#Tour Guide Communication System

[anjalisiotey]

Voting pad system form silent equipment rental

Voting pad system or audience response system is considered to be one of the most popular methods of making a corporate event interesting. As a matter of fact, it is a great tool to engage and interact with your audience and make them feel a part of the event itself.And thus to make your corporate event a sure shot success and make it more engaging to the audience, Silent Equipment Rental presents high quality voting pad system on rent. With superior quality technology and hi-tech finish, these little stylishly designed devices with LED screens help turn the course of your seminar or product launch or conference.

[lionheartlr]

Exploring Belgium: A Comprehensive Travel Guide

Belgium, a charming country nestled in Western Europe, offers a rich tapestry of history, culture, and modernity. This guide will take you through Belgium’s history, colonial past, political landscape, education system, and practical travel information, ensuring a delightful and informed visit. A Brief History of Belgium Belgium’s history is a blend of influences from Roman times to modern-day…

[translationindia1111]

Tour guide systems are wireless communication systems that enable tour guides to speak clearly and easily to groups of people, even in noisy or crowded environments. They consist of a transmitter worn by the tour guide and receivers worn by group members. The tour guide's voice is transmitted to the receivers, where it is played through headphones or earbuds.

Tour guide systems are used in various settings such as museums, art galleries, factories, historical sites, national parks, sporting events, trade shows, and religious services. They can provide narrative commentary on sights and attractions, simultaneous translation for multilingual tour groups, audio description for the blind or visually impaired, and assistive listening for the hard of hearing.

These systems improve the visitor experience by allowing the tour guide to speak clearly and easily, providing simultaneous translation for multilingual tour groups, providing audio description for the blind or visually impaired, and serving as assistive listening devices for the hard of hearing. For example, museum and art gallery guides can provide detailed commentary on exhibits, factory and industrial facility guides can provide safety instructions, historical site and monument guides can provide information about the site's history and significance, national parks and outdoor attractions can provide visitors with information about natural features, sports events and concerts can provide commentary, trade shows and conventions can provide attendees with information about exhibits and events, and assistive listening for religious services and large gatherings.

Overall, tour guide systems are a valuable tool for improving the visitor experience in various settings, offering clear and informative commentary, simultaneous translation, audio description, and assistive listening for the hard of hearing.

[heritageposts]

Ask an older generation of white South Africans when they first felt the bite of anti-apartheid sanctions, and some point to the moment in 1968 when their prime minister, BJ Vorster, banned a tour by the England cricket team because it included a mixed-race player, Basil D’Oliveira. After that, South Africa was excluded from international cricket until Nelson Mandela walked free from prison 22 years later. The D’Oliveira affair, as it became known, proved a watershed in drumming up popular support for the sporting boycott that eventually saw the country excluded from most international competition including rugby, the great passion of the white Afrikaners who were the base of the ruling Nationalist party and who bitterly resented being cast out. For others, the moment of reckoning came years later, in 1985 when foreign banks called in South Africa’s loans. It was a clear sign that the country’s economy was going to pay an ever higher price for apartheid. Neither of those events was decisive in bringing down South Africa’s regime. Far more credit lies with the black schoolchildren who took to the streets of Soweto in 1976 and kicked off years of unrest and civil disobedience that made the country increasingly ungovernable until changing global politics, and the collapse of communism, played its part. But the rise of the popular anti-apartheid boycott over nearly 30 years made its mark on South Africans who were increasingly confronted by a repudiation of their system. Ordinary Europeans pressured supermarkets to stop selling South African products. British students forced Barclays Bank to pull out of the apartheid state. The refusal of a Dublin shop worker to ring up a Cape grapefruit led to a strike and then a total ban on South African imports by the Irish government. By the mid-1980s, one in four Britons said they were boycotting South African goods – a testament to the reach of the anti-apartheid campaign. . . . The musicians union blocked South African artists from playing on the BBC, and the cultural boycott saw most performers refusing to play in the apartheid state, although some, including Elton John and Queen, infamously put on concerts at Sun City in the Bophuthatswana homeland. The US didn’t have the same sporting or cultural ties, and imported far fewer South African products, but the mobilisation against apartheid in universities, churches and through local coalitions in the 1980s was instrumental in forcing the hand of American politicians and big business in favour of financial sanctions and divestment. By the time President FW de Klerk was ready to release Mandela and negotiate an end to apartheid, a big selling point for part of the white population was an end to boycotts and isolation. Twenty-seven years after the end of white rule, some see the boycott campaign against South Africa as a guide to mobilising popular support against what is increasingly condemned as Israel’s own brand of apartheid.

. . . continues at the guardian (21 May, 2021)

[anomalymon]

The Plural Community Needs to Write More Essays and Make More Resources

This has been a pretty big push in the alterhuman community, but hasn't quite reached the plural community yet. So

Systems: Write about your experiences! Post them!

It doesn't have to be good or coherent, but we want to see more experiences that aren't just bland, blanket positivity posts or term coining with zero substance. Some of our favorite writings we've read have had poor grammar and disjointed paragraphs!

Reasons to write about your experiences:

It can make people who have that experience both realize they're not alone and learn ways they can explore that experience

It can be education for people who don't experience that so they can learn what it's like

It gives more potential for citation for those who are making more comprehensive resources

They can be used several years down the line to track trends and events within the plural community

Also want to combat anti-endos? Write about your experiences. Humanize yourself (for lack of a better term). Create solidarity with others and encourage them to be out about themselves. Don't let psychiatric texts, syscourse rants, and simple definitions be the only information about your group!

We'll tack on what we're interested in seeing, but feel free to reblog and add anything too:

Guides! Guides on how your system does things, or guides that can help other systems

How plurality intersects with other disabilities or neurodivergence

Headspace tours, art about your headspace, collages

The effects drugs or medication has on your system

Non-traditional roles, or even how traditional roles do their day to day tasks

Different types of plurality intersecting (i.e. systems who fit more than one of DID, endogenic multiplicity, medianhood, soulbonding, etc)

Spirituality and religion intersecting with plurality

Seriously, whatever you want to talk about

[bumblebeeappletree]

Thirty years ago, a group of permaculture experts purchased 329 acres of degraded land in Western North Carolina with a vision: to restore the landscape while creating a new model of communal living.

What began as an experiment in living well off the land has grown into one of the nation’s oldest cohousing communities, where residents live collaboratively and in close connection with their environment.

The community now spans 13 distinct neighborhoods with over 100 residents, each offering a different approach to shared living. Some neighborhoods function as housing co-ops (North Carolina law requires at least five members for this designation), while others feature apartments, duplexes, or single-family homes.

Earthaven’s infrastructure reflects decades of experimentation and ingenuity. From hydroelectric power generated by mountain streams to solar systems energizing both communal and private spaces, the village is a model of thoughtful design.

Residents live in hand-built homes that range from timber-framed duplexes to snug cob cottages, sharing resources like kitchens, workshops, and gardens. Guided by principles of self-governance, consensus decision-making, and cooperative ownership, Earthaven fosters deep connections—not only with the natural world but also among its members, creating a way of life rooted in resilience and shared purpose.

Recently, Earthaven suffered significant damage from Hurricane Idalia, which tore through the region, leaving many homes and shared facilities in need of repair. The community is currently rebuilding and has launched a fundraising campaign to restore its infrastructure and continue its mission of regenerative living.

—Donate to Earthaven's Hurricane Helene recovery fund: https://www.gofundme.c...

—Take a Virtual Tour: https://www.schoolofin...

—Become a Friend: https://www.schoolofin...

—Take a class with the School of Integrated Living: https://www.schoolofin...

—More videos: / @earthavenecovillage

—Earthaven on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.o...

On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies....

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

Exarcheia under siege: Behind the Saturday's Riot They Don’t Want You to Understand

It is obvious the neighborhood of Exarcheia is changing in a violent way, but that is not due to riots or protests.

On the Saturday night of April 19th 2025, dozens of anarchists attacked with Molotov the scores of riot policemen that had encircled a live gig taking place in Strefi Hill of Exarcheia, in support of the people in Palestine. The public discussion that followed the fierce riot that unfolded and the threats made by members of the greek government to crush the anarchist movement in the neighbourhood, was about the events of that night, but purposely avoided addressing the reasons that led to that.

Exarcheia has always been a place under siege and attack. But in the last few years, the transformation of the neighborhood is taking place through systemic violence, with gentrification as a weapon. Once a cradle of radical thought and political resistance, the neighborhood is now the site of what many describe as an occupation.

On any given day, Exarcheia Square—the area’s only communal open space—is hemmed in by riot police. Three corners of the square are guarded 24 hours a day, their presence a constant reminder of the state’s menace to the people in the area. Since August 9, 2022, when construction began on a new metro station beneath the square, this militarized posture has only deepened. The project has been met with uncompromising local opposition, not only over the destruction of the sole green space but for what it symbolizes: the state’s determination to remake Exarcheia in its own image.

Under the right wing New Democracy government, Exarcheia has become a symbol of ideological confrontation. Every day the police march in regimented formations, changing shifts with military-like choreography. Their omnipresence has turned daily life into a tense theater of surveillance and intimidation. People often face arbitrary detentions and, in many cases, excessive force.

This is not simply a story about urban renewal. It is a struggle over history, memory, and the right to dissent.

Bulldozers and Batons: The Violence of Gentrification

The construction of the metro station on Exarcheia square has become a flashpoint—not merely for environmental or logistical reasons, but because it is seen as the latest front in a campaign of displacement. To critics, this is gentrification with riot shields.

Because it aims to seal off for a decade the main free space that people can gather, when there are other locations more suitable or useful for a metro station, like near the National Archaeological Museum with more than half a million visitors annually, only 2 blocks away from Exarcheia Square.

Rents have soared. Prices jumped from €5.50 to €8.50 per square meter between 2017 and 2022, whilst recent listings show rates exceeding €10, effectively doubling.

Longtime residents find themselves priced out, their leases ended to turn it to Airbnb. Local businesses struggle to coexist with boutique cafés, fine-dining restaurants, hipster shops that speak a different urban dialect. What is lost is not merely affordability, but identity. Gentrification is always violent, but here, it’s also ideological. It’s about erasing a memory.

The Tourist Trap of Rebellion

Even as riot police tighten their grip, Exarcheia is being marketed to visitors as a bohemian enclave—gritty, “authentic,” and Instagram-ready. Guided tours invite tourists to “explore the radical side of Athens.

Critics argue that tourism sanitizes the very history it seeks to showcase, turning sites of struggle into spectacles and collapsing resistance into branding.

Meanwhile, dissent is punished with severity. All kinds of protests or political gatherings are usually met with tear gas and detentions. Graffiti disappears under fresh coats of paint. Squats are evicted. The tension between image and reality is as palpable as the smell of tear gas that sometimes lingers in the air.

Memory as a Battleground

Urban transformation is rarely neutral. In Exarcheia, it is inextricably tied to an effort to overwrite a particular version of history—a history in which the neighborhood’s resistance to authoritarianism remains central. The construction sites and real estate billboards serve a dual function: physical development and symbolic conquest. “Urban cleansing,” some call it.

The square, once a gathering place for people, is now a fenced-off construction site under constant surveillance. Its fate mirrors that of the neighborhood itself—under renovation, under guard, and, many fear, under erasure.

Yet despite the pressure, Exarcheia’s spirit is not easily extinguished. Murals still bloom on alley walls. Political posters appear overnight. And each evening, as the sun dips behind Mount Lycabettus, the question lingers: How should people react against the silent killer of gentrification that one day finds you with your suitcases at hand, silently forcing you to leave your home forever?

[decent0distraction]

Part 2 of my Winx Club rewrite!

Okay, so as I discussed in part 1, Solaria is the mother kingdom of the rest of the land and kingdoms within our story.

And the golden, gleaming kingdom of the sun, the stars, and the moon is ruled over by the young queen Stella. She’s good to her people and considers even those in the shadow ridden colonies of Peradyn and the humble village of Gardenia to be the subjects she adores and cares for.

However, as the daughter of the late moon goddess and a fallen king, Stella has many, many responsibilities. Not only must she mediate feuds and oversee trade, she must also monitor the cosmos and their celestial bodies so that their simple planet isn’t destroyed in the cross fire.

So she appoints a trusted set of fellow royals to have their own domains to keep the harmony of their world.

As princess and heir to the throne of the powerful kingdom of Andros, Aisha is entrusted to be a sort of deity of war, empowering worthy soldiers with strength and endurance to be the best among them.

Speaking of Aisha, she returns home from a recent meeting to her parents telling her that she’s been betrothed to the prince of a small colony that is in desperate need of the military and financial support that only a union with Andros can provide. Aisha denies this, stating that Andros has more than enough to go around and no marriage is required to assist the colony.

But her parents seek to reign in their wild and independent daughter and they inform her that she has no say in the matter.

Meanwhile, Stella appoints her cousin, the young Prince Sky of Arachleon, to oversee trade between the major kingdoms and the smaller villages, towns, and colonies they trade with and care for. This gives him the opportunity to not only travel the world, but escape the cruelty of his father, who despite his best efforts, has yet to twist Sky up into an equally authoritarian king.

He decides he needs a guide and Stella directs him to the heir of the family Salazar, whose grandfather is the professor of history at Alfea Fountain College (did I not mention that I merged Red Fountain and Alfea to being a co-ed boarding school) and whose father developed the modern mode of transportation known as a powerful, magic infused train that mostly functions to get students from all over the world to the central city of Magix, home to the campus. Yeah, so Helia is honored to join Sky and basically acts as his tour guide bc dude, Sky has never stepped foot outside of Arachleon (other than to visit Solaria) ever in his life.

And Sky, in his travels, comes to Lymphea and Gardenia, where he finds Flora and Bloom training together. Bloom is cautious of the arrival of such a powerful prince, Flora just as concerned as taking over Lymphea would be as simple as breathing for the favorite cousin of the sun queen Stella.

But Sky bows to them, offering only good intentions. Helia introduces himself like a normal person, Sky realizing he’s just scaring the girls by being so formal.

And at the exact same time, Bloom’s father collapses and Helia reacts immediately, revealing he’s had healing magic this entire time and thanks to him, Bloom’s father is perfectly okay.

I’ll go into more detail about Sky and the other boys later, but for now, I want to quickly discuss Tecna and a bit about Timmy but I’ll go into more detail in the next part.

Tecna and Timmy are technically from the same place, but not really.

Zenith is a technological innovation of a kingdom, but its newest invention is a community that is entirely housed within a hierarchy system that is literally stacked together. A life sustaining circuit of rings, made up of machinery and magic, it’s a unique entity that circles a hub that powers it by taking power from each ring. And the five communities are categorized by what they contribute. The leaders and their families, the team that created the tower of rings, live in the highest ring, the Capitol ring. The wealthy and high society consist of competitive inventors and innovators in the second highest ring, the Circuit ring. Then there’s third ring, the Society ring, where bankers, old money, and major businesses keep to themselves. The fourth ring, the Wire ring, houses the poor who try to make the best of what they have. These people are examples of what happens when those in the rings above them fail the Capitol ring, falling from grace in a way. Finally, the fifth ring, the Rust ring, those have lost their places in any society, usually criminals, rebels, or those in the wrong place at the wrong time, who were unlucky enough to birth children, struggle to breath in the polluted air and drink dirty water.

Tecna is the daughter of two zealous inventors in the Circuit. And when an attack organized by aspiring rebels explodes her neighborhood, Tecna is badly injured. And her parents decide to try to rebuild her.

And they actually do it! But they put so much into their work that they lose profit and are effectively dropped down to the Wire. Driven half mad by what’s become of them, Tecna’s parents are usually lost in a daze or stay up for days working on the same project that goes absolutely nowhere. And they don’t hear their daughter when she tells them that one of her legs needs to be adjusted or the biocomponents seeing to the function of her vital organs needs repairing.

It isn’t until she’s slumped against the wall of a shabby confectionery factory in a dirty alley that Timmy comes across her.

He knows almost immediately that the machinery her body is made of comes from the upper rings. And he knows that scavengers will steal her parts while she’s still breathing. So he approaches her cautiously and tells her that he can help.

The other thing is that Tecna is only 14 and immediately sees that Timmy is only 13, so these two children are basically trusting each other; Tecna needs repairs and Timmy needs someone to watch out for scavengers and marauders.

Yeah, that’s the other thing; I’ve decided that Alfea-Fountain-Tower, have the following school years:

- First year: Ages 14-15

- Second year: 15-16

- Third year: 16-17

- Fourth year: 17-18

- Fifth year: 18-19

- Sixth year: 19-20

- Seventh year: 20-21

- Eighth year and additional training/academic programs for military/magic studies: 21-26

And Timmy’s brilliant enough to be allowed to skip a year and be admitted as a second year.

Here’s a breakdown of what year everyone is at the beginning of the story for my rewrite:

- Bloom, 15, first year

- Stella, 17, third year

- Helia, 16, third year

- Sky, 15, first year

- Brandon, 17, first year (I’ll explain that in the next part)

- Aisha, 17, third year

- Musa, 16, repeating second year (I’ll explain that later too)

- Flora, 16, second year

- Tecna, 14, first year

- Timmy, 13, second year

- Riven, 16, first year (explained later)

- Nabu, 17, homeschooled until his third year

I know this one was kind of long. Sorry about that. Part 3 coming at some point, hopefully soon.

[doyouknowthischaracter]

You've been asked before about 2 weeks ago, but I'm wondering if, with the new submissions, there's any new characters who've been sent in more than once (Hopefully by multiple people). Are there any who've been submitted more than twice now

For reference, I'm not going to list the ones that were repeated in previous submission batches, unless they show up again with the latest one, in which case they'll be added to the overall count. Previous list here if anyone's interested.

Let's see:

Ronan Lynch, The Raven Cycle x3

Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece x3

Sans, Undertale x3

Jessica Fletcher, Murder, She Wrote x3

Five Pebbles, Rain World x3

Crowley, Good Omens x3

Granny Weatherwax, Discworld x3

G'raha Tia, Final Fantasy XIV x3

Sam Vimes, Discworld x3

Haruhi Suzumiya, The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya x3

Murderbot, Murderbot Diaries x3

Captain Jack Harkness, Doctor Who / Torchwood x2

Data, Star Trek x2

Link, The Legend of Zelda x2

Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon x2

Eileen the Crow, Bloodborne x2

Zagreus, Hades x2

Olivia Dunham, Fringe x2

Jane Doe, Ride the Cyclone x2

Sylvain Jose Gautier, Fire Emblem: Three Houses x2

Mollymauk Tealeaf, Critical Role x2

Wallace Wells, Scott Pilgrim x2

Daan, Fear and Hunger: Termina x2

Alphinaud Leveilleur, Final Fantasy XIV x2

Nanami Kiryuu, Revolutionary Girl Utena x2

Gladion, Pokemon x2

Sylvanas Windrunner, World of Warcraft x2

Leo Fitz, Agents of Shield x2

Francis Crozier, The Terror x2

Maedhros, The Silmarillion x2

Vergil, Devil May Cry x2

Alex, Oxenfree x2

Tsume, Wolf's Rain x2

Niko, OneShot x2

Halt O'Carrick, Ranger's Apprentice x2

Dirk Gently, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency x2

Qifrey, Witch Hat Atelier x2

Schmendrick, The Last Unicorn x2

Pamitha Theyn, Pyre x2

Dracula, Dracula x2

Gideon Nav, The Locked Tomb x2

The Audio Tour Guide, The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality x2

N, Pokemon x2

Ginko, Mushishi x2

Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H x2

Merlin, BBC Merlin x2

Vislor Turlough, Doctor Who x2

Roronoa Zoro, One Piece x2

Ishigami Senku, Dr. Stone x2

The Little Prince, The Little Prince x2

Soren, Fire Emblem x2

Blindspot, Marvel Comics x2

Tahu, Bionicle x2

Luo Binghe, The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System x2

Hercule Poirot, books by Agatha Christie x2

Sakura Kinomoto, Cardcaptor Sakura x2

Beatrice, Umineko x2

Jerome Valeska, Gotham x2

Klaus Hargreeves, The Umbrella Academy x2

Abed Nadir, Community x2

Dick Grayson, DC Comics x2

Dante Sparda, Devil May Cry x2

Utena Tenjou, Revolutionary Girl Utena x2

Johan Liebert, Monster x2

Siffrin, In Stars and Time x2

Foo Fighters, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure x2

Snufkin, Moomins x2

Mae Borowski, Night in the Woods x2

Haruhi Fujioka, Ouran High School Host Club x2

Anders, Dragon Age x2

Wen Kexing, Faraway Wanderers x2

Hopefully, I didn't miss any! You'll see some of these sooner rather than later as they're already in the queue, and a couple have already been posted before.

[fromgreecetoanarchy]

Exarcheia under siege: Behind the Saturday's Riot They Don’t Want You to Understand

It is obvious the neighborhood of Exarcheia is changing in a violent way, but that is not due to riots or protests.

On the Saturday night of April 19th 2025, dozens of anarchists attacked with Molotov the scores of riot policemen that had encircled a live gig taking place in Strefi Hill of Exarcheia, in support of the people in Palestine. The public discussion that followed the fierce riot that unfolded and the threats made by members of the greek government to crush the anarchist movement in the neighbourhood, was about the events of that night, but purposely avoided addressing the reasons that led to that.

Exarcheia has always been a place under siege and attack. But in the last few years, the transformation of the neighborhood is taking place through systemic violence, with gentrification as a weapon. Once a cradle of radical thought and political resistance, the neighborhood is now the site of what many describe as an occupation.

On any given day, Exarcheia Square—the area’s only communal open space—is hemmed in by riot police. Three corners of the square are guarded 24 hours a day, their presence a constant reminder of the state’s menace to the people in the area. Since August 9, 2022, when construction began on a new metro station beneath the square, this militarized posture has only deepened. The project has been met with uncompromising local opposition, not only over the destruction of the sole green space but for what it symbolizes: the state’s determination to remake Exarcheia in its own image.

Under the right wing New Democracy government, Exarcheia has become a symbol of ideological confrontation. Every day the police march in regimented formations, changing shifts with military-like choreography. Their omnipresence has turned daily life into a tense theater of surveillance and intimidation. People often face arbitrary detentions and, in many cases, excessive force.

This is not simply a story about urban renewal. It is a struggle over history, memory, and the right to dissent.

Bulldozers and Batons: The Violence of Gentrification

The construction of the metro station on Exarcheia square has become a flashpoint—not merely for environmental or logistical reasons, but because it is seen as the latest front in a campaign of displacement. To critics, this is gentrification with riot shields.

Because it aims to seal off for a decade the main free space that people can gather, when there are other locations more suitable or useful for a metro station, like near the National Archaeological Museum with more than half a million visitors annually, only 2 blocks away from Exarcheia Square.

Rents have soared. Prices jumped from €5.50 to €8.50 per square meter between 2017 and 2022, whilst recent listings show rates exceeding €10, effectively doubling.

Longtime residents find themselves priced out, their leases ended to turn it to Airbnb. Local businesses struggle to coexist with boutique cafés, fine-dining restaurants, hipster shops that speak a different urban dialect. What is lost is not merely affordability, but identity. Gentrification is always violent, but here, it’s also ideological. It’s about erasing a memory.

The Tourist Trap of Rebellion

Even as riot police tighten their grip, Exarcheia is being marketed to visitors as a bohemian enclave—gritty, “authentic,” and Instagram-ready. Guided tours invite tourists to “explore the radical side of Athens.

Critics argue that tourism sanitizes the very history it seeks to showcase, turning sites of struggle into spectacles and collapsing resistance into branding.

Meanwhile, dissent is punished with severity. All kinds of protests or political gatherings are usually met with tear gas and detentions. Graffiti disappears under fresh coats of paint. Squats are evicted. The tension between image and reality is as palpable as the smell of tear gas that sometimes lingers in the air.

Memory as a Battleground

Urban transformation is rarely neutral. In Exarcheia, it is inextricably tied to an effort to overwrite a particular version of history—a history in which the neighborhood’s resistance to authoritarianism remains central. The construction sites and real estate billboards serve a dual function: physical development and symbolic conquest. “Urban cleansing,” some call it.

The square, once a gathering place for people, is now a fenced-off construction site under constant surveillance. Its fate mirrors that of the neighborhood itself—under renovation, under guard, and, many fear, under erasure.

Yet despite the pressure, Exarcheia’s spirit is not easily extinguished. Murals still bloom on alley walls. Political posters appear overnight. And each evening, as the sun dips behind Mount Lycabettus, the question lingers: How should people react against the silent killer of gentrification that one day finds you with your suitcases at hand, silently forcing you to leave your home forever?

[anjalisiotey]

Wireless Tour Guide System

A wireless tour guide system is one way to accomplish all the above and more for a fraction of the price. Silent equipment rental offers high quality and highly advanced wireless tour guide systems with handheld or wireless mic and multiple transmitters. One can easily pass on information and hold meetings in a noisy factory or plant, despite the loud noise. Our superior quality tour guide system offers clear sound quality within the office perimeter.

[covid-safer-hotties]

These Are the Drag Artists and Organizers Fighting to Make Queer Spaces More COVID Safe - Published Aug 21, 2024

This article was produced in partnership with The Sick Times.

After becoming disabled by a COVID-19 infection they caught on tour in 2022, Themme Fatale went from being a high-flying trapeze artist to being homebound. Before developing Long COVID, much of the popular circus performer’s career had involved risk — setting themself on fire, flipping through the air, lying on beds of nails — but the danger of these stunts began to shrink in their mind compared to the risk of the airborne virus.

From home in Melbourne, Australia, Fatale began to closely follow Long COVID research, connecting the concerning findings about the disease, which affects every organ system, to their numerous symptoms. What they didn’t understand was why their local queer community — and society at large — continued to put themselves at risk of COVID-19, especially because Long COVID is more prevalent in queer and trans people.

It led Fatale to take action. In February 2024, Fatale launched Clean Air Narm, one of over 30 volunteer-led initiatives around the world modeled after Chicago’s Clean Air Club. These organizations lend out high-quality air purifiers to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by reducing virus in the air at indoor venues.

“I started [Clean Air Narm] because I don't want to see all my friends disabled in the same way that I have been,” they say. “If you lead with a solution, people are sometimes more open to hearing about what the problem is in the first place.”

Guided by a strong commitment to community care, a diverse group of queer performers, drag kings, and other event organizers are filling the gaps of global government failure during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Through clean air organizations, mask requirements at shows, and other COVID-19 mitigation efforts, they are making public spaces more accessible and safer for everyone, all while selling out shows.

Here’s how many clean air clubs work: Organizers fundraise in their communities for a fleet of air purifiers and/or far-UVC devices, lamps that emit a type of ultraviolet light that can reduce indoor airborne microbes by 98%. Because these technologies are expensive — lights and purifiers can each cost thousands of dollars —, clean air organizers offer them to event organizers in their community through a “lending library.”

Volunteers of the clean air initiatives then distribute the purifiers to event organizers who install them at venues, often coupled with other COVID-19 mitigation tools like masks and rapid tests. Mutual-aid groups called mask blocs, which distribute respirators and other items to their communities for free, sometimes help with events, too.

While these precautions make events safer, they don’t fully eliminate the risk of spreading or catching COVID-19 at an event. Clean air initiatives are often careful to advertise events as “COVID-safer,” not “COVID-safe.” Some advocates have also criticized these clean air clubs for prioritizing entertainment events, arguing that resources like air purifiers and high-quality masks should be used for the most vulnerable communities that can’t afford masks, including hospitals, prisons, or public schools.

Still, with COVID-19 at very high levels multiple times a year and many people still going out to concerts and shows, these multiple layers of precaution do reduce spread of the disease in important venues. The fight for cleaner air in public places is broad: Public health experts and others have also proposed clean air mandates in public buildings, including Harvard University’s Healthy Buildings Program, Long COVID Kids, and Congressman Don Beyer’s Airborne Act 2024.

After founding Clean Air Club in 2023, Chicago resident Emily Dupree was met with an overwhelming demand for her club’s HEPA air purifiers. The success led her to write a guide to creating a clean-air organization. More than 30 autonomous initiatives around the world have been implemented and improved on the guide — and they’re popping up quickly.

“What we all have in common is a deep commitment to free access to life-saving technology in the midst of an ongoing pandemic,” says Dupree.

While Clean Air Club purifiers are for any organizers who request them, Dupree has noticed the resource has been more popular with members of the queer community.

“It is not surprising to me that so many of us creating these clean air clubs and putting in so much work for our community are queer,” Dupree says. “This idea of care as a radical and very powerful foundational value for mutual aid organizations is closely aligned with queer politics.”

The queer community is no stranger to mutual aid. During the peak of the AIDS crisis in the ’80s and ’90s, lesbians and other queer people started food banks, devoted their time to caretaking, donated as “blood sisters”, treated people with the disease, and provided other life-saving volunteer services while mainstream society stigmatized and abandoned people with AIDS.

Today, clean air organizations, mask blocs, and other COVID-19 mutual aid groups exist as a temporary solution for the widespread institutional failures of local, city, state, and federal governments that have an obligation to safeguard public health from COVID-19 and have instead completely failed to live up to that obligation, as Dupree says. “[These initiatives] give us a glimpse of what life could be like if only these principles were adopted at a larger scale.”

Dupree would like to see institutions that have the power to make large-scale, permanent changes in the interest of public health — including schools, public transportation departments, and prisons — improve their indoor air quality through the use of air purification and far-UVC technology. She’d also like to see mask requirements reimplemented in high-risk environments like hospitals, where many people have died after being exposed to COVID-19 while seeking life-saving care.

It's pretty straightforward, Dupree says. “What we need from the government is what they did at the turn of the century to eradicate cholera from our public water. We need them to clean our indoor air.”

In the absence of these measures and few to no mitigation efforts today, the public is at continued risk of COVID-19 infections and Long COVID, which affects more than 23 million Americans of all age groups. More than 400 million have the disease around the globe, according to a recent review in Nature Medicine. The ever-present threat of the virus also makes it unsafe for disabled and other high-risk people to participate in everyday life, seek safe medical care, and do essential errands.

While many mutual aid groups are run by queer people, numerous LGBTQ+ organizations and advocacy groups are failing to make their spaces and events safe and accessible. Education about the risk of Long COVID in the community is sorely lacking.

But there are exceptions: In Los Angeles, two drag king-led shows, Disabled Cable and Them Fatale (not associated with Themme Fatale) have made their shows more COVID-safe thanks to the help of testing, mask requirements, and their local clean air organization, Airgasmic.

Founded in 2024 by popular drag king Dick Swagger, Airgasmic runs a lending library of crowd-sourced purifiers specifically for drag shows and other queer events. And while the volunteer service has been successful, it has also exposed how difficult it can be to get venues and some patrons on board with COVID-19 mitigation methods, particularly masking.

“A lot of people aren't keeping up with the science,” Swagger says, explaining that he spends most of his free time volunteering for Airgasmic and educating his community online about COVID-19 and Long COVID. “More people tend to listen to me when I’m in drag.”

Swagger stopped performing live in 2022 after seeing the toll Long COVID has taken on the drag and queer community in Los Angeles. He knows 14 people in his local drag and queer communities with Long COVID, he says, adding that “it is like watching a slow-motion car crash” as more continue to get infected with COVID-19.

“I had to stop performing. I became increasingly frustrated,” he says. “I was trying to protect [my local drag community] and protect myself because I can't afford to become disabled.”

Leona Love, a drag king and queen who co-created Disabled Cable, says one of the most difficult aspects in organizing their show was finding a venue that would help enforce a mask requirement, a challenge other performers and organizers who spoke with Them and The Sick Times also faced.

As an ambulatory wheelchair user, Love says that a lack of accessible venues has kept them from performing at venues in Los Angeles in the past. The underlying ableism in the drag and queer community led them to co-found the show, which highlights disabled performers.

“The way I like to tell it honestly is that it is a project that was born out of rage and channeled into love,” they say.

But after finding a venue called Cantiq in Echo Park that fully supported their mitigation efforts, Love’s first show drew such a large crowd that they had to set a capacity limit for their sophomore performance so it would be less cramped and therefore safer. Now, the event regularly sells out.

“Getting to see the response to our show has been so affirming that our community still does care about COVID-19,” Love says. “We want to keep each other safe. Sometimes it’s about providing the right spaces and the right information to inform people how they can do that.”

“I do wish, however, that there were spaces outside of what we are building that were taking us into consideration as much as we are taking everyone in the community into consideration.”

[cienie-isengardu]

Jango Fett and Walon Vau: The Laws, Orders, Jaster Mereel and True Mandalorians (pre-Galidraan)

for @delkios, I promise, this is about Jango and Vau but I needed to talk about Jaster first

previous part: Age Difference & Childhood Trauma

Jango Fett: Open Seasons comics and Fact Files established that between Korda VI and Galidraan passed 8 years and during that time Fett (14 - 22 years old) was hunting down Tor Vizsla and Death Watch. 

Before I will bring sources and additional commentary for Galidraan, let’s take a moment to establish some available facts about True Mandalorians and Jango.

[...] The orphan was adopted by Jaster Mereel and the Mandalorians - a legendary band of mercenaries with a reputation for ruthless efficiency. Jango was forced to adapt to the Mandalorian way of life. He travelled with the nomadic warriors, learning their code of honour and familiarizing himself with their state-of-the-art equipment. The guidance of Jaster Mereel, and an allegiance to the Mandalorian community, helped compensate Jango for the loss of the mother and father he had hardly known. After Jaster’s death, Jango became leader of the Mandalorians. [Fact Files #22]

[...] As a boy, Jango was orphaned when his family was caught in the cross fire between the terrifying Mandalorian Warriors and their rivals, the Death Watch, on the planet Concord Dawn. A sympathetic Mandalorian commander named Jaster Mereel took pity on Jango and made him a cadet. Soon he was traveling with the nomadic army-for-hire as they toured the galaxy looking for a conflict, always in the service of the highest bidder. Over time, Jango rose through the ranks.  When Jaster Mereel was killed in battle, Jango was named commander, the youngest in the long history of the notorious mercenary army. Since ancient times, Mandalorians were brutally effective fighters, and especially so under Jango Fett’s leadership. However, while fighting to suppress a popular revolt in the Galidraan system, the Mandalorians ran afoul of the Jedi Knights, who wiped out most of the mercenary army and delivered the survivors to the governor of Galidraan. Jango became a slave, but he used the next several years to regain his strength and plot his eventual escape. He exacted revenge on his captors, reclaimed his Mandalorian armour and set off on his own as a bounty hunter. (Bounty Hunter Game Guide)

True Mandalorians were “looking for a conflict, always in the service of the highest bidder”  and described as ruthless and effective, “especially so under Jango Fett’s leadership” which implies a change (improvement) of their army. Jango in general is presented in sources as an excellent warrior and “perfect soldier” however as much as he was admired for his skills and courage, he wasn’t liked that much as a person, quite often considered selfish by his own people: 

Republic Commando Order:66

"Well ... if you want something to shine bright, it has to be polished hard." Skirata wondered exactly what Jango would have done if he hadn't been there to stop Orun Wa from having the Null kids put down. Jango talked tough-was tough-but his callous attitude didn't extend to children, however brutal it looked from the outside. "Jango might have been a self-centered chakaar, but don't believe all that bluster about Boba being nothing more than his apprentice. He wanted a son, no doubt about it. He knew what it was to be a kid waiting to die, so I reckon he'd have given the aiwha-bait a good hard kov'nyn and sent him on his way." Shame you didn't do a hit more for the other boys cloned from you, Jang'ika, but I suppose you didn't have much pity left after all that happened to you. 

[According to Glossary from Triple Zero, chakaar means in Mando 'a: thief, grave robber, general term of abuse]

or

"Deserter," the man said no hint of disapproval. "Discharged dead." Fi groped for the words. He knew what he wanted to say, but getting his mouth to obey him was another matter. He could feel sweat beading on his top lip. "Like a regular medical discharge, only a bit more serious." "It's okay, ner vod, you're among friends here," said the man. "Fett was a disgrace for letting the Kaminoans make clones for the Jedi out of him. It's not your fault." "Don't feel sorry for me," Fi said defensively. He didn't want pity. The Kaminoans didn't care any more than Fett did if the clone army was happy and well treated just as long as it won wars, but he'd had Kal Skirata looking out for him. "Our sergeant took good care of us. He adopted me as his son. We did fine." [...] "It's a small planet. A fair few Cuy'val Dar came back here when they'd finished training you." So the guy did know. The Mandalorian training sergeants handpicked by Fett hadn't all been fond of him, but they respected his prowess. And they'd been griping about life in Tipoca City. Well, there were no more secrets left to keep. Everyone knew about the Grand Army of the Republic now. It was dawning slowly on Fi that Fett, Mand'alor and bounty hunter, had been a good advert for Mandalorian grit, but his heroic status wasn't respected by some of his own people. The Alpha ARC clone troopers, hard men literally made in Fett's mold were scared of him, utterly loyal to his orders even after his death. But Fi realized that some Mando'ade here thought he was a selfish chakaar.

or

"Get it off your chest, Walon," Skirata said. "Come on, ner vod." Vau straightened up. "You never liked Jango, did you?" "I liked him enough. What I didn't like was how he ended up. Jango never gave a toss about anyone but himself. Some Mandalore he turned out to be-he was always away in the latter years, and he was as bad as the Jedi when it came to turning a blind eye to what was happening to his clones. No, Shysa's a fool if he thinks a Fett dynasty is good for Manda'yaim. We're better off without him." "You reckon?" "I do. Sorry, but I do. You suddenly his best mate or something?" Vau suddenly grabbed Skirata by the collar. Shab, he was strong; he almost lifted Skirata bodily as he shoved him against the bulkhead. They'd brawled many times, drawn blood, come close to killing each other, but Skirata had never seen Vau lose his temper, not once. And that was enough to stun him into silence. "Now do you see? Do you?" Vau hissed the sibilant like escaping steam. Mird cowered on the floor, whining softly. "I'm sick to death of your sentimental twaddle about Jango betraying us by letting Kamino use his genes. He did it to stop the Jedi. He did it to create an army strong enough to bring them down. You drone on about the injustice of unelected elites, my little working-class hero-well, now they're gone. Yes, it cost our boys' lives, but the Jedi are gone, gone, gone. And they won't be killing Mandalorians again, not for a long time. Maybe never." Vau was white-faced and trembling. Then he seemed to shake himself out of whatever alien persona had taken hold of him, adjusted his collar, and tugged down the sleeves of his flight suit. He was the ice-cold patrician again. Skirata still couldn't summon up any love or guilt about Jango, but suddenly it made sense, and he knew in his guts that it had been about a lot more than five million creds. Skirata thought of the abuse he’d heaped on Jango. He knew the man; he’d fought with him, in every sense of the word, and he’d also had comradely moments with him. The thought that he might have done him a disservice was one burden of guilt too many. He shut it out. If Jango had been playing the long game, Skirata had never caught a whiff of it. He knew it wasn’t all about the credits. He’d seen Jango cradling Boba in the early days, and that man wanted a son as much as any man ever had. So Skirata hadn’t looked for any motive beyond that. It was the only motive Skirata would have had. “I stand corrected,” said Skirata. How do I apologize? Where do I even start, with the osik I have to deal with now? “So I was wrong about Jango.” And now I know why Shysa wants Jango’s legacy to live on at any cost.

Republic Commando: True Colors

[...] but an ARC who’d gone AWOL was-impossible. Jango Fett had raised and trained them personally, with an emphasis on absolute loyalty to the Republic. Sergeant Kal said that Jango was an unhinged shabuir, but he always stuck to his contract, and that contract had included creating a loyal, totally reliable army. Darman had heard rumors to the contrary, and the Nulls were living crazy proof that a clone soldier could be as eccentric and wayward as any random human, but nothing had ever been confirmed.

Side note: From mando'a: shabuir - extreme insult - *jerk*, but much stronger

Republic Commando: Triple Zero

"Ordo, you just flattened an ARC trooper." "He was delaying us." "But you hit him. Twice." "No permanent harm done," Ordo said, lifting his kama to slide over the pillion seat behind Jusik. He sealed his helmet. "You can't convince Alpha ARCs of anything by rational argument. They're every bit as obtuse and impulsive as Fett, believe me."

Granted, the presented opinions are biased and definitely colored by Kamino experiences and post-Galidraan times in which Fett went into bounty hunting business instead of coming back to his shattered people (and in case of clones trained by Kal, also colored by Skirata's opinion of Jango). However Jango was also criticized by various characters as no team-player and in general, tie-in material kept pointing his solitary nature: 

Republic Commando: Triple Zero

Skirata had worked out fast that Kaminoans despised everything that didn't fit their intolerant, arrogant society's ideal of perfection. So... they thought Jango's genome wasn't the perfect model for a soldier without a little adjustment, then. Maybe it was his solitary nature; he'd make a rotten infantry soldier. Jango wasn't a team player.

or

Yes, I know how the Kaminoans did it. They used our genes against us, the ones that make us bond with our brothers, make us loyal, make us respect and obey our fathers-that's what they manipulated to make us more likely to obey orders. They had to remove what made Jango a selfish loner, because that makes a bad infantry soldier, and you can tell from the Alpha ARCS that the Kaminoans weren't wrong. But there's one thing I don't know yet-and that's how they controlled the aging process. That's the key. They robbed us of a full life span. But we will not be defeated by time, ner vod.     -ARC Trooper Lieutenant N-7-Mereel-in an encrypted transmission to N-11, Ordo

Internal memo penned by Hali Ke, senior research geneticist, Kamino, 27 BBY (source) 

Jango is given to solitude and affects a disdain for human relationships and connections, yet when he agreed to help train our army, he immediately summoned a band of mercenaries who shared his background. And, of course, there is the matter of his fee: Jango seemed barely to care for the considerable sum of five million credits, but was adamant that we create an unaltered clone of himself, whom he now refers to — without a trace of self-consciousness — as his son. I have seen him return to Kamino after killing men for credits, wash the blood out of his starship’s hold, and an hour later be gently talking and playing with young Boba.

Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore

Taun We seemed genuinely perplexed,  and  so  she was, to see a human with so little apparent regard for other humans,  clones or not.   Of course, hadn't the Kaminoans just created an army for the  Republic? There wouldn't be wars without some disagreement, now, would there?   But that, too, held little interest for Jango. He was a solitary bounty hunter, a recluse - or he would have been if not for Boba. Jango didn't care a whit about politics or war or this army of his clones. If every one of  them was slaughtered, then so be it. He had no attachment to any.  He looked to the side as he considered that. To any except for Boba, of course.

The Cestus Deception by Steve

"Perhaps because you are the only one trained for command. That makes you more like Jango." His attention sharpened. "They say he was a loner." "Yes," she said. "But a natural leader, too. At other times he could be invisible, as I understand quite a few people learned to their brief and painful regret." Nate gave a hard, flat chuckle. Yes, indeed. "But if he wanted, when he entered a room every head would turn." She paused a beat. "Especially mine." Her voice grew softer. "But that was all so long ago. I was eighteen years old, and Jango was twenty-five." "Was he a bounty hunter then?" She closed her eyes, dredging up old memories. "I think he was in transition. He'd only been free maybe two years, since the Mandalo-rians were wiped out. I met him in the Meridian sector. He'd lost his armor somehow, and was searching for it." A ruminative smile. "We had just about a year together. Then things got dangerous. We were raided by space pirates. Our ship got blown from the sky, and in the middle of a really nasty space battle we were forced to take separate evacuation pods. I never saw him again." She paused. "I heard he survived, and got his armor back. I don't know if he looked for me." Sheeka shrugged. "Life is like that, sometimes." Her voice had grown wistful. Then she chuckled, and he drew back slightly and looked at her in puzzlement. "Why do you laugh?" "You do remind me of Jango. He always locked his emotions away. But I can remember times when he let them out of their cage." "Such as?" Her sweeter, saucier side was bubbling to the fore, and she was happy to feel it. She'd feared she'd never feel that evanescence again. ``If you're lucky, I might tell you sometime. She knew he was curious now, and pardoned herself for the slight exaggeration. In truth, Jango was a man of few words who kept his feelings in check. In his life, and his chosen lifestyle, that reserve had been vital for survival.

Fact Files #22

Despite Jango's growing stature, he began to feel that something was missing from his life. He remained a loner, but yearned for a son - someone with whom he could enjoy the paternal bond that he felt he had been denied. His ambition would be realized in the most unorthodox way.

Of course, how much of Jango’s selfishness and seclusion was a natural part of his character and how much a result of trauma (especially post-Galidraan) is up to debate, however existence of such opinions gives us a solid reason to think that as much as Fett could be an excellent or even charismatic soldier, he didn’t need be necessary an easy person to work with. There is also a young age of Jango to take into factor and his personal desire for revenge on Death Watch.

On one hand, Jango had undying loyalty of people like Silas, on the other, there was Montross. And yes, as much as Montross isn’t objective in his opinion about then Squad Commander Jango, he did bring up an interesting point about young Fett and his clouded mind when it comes to Jaster. 

Montross: "I think he sometimes forgets that you're not really his son. Hnh. That`s dangerous. Clouds his judgment. And yours. One day soon, Jaster will choose his successor. And he'll need a clear head for that." Jango: “Jaster will do what’s right for the Mandalorians. He always had.” Montross: “Let’s hope we can say the same about you.” [Jango Fett: Open Seasons, issue #2]

Montross did not further argue about Jaster’s ability to make a right choice that will benefit their group but put in doubt Jango’s ability to do the same, as in: put the good of True Mandalorians above his personal feelings and desires. Did Montross act there on purpose to hurt young Fett? Most likely, as he did not like how the boy was Jaster’s favorite.

[...] He was also enraged by the attention his commander bestowed upon the daring young recruit, Jango Fett [Bounty Hunter Game Guide]

Jango became a favourite of Jaster Mereel, something that didn't sit well with one of his men Montross, who sought to lead the Mandalorians in Mereel's stead. [Fact Files vol. 3, issue 14]

Still, his final words “You’ll kill them all, Fett” proved true once True Mandalorians again walked into Tor Vizsla’s trap, this time under Jango’s leadership and Fett’s orders - that changed from evacuation to shoot at Jedi - led to massacre of his men. 

The presented opinions and implications about Jango as a person are especially important in regard to Jaster Mereel. Jaster, despite more than two decades of being part of mandalorian lore, is not really developed as a character and a lot we learned about him comes from tie-in sources. He was described as:

“reformed murderer” who “held that the Mandalorians were merely highly-paid soldiers” [Dooku, JF:OS#1]

“a lawman [...] until murdered a superior officer. Wrecked by guilt [...] unable to contain his own passions, he sought to eliminate them in everyone else” [Tor Vizsla, Death Watch Manifesto/Bounty Hunter Code]

“Jaster sought true honor, not the right to ignore laws and moral codes” [Jango, Death Watch Manifesto/Bounty Hunter Code]

“deeply pious human”, who “brought a strong ethic”, and “fought tooth-and-nail to become reigning Mandalore and unite the disparate clans”  [History of the Mandalorians/SW Insider #80]

“A sympathetic Mandalorian commander" who "took pity on Jango and made him a cadet” [Bounty Hunter Game Guide]

Side note: Sources about Jaster like History of the Mandalorian, Jango Fett: Open Seasons and Bounty Hunter Code were talked about in my other text - full quotes can be found there.

Additional source, The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran was an original backstory for Boba whose name back then was in fact an pseudonym adopted by exiled from Concord Dawn Jaster Mereel. With Attack of the Clones, the story was retconned but it is the first material that introduced us to strong morality of Jaster:

The last statement of the Journeyman Protector Jaster Mereel, known later as the Hunter Boba Fett, before exile from the world of Concord Dawn: Everyone dies. It's the final and only lasting Justice. Evil exists; it is intelligence in the service of entropy. When the side of a mountain slides down to kill a village, this is not evil, for evil requires intent. Should a sentient being cause that landslide, there is evil; and requires Justice as a consequence, so that civilization can exist. There is no greater good than Justice; and only if law serves Justice is it good law. It is said correctly that law exists not for the Just but for the unjust, for the Just carry the law in their hearts, and do not need to call it from afar. I bow to no one and I give service only for cause.

or

An unpleasant grin touched the young man's lips. "You'll plead me unrepentant." Creel stared at him. "Do you understand the seriousness of this, boy? You killed a man." "He had it coming." "They'll exile you, Jaster Mereel. They'll exile you!'' "I could always go join the Imperial Academy," Mereel said, "if I got exiled. I expect I'd make a good storm." Creel overrode him: "and they may execute you, if you anger them sufficiently. Is it such a hard thing to say you're sorry for having taken a life unjustly?" "I am sorry," said Mereel. "Sorry I didn't kill him a year ago. The galaxy's a better place without him."

Even with limited material, there is visible contrast in how Jaster and Jango were perceived. Mereel is a man respecting laws with strong ethical sense, sympathetic, deeply involved in mandalorian matters. Tor Vizsla - his enemy who literally could write down any lie and slander about Jaster in his propaganda text - associated him with passion for all possible things. And yes, Tor considered it a flaw, something that Mereel was unable to contain and something, most likely alongside the wrecking guilt, that deeply affected his approach to Mandalorian Way, yet still it does not paint Jaster in the negative light as Jango being called by his own men as selfish chaakar and uncaring loner, disgrace or even claiming they were better off without him.

(And isn’t there something ironic how both Tor’s opinion and Jango’s men's critique is said from the perspective of time and somehow Vizsla - an enemy - remembers Jaster in a much nicer manner than Jango is remembered by his own people?).

Jaster’s strong sense of morality (coming mainly from tie-in material than Jango Fett: Open Seasons, the prime source) could be also an important factor in regard to Improved True Mandalorians’ brutal effectiveness under Jango Fett’s leadership. 

Mind you, there are not enough direct sources to clearly support or completely refute this idea, as the original comics showed us only one mission taken by Jaster - an extraction of a rookie squad pinned down by hostile locals.

[Jango Fett: Open Seasons, issue #2]

As Jaster said, the job’s a routine extraction mission, so there is a chance True Mandalorians did some similar missions in the past. The job did not necessarily mean Mandalorians needed to kill the “enemy” of the Korda Defense Force, just that they were going to save Korda Defense Force’s people which doesn’t sound that bad from a moral standpoint.

In contrast, the only mission done by True Mandalorians under Jango Fett’s leadership we know any details about is Galidraan.  

Jango Fett: Open Seasons, issue 3

I'm going to tell the governor that the insurrection is over...

"Your reign is secure" [...] "I killed your enemy now tell me where to find mine!"

Bounty Hunter Game Guide:

Since ancient times, Mandalorians were brutally effective fighters, and especially so under Jango Fett’s leadership. However, while fighting to suppress a popular revolt in the Galidraan system, the Mandalorians ran afoul of the Jedi Knights, who wiped out most of the mercenary army and delivered the survivors to the governor of Galidraan. 

Fact Files vol.3, issue 14

Fett led the Mandalorians for eight years, during which the hunt for Vizsla was never far from their minds. When they discovered that Death Watch was being protected and funded by the Governor of Galidraan, they accepted a job dealing with a minor rebellion on the planet in order to get close to Vizsla. But when Jango left  the Mandalorians to go and collect payment (and to insist that the governor should give up Death Watch and Vizsla to them), it turned out to be a trap. Vizsla was waiting, and Jango had to make a fighting retreat.

Fact Files #124 

Eight years after the death of Jaster Mereel, Jango Fett’s leadership had ensured the survival and even the growth of the Mandalorian group. The Governor of Galidraan hired them to deal with an insurrection that threatened his tyrannical hold on power. Jango’s men did their job, but when Jango went to the Governor, he was ambushed by the Governor’s new associates - Vizsla and the Death Watch.

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia

Mandalorians were asked by the governor of Galidraan to quell an insurrection[...]

In general, tie-in material is in agreement that A) True Mandalorians under Jango’s leadership took a job to deal with an insurrection B) governor was corrupted (working for Tor Vizsla) and his rule was even called a tyrannical one. 

Korda Six was meant to be an easy job for young Jango’s sake yet still was about saving a rookie squad in need while Jango’s men took money to destroy people that most likely fought for their freedom, rights and/or democracy. All done just so Jango could get Tor Vizsla, the murderer of his biological family and surrogate father. We can’t be sure if Jaster Mereel would take that job. The retconned Jaster-Boba Fett most likely would

“What you're doing is morally wrong. The Rebels are in the wrong, and the Rebellion will fail as it should." Leia Organa could not keep the outrage out of her voice. "Morally wrong? Us? We're fighting for homes and our families and our loved ones, the ones who are still alive and the ones we've lost. The Empire destroyed my entire world, virtually everyone I ever knew as a child?" Fett actually leaned forward slightly. "Those worlds rose in rebellion against the authority legally in place over them. The Emperor was within his rights to destroy them; they threatened the system of social justice that permits civilization to exist." He paused. "I am sorry for the deaths of the innocent. But that happens in war, Leia Organa. The innocent die in wars, and your side should not have started this one." [The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran]

However, would that be true for Jaster Mereel, known from Jango’s backstory? Would a person that according to History of the Mandalorians “brought a strong ethic that extended far beyond the limited Mandalorian ideology fighting for credits” be okay with destroying an insurrection against a corrupted official if he himself killed a corrupted fellow Protector and/or his superior? And yes, True Mandalorians were a mercenary band selling their martial arts for good money but that does not mean that Jaster accepted every job available. 

Jaster is known for his strong moral sense that put him in collision with Tor Vizsla and Death Watch that accepted only Mandalorian laws, the law of strongest/violence. Jango too was described as having a personal honor code, but so far sources are concerned, Fett's main rule was that once you accept a job you must finish it. It didn’t matter if his target was a criminal or people forced in slave labor. 

As Jango taught Boba, “Your loyalty, your honor – these are the things that matter. When you accept a mission, when you give your word, it is all that matters. As you grow into a man, you must remember: in battle, there can be no mercy. [Tales 18: Way of the Warrior]

The final difference between Jaster and Jango comes to this: Jaster wanted to be Mandalore 

“[...] fought tooth-and-nail to become reigning Mandalore and unite the disparate clans”  [History of the Mandalorians/SW Insider #80]

while Jango did not show that desire nor was named by Jaster as his successor.  

Some sources incorrectly claim Jango was chosen by Jaster Mereel:

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia

[Jaster Mereel] also appointed Jango Fett as his choice to succeed him as Mand'alor.

and Legacy of the Force: Revelation by Karen Traviss

"Why did Shysa think Fett should be Mandalore? Because his father was?" Jaina didn't add that Fett didn't strike her as the community-minded kind. "Bloodlines don't matter to you." "True, but Jango had a fearsomely good fighting reputation, and he was Jaster Mereel's chosen heir, so the Fett name has some power.

however Jaster Mereel, as was pointed out by comics, didn’t name his successor and as comics showed, he did not utter any last word before his death.

[Jango Fett: Open Seasons, issue 2]

Furthermore, Jango did call Montross unfit to lead True Mandalorians for leaving Jaster Mereel for death but that is it. Fourteen years old Fett did not make any claim to the Mandalore title - it was Silas, the loyal soldier, who first said he would  follow Jango and no one else and other soldiers backed up that.

Jango: That's not your call to make, Montross. I say you're not fit to lead us. You left Jaster on the battlefield. To die alone. Silas: I'll follow Jango. And do one else. Montross: Is that what you want? A child leading you? [Jango Fett: Open Seasons, issue 2]

Jango was already a great soldier, however that Jaster treated him as his son, does not mean he planned to officially name him his successor, as there could be better fitted, older and more experienced Mandalorians to hold that title (and maybe, when Fett would be older, then he could be their successor). Jango himself believed that Jaster will choose what is the best for True Mandalorians.

Now, let's talk about Walon Vau and how he fits True Mandalorians in the pre-Galidraan era. We know he joined Mandalorians at a young age. We also know that True Mandalorians is a name used by Jaster Mereel to distinguish his men from rebellious Death Watch -

[The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia]

something that must have happened not so before Jango was orphaned (58BBY), however both factions were part of the same Mandalorian Mercs. So there is a real possibility that Walon Vau knew/was aware of Jaster Mereel - or was affected by his Supercommando Codex to some degree before he served under Jango Fett.

The same as Jango, Vau is presented as a very competent soldier but not exactly liked as a person, at least at the beginning of the Republic Commando book series. In general, the change in perception of Vau is the best seen through his difficult yet complex relationship with Kal Skirata however no matter how relationship warmed between Vau and other characters, the novels constantly described him as cold, detached, hard to read, sometimes even to the point he looked like he did not care about anything and anyone or generally speaking, as someone keeping his emotions under control.

In True Colors, Walon himself admitted to have “little time for anyone else, regardless of species” with the exception of Mird, the men of the Grand Army and most likely Jango Fett, for whom he agreed to train army for around decade on Kamino, cut away from the outside world. Similarly, in Imperial Commando: 501st, Ordo claimed he “had never known Vau to show the slightest interest in another living being” in the context of a romantic/sexual relationship.

(Side note: I do think Vau may be asexual/aromantic and depending on Jango Fett’s own sexuality this could be another factor why they get along better than Jango with Kal Skirata, something I talked more in another meta).

Republic Commando Prima Guide outright called Vau “borderline sociopathic”

same as The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia:

"Like his peers, Vau was a Mandalorian mercenary. As one of the Cuy'val Dar, Seargeant Vau was known for his pessimistic demeanor, and his training was noted for the worst-case scenarios [...]. Many of his graduates considered Vau to be a borderline sociopath, especially given the way he planned missions."

Side note: in the book series it is actually trained by Kal Skirata clones who use terms like "Old Psycho" and "head case" for Walon, not Vau's own men. And generally speaking most terms like crazy, psycho or other mental implications comes from Kal or his men. Jango too was insulted as unhinged shabuir.

Though from my online research I’m not sure if “borderline sociopath" truly fits the book!Vau, I think it is safe to call him an introvert who most likely falls into the spectrum of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Similar to Jango, Walon is not a person who wants or needs to connect to people, beside the few special beings - for Jango it was Jaster and Boba, for Walon Mird and his clone trainees.

However in contrast to Fett, Vau seems to have much more defined morality. Yes, Jango followed his own personal code - keep your word and finish the mission you agreed to do - yet despite himself being a slave for at least two years, this experience apparently did not create in Jango empathy for enslaved, oppressed people as in the end, he was working for those who could afford his service, which includes the corrupted politicians and criminals enriched on slavery and illegal spice. And when Kaminoan scientistpointed out he lacked morality, Jango get angry:

Internal memo penned by Hali Ke, senior research geneticist, Kamino, 27 BBY (source) 

I have now logged many sessions with our prime clone Jango Fett, and concluded that he embodies his species’ contradictions. He is a killer many times over, ending the life of others without hesitation if paid to do so, yet his anger was obvious when I suggested he lacked morality.

In contrast, Walon acknowledged that he is a criminal by Coruscant standards and did not deny that at all. 

Republic Commando: Order 66

“I’ve known Skirata for some years,” Vau said. “He’s a criminal by Coruscant standards. So am I. But an outright traitor - no. He’s a professional.”

At the same time, he did not allow Deltas to cross the line between soldiers and criminals, as he was adamant they won’t steal money during raid on Mygneeto Bank

Republic Commando: True Colors

"Sarge, we got what we came for. Why are we robbing a bank?" "You're not robbing it. I'm robbing it. You're just opening a door."

and

“We can empty the-” “I steal. You don’t.” It was a fine point but it mattered to Vau. Skirata might have raised a pack of hooligans, but Vau’s squads were disciplined. Even Sev… Sev was psychotic and lacked even the most basic social graces, but he wasn’t a criminal.

- even if Walon personally considered depriving his biological family of their fortune as a matter of justice, for himself and clone troopers ("I'm not robbing for gain. I'm not a greedy man. I just want justice. [...] Justice for me; justice for the clone troops, used up and thrown away like flimsi napkins.")

Side note: Kal's comment even further imply how unusual was for Vau to rob a bank in the first place:

"Unconfirmed. We lost his signal. He had kit with him that General Jusik felt you would want to recover." "What for?" "He cleaned out a bank vault. Credits, jewelry, bonds, the works. Two bags." Vau robbed a bank? Skirata was taken aback. The miserable old di'kut was game for breaking any law, but plain theft - never. This was Skirata's style, not Vau's.

Walon also did not allow Delta Squad to take part in extraction of Jilka because he considered it "too dirty and political".

Republic Commando: Order 66

"What do you want us to do, Sarge?” Vau summoned Mird back to his side with a silent gesture. “Nothing.” “Sarge, we can-” “No. You can’t. Sorry. This crosses the line from soldier to … well, I don’t want you involved with this. I needed Zey to know what I was doing, but it’s better you don’t ask why, either.” “Okay, Sarge.” Scorch activated his helmet comlink, wondering if Vau didn’t think they were good enough to take on RDS. “I’ll get the schematics of the security cells, and we’ll have you an operational plan inside half an hour.” “Scrap the plan, Scorch, but the schematics would be very welcome. Get some rest. Kashyyyk is going to wring you dry.” “Okay, Sarge.” They had time to give him a bit of help. “We wouldn’t foul up, honest.” “I know. But this is too dirty and political even for special ops. Concentrate on Kashyyyk. Real soldiering to be done there.”

Side note: Freeing Jilka Zan Zentis out of RDS custody was more done for benefit of Besany and Ordo (and Skirata) than anything else but Vau drew the line and kept to the resolution that members of the Delta Squad were soldiers first and foremost - their mission were sanctioned by Republic military and whatever happened and whoever they killed during said missions did not make them criminals. On other hand, there is something to say about Vau and how much of "dirty work" he did for Skirata clan's benefit through the whole book series.

The books also points out that despite his brutality and detachment, he cared for his own military self-respect and wasn’t one for blindly following orders:

“Are you on brigade strength again, Sarge?” Scorch asked. “No. Still civilian status.” Vau wore a slightly preoccupied frown that didn’t seem to have anything to do with the business at hand. “That way I can tell Zey where to stick his orders without feeling I’ve lost my military self-respect. An army that refuses orders is a rabble.” Scorch had heard it all before. It was like a litany, and he knew his lines. “An army that refuses orders is a danger to its citizens.” “An army that refuses orders is dead.” “You ever disobeyed an order, Sarge?” “Only when it was unlawful. And that’s not always an easy call, not when the bolts are shaving your nose hair. I’ll leave that wisdom to the lawyers sitting on their padded shebse years after the event.” Vau had never been a chatty man at the best of times; maybe this was the private Vau, the one his squads rarely saw.

 Of course, what is “unlawful” in the opinion of a man that had no objection to brutalize clone cadets on Kamino or to interrogate and later kill an unarmed woman is up to debate.

Vau, for a former aristocrat, has also a very clear disdain for slavery:

Republic Commando: True Colors

"Of course," said Skirata, "we don't know if he's aware that the Republic sends out hit men to execute clones who want to try their luck in Civvy Street, either." Vau was watching the conversation with an air of boredom, which usually meant quite the opposite. He kept looking across to the one closed cabin, which had to be Ko Sai's holding cell, and exuding impatience. "If you broadcast that on the hour, all day on HNE, nobody would care, Kal. I guarantee it." "They'll care if the Seps start attacking Coruscant and interrupt their holovid viewing, all right." "But there's not going to be this massive wave of protest on behalf of Our Brave Boys. You'll be knocked flat by the wave of apathy. Goodness, our slave army, bred to fight, disposed of when it's too much trouble? What a sensible system! Good for the Chancellor! That's what we pay our taxes for!" Vau dropped the bored act and came very close to exposing emotion for once. "It saves all those civilians from having to look after their own democracy. The most you'll get is a few creds dropped in a charity box on the anniversary of Geonosis. No Senator is going to change a thing."

or

"Ugliness is an illusion, gentlemen." Vau began sorting through his disputed inheritance. "Like beauty. Like color. All depends on the light." The first thing that caught his eye in the family box was his mother's flawless square-cut shoroni sapphire, the size of a human thumbprint, set on a pin and flanked by two smaller matching stones. In some kinds of light, they were a vibrant cobalt blue, while in others they turned forest green. Beautiful: but real forests had been destroyed to find them, and slaves died mining them. "The only reality is action." 

or

"You do realize," he said to Skirata, "that if the troopers were given a choice, most would opt to stay in the army anyway?" "I do. We all prefer the comfort of what we know best." "They'd be as dead as volunteers as they'd be as slaves, Kal." "But they'd have a choice, and that's what makes us free men." "Actually, that's a load of osik. Plenty of free beings in the galaxy don't have a vote and don't get a choice about what they do each day. There's a very blurred line between slavery and economic dependence." 

Additional Commentary: The line:  "there's a very blurred line between slavery and economic dependence." most likely is related to Vau's biological family. From the same book:

“It’s the Arakyd special, Walon. Says more about you than credits ever can.” The gangster look was less conspicuous here than full Mandalorian armor. The idea was to look like they’d come for sportfishing so that submerging Aay'han offshore didn’t attract the wrong sort of interest. “Looks rather expensive.” “Another bauble from the Vau deposit box. My great-grandfather is said to have shot a servant with it for serving his caf too hot.” Skirata almost went for the bait. “You’re just saying that to make me mad, aren’t you?” Vau’s expression was unreadable. “You know I’d never do such a thing.” Mereel put a restraining hand on Skirata’s shoulder as he overtook him. The terrible thing about Vau and his family was that it was perfectly possible.

This little story - whatever true or not - illustrates well that a person doesn't need to be shackled down like a slave to be exploited and mistreated. A servant, a free person earning their own living - may still be economic dependent on a cruel master with no protection from abuse, even if in theory applicable laws should regulate the coexistence of employer and employee. But sadly, the same as in real life the domestic help was often abused and mistreated, the galaxy far far away is too filled with corruption, greed and general lack of care for the poorest and the most vulnerable.

Vau’s point is especially interesting in regard to Jango, who at least twice took part in suppressing rebellion against the planet's potentially tyrannical leader (Galidraan) and slave revolt against Kuat elite/ Corporate exploitation, as happened in mentioned previously Tales 18: Way of the Warrior

Taking into account that Vau is

empathic enough to think there's a very blurred line between slavery and economic dependence and has some stories related to his biological family and its exploitation of other beings without an ounce of regret (slaves dying to mine shoroni sapphire, a stones used by his mother or the servant killed for trivial, petty reason)

he refused to follow orders he considered unlawful even under enemy's fire

we should ask this - did the mission on Galidraan was the line he refused to cross?

Mind you, there is not enough direct sources to prove it or reject this notion, so this is just one of possibilities, but if Walon Vau served under Jaster Mereel before Korda Six and shared similar approach to law and morality, after eight years of hunting for Death Watch (and knowing Tor Vizsla and his cunning nature, that was most likely a wild goose chase) he could become disinterested in Jango's more ruthless leadership at some point. Not enough to quit True Mandalorians but enough to notice that Jango may move further and further away from what Jaster Mereel would consider a good (morally and financial) contract for his people. After all, Galidraan was only partially about money, as it was above all a means to catch and kill Tor Vizsla, so Montross could be right, young Fett's mind was clouded when it comes to Jaster and avenging his death.

I'm not saying that Jango was a bad leader, but I think Vau not wanting to involve himself in suppressing a rebellion of ordinary people against a potential tyrant (aristocrat) fits well within established data about him. Even more if we take into account his statement:

Vau didn’t meet Skirata’s eyes for a moment, but he glanced at Jusik. “I could have been at Galidraan, but I wasn’t, and I never forgot that. Not my fight. Should have been my fight.” [Republic Commando: Order 66]

"Not my fight" most likely is about Vau's more ambivalent feeling toward Death Watch (that understandable after Galidraan turned into hatred) and recognizing that it was Jango's revenge quest but I think it may also be about the nature of the mission that went against Vau's own moral code. And another question without a clear answer is, did Vau ever disobeyed Jango's order before Galidraan?

At this moment, I think it is safe to assume that Vau knowing Jango for over two decades does not automatically mean they were close to each other from the start but considering that Jango at some point shared with Walon personal matters like childhood trauma (more details in previous part), he was no stranger either. However Jango being the Mandalore does not make him "moral authority" in Walon's eyes (the way Jaster was, maybe?) who could and in fact refused to follow orders if he did consider them unlawful. Young Jango on another hand was more concerned with his personal quest (revenge) than morality of his action and may have taken a contract that Jaster himself wouldn't. What could lead to some tension between those two, but as Galidraan and its dire consequences will shown, the potential personal conflict between Vau and Fett did not set them apart.

Next part: Galidraan and its consequences

[rocketsagan-blog]

The Murderbot Series - A Review

Or, why you too will love Murderbot.

This post will be covering themes and ideas from All Systems Red to System Collapse - BUT this will not spoiler-ize any particular book, just discuss some of the things and stuff.

About a year ago, I realized a couple of things which I hadn't had words for before (Thanks Internet!)

Emotions are hard to understand (because I'm autistic)

Body stuff is weird and often stupid (because maybe my gender is like a blob blur thing and chronic pain makes body detachment easier)

Communication is a nightmare (because see point one and two)

And that is about when I found the Murderbot Diaries.

Murderbot is not a person. But also, Murderbot is our very personable guide in a universe that is often unforgiving, very corporate, and usually dangerous. From my perspective (as a weird blob thing with feelings that make no sense, surrounded by people trying to tell me things that make event less sense), I kind of get where Murderbot is coming from.

The format of the series is also a treasure - short novellas is the backbone of the plot, which really helps with focus and drive to finish. One giant tome can feel overwhelming, but a whole bunch of 200 page little adventures? Heck yes.

Murderbot is cooler and snarkier than I ever can be, which makes me sad, but I can live with getting this guided tour of Murderbot's universe and perspective, as well as the bits of hope that get to shine through the pervasive future-capitalism is lovely. Maybe hiding in media and avoiding eye contact is totally cool if I can focus on the good in helping others sometimes.

10/10 - nab the first two books on your wait list, and enjoy the ride.

[mountrainiernps]

Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo courtesy Val Lou of the Longmire Library in 1990s.

Most of the buildings in Longmire are excellent examples of the “National Park Service Rustic” style of architecture, which utilizes local materials like wood and stone to match the buildings to their environment. However, the Longmire Library predates the NPS Rustic style and serves as an example of an early, pre-NPS government building. The Longmire Library, completed in 1910, is the oldest government-built structure in Longmire. It features a steeply-pitched cedar shingle roof to shed snow and rough lapped Douglas-fir siding.

It first served as a community kitchen before becoming a library in the 1920s. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was a branch of the Pierce County library system. Afterwards, the building served other purposes, such as a clubhouse for the Youth Conservation Corps. After its renovation in 1981, the building resumed its role as the park library where staff research the park's history and resources.

NPS Photos of the Longmire Library in winter in 2012 (left) and in summer in 2022 (right).

The Longmire Library is a contributing structure in the Mount Rainier Historic Landmark District and one of the stops along the Historic Longmire Walking Tour. Stop in the Longmire Museum for a map of the walking tour or use the NPS App to follow the self-guided tour the next time you are in Longmire.

[princetonuniversitypress]

Molds, Mushrooms, and Medicines

This is the story of the human relationship with the fungi, from the billions of yeasts that live in the digestive system and cover our skin, to the fungi that we use as food and to produce medicines, and our dependence on mushroom colonies that sustain forests. Nicholas Money takes readers on a guided tour of a marvelous unseen realm, describing the continuous conversation between our immune systems and the teeming mycobiome inside the body, and how we can fall prey to life-threatening infections when this peaceful coexistence is disrupted. He also explores our complicated relationship with fungi outside the body, from wild mushrooms and cultivated molds that have been staples of the human diet for millennia to the controversial experimentation with magic mushrooms in the treatment of depression.

What is the big idea behind your book?

NPM: The big idea is that we are affected by fungi throughout our lives, from our fetal life in the womb, to birth, childhood, adulthood, and at the end of life. Fungi affect our bodies after death too, when their colonies participate in the decomposition of the solid tissues in the soil. The fungi are with us at every moment, in an intimate fashion as they reproduce on the skin and in the digestive system, and in an extended way when we use them as a source of food and medicines. This is an ancient relationship that has changed during our evolutionary history and intensified when we developed agricultural practices and, most recently, as we have adopted fungi in biotechnology. Our interactions with the fungi go even further when we think about our dependence on their ecological activities, including the roles of the fungi in fertilizing soils, purifying water, and supporting plants by forming mycorrhizas with their roots. I wanted to tell the whole story in this book, which has captivated me since I began working on the fungi as a graduate student in the 1980s. It is easy to dismiss the fungi as the stuff of fairy tales, but there is so much more to the deep relationship between humans and fungi. 

What is one of the features of the book that you think will surprise readers?

NPM: The fast pace of discovery in medical mycology is really inspiring. Earlier generations of mycologists misunderstood the fungi that they found on the body, regarding most of them as germs that damaged hospital patients and overlooking the significance of the yeasts growing peacefully on everyone else. Even when molecular genetic techniques began to reveal the incredible diversity and number of microbes in the gut, the fungi were missed because the methods were limited to identifying the DNA sequences of bacteria. This picture is changing at last, and new investigative methods are exposing the yeasts and molds multiplying from scalp to toes on the outside of the body and from mouth to anus on the inside. As this examination of the fungi has proceeded, the vision of the microbiome as a mostly bacterial territory has shifted to an appreciation of the diverse communities of fungi that fight and cooperate with bacteria through webs of chemical interactions to make a living on the body.  Through these innovations we are beginning to fathom the extraordinary influence of the mycobiome on our health and well-being.

“Appreciating the fungi … can begin with something as simple as looking at a mushroom—this beautiful oddity of nature—or inhaling the wondrous scent of a handful of rotting pine needles. There is so much beauty in this orgy of decomposition.”

What did you find most surprising when you were researching the subject of the mycobiome (the fungal part of the microbiome)?

NPM: The size of fungal cells is an esoteric detail with huge consequences. Billions of fungi, mostly yeasts, live in the gut alongside trillions of bacteria. These gut fungi weigh no more than a raisin, but their combined surface area is equivalent to an eight-person dining table. This huge area of fungal cell wall material is moving through the digestive system all the time, which may explain how the fungi punch above their weight in their effects on our health. Recent research has shown that yeasts and molds are associated with a range of illnesses in the gut ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to colorectal cancer. Although it is difficult to distinguish between cause and effect when we find changes in the numbers and types of fungi in these illnesses, some specialists are convinced that the fungi are a missing link in medicine. 

What concerns you most about the future of our relationships with the fungi?

NPM: The ecological importance of the fungi, including their role in supporting plant growth and their efficiency as decomposers has led popularizers of mycology to suggest that fungi can restore logged forests, clean water polluted by oil spills, and even break down radioactive waste. These claims are unfounded, but they have convinced many young people that there are relatively simple remedies for the human impact on the biosphere. The actions of the fungi are amazing, but they will not save us from ourselves. In a similar vein, many of the assertions about the medicinal properties of mushrooms are absurd. Mycology is a field that has attracted a lot of wishful thinking, but I have always believed that the facts about the biology of the fungi are far more interesting than the fiction. This book sets the record straight.

Did anything make you laugh as you worked on this book project?

NPM: There is great humor in some of the pronouncements made by the more colorful figures who have promoted mycology in the last century. For example, Terence McKenna, who took “heroic doses” of drugs in the 1970s, declared that the psilocybin molecule found in magic mushrooms was so unusual that it must have originated elsewhere in the galaxy. He went on to postulate that psilocybin mushrooms were a higher form of intelligence that had arrived from outer space and shaped the evolution of the human brain. Although he faces some stiff competition, McKenna’s alien mushroom theory is one of the least enlightening things ever written about fungi. When you have made the scientific study of mycology your life’s work, as I have done, it impossible to treat anyone who takes an idea like this seriously as anything but a buffoon.

What is one of the questions that continues to puzzle researchers about the fungi?

NPM: Despite decades of research, we are a long way from understanding why only a few hundred of the hundreds of thousands of species of fungi damage our tissues. There are some clues. These include the way that some fungi can evade the body’s defenses by hiding inside the cells of the immune system until they find themselves inside the central nervous system. This is known as the Trojan Horse strategy and allows these microbes to reach the brain and cause mayhem. On the other hand, pathogenic fungi are not attacking us in any deliberate fashion, because the body is a dead end for them. Unlike viruses, fungi get stuck in our tissues and cannot get out. Some investigators are convinced that coping with the warmth of the body is a big part of the explanation for fungal virulence, but this mild thermotolerance is probably inconsequential. Tens of thousands of fungi that live in the soil can grow at our body temperature and never cause disease. The difference lies in the chemical conversations between the body and the microbes that cause problems, which explains why damage to the immune system makes us so vulnerable to fungal infections.     

“Life without fungi is impossible. There are as many of them living on the human body as there are stars in the Milky Way and, more importantly, they have a far greater influence on our lives than all but one of these galactic incinerators. They are everywhere and will outlive us by an eternity: in myco speramus.”

Nicholas P. Money is professor of biology at Miami University in Ohio and the author of many books on fungi and other microbes, including The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization, Mushrooms: A Natural and Cultural History, and Microbiology: A Very Short Introduction.