing the real life uranium city as the same place as the musical uranium city, more that the statistics are a structural basis that can form my opinions and interpretations about their society in the musical!!!

the ben mcintyre school is the only one in the town, and it only runs for kindergarten to ninth grade (which doesn't exactly comply with 'algebra 12 kiss my ass' but the writers were taking creative liberties and it was more about uranium being a ghost town and an element representative of decay etc etc), which as of 2005 had *10 students*. as a result, it is entirely possible that the aforementioned "algebra 12" line was more a case of all the high school students really being given the same content level regardless of age or ability. the 2016 data is a little confusing, but again it suggests there are ~15 people between the ages of 5-19. so, if we adapt st cassian's as loosely based on the ben mcintyre school, but k-12, we can make it so there are 14-15 people in school, about 5 of high school age (plus penny, who moved there right before kiwani's).

it makes parts of canon more heartbreaking, or heartwarming. ocean was school president, and i doubt she would've won without the choir's votes. she may have been expecting to come back to life because, well, she's gotten a unanimous vote as a leader before. constance's yearbook pages, however, "you seemed nice", "you seemed friendly". i like to think that those were written by little kids who didn't get to talk to her, thanks to ocean dragging her to every online extracurricular between cafe shifts. but it could've been from the choir, before it was formed. i also now assume that ocean created the choir in sophmore/junior year (before mischa came) with noel and constance joining, and because i like to think the best of her, she invited ricky so all the senior half of the school was included. "mischa was there for a punishment" oR he wanted to get caught but didn't know how to start talking to these nerds. perhaps??

from people who we know live in town from canon, we have everyone's family and father markus. that's 18 people, since constance and penny are the only people we know to have siblings, one younger brother each. there are probably a couple more staff members at the school, one of them possibly also serving as the priest for the town (since there's a catholic school, but no public school). again according to the census data, there are only 10 people above the age of 65, with the biggest age group being 45-49 years (with 10 people) and 15 people between 20-34 years.

personally, my biggest model of a variety of ages to this size is church, so i just imagine the choir having intergenerational friends!!! noel talking to an older woman who never dated in the town despite living there her whole life, ocean getting guidance from someone who was better adjusted than her parents, a gentleman who once shared ricky's dreams of a place like zolar.

everyone would attend their funerals. keep their memory alive. tell constance's little brother stories of the girl who had so much wonder for the world when her parents got too choked up. grieve with the young ukrainian woman who thought she would be the one bearing bad news. and welcoming penny, the one teenager who survived the accident. the week the carnival used to visit became a memorial, a time to watch french films, pet the potts' cats, visit the blackwood cafe, look at the badegg youtube channel, and plan for the future. homemade tattoos of "democracy rocks" in cursive. french pastries. dolls with paintings of space.

they thought no one knew them, no one saw them. but they were seen. they were loved. they just didn't see each other.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Humans 101.”

Sorry for not posting yesterday. I have had the WORST motivation the past few weeks, but I thought you might like to see some more of Krill. Hope you all have a great day!

Krill walked up the university hallway turning his head to look out the window at the vast expanse of space before him. It had been a very long time since he had been to University, in the Vrul sense of the word, which was less like University and more like on the job training, but he had recently accepted an assignment at the Intergalactic Institute of Biological Science. Granted, he wasn’t a real professor, not fully, but an adjunct who had signed on to do a series of lectures for the next few months while he waited for Admiral Vir’s return. 

Since Simon had become acting Captain of the ship, it seemed that there was less and less reason for him to be there. She wasn’t experienced enough to take on the real dangerous assignments that the Admiral had excelled at, and due to her rule following nature, and the assignments they were sent on, mostly diplomatic and exploratory in nature, Krill had found less and less use for himself on the ship. He didn’t expect to be gone forever, and he doubted he would be able to leave at this point.

He couldn’t return to his home planet, not now there was a standing order for his termination, which he was planning to avoid with great prejudice. Though he found it wildly Ironic that they had asked him to come teach, when many of the professors at the school were, in fact, other Vrul.

It was with this small piece of amusement that he scuttled into the lecture room: Large and circular with seats rising on all sides and a projection hub right in the middle. The room was already packed full despite him being five minutes early. He had been told his lecture series would be popular, but he hadn’t expected there to be standing room only, and even then, there were students sitting on the floor, and a few Vrul floating in the air high above other students' heads.

He moved to the center of the room to set up his projections and, from the corner of his eye watched as a few of the front row students shifted back slightly. The Tesraki, Rundi and Finnari students didn’t seem to notice, but the Vrul students certainly did, sarong at him like he was some sort of freak.

He  could hear the whispering, and he reveled in it.

It was nice to be intimidating sometimes.

Overhead the lights flashed once, and then twice, and the entire room went quiet expectantly looking down at him with their wide eyes.

He drew himself up Resting two of his hands together and another two behind his back as he began pacing his way around the projection field. Students Continued to whisper quietly, “Good morning class, My name is Dr. Krill Galaxy renowned trauma surgeon, and the galactic leading expert in xeno-medicine with an emphasis in humanity.”

There was a uiet muttering around the room.

“I have been acting medical officer aboard the UNSC Omen once Harbinger for more than two years, and I have practiced surgery in hospitals From Andromeda and Irus to the milky way and Earth.”

More shifting wide eyes and some nervous muttering.

He looked around the room shrewdly at all the new faces, “How many of you are interested in working with the intergalactic community.”

A slow raise of hands.

“Then I should probably let you know. Humanity has begun to profuse through all the major sectors of space, business, government, shipping, sales, medical. Humans are everywhere, and humans can do anything. If you wish to work in the wider intergalactic community, you will be working with humans, and many of you will work extremely closely with humans.”

Nervous expressions all around.

“I noticed many of you, the Vrul students especially have noticed the strange effect that spending time with humans can have on an individual.”

He looked around and saw some acknowledgement.

“The colloquial term for it is called the humanizing phenomenon and it will happen to you no matter how hard you try. Scientists have said that you will become more aggressive in order to interact with humans, your movements will become more predatory, you will come to focus on facial cues and the pitch of voices to determine emotion, and soon,you will even begin to utilize human body language in order to communicate better with them.” He motioned to himself, “Out of all the alien species,I have spent the most time with humans, and as you can see, I communicate primarily in a way that humans would understand, mostly with nonverbal body cues. I don’t often use my helium sack as I get in the way with keeping up with humans.” he turned to look around at the room, “Human’s no longer scare me. As pack animals, your social influence is often more important than your physical influence. Given the fact that I have built myself up in social influence within a human pack, I no longer worry myself with being round humans. In fact, I Have never been safer in my entire life.”

His antenna vibrated slightlin amusement, “In fact it is well known that I already have a termination order placed on my head by the Vrul council.”

There was a shocked gasp from certain Vrul parts of the room.

He swaggered about the room a little smugly. He didn’t usually get reactions like this from people.

“They actually took me from an assembly meeting with the GA and brought me back for termination, but one of my humans, as I certainly do consider them mine as much as they consider me theirs, came and rescued me single handedly.”

Another murmuring from around the room.

“How did he do it?”

They waited.

“He used his complex human vocal cords and clapping to simulate a beat. In that way he disabled all the guards, and climbed his way up the guiding rope to the council chamber.”

More soft muttering.

“If you make friends with a human, you are probably as safe as you are ever going to be, especially if you happen to become friends with a very audacious human=, in which case there is nothing that they will not do for you.” He spun on the spot, “Enough for introductions, I will please have you open your files to page one of the textbook, and we will go over a brief discussion of human mechanical anatomy.”

There was a shuffling around the room as Data pads were produced.

Krill brought up an anatomical projection of a human. Looking up it amused him to know that this anatomical model, the one used in almost every nonhuman textbook, was modeled on one single human, that being Adam Vir, all accept for the right leg of course, which was modeled on another human of similar height.

“Humans are are omnivorous bipeds with an endoskeletal structure supported by a vascular system. I know a lot of you have been wrongfully told that humans are primarily carnivores, though that is not true, while human can eat a variety of foods, there are humans that choose to live without eating meat, and they can be sustained on a herbivore diet if they wish. As you can see here, the front facing eyes of the human mark them off as a predator species, though this isn’t always the perfect indicator. Vrul eyes are on the front, but, as we know, Vrul also have prismatic vision that is more closely related that of insects on an earth-like planet.” he glanced around the room, “These predator classifications only exist for a class of alien known as the vascular type, which uses a pump to push fluid through the body. As you know Vrul, Burg, Gromm, and Lumins as well as a few others are not represented in this category.”

“Can anyone tell me which species ARE classified as the vascular subtype.”

There was a raised hand and he pointed, “You there.”

“I can provide a short list sir, Tesraki, Rundi, Humans, and Drev to name a few, but the Drev are a notable outlier for this rule because their war-like culture has supported the slow movement of the eyes towards the front of the face despite them being a herbivore species.”

Krill nodded, “Very good. Yes, humans are in fact a REAL predator species, however it is important to note that the greater 80% of human diets are supported by fruits and vegetables. Based on the amount and distribution of consumed foods, humans are actually closer to herbivores in their dietary choices than they are carnivores.”

There was a soft muttering around the room. Either disbelief or interest, he couldn't tell.

“Historically, humans would have evolved from tree dwelling omnivores, though their diets would also have been primarily fruit, and maybe insects as hunting only really came after they moved to land based travel on two legs. As far as earth animals are concerned, humans are not a top tier predator, and years of life in padded habitats using technology have actually dulled their hunting senses and abilities. A human COULD take a chunk out of you with their teeth, but they certainly wouldn’t WANT to. It would definitely be a last resort. Following that, humans only eat cooked meat as they can grow very sick on consuming certain raw products.”

The class shifted and whispered to each other.

“Yes, I know you have been told many strange and odd things about humans, but most of those are heavily exaggerated. However, it is true that humans are more versatile than most of us. Humans can run, walk, climb, throw, jump and swim, and while they don’t do any of those particularly well, their ability to do all of them  to some degree makes them the most versatile alien in the GA. Furthermore humans also have a multitude of senses, ones that are common to most of us balance, heat cold, pain, etcetera, but there is one sense that they have which is very uncommon in the galaxy, and that is a sense of smell.”

All around him, students were taking notes, “This is the ability for a human to detect particles in the air and, often, identify their sources. Everything sheds particles, and the human nose can pick up those particles. For instance humans generally like the smell of Iotans because Iotins shed compounds similar to foods that humans like to eat. Once upon a time it might have been used to help humans detect poison or other predators, but like I have said before, a human is a middleman in abilities. All of a human’s senses are relatively dull in comparison to some of their earth counterparts.”

He turned to his projector and flipped it to the anatomical structure of a dog, one that had been oddled off the only dog that many aliens had ever met.

Waffles the admiral’s dog.

“This creature’s sense of smell is powerful enough,they have been known to track a sent trail for miles through densely wooded forests. They can smell a change in hormone and pheromone levels on other creatures, and are even being used to detect certain diseases. The best a human can do is smell a cooking meal.”

He walked in a wide circle looking out at the students, some of them looking excited, others staring on in trepidation.

“Human eyesight is on a similar level to their smell. Humans have binocular vision which makes their depth perception quite good. A human is perfectly capable of snatching a flying object out of the air as their predatory instincts draw them to movement. This also makes humans very adept at navigating through obstacles like they might once have had to do in trees. Furthermore, it allows them to guess distance to prey during hunting.” He switched to a picture of a drev, “However humans do not have the best vision out of all aliens species. While the acuity of a human and a Drev are similar, Drev can detect Ultraviolet wavelengths where humans can only see the visible spectrum.” He looked at some of the Vrul, “Take solace in the knowledge that you can see thermal where humans cannot. They have relatively poor night vision, but better than that of you or I and far better than the Drev who traded the use of multiple cones to very frew light sensing rods.”

He looked up from his lecturing, “Are there any questions so far.”

Every had in the room shot into the air.

He paused to look at them faces lit by the glowing bluish light of the hologram behind him and sighed, he supposed this is what he was here for.

“Let’s star in the back then, shall we.”

One of the hands went down.

“Sir, is it true that humans are capable of surviving cortical tissue damage.”

Krill snorted, a sound he probably shouldnt have been able to make since he didn’t have a nose but one he had learned how to make because it expressed a very important emotion when interacting with humans. The entire class looked at him funny.

He sighed, “Yes, The first surgery I preformed on a human involved removing an eight inch steel rod from an eye socket which had gone into cortical tissue. To this day that human… well hes been doing fine, a bit of a dumbass sometimes, but I think that was a part of his personality before brain damage.”

They stared at him confused until Krill realised that dumbass probably wasn’t in their vocabulary. It probably translated to silent butt or idiot butt which didn’t have the same kind of ring to it.

Krill waved a hand, “In certain cases humans have been known to survive with only one hemisphere of their brain.”

A chorus of disbelief, “It is true, in certain cases where electrical abnormalities n the brain cause convulsions, surgeons intentionally remove half the brain to increase quality of life. There are a couple of downsides to this of course, like the inability to play musical instruments, but most humans still live a productive and fulfilling life after the procedure.”

More hands shot up again.

He turned and chose one at Random.

“Can humans smell fear”

Krill frowned, “No humans can’t smell fear. Whoever told you that was smoking something.”The class stared blankly at him until he picked another hand.

“Are you worried that the humans will ever…. Turn on you?”

Krill raised his hands into the air in exasperation, “They are SENTIENT beings not wild animals  Humans have strict social rules like you or anyone else. It would be illegal for them to hurt me , and I doubt they would let it happen at all. Humans aren’t feral. In fact my partner aboard the ship is Doctor Katie Quinn, and she is just as experienced in the field of medicine as I am. SHe can match me in almost any medical procedure and she only has two cortical hemispheres, and less than half the amount of hands.”

He frowned at the room, “I have no idea where ou all got these ideas from. Humans are thinking creatures not animals. The reason they survived on their planet is not because they are the strongest predator, but because they are the smartest, just like you or I. the only difference between us is that the Human planet is so hostile, they have been forced to keep some of their more instinctive tendencies.”

More hands raised.

“Have you seen one of these larger earth animals, sir?”

“Yes on plenty of occasions.” He flipped his diagram back to that of a dog, “This animal here is called a dog, the ancestral  evolution of the wolf, which is just a much larger version of this animal here. These animals are higher on the food chain that humans and have the ability to easily outrun, attack and rip the throat out of a human.” He paused as the class pulled back, “Which is why humans often use them in security, protection and law enforcement, because no human wants to fight one of these creatures.” He smiled a bit grimly, “Also humans just love to keep them as pets.”

There was an uproar around the room.

How could anyone want to keep something that could rip their face off as a pet.

Krill raised a hand to quiet down the room, “I know, I know, it all sounds very strange, but you must understand, humans and dogs are both descended from highly social pack groups. At one point a human took wolf cubs and began raising them and breeding them for desirable traits. As wolves are pack animals they slowly would have begun to see humans as members of their own pack family. In this humans molded a creature into being one of their greatest allies. Dogs rely on humans and humans rely on dogs for many jobs. Humans love dogs and dogs love humans. In fact, humans have bred this animal so extensively that dogs are one of the only creatures on their own planet capable of reading human facial expressions.”

He pulled up an image from his personal files, one where Adam sat on the floor, and the dog Waffles sat next to him. He made a face as her long, pink tongue ran up the side of his cheek.

The class gasped.

“She could easily use this opportunity to kill him.” krill said, “But she never would.” He turned to another image of himself standing next to the dog, a hand resting on her back.

More gasping.

Krill was somewhat amused. “Humans, as I said are social in the extreme, and this fact is going to be our best ally when meeting them. Anyone and anything can become part of a human pack. In fact, this instinct in humans is so strong that inanimate objects can easily be accepted into a human’s pack. They routinely name plants and attribute personalities to them. I once conducted an experiment where I placed fake eyes.” Googly eyes to be exact, “On a waste receptacle, and the humans named him Mr. Rubbish and began throwing away their items exclusively in that specific receptacle as ‘Offerings’ to Mr Rubbish….. That is not a joke, that actually happened.” He appraised them with a stern look, “Befriending humans is the most important thing you can do, and probably one of the easiest things as well. If you find yourself incapable of making friends with a human, its probably time to look at yourself personally because you must be horrible.” he pointed to himself, “I will openly admit that my personality isn’t exactly the easiest to be around, and yet I still managed it on accident.”

His lecture continued for some minutes, covering more anatomy, bone structures and some interesting facts about their internal organs.

However he was forced to stop as little lights began blinking overhead, and he went to dismiss the class, “Next week we will be discussing the effects of adrenaline on humans as a special treat to those who decide to return after this first lecture. And for your assignment, I want you to find one news article that perpetuates a myth about humans and write a short essay debunking it. Since this is the first week I am going lenient on assignments but by the end of the term I do expect full essays at publishable quality.”

Everyone in the class stood, and he found himself suddenly swarmed by a mass of figures.

It seemed as if he was going to be here for a while.

Little did Krill know that his lecture series was becoming so popular that the administration was going to have to upgrade his lecture hall two more times in the concurrent weeks.

Everyone wanted to know about humans.

[kabira]

09 | scientific inspiration

pairing — spider-man!vernon x ofc

featuring — joshua, yeji (itzy), felix (skz), yangyang (nct)

word count — 3.6k

genres — spider-man au, marvel au, fluff, action, angst, humor

warnings — none.

note — so here it is, the big Science Dump that will form the basis for one of the major arcs of the story. now, i don’t pretend to know too much of what i’m talking about, but hopefully all the hours of scrolling through obscure genetics articles will hold up. hell, they probably won’t, but this is superhero fiction about a sixteen-year-old man-spider vigilante, so please excuse it !!! a lot of this is borrowed from the ultimate spider-man comics lore by brian michael bendis.

Vernon was still thinking about Luce’s offer when he got to work later that day.

Normally, he would have tried to keep his head clear during his work, but since all he had to do that day was log data entries, it didn’t really matter. Doc hadn’t come back to the lab yet, so it was just him and the janitor, but from the open holograph display on his table, Vernon figured he’d be back pretty soon. Despite the state of his office, the doctor didn’t like messes, especially not in his workplace.

He hadn’t expected Luce to even consider inviting the others, even though she had been friendly with them. Movie night was something that belonged to just the four—three—of them, something sacred and untouched by outsiders. The thing that had surprised him even more was his own willingness. For someone who had been so acutely ticked off by their unannounced arrival, he sure had warmed up to his new teammates quickly.

Vernon was only a few entries in when Dr. Connors entered the lab, holding a cup of steaming coffee from the cafeteria. He smiled at Vernon when he came in, not bothering to glance at the screen to check what he was doing before making his way over to the work table. One of the things Vernon liked the most about this place was that despite being nothing more than a research assistant, he was still allowed to help out in more impactful ways than simply entering and saving data.

“You’re here early,” Dr. Connors said, setting down the Styrofoam cup on his table. He looked tired, Vernon noticed, probably why he had bought that cafeteria coffee despite it being a thick, dark color and tasting like tar. There were dark circles under his blue eyes, and his usually neatly combed brown hair was slightly disheveled.

“I came here directly after school was over,” Vernon said. “Figured I’d save a lot more time that way, and I don’t really have much left to do.”

“Hm?” The scientist faced the holographic model, hitting a few keys on the pad below it. His movements were listless, but his shoulders were still tense. Reminds me of seniors before finals, Vernon thought. It wasn’t exhaustion like he had assumed, but stress. “Then perhaps you’d like to help me out here.”

“Really?” Vernon tried to keep the excitement out of his voice, but failed. Probably for the better, because it sparked a small smile on Dr. Connors’s face. “What are you working on right now?”

He didn’t get an answer for a long moment. Vernon spun in his chair and pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the remains of exhaustion weighing his body down as he made his way over to the doctor’s table.

“It’s something your father and I were working on before…before this project was abandoned, almost a decade ago,” Dr. Connors said. He was looking at the display with a different kind of intensity in his eyes, like it was something to be defeated rather than discovered. “When I lost your father, I gave up all hope of ever getting back to it, but after all my recent failures, I think I need to revisit my roots.”

Vernon pursed his lips at failures, but said nothing. The hologram looked like a DNA strand—a double helix blown to the size of a poster tube. It shone with a dull blue light, lighting up Dr. Connor’s features, illuminating the creases around his mouth and eyes that Vernon wasn’t sure had been there before. Standing next to him made his own tiredness feel like a minor inconvenience.

“This was your father’s brainchild, after all,” the man said, still staring at the display. “A completely independent protoplasmic model based on the body’s own genetic edifice built to fortify the weaker structure of a sick body.”

“A protoplasmic model?” Vernon’s eyes widened. “I thought it was supposed to be controlled AI, like nanobots or something.”

“Imagine that, except a sentient being with the ability to detect and eradicate weaknesses in the body on its own, without any direction,” Dr. Connors said. “Something to cure everything—the right combinations of proteins able to use the body’s own natural resources to fight any infection, overcoming the problem of grafting and able to treat everything from neural atrophy to genetic diseases to cancer, contained in a small tubule.” His eyes shone. “The perfect cure.”

The perfect cure. Vernon glanced back at the holographic model, now seeing the inconsistencies in its structure when compared to normal human DNA. The idea was intoxicating and exhilarating, made even more amazing by the fact that it had been proposed by his father. It made his chest ache with longing, thinking of the possibilities of fulfillment if his father had been alive still—not just for the experiment, but for Vernon himself.

“He was way ahead of his time, Richard Parker—in that sense, you are a lot like him,” Dr. Connors murmured in a low, wistful voice, as if speaking to himself. “It had become almost impossible for us to receive any support or funding for our project, because of how wildly imaginative it was. We were ridiculed, discredited, called mad for our ideas before we finally got the deal with Oscorp. We had worked on the cure for so long, and just a couple of days before the deal’s signing, your father called me one night, sounding excited about a fresh prospect.” He shook his head. “But then…”

He didn’t need to complete his sentence. Vernon caught the drift of it, and turned away to hide the pained expression brought onto his face by the flood of emotions. He didn’t know if he felt good about being so close to his father’s work, or bad about being so far away from his father himself. Even the mere presence of his old colleague, still alive while he wasn’t, seemed to taunt Vernon.

Snap out of it, he told himself firmly. His father’s death hadn’t been Dr. Connors’s fault—he knew that, but still had to avoid even thinking of that idea, because once the seeds had been planted in his brain, Vernon knew he wouldn’t be able to work with Dr. Connors in harmony. Plus, watching him talk about the work he and his dad had done together, no one could say that the scientist didn’t care about his former partner.

“What did he discover?” Vernon prompted.

Dr. Connors’s eyes turned sad. “I never did get to find out,” he said. “Just two days after the call, he was finally going to come back to the state to share his discoveries with me, so we could compare notes and build on what was lacking. The first step to phase two, he called it.” His jaw tightened. “And just when we thought something was going to go right for once…”

Vernon hung his head. Maybe knowing his father had been on the verge of a breakthrough should have made him feel better about his achievements, but he only thing that Vernon could think about was what all the world had lost when he had lost his dad. A revolution in medicine. A father. He was almost a little uneasy thinking about which kind of loss affected him more. The world could have been a much better place, but all Vernon wanted was his dad back.

“I’ve been unfair to you, Vernon,” Dr. Connors said, breaking him out of his reverie. He straightened while keeping his eyes fixed on the DNA hologram, then faced Vernon with a sad look. “You should have had someone to help you come to terms with your father’s death, someone who could have told you about his great ideas and even greater work. I shouldn’t have left you alone to deal with everything, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to…”

His voice had lowered with every syllable until he trailed off, making Vernon think that his voice had finally become too small for anyone to hear. Vernon swallowed, unable to think of anything to say. He was usually good at talking to people, even heart-to-hearts, but when the subject touched his obscure past, words failed him.

“I understand,” he said, the first words that came to his blank mind. He tried for a reassuring smile, unsure of what the result actually looked like. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for it. And anyway, I am here now.”

Dr. Connors smiled a little. “That, you are,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been doing your genius intellect a great injustice by assigning you all these menial tasks.”

“Hey, someone’s gotta do the menial tasks, right?” He smiled back. “My experience with research is next to nothing compared to that of the other people in this lab, so I’m fine with where I am. And not all the tasks are exactly menial.”

“Still.” The man sighed. “Since it was your father’s genius that came up with this idea, it feels only right to have you develop it further—or at least play a role in its creation.”

“I’m here whenever you need me,” Vernon said, glad about the lightening of the atmosphere. He wasn’t sure how much more of that weight he could have taken. He cocked his head, studying the listed proteins. “What made you want to work on this ‘cure’ again after so long?”

“A lot of different reasons,” the scientist said. “I think I had been avoiding this project for so long because I couldn’t bear to continue it without Richard by my side, but meeting you, his son, and having you take up a position in my lab felt like a sign.” He gave the boy a sideways smile. “And from a scientific viewpoint—before this, I’d been working on a different kind of cure, a serum with a principle based in cross-species genetics. It was supposed to be give a person the ability to regenerate lost limbs like a lizard, but the premature human trials went off the rails.”

Vernon nodded, keeping his mouth clamped shut. “I see,” he said, not wanting to bring up the Lizard incident unless he was sure Dr. Connors was ready to address it.

“However, after someone helped…fix the problem by making an anti-serum, the new formula for it gave me an idea,” the man continued. “Scientific inspiration, I guess you could call it. There’s a lot to be done, but I still have the anti-serum here in the lab, and have been studying it for over a month now.”

The gears had already begun turning in Vernon’s head. He had been the one to create the anti-serum as Spider-Man, and no one knew the methodology better than the original creator. Most of it had stemmed from the original Lizard formula, and with a bit of recalibration and measured reversal, the formula had worked. That makes me wonder…

“Hey, doc,” he murmured, brow pinched into a thoughtful frown, “if you had a sample of perfectly bonded human and non-human cell structure, do you think you would be able to mimic it and engineer a matching structure for the cure?”

The man frowned. “How do you mean?”

“I mean…” Vernon hesitated. Because of the OZ formula transferred into his blood by the spider bite, his DNA was perfectly bonded to spider DNA, which gave him what they called in post-human-speak a ‘healing factor’. It wasn’t as effective as Wolverine’s, but it was still something—and it was based on the same principle as the cure. Like the OZ formula helped his body develop a natural cure for anything he could be hit by—be it a paper cut or a head wound—by using its own resources.

The only difference was that it heightened his facilities by combining human abilities with spider abilities, which gave him things like his spider sense. However, if Vernon could use his own blood to develop a kind of skeletal structure for the cure. If it did work, it would only work on enhanced spider/human DNA, but at least then he’d have a start. The possibilities after that were endless.

“If there already existed a perfect sample of blood which had an in-built system like the cure,” Vernon said, trying not to give away too many details.

“Like mutant DNA?” Dr. Connors asked. “They have a completely different genetic structure in place, though, Vernon. They have the X-Gene. Their nucleotide sequence itself is mutated.”

“No, not like that,” Vernon said. “Like human DNA, just…enhanced. Bonded with something like the cure, just not—not living.”

Dr. Connors raised his eyebrows. “Well, having a perfect sample would reduce the needed brainwork to a tenth,” he said. “But you couldn’t acquire a sample like that, because, well, it exists only in theory.”

“Right,” Vernon muttered, but already the beginnings of a smile had started to curve his lips. “Only in theory.”

Vernon’s mind was buzzing with so much excitement from his idea for the cure that even web-slinging hadn’t been able to distract him from it.

He and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team had spent the evening scouring the city for any signs of something that could substantiate Vernon’s theory, but had come up with nothing except a few petty criminals, who had been easily stopped. The other three had left early, telling him to use their new communication devices (which looked an awful lot like kitschy wrist bands, except for the fact that they could turn invisible) if anything came up.

Nothing did.

It was nine p.m. and Vernon had still not changed out of his Spidey suit, spending the free hour to swing around the city and try and clear his head. Too much had happened in one day, and his mood was seesawing between elation at his new project and trepidation because of the dreaded return of movie night. Funny that a high school hangout was a source of more nervousness for him than trying to imitate his own radioactive blood sample to finish his dad’s decades old design.

When I put it like that, it sounds even more absurd, he thought, scrolling through the usual evening homework-help texts on his phone as he waited in line to buy eggs and a carton of milk at the not-so-local grocery store. Even Spider-Man had to obey queues when he was out doing chores for Aunt May.

He paid for the eggs and milk without the tattooed cashier giving him a second glance, and stepped out into the street with the bags. Aunt May wouldn’t be back until ten; he had about an hour to kill until curfew, but he wanted to get home early to talk to her about movie night (yet another reaction to dread) and hopefully study his spidery OZ-bonded radioactive blood under the lens of his old microscope that Uncle Ben had gotten him over a year ago.

“Yo, Spidey!”

Vernon looked up to see a chubby, tanned guy in his late twenties beaming at him like an old friend as he jogged up to meet him. “Hey, I remember you,” he said, pointing at the guy. “You’re uhhh…” He squinted at him, trying to remember when he’d last seen him. “That pizza delivery guy who almost got abducted by aliens!”

“That’s me! Paulo!” the guy exclaimed, his wide smile widening even more upon being recognized. “You saved me from those killer robot aliens last month, remember? And I promised you free pizza in case you ever needed it,” he added. “How’s it going?”

“As usual.” He raised the bag containing the groceries he’d just bought.

“Running errands when you get a break from crime-fighting, eh?” Paulo asked, giving his thick dark curls a shake. His smile refused to dim even a bit, like someone had switched on a light bulb with a permanent power source. “Keeps the superheroes humble.”

“Tell that to Captain America.” Vernon checked the comm device on his wrist, almost groaning out loud when he saw it was almost half past nine already. “Great. Uh, Paulo, I’ll have to catch you later. It’s late, and I gotta get back well before curfew in case there are delays on the way.”

“Of course! Go do your Spider-Man thing.” Paulo lifted his hands, mimicking the thwip-thwip gesture of shooting webs, and grinned. “See you later, Spidey!” he called out from behind him as Vernon swung himself up to a lamppost before launching himself into the air. “Remember the offer with the free pizzas still stands!”

“I will!” Vernon yelled back as he swung away. And he wasn’t just saying that, either—free pizzas were free pizzas.

He had to change in an alleyway again, but thankfully this time it didn’t have an open dumpster or smell like someone had thrown out a decayed cheese slab in the trash. By the time he got back home, Aunt May was already back, as indicated by the lights in the kitchen. Just perfect, he thought miserably, as he unlocked the front door with his spare key and trudged into the hallway.

“Vernon! You’re back early,” a voice yelled from the kitchen when she heard the door shut behind him. A woman with short silver hair, clad in a comfortable t-shirt and yoga pants came out into the living room as he entered it, wiping her hands with a hand towel. “Did you get the milk and eggs like I asked you to?” Aunt May asked.

For an older lady, she sure has great hearing. “Yep,” he said, swinging his bag off his shoulders and unzipping it, internally praying he hadn’t squashed the milk carton from all his swinging like last time. Thankfully, they were undamaged. “Did you come back from yoga classes early?”

“Oh, Denise pulled a muscle in her back, poor thing,” May said. “I offered to bring her back home, but she refused to let me ice it for her, saying she’d get Mac to do it instead.” She disappeared into the kitchen once again, coming out without the hand towel this time. “Put the groceries in the fridge, won’t you?”

For an older lady, Aunt May also had a lot of things going for her. Yoga classes on Monday-alternating weekdays, squash sessions over the weekend, classes for baking and music and whatnot—she might even have been busier than Vernon himself.

“Will do,” he said, obeying. His mind was still swimming with all the older thoughts, but now that he was standing right in front of Aunt May, the worry about movie night had pushed itself to the forefront, demanding all of his nervous attention.

He stood at the fridge even after closing the door, chewing his lip and wondering how to bring it up. Words really had failed him today. “Aunt May?” he ventured, unable to keep the hint of nerves from his voice. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What is it, honey?” she asked, poking her head out of the kitchen. Around her waist was an apron that said Don’t Kiss the Cook. “Vernon?”

He kissed his teeth, teetering back and forth on the balls of his feet. “It’s about movie night.”

She stilled. “What about movie night?”

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, Vernon thought, pursing his lips. Aunt May hadn’t exactly been close with the Osborns, but he knew she had cared about Harry in her own way, the same way she cared about any neglected kid that Vernon brought home like an abandoned cat. She gave them as much comfort as she could, tried to give them the family they never really had, even if she knew she couldn’t completely replace them. It had happened before: Harry, and Luce—and now, Vernon thought with a little sigh, maybe even the team.

“Luce asked me to ask you if you were okay with us doing movie night this weekend,” he said slowly. “And there are these new kids, and she told me to ask them too, but if you’re busy we can always—”

“Vernon!” Aunt May smiled widely, coming out of the kitchen to rest her hands on his shoulders and give them a big squeeze. “Of course I’m okay with it! Oh, you don’t know how I wished you kids would do one of those again, I’m sure that’s what Harry would have wanted too.” She gave him a motherly smile, one that was soft and sad at the same time. “I’ll leave the house to you kids that day.”

“Oh, no, Aunt May, that’s not necessary—” he started, but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“Don’t be so formal with me, kiddo,” she said. “I know movie night means a lot to you, and if you have new friends coming over, I’m sure you don’t want a chaperone around.” She raised her eyebrows. “Although I would like to meet them before I go out.”

Vernon sighed, but there was a tiny smile on his face. “God, you’re the best.”

“And don’t you forget it.” She winked. “Besides, even an old woman like me needs to go out with her friends every once in a while, too. This might just turn out to be a good break for both of us.”

He nodded, feeling a welling of emotion in his chest that wouldn’t go down no matter how much he tried to push it away. One less thing to worry about, he thought half-heartedly, trying not to think about how Aunt May’s agreement meant movie night was on, which had the potential to be an even more worrying prospect. “I hope so.”

[thosearentcrimes]

In defense of "standpoint epistemology"

People like to denounce something called "standpoint epistemology". Now, in responding to this, I am faced with a dilemma. I could either interpret "standpoint epistemology" as being that which the people complaining about it are talking about, or I could interpret it as what the articles in which it was theorized described. What I will do is first present standpoint theory and standpoint epistemology as I understood them from its promoters. In particular, this essay will largely be a commentary on "Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is 'Strong Objectivity?'" (1992) by Sandra Harding. First, I have to say that I do not find the text particularly satisfying. Most of its critiques are valid, but on the rare occasion that Harding implies any methodological changes, they seem infeasible or ineffective. Given that Harding is proposing a change of worldview and not directly a change in behavior, this is understandable, but it would still be nice to know what the actual implications of the change in worldview would be! All that said, I am prepared to defend the vast majority of the text.

According to Harding, standpoint epistemology is a response to the "sexist and androcentric results of scientific research". It is one of two responses she presents, the other of which she calls "feminist empiricism", which says that the biased results of prior scientific research were due to insufficient rigor, and that the underlying principles are fine. In contrast, standpoint epistemology, according to Harding, proposes a transformation of science and its mechanisms to more actively remove bias. Harding explicitly rejects relativism and essentialism, which are the positions most commonly attributed to her work. I am not sure why anyone would think she was lying, given that Harding clearly considers relativism and essentialism to be popular strands of feminist thought, and as such they are positions she could safely adopt publicly. Perhaps the jargon and the relative lack of concrete proposals have convinced people the idea is more radical than it really is.

Standpoint epistemology derives from standpoint theory, which is broadly the claim that the perspectives of people who are marginalized in society are, if anything, more relevant and accurate than those of dominant groups. Historically it draws from Marxism and the dialectic approach more generally (in particular, Hegel's Master/Slave dialectic), but the observation that marginalization compels people to understand their oppressor better than their oppressor understands themself (and as a corollary, that a life of privilege can be blinding, like how rich people do not know the prices of common household items) does not require dialectics at all. It is still however a rather controversial idea, with two major opponents. The first is that the view from the dominant position is more objective because it is less involved. This is blatantly false and silly. The more serious objection is that this theory obstructs the objective "view from nowhere". It is very important to ask - is there such a view? Is there knowledge that is not socially situated? The answer, according to Harding, is no. This is really the heart of the dispute between Harding and empiricism. It is rather difficult to prove the non-existence of "nowhere", especially on empiricist terms. If there is a "nowhere" to view reality from, then where? Of course, in reality, the view from nowhere is typically the view from above repackaged. Standpoint Epistemology can rightly be accused of self-contradiction, but at least it does so consciously.

This leads us into Harding's first methodological change, and the only one that is complete enough to be worth discussing separately. The idea is this: the lives and perspectives of marginalized people should be used as a starting point for the production of knowledge. This is as opposed to the only implied alternative of production of knowledge starting with the lives and interests of the dominant group. We might then imagine, from this, that Harding seeks to exclude men from philosophy in a mirror to the way women were historically excluded. This is however not the case. Harding believes it is desirable, and in fact very much necessary for men to also produce knowledge using the lives and perspectives of women as a base, and even names some philosophers, men and women alike, who she considers to have done important philosophy from women's perspectives in the past. Additionally, this quote from the article is extremely important here: "for standpoint theorists, reports of marginalized experience or lives, or phenomenologies of the 'lived world' of marginalized peoples, are not the answers to questions arising either inside or outside those lives, though they are necessary to asking the best questions". Clearly Harding and standpoint theorists in general are aware of the tendency that they are accused of promoting, and are just as opposed to it as the empiricists are.

Harding presents some interesting distinctions between the subject of knowledge under empiricism and under her reformed model of science. Harding alleges that it is a problem that science is presented as being disembodied, as being information existing outside of time or society, because the things science studies are embodied, exist at particular times and observed by particular societies. I'm not sure I agree here! Is it actually necessary for the object of knowledge and the subject of knowledge to be similar in kind? Surely that kind of distance has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. The next claim is more interesting. Empiricism supposedly has a tendency to consider knowledge to be generated by generated by particular individuals and not by societies or groups. This is a view that I think was significantly more prevalent last century, when the article was written, but it is still the implication behind much of the existing pop history of science and the way science is taught in schools. But why is this not correct? Harding makes the interesting point that she only considers her beliefs to be knowledge when they are socially validated. That is, while the beliefs may have been formulated by an individual such as Newton, it is a scientific community, over centuries, that transformed them into knowledge, and later restricted that knowledge to motion at non-relativistic speeds. The distinction between a belief that is true and will be turned into scientific knowledge and scientific knowledge itself is actually quite important, because it leaves the door open for true beliefs that do not, for whatever reason, become knowledge. However, the social methods by which beliefs become knowledge in science are acknowledged by empiricists and are in fact a core part of empiricist ideology. The whole point of peer review and scientific discourse is that knowledge is generated through social legitimation, so it seems a bit off to assert that the standpoint epistemological project is aware of this and the empiricist project is not. What I will say is that empiricists rarely embrace obvious conclusions of the fact that scientific knowledge is socially constructed, so I kind of understand why Harding feels the need to point it out.

What is it that Harding actually proposes? It is to use the lives and perspectives of marginalized people as a starting point in the production of knowledge. The purpose of this is that "the subject of knowledge be placed on the same [...] plane as the objects of knowledge", that is, that we should consider the conditions under which a particular piece of knowledge was produced to be a component of that knowledge, and reported along with it, producing what Harding calls "Strong Objectivity". I think it can be useful to study the conditions under which ideas were created, and that this can provide productive avenues of critique. On the other hand, that is what History of Science and History of Ideas are already doing, so I'm not sure this point provides any methodological changes that would simultaneously be useful and not already be part of the revised empiricist model of knowledge production or easily imported into it. The last thing Harding proposes is for science to be integrated into democratic structures, but it is important to note that by this Harding means democracy in the sense that anarchists mean it, which is a notion too vague to constitute an actual methodological proposal. Harding devotes the last section of her article to explaining why it is the notion of objectivity that needs to be transformed, and not simply the scientific method, from what I gather her reason is mostly that it is the more intellectually coherent thing to do. If I were to propose my own methodological change in line with Harding's critique, it would be that scientists should attempt to identify communities that are relevant to their research, and then run their experiments and articles by sensitivity readers (which I understand is done in fiction writing), as a form of review complementary to peer review.

Harding's work is in some respects an unfortunate casualty of the march of history. She herself notes that her ideas will inevitably become obsolete over time, but I suspect that there are things she did not expect to happen as quickly as they did, that make the article less relevant now than it was when written. Her assumption that scientific knowledge production is necessarily the domain of the elite is somewhat dubious. Academia has become significantly more diverse and representative over the last three decades, and it has also become much less prestigious and well-paid (I do not think this is entirely a coincidence). It remains true that knowledge production is the domain of a particular non-representative subculture (in fact, the fact that they are involved in knowledge-production will itself make this culture non-representative in at least one way), but the only parts of that subculture that seem to be heavily integrated into the socioeconomic elite are people who were already prominent when the article was written. Additionally, empiricist science has had three decades to fortify itself against the critiques that were made of it, which it has done to at least some extent.

What have we learned? Well, first, that none of the people denouncing "standpoint epistemology" seem to know the first thing about it. This may be because there are people loudly promoting standpoint epistemology who don't know the first thing about it either. I have frequently encountered people who are clearly interacting with a large group of confidently ignorant people and then absorb their vocabulary while critiquing them. What I would suggest as a remedy is to ignore people who don't know what they're talking about. Second, we have learned that standpoint epistemology is probably not possible to do, and it is unclear if doing it would be worth the cost if it were. Lastly we have learned that critical studies are depressingly often simply studies of academic environments (reminiscent of psychology studies performed on a dozen white male college students). Why does Harding focus on scientific knowledge production, and not on knowledge production more generally? At the very least a mention of theories in media studies that are complementary to the account she provides would be appreciated. Or perhaps, even more ambitiously, any sort of reference to the real world rather than only endless discourse.

I would like to end by presenting an interesting open scientific problem that seems to be hard to grasp using empiricist methods, but might be more yielding to a standpoint approach. The article "Physician–patient racial concordance and disparities in birthing mortality for newborns" (2020) (sci-hub.do/10.1073/pnas.1913405117), an analysis of 1.8 million hospital births in Florida between 1992 and 2015, suggests that, while there is a generally higher rate of infant mortality for Black babies than for White babies, the rate of infant mortality for Black babies being delivered by White physicians is significantly higher than for Black babies being delivered by Black physicians (note that the infant mortality rate for White babies does not vary significantly with physician race). The authors of the study controlled for a number of possible confounding factors, and the only difference they reported was that specialized pediatric instruction reduced the size of the gap in outcomes but did not remove it entirely. Now, my own hypothesis to explain the data is that White doctors in Florida and likely the US more generally are doing racist, likely eugenicist, infanticide, and this hypothesis does not require the standpoint approach. But for people who want other explanations, I think approaching the issue with methods from standpoint epistemology might be productive.

[mindblindbard]

I asked but honestly idk if tumblr ate it or you preferred not to answer (which is ok!!) but I love lore and I would love to know about the Korean Unification war? In this world is Korea reunited? Are dinamics with the USA different?

I’m so sorry! If I don’t answer something, it’s usually simply because I don’t have time. In a perfect world, I’d be able to write and interact with readers fulltime (maybe someday), but right now I currently have 1,028 unanswered messages in my tumblr inbox. I do read all the questions, but which ones get answered is based off either when they're sent or where my finger stops randomly scrolling. I often lose asks that I wanted to answer, since at this point there’s too many for me to even re-find them using ctrl+f since they don’t load at the same time.

(This is NOT a complaint. It means the world to me that so many people are curious about Mind Blind. Asks and comments are a HUGE source of motivation that keep me writing!)

Please feel free to keep asking questions via tumblr, but the COG forum may be a better place since it’s easier for asks not to get buried: https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/mind-blind-9-30-demo-update-a-story-where-you-are-mostly-not-the-chosen-one/79890.  I personally like the fact that I can quickly “heart” comments; I am reading and processing all your feedback, even if I don’t always have time to respond!

Now that ramble is done: about the Korean Reunification.

(Actual answer under the cut, because I already went off on a long-winded tangent, as I’m prone to do. But here’s another really, really, REALLY long-winded essay. No, seriously. It’s too long.)

When I lived in Seoul, I was somewhat surprised that most my friends there really didn’t like the idea of North and South Korea reunifying. Granted, my perspective is limited since most my circle a) lived in Seoul, b) were Millennials, and c) had jobs where they either used a lot of English, or had once lived/studied abroad outside Korea. They worried about the expense of reunification, and also that the cultures of North and South Korea had strayed too far apart at this point for the two to easily be one country again. Many viewed South Korea as having more in culturally common with the USA than with their northern neighbor.

Older people seemed to have a different viewpoint (again, this is generalizing based off my personal experiences). Most didn’t remember the Korean Division in 1945, but they're acutely aware of the fact that they had an uncle/grandparent/cousin who lives in North Korea. Reunification is personal--a familial, rather than economical, crisis.

(I encountered a similar generational divide of viewpoint when I lived in Ireland. But again, my perspective is that of an outsider looking in, so take what I say with a shaker of salt.)

I can’t begin to guess how Korean reunification would happen at this point (or even if it could, despite the inspiring speeches of South Korean politicians). It’s been almost 100 years since the two split. Rather than speculate the future, I changed the past. In Mind Blind’s universe, Korea Reunification was fought between 1995-1998, sparked by the beginning of the North Korean Famine. 

This is because MB’s United Nations is a lot more . . . *cough* . . . uh, militaristically proactive? This is a very double edged blade, as will become clear in later chapters. But MB’s UN functions more like Model UN in the States, where high school juniors “solve” all the world’s problems in a week and then feel naively smug because adults can’t figure this stuff out. (My time at Model UN had Germany and Guatemala uniting to put an end to torture. I also lead a motion to experiment on and weaponize David Hasselhoff as a Superman-esque nuclear deterrent, which gives you an idea of how realistic our teenage expectations were and how seriously I’ve always taken things. But in a way, Hasselhoff was my first attempt at a proto-Ment. Superpowers change political landscapes.)

Reunited Korea maintains close trade ties with the USA, but some of the modern-day resentment has faded since the USA no longer has a military presence in Korea. It’s more an equal partnership. Korea maintains South Korea’s political structure, and, much to the relief of male K-pop stars, the draft has been done away with. (Many Korean superstars are Ments, since it further “glamourizes” them. Faking a high Pollard Score has become the new plastic surgery.) 

However, the Reunification also lead to problems.

One of the reasons Rosy happily left Korea is that they’re looked down on due to being North Korean. The region that used to North Korea is much poorer, and some modern Koreans in Mind Blind’s world feel resentment towards the UN. There’s a belief that that reunification slowed down their country’s economic growth, and was more an act of virtue signaling by the Western allies . . . and worse, that it was the UN’s testing grounds for Ment military use. After all, it was during the Reunification when Ment soldiers were first utilized as special agents by the newly-formed Unity.

And holy crap this is too long. Sorry!

[thesquishywizard]

How to make a Grimoire!

This took me a week to compile so if you enjoy it and want to support me, this a link to my ko-fi!

Hey there, I’m Ismo the Squishy Wizard, and today I want to talk about how you could go about making a grimoire for yourself. Grimoires are very personal despite being for information and reference, so it is understandable that some of my advice just won’t fit your way of doing things. The following advice is based on my experiences and the experiences of other magical practitioners and witches I have spoken to or watched on youtube, so hopefully you can avoid some problems we have ran into.

What is the difference between a grimoire and a book of shadows (BoS)?

A grimoire is often only a magical reference book while a book of shadows is not only a magical reference book, but also a diary, record of magical activities and ultimately, whatever you make of it. The reason why you might want one more than the other is purely down to personal taste.

A grimoire will detail what things mean, their origins, uses and personal associations. It is in an order that will help the witch easily find what they’re looking for, whether that is in alphabetical order, simplicity to complexity, importance to you or some other personal order. Grimoires tend to be quite formal, being written in highly decorated documents on a computer, high quality notebooks, scrapbooks or sketchbooks.

A book of shadows may do all that too but also include records of daily practice, experiences with deities or spirits, personal reflection and introspection, thoughts and questions about the craft, results of spells and maybe dreams too. It generally is in order of learning and experiencing so can be slightly harder to navigate for reference for some people. Books of shadows tend to be more casual and some people write them in old school books and notebooks. Some people separate things further and put dreams and personal reflection and introspection in a book of mirrors, so that might be a good thing to think about.

Other people don’t define grimoires and BoS in this way and see it as two terms for the same concept and use “BoS” and “grimoire” interchangeably, so this may still be useful advice for those making a BoS. Neither a BoS or a grimoire is better universally, it is about what is best for you and the way you practice.

I personally have a grimoire and a magical diary as two seperate books!

Why might you want a grimoire?

Grimoires are useful for compiling knowledge all in one place, in a language you understand and work well with. With a grimoire, you might not feel the need to get several books out, just your grimoire because you will have used your knowledge and experience and the authors of those other books experiences when writing information in your grimoire. It also allows you to remove any jargon you don’t understand or add useful diagrams and pictures if you are a visual learner. A grimoire still shouldn’t be your only book, always continue learning and researching with others’ insights, grimoires are just more compact and quick for when you quickly need to find something out or need a bit of help. However, you don’t need a grimoire, if you think a book of shadows, a magical diary or just using pre-existing books is more useful to you, don’t make a grimoire. Grimoires can be an awful lot of work, only make one if you feel like you need it and are going to use it.

Don’t instantly begin making a grimoire, wait at least three months

A grimoire holds all the information that is important to your craft and though the beautiful, awe inspiring pictures of grimoires get a new witch raring to go, it is probably not best to make a grimoire yet. Making a book of shadows or a simple diary would probably be more useful and less overwhelming to begin with and you can still record new knowledge you come across, it is still important to learn and research as this is what will get you ready to make a grimoire.

Trying to make an organised, informative grimoire when you are still new to the craft can be very hard and may cause you to include misinformation or elements of witchcraft that are simply not relevant to your life soon after looking into them, as a witch’s practice changes a lot drastically in the first year or two, and their path will still change, but often just slighter, through their whole life.

This might mean that whole sections of your grimoire are never used, putting your hard work to waste. Some witches don’t start making their grimoire until they are years into their path, as they are now more sure of their beliefs, the way they practice and their thoughts on things so they can guarantee everything is of use to them, and should be for a long time.

I started my first grimoire five months into my path but I honestly should have done it later, as my path underwent some drastic changes only six months later (so eleven months into my path), but I’ve had a very stable path for about a year now so I’m currently making a new grimoire. Now I’m learning additional things, so I feel more comfortable starting my grimoire again. I’ve not learnt things that reshape my whole way of thinking and practice for quite a bit, though this can still happen at any point in your journey and it should be welcomed with open arms, but just a warning, that sort of thing is more likely to happen early on in your path.

Research and meditate on your findings!

To work out what path you want to take and how that may inform what goes into your grimoire, you need to research. You’ve probably heard before that the first step to anything in witchcraft is research which is very true and the sooner you start researching the quicker you’ll be able to understand and confidently start your grimoire. Bookmark websites, stick post-it notes and bookmarks in your books, or even begin collating your information into a computer document or writing it down in your diary or BoS. 

Experience being a witch before beginning to write your grimoire, try out those spells, try out those ideas, you may find that they simply don’t work for you or mesh right with your personal experiences or you may find that you’re a lot more into that area than you first thought you would be and you need to do deeper research and learn even more! Explore the world around you and record it in your diary, BoS, phone or elsewhere. Get to know the plants common in your area and therefore useful in your practice, the constellations in the sky, the food you can make, anything, just get to know what you like. Also make sure you fully understand a subject before deciding to put it in your grimoire, I’ve known witches who have written about things such as chakras, only to later find the western model of chakras is very warped from their Hindu and Tantric Buddhism origins and I myself have written about plants that are native to the Americas, despite me being British and having no way to access them because I didn’t properly research. 

When researching information, always think about whether it is relevant to you and whether you enjoy it. It can be tempting to research anything and everything but you might get burnt out and find the craft overwhelming that way and also some things are from closed practices. You should always check if something is from a closed practice, even if it seems to be commonly used.

Always use multiple resources even when it comes down to something as simple as latin names. The book I was using for British plants and wildflowers was written in the 1910s, which meant some latin names had changed so I crossed referenced every one with both British wildflower websites and wikipedia.

Drafting and planning your grimoire

Once you’ve collected some reliable resources and you feel comfortable in your understanding of the subjects that you’re interested in, you could start planning out your grimoire.

I recommend planning your grimoire so you don’t get overwhelmed by all of the things you want to put into it and how you want to present it.

First, think about what medium you want to construct your grimoire in, do you want it to be a digital grimoire? Or maybe in an actual book? Both? Next, think about the order you want everything in, though it isn’t yet made, plan it out something like a contents page. Make sure the order of things makes sense to your brain. Also, maybe have a little think about the future, maybe you could futureproof your book if you know there are areas that you want to look into one day or look into further and take into account the extra room you might need.

If you choose to make a physical grimoire, consider making a first draft before the finished project. You can do this in an old notebook or digitally. Mistakes are made and you don’t want to fumble your words so you could write it in full before writing it in your book, but many just plan a series of points they wish to cover. I planned mine in full in google docs, just without pictures. This meant I had all my knowledge and research already compiled and worded in a way I was happy with, I can often mess up my wording on the fly.

If you choose to make a digital grimoire you don’t have to worry as much about drafting, but it’s still important to make a structured plan for how you will organize things within your grimoire. Moving sections about can be a bit tricky! It’s also a good idea to choose which program you want to make your grimoire in, make sure it’s one you know how to use well so you don’t get frustrated, making a grimoire is meant to be fun. Some people enjoy using an art program to digitally draw and write their information, then they print them out! Some people instead use something like a google doc or document program, adding information in the form of text, pictures or charts but keeping it digital.

Tips for actually making your grimoire!

If you’ve planned a physical grimoire, it might be a good idea to get a larger book than you expect to actually need! You will keep using this book in the future, and continue to add information to it. You don’t want to run out of space when you have something really cool to talk about! As previously said, you could also futureproof it by leaving spaces or whole pages blank for extra information or new subjects.

A digital grimoire doesn’t mean a dull grimoire! Download some free fonts, lots of free witchy fonts exist and can really inject more of you into your document. There’s also lots of free photo websites or you could take your own photos and put them in your document. It doesn’t have to be all text in times new roman. I really like ‘Adalind’! https://www.fontspace.com/category/witch 

Some people find it is a good idea to source their information, especially when they are using their experiences and the experiences of several other people. This means that things can be checked later, years into the future if you are confused as to why something might be so.

You don’t have to know how to draw well to make a physical grimoire! You can print out pictures, you can take pictures out of magazines or books, or you can use something like postcards, tea cards, trading cards, lots of things! Don’t just restrict yourself to photos and drawings you’ve done.

Pressing flowers and leaves can be a wonderful idea for a physical grimoire, especially if you don’t have access to a printer or you feel like your art skills aren’t there. It can also give your grimoire that field journal feel! However, pressing flowers and leaves can mean some colour loss. To retain the most colour, keep the plants pressed for two or three weeks in a warm room. Most small flowers or leaves in a warm room will be pressed after just under a week. Never press a plant for more than a year, you don’t need to wait that long and also you run the risk of making your sample brittle. You could also laminate leaves (but not flowers, the heat seems to mess them up) and this seems to retain the colour better.

When making a physical grimoire, if using a book, make sure the book has a thick, sturdy cover, the book might get damaged with a soft cover, so a hard card, leather or even cork cover is a good idea to look out for when selecting your book. When selecting a book, never go for a type of binding known as ‘perfect binding’, as it uses glue to bind the pages to the cover. With the nature of grimoires, they tend to puff out quite a bit with all the flaps, pictures and pressed samples, which can break the inflexible glue binding. A good binding is wire or spiral bound, this means you can completely fold the pages over, reducing the total spread of the book on a work surface at any given time. Another good type of book is screwpost binding, here screws that can be easily screwed in and out hold the book together or alternatively bits of string to bind the book instead of the screws (this is my book’s binding). You can take the bits out and punch holes in your paper to increase the total amount of canvas you have to work with, it’s a lot like a ring binder, except it’s a book! Lastly, another common type of grimoire binding is section sewn, this is usually found in handmade leather grimoires. It’s virtually impossible to add paper to these, but they’re very sturdy and look quite magical. You can also bind your own books this way!

If you choose to make a ring binder grimoire, try to get a sturdy, high quality one. Many ring binders rings can’t actually match up, which can shred your paper as they pass over these sharp points. Also keep in mind a sturdy cover, some ring binders have a thin flexible plastic sheet, but cardboard or even wooden covers are out there and are a bit better at protecting your work.

If you plan to use multi-media methods of creating your grimoire, or heavy types of ink, I suggest you go for a heavyweight type of paper, something like a high quality notebook or sketchbook will be good. Handbound artisan books tend to come with heavyweight thick paper, so you don’t have to worry about those too much. Loose leaves of heavy paper can be bought from art shops if you are making a ring binder grimoire or need to add pages to a screwpost binding style book and are also using heavy inks, paints or making it scrapbook style.

Through all this, remember that the grimoire is primarily meant for you, you aren’t making it for other people, so don’t beat yourself up if it isn’t the most aesthetic and gorgeously professional thing ever. There’s a lot of pretty grimoires online for inspiration, but try not to just completely copy their work, or constantly compare your own creation to other peoples. They likely have been making grimoires for a very long time. As long as it gets the job done and makes you happy, that’s all that matters. It should be a little piece of yourself that looks and feels like you. 

Things to possibly include in your grimoire

Witches never have to do all of these, it is your path so pick and choose what inspires you!

Most grimoires have a title page including the date it was started and your magical name if you have one.

Some people include an invisibility sigil to prevent prying eyes, a curse that punishes them for looking or a warning that this book isn’t for them. Others bless their book!

Many people have a contents page so they can remember where to find the information they need.

A lot of witches include a personal introduction, explaining what brought them to the craft, a bit about who they are, favourite things like herbs, crystals and colours, any familiars they work with or any magical abilities they have. Some people almost make a little correspondence page about themselves, including key herbs, a natal chart, their birth tarot card and personal sigil.

Not all magical practitioners work with deities in their craft or are religious at all, but if you are, having a section about your deity or whole pantheon is a good idea. Write about what your deity acts like, what they are the deity of/over, things they enjoy as offerings or how you came to first begin working with them.

If you follow a wheel of the year or have celebrations, a page on these is a good idea. What does the celebration represent? What are some ideas for activities to do then? What does it mean to you?

Some people have a series of morals or tenants they follow and believe in. Maybe write down yours for your path.

The main chunk of the grimoire should be about what you work with. This could be plants, food, crystals, animals, colours, astrology, planetary magic, fair folk, magical creatures and much more! For each entry, explain the concept’s or item’s correspondences and uses, whether that be the common use or your personal uses and associations, what the item is like, where to find it, folklore about it, non-magical and mundane uses and maybe how to make it if it is something like food.

Another big chunk is often common spells, potions, practices or rituals you do and how to do them. Spells such as banishing, protecting, removing curses are all popular spells to record in a grimoire and meditation, grounding and centering methods are some non-spell things that are still important for many witches to know.

You might also want to talk about different types of spells in general, how to create one and what the differences are between them.

Some people talk about the tools they use, especially in practices like traditional Wicca, where there are important tools like chalices and athames. More universal tools like taglocks are another good thing to cover.

It's a good idea to talk about the divination methods there are or just the ones you personally use if you use any. Also cover any layouts, spreads or boards you might use. Witches don’t have to do divination, so if you don’t, you don’t have to include it! 

Some people include a section on magical theory, how they believe magic works. You could also do a section on how divination works for you. Some people think it helps introspection and decisions while others think it helps peer into possible futures.

You might want to include different alphabets relevant to your practice. If your practice is norse based, different futharks might be useful, whereas for hellenic practices, ancient greek alphabets will probably be of more use. The theban or witches’ alphabet is a common alphabet to be found in modern grimoires. Alphabets can help you code things from prying eyes or make sigils.

If you do ancestor or spirit work, you could talk about your ancestors or the spirits you work with. What they were/are like, wisdom they have passed on to you and other information you think is important.

Talk about how to work with spirits if you work with them. How to call them, how to respect them and how to banish them are important things to know.

If your path is a pre-existing one, talk about the history and origin of your type of witchcraft. If religion is heavily important to your path, talk about the history and how it has changed over time too. If your path is unique to you, talk about how you discovered and formed it!

Most witches include folktales, superstition or local wisdom and customs from their area. This could be ghost tales, how to keep crops safe, or even local magical goings on, anything that connects you to the land of your area.

Some people have people in their family who did things that could be considered magical. Many people used to do divination, herbalism (herbalism isn’t inherently witchcraft, it is using plants for healing and health and may or may not have a magical element to it) or use country wisdom and did not consider themselves witches or magical practitioners. Maybe talk about your relative or if you are an open witch and they are still around, ask their opinions and thoughts on matters and include a section on them.

If you are a hereditary witch, you could talk about what you’ve learnt from your family too! Though I feel you probably don’t need my advice on making a grimoire if you are one XD

Some people talk about places that feel magical to them. Explain exactly how the area makes you feel, maybe the reason why or what you have found in that place.

Always remember, your grimoire will never truly be finished, you’ll get it to catch up with your current knowledge at points and may not add new stuff for a bit, but part of being a witch is always learning, so there’ll be more to add soon! It is also important to keep in mind, there is no shame in remaking your grimoire or having to get another volume, it is the collection of your knowledge and it's actually quite common for experienced witches to have multiple volumes of their grimoire or old ones they don’t really refer to anymore, I know grimoires are often talked about in a singular way but it really is common to have multiple.

Most of all, have fun with it. Make your grimoire! I wish you a pleasant journey on your long and winding path <3

Resources!

How to press flowers: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-press-flowers.html 

Types of binding: https://www.studentbookbinding.co.uk/blog/types-of-binding 

Magical alphabets and historical alphabets: https://www.omniglot.com/ 

British plant, fungi and animal species: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer 

British plant and fungi species: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/plant-fungi-species 

British plant, fungi and animal species: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

(I’m British so these are the resources I know are good for the UK)

[arcticdementor]

Media Twitter does not hate Substack because it’s pretending to be a platform when it’s a publisher; they don’t hate it because it’s filled with anti-woke white guys; they don’t hate it because of harassment or any such thing. I don’t think they really hate it at all. Substack is a small and ultimately not-very-relevant outpost in a vastly larger industry; they may not like it but it’s not important enough for them to hate it. What do they hate? They hate where their industry is and they hate where they are within their industry. But that’s a big problem that they don’t feel like they can solve. If you feel you can’t get mad at the industry that’s impoverishing you, it’s much easier to get mad at the people who you feel are unjustly succeeding in that industry. Trying to cancel Glenn Greenwald (again) because he criticizes the media harshly? Trying to tarnish Substack’s reputation so that cool, paid-up writer types leave it and the bad types like me get kicked off? That they can maybe do. Confronting their industry’s future with open eyes? Too scary, especially for people who were raised to see success as their birthright and have suddenly found that their degrees and their witheringly dry one-liners do not help them when the rent comes due.

…

Life in the “content” industry already sucks. A small handful of people make bank while the vast majority hustle relentlessly just to hold on to the meager pay they already receive. There are staff writers at big-name publications who produce thousands of words every week and who make less than $40,000 a year for their trouble. There are permanent employees of highly prestigious newspapers and magazines who don’t receive health insurance. Venues close all the time. Mourning another huge round of layoffs is a regular bonding experience for people in the industry. Writers have to constantly job hop just to try and grind out an extra $1,500 a year, making their whole lives permanent job interviews where they can’t risk offending their potential bosses and peers. Many of them dream of selling that book to save themselves financially, not seeming to understand that book advances have fallen 40% in 10 years - median figure now $6,080 - and that the odds of actually making back even that meager advance are slim, meaning most authors are making less than minimum wage from their books when you do the math. They have to tweet constantly for the good of their careers, or so they believe, which amounts to hundreds of hours of unpaid work a year. Their publications increasingly strong arm them into churning out pathetic pop-culture ephemera like listicles about the outfits on Wandavision. They live in fear of being the one to lose out when the next layoffs come and the game of media musical chairs spins up once again. They have to pretend to like ghouls like Ezra Klein and Jonah Peretti and make believe that there’s such a thing as “the Daily Beast reputation for excellence.”

I have always felt bad for them, despite our differences, because of these conditions. And they have a right to be angry. But they don’t have much in the way of self-awareness about where their anger really lies. A newsletter company hosting Bari Weiss is why you can’t pay your student loans? You sure?

They’ll tell you about the terrible conditions in their industry themselves, when they’re feeling honest. So what are they really mad about? That I’m making a really-just-decent guaranteed wage for just one year? Or that this decent wage is the kind of money many of them dream of making despite the fact that, in their minds, they’ve done everything right and played by all the rules? Is their anger really about a half-dozen guys whose writing you have to actively seek out to see? (If you click the button and put in your email address, you’ll get these newsletters. If you don’t, you won’t. So if you’re a media type who hates my writing, consider just… not clicking that button.) Or do they need someplace to put the rage and resentment that grows inside them as they realize, no, it’s not getting better, this is all I get?

It’s true that I have, in a very limited way, achieved the new American dream: getting a little bit of VC cash. I’m sorry. But it’s much much less than one half of what Felix Salmon was making in 2017 and again, it’s only for one year.

You think the writers complaining in that piece I linked to at the top wanted to be here, at this place in their career, after all those years of hustling? You think decades into their media career, the writers who decamped to Substack said to themselves “you know, I’d really like to be in my 40s and having to hope that enough people will pitch in $5 a month so I can pay my mortgage”? No. But the industry didn’t give them what they felt they deserved either. So they displace and project. They can hate Jesse Singal, but Jesse Singal isn’t where this burning anger is coming from. Neither am I. They’re so angry because they bought into a notoriously savage industry at the nadir of its labor conditions and were surprised to find that they’re drifting into middle age without anything resembling financial security. I feel for them as I feel for all people living economically precarious lives, but getting rid of Substack or any of its writers will not do anything to fix their industry or their jobs. They wanted more and they got less and it hurts. This isn’t what they dreamed. That’s what this is really about.

…

My own deal here is not mysterious. It’s just based on a fact that the blue checks on Twitter have never wanted to accept. I got offered money to write here for the same reason I got offered to write for The New York Times and Harper’s and The Washington Post and The LA Times, the same reason I’ve gotten a half-dozen invitations to pitch since I started here a few weeks ago, the same reason a literary agent sought me out and asked me to write a book, the same reason I sold that book for a decent advance: because I pull traffic. Though I am a social outcast from professional opinion writing, I have a better freelance publishing history than many, many of my critics who are paid-up, obedient members of the media social scene. Why? Because the editors who hired me thought I was a great guy? No. Because I pull traffic. I always have. That’s why you’re reading this on Substack right now.

…

A really important lesson to learn, in life, is this: your enemies are more honest about you than your friends ever will be. I’ve been telling the blue checks for over a decade that their industry was existentially fucked, that the all-advertising model was broken, that Google and Facebook would inevitably hoover up all the profit, that there are too many affluent kids fresh out of college just looking for a foothold in New York who’ll work for next to nothing and in doing so driving down the wages of everyone else, that their mockery of early subscription programs like Times Select was creating a disastrous industry expectation that asking your readers directly for money was embarrassing. Trump is gone and the news business is cratering. Michael Tracey didn’t make that happen. None of this anger will heal what’s wrong. If you get all of the people you don’t like fired from Substack tomorrow, what will change? How will your life improve? Greenwald will spend more time with his hottie husband and his beloved kids and his 6,000 dogs in his beautiful home in Rio. Glenn will be fine. How do we do the real work of getting you job security and a decent wage?

…

But how do things get better in that way? Only through real self-criticism (which Twitter makes impossible) and by asking hard questions. Questions like one that has not been credibly confronted a single time in this entire media meltdown: why are so many people subscribing to Substacks? What is the traditional media not providing that they’re seeking elsewhere? Why have half a million people signed up as paying subscribers of various Substack newsletters, if the establishment media is providing the diversity of viewpoints that is an absolute market requirement in a country with a vast diversity of opinions? You can try to make an adult determination about that question, to better understand what media is missing, or you can read this and write some shitty joke tweet while your industry burns to the ground around you. It’s your call.

Substack might fold tomorrow, but someone would else sell independent media; there’s a market. Substack might kick me and the rest of the unclean off of their platforms tomorrow, but other critics of social justice politics would pop up here; there’s a market. Establishment media’s takeover by this strange brand of academic identity politics might grow even more powerful, if that’s even possible, but dissenters will find a place to sell alternative opinion; there’s a market. What there might not be much of a market for anymore is, well, you - college educated, urban, upwardly striving if not economically improving, woke, ironic, and selling that wokeness and that irony as your only product. Because you flooded the market. Everyone in your entire industry is selling the exact same thing, tired sarcastic jokes and bleating righteousness about injustices they don’t suffer under themselves, and it’s not good in basic economic terms if you’re selling the same thing as everyone else. You add that on to structural problems within your business model and your utter subservience to a Silicon Valley that increasingly hates you, well…. I get why you’re mad. And I get that you don’t like me. But I’m not what you’re mad about. Not really.

In the span of a decade or so, essentially all professional media not explicitly branded as conservative has been taken over by a school of politics that emerged from humanities departments at elite universities and began colonizing the college educated through social media. Those politics are obscure, they are confusing, they are socially and culturally extreme, they are expressed in a bizarre vocabulary, they are deeply alienating to many, and they are very unpopular by any definition. The vast majority of the country is not woke, including the vast majority of women and people of color. How could it possibly be healthy for the entire media industry to be captured by any single niche political movement, let alone one that nobody likes? Why does no one in media seem willing to have an honest, uncomfortable conversation about the near-total takeover of their industry by a fringe ideology?

And the bizarre assumption of almost everyone in media seems to have been that they could adopt this brand of extreme niche politics, in mass, as an industry, and treat those politics as a crusade that trumps every other journalistic value, with no professional or economic consequences. They seem to have thought that Americans were just going to swallow it; they seem to have thought they could paint most of the country as vicious bigots and that their audiences would just come along for the ride. They haven’t. In fact Republicans are making great hay of the collapse of the media into pure unapologetic advocacy journalism. Some people are turning to alternative media to find options that are neither reactionary ideologues or self-righteous woke yelling. Can you blame them? Substack didn’t create this dynamic, and neither did I. The exact same media people who are so angry about Substack did, when they abandoned any pretense to serving the entire country and decided that their only job was to advance a political cause that most ordinary people, of any gender or race, find alienating and wrong. So maybe try and look at where your problems actually come from. They’re not going away.

Now steel yourselves, media people, take a shot of something strong, look yourself in the eye in the mirror, summon you most honest self, and tell me: am I wrong?

[foreverlogical]

The ballot measure is trying to move the state from a criminal justice to a public health approach on drugs.

Oregon may take a big first step toward ending the war on drugs this November, with voters set to decide whether the state will decriminalize all drugs through the ballot initiative Measure 110.

The initiative would decriminalize all drugs, including cocaine and heroin, and redirect the savings — along with sales tax revenue from marijuana, which is currently legal in the state — to setting up a drug addiction treatment and recovery program. It’s an attempt to replace the criminal justice approach for drugs with a public health one.

Decriminalization is very different from legalization. In general, decriminalization means the removal of criminal penalties — particularly prison time — for the possession and use of a drug, but not the legalization of sales. So people wouldn’t get arrested for having small amounts of heroin or cocaine on them, but don’t expect stores legally selling either substance to pop up.

Supporters of decriminalization argue that drug misuse and addiction are public health issues, not problems for the criminal justice system. They claim that criminal prohibition leads to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary, racially biased arrests each year in the US — a costly endeavor, straining police resources and contributing to mass incarceration, that does little to actually help people struggling with drug use. Instead, they advocate for resources to be put toward education, treatment, and harm reduction services. Meanwhile, other laws remain on the books to deal with any crime or violence that arises due to drugs.

Opponents argue that decriminalization would remove a powerful deterrent to trying and using drugs, potentially fueling more drug use and addiction. They claim criminal penalties attached to drug possession can also be leveraged — through, say, drug courts — to push people into addiction treatment they otherwise wouldn’t accept. And to the extent there are racial disparities in such arrests, they argue that’s a problem with bias in law enforcement and systemic racism across American society in general, not necessarily a result of drug prohibition itself.

Some critics separately question if the ballot initiative would really direct sufficient funding to addiction treatment. The campaign behind the measure claims, citing state analyses, that it would effectively quadruple state funding to recovery services in particular.

Oregon would be the first state to decriminalize all drugs. To date, the most aggressive steps that states have taken to scale back the war on drugs are to legalize marijuana and to defelonize all drugs, which can still leave criminal penalties like jail or prison time in place. But actual drug decriminalization is untried in the modern US.

Still, Oregon wouldn’t be the first place to decriminalize drugs. Portugal did it in 2001, earning a lot of continued media coverage (including at Vox). The effects seem, on net, positive: Coupled with boosts to drug addiction treatment and harm reduction services, decriminalization seemed to lead to more lifetime drug use overall but less problematic use.

Such an approach could have different results in the US. Supporters are hoping that voters in Oregon, however, will at least be willing to give it a try. If voters embrace the approach, and it works, prohibition opponents could use Oregon to make a case for scaling back the war on drugs more broadly — similar to the approach they’ve taken with marijuana policies.

It begins, however, in Oregon.

Oregon’s Measure 110 would decriminalize all drugs

Oregon’s Measure 110 would remove criminal penalties for the personal, noncommercial possession of a controlled substance, while giving people caught with small amounts of drugs the option to either pay a fine of no more than $100 or get a “completed health assessment” done through an addiction recovery center. The measure would decriminalize all drugs classified Schedule I through IV under federal law, including cocaine, heroin, and meth.

According to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, the measure would lead to a roughly 91 percent decrease in drug possession arrests and convictions in Oregon. Black and Native American people, who are currently overrepresented relative to their population for possession arrests and convictions, would disproportionately benefit.

The measure would also direct savings from law enforcement and incarceration costs and tax revenue from marijuana sales to a new drug addiction treatment and recovery program. The funds would be overseen by an oversight council set up by the Oregon Health Authority made up of treatment providers, a harm reduction services provider, a drug researcher, and people who’ve dealt with addiction, among others. The funds will be audited by the secretary of state’s office at least once every two years.

The measure, in other words, takes a two-pronged approach to drug decriminalization: It tries to eliminate the criminal justice system’s role in simple drug possession, while shifting the issue to a public health system by both facilitating health assessments and directing more funds to addiction treatment and harm reduction services.

The potential benefits aren’t just fewer arrests and convictions, but also a reduction in the collateral damage that can come from those arrests and convictions, including a criminal record that makes it harder to get a job, housing, schooling, or a range of social services.

At the same time, the reality is America’s addiction treatment system is still underfunded and underregulated. As Vox’s Rehab Racket series exposed, the current system is full of questionable programs that don’t provide evidence-based treatment but nonetheless can cost tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.

There’s also some cause for concern that state funds will flow to substandard treatment providers. Local, state, and federal governments already offer some funds and grants for addiction treatment facilities. But many of the agencies that give out these funds often fall under heavy lobbying by the industry — leading them to perpetuate the broken system as it exists today. Oregon’s measure tries to chip away at this problem by setting aside a pot of funds overseen by a council tasked with ensuring the money is spent wisely.

Critics of Measure 110 maintain that it would fail to live up to its promise. They argue that the reallocation of existing spending isn’t enough to fully fund drug addiction treatment services. And some, like Oregon Council for Behavioral Health Executive Director Heather Jefferis, argue the reallocation would take away funds from services, including education and behavioral health, that currently help prevent addiction. “Shifting funds from one part of the continuum of care to another does not equate to increased funding,” Jefferis told me.

The campaign counters, citing in part a state analysis, that Measure 110 would effectively add more than $100 million a year for addiction recovery services in particular — up from the $25 million a year that Oregon currently spends outside of Medicaid and the criminal justice system. “This measure is a big step forward,” Peter Zuckerman, campaign manager for Yes on 110, told me. “But,” he acknowledged, “it doesn’t solve everything.”

The opposition, backed particularly by law enforcement, also argues the measure will lead to more drug use and addiction — as criminal penalties can no longer be used or leveraged to deter people from drug use and direct them to treatment.

While drug courts built on criminal penalties for possession do help some people struggling with drug use, the question is if the threat of jail, prison, or a criminal record is really necessary to get people to treatment. A criminal penalty may even have the opposite effect — deterring people from getting help because they know that, in effect, they’ll be admitting to a crime and possibly exposing themselves to all the consequences that come with that.

Given that decriminalization is so far untried in the US, it’s difficult to say how it would play out. In that sense, Measure 110 would create a real-time experiment for Oregon and the rest of the country.

But first, Oregon’s measure will need to get voters’ approval. It’s unclear how likely it is to pass, due to a lack of polls. But a few big political actors in the state, including the Oregon Democratic Party, have backed the proposal.

Measure 110 is somewhat similar to the Portugal model

There’s no modern example of decriminalization within the US for Oregon voters to draw from. But the measure does very loosely follow the structure of what Portugal did back in 2001: The country decriminalized all drugs, and pushed people toward better-funded and -supported treatment and harm reduction services.

A 2009 report from the libertarian Cato Institute, written by Glenn Greenwald, concluded that decriminalization spared people from the “fear of arrest” when they sought help for their addiction and “freed up resources that could be channeled into treatment and other harm reduction programs.”

After the change, Portugal saw a decrease in drug-related deaths and drops in reported past-year and past-month drug use, according to a 2014 report from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. But it also saw an increase in lifetime prevalence of drug use, as well as an uptick in reported use among teens after 2007.

Nicholas Kristof wrote in the New York Times in 2017, after visiting Portugal to see its model in action:

After more than 15 years, it’s clear which approach worked better. The United States drug policy failed spectacularly, with about as many Americans dying last year of overdoses — around 64,000 — as were killed in the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars combined.

In contrast, Portugal may be winning the war on drugs — by ending it. Today, the Health Ministry estimates that only about 25,000 Portuguese use heroin, down from 100,000 when the policy began.

Crucially, Portugal adopted special commissions that attempt to push people with drug addictions to treatment with the threat of penalties, including fines and the revocation of professional licenses. Although the success of the commissions has yet to be thoroughly evaluated, it’s possible that even as decriminalization increased drug use, the commissions and improved access to treatment got so many people off drugs that use fell or held steady overall.

The requirement in Oregon’s measure for a completed health assessment via an addiction recovery center could work similarly to Portugal’s commissions, pushing people to get care instead of paying a fine. But it remains to be seen if these assessments will provide enough encouragement to seek treatment, or if people will generally decide to pay the $100 fine instead.

Also similar to Portugal, Oregon’s measure is pushing to put more money toward addiction treatment. But a lingering question is if the Oregon measure will truly match the scale of Portugal’s big investment into its own addiction treatment system — particularly towards evidence-based approaches like medications for opioid addiction and needle exchanges.

Given these potential differences, Oregon’s approach may not work as well as Portugal’s. But if voters adopt the measure, it would be as close to the Portugal model as any state has gotten in modern times. And if it works, drug policy reformers could leverage the example to spread the idea around the country.

This is part of a broader effort to scale back the war on drugs

Over the past decade, progressives have increasingly called to “end the war on drugs” — citing, in particular, the vast racial disparities in anti-drug law enforcement. While some lawmakers have taken up that call, legislation has often lagged behind what progressive activists — and voters — support. So activists and voters have begun to take matters into their own hands with ballot measures.

Marijuana legalization is one such example. There’s a lot of support for marijuana legalization, with even a majority of Republicans, who are typically more skeptical of drug policy reform, backing the change in public polls. Yet progressive politicians have lagged behind voters on this issue — for instance, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, opposes marijuana legalization (though he backs decriminalization).

Rather than wait for politicians to catch up, activists have gone through the state ballot initiative process to get the change they want. In 2012, that approach made Colorado and Washington the first two states to legalize marijuana. Nine more states, and DC, have since followed (although two states, Illinois and Vermont, did so through their legislatures). Four other states have legalization measures on the ballot in November.

Given their successes with marijuana, drug policy reformers are now looking for other ways to scale back the war on drugs through ballot measures. That includes Oregon’s drug decriminalization measure, as well as other ballot measures, including one in Oregon, involving psychedelic substances. The question now is if the voters will be as receptive to these ideas as drug policy reformers hope they are.

If voters do prove receptive, that could make the new measures the beginning of a broader push in the next few years, similar to what the US has already seen with marijuana. But first, we’ll have to see how the vote works out in Oregon this November.

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[learnwithmasterminds]

GCSE Science Revision Courses

LEARN WITH MASTERMINDS

“A teacher’s Cry”

“A bumpy road”

Here I am, in a position to transfer my passion, knowledge and skills in science to the younger generation. Working at a school could not be better where I have the opportunity to interact with children and make a difference. However, as I take the journey of becoming an “expert teacher” progress slows due to a few bumpy roads.

Bumpy road one…..packed class sizes, a teacher to student ratio of 1:30. There is no doubt that in every class variation in abilities exist. A powerful tool to tackle these variations lies with a teacher’s ability to plan effective lessons. During the first year of my Teacher training, I have participated in small group interventions. It was evident, that varying abilities even existed within higher ability groups. Observing colleagues, being reflective on my own teaching practice, engaging in weekly readings and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions have enhanced my teaching practice and pedagogy. This leads to improvements when dealing with differences in abilities. Crowley et al., 2018 stated in “The Ultimate Guide to Differentiation” that there are a variety of factors that affect how children learn and should be taken into consideration when lesson planning. Some examples are pupils’ special educational needs (SEN), differences in abilities, speaking English as an additional language (EAL students), physical disabilities, age group and the level of prior knowledge, motivation and concentration. The scariest question I ask myself frequently as a teacher is whether the needs of all my pupils being met. Even though there is room for improvements within the other teaching standards, I can honestly admit that I have found teaching standard five the most challenging. In accordance with teaching standard five, teachers should use a variety of differentiated approaches to adapt to learning for varying abilities. A teacher’s awareness of the factors that can inhibit a pupil’s learning can be combat by keeping up to date with recent research, applying new strategies within the classroom and critically evaluating and reflecting on strategies trialled. It is also vital to have an understanding of how pupils learn throughout their stages of development. All of our Mastermind programs are based on a teacher-student ratio of 1:10. Lessons are planned before delivery to cater for varying abilities. Revision courses are also based on examiners reports; a report produced yearly that concludes all the topics and skills of difficulty faced by the students that took the actual exams that year. Our small class sizes also come in handy for our live online-required laboratory experiments that are tested on the actual exams. These experiments are explained in detailed so that students obtain rich knowledge on scientific concepts.

Bumpy road two……..” The best place for students to learn is at school with their peers”. A study showed that most children hate school. In a way, I do agree with the children’s feeling. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel in you were sat in a classroom and being taught to pass an exam rather than having the opportunity to do other “fun stuff”? One of the factors mentioned earlier, that could inhibit a pupil’s ability to learn is lack of motivation (Crowley, 2018).  It is not surprising that some students struggle terribly with academics. Some schools do not cater for non- academic students; I strongly believe that due to the lack of choices, some students become disengaged. For example, some students may be interested in more “Hands-on” courses such as hair and beauty, sewing or carpentry.  Claxton et al., 2008 states that children do not like school due to a rather boring curriculum. The study concluded that teachers felt that schools were more about passing examination results rather than teaching life skills that aid students in their transformation into adulthood. Some of the subjects that teachers thought would be beneficial to the curriculum were global awareness, human rights and managing risks. In addition, Teachers also thought that the following courses would make difference ethics, body awareness, resilience, and relaxation. A study “Draw a teacher” in Finland consisted of 428 fifteen-year-old students and 134 of their teachers. The study concluded that both teachers and students agreed with the values that an ideal teacher should possess. Some of the frequent ideals included honesty, forgiveness, loyalty, broadmindedness, equality and world at peace (Ellis, 2013). Children view teachers as role models; expectations should be set and maintained through consistency. Children will follow suit resulting in successful lesson outcomes. Masterminds courses do not only focus on academics, but we also conduct a lot of fun and engaging activities that focus on transferable skills. Report cards are sent home to parents three times a year that focuses on both academics and transferable skills. Parents also have the opportunity to attend face-to-face online meetings to discuss pupil’s progress. Our expectations are high for all our students and we act as positive role models so that children can follow suit.

Bumpy Road three……. Here at Learn with Masterminds we want to push our students but at the right level! Schools are singing the same song in a teacher’s ear. The kids need a challenge! The kids need a challenge! Can challenge always be seen as good? The level of challenge can inhibit pupils’ learning. Author Cowley S. could not have stated it better in the author’s “Top ten teaching tips”. It is important to be “flexible” and know how to “strike a balance”. If the content is too simple or difficult this may allow students to become off task or disengage completely from the lesson (Cowley, 2013). Vygotsky states that social interaction is the key to learning. This is because people learn through the experiences of others. Vygotsky stated that people learn from MKO (Most Knowledgeable Others) in a Zone of Proximal Development. The Zone of Proximal Development is an area where learning takes place with the help of an MKO. The Zone of Proximal Development is an aspect of scaffolding and can be best achieved by assessing a student’s prior knowledge, encouraging group work, allowing an MKO to lead the group, breaking down complex information into simpler forms and introducing the challenge to stretch an individual out of their comfort zone. Scaffolding a building provides it with structure, as the building progresses the scaffolds are removed. Scaffolding techniques can be used through modelling to explain a task thoroughly; students -teacher interactions can be used to boost practice. As the student's practice increases, the level of teacher support should decrease gradually. As the level of challenge increases, the level of competency also increases within an individual’s zone of proximal development. If the work is too difficult, students can become disengaged and if the work is too easy, students could become bored, increasing behavioural problems (Bates, 2019). Learn with Mastermind courses are strongly based on Vygotsky’s theory of learning and Rosenshine’s ten principles on instruction with aspects of the challenge being pitched at the right level.

Bumpy road four… The school curriculum seems separate but we should bring maths, geography into science, English into science. All these subjects should be taught in a way that shows students a linkage. However, for some reason students perceive all these subjects as different. For example in biology students are taught Ecology, this is a brilliant time to talk about global warming which should have been learned in geography! Learn with masterminds Implements Maths and English into science! These workshops aid to enhance graphing, data analysis, grammar and punctuation skills. Why should English and Mathematics be implemented across science? In 2007, 44% of students obtained a baseline pass in GCSEs (Minimum of five GCSEs including Mathematics and English). Around 350,000 teenagers struggle with Mathematics and English (Claxton, 2008). During a CPD session, I have learned that in Britain 1 in 20 adults have a reading age of five years old and about 28% of adults have a literacy level of 1 or below (grades D-G).

Bumping road five… When schools refuse to stretch the pounds. Carpel, Leask and Younie, 2019 states that there are two types of motivation. Motivation can be intrinsic; this occurs when students engage with an activity for their own sense of pleasure. Motivation can also be extrinsic; this occurs when students are engaging with an activity to obtain for example a prize. It worries me, that some schools have no homework policy. I had recently issued a piece of homework during a sequence of learning. About 20% of class completed the homework and were given positive points for their efforts. There is absolutely no consequence for the students that never bothered to complete the homework. It is a culture shock for me to see that student’s books are left at the back of classrooms, students being reluctant to complete homework and participate with independent learning. What are we teaching our kids for University level of study? I teach my year 11 class, three times over two weeks. It is not enough time to master a concept fully. The practice is required outside of school to allow for a mastery. Once a task is repeated numerous times, your brain stores the information and tasks become automatic (Willingham, 2009). Are summative exams good or bad? Looking at the positive end, good grades on a test can increase a pupil’s level of motivation. This success builds confidence and sparks a student to achieve more (Carpel, Leask and Younie, 2019).Assessments can affect a student’s level of performance and self-esteem. There are three main issues surrounding assessments. Firstly, assessments are inconsistence, are not shared or evaluated among teaching staff. How can we tell if pupils are being tested on what they need to know? Secondly, the majority of the times grades are given only rather than written advice that will allow a student to address misconceptions. Grades only feedback is unfocused and lacks the ability to amend gaps in knowledge. Research has shown that issuing grades only after a test can defeat the purpose of the feedback process. Thirdly, predictions are made on a teacher’s own set of grades; the previous years are not taken into consideration. Some teachers are incompetent and are unaware of the teaching needs of pupils (Black and William 2006). Weekly homework forms a part of our Masterminds courses to allow for practice, mastering and time for students to respond to feedback. Both grades and written improvements are given and students are required to act on these. Good grades, attitude and punctuality can increase a student’s chance of obtaining a £25 student of the month gift card! Should we have standardised exams or summative assessments? I truly believe that testing a student based on grades only is not the most effective strategy. We need to allow the students to release their creativity to form their inner self. What exactly is the purpose of education? We are moulding young people to become well-rounded individuals. Young people must be tested on transferable skills for example teamwork, communication or public speaking. I think that a student’s final grade should be a mixture of both coursework and exams. Coursework assignments are a useful tool for assessing a student’s ability as anxiety is reduced. In addition, the new generation is focused on technological improvements for example smartphones and tablets. These create “noise” and takes away from the “thought process”. The curriculum should shift from an exam perspective to life skills or Mindfulness. “Mindfulness” is important for the brain’s relaxation; technologies create noise and “loss of thought” resulting in a “loss of creativity” (Stephen and Warwick 2015).

Becoming less Bumpy 6…………….. Learn with Masterminds is an online tutoring business providing services to GCSE students. The business main goal is to support students outside the classroom due to the demands within a classroom. We did not open this business to exploit parents. We opened a business because we care! Hence, our prices are the cheapest compared to other businesses in the Kent area. What are you waiting for? Why not check out our website at www.learnwithmasterminds.com follow us on Facebook. Instagram and Twitter!

[unscripted-quotidian]

Education in India

"Education of mind is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think".

-Albert Einstein.

Education is the key to one's transformation in leading one to be a responsible individual. India jumped five ranks in the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019, as per a report published by The Economist Intelligence Unit grabbing the 35th position globally. India secured a total score of 53, based on three categories – policy environment, teaching environment, and overall socio-economic environment. The country ranked 40th with an overall score of 41.2 across categories in 2018.

The new education scheme launched in 2020 is designed to provide skill-based learning. India has made particular strides in the policy environment with respect to the new national education policy that explicitly mentions future-oriented skills such as critical thinking, communication, and entrepreneurship. 6% of GDP is to be allocated to the education sector alone. The Ministry had also proposed to start a degree level full-fledged online education program along with apprenticeship embedded degree or diploma courses in 150 higher educational institutions which will begin by March 2021.

But will this bring about any change to the existing model of the boring semester system prevalent in Indian universities?  

Some of the major problems of the Indian Education system (especially in the higher education sector)  are-

1. Privatization of educational institutes and Fee Hike

What is common among countries such as Germany, France, Sweden? Yup! Free education!! Yet a degree from these places is world-renowned. For example, all educational institutes of Germany are Government funded and are always in touch with industries.

In addition to private universities, technical and professional institutes like IIM’s have an expensive curriculum. For instance, IIM’s charge Rs. 2 lakh per semester for MBA classes; most of the Private Engineering Institutes charge around 2 lakh an academic year. It is beyond the reach of the common man. Privatization of higher education has led to the growth of profit-hungry entrepreneurs.

The pandemic hit students hard even in terms of fees where they had to pay for resources they aren't going to use such as sports facilities, library, college WiFi when it is uncertain when the student is expected to return. Students also pay a hefty sum to clear backlogs.  

2. Reservation and Scholarships-

There is nothing worse than this! There are several deserving candidates who lose out to a student who has reservations. From a student's point of view and on a personal note, it is not wrong to reserve seats for the backward classes, but at what cost? The cut-off for getting admission anywhere is ridiculously low!! In some cases, it is as low as negative marks wherein technically a candidate simply can write his/her name on the sheet and walk out knowing that there is no competition while students who are from the general category need to slog even more. This extreme advantage reservation candidates get, creates a big hole in the general category student's confidence due to the severe competition.  

If there must be a competition, it must be a healthy one and on equal terms.

There is no fault in providing financial aids to such economically backward students. However, it is INJUSTICE when a general category student loses out a seat due to such preferences. There are several students who buy fake caste certificates to gain an edge and there is no system to verify the same.  

Another quota which adds to the misery is "DISABILITY". Ask yourselves! Is it really important? In what way has this disability stopped you from studying? It's not that you are blind and couldn't read. I have seen people who have a broken toe/leg or a broken finger in the non-dominant hand getting a PwD certificate and reducing their cut off marks to succeed or gain entry into institutes.

3. Quality of Teachers

This is common not only in Universities but also in rural schools. There is always a fear to ask questions because it may not be taken well by the teachers. There is a sizeable figure of lecturers/profs who fail to answer the doubts of the students and blame the student for their incompetence. As students, let us face it, we've been teaching ourselves. There are very few teachers out there who genuinely teach the subject. A proper system must be introduced to filter out the teachers and train them in general.

Today as much as a professor would claim to lecture in class, it is a mere PPT template that has been running in the department from time immemorial. Several Professors are overqualified on paper but underqualified to teach. What is the point of all those degrees and doctorates if he/she can't teach properly?

Teaching is a gift and having a great teacher is always a boon to a student. Statistically, a student falls in love with the subject even more only if the teacher is amazing! The same teacher is also responsible to make a student feel repulsive towards the subject because of the latter's sloppiness.

4. Outdated Syllabus

What can be more annoying than learning something that has no practical value in today's fast-paced technological world? Even though we have reached wherever we are because of the predecessor tech, too much emphasis shouldn't be given. Modern-day adaptations of the previous concepts must be taught in addition to the archaic method.

5. Getting Certified through various Platforms

As useful it might seem from a knowledge point of view, it isn't particularly useful when it comes to non-circuit courses or even circuit courses for that matter. Students just have to solve MCQ's (to which already they have answers) or a format of repeated questions to clear the course and obtain a "Certificate". Let's be honest, we don't even remember what was taught in the course 2 semesters down the lane due to a lack of opportunity to apply what we learned.

6. Ridiculous Timelines-

Every semester is so tightly packed with tons of pointless assignments, tests, quizzes and what not?. Deadlines from colleges end up with one compromising their personal tasks. A student is bound to have fun during the semester weekends. You can't expect a student to work day in and day out without any period of relaxation by dumping pointless assignments. The student is mounted with unnecessary pressure and in most cases given work only in the last moments.

7. The Attendance Drama

No student will shy away from the fact that the main reason for going to class is to maintain a "minimum" attendance requirement of 75-85%. This bogus rule to ensure that a student has to attend class does not guarantee that he/she is learning in class.  The fact that students feel forced to attend class rather than feeling enthusiastic for the same, speaks volumes for itself.

The overall education system is to be blamed. The craze for a few branded courses like engineering and medicine is another thing that our society has to look beyond. The University management is an embodiment of Poor structure and planning and the system is trash in several colleges. No matter which institute, the system is just a lazy lump of corruption. Certain managements do not even work on their student's needs in order to get placed in companies and blame the students for their incompetence. They do not provide the necessary training to the students who later finds a lot of difficulty in seeking a job due to the lack of strong fundamentals. Greedy managements tactfully lure the parents into enrolling their children there. The students thus do not know the value of that course and simply assume that marks, grades, and the degree certificate will enable them to be industry-ready.

The Education Policy 2020 looks promising for the fact it is a good start considering the present scenario. It has its own advantages and disadvantages. In short, academic, vocational and extracurricular activities have been given weightage. As amazing as it looks on paper, its implementation is going to play a key role in the change!

As a society, we must change the notion that having a degree and being qualified are two very different things. You can have a degree but still, be an idiot.

Let us just hope with crossed fingers that the upcoming generations have a better system than ours with the successful implementation of the Education Policy 2020.

[scifigeneration]

Science needs myths to thrive

by Andrew George

Atlantios + saylow/Pixabay, Author provided

I can still remember the horror of discovering that everything I had worked on was wrong. I was a PhD candidate just starting my second year, and my supervisor and I had developed a test for rheumatoid arthritis which seemed a revelation. We wrote a paper for a prestigious journal but just before we sent it off, we decided to do one more experiment to check we were correct.

We weren’t. Everything that I had done in the last year was ruined and I had to start an entirely new research topic. It was a tough but valuable lesson for a young scientist – you should always go further to test your ideas.

That was 35 years ago, and I wonder if someone starting out as a researcher today would be encouraged as I was to go the extra mile. Does the incessant drive to publish and measure outcomes mean that researchers are under pressure to cut corners, and have less time and freedom to pursue their ideas?

The Wellcome Trust – one of the world’s largest funders of health research – recently launched a review of research culture, to find out if research has become so hyper-competitive that it “cares exclusively about what is achieved and not about how it is achieved”.

What helped me develop as a researcher was reading stories about those who came before me. For scientific research to be successful in the long term, I think researchers need a strong set of values, including an unwavering commitment to the truth, and a drive to test any idea to destruction.

Though they may seem opposed to the ideals of the rigorous scientific method, the best way of instilling these values is, as ever, through the stories and myths that we tell ourselves.

The power of stories

In ancient times, people would sit around their fires at night and tell stories. Stories about their creation, stories of great deeds and feats, and stories that rehearsed how people interacted with each other and the world they lived in. One of the oldest of these still to be read is the ancient Greek Illiad of Homer.

The story explores what it means to be a warrior and leader, how people should accept fate, achieve fame and the consequences of pride and anger. Young people listening to those stories learned what was expected of them, reinforcing the collective values and beliefs of society.

In the modern world, myths and stories still have an important role to play – even in scientific research. Scientists have stories about important people and great events in science, such as the discovery of penicillin, uncovering the structure of DNA, the development of vaccines and the battles that Galileo and early proponents of a sun-centred model of the solar system fought with the reactionary forces of the Church. Together, these stories help young scientists understand the collective benefits of research that go beyond personal advancement and success.

A positive research culture should prize curiosity and a view to the greater good. Vlad Tchompalov/Unsplash, CC BY

These scientific myths are based on reality, though sometimes strict historical accuracy has been sacrificed to better make a particular point. In a similar manner, the stories of Homer would have been based on real events – such as the Trojan wars – but they evolved in the storytelling. It’s unlikely the Trojan Horse really was a large-scale model of a horse that soldiers hid in.

The future of science

It’s important to recognise that how we do research has changed. This was brought home to me recently when I reread The Pursuit of Nature, the story of some of the great Cambridge physiologists of the mid-20th century. I was lucky to be taught by one of the authors, Alan Hodgkin, who won the Nobel prize for working out how nerve cells transmitted electrical impulses. He started his work on nerves in the second year of his undergraduate studies, and built his own equipment out of biscuit tins.

Nowadays to succeed you must win big grants and build up a research team. Often more than 20 authors will contribute to a research paper. Hodgkin only ever had a few people working in his team and was more likely to publish with one or two close colleagues.

This “industrialisation” of science is right and necessary. It has accelerated the impact of research in society and allowed scientists to discover and develop new technologies. There is probably nothing left that can be discovered using equipment made from biscuit tins. But amid all this change, we haven’t adapted the way in which we instil the ethics and values of science and research into young researchers.

A stamp printed in Niger circa 1977 celebrates Alan Hodgkin’s Nobel Prize in Physiology. Neftali/Shutterstock

When I was an undergraduate and PhD candidate, my supervisor worked on the lab bench. We had coffee and tea together every day. I learned from her, and colleagues, what it meant to be a scientist. Today, the interaction between supervisors and junior researchers tends to be more transactional, about the experiments and data. There is less time for the apprenticeship of research.

Of course, there is training in how to do research. Graduate schools and doctoral training centres have raised standards in the education of PhD candidates. But I doubt that many people develop their values and moral compass from PowerPoint presentations.

In my own life, the popular myths of great scientists fed a culture that cherished curiosity as a good all on its own. We need to develop these stories, curating them by selecting those that are appropriate and developing new ones that make useful points. As scientists, with a commitment to the truth, we should also ensure that they are accurate representations of reality that also reflect the collective endeavour, rather than the supposed genius of a few white men.

All cultures need their myths, and each lab needs its lore.

About The Author:

Andrew George is Emeritus Professor at Brunel University London

This article is republished from our content partners over at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[larry-lynch-blog]

The Ultimate Primer To New And Pre-Construction Real Estate

Are you thinking about purchasing or investing in new construction?

With a growing interest and a larger new construction market, more buyers are opting out of resale and turning to pre-construction.

But buying pre-construction is a lot different than purchasing a previously owned home. From delays and financing to choosing the right location and builder, there is a huge number of factors you need to be aware of and understand in order to make an informed decision.

In this article, we’ll cover 7 steps to consider before purchasing a new construction home.

1. Get a Real Estate Agent

First and foremost, whenever you purchase any property, you should always hire a qualified real estate professional. Just as the builders always have someone looking out for and protecting their interests, you need someone to protect yours.

 And if you’re concerned about money, good news! As a buyer, it won’t cost you anything to use a realtor, since the builder is the one that pays the agent’s commission.

 Your real estate agent will provide you a broad range of new construction information including whether purchasing a new construction home is right for you or whether you should go the resale route.

This realtor will also be able to give you contacts for qualified mortgage brokers to help you finance your home, as well as real estate lawyers that can review your contracts. Your real estate agent will help negotiate terms and upgrades with the builder for you and will be there to answer any questions you may have throughout the entire process.

Of course, you shouldn’t just hire ANY real estate agent. It should be one that has plenty of experience in new construction and has built strong relationships with builders in the area.

For more visits:Tyler Texas Real Estate

  2. Choose a Builder With a Great Track Record

When purchasing new construction, (especially when it hasn’t been built yet) there’s always a level of risk involved. In essence, you’re making a purchase based on a promise. That’s why it’s essential that you choose a reputable builder with a strong track record of successful developments.

 Construction experience is crucial when it comes to home development. It’s essential that you investigate how long the builder has been in the business, and how do their customers feel about their project.

 Typically speaking, the longer a builder has been around, the better. That is not to say that new builders are not good. But longevity indicates that the builder has survived market downturns, and continues to do well.

 Study past developments the builder has completed, and pay special attention to reviews from current owners, both positive and negative.

 Next, take the time to actually go and see the properties they have built. If possible, talk to some of the owners in person. Let them know you are looking into purchasing a new construction home in the area and wanted to find out their experience with the builder.

 Your real estate agent will also guide you in the right direction in terms of which builders have a good reputation and are known for quality and integrity in the business.

For more visits our sites:East Texas Real Estate

3. Study The Model Home

When you are purchasing new construction, most builders will have a model home. This model home will give you a great opportunity to see what the builder’s capabilities are in terms of craftsmanship.

 As you’re taking the tour of the model home, make sure you ask lots of questions, and inquire about which features and finishes are standard and which ones are upgrades.

That’s because most developers will put all of the upgrades in a model home, which if you decide to add them to your home, they could bump up the listing price up by tens of thousands of dollars above the standard listing price.

For more visits:South Tyler Homes

4. Consider The Pros And Cons of New Construction

To some buyers, resale seems the obvious choice as they are not able to wait up to or more than a year for their home. But to others, having a custom-designed, brand new home make waiting that extra amount of time more than worth it.

 But whether you should go the resale or new construction route would depend on your personal preferences and financial situation.

 “Benefits of new construction include home and structural warranties, energy efficiency, and the latest building code,” says Mel Biondi, a top real estate agent in Naples Florida. “The drawback to new construction are most likely proximity to shopping, dining, entertainment, and work. In coastal areas like Naples, developers have to move further East from the coast to purchase plots of land for development. Buyers in these areas will have to weather the growing pains while commercial development catches up to serve the community needs.”

 If you take the resale route, you’d be able to move in within a few months to a home with a lawn, gardens and finished amenities. The area will likely be developed as well in terms of sidewalks, parks, schools, restaurants, and shopping. And getting a mortgage to finance the home will be much easier as well. And best of all, you will be paying today’s market value, not a future projected value that some builders charge.

 But with resale comes a lot more repairs and maintenance. There may be undiscovered issues with the home which didn’t show up during its evaluation, and you will have no warranty. Adding to that, any renovations or design changes you want to make to the home will be out of pocket.

But if you take the new construction route, you’ll be able to have a custom-designed, brand new home with next to no repairs or maintenance and warranty to cover you.

One of the biggest downsides is, of course, the amount of time it will take for it to be built. And even once the home is finished, don’t expect the neighborhood or surrounding areas to be developed either. There will likely be dirt roads, empty lots, noisy construction and few if any parks and trees.

 Closing costs could also run you tens of thousands of dollars on the purchase price and you will be paying the projected appreciation on day of signing.

 Weighing the pros and cons with your realtor will help you understand what is important to you and what choice makes the most sense for you.

For more visits:White House Homes for Sale

  5. Get Your Finances In Order

One of the biggest differences between purchasing pre-construction vs resale is the way the properties are financed.

 On a resale property, you may be able to put down as little as 1-3% as a down payment. But on pre-construction, you may need to have at least a 20% down payment.

That amount may seem large to put up front, but that down payment is typically broken up into smaller installments.

 Usually, you’re expected to put down a few thousand dollars with the offer, then certain percentages at fixed times (such as 5% in 30 days, 5% in 90 days, 5% in 180 days), and finally a certain percentage at occupancy.

 Deposits are usually higher at the beginning of the project since this is usually a requirement from the bank financing the project. But as the project nears completion, deposit structures become more negotiable, and you might be able to extend or even reduce your payments.

It seems obvious that regardless of purchasing a new home or a pre-existing one, you would make sure you have financing prior to looking. But if you have been pre-approved or financed for resale, it may not cover you for new construction.

Firstly, when you receive your pre-approval you are given a certain rate which likely will not last longer than 90 days. New construction can take more than a year to be built in which case your rate would no longer apply.

 Secondly, your circumstances can change within the timeframe the home is being built. In a year you could lose your job, get relocated or separate from your partner in which you purchased the home with. If your circumstances change, so will your ability to close on the home, making it more risky for lenders to guarantee financing for such a substantial amount of time.

 Thirdly, with new construction, you are likely making the deposits on the home throughout the year as opposed to already having the deposit saved. And you may only have to put 5% or 10% saved which is riskier for a bank to finance you.

 Your realtor will be able to go over your finances with you to help you understand how much you are able to afford and how much you will need to save in order to make the deposits for your new construction home. They will also be able to refer mortgage brokers or guide you towards which banks are offering the most competitive rates.

  6. Decide on the Location

When choosing your location, factors you might want to factor in are proximity to work, access to schools if you have children, strata fees, available amenities and access to surrounding amenities such as restaurants or parks.

 And the location you pick will dictate the price point you are looking at. That’s because location is one of the biggest factors influencing price.

 Look at any major metropolitan city anywhere in the world. The closer you are to the center of it all, the more difficult it gets to build new development, and thus the more expensive real estate gets. And as you venture out to the suburbs or ‘greater area’ of the city, prices tend to drop for comparative properties.

Factor this in when looking at pricing. You can get a lot more value for your money if you are willing to be a little further from the action.

 Also,  make sure you don’t overlook future developments in the area. You can get a lot of this information from your local city hall which will likely have a five-year plan for the surrounding area. This information will detail future schools, parks, stores, and transportation.

  7. Negotiate On Upgrades, Not Price

The majority of builders are not typically willing to sell their units below their listing.

However, there’s a better chance they would be willing to negotiate on other things that will cost you money, such as upgrades, closing costs, furniture, appliances, etc.

You might also be able to negotiate on your deposit structure. Having to put down less down on the home will give you more time to save or give you the ability to finance a larger portion of the property.

 You could save on closing costs (this is addressed in the hidden cost part of the article). And you can also ask for a cashback on closing, as opposed to having money taken off the purchase price.

If the developer agrees to any change in terms, make sure to have it in writing, usually done by an amendment to the contract, and signed by both you and builder.

 Again, here is another place where your real estate agent will be instrumental. Your agents will know how to negotiate and where they can negotiate.

Thank you!

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : Girl 6 (1996)

Every director goes through phases, especially those that find themselves in the ‘business’ for multiple decades, and Spike Lee is no exception.  From his groundbreaking perspectives on roles and race in his early films, to the personal and highly stylized films of his second decade, to the big-budget diverse cast offerings of the Summer of Sam and 25th Hour period, to his return to form of late, Lee has continued to bring a vast array of stories to the table.  Some of the films that have been considered his failures, oddly, are some of my favorite, and chief among them is Girl 6. 

Judy (Theresa Randle) is a New York-based actress with hopes of breaking into the movie business, but a reality full of multiple jobs, financial shortcomings and failed opportunities.  With her opportunities drying up, her industry connections cutting ties with her, and the need for steady work and income, Judy decides to pursue a job in the phone sex industry.  Because of her acting chops, Judy (now going by Girl 6 due to her phone assignment) succeeds at the job, but at the behest of her neighbor Jimmy (Spike Lee) and her ex-husband (Isaiah Washington), Judy begins to lose focus of her acting dreams while diving headlong into her phone sex work.  As Judy goes deeper and deeper into the world of phone sex, her life spirals out of control, forcing her to make tough decisions to pull her world back together.

While Spike Lee has never been one to shy away from the female presence in his films, Girl 6 was one of 3 films (at that time) made by Lee with a focus on a female lead.  Theresa Randle is so much the lead, in fact, that the majority of characters around her are either nameless or applied names that identify what they do more so than their personality, with the exception of Jimmy (played by Lee) and Lil (Jenifer Lewis).  Not even Judy’s ex-husband is given a name, although he is graced with a (failed) redemption arc.  Randle gets a chance to dive into a meta-role about someone searching for a star-making turn, but facing a derailed dream due to a need for money, a story that many actors and actresses face.  Not only does she get to pull from a well of experience, but with Lee at the helm, a handful of sequences give Randle a chance to play iconic roles like Carmen Jones, Foxy Brown and Penny from The Jeffersons.  

At the time of release, I truly enjoyed this movie, but it was not generally well received by the public or the critics.  Perhaps it may have been a perceived lack of focus, a reliance on cameos, or the topic of phone sex itself that turned many viewers off, but for some reason the connection did not happen on a large scale.  Girl 6 was released in a range of films that seemed to be both deeply personal and a chance to do exercises in styles and ideas, as exhibited in Crooklyn and the Lee-produced Clockers.  Thusly, this film has been a hard one to find and watch, but in my opinion, the film has held up to my standards.  I was expecting time (and the following Lee films that were critical and commercial successes) to change my opinion on Girl 6, and surprisingly it has held up quite well to the test of time... maybe it can find an audience now that phone sex has taken a backseat to the juggernaut that is pornography.

Having Prince soundtrack the film (mostly existing songs, but a few new songs and B-sides) gives the film a heavy emotional undertone that serves as a foundation for the narrative.  Lee goes heavy on the style with many choices that would become key pieces of future films : using different film and video stocks, location-specific fourth-wall break character introductions, reverse dolly shots that navigate large areas rather than traverse a straight line, and Lee’s ever present references to other films all make strong appearances in this film, only to become signature elements in Malcolm X, Bamboozled, He Hate Me and more.  The Suzan Lori-Parks script brings a different, unique energy to Lee’s work, maintaining the humor and the human moments, but engaging the audience in an entirely different rhythm, something closer to that of School Daze. 

Theresa Randle seems to have been a muse to Lee at this time in his career, and her presence allowed Lee to indulge in some of the directorial choices that cannot be made with a male lead.  Randle, as the focus, immerses herself into the looks and performances, showing a dynamic range similar to that of a one-woman stage show.  With Randle being the clear center of the film, tiers of support are found in the film’s structure.  Closest to her are Lee and Isaiah Washington, providing two different looks at male interaction (supportive and unhealthy, respectfully).  One step below are Jennifer Lewis as the strong role model in the dangerous business, with a massive supporting cast that includes Debi Mazar, Kristen Wilson, Debra Wilson, Naomi Campbell, Gretchen Mol and more as fellow phone sex operators.  Auxiliary to that, you can find Madonna as a different look at the business, plus caller performances by Peter Berg, Michael Imperioli, Richard Belzer, Larry Fine, Coati Mundi, Delilah Cotto, Anthony Nocerino and Tom Byrd III.  Cameos by Quentin Tarintino, Ron Silver, Susan Batson and John Turturro round out the cast.  

Honestly, this one was more of a personal rumination than a review, but I was just happy to find the film streaming.  It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen this movie, and it’s one of the few films by Lee that I don’t own... it’s nice to watch it on a format better than my degrading VHS copy, that’s for sure.  Worth checking out if you’re a Spike Lee completist.

[demytasse]

For the ship ask, Izashin with 2, 6, and 10 :3

Bless your soul for picking Izashin. ;w; I honestly got a bit too inspired with this one. Wrote out dialogue for each of them, and fleshed out the middle for shiggles.

2. What their love letters look like

Shinra’s a flamboyant romantic with Izaya, much like he was with Celty. Although he only goes overboard with theatrics if he’s specifically looking to annoy or embarrass Izaya. Or both, with Shinra you can always count on both.

At the beginning of their relationship he’d smother Izaya with a constant stream of handwritten letters delivered to his door on random days to keep from an obvious pattern. Each self-proclaimed masterpiece was chalk full of compliments smothered by cheesy goop, nestled between flowery insults, and wrought with unnecessary drabble; egregious calligraphy threatened the confines of rich stationery decorated with flecks of gold leaf pressed into fibre, which only emulated a mere travesty of his affection.

To my dearest asshole,

Today I sorely miss your needless condescension, more so than usual, as I’m without burden of mauled and bloodied patients, assuredly victims of your exquisite, yet unforgivable craft. Such dirty work shamefully defined as filth, but defilement I’d inexplicably prefer for mine benefit alone, without restriction to my boudoir.

With honest sincerity, I wish justice upon your despicable reputation. In bate, I long for your return, furthermore basking in the spared sunlight that your mere presence sullies, and lying in conflicted desire of your malevolent company.

Unfortunately and devotedly yours,Shinra

“I don’t know why you keep sending me that questionably romantic crap.”

“Because you enjoy them!”

“I don’t.”

“Yagiri-san begs to differ.”

“She’s probably lying because she’d rather see me tortured.”

“Huh, that’s odd. She said that you keep a collection of them…”

“An easy lie.”

“…in your filing cabinet…”

“Oho~ good guess, though I have quite a few.”

“…the one next to you desk, trick bottom drawer, in a folder labeled ‘To Shred’ stashed behind achieved reports of 2016.”

“Yes, yes, you caught me. It’s best to shred trash, though, fairly satisfying as well.”

“But there’s a note for it to be recycled, which to be honest makes my heart swell that you consider my love something to be eventually repurposed.”

“That’s nice. They’re still not worthy of being kept.”

“…except that it’s been two and a half months and you’ve never put the folder out for Yagiri-san. It’s really sweet of you, Izaya.”

“Shinra, if I actually appreciated them I’d be upfront about it.”

“Oh! So you’re saying that if I showered you with my love first hand, you’d respond with the same distaste?”

“…you can keep sending them if you want. Constantly making transit between your apartment, here, and back again is a waste.”

“Good! That way I’ll continue to get pictures of you smiling over my letters. Oh…maybe I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t tell you my cellphone password, right?”

6. How they decorated their bedroom

Modern conservative. Nothing overtly eccentric or unnecessary, everything in tones of light and dark greys with hints of white. They focus their money on quality furniture and luxury bedding; an overstuffed down comforter, Egyptian cotton sheets, and oak nightstands and dressers sturdy enough that even Shizuo would need an extra bit of force to heave up.

They easily agreed upon all decor but one. Izaya suggested a king sized mattress, a strategic pick in order to escape Shinra’s clinginess whenever need be, while Shinra boasted a queen for said close proximity. Eventually they made amends with a California queen, though they spent more than just a pretty penny, in fact way more than intended when they strayed from expensive memory foam or pillow-tops.

“Hm, softer mattresses don’t really lend well to leverage.”

Shinra stood behind Izaya with his chin in buried in messy hair, he squinted out the details of a selected model upon the computer screen. Unsatisfied, he proceeded to scan through the remainder of thumbnails on the page

“Why is that even something to consider?”

“Of all people I would think you’d be able to figure that one out, Izaya.”

He stole control of the mouse with Izaya’s hand still in rest upon it, with a slight squeeze he feigned bettering his grip. The cursor swiveled towards a mattress with a firmer build.

Izaya hummed before he shooed Shinra’s hand away, “I have my suspicions, but I like it better when you humour me.”

A kick rolled his chair backwards just enough to pull the support out from Shinra’s chin. Steepled fingers hovered at his chest while mirrored elbows balanced against the arm rests. Shinra offered a chuckle in response as he straightened his stance and readjusted his glasses.

“You know how difficult certain positions can be without good traction, and that’s not really something a plush mattress would give. Or maybe it would give, but give in this case only offers unstable footing…rather kneeing? …kneeling? Huh, what term do you think would be correct in that situation?” he tilted his head, eyes focused on an invisible spot.

“…are you seriously applying laws of physics to sex?”

“It’s not like you wouldn’t have.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Yes well, it’s something to honestly consider, since I don’t have any particular strength in my core muscles like you do,” Shinra poked at his own midsection, unfazed by how his fingertip was cushioned. “I’m not constantly fooling around with Shizuo in the city like you are.”

“You say ‘fooling around‘ as if I’m having an affair with the brute, which is something I’d rather not.” Izaya upturned his nose.

“A rose by any other name smells as sweet!” he chirped. “I get to benefit from the aftermath of your squabbles all the same, since it gets you nice and riled up. It’s like foreplay without the work!”

“You’re more of a pervert than I give you credit for.”

“Probably, but I embrace it!” Shinra clapped his hand on Izaya’s shoulder before he turned away. “Anyway, I’ll leave you to purchasing our mattress!”

To which Izaya juggled the pros and cons and wound up getting a firm-adjustable bed…

“Would you stop giving me shit for it, Shinra?”

“I’m not saying anything!”

“Please, you’ve been bragging with that shit-eating-grin all afternoon and it’s grating as hell!” Izaya’s tone lacked genuine dismay.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re actually complaining,” he rolled his unobstructed eyes, the quality of his grin still intact and angled in perfect view from above.

In the midst of what Izaya had defined as a physics test of their new mattress, a healthy flush already coloured his skin. In vain he averted his eyes, a poor attempt to hide the new hue that overlay his cheeks.

“Just finish up already or I’ll throw you off of me.” Whether one of his many huffs was intentional or a comically timed accident, it still punctuated his comment with petulance, roundabout appreciation through and through.

“At least you’d have good support for it!”

Given the lofty boost of their designer bed frame, Shinra was lucky that he climaxed at the moment that he did.

10. What TV shows they watch together, and which ones they hide from the other

They don’t usually watch TV, rather they keep each other company while they’re doing their own thing whether it’s working, reading, or other forms of leisure.

That being said, Shinra occasionally watches medical dramas or documentaries for explicit reason of criticizing how they incorrectly portray certain procedures.

“That’s surprising. They actually got the preparation for nose reconstruction surgery correct… Although, they lost it at that first incision, that’s pretty amateur for a so-called professional.”

“Now, you might have an unfair advantage in this case, don’t you think?”

“That is true. It’s a fairly popular job in the underground… Hey, didn’t I have to reset your nose once?”

“Yes, it was back in high school and I still have proof of your rookie mistake.”

“But it was free!”

“Services offered for free seldom have good outcomes, Shinra, especially when they’re received from the offspring of a shady kook, let alone a doctor that’s debatable at best.”

Izaya splits his attention between forum surfing and reality TV, under the ruse of watching the drivel that a subset of his humans enjoy to better understand them.

“It’s actually kind of interesting, the psychology behind what makes people addicted to these cheap primetime soap operas. They’re all based around the same structure so one would expect they’d get old, yet people still fall into habit of watching the monotonous waste of brain cells. It’s pitiable.”

“Since you watch them as well, do you pity yourself?”

“I only do so in order to figure out the point, Shinra. It’s for the science behind it all.”

“But you already claimed you’d figured out the formula. Admit it, Izaya, they’re your guilty pleas–AH! Put my scalpel down! I get it!”

♡Thanks for the ask @kaedesan721 ♡

[paulisweeabootrash]

First Impression: Soni-Ani: Super Sonico the Animation

This is generally a SFW blog, and especially will continue to be one thanks to certain Tumblr policy changes, but this time a couple of the links are not (though still certainly not explicit), so be advised.

Without further ado, it's time again for Paul Is Weeaboo Trash!

Today's episode: Soni-Ani: Super Sonico the Animation (2014)

Episodes watched: 4

What happens when you take a trip to a ridiculously geeky store, encounter an aggressively-ganguro and barely-dressed figurine (that your wife immediately despises), and you think to yourself "what the hell is this?"  You end up finding, and somewhat regretting, Super Sonico.

This is an odd show right off the bat just in terms of how it came to be.  The main character originated as the mascot of a music festival of the same name, and she just seems to have taken off in popularity in Japan, spawning a series of media including video games, manga, and the anime that is today's topic.

Super Sonico (Yes, her name is すーぱーそに子.  Family name "Suupaa", given name "Soniko".) is a bright but anxious college student who works a seemingly-impossible set of part-time jobs as a model, waitress, and guitarist for the band First Astronomical Velocity (apparently "escape velocity" is a better translation?).  The first episode serves just as an introduction to the main characters with very little actual content or development.  We see Sonico struggle to get up and go to class in the morning, prodded awake by her cats and repeatedly coming back to her apartment for things, we see her late but well-prepared for class, we see her go to work.  The show threatens to get downright sleazy with the scene showing her modeling for a magazine, but backs off at the last second as we're "introduced" to Sonico's manager, Kitamura, who shows up unprompted in an oni mask straight out of Japanese theater to object to an unapproved costume change from a bikini to something presumably even skimpier that we never actually see.  After the shoot, she goes to her second job waiting on customers at her grandmother's bar, which really doesn't seem to establish much of anything plot-wise, before we finally meet her band, which gathers at a rented studio to rehearse their new song, which bassist Suzu has evidently already recorded her own demo of.

That first episode amounts to an extended setup scene, and made me expect that maybe this would be another clumsy attempt at a cute slice-of-life show.  However, the show does quickly gain self-contained structured plots.  In episode 2 we get a better introduction to First Astronomical Velocity as they continue to rehearse for their upcoming concert.  Just like she was at school, Sonico is anxious, enthusiastic, and serious about making good music.  Suzu, the bassist, is overenthusiastic about the stage show side, seems to be in charge of costumes, and clearly either has a crush on Sonico or is a big fan of embarrassing her.  Maybe both?  Fuuri, the drummer, is shown at one point being the voice of reason trying to get Suzu to understand Sonico's feelings, but her personality is really mostly dominated by her being very quiet and eating a lot.  The rest of the episode unfolds in a very sitcom kind of way: Sonico juggles too many responsibilities and skips a last-minute rehearsal before the band is performing to take another modeling gig.  When she gets to the concert venue, however, the rest of the band is delayed and Sonico has to try to stall by performing solo in the costume she previously refused to wear before being saved by her bandmates at the last minute.

The third episode is dominated by another modeling gig, and with it more predictable excuses for fanservice, and although we're getting more screen time with characters who aren't Sonico, they still have very little in terms of personality, which is the show's biggest.  We see more of Kitamura, for example, in part of episode 2 and most of 3, but mainly to continue to show that he is protective of Sonico and uncomfortable with the outfits magazines want her in.  And that he never takes off that mask.  The most interesting and noteworthy event in the episode, assuming you're not just here to leer at Sonico, is that it draws a little bit of a line for itself, as the biggest conflict is Kitamura drunkenly booking Sonico for a TV appearance without either of them knowing the full details, which ends up putting Sonico in a deeply uncomfortable situation that Kitamura interrupts, sword in hand.

Now, I don’t want to be the kind of person who criticizes a show for not being a different show, but at this point, I was just wishing they’d made the show more about the band itself because the modeling parts just drag it down.  It didn’t look like it was going to improve, and I wanted to give up, but based on the plot synopses for the other episodes, I gave it one more try in hopes it would get more interesting and less gratuitous.  I was immediately rewarded by a much, much better episode 4, which consists mostly of an extended flashback telling the story of how Sonico met Toma, a middle school friend with whom she is no longer in touch, from whom she got her guitar and learned to play it.  In a rare moment of actual thoughtful writing, it becomes quite believable that Sonico was extremely shy and, through maturity and practice and the acceptance of friends, became the clearly anxious but overall more confident person we saw in the previous episodes.  It’s like we’re seeing the same underlying conscientiousness manifest in different ways.  The resolution of the episode is sweet, and I was thinking “maybe that was an anomaly and the rest of this show is going to be good!”  After all, it’s quite possible for a show to be fanservicey and also clever or touching.  But then the preview of episode 5 started, and it looks like it’ll be another pretext for mindless creepy fanservice (and Kitamura saving the day), so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  Maybe the show alternates bad and good (or, more charitably, model-centric and band-centric) episodes? Overall, I just don't think I care enough to continue the series.  It's not so bad I’m going to be stuck complaining about it, but it is wildly variable and not good enough overall for me to sit through the “ugh, again?” to get to the “oh, that’s pretty cool”.  I’d call the first and third episodes actively bad, the second okay, and the fourth one good.  Sonico is by far the most interesting and fleshed-out character, and that’s just not enough to make me actually get into it. Oh, and the punchline of the whole thing is: Super Pochaco, who that preposterous figurine is of, is just a background character in this show, first appearing in episode 4 (someone on TVTropes claims she shows up in the background in episode 3, but I didn't see her at all).  I wasn't watching the show for her, but I did hope to find out what the deal is with that figurine.  Meh.  This is not the kind of trash your trashy host wants to dig any further through.

I might buy the music, though.

-----

Revised W/A/S Scores: 6 / 7 / 5±2

Weeb: Plenty of things would be clearer or enhanced by general background knowledge of Japan, but some defy explanation to the moderately-informed weeb — someone with no prior knowledge of traditional depictions of oni will look at Sonico's manager's mask and go "lol wut?", and even after consulting the Almighty Wikipedia, I still have no idea why that particular mask (which apparently represents a obsessive or jealous aristocratic woman?) was chosen.  Also, a lot of on-screen Japanese text is left untranslated, so I wonder if there are sight gags I'm constantly missing.

Ass: Very fanservicey, without ever quite making it to nudity, but also surprisingly upfront and kind of creepy about it, like the show is just a pretext for watching Sonico’s gravure photoshoots.  Like, I was even expecting this show to be basically just pandering for its presumed otaku audience, but it’s not even particularly good pandering.  Outside of the photoshoots, the show is still full of individual shots that draw attention to the female characters' bodies, especially Sonico's breasts and thigh-high socks.

Shit (writing): Continuing that general thought, the fanservice level just ends up dragging and distracting and I think it should count as a point against the writing quality.  As mentioned above in the main review, the writing is wildly variable from episode to episode.  What little characterization there has been for the supporting cast has at least made Fuuri and Suzu entertaining and likeable, and the show certainly doesn’t go as far as that egregious Blend-S problem of not knowing where its own scenes or episodes should end.  Not being terrible, however, is not the same as being good.

Shit (other): This show really is pretty, and most of the music (which there's a lot of, since each episode has its own unique ending themes, all performed by First Astronomical Velocity) is enjoyable.  Honestly, it's just making me more interested in buying the actual albums than getting more into Sonico's various visual media.

Content Warning: Although it's in the context of Sonico attempting to act, and the scene overall ends up funny, and sets up an enjoyable post-credits scene, episode 3 contains a scene of clearly non-consensual groping, and viewers might be too uncomfortable with that.

-----

Stray Observations:

- Huh.  I was only dimly aware of "bullet screens", the practice of showing viewer comments scrolling across videos, as seen at the beginning of episode 2, and thought it was a very recent and distinctly Chinese phenomenon, but it apparently originated in Japan over a decade ago.

- It really shouldn't feel like such a distinct relief for a piece of otaku-centric media to finally sexualize someone who is unquestionably an adult, and who is choosing to be sexualized as part of a job she enjoys...

[fullfrequencycollective]

What is the purpose of a small, independent record label in 2018?

That’s the question I’ve been turning over in my head these past few months. I think I have an answer, but it’s gonna take some explaining. Stick with me.

Why Bother Records, the record label I started with my best friend Christian back in 2015, slowed down considerably over the past two years. The last release I was substantially involved with the release of was the Halogens / Staten split at the end of 2016. After that, I used the name to help Justin Fernandez release Staten music in a much more hands-off manner. Things slowed down because I was a senior in college, preparing to full-time student teach the following spring, and thinking probably a bit too much about my “future” or whatever. It felt like just one more thing I had to deal with during a period when I had an exceptionally high number of things to deal with, so I put it on ice.

Now, in my second year of grad school, my fourth and final semester, nearing a career path in education that seems manageable if slightly creatively unfulfilling, I feel decidedly stable. A month or so ago, I caught the feeling that I should bring the label back. That’s when I started thinking about what a small independent record label looks like now, after the time I’ve spent away from one.

I guess it starts with what a record label like Why Bother does. When I was operating Why Bother a few years ago, after an artist agreed to work with us, I did a number of discrete things. I hand-produced cassettes that I was able to produce for cheap. I redesigned and laid out album artwork to fit the unique cassette layout, then took the art to the printer and cut inserts to fit by hand. I assembled the product. I did publicity for all of our releases.

So what was all of that for? What was the purpose? I think it falls into three categories.

1. I wanted to financially support artists.

I got the idea to make WBR a cassette label after reading this Pitchfork op-ed back in my very first week of college. A selection:

“Speaking of vinyl, which is an expensive gamble for a small label, I like that cassettes are inexpensive. I buy them in bulk from National Audio Company in Missouri for around 50 cents each, and jewel cases are about 22 cents each. Usually I end up doing my own artwork and labels. Runs of 50 or 100 are small by any standard, but if you want to do everything, they take more time than you might think. I don’t like the word “cheap” here, but I like the situation that not having to worry about money puts me in. It’s just a cassette. I don’t feel bad about giving them away to people. Most people I don’t expect them to even listen; I doubt they have cassette players. But I’m interested in those 10 or 15 people who end up trying. Those 10 or 15 people are more interesting to me than Soundcloud plays.”

Tapes are inexpensive. You can turn a profit from them much more easily than you can from CDs or vinyl. I think we usually broke even on a tape run after we sold 8 or so. Toward my desired goal of putting more money in the artists I liked’s pockets, I think the math works best with cassettes at this scale. So I liked that part of it as a broke college kid.

But there’s more to the story as well. That’s not the only reason. Another selection:

“Music released on cassettes doesn’t feel desperate or needy or Possibly Important. It tends not to be concerned about The Conversation. It resists other people’s meaning. That’s what I like about the cassette. It whittles down our interactions with music to something bare and essential: Two people, sometimes more, trying to feel slightly less alone.

…

I like the community of labels. It’s small, humble, not exactly well organized. You meet people in a stumbling, haphazard way, which is refreshing in the age of the targeted ad. Steve at Moon Glyph. Tom at Mirror Universe. Emily at Love Lion. Opal Tapes, Trilogy Tapes, Leaving Records. I usually have not heard of the artists, who usually do not have publicists “working” the record. I often buy five or six tapes at a time, whatever releases are available. Sometimes they come right away, other times they take three weeks and two of the cassettes don’t have music on them. I listen to cassettes on a small Sony boombox (with Mega Bass), usually when I do the dishes or get ready in the morning. The music feels like a secret between friends.”

That brings me to another important ideal:

2. I wanted to build a community.

Music communities changed my life. From those first Marlboro Rec Center Now or Never/Feverview shows, to hearing “Red Floral Dress” for the first time in a basement filled with my friends, to all of those weekends at the Asbury Lanes, to every friend I’ve made at grad school that started with some conversation about how Against Me! kick ass. All of those moments are what draw me to music. Music communities are the rope that tethers me to this world.

When WBR started, we had the Mayflower Collective. We had friends who were all into the same things. We had something. I wanted WBR to co-exist with that something. One of my most firmly-held beliefs is that there is power in numbers. We take what successes we’re blessed with and use them to lift the family around us. We take care of our own. To elaborate on that Springsteen reference:

“In art and love, one and one makes three. In music, if it makes two, you’ve failed, my friend.” — Bruce Springsteen

To make three:

3. I wanted to curate what I thought was the best of the best.

One of my more vivid memories from the NJ scene was On Your Marks’ album release show at the Lanes in 2013. Standing there, watching whatever band was playing, I looked around and noticed that the place was damn near sold out. That my friends who were just trying to play shows with their friends and write dope songs, had somehow convinced two-hundred or so locals to pay money to see them play. I tried to scale that in my head—how long until it’s the Stone Pony? Then Starland? Then the Arts Center? What was the ceiling?

That was the moment that I felt an obligation to show my friends off to the world. That was the moment that I decided that I wanted to write about music. I started my dinky little blog later that week to get some work done that summer.

I carried that mentality with me when I decided to start the label. “How can I show the world this awesome thing my friends did? What’s the best way of doing that?" I only ever reached out to artists who I genuinely believed in. The musicians making songs that I felt in my body. The people I knew were good people. I only worked with *music* and *people* that I had faith in. I can’t speak to how much money we would have made if we didn’t pass on a few opportunities, but it kept the drive going. It still does.

~

This is running long, so I’ll summarize here. I want to reboot the label with those three concepts in mind. I want to get to the base of them. I want to try something new. Full Frequency Collective is that something:

The new Why Bother Records will have two facets:

1. A traditional record label that will dub cassettes to financially support our artists

2. A podcast that serves to explain why I love the music we release so much

Because I don’t want to make money off of this, and instead focus my efforts on supporting artists and causes I believe in, Full Frequency Collective is primarily going to be subscription-based. I’ve launched a Patreon where subscribers can get in for $1 or $5 each month. They can get in or out whenever they choose, but I’m hoping some folks will stick around. I am aiming to release a tape from a Featured Artist every other month. The podcast is going to be weekly, with every other episode being subscriber-exclusive. After the manufacturing prices, hosting prices for the podcast (extremely low), and whatever unforeseen cost it takes to create this endeavor, all money from the Patreon will be split between the Featured Artist and a charity of their choice (pending my approval—we ain’t shipping money out to hateful causes and we ain’t getting scammed).

To elaborate a bit on what you’re getting for your money:

If you pay $1 each month, you’ll get access to the subscriber exclusive podcast episodes. The regular podcast will come out every 14 days and consist of interviews with the featured artist about the creative process, the making of their records, their artistic ideals, etc. I’ll also get guest on to talk about the world of music news, music we get down with, happenings in the arts communities. Kind of structured. The subscriber exclusive episodes would be something more like “Jake and I talk about Karl Marx and economics for an hour,” more freewheeling and off-off-topic. 

If you pay $5 each month, you’ll get every tape we put out, every subscriber-exclusive podcast episode, a shoutout in the podcast each week, a copy of every zine I make, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’re contributing to both the arts community and charity.

Here’s the thing—

I know this is weird. I know this is not a “traditional” record label business model. But I think it works better. I think it’s a way to put money in the hands of artists who make the work I feel passionate about. I think it’s a way to give back to the communities that need us. I think it’s a way to put your music in the inbox of people who may or may not have heard of you before. I think it’s a way to combine the parts of the creative process into a larger, more complete picture, like the channels in a full-frequency stereo sound system. I think it’s a way to build a new type of community.

Thanks. You can subscribe here. If you have any questions, reach out. Let’s make something.