#action or something else that the government doesn’t want the average person focused on

[cinematicbookworm]

Man the average right leaning person really is just the most gullable people like shit some times I forget how stupid some people can be and then they open their mouths and start talking about aliens and demons on planes after watching some video online of some lady going crazy on a plane talking bout a passenger being not real like the woman was probably haveing a mental break and y’all are really out here talking bout demonic fucking possession of the person who is being screamed at by someone clearly having a break from reality shits crazy

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - The Eye of Pincosta

So this is an episode that really didn’t need to exist, and I say that as a Styalan defender. The writers took a perfect opportunity have the characters actually learn and grown and bypass it all for a contrived performative fake out redemption. 

Summary:  The group arrive in the town of Pincosta, but Eugene is immediately thrown in jail for having previously stolen the town's largest diamond, the Eye of Pincosta. The sheriff declares Eugene to work in the deadly copper mines and soon the rest of the group are thrown in jail. Rapunzel negotiates with the sheriff, offering to find and retrieve the Eye of Pincosta in exchange for Eugene and the group's release. The sheriff agrees, but on the condition that Rapunzel returns in two days. Rapunzel confronts Eugene about the theft and reluctantly, Eugene reveals he previously worked together with Stalyan, forcing Rapunzel to seek out Stalyan and persuades her to help.

So Why Didn’t Eugene Just Stay Behind With the Caravan?

Like it doesn’t take all six of you to buy and carry food back to the caravan; which they don’t take into the town anyways. Especially when you have two horses you can use. So why bring Eugene along when you know he could be arrested? 

Pointing Out the Flaw In Your Writing Doesn’t Make It Any Less of a Flaw

No seriously, why didn’t he stay with the caravan? You need someone to watch over your stuff anyways if your going to leave it behind and Eugene is the perfect candidate for that. And even if you did need everyone to stick together, which you don’t, then bring the camper with you and let Eugene ride inside of it unseen. It’s not like the towns roads are too small for it or anything and it’ll save you from having to carry your stuff. 

If you have to turn your characters into sudden idiots for no discernible reason to make your plot happen then you haven’t a good plot. Start over and come up with something else. Like maybe have Eugene not realize that he is wanted here because it was so long ago or have the guards randomly check their caravan where he’s hiding out because Styalan’s back into town, or something. Anything so long as it doesn’t make the mains stupid. 

You’re Literally The Princess of Powerful Kingdom; Use That! 

Ok, from what background info we get here, Pincosta isn’t even a fully fledged kingdom. It’s a hamlet, which is smaller than even a village. We get no indication what ‘land’ it belongs to, but it shares a kingdom with the larger town of Zulberg, which is one of the running gags in the first half of the episode. 

What all this means is that Rapunzel is still the most powerful person in the room. She’s the heir apparent to the throne of a prosperous kingdom that has ties with a large trading network with bunch of other power kingdoms. Locking up her boyfriend and the future prince consort of said kingdom can be perceived as an act of war. 

The series is trying to lead into Rapunzel becoming queen, but that means she needs to take advantage of her position and perform queenly like tasks. Like negotiating international incidents like this one, and simply complying to the city’s laws as if she was some random traveler doesn’t cut it. 

Oh, So Now You Care!

Rapunzel, where the fuck do you think that prison barge was heading to just two episodes back? The same prison barge that your friend Attila was being threatened with. The same prison barge that victims of Corona’s corrupt justice system, like say Varian, are threatened with on top of the inhumane conditions of those dungeon cells that you locked your two best friends in back in season one. 

Do not tell me Rapunzel is some kind and caring person if she only gives a damn about unjust treatment when it only affects her or someone she already cares about.     

This Is Stealing Agency Away From Eugene 

Rapunzel is not the one responsible for Eugene’s mistakes. She can help to some degree, like using her political power to pull some strings, but she doesn’t need to be the one to make reparations for his actions; that’s on him. 

Or rather it should be on him. This should be his episode. The one where he grows as a person as he makes up for past deeds. Because redemption isn’t just about never doing bad things again, it’s also about making amends for what you did wrong. 

That’s where this series fails and why the whole ‘It’s Rapunzel’s Story’ mantra is hollow. For starters it’s not just Rapunzel’s story. The series isn’t structured to be that way because it’s based off of a movie with two protagonists. It’s Eugene’s story as well. It’s also Cassandra’s and Varian’s story because as the main antagonists they further the conflict. 

But it also fails because Rapunzel is just thrown into other people’s stories instead of being given her own. Rapunzel never learns anything from this adventure. Stalyan does, and Stalyan is never seen again after this episode. Having Rapunzel teach other random people lessons is counterintuitive to what the series wants to be. If it’s meant to be a coming of age story where Rapunzel learns about the real world, then she can’t be automatically in the right every episode.   

Well Ain’t That Convenient  

So Stalyan is needed to find this diamond that she and Eugene stole in order to free Eugene. Yet it’s never stated how Rapunzel finds Stalyan, especially so quickly. Last we saw her she had just left Varados and that was months ago. She could have been anywhere by this time. 

So why is she near the same town where she’d still be wanted for arrest at? Where’s a her dad, who was dying from poison when we last saw him? What has she been up to? How did Rapunzel even know she was here? 

Like you need to establish crap like this, otherwise it’s just a major plot hole. 

So Why Stalyan? 

This episode could have gone to just about anybody. Eugene, Lance, Lady Caine, fucking Shorty... Like I’d even take Hookfoot over this. He’s at least there for more than two episodes. 

So why Stalyan? Why does she get a focus episode when we’ll never see her again? How come she’s ‘redeemed’ but not any of the other criminals on the prison barge? Like the series wants to act as if Rapunzel is this really forgiving person who believes in second chances but only four villains out of twenty get redemptions. 4 out of 20! What makes Stalyan so special that she gets to be one of those few select four and not say Lady Caine, Dwayne, or Andrew and the Saporians? 

This Should Have Been a Lance and Rapunzel Team Up Instead

Keep in mind when I say this episode could have focused on anybody, I do mean it. You get creative enough this initial setup could have featured any two characters you wanted interacting. Lance and Eugene, Eugene and Rapunzel, Eugene and Stalyan, Eugene and Cassandra, Lance and Cassandra or maybe even Caine and Rapunzel, and reveal how Eugene knew Caine back in the pilot episode. Like there’s a lot of possibilities here. 

For my money though, this should have been a Lance and Rapunzel episode. Because we don’t get any Lance and Rapunzel episodes. We don't even get any Lance episodes after his introduction. All his development, what little there is, is shoved into the b-plot of other characters’ focus episodes. He also barely interacts with the series main character despite being her boyfriend’s BFF and living with her on the road for year. That’s ridiculous. 

All you needed to do was make Lance Eugene’s partner and have Lance make up for his past deeds to try and free his friends. Boom! 

Why Didn’t You Bring Anything With You Raps?

We see at the end that the caravan was parked outside of town this whole time. She still has the key to get out any money that she needed, the pick of two horses that can’t fit inside of a cell anyways, and oh yeah probably a canteen to use.

Furthermore, she’s a fucking princess!!! She’s has credit and clout and can just get whatever she damn near wants just by asking; because she’s not your average person on the street like us. 

I’m not going to feel sorry for the main protagonist when the main protagonist is an idiot who does these things to herself and makes life harder for everyone needlessly.  

Rapunzel Has a Stunted Grasp of Ethics 

Stalyan’s not wrong here. Unless you have an alternative, like your own horse or money to buy horses, that you decided to leave behind as well for some undefined reason, then yeah, you needed horses. Your friends lives are at stake woman! 

I touched on this back in my TAR review, but the show leans heavily into authoritarian beliefs because it provides childish lessons for adult situations.  

‘Stealing is always wrong no matter what’ is the thought process of a child. It does not take into account how systems of governments can stack the deck against certain groups of people, nor how sometimes emergencies come up and you got to deal them in the moment and make amends later. 

And you know what, I’m not taking ‘it’s a show for kids’ as an excuse here. Children shows very much can introduce comlex themes and grey morals and plenty already have. If you make classism a major theme of your story then you need to actually address it, and that starts by having your main character acknowledge it. 

This could have been the perfect opportunity for Rapunzel to grow. Up till now she’s always had her physical needs provided for her. Since her escape from the tower she’s also been thoroughly spoiled. Have her come down off her high horse and see how the other half lives. See first hand what Eugene and the pub thugs had to do to survive before they met her.      

Have her things actually be confiscated. Have her princess title mean nothing cause no one knows her or believes her. Have Corona not recognized in this part of the world. You want to be the underdog then make her an actual underdog and have her learn from it.  

Because Rapunzel having the moral outlook of child makes sense given her backstory, but she can’t stay that way. We all have to grow up sometime, we all have to learn the harsher truths of this world, and this is suppose to be a coming of age story. 

So How Does Stalyan Know Where the Eye Is But Not Eugene?

If Eugene is the one who lost it, then how come he didn’t know where it was at? Why couldn’t he just have told Rapunzel all of this and left Staylan out of the picture? Also how do you know if Goodberry even still has it if it’s been years ago? How do you know where Goodberry is? It’s awfully convenient that he never moved in all that time and that he’s so close to the town of Pincosta. 

Once again, plot holes. 

Stalyan is a Poor Man’s Sadira

So for those of you who aren’t 90s kids like myself, Sadira is a villian from the Aladdin tv series. She’s basically Stalyan but done better. 

Things they have in common 

their goals are to marry the main hero, who are ex-thieves

both are jealous of the main heroines who are princesses 

both are thieves themselves and have lived their whole lives as such 

both believe they belong with the hero because they come from a common background 

both resort to dubious means to win the heart of the hero

both try to get rid of the heroines but never resort to killing them out right 

both are redeemed and eventually befriends the princesses 

You know what the difference between the two of them is? 

Sadira is actions are actually worse than Staylan’s but she’s given enough screen time and focus to come across as sympathetic to the audience. 

I’m serious. Stalyan is an ex who was left at the altar by her douchey boyfriend, but their relationship was so toxic that she can’t understand that she’s actually better off without him nor accept that he left her for someone else. So she tries manipulating him into coming back to her, while her dad does some messed up blackmail and poisoning that she didn’t agree to but went along with anyways. 

Meanwhile Sadria is a straight up stalker. She doesn’t even meet Aladdin until after the events of the first film, and he makes it clear to her from the get go that he’s in a committed relationship with someone else and isn’t interested in her. But Sadria tries episode after episode to ‘win’ him resorting to mindwipes, kidnapping, and even alternating reality. 

But we actually see things from Sadria’s perspective. It’s made clear that she has no one and nothing. Aladdin is the first person to show her kindness and so she latches onto him. Sure it’s unhealthy and the series calls it out as such, but by the time she has acknowledged this and befriends Jasmine the audience now understands her and feels sympathy for her.   

We get no such focus for Stalyan. Not even in her redemption episode. We still don't know why she wants to be with Eugene after he’s treated her so badly. We still don't have any clue what their relationship was like before the breakup, or even when the breakup happened. (I still think it was during the events of the movie and that he left her for Rapunzel, but it’s left open) It’s hard to relate to or feel sorry for Stakyan when we know nothing about her and haven’t seen this ‘good side’ Rapunzel keeps talking about for ourselves. 

Even though theoretically she should be very sympathetic because of the way Eugene treated her, and because her actions thus far are relatively tame compared to most of the villains in the show. 

Just Because Other Places in the World Are As Bad as Corona, Doesn’t Mean That Frederic Is Excused For His Behavior 

This show thinks it’s a okay to introduce horrible crap so long as it’s done in a comedic way and not focused on, but this isn’t The Office. You can’t use a corrupt legal system and authoritarians abusing their power as the crux of your main conflict in season one and then expect us to just laugh off jokes like this one. Or the one about tailor getting locked up for ripping Frederic’s robe. Or find young Lance trapped in a cell with Shorty being fed gruel as funny. 

Like, even if you do laugh at these jokes at first in the moment, once you stop to think about them, it just shows how awful Frederic and Rapunzel are, how awful the system is, and that change needs to happen. But it can’t happen if Rapunzel and the show doesn’t acknowledge that such things are wrong. That they are more than jokes. 

The serious story that the writers want to tell is undermined by the comedy, and the comedic moments are undermined by the existence of the more serious drama.   

So is this a sitcom or a drama? It can’t be both, not when dealing with such high stakes. 

Sitcoms work because they’re low stakes. Few characters are affected and most situations aren’t life and death. Even in dark comedies where death is often the joke, it’s because death is seen as unimportant, something to be casted aside, and it’s funny because it’s disrespectful. But the moment you call to attention just how messed up everything really is, and how awful death can be, then it’s suddenly no longer funny. Especially if it’s innocents who are getting hurt. Dark comedies also work because it’s often computuance for characters who are awful people. 

That’s not what TTS is, so it’s attempts at being like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Rick and Morty just doesn’t work and comes across as tone deaf. 

Also why are the dang horses in the cell with the humans? They’re horses! 

So What Exactly Is Stalyan’s Plan Here?

No seriously, what is her thought processes here? The audience isn’t mind readers. We need know why the characters do the things they do. 

Why is Stalyan still hung up on Eugene? Why does Stalyan think he’ll take her back if she shows up to free him without Rapunzel? What is she going to say when he asks about Raps and why would he even believe her to begin with? 

What does ‘A thief belongs with a thief’ even mean!!? We have no context for this cause we have no context for their relationship! 

This episode could have provided us with some context, some cule of why Stalyan and Eugene were together for so long, why they broke up, why she still wants to be with him, why she thinks he’ll return to her even now, but nope! We gotta have a stupid parody wrestling match.  

Oh joy. 

This Is a Guilt Trip, Not a Redemption 

Rapunzel is full of shit. 

If she honestly believed that there was ‘good in everybody’ then why did she send Caine off on the prison barge without even trying to relate to her? Why didn’t she try to befriend Weasel instead of fighting him off? Why is Varian currently sitting in a jail cell right now!!!  

Here’s why Stalyan was ‘redeemed’ and not the others. 

Rapunzel needed something from her. 

Rapunzel guilt trips, manipulates, and coerces Stalyan into helping her. She doesn’t actually give a damn about whether or not Stalyan ‘does the right thing’ so long as she gets what she wants; Eugene’s freedom and his heart.

Sure Stalyan probably should turn away from her life of crime. She should let go of her obsession with Eugene. She should return the eye that she stole and start making up for her past. But you know what? 

None of those things have anything to do with Rapunzel! 

Stalyan needs to come to those decisions herself in order for this to be a proper redemption. If Rapunzel is involved in any of that then it can’t be with the condition that she’s gaining something from it. It’s not true compassion if you have an ulterior motive for what you do.   

This Confession Might Actually Have Meant Something If We Had Any Actual Context! 

This doesn’t tell me anything. 

Why would Stalyan only see ‘a thief’? She loved him enough to want to marry him and has known him for years. Sure she may have accepted that he was a thief, encouraged it even, but there’s got to be other reasons why she dated him. Other reasons for why she wanted him back. 

Also why does this come back to Rapunzel specifically? Is she the reason why he left Staylan at the altar? And even so, why is that a reason to give Eugene a free pass? Is it just because she’s the protag and now they’re friends suddenly? 

In fact if you are friends now, then Rapunzel deserves to know the truth of who she plans on marrying and come to the decision if he’s worth it. If he really has changed, not just in terms of being an ex-thief but also in how he handles relationships. 

We the audience deserve to know too. 

Redemption Shouldn’t be Tied to Friendship With Rapunzel 

Eugene becoming inspired to be a better person because he fell in love with someone is one thing. Rapunzel only forgiving people because they’ll befriend her is entirely another. Especially when two of the main villains become villains after they stop being friends with her. 

It sends out a really gross message of favoritism and not letting go of toxic relationships, while also placing Rapunzel too high upon a pedestal.   

Rapunzel Can’t Forgive Stalyan In Eugene’s Place 

I’d be pretty upset if my current spouse just said that my abusive ex ‘was not that bad’.

Like, fuck both of you. 

And yes, I did defend Stalyan in Beyond the Corona Walls, and I did say that we didn’t have enough context to claim she was abusive when they were in a relationship. After the breakup tho? Yeah, yeah she was abusive then. You don't have to be in a relationship in order to bully someone; you just have to have power over them. 

Stalyan hurt Eugene, not Rapunzel. That’s why any redemption with her needed to be with him. They both needed to make amends, forgive each other, and move on. 

This isn’t Rapunzel’s show. 

If the creator wanted it to be her show then he shouldn’t have introduced conflicts that don’t actually involve her, nor characters with higher stakes then her. 

This Doesn’t Feel Earned, and So the Audience Feels Cheated 

And so Stalyan rides off into the sunset rich to live happily ever after presumably as a thief still, and no one gave a shit.  

No one was asking for this. No one cared about Stalyan. Worse the writer failed to make us care. Ergo this whole episode feels like a waste and it is. 

Conclusion 

Much like the rest of season two this is pure filler, and not even good fun filler; like with the mermaid episode or the pirate episode. Worse it’s very existence actually diminishes Rapunzel as a character rather than build her up. So it fails in its sole purpose as a story. 

[wrongfullythinking]

Science and Data and Freedoms

There are millions of these rants around, so you are under no need to read mine.  In fact, what I am about to say here should not be taken as anything more than one person’s opinion.  OPINION.  I have several qualifications (I will get to those in a second), but still, this blog is primarily concerned with, as the title suggest, wrong thought.  And yes, thoughts can be flat-out wrong, but that’s another topic for another time, yes?  I primarily abandoned this blog when tumblr decided to advocate for censorship, and well, if you don’t think that was very bad thinking, then I can’t help you and you certainly should stop reading now.  But mostly, I find myself needing a little bit of a platform to rant, so here it is.  This is not for you.  This is for me.  But maybe, if you read it, and you learn something, then it was a little bit more than that, and that’s entirely unnecessary but I’ll be fine with it.  Don’t worry, I’ll keep it a secret.

My qualifications 1) I have a Ph.D. from a major research institution in America.  What that means, most importantly, is actual training in how to read and understand academic writing. 2) I teach statistics, among other things, and I teach in a public health college at another major research institution in America. 3) I work with epidemiologists, though I don’t claim that title myself (I describe myself a psychometrician with an expertise in educational measurement), and I am currently working on several projects using epidemiological methods. 4) A portion of my work in educational measurement focuses on critical thinking, particularly the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Premises So, let’s organize this in a logical manner.  To do so, we generally start with a series of premises.  Here are some of mine. 1) Most people are afraid of dying. 2) The fear of dying plays some part in how people live their lives. 3) People are willing to make some tradeoffs between Safety and Liberty. 4) There is an inverse relationship between Safety and Liberty.  The more liberty, the less safety.  This is only a unidirectional inverse relationship (as liberty ascends, safety decreases), and NOT true in the opposite direction (as safety ascends, liberty must decrease).  This is VERY IMPORTANT. 5) People are poor estimators of their own odds of death, and especially how certain events (say, getting drunk at a party or smoking a hallucinogenic drug or driving recklessly) contribute to their risk of death. 6) There is much unknown about the “novel coronavirus” or SARS-COV_2 or Covid-19 (use whatever term you are comfortable with, the distinction between all of these is arbitrary and unimportant... the root of communication is exchange of messaging between two parties, and all these terms work fine in most cases, since we’re hardly in a lab where it is very important to separate out disease, virus, symptoms, and classifications). 7) Action has been taken by governments and individuals exceeding their statutory authorities. 8) Some of the actions taken by governments and individuals makes no difference in the ability of people to live disease-free, but does have other impacts. 9) The “other impacts” in Premise 8 can directly cause loss of life, as well as other ramifications (lack of social mobility, inability to secure safe food supplies, increase in spousal/partner/child abuse, lack of ability to achieve an education, etc.) that have social and personal consequences for potentially many years, if not generations.  This is the most controversial premise, because it has a tendency to operate on some slippery-slope type logic, which is exactly what I am going to rant against in a second.  Be wary of this one!  But it is important too.

Statistical Problem #1: Never Believe a Point Estimate If you take (my) Stats101 class, and hopefully anybody else’s similar course, one thing that should be a key takeaway is “NEVER BELIEVE A POINT ESTIMATE.”  That’s huge.  Never.  Believe.  A.  Point.  Estimate.

So, for the people who haven’t had a Stats class recently, what is a point estimate?

When you see something like “an estimated 2.2 million Americans will die from the coronavirus if action is not taken,” that “2.2 million” is a point estimate.  It is a single point.  And point estimates are a hallmark of bad reporting of often bad science.  In statistics, any time we make an estimate, we generate a confidence interval: that is, the range around which we believe that estimate to be actually correct.  This is because we don’t measure everybody; we measure a small sample, and use math to make estimates.  Since we didn’t measure everybody, there is some degree of uncertainty, and so we calculate a range that we think is very likely to contain the actual number.  This is called a confidence interval.  The wider the confidence interval, the LESS confident you are.  The narrower the confidence interval, the more confident you are.

An example.  The New York Yankees hit 306 home runs last year, and had 5561 at-bats over 162 games, meaning they hit a home run about once every 20 at-bats.  Let’s say I believe the season will be cut in half (so, 81 games instead of 162).  So, I want to know how many home runs the Yankees will hit in this shortened season.  Let’s work through several examples.

The worst example (okay, not actually the absolute worst, because I could just guess, but pretty bad). In half the games, the Yankees will hit half the home runs.  So that’s 306/2, so that’s 153.

Here’s another BAD example, but it does look legit, doesn’t it? Half of 162 is 81.  So in half the games, they will have half the at-bats, so that’s 2780.5 at-bats.  They hit a home run previously in 5.5026% of their at-bats, and 5.5062% of 2780.5 is 153.  The Yankees will hit 153 home runs next year.

A much better example The Yankees averaged 1.8888 home runs a game (306 / 162) last season.  If we take the low-end of 1.5 home runs per game (or three home runs every two games), and a high end of 2.25 home runs per game (or 9 home runs every 4 games), we expect the Yankees to hit between 121.5 and 182.25 home runs in the shortened 81 game season.

Is there a perfect example? No.  This is a great question.  Introductory statistics students will start to add all sorts of great considerations to this question: in the shortened season, won’t pitchers have less time to get warmed up, so home runs will go up?  But the same is true for batters, so home runs might go down?  If the shortened season starts later, and is played in more colder weather, are there fewer home runs?  How did the Yankees roster change?  Are they playing against more fly-ball or ground-ball pitchers?  Who changed in the rotations of the teams they will play most?  Will the rule change about facing three batters or the end of an inning increase the amount of home runs?  What about conditioning of athletes who are homebound?  No statistical estimate can take into account all factors.  And we don’t try to.  We just play the games and then call it history. So, what are the problems with the “much better example” besides not adding in all those other things? There is nothing wrong with it, it is just not very precise.  A range between 121.5 and 182.25 is more than 60, which is basically half of the low-end.  We could be like, 50% wrong from our low end and still be in the range!  That’s not very precise!

So, what does this have to do with the current issues? Mostly, I want you to very carefully consider any number you hear without a confidence interval.  If you hear a number like “2.2 million,” realize that without a stated confidence interval, the interval could be ANYTHING.  Something like, oh, I don’t know... 2.199 million.  Yep.  In other words, the only thing you could take away from that number is “anywhere between 1 person and 5 million people.  And how much are you willing to give up for that particular risk?

Statistical Problem #2: Confidence Intervals WITHIN models So, to this point, hopefully I’ve described all the things that can go wrong if you don’t use a confidence interval in your ANSWER.  But what about in the MODEL (or the prediction) itself?  Let’s say that, in the above example, we wanted to know how many home runs the Yankees will hit, and we know that MLB will shorten the season.  But we don’t know by how much.

So, let’s say that I estimate the season will be between 60 and 100 games.  That’s a pretty big margin.  Using my earlier estimates, now my confidence interval expands again: 1.5 x 60 for the low end is only 90 home runs, and 2.25 x 100 is 225 home runs!  Now my range is [60:225].  That is VERY imprecise!

The important part is that this problem compounds each time we don’t know something.  You get a wider and wider range, the less you know.  So, the more you want to put into a formula, the more you need to know... and the less you know, the wider your estimate.

Statistical Problem #3: The Missing Denominator None of the math here is particularly difficult, especially with the aid of computers and a bit of training.  So, if somebody is presenting it to you like it is super complex, think of them like a stage magician: distract, watch the glitter, and you will never notice my hand pulling the pigeon out of my coat pocket and putting it into my hat.

So, what have models been hiding from you?

The big missing piece is the denominator, or in this case, “how many people have the virus.”  That’s a VERY important number.  We need several things to build an epidemiological model, and without even an estimate of “how many people have it,” then all the rest of this is pretty much pointless.  This is because “how many people have it” is needed for at least the following: 1) Transmission Rate 2) Infection Rate 3) Fatality Rate

Luckily... we’re actually getting close to having that number!  Or at least, a confidence interval for that number.

Understanding recent data

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463v1.full.pdf

Basically, that paper says that in one county with a lot of cases, they estimate there are somewhere between 2.49% and 4.16% of the population infected, and they wouldn’t be surprised if those numbers are between 1.80% and 5.70%.  There are about 1.93 MILLION people in Santa Clara county.  1,930,000, and between 2.49 and 4.16 are ALREADY infected. So, let’s math that out, and I’m using their narrower confidence interval here.

Low End (2.49%): 48057 already infected High End (4.16): 80288 already infected.

So, now we have an actual denominator!  Or at least, RANGES of one.  They’re pretty confident the actual number is somewhere between those.

The date is important here.  The data here is April 1.  That range (48000-80000) the number of infected people as of April 1.  As of April 17th (over two weeks later), Santa Clara had reported 73 deaths.  63 of those had one comorbidity, and only 5 had no comorbidities.  Here’s the source.

https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/dashboard.aspx

So, what’s the fatality rate?

LOW pop prev: No comorbidities: 5 / 48000 = .0001041666. LOW: One or no comorbidities: 68 / 48000 = .00141666 HIGH pop prev: No comorbidities: 5 / 80200 = .000062344 HIGH: One or no comorbidities: 68 / 80200 = .00084788

We’ll go broad here, and assume one comorbidity.  Hey, a lot of us have something that is an issue, right?  But let’s apply those number to the American Population of approximately 330,000,000 people.

LOW (zero or one comorbidity) pop prev: 330mil * .00141666 = 467,497.8 HIGH (zero or one comorbidity) pop prev: 330mil * .00084788 = 279,800.4

There’s your number.  WOW, you say!  Wow!  A QUARTER TO HALF A MILLION PEOPLE MIGHT DIE!  That seems shocking!

It is, super shocking.  Remember, that’s the zero-case scenario.  The scenario where we do nothing.  Worst-case.  No vaccine, no medication, no treatment, no social distancing, nada.

Oh, let’s go ahead and go over some other numbers.  Not scenarios, actual data.

Motor Vehicle Deaths (2018): 36,560 Medical Error Deaths (2011): Between 210,000 and 400,000 https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_based_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx Accidents (2017): 169,936 Diabetes (2017): 83,564 Influenza/Pneumonia (2017): 55,672 Suicide/Self-harm complications: 47,173 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

((Note, because somebody will inevitably ask: The “Death by Guns” rate is a tough one to count, because the majority of gun deaths are also suicides.  The Gun Homicide+Accident fatality rate is likely between about 10,000 and 13,000 per year (about a third of the car accident fatality rate).  If you’re interested in that number, be sure to look at the data split by category, or if you are interpreting suicides with guns in your gun death count, just be explicit about it, don’t be a pigeon-holding magician.))

Interpretation: Doing nothing at all, we would expect Covid to jump the rates of Influenza/Pneumonia deaths from 7th to 3rd in America, with somewhere between about 340,000 and 530,000 deaths.  I arrive at that number by adding 60,000 to the estimates above, for other non-Covid related Flu/Influenza deaths.  That would put Influenza/Pneumonia above the estimates of death due to medical errors, and well behind the two leading causes of death in the US (CVD and Cancer).  This is provided that there is no emergent medical option.

So, what’s the downside?  Why not do all these drastic things (like shelter-in-place orders and be forced to shut down your business) if it prevents between 1/4 and 1/2 of a million deaths? That’s a good question!  The point here is that orders have consequences, and most of them are unknown at the time of the order.  For example, let’s take a pretty simple policy: requiring every driver to car insurance.  Seems like a fundamental thing, right?  Well, now you’ve also driven the price of car ownership up.  More rural areas (which are often poorer) now have an additional cost burden, that is not shared by people who live in major cities with large public transportation networks.  And you’ve created a secondary market (insurance agents) who now have incentives to raise prices, and huge potential for collusion.  And what about people who defy that order?  Well, that’s tricky-- in some places there are additional policies for covering wrecks involving uninsured drivers, and in those places, car insurance costs more.  So you’re paying more, out of your pocket, because somebody else didn’t follow a policy.  And that means you have less money to go shopping or go out to eat, which means fewer people at stores have jobs.  All of this ties together.

So, what are the unintentional consequences of the shelter-in-place and business-shuttering orders?  The most obvious ones are the losses of income, including jobs, and the 10 million accompanying jobless claims.  But is that such a big problem?  Think about what is happening in homes without jobs... and remember, you are still legally required to pay car insurance.  So that’s the direct one.

But there are multitudes of indirect ones.  For example, this is not an academic article, but...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/03/21/coronavirus-pandemic-could-become-child-abuse-pandemic-experts-warn/2892923001/

And remember, a lot of children who are subject of abuse are from low-income families.  And what did they normally get?  Free and reduced-price lunch at schools.  Now, they aren’t getting those.  Sure, in a few places here and there, some schools are delivering similar meals.  But the vast, vast majority of elementary and high-school aged students on free/reduced lunches are not getting them.  So that leaves parents (or caretakers) to pick up the burden.  Those same parents and caretakers who are filing the 10 million unemployment claims.  Uh-oh.  Sounds stressful.

Guess what stress does to people?  It makes them sick.  And you know what happens when you get an ulcer?  Hopefully not much, but bad ones can end you up in a hospital.  Where there are many procedures, but most of them minor.  Unfortunately, hospitals right now are being forbidden from doing elective surgeries.  And elective surgeries helped pay for other services, like necessary surgeries and emergency care.  So, the ER is literally understaffed, even in regions where there are no COVID patients, because the state has forbidden the tummy tucks that pay the salaries of ER nurses.

You see the tumble here?  This is where I cautioned earlier about the slippery slope argument, and it is an absolutely valid critique of what I’m putting here.  But we’ve gone past speculation territory and are now in data territory.  And (again, work in health care education), I know some people who are starting to see these effects.  One of the faculty at my school (teaches our Law course) is a lawyer for a rural hospital service.  He has watched them lay off or furlough over 60% of workers.  And they have had... wait for it... 0 covid cases.  The few that were suspected, they flew down to a much larger hospital.  At high cost, because they can’t charge for COVID services.

Meanwhile, you’re talking a rural system that was one of the top employers in four different counties.  Laying off or furloughing 60% of workers.  The guy was so upset telling me about this that he almost cried, especially because he knew the families of so many of the people his board had just let go.

Any caveats to add? The big caveat that I place on the interpretation here (basically, that’s we’ve VASTLY oversold the risk of this thing) is that we don’t know about secondary infections.  If you can get infected twice, and that second infection is harmful or make you able to spread the disease to others who are then harmed, then all these numbers are too low. Bottom-line it for me, WT. Fear leads to the dark side, where you have no freedoms.  Don’t give up things because you were scared and because somebody showed you a point of data that you should not believe.

[discyours]

Could you make a list of ur opinions?

I can try, but I never really learned how tumblr works so I don’t know how to make this an actual page on my blog. Once I do figure out how I’ll definitely link to this. I’ll go off the top of my head for most frequently asked/what I think is most relevant, but if there’s anything you’re missing feel free to ask. 

Gender: 

Gender is, in short, the roles that are ascribed to sex. This includes the idea that anyone who is born female is bound to be docile, caring, or even just more likely to like pink. But gender identity also falls under this. Defining a woman as someone who wants to be female is referring to something - an action, a personality trait, a feeling, a thought - beyond sex as what “makes” a woman. Gender is not fake, but it is a social construct and in my opinion it’s a harmful one. Whether deliberately created to oppress women (like is the case with women being expected to be submissive) or originated as a relative accident like with certain fashion trends, gender roles end up restricting women’s freedom. Believing in female liberation means being against, or at least critical of that. 

Gender identity: 

Again, falls under gender but I think it deserves its own answer. I don’t think gender identity is necessarily “fake” either. When people say that they “feel like” a woman rather than a man I don’t think that they’re lying. I may take issue with the wording just like I may expect people to be critical of their own reasoning when they explain that their gender identity is male because the idea of being a man feels right to them whereas being a woman doesn’t, but I do understand how they feel. I relate to the feeling myself and I do think that the average trans man feels differently about this than the average cis (meaning non-trans) woman, however I’m not convinced that this feeling is rigid or innate. 

So I don’t think gender identity is “fake” or complete nonsense, but I don’t think it’s a particularly useful category either. There’s no reason I should be sharing bathrooms with people who have an internal sense that they should be male rather than female over people who lack the ability to use urinals and require trash cans to dispose of menstrual products. There’s no reason for me to share changing rooms with people with similar genderfeels rather than people who have similar bodies to mine and are statistically far less likely to sexually assault me than people with a different type of body. 

In the context of feminism we need to recognise that sex is the category in which women are being oppressed when they suffer FGM, when they’re put into menstrual huts, when they’re denied reproductive freedom, when they’re kept out of government positions because of their unreliable, hormone driven female emotions, when they’re missing out on jobs that an equally qualified man would be accepted for because their employer doesn’t want to risk having to deal with them getting pregnant. Sex, not gender identity. 

Egalitarianism: 

I actually don’t get asked about this much which is a shame because I know that people are thinking it; if it’s just about wanting women to have rights then why not be an egalitarian? Why, unless you hate men and want them to be below women rather than being equal? 

There’s multiple reasons. For one, feminism started as a women’s rights movement and women do not owe it to men to change that as soon as they decided they were done fully opposing it. There would be something inherently disgusting to me about denying women their own movement for their own issues regardless of where I stand on egalitarianism. 

But beyond that, I oppose the idea that we just draw a line at men’s current quality of life and decide that that’s the standard women must be judged against. The idea of it is misogynistic but in practice it’s harmful too; we’ve all seen those “if you want equality then women need to join the draft” and “if we’re equal then can I punch you in the face?” statements. This form of “equality” is still just letting men control the standard for women’s lives. Is still forcing women to fit into a system built by men. 

A lot of egalitarians seem hypocritically focused on equal outcome which I also disagree with. The ratio of men to women that die during physically taxing jobs is hardly any more of an issue than the ratio of men to women that die during child birth. There are biological reasons for these discrepancies (one moreso than the other, but there’s still never going to be an effective way to have a 50/50 sex split in every single job) and compensating for them for the sake of some vague concept of “equality” is pointless. The inadequacies in female-specific healthcare are a big reason to have a movement specifically for women’s rights, to have a movement that can advocate for improvement. Likewise if a lack of health and safety regulations in manual labour disproportionately affects men, that’s a good reason for a men’s rights movement to advocate for improvement (not that either of these can replace non-sexspecific advocacy groups which are also very important). I just don’t believe that women have any responsibility to merge with or be involved in men’s rights movements, considering women have historically always been oppressed by men and men still hold the majority of political as well as financial power. 

Liberal feminism: 

Liberal feminism is often what people refer to as mainstream feminism, but I don’t think it’s right to write off liberal feminism as a whole just because I disagree with the direction that mainstream feminism has gone. In simple terms liberal feminism is just feminism which seeks more individual freedom for women within the current system, whereas radical feminism is focused on class freedom and radically changing the system if not creating a new one altogether. I don’t fully disagree with liberal feminism and in fact I don’t believe any form of feminism that doesn’t at times utilise more liberal solutions has any way of succeeding. Getting more women into our current government without actually overhauling our political system and changing the reasons that women are kept out of government positions is liberal; I still only vote for women when I can, and encourage other people to do the same because when we’re unable to change things completely, it’s better than nothing. 

The reason I lean more towards radical feminism is because I ultimately don’t find liberal solutions to be good enough. I don’t want to regulate the porn industry, I want to abolish it. I don’t believe any amount of regulation or “reclamation” can ever make the sex industry ethical and while completely eradicating it is never going to happen, having that as the end goal at least means that you never stop pushing. The same thing goes for just about all other systems which oppress women; I fundamentally disagree with liberal feminists that giving individual women more individual freedom about whether or not to participate in these systems is ever going to be good enough.  

Sex work: 

I don’t believe that consuming or procuring sex work (ie being a john or a pimp) can ever be ethical as I don’t believe that consent can be bought. If somebody would not have sex with you without being paid, I don’t see that as true consent. There is something inherently coercive about having to choose between not having the money you need or having sex with someone. Coerced sex is not consensual and we all know what non-consensual sex is. 

There may be some people who don’t need the money but do it regardless because they enjoy it/want extra cash, especially in “milder” forms of sex work like camming or stripping. But the reality is that the vast majority of people (90% of prostitutes) who do “sex work” do not want to and would be doing something else if they had the option. Their suffering is more important to me than the enjoyment of the select few who do want to be “sex workers”, and that of the johns they “service”. 

That being said, I support the Nordic model which criminalises the consumption and procurement of sex work but decriminalises actually being a sex worker. This model has been shown to reduces trafficking as it reduces demand, and it doesn’t harm sex workers (who are the ones we’re trying to protect). Sidenote, I hate the term “sex work” as it already goes along with the idea that sex can ever be a job and should be held to the same standards as one when it comes to the ethics of being indirectly coerced by a need for money - however I’ll use it when I need to to explain my stance to people who do use the term. 

Surrogacy: 

I view surrogacy similarly to sex work; as an unethical and unnecessary commodification of women’s bodies which puts their health and safety at risk, and is often indirectly coerced through financial needs. Viewing parenthood as being primarily about who “claims” a newborn rather than who actually carried and gave life to it is inherently patriarchal and sets a terrifying precedent. Pregnancy puts a huge strain on women’s physical as well as mental health, and ending the process with a cheque or a sincere thank you rather than a baby can be mentally devastating, even if you knew from the start that you wouldn’t keep it. It is morally inconsistent that surrogacy is often legal in places where it’s illegal to receive money for giving away an organ or your blood; policies that are in place to avoid turning the poor into a class of kidney-suppliers. The idea of consent magically justifying everything falls way short when the same concept hasn’t been applied to blood donations for aforementioned reasons, and when you’re stuck to a contract. If we’ve agreed that consent to sex does not count if it’s irrevocable, why is surrogacy treated differently? 

Much like with sex work, the demand always far outweighs the supply which means that the few women who sincerely and genuinely want to do this don’t just justify the whole thing. I believe a system similar to the Nordic model should be in place, where there’s no legal repercussions to being a surrogate but where attempting to recruit one is illegal. 

Communism: 

I’m definitely a leftist and radical feminism itself has marxist roots. I recognise that capitalism plays quite a big role in women’s oppression through the barriers that women experience to enter many forms of paid labour, and the unpaid labour that is expected of them. Capitalism also leads to the commodification of women’s bodies through sex work or surrogacy. That being said, the inherently authoritarian nature of communism simply can’t be justified in my opinion. People who are corrupted by power exist under every system, which is why authoritarianism can never be safe regardless of the ideology it’s attached to. Even a “benevolent dictator” will die eventually if they don’t get overthrown first. 

Transmedicalism: 

I view transmedicalism as a harmful ideology. The brain sex studies transmedicalists often link are extremely flawed; incredibly small sample sizes used to draw overreaching conclusions, and a failure to account for neuroplasticity (the fact that your brain’s structure can change over time). Their insistence that transition is the only option for dysphoric people is harmful to all dysphoric/trans people, and often worsens dysphoria while also discouraging the development of alternative treatments. Their claims that all detransitioners were never really trans in the first place and every person who transitioned must’ve secretly been dysphoric regardless of their insistence otherwise are based on no actual fact, just a need for their ideology to make sense. 

[thoughtsarechanging]

2020 Democratic Presidential Debate

The 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate has just happened and in the same way as “Too Many Cooks” there were too many candidates. Of course, the majority of elections end up being forms of a popularity contest, and these debates had many nobodies that started maybe their actual campaign by being on that stage these two nights.

Going from candidate to candidate, here is my review:

JOE BIDEN-

Joe Biden, to me, was a mess on this stage. I believe he banked too much on being Former President Obama’s Vice-President for many of the questions, showing he knows he hasn't been that popular with many of the marginalized groups in America. Due to the segregationalist comments he made and the accusations of sexual assault, that did not help Biden's cause either, and at the end of the day, he was just really messy.

BERNIE SANDERS-

I definitely felt some Bern that night as he came talking about taxing the middle class and helping with Medicare. Many of his proposals were very outlandish and I have noticed that Bernie more often than not will repeat one phrase instead of elaborating on the fact, such as when his answer to “If there was no Roe v. Wade, how will people get access to birth control?” His answer was to repeat “Medicare for all.” but maybe I was missing something.

ELIZABETH WARREN-

She was amazing and prepared the entire debate. She had a plan for everything and it was beautiful to watch her explain what she was going to do in the time given without rarely going over time. I found it important that she addressed big corporations and how they only care about making a profit, not about the well being of their workers. Her plan to tax the ultra-rich also seems less dangerous than Bernies plan to tax the middle class and up, as the ultra-rich have more money to spare it feels like. She also believes in giving up her private insurance, which felt like a way of connecting to the lower class, which is always important

PETE BUTTIGIEG-

Personally, I believe the man is adorable and was expecting him to speak one of his seven languages on the stage, but it instead ended with a short response in Spanish prompted by the mediator. Mayor Pete had some many key points that also gave me insight into my own beliefs. I felt that he was qualified to answer many of these questions, coming from a military background as well as facing flooding and police brutality in his own city. He talked about gun control and how average Americans have access to military grade weapons as well as how to combat climate change, as his city was hit by two records breaking flooding. The true issue came when he was questioned about the shooting of Eric Logan in his city under his control. I felt the answer of “too much accountability,” and “ I wasn't able to pick a side yet,” weren't good enough questions. Many of the other candidates also gave him ideas of what he SHOULD HAVE done, such as firing the sheriff. Police brutality is a giant issue that we are facing in America today and for the Mayor to say that she just didn't have the time to fix it or that he couldn't do anything made me feel as if e was detached from the issue and that he will never really understand the severity of his actions of the issue black Americans are truly facing.

KAMALA HARRIS-

She absolutely killed it at the debates, no cap. She talked about getting rid of the tax bill, which I completely support, as well as calling the issue of climate change a “climate crisis.” She said she wants to end the detention camps, fight for DACA, reenter the Paris Agreement, and to tackle gun control, as well as giving congress ultimatums, or else facing an executive order. When arguing with Biden over his separationist comments, she mentioned how she one of the black girls that came into segregated schools after Brown v. Board, which was heartfelt and it was amazing learning about that experience and how close Biden's words came to the American heart. All of these points she made were incredible and well throughout, and I agreed with each and every one of them. However, as prompted by Joe Biden, Kamala is in the fact “police,” and has had a difficult relationship with black Americans in California during her time as a prosecutor. She has been known for being internally racist and has put more black people in jail or have threatened them with jail time during her reign, which is something we don't need in the White House. The times where she threatened to send parents to jail if their child missed extended periods of school is extrememly daunting and something that disgusted me.

BETO O’ROURKE-

Named “bby” in my notes, I hate to say he made a fool of himself on the stage. I have been following him on his heel since the Senate race in 2018, and I felt as if he just want ready for the enormous task of running for president, or at least debating with 9 other people. He spoke Spanish in his first question, which I felt, along with staffers from Politico, was very gimmicky and pandering. Many of his answers were very vague and hard to follow, which has been a trend so far his entire campaign. He mentioned, however, that jail systems were the single largest healthcare provider for Americans, which, either true or not, is damning and I felt is a large issue we should be looking at and thanked him for that insight. He also mentioned the issue of trafficking, which many candidates did not discuss, which is also a large issue that has been overlooked, so I felt it was good for him to discuss these issues even if the other candidates are not discussing them, because those two are very real issues that have been growing in the recent years that many Americans don't realize and has also being a growing concern for many Americans and humans around the world.

CORY BOOKER-

Along with creating a great meem that night, Senator Booker made some very great points on that stage. For most of the night, Booker talked about either gun reform or reforms in the criminal justice system. He had the right to answer many of these questions, being a black America and often (to my annoyance) talking about how he lived in the poorest of communities growing up and have seen how modern Americans have struggled in today's economy. He was an amazing candidate, who also spoke Spanish. I enjoyed listening to him talk and made many good points.

AMY KLOBUCHAR-

She felt very down to earth the entire debate and gave me much of a Midwestern vibe, which I am from which made me feel very connected with her. Heading into the debate, I knew much about her past of often being extremely violent to her staffers, and I felt she knew that as well and came onto the scene very relaxed the entire time. She made jokes and quips the entire night that genuinely made me laugh and even made the remark of how there were three females on the stage that were running for president, which is an extreme milestone in American politics. I went as far as writing in my notes that remark by paraphrasing it as her saying “ Women are super cool.” Without completely getting rid of student tuition, she believed in just making it easier for students to pay for college, which sounds like an amazing idea, as well as creating better childcare and governing WITH the PEOPLE, not the elite. She also mentions the facts that immigrants make America, which I couldn't agree with 

JULIÁN CASTRO-

He was incredible the entire night and stood his ground. My friend and I found it every “strange” how the moderator asked him first about issues of immigration first. He mentioned often how Congress must repeal Section 125, which makes crossing the border between ports of entry illegal. I agree with that plan as I often have a very open borders belief in policies(sue me). He ended his remarks Speaking Spanish, the third one to do that night. He was level heading the entire night which was honestly very cool to me. He mentions developing more solar powers if President, as he was able to do that same job and create 800 more jobs in San Antonio, as well as signing an executive order and reentering the Paris Accord,d, which I couldn't agree with more. Shocked that Republicans haven't made any remarks about him and the infamous Fidel Castro, or maybe they have and I haven't noticed.

------------------

There were many more other candidates but those were maybe the most predominant ones to me those two nights. An honorable mention will also go to Bill De Blasio, nicknamed “NYC” in my notes, in a very New Yorker type way, he stood his ground the entire night and never let himself become silenced, which was amazing to see. All of the candidates had great ideas onto how they govern the nation, some I didn't agree with that often *cough*Hickenlooper*cough*, but it was an amazing two-part series.

These nights, I was primarily focusing on the candidates' position on climate change, as it is a growing issue today and the world doesn't have much time in figuring out how to solve the issue effective immediately. It disappointed me that many of the candidates felt as if the solution to climate change was to either create more solar energy or support greener incentives instead of focusing on the true problem, major industries. None of the candidates mentioned the issue of corporations and industries pollution our air in bigger amounts than an individual can do in a year or the issue of diets and how it has caused a decrease in animal life both on land and in our seas. But we can only go forward.

[daddybarnes1ao3]

Therapy Hours - Chapter 1

Find it here on AO3, or DM to be put on a tag list

Pairing; Bucky Barnes x OC

Story Summary; Niana Cross is just an ordinary girl, but shes got an extraordinary job to do. And she'll be damned if she isn't good at her job.

Word Count; 5014

Chapter 1 - The Path Ahead

‘Steve calls his therapist, Sam's a good friend, and Niana finally meets James Barnes - or what's left of him.’

Niana Cross didn't think she was anything special, not in the grand scheme of things. Sure, she had a pretty special job, but she was still just an average looking girl that loved watching horror movies and eating pizza.

The simplest explanation for why some people thought she was special is; she knew all the Avengers on a first name basis.

She started off as Tony Stark's therapist. She was contacted by the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury, just after Tony's miraculous return from Afghanistan and asked to evaluate him. Stark saw something in the girl, something that he trusted, so he kept her on as his personal on-call therapist. (He payed her well to make up for the weird hours he kept.) He spoke to her, confided in her more than he did anyone else - including Pepper Potts.

Pepper doesn't hold it against Niana. In fact, she's glad Tony has someone he can talk to. She has even grown close to the girl herself, the two becoming best friends.

When Steve Rogers was defrosted and tossed into the 21st century, both Tony and Fury recommended Niana to him. Steve figured that if even Tony 'I-Don't-Need-Help' Stark said the girl would be good for him, she had to be something special. No one could have guessed just how close the newly acquainted pair would become. Steve was like the brother Niana never had, and she was the little sister he always wanted.

After the events of New York in 2012, she started seeing all the Avengers regularly - except Thor, of course, who had to return to Asgard but promised a conversation upon his return. They were all struggling, some more than others, and Niana was happy to take some of the weight from them. They all grew to love her, in their own weird and wonderful ways. (Don't judge, Natasha shows her love by destroying your enemies and apparently paying off your student loans.)

It was during the events of DC in 2014 that things got the most interesting for Niana. A brief phone call from Steve, babbling almost incomprehensibly about his long-lost best friend, had her stealing borrowing one of Tony's private jets and heading straight to his hospital room.

The Winter Soldier had almost killed Steve twice and then saved him, all in the space of one afternoon. Sam Wilson, a new face that Niana analysed as quickly as her brief glance allowed, had found Steve unconscious on the bank of the Potomac with a very dazed and bruised Bucky Barnes hovering over him. The man was repeating a single phrase over and over.

'Till the end of the line.'

Barnes had handed himself over, surrendering all his weapons and allowing Natasha to cuff him. He required just as much hospital attention as Steve, so the two were separately transported to a safe location instead of a public hospital. (Which Niana later found out was Tony's doing, he knew she would want him to help Steve.)

Niana sat by Steve's bedside, holding his hand gently in her own. He hadn't said a word since she got here. He was deep in thought, staring off into space, so she left him to it. For now, she focused her attention on Wilson.

"How did you meet Steve?" She asked. Sam smirked and looked over at the other man.

"This asshole kept lapping me on my morning run." Sam told her. "Every time he went past, without fail, he’d go-"

"On your left." Steve finished for him; his voice was quiet.

"Stevie." Niana said softly, drawing his attention over to her. Without the girl saying anything else, his eyes filled with tears.

"God, Nia." He choked out. "He was right there, and he had no idea who I was. All that time I spent mourning him, coming to terms with the fact that my best friend was gone, only to find out that Hydra had him the whole fucking t-"

His voice finally gives out, breaking as he begins to sob. Niana stands from her chair, gently wrapping her arms around Steve's shoulders and letting him cry into her shirt.

In all the time she had spoken to Steve, he had never allowed himself to really let his emotions out. He had mentioned his best friend, how living without him by his side was hard, but he had never cried. And now he was letting it all out, and Niana found that she too was teary eyed.

Sam felt like he was intruding on something a little too personal, so he rose from his seat and left to grab the three of them something to drink. He knew Steve was in good hands from the way he spoke about the younger girl.

Niana let Steve hold on to her like a lifeline, even if she thought his hands were a little too tight on her arm; she would have some bruises later, but Steve needed her right now.

“Can you h-help him?” Steve hiccuped, his grip on her momentarily tightening. “Can you t-try to h-help him?”

“Of course, Steve.” Niana told him, softening her voice in an attempt to calm him down. “I’ll sit with him every day if I have to. He’ll get the best care possible.”

Steve lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, like he had expected her to say no, and relaxed further into her arms. It barely took ten minutes of quiet reassurances from Niana for him to drift off, the stress of an insanely long day finally catching up to him.

Sam ambled back in, two cups of tea in hand and a bottle of water tucked under his arm.

“He asleep?” He asked, setting her cup down beside her.

“Yeah.” Niana replies, gently running her fingers through the blonde’s hair.

“Barnes really did a number on him.” Sam commented, pointing to Steve’s medical file which had been left on his bedside table. Niana makes a point of turning away from it; she didn’t want to see how close to death her brother had been. And that file was far too thick for comfort.

“Barnes was brainwashed, he was just doing what he was told.” Niana said, her voice taking a slightly defensive tone at Sam’s jibe. She hadn’t met the man yet, but she had already decided to take him on as a patient - not just for Steve’s benefit, but to try and help a man who had nothing. And she was very protective of those she tried to help.

“Cause you’re an expert on Hydra’s inner workings, are you?” Sam scoffed, raising his eyebrows at her. She knew he was baiting her into a reaction, wanting to see what kind of person she was, but she willingly gave it.

She raised her eyebrows right back and pointed over to her bag. It was overflowing with paperwork, scribbled notes, and had her laptop sticking out of it.

“As of the flight over here, yes.” She snapped back, pausing and lowering her voice when Steve stirred in her arms. “I went through as much of Hydra’s files on Barnes as I could decrypt without alerting any government agencies that might be watching.”

She paused for a second, a look of sympathy washing over her. “What they did to him, god Sam, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

“He’s still hurt people.” Sam told her.

“Yes, and the Hydra agents that ordered those hits will pay for it - probably with their lives.” Niana said sharply, meeting his stare dead on. “Barnes was just a weapon; you can’t persecute him for the fact that they used his body to do their bidding. You don’t blame the gun, Sam, you blame the one that fired it.”

“He fired it.” Sam snipped back. “Someone has to pay, you know that.”

“Not him.” Niana says, her voice quieting again. “He’s suffered for almost seventy years, don't you think that’s enough? Now shut up before you wake Steve.”

Sam said nothing for a few minutes, allowing the tension in the room to ease off slightly. Then he sighed. He saw her point, and he had to admit that his own opinion was clouded. He had seen the Winter Soldier in action, saw his body cause harm to innocent civilians. But she was right, he wasn’t in control. It wouldn’t be fair to blame this on him.

“Fine. But I’m still mad about my car.” He joked, shaking his head at the thought of his wrecked vehicle.

Niana had to stifle her laugh, not wanting to wake Steve. Nat had told her about Sam’s steering wheel being ripped right out of his hands while she was on her way in, it was extremely funny if you ignore the circumstances. Sam smiled lightly, counting her laugh as a win.

Ten minutes passed in an almost comfortable silence before Niana looked back over at Sam. He could tell she was nervous about whatever she had to say, her cup of tea was long gone but she was still fiddling with her cup, so he tried to look as comforting as possible.  

“In Hydra’s files, there was a mission report.” She starts, her voice wavering. “It was buried under some pretty trivial junk, so I don’t think anyone thought it necessary to go through it.”

She paused, swallowing back the lump in her throat. Sam nodded for her to go on.

“December 16th, 1991.” She whispers. “The car crash that killed Tony’s parents.”

Sam, despite not knowing Tony personally - or at all, apart from what he’d seen on the news - felt his heart break for the man. Hydra was the reason his parents were dead, Barnes was the one to kill them; under orders or not, it was his hands. That would be a difficult thing for anyone to accept.

“I have to tell him. Right?” Niana asks him, her eyes dampening at the thought. “It has to be me, before he finds the file himself.”

“Can you do it?” Sam asks her back. She looks slightly confused, so he elaborates. “I mean, can you be the one to give him that information without losing his trust - or just losing him? Is he the type to shoot the messenger?”

“Me and Tony, our relationship is complicated.” Niana tells him, her voice wavering. “He won’t hold it against me personally, but I’ve worked really hard for quite some time to get him to a place where he’s even remotely ready to come to terms with their deaths. And to now find out that it wasn’t an accident? That it was actually murder? This could destroy so much of the progress that he’s made.”

Sam thinks that over for a while, understanding that the situation is more complex than she’s letting on. It would be rude for her to discuss Tony’s private affairs, of course he understood that.

“Is there an alternative?” Sam asks. “Can this be buried; does he even have to find out at all?”

Niana shakes her head. “If I don’t tell him and he finds out some other way, which he will cause he’s too nosy for his own good, he’ll lose any and all trust he has for me. We don’t keep secrets from each other, that’s rule one.”

“You have rules?” Sam frowns, but his tone of voice is amused.

“I’m Iron Man’s therapist, of course we have rules.” She grins wryly, pausing to assess Sam. “We’re very similar, Sam. You and me. I can see why Steve was drawn to you. I guarantee we get into a fight within the first month, but I think we could be great friends.”

“A month?” Sam asks, tilting his head. “I give it two weeks.” He reaches across Steve’s bed, Niana meeting him halfway to shake his hand.

“We’ll see.” She concedes, laughing.

“Stop laughing before you wake up sleeping beauty.”  Sam jokes, pointing to the man still asleep on her chest.

Niana calms, returning to gently playing with Steve’s hair.

“It’ll be hard, telling Tony.” She says after some contemplation. “But it has to be me, and it has to be soon.”

Sam nods. He understands that the less time spent holding this sensitive information from Tony, the better.

“When?” He asks.

“Once Steve is out of here, and once I’ve finally had a conversation with Barnes.” Niana tells him. “I’ll have to go to Tony with more than just ‘he was brainwashed’ for him to consider continuing to help them. A full evaluation on his physical and mental health seems necessary, given the circumstances.”

“Them?” Sam questions. “What do you mean ‘continue helping them’?”

“Steve will defend Barnes no matter what.” She explains. “If Barnes goes, Steve goes.”

“This puts you in a bit of an awkward position.” Sam sighs, suddenly feeling rather sorry for the young woman.  

“They’re not just my patients, either of them.” Niana smiles. “Tony’s one of my closest friends, and Steve is my big brother. If I go about this in the right way, I might just be able to save their friendship.”

“That’s a lot of weight to carry alone.” Sam says, the ‘therapist’ in him coming out a little.

“It is how it is.” She says with a noncommittal shrug.

Sam has a moment of admiration for her strength, and suddenly he sees why Steve and Natasha were so adamant on her flying out. She was a ray of sunshine, and Steve could definitely use some sunshine in his life. Sam was glad that Steve had her.

“If you need a hand carrying it, though, let me know.” Sam says quietly, sending a small smile her way.

“Thanks, Sam.” Niana smiles back.

“Of course, Niana.” He says. She waves her free hand at him.

“Most of my friends call me Ana.” She tells him. Sam nods, a wry grin overtaking his face.

“I’ll let you know when you make my friends list, Niana.” He laughs.

Niana gasps in mock outrage, her jaw comically dropping.

“Oh, that’s how it is?”

“Oh, that’s how it is.”

The path ahead was only going to get more complicated, but Niana could handle it. Or at least, she hoped she could. Steve deserved the chance to have his best friend back, and Niana would be damned if that chance was taken from him.

***

Four hours later, Steve had finally woken up and was chatting quietly with Sam while Niana poured back over her notes. Most of Steve’s superficial wounds had scabbed over or healed completely, and he could almost feel his ribs knitting back together.

Niana decided to leave him in Sam’s capable hands and finally meet her newest patient. Steve had originally wanted to go with her, going so far as to raise his voice when she denied him, but she wouldn’t back down.

“Steve,” She said quietly, raising an eyebrow. “If you can get out that bed without flinching or falling over, you can come with me.”

He didn’t even bother attempting, just lay back down on his bed with a pout. Sam tried to smother his laughter, but the childish look on Steve’s face had him loudly doubling over.

Niana sent them both smiles before following the Doctor out of the room.

She was nervous, there was no denying that. In the past two years she had heard a lot about James Barnes, stories from Steve, and even a few from Tony (those that he remembered from Howard anyway). But the things she had read, what she knew they had done to him? She wasn’t sure whether to expect the Bucky from Steve’s memories, or the one who almost killed him.

For now he was being kept in a modified cell. He had been given a cot, nailed down to the floor, as well as a table with two chairs - which Niana thought looked suspiciously like an interrogation table. She ignored how much that bothered her for now, waving the guards back as she went to enter the room.

“Ma’am, we can’t let you go in alone.” One of the men said, reaching to grab her arm.

Niana smacked his hand away, levelling him with a sharp glare.

“You can and you will.” She tells him. “All your presence will do is scare him. If I need help, I’m sure you’ll hear me scream.”

The sarcastic comment was probably uncalled for, but Niana was slightly proud of the way the guard stuttered as she opened the door and walked in.

Bucky lifted his head as she entered. He was crouched in the empty corner of the room, muttering to himself. He was in loose sweatpants and a sleeveless white cotton t-shirt.

Niana took a seat on one side of the table, crossing her arms where he could see them.

“Hello.” She said, her voice so low that even she almost couldn’t hear it. “My name is Niana Cross, you can call me Ana.”

Bucky made no move to acknowledge her, apart from momentarily glancing her way.

“I wanted to see how you were doing. Can you sit with me?” Niana pointed to the chair.

He looked at the chair as if it had done him personal offence, but got up and took a seat across from her at the table.

Up close, Niana could see just how badly injured he was. His face had some major bruising all over, his eyebrow and lip were both split, he had a black eye, and some bruising across his neck. She could also see the scarring where the metal of his arm met the flesh. It was horribly red and puckered.

“Steve’s okay, I left him recovering in his own room.” Niana told him, her voice still soft. “He wants you to know that he’s okay.”

“Please d-don’t.” He stuttered out; his voice was rough and strangled.

“Don’t what?” Niana asked, searching his face.

“The name.” He choked out.

"Steve?” Niana confirmed. He flinched so hard that she wondered if he was actually in pain. She quickly backtracked, raising her hands in mock surrender.

"Okay, we wont call him that." She said quietly. "Do you want to call him another name, something that isn’t difficult for you to hear or say?"

He looked to be thinking over her words, but made no move to answer. Niana gave him some time, watching as he opened and closed his mouth multiple times before giving up.

"Grant, his middle name is Grant." Niana told him. "How about we call him that for now, yeah?"

He said the name a few times quietly to himself, then looked up at her and nodded. Niana gave him a soft smile, and continued.

"Grant asked me to check up on you, and to see if I could help you." She told him, assessing his reactions. He grimaced at the mention of Steve, even under his pseudonym, but seemed confused at the second half of her statement.

"How?" He asked.

"I'm a therapist. His, actually, along with other members of the Avengers. St-Grant wanted me to help you, in any way I could." Niana watched as he tensed up at the mention of the Avengers, but seemed to focused on her to have much of a reaction.

"Said something." Bucky frowned, dropping his head so he was staring at the table in front of him.

Niana had dealt with enough PTSD and trauma to know that she needed to tread carefully; pushing too hard could topple him over the edge of his delicate sanity.

"Grant did? What did he say?" Niana asked him.

Both his fists clenched on the table, the metal arm clicking and locking as the joints moved.

"T-to the end of the line." He stuttered out, swiping his eyes as they teared up slightly. "I don't- meaning."

"Grant told me that was something you used to say to each other growing up." Niana explained. "It was your way of saying you would always be there for one another."

Bucky nodded. "Saw something, maybe?"

Niana tried not to frown at his use of 'maybe'. "You saw something? Was it a memory?" She asks.

He lets out a sharp breath, and shakes his head. "I can't- I can't tell." His voice is the most quiet she's heard it. "Real?"

Yeah, that's what she was afraid of. Niana had an idea, but it wasn't exactly one of her best or safest plans. She rolled up the sleeve of her cardigan and leaned her left hand across the table towards him.

"Take my hand." She says.

He looks at her, confused. "What?"

"Take my hand." She repeats, nodding down at her exposed wrist.

"No! Dangerous." He says, pointing to himself while looking at her like she's crazy.

"Trust me." She whispers, locking eyes with him.

He reaches out with his flesh hand, hesitating above hers. Niana nods, gently moving his hand so it's wrapped around her wrist and his fingers and pressed in. Niana feels her heart start to race. This was not exactly her smartest plan, let the brainwashed assassin get hold of you, but he needed comfort.

"You feel that? My pulse racing, blood pumping through my veins. This is real." She says softly. "I'm going to help you, as much as I can. Will you trust me to help you?"

He doesn't let go, quietly contemplating her words. Finally, he pulls his hand back and nods his head.

Niana smiles at him. "Well, you know who I am. What can I call you? Do you know your name?"

Immediately, he grimaces and shakes his head, dropping his line of sight so he was looking at the table. "Difficult, hurts."

Niana nods her head in understanding. "That's okay, I’ll call you whatever you're comfortable with."

"I can choose." He says, both a question and a statement.

Niana has the harsh realisation that this may be the first choice he's made for himself in seventy years. She struggles to stop herself tearing up. "Of course you can, choose whatever you want." She says, her voice noticeably more thick.

He takes a minute, frowning in thought, then looks back up at her. "Barnes. J-James Buchanan Barnes is me? Grant said."

Niana confirms with a nod. "Yeah, that’s you. If you want me to call you Barnes, I will."

A quick glance at her watch tells her that she needs to head back to Steve now. "It was nice to meet you Barnes. If you need to speak with me again before I come back, tell the guard to call me. I'll be here whenever you need me."

He nods at her, rising from the seat and retreating to the corner of the room he was in before. Niana smiled gently at him, before knocking to be let out. She closes the door behind her, and turns to face the guard - the same one who tried to stop her from entering in the first place. She definitely wasn't his biggest fan.

"I'm clearing Barnes for release into my custody." She tells him, moving to sign the forms on the table.

The guard, who's name she hadn't bothered to learn, stepped up beside her and shook his head.

"I'm not sure that's safe, miss." He says back.

"It's what he needs." She explains to him, handing over her filled out report. "He's not violent and even if he becomes so, i will have people around who can handle that."

"What he needs is to be in a secured space with 24 hour armed guards." The guard says, speaking slowly like she was a stupid child. "Or have you not seen the damage and destruction he's caused?"

"He will be secure, but he will be in an environment that will allow him to heal and to come to terms with his new reality." Niana says, her voice bordering on yelling. "He doesn't need guarded, especially by armed soldiers. This man is the longest serving POW in history, I wont let you lock him up like his abusers did."

"He needs to be in the hands of people capable of containing him if he snaps." The guard said, gritting his teeth at her.

"Oh, so the Avengers aren't capable?" Niana sassed, resting a hand on her hip. "They can fight off an entire alien army, but one man with a metal arm and suddenly they're useless?"

"That's not what i-" He tried to backtrack. Niana held up her free hand to stop him.

"I don't care what you meant." She tells him firmly. "This is not your decision, it's mine. He's leaving here with me."

The guard straightens up, towering over her small frame. "You're not-"

"I'm sorry, are you about to tell me what I'm capable of doing?" Niana cuts him off. Suddenly, every mannerism she's picked up from years of spending time with Tony is bubbling to the surface.

"No, of course not." He says, trying to placate her.

"Good." Niana said, pulling out her phone and sending a quick text to Tony. She knew he would support her with whatever she needed. "Tony Stark will be sending someone to transport Bucky and Steve to the med bay in Avengers Tower, that's my final word on the matter."

The man shifted, sending Niana a look that said he didn't agree. Niana raised her eyebrows. "Is that understood, sir?"

"Yes, ma'am." He snapped back, though he didn't sound completely sincere.

All her time spent with Tony had given her one advantage over this arrogant idiot; she knew how to intimidate people bigger than her. Being as short as she is, and being much more naive than the billionaire genius, Tony had taken it upon himself to teach her how to hold her own when he wasn't around to flaunt his name.

Niana took a step closer to the guard, forcing him to meet her eyes. She kept eye contact and waited until he nervously swallowed to begin speaking.

"If you try to find a way around this, a way around me? Well, then you will find out firsthand exactly what I'm capable of." Niana snarled at him.

She continued to glare at him until he nodded, then she turned on her heels and walked away without looking back.

From inside his room, for the first time in seventy years, Bucky Barnes smiled.

***

Niana returned to Steve's room feeling much more content in her decision to help Bucky. She felt like she had managed to catch a glimpse of who he used to be underneath the persona that had been forced upon him. She wanted to help him, she really did.

Sam gave her a smile as she sat down, linking her hand with Steve's. "How did it go?" He asked.

"Surprisingly well." She breathes out, giving them both a tight lipped smile.

"Tell me how he is, please." Steve asks, looking over at her.

Niana hesitates for a second, but decides that it would be best to let him know what he's in for. "He's not violent if that's what you're really asking. He's mostly just confused. I think hes been having hallucinations mixed in with memories, he said he can't always tell what's real."

"That doesn't sound 'surprisingly well' to me." Sam said, his eyebrows raised.

"After being tortured for seventy years? To be blunt, I think it's a miracle he's even functioning." Niana told him.

"But that's not all, is it?" Steve asks, frowning at her. Damn his ability to read her like a book.

"No." She agrees with a sigh. "I want Banner and Cho to give him a full work over, brain and body scans. The scarring on that arm looks horrific, I don't want any underlying damage to set back his recovery."

"Why brain scans?" Sam asked. Niana gave him a look, wondering if he missed the memory loss and torture part. He rolled his eyes and kept going. "I mean, I know hes an amnesiac but is there more than that?"

This was far more than Niana originally intended to tell them, but she knew they could be trusted.

"He had some bruising on the side of his face. It looked older than the fight and I was wondering if they used some form of electro-stimulation to wipe his memory." Niana explains. "That could leave lasting effects, and I need to know what to expect. His speech is pretty broken, he has trouble forming full sentences. That’s pretty common in brain injuries."

"But he's okay." Steve says. Niana doesn't have the heart to tell him no, he isn't, so she tries to avoid answering.

"He has trouble saying your name, it's possible they used you to torture him." Niana's heart breaks at the expression on Steve's face. "And I don't want to lie to you, Stevie, it might be a while before you can see him in person again. But I'm going to make sure he gets the best treatment possible."

"Thank you, Nia." Steve says, smiling at her despite the tears in his eyes.

"Tony's going to send transport for you and Barnes, to get take you both to Avengers tower in New York." Niana says, looking over the reply from Tony with all the details of their transfer.

"Really? Why?" Steve asks, looking confused and slightly bewildered.

"Because I asked him to, and because I think it's the safest place for you two right now." Niana explains. "I'm sorry, Sam, I didn't factor you in to that plan. I just wanted to get them out of here."

"Don't worry about me." Sam tells them both. "I can't drop my work and disappear yet. I'll have to set a few things up before I can come out to NY."

Niana nods in understanding, then looks back over to Steve.

"I hope he's okay." Steve said, more to himself than to his friends.

Standing up to wrap an arm around his shoulders, Niana pulls him in for a hug. "He's not." She told him softly. "But he will be."

Or at least, she hoped he would be.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/radar-a-location-data-startup-says-its-big-bet-is-on-putting-privacy-first/

Radar, a location data startup, says its “big bet” is on putting privacy first

Pick any app on your phone, and there’s a greater than average chance that it’s tracking your location right now.

Sometimes they don’t even tell you. Your location can be continually collected and uploaded, then monetized by advertisers and other data tracking firms. These companies also sell the data to the government — no warrants needed. And even if you’re app-less, your phone company knows where you are at any given time, and for the longest time sold that data to anyone who wanted it.

Location data is some of the most personal information we have — yet few think much about it. Our location reveals where we go, when, and often why. It can be used to know our favorite places and our routines, and also who we talk to. And yet it’s spilling out of our phones ever second of every day to private companies, subject to little regulation or oversight, building up precise maps of our lives. Headlines sparked anger and pushed lawmakers into taking action. And consumers are becoming increasingly aware of their tracked activity thanks to phone makers, like Apple, alerting users to background location tracking. Foursquare, one of the biggest location data companies, even called on Congress to do more to regulate the sale of location data.

But location data is not going anywhere. It’s a convenience that’s just too convenient, and it’s an industry that’s growing from strength to strength. The location data market was valued at $10 billion last year, with it set to balloon in size by more than two-fold by 2027.

There is appetite for change, Radar, a location data startup based in New York, promised in a recent blog post that it will “not sell any data we collect, and we do not share location data across customers.”

It’s a promise that Radar chief executive Nick Patrick said he’s willing to bet the company on.

“We want to be that location layer that unlocks the next generation of experiences but we also want to do it in a privacy conscious way,” Patrick told TechCrunch. “That’s our big bet.”

Developers integrate Radar into their apps. Those app makers can create location geofences around their businesses, like any Walmart or Burger King. When a user enters that location, the app knows to serve relevant notifications or alerts, making it functionally just like any other location data provider.

But that’s where Patrick says Radar deviates.

“We want to be the most privacy-first player,” Patrick said. Radar bills itself as a location data software-as-a-service company, rather than an ad tech company like its immediate rivals. That may sound like a marketing point — it is — but it’s also an important distinction, Patrick says, because it changes how the company makes its money. Instead of monetizing the collected data, Radar prices its platform based on the number of monthly active users that use the apps with Radar inside.

“We’re not going to package that up into an audience segment and sell it on an ad exchange,” he said. “We’re not going to pull all of the data together from all the different devices that we’re installed on and do foot traffic analytics or attribution.”

But that trust doesn’t come easy, nor should it. Some of the most popular apps have lost the trust of their users through privacy-invasive privacy practices, like collecting locations from users without their knowledge or permission, by scanning nearby Bluetooth beacons or Wi-Fi networks to infer where a person is.

We were curious and ran some of the apps through a network traffic analyzer to see what was going on under the hood, like Joann, GasBuddy, Draft King and others. We found that Radar only activated when location permissions were granted on the device — something apps have tried to get around in the past. The apps we checked instantly sent our precise location data back to Radar — which was to be expected — along with the device type, software version, and little else. The data collected by Radar is significantly less than what other comparable apps share with their developers, but still allows integrations with third-party platforms to make use of that location data. Via, a popular ride-sharing app, uses a person’s location, collected by Radar, to deliver notifications and promotions to users at airports and other places of interest.

The company boasts its technology is used in apps on more than 100 million device installs.

“We see a ton of opportunity around enabling folks to build location, but we also see that the space has been mishandled,” said Patrick. “We think the location space in need of a technical leader but also an ethical leader that can enable the stuff in a privacy conscious way.”

It was a convincing pitch for Radar’s investors, which just injected $20 million into its Series B fundraise, led by Accel, a substantial step up from its $8 million Series A round. Patrick said the round will help the company build out the platform further. One feature on Radar’s to-do list was to allow the platform to take advantage of on-device processing, “no user event data ever touches Radar’s servers,” he aid Patrick. The raise will help the company expand its physical footprint on the west coast by opening an office in San Francisco. Its home base in New York will also expand, he said, increasing the company’s headcount from its current two-dozen employees.

“Radar stands apart due to its focus on infrastructure rather than ad tech,” said Vas Natarajan, a partner at Accel, who also took a seat on Radar’s board.

Two Sigma Ventures, Heavybit, Prime Set, and Bedrock Capital participated in the round.

Patrick said his pitch is also working for apps and developers, which recognize that their users are becoming more aware of privacy issues. He’s seen companies, some of which he now calls customers, that are increasingly looking for more privacy-focused partners and vendors, not least to bolster their own respective reputations.

It’s healthy to be skeptical. Given the past year, it’s hard to have any faith in any location data company, let alone embrace one. And yet it’s a compelling pitch for the app community that only through years of misdeeds and a steady stream of critical headlines is being forced to repair its image.

But a company’s words are only as strong as its actions, and only time will tell if they hold up.

[heartsofstrangers]

What has been one of the most challenging things that you’ve experienced or are currently experiencing?

“I’d say my biggest challenge would have to be my back issues.”

Tell me about those.

“When I was a teenager, I was taking growth hormones, and they did say that one of the side effects might possibly be health issues that would occur a lot sooner than they would to the average person, say at sixty or seventy, I might deal with it around forty or fifty. Being thirty-five, it’s happened a lot sooner than I thought. I have back issues and circulation issues. Mostly with issues that wouldn’t normally occur to someone my age.

“That, I’d have to say, is my biggest challenge, because when I get up and do things like protest, it really challenges me. It makes me want to fight, because even though my back hurts, it’s really rewarding to see that people are seeing the truth. It’s just the biggest inspiration for me, to see that others are being made aware that the establishment and our current government are very crooked. People need to know and stand up and say, “No more.” We need a new government. That doesn’t mean violent revolution. It just means, basically, hiring better, newer people who are more capable of running this government without corruption. That’s how I feel about it.”

I want to go back to your back history. Tell me why you began using growth hormones.

“Physically, I appeared to be eight when I was twelve years old, and when I was thirteen, I didn’t appear much older; I still appeared to be about eight and a half. Physically I was growing much slower than I should have. They said there was a risk with it, but I didn’t mind.

“When I was twelve and looked eight and a half, basically my parents were concerned about my growth issues, so they took me to a doctor, and the doctors told me what the risks were. I was willing to take it, because I was at a time where I couldn’t understand why the females of my same age range were just ignoring me. It was explained to me that they weren’t interested in preteens, and I looked like one, so I was like, ‘Well, I need to do something about that.’

“It ended up being that I took the risk. It’s well worth it though, because the challenges that come with it are quite rewarding. The results if I pass the challenges are rewarding, you know?”

Were you teased because of your size in school?

“All the time.”

So, here you are today, suffering health issues because of, it sounds like, feeling insecure about your size at an early age. Do you have any regrets?

“No.”

No?

“None whatsoever.”

When did you start developing some of the symptoms of your back issues?

“I’d say about twenty-three, twenty-four was when it started happening. It wasn’t too bad back then, but as the lower lumbar disc deterioration disease progressed, it seemed to get to the point where I couldn’t function, and I ended up having to take pain medication to maintain it. But even so, I’m still fully functional and grateful for that. God has blessed me with that.”

It sounds like you may have gone through a period of—I would assume—depression or something, not being able to function as you wanted to. Tell me about that.

“It was quite a struggle. I have to say the biggest thing I struggled with during that time was feeling incapable of doing anything, being in a position where I couldn’t do what everyone else my age was doing, and wanting to. Thinking how horrible it is to be stuck in that place.

“I overcame it, eventually, mostly through a belief system. I practice Messianic Judaism, and that has gotten me through a lot, because there was hope and there is healing. I was in a wheelchair at one time. I was paraplegic for a while. I think that’s the correct term, because it was from the waist down I was having issues, but when I started putting God in my life and practicing Messianic Judaism, that’s really what brought me out of the whole mess that I was in—the emotional mess as well as the physical mess. It doesn’t matter what anybody else says; God does exist, and he shows himself in ways that are so miraculous that it’s mind-blowing. He does heal the blind, makes the blind see. He makes those unable to walk, walk, and I’m living proof of that, and that’s what’s gotten me through to where I am now.”

Was there ever a point where you felt you wanted to give up and couldn’t do this anymore?

“Yeah, a couple of points. There were a couple of points where I just said, ‘Forget about it. Whatever happens, happens. If I lay here, I’ll defecate on myself or starve to death, whatever; I don’t care.’ My brother introduced me to God, and that’s when I started to see that there was something more to life than just misery and pain. My doctor said I should go there and see them one more time even though I had already given up, and I said if not for me, then at least for the family, and so I did. Through his powers of persuasion and lots of prayer, miraculously, the doctor decided that they’d look at it and start giving me physical therapy and pain medications. Things like that actually helped with the healing process. Sure, I still have back pain to this day, but it’s not nearly what it was, when it was crippling and disabling to the point where I couldn’t function.”

At the time when you were struggling, would you say you were focused more on the pain and what you could not do instead of some of the blessings and gifts that were before you?

“Yeah. That’s pretty accurate.”

How have you shifted focus? You mentioned that you brought God into your life in this way. What are some of the other ways that you sort of focus on the good things and the blessings and the gifts, even though there are still things that ail and challenge you?

“The biggest thing that keeps me focused is the reward of what comes after. This may be a struggle—this may be a hell, even, for some—but if we get through it trying to bless as many in our path as possible, the rewards are going to be so massive that we don’t feel any pain. It’s just, man, these mansions here are nothing in comparison to the ones we’ll get.

“And it’s not just getting things, either; it’s more than that. It feels good to serve others, because when I serve myself, there’s a temporary satisfaction, but when I serve others, which is what Messianic Judaism teaches me, it’s a longer-lived satisfaction. I get to see others’ lives get better. You get to improve others’ lives, and sometimes even see the results with a small action, like giving twenty dollars to a hungry man at the bus stop. It makes all the difference in the world when he’s probably sitting there thinking, ‘Nobody cares about me,’ or ‘I’m gonna starve to death. I’m too tired to get up off this bench to beg for money and too ashamed to even try.’

“I’ve been there too, so I know those thoughts. When I saw that hungry man on the bench, give him twenty dollars and know that he doesn’t have to feel that way anymore—when you’re on the receiving end of somebody just giving out of the kindness of their heart for no apparent reason that you know, you know the other person feels that way just by the expression on their face, and that is way more satisfying than any sort of self-satisfaction. That’s the only way I can describe it, and that’s what keeps me going, that drive to make other people’s lives as satisfying as mine was. As mine still is, really.”

Is it fair to say that maybe the darkest hours of your life have brought you to your brightest moments now?

“Yeah. It is definitely fair to say that, because we all have to hit rock bottom to see how good we have it. We really do.”

So it’s made you appreciate life.

“Oh yeah. Life is a beautiful thing, and there are other things that the scripture teaches me. If I am in a moment of pain, and I’m so focused on that pain and worried about myself, all I have to do is work out and it’s everywhere. The trees are breathing out oxygen that we breathe in. The ground is full of living creatures. If we don’t focus on ourselves, and we focus on outward, we begin to see how beautiful life really is.”

Did going through those times strengthen you and give your courage to face others struggles as well?

“Absolutely it has.”

It sounds like it’s also created a sense of empathy and compassion for others.

“Yeah, because when you struggle through the pain and misery yourself, you begin to realize that others are going through the same thing, and you look at the bigger picture. It’s not just about me; it’s about everybody. It’s like that song says, ‘Lean on me when you’re not strong. I’ll be your friend. I’ll help you carry on.’ That’s the way we should all be, because, shoot, if we were all to lean on each other in hard times, I guarantee there wouldn’t be hard times anymore.”

What advice would you offer to somebody else struggling out there, reading this interview?

“I would suggest that they read the book of Matthew in the Bible and Proverbs and Psalms. One of those three, if not all three, because those were the most inspiring for me, because I could most relate to them. Also, they have such excellent advice on life in general, you know? Things that make you not focus on the immediate pain and suffering that we’re going through and even improve our lives and make it so that others don’t have to go through it as well.”

When we started this interview, you were wearing your mask. At a point during this interview, you took it off. What inspired you, what moved you to take it off?

“Well, because this is more personal, and I felt it would be disrespectful to share a personal experience indirectly or impersonally.”

It seemed to me profound. Often when I do these interviews, whether or not a person is physically, literally wearing a mask, figuratively they are removing the mask by opening up and sharing something very vulnerable and personal with me, so it was fitting that a few questions into it, you actually took off your literal mask.

“Yeah, really, I have nothing to hide. The reason I wear this is it’s symbolic; it’s representative of all of us, we the people. That’s what Anonymous is about.”

Do you believe that we’re connected to each other, as human beings to nature?

“Absolutely. Interconnected with everything, even the inanimate, unliving objects, for that matter. I think that energy itself connects everything. It’s so complex and interwoven that our mortal minds couldn’t even comprehend it, but our souls understand it, and that’s why we yearn for it, I think. Even though our physical minds don’t understand, our souls are so much more complex and deep, and they tell our minds and bodies to yearn for it.”

Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to share?

“Hmm, that’s a tough one. I’d really have to think on that one, because there’s a lot of them, but one in particular . . . So many to go through. I read a lot of books. I think it would have to be by Terry Goodkind, but I don’t want to misquote him. I have a bit of a memory issue, so if you’ll pardon me while I look it up . . .

“It’s actually Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I’d have to say that’s my favorite, because it applies to life in general. I believe it’s similar to the statement that the best intentions are the road paved to hell, or something like that. Sorry. And it’s appropriate, considering what I’m doing, too. It says, ‘People are stupid. They will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they’re afraid it might be true.’”

What does that mean to you?

“Well, I don’t agree with the statement that people are stupid, because they’re actually quite intelligent. It’s just a lot of them live in denial. I do agree with the part that says, ‘They will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they’re afraid it might be true.’

“For example, what it says on my sign here is ‘Child Protective Services kidnaps our children without legal cause or any warrants.’ If anybody else did that to our children, they would be arrested without a moment’s notice, and yet these people go into hospitals and take babies. People believe that CPS is good for society because they want to believe that lie. They want to believe it’s true or are afraid. Fear runs society too much nowadays. We need to live more on love, less on fear, because the more we live on love, the better life will be, and these warmongers, these kidnappers, anybody else causing harm to us can’t have the power they have if we don’t fear. They will end up being the fearful ones, because love is way more powerful than fear ever could be.”

How has it felt to share these experiences and thoughts with me?

“Liberating. It’s good to know that others will be able to be inspired, because that’s what I live for. I live to serve; I live to serve others, and if I can serve others with this and help improve their lives somehow with something that I said, praise God.”

[flynn-the-cat]

My guide to the relevant political parties in NZ for the upcoming election because I need to get this rant out of my head.

Political system:

MMP, so everyone gets to vote for both a local MP and a national level party. Local MPs get in automatically, party vote decides how many extra get in.  Parties that get too small a vote don’t get into government, unless an MP is elected in their own right.

There are also specific Maori seats and the Maori electoral roll is separate from the main electoral role, so voters choose which one they want to vote on. 

Government is formed by the party or parties that can come to a working agreement and have enough votes to pass stuff.

While the two ‘main’ parties (Labour and National) are still seen as the two real government parties, voting is slowly evolving to accommodate other parties.

MMP ideally works with multiple smaller parties representing different aspects of society, rather than lumping them all into one giant party. Increases uncertainty when voting but decreases monolith governments and improves choice and representation. Allows more opportunity for strategic voting.

MMP voting means you vote for the party you like the best, while also considering who it is likely to ally with and if you can stomach that happening, and then make sure the party you want is in the strongest position possible to get a place at the table. As long as no single party totally dominates, that means the smaller parties act as build in checks and balances, lets everything average out into most people being represented and no single ideology running amok.

Main parties & how they fit in the government:

National: Main right wing party, has absorbed smaller parties and now spans everything from ‘only slightly evil’ to ‘insanely vicious to poor people and anyone who looks foreign’. Can rule alone, barely, with some very dubious jiggery pokery around smaller party support.

Labour: Main(ish) left wing party, but focused more on the center/socialist/something for everyone aspects, leaving other parties to focus on more specific idealogies. Needs to form a government with at least one other party.

Greens: The second major left wing party, originally the ‘far left environmentalist’ group, now also has a solid social policy platform. Will support Labour most of the time, will work with other parties if they can agree on policy but that will realistically never happen.

NZ First & United Future: Not really major parties, but tries to scrape enough votes to play decider between National and Labour and spends a lot of time getting sound bites so ends up looking more important than they are. Right wing.

Other parties: spin offs that are slightly too extreme for the main parties, very specific platform parties, and people trying to get a moment of fame as an MP. Mostly too small, only worth voting for to slightly influence the final composition of the government, get a local MP in as a representative, or to signal support for their platform.

About the parties:

Right Wing

National: Mishmash of mediocre middle right beaucratic fuckwits and actively evil conservative or corporate right wing fuckwits. The local equivalent of Republicans (though mostly more like the US democrats because that’s right wing for the rest of the world). Policies fall into either ‘actively sabotaging infrastructure and rights to benefit private individuals’ or ‘darn this policy from the Labour party seems popular I guess we will adopt a lukewarm version of it to stop people hating us’. Mostly runs on a platform of directly bribing rich people or pretending that business acumen means they know how to run a country, but reliably run up a massive debt and destroy large chunks of the economy while in power. Most members own multiple rental properties and have a background in a corporation or PR. Also has a massive PR budget, gets very large and shady donations from corporations, and is far too closely associated with the nasty PR crap pulled by Tories and Republicans. Very active in the ‘discouraging people to vote’ and ‘smear the opposition’ areas of Nasty Politics.

ACT: Fuckwit rich National-proxy party who are mostly out to get as much money as possible for themselves. This would be Trump’s party. Mostly dead now, only kept alive by National much to the disgust of everyone else and the few actual liberal/pure ACT voters.

NZ First: Racist fuckwits who are too ‘maverick’ for the National party, which can’t afford to be too blatantly racist. Run by one fuckwit who wanted to have his own party to play with as an ego boost and run as a purely manipulative populist party. Otherwise filled with the dregs that other parties won’t touch. Mostly acts as a protest vote for people who want to Protest but don’t actually want to research policies or can’t figure out who to vote for., as well as lots of scared/racist elderly people. Main schtick is pretending they will act for the everyday voter and being as mysterious as possible about any actual policies in order to win the leader negotiating power to get a cushy job in government. Ends up supporting National most of the time, has decided Greens are the Ultimate Easy Scare Tactic Enemy and spends a lot of time being dramatic about how they won’t work with them.

United Future: One conservative fuckwit who broke off from Labour  and is now a centrist stick in the mud supporting whoever is in charge regardless of the impact of policies. Now basically a National pupped as they pulled the same crap as they pulled with ACT and strategically supported his local candidacy. Occasionally makes dramatic stands, but is mostly concerned with his one local seat and his local popularity in White Christian Nowheresville.

Maori Seats

Maori Party: Semi fuckwits. Started out with decent intentions as a spin off from Labour trying to represent Maori people, who tend to get lost in the shuffle and get shafted a lot of the time but quickly got chewed up by the dual factors of personal greed and political inexperience. Massively overreached and ended up stuck supporting National without any leverage, so ended up withering. Most support is for the individual politicians with the party vote going to Labour, which meant that supporting National screwed them thoroughly. May have learnt their lesson this time around, but have pretty much destroyed their credibility with a lot of voters.

Mana: Not really around anymore, the spin off from Greens and a reaction to the Maori party going right wing and corporate. This is a conglomerate of people with good or semi-good ideas to improve people’s lives and no patience/tact/ability to work within other parties. Some fuckwittery, but mostly just excessively activist and sometimes a bit contradictory, policies are generally extreme left wing socialism or specifically attempting to represent Maori. Joined up with the Internet Party for funding and complementary policies, which ended up setting fire to it when the main funder of the Internet Party was dragged down in flames, but still around as a minor protest party. At this point it’s basically the left wing version of NZ First.

Left Wing

Labour: Mediocre central-slightly left wing party that veer between workers’ rights and corporate interests. A mixture of awesome and fuckwittery that averages out to a status quo party that slowly makes most things slightly better but doesn’t do make major changes or undo the worst of the preceding National government’s actions. Does reliably rebuild infrastructure and replace the depleted budget in time for the next National government to empty it again. Generally steals policies from the Green party and will happily go with the most central right wing partner option (usually NZ First), and tends to be overly worried about upsetting voters and playing it safe. Unexciting in campaigns, plays a fair bit of political manipulation in the media, but not actively corrupt and does their research, unlike fuckwit National campaigns which blatantly pull the now classic Trump lie and move on manouvre. Also attempting to address gender inequality and diversity issues, and has a range of MPs from different backgrounds (though still mostly fairly well off and political/corporate), and is getting pretty good at queer support policies.

Greens: Evolved out the Values party, which was a social marxist hippy gay people are awesome party, which was very useful activism wise but never got many votes. Split up and turned into the Green Party, a mixture of hippies, socialists, scientists and environmentalists, which made for a very interesting mixture. Used to be pretty all over the place with individuals supporting their own personal policies, but generally more of an ‘easy target’ than actually crazy (things they have been roundly mocked for: medicinal cannabis, climate change, making it officially not okay to use force on children, childcare, education, public health policies, insulating houses, clean water/anti irrigation policies, anti-fracking, animal welfare, anti-pesticides, supporting poor people in general, anti-nuclear, having lots of activists in the ranks, nonviolence, not shoving people into prison, raising the minimum wage, taking in more refugees, enforcing diversity amongst MPs, having coleaders to split the policy burden instead of a single leader that gets swapped out whenever voters stop liking them). Has some strong willed activist types who act like fuckwits but most of those have now left for start smaller and more radical parties like Mana. Has now evolved into a very disciplined party with extremely well researched social and environmental policies, the most diverse MPs (in gender, race, disability, income and previous jobs), and a solid voting base that is always slightly less than the polls predict because people like their policies but always default to a ‘main’ party in the voting booth. Doesn’t generally play gotcha games going after other parties, just sticks to the facts. Tends to float major policies, suffer the backlash, then get those policies stolen by Labour & National in a more watered down version. Has the smallest budget by far of the three main parties. Mostly cut out of government by United Future or NZ First (or both) refusing to work with them and forcing Labour to pick a partner, but has steadily increased their vote share over the last ten years. Overall, they haven’t changed position much on anything, just solidified the research and waited for society to catch up a bit.

Personal opinion: 

The number of times I use ‘fuckwit’ is probably a pretty good indicator of my biases, but to be clear: I fully and actively support the Greens and haven’t seen a policy (that they actively promote/support as a party) that isn’t evidence based and generally beneficial, and they’re by far and away the best part for disability, race, gender, sexuality, equality, conservation, and sensible investment into society. 

They produce a lot of very good policies that tend to trickle over into other parties once the ‘market testing’ has been done (so the Greens get the bruising, the governing party gets the credit). They’re also really really good at starting effective inquiries into dodgy or unresearched things to drag them out into the spotlight so they have to be fixed.

I can live with Labour, but voting for the Greens means that Labour is less able to cut them out of government, and there’s more chance of a strong opposition party if National gets back in.

Policies they have been responsible for or are currently actively promoting:

- active support for queer people (Labour is also pretty good these days, National is half fine, half conservative bigots).

- making it legal for LGBT parents to adopt

- country of origin labelling on food (common sense but corporations hate it and label it as hippy nonsense)

- Subsidising insulation in rental homes & raising standards for landlords (NZ housing is substandard and causes massive health problems, largely caused by lack of rental regulations and an unregulated housing and electricity market due to ... oh yes, mostly National).

- improving the rental policies and requlations in general (which are fucking awful and I have been thoroughly screwed over by them and would love to see the proposed changes happen)

- workplace protections for victims of domestic violence (National has been actively cutting funding to domestic violence support groups)

- the infamous ‘antismacking’ bill removing a loophole for ‘reasonable force’ used by parents being prosecuted for beating their kids (lambasted as nanny statism, voted for almost universally by all parties).

- adjusting tax rates upwards for very high incomes and helping people get out of poverty (basically cancelling out the tax bribe from National which helped sink the budget)

- active steps to address child poverty

- more sustainable housing market and banking policies to try and head off another market crash

- pressured the government to better manage toxic waste and the aftermath of the collapsed Pike River mine rather than letting companies off scott free

- legalising cannabis because it’s kinda dumb having it be illegal (opposition has mostly flopped between ‘eh, who cares’ and ‘BUT DRUUUUGS’)

- funding for an independent department to research and cost policies promoted by parties during campaigns (in reaction to incredibly blatant lies during recent elections by National)

- funding independent public journalism (National is cutting this)

- better transparency to move towards equal pay for men and women (’but the wage gap doesn’t exist!’; widely supported by women’s organisations, voted down by National and United Future because it would ‘be unfair on businesses’)

- better support for new mothers and better maternity leave policies (widely shown to be a beneficial thing but ‘not fair on businesses’)

- supporting public transport, rail freight, and cycleways (National is almost exclusively funding roads, which is has a massive negative economic value and mainly benefits the trucking industry)

- better environmental protections and support (massively sabotaged on all fronts by National)

- getting funding for support services for deaf people

- promoting sustainable energy alternatives

- ...just lots of things. SO MANY LOTS OF THINGS. And most of these things might look like something another party claimed credit for, but a little digging usually shows that it was proposed and researched by Green MPs first.

[bountyofbeads]

The 4 crucial questions Jeff Bezos needs to answer about his $10 billion climate pledge

THE ANSWERS YOU DESERVE TO KNOW.

By Theodore SCHLEIFER @teddyschleifer  | Published Feb 19, 2020, 10:00am EST | Recode | Posted February 19, 2020 |

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, has earned many rounds of applause for the commitment he made on Sunday to give $10 billion to combat climate change, but he still isn’t answering many basic questions.

The $10 billion he pledged for the Bezos Earth Fund is an unprecedented contribution that affords a private citizen great power over the world’s response to the climate crisis. It’s also a donation that deprives Americans of tax dollars since it’s subsidized by the tax code. And it comes amid mounting pressure on both Amazon for its environmental impact and on Bezos for his paltry prior philanthropy.

So there’s a clear public interest in knowing exactly how Bezos plans to spend this money. There are not, however, clear answers on some very important details.

Such as:

1) Over what time period will Bezos administer this $10 billion? Many of today’s philanthropy advocates — and the billionaires that have signed the Giving Pledge — want to see donors give away their money to solve today’s problems, rather than setting up perpetual foundations sustained by an endowment well after the benefactor has died. That’s especially true given the deadline the world is facing on climate change. If the plan is to merely administer about 5 percent — the standard amount that most foundations currently give away in a year — that would mean distributing about $250 million a year to grantees. If the plan is to eventually spend the $10 billion down to nothing, then maybe Bezos could give as much as four times that each year over the next decade. But we don’t know how he plans to dole out the money.

2) Will any of this $10 billion be eligible for policy advocacy or political campaigns? The announcement on Instagram said that Bezos would fund “scientists, activists and NGOs” and that Bezos is focusing solely on charitable giving, rather than for-profit investments. But some advocates feel that the real way to solve the climate crisis is through electing different people to Washington — or at least by pressuring politicians to take different actions once they’re in office. Bezos himself has grown more comfortable with political donations. While that’s not how people traditionally think of “charity,” it could make Bezos into a political megadonor depending on how he defines his terms.

3) Who exactly is in charge of this program? The heads of large philanthropic efforts have enormous power — and yet they are largely anonymous figures. The person that Bezos chooses will largely be acting in lieu of the Amazon founder, who has a day job. And will the Bezos Earth Fund have a board of advisers who recruit and vet possible grantees, just like Bezos’s anti-homelessness charity effort has? Who will serve on that panel? There will be many, many people who will make a gold rush for the Bezos money. The gatekeepers at his new charity will play an influential role in determining what gets funded and what doesn’t.

4) And lastly, here’s an easy one that Amazon isn’t answering: What legal structure does this philanthropy take? Is the Bezos Earth Fund a private foundation, a donor-advised fund, an LLC; part of Bezos’s personal holding company, Bezos Expeditions; or something else entirely? Those all have different implications for the amount of tax dollars the US government is deprived of since the donation is tax-deductible; the amount of money that Bezos’s philanthropy will be required to spend each year; and, importantly, the amount of disclosure that the Bezos Earth Fund will be required to offer to reporters, critics, and academics.

We asked Amazon all of these questions to try to gain clarity into what could safely be considered one of the most important tech gifts ever. It is hard to believe that at least some of the questions don’t already have answers. But Amazon declined to offer them.

“We just don’t have further details to share on announcement at the moment,” said a company spokesperson. “Please stay tuned.”

In Bezos’s defense, this fits a pattern. In September 2018, he announced on social media his first large philanthropic commitment, $2 billion for homelessness and early childhood education work, but he didn’t fill in the details with a website and the advisory committee until November. Bezos says we’ll hear from the Bezos Earth Fund this summer, so perhaps that’s when we’ll get some answers.

But it is not unreasonable to expect answers for these questions from the get-go. Bezos is enjoying some rare positive headlines about his personal wealth, but with that should come some transparency and accountability about how exactly he will spend it.

Philanthropy, at this scale and with this mission, is not merely a personal matter that is none of our business. It affects us all and deserves scrutiny.

*********

Some Oracle employees plan to walk off the job to protest Larry Ellison’s Trump fundraiser

Oracle activists are calling the Thursday plan: “No Ethics / No Work.”

By Theodore Schleifer @teddyschleifer  | Updated Feb 19, 2020, 12:23pm EST | Recode | Posted February 19, 2020 |

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s decision to host a fundraiser for Donald Trump on Wednesday has awakened the usually passive workforce at his company, angering some employees who are going public with their disgust over Ellison’s actions.

On Thursday, some Oracle employees announced plans to stop working for a few hours in order to protest their boss’s fundraiser, Recode has learned, part of a push described as “No Ethics / No Work.” A group of activists at Oracle are calling on employees to spend their afternoons volunteering with community or advocacy groups, technically part of a “log off” since so many employees work remotely.

Having failed to pressure Ellison into canceling the event, these workers are now calling on Ellison and Oracle’s board to “host a fundraiser or commit funds to a humanitarian cause of their choice” and to issue a statement “denouncing the administration’s reckless, divisive political tactics, reaffirming our company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and committing to diversifying the Board of Directors.”

The Oracle employees’ reaction reflects how toxic Trump remains in Silicon Valley — and the ire that top tech executives can draw when they align themselves with the president. And it’s revealing that it’s happening at Oracle, which employees say has a conservative culture that has not been touched by the current bouts of workforce activism sweeping major tech companies.

“It signals what I and many others have always feared,” one current Oracle employee told Recode. “Culturally, Oracle is the type of place where you’ll work with many lovely people who you share common ideals with, but those ideals have to be left at the door in service of the company.”

Employees in touch with Recode in recent days have described bubbling frustration at Oracle. They said they were privately complaining to colleagues in their offices and sharing links about the fundraiser to friends on Facebook Messenger and slowly began to organize in a Slack channel over the holiday weekend. But while many say that their coworkers are also upset, assessing the full scale of their anger is difficult because of Oracle’s culture: It discourages employees from talking about politics. That’s also why it is unclear how substantial the plans to protest Ellison will become.

On Friday, employees began circulating a petition addressed to Ellison that now has almost 6,000 signatures, although non-Oracle employees can sign it as well. The petition calls on him to cancel the fundraising event. Oracle employees are also adding the link to the petition in their email signatures and are publicizing it in internal Oracle forums, trying to drum up pressure in a company not known for activism.

“Larry Ellison’s personal implicit endorsement and financial support of Donald Trump not only damages our brand perception and misrepresents the diverse views of our company, but it adversely affects the morale of the individuals and communities who comprise Oracle,” said the group behind the petition, called Oracle Employees for Ethics. “We are signing this petition because we want our voices heard and we refuse to be complacent and complicit in Larry Ellison’s support of such a divisive person.”

Oracle has repeatedly declined to comment on this new activism. But employees who have complained to an internal integrity helpline have received this message:

“Oracle employees, including its executives, are permitted to personally participate in the political process and support candidates they choose,” the return message reads. “Oracle as a company does not endorse any particular candidates.”

Ellison, the fifth-richest person in the US, surprised the tech industry last week when news broke that he would host Trump for a golf-filled fundraiser at his estate in California’s Coachella Valley. The event on Wednesday is, by far, the most significant public display of support for Trump 2020 by a tech titan.

Or as another Oracle employee, granted anonymity like others because they were candidly discussing their boss, told Recode: “Oracle is not supposed to be political but yet our CEO is doing something very political, no?”

“This fundraiser is a slap in the face to all of us, especially as Larry champions the environment and is building a hospital,” this employee said, referring to Ellison’s personal philanthropy. “This shows that he cares about money over all else. And that is what matters. But what is the average employee to do?”

The petition and the walkout are small but bold steps for employees at Oracle. Companies like Google are famous for fostering an open culture that leaves room for rabble-rousers and vigorous political debate during the workday. Other tech giants have proven much more outspoken about Trump policies like the ban on immigrants from Muslim countries and the debate over letting DREAMers stay in the United States.

But Oracle, from C-suite on down, is basically the anti-Google, some current and former employees say. Politics rarely comes up in the office. And there is very limited cross-team communication on internal forums about political matters; plus, employees are concerned that any posts critical of management would be monitored.

Compared to other tech companies, employees at the business-to-business software company say their colleagues skew older and more conservative (although Oracle’s workforce relies heavily on immigrants who have come to the US on H-1B visas, a program that Trump has cracked down on.)

That explains why despite some employees’ frustrations with Ellison, they have been slow to mobilize en masse.

Plus, some employees say they feel resigned because they believe that Ellison will do whatever he likes — regardless of his employees’ frustrations.

“Everyone I spoke to had the general attitude of, ‘It sucks but we can’t tell Larry anything,’” said one former employee, who recounted his conversation with five of his colleagues.

“There’s a thoroughly defeatist culture within Oracle,” one current employee said. “Won’t be any institutional challenge internally.”

It is not as though Ellison’s support for Republicans is a total shock. Oracle has been one of the Silicon Valley giants that has worked hardest to cultivate ties to the Trump administration. Other tech giants have tried to keep at least some distance from the administration, but Oracle CEO Safra Catz has  reportedly been under consideration to take senior roles within the White House, and she has hired several former senior Trump aides at Oracle.

Oracle’s ties to the administration led one executive in 2016 to resign from the company and blast it on the way out — but he was an exception to the rule.

And not all of Oracle’s workforce is upset over Ellison’s plans to fundraise for Trump. One current employee told Recode that he was proud of Ellison’s decision.

“I personally love that Ellison is willing to stand up for what he believes in even though it goes against the grain of what most people in the field and employees at his company believe politically,” this employee said.

But one of the ironies of Ellison’s public display of support for Trump is that he is not a dyed-in-the-wool Trump backer. Ellison was particularly close to Bill Clinton, once attending a ritzy dinner fundraiser in Silicon Valley for the Clinton campaign’s reelection race for about a dozen of Clinton’s top California donors. He once joked that the Constitution should have been amended to give Clinton a third term.

He was backing Democrats like Harry Reid as recently as 2013. In 2015, he hosted Barack Obama at the same golf course that Donald Trump will visit on Wednesday. Ellison didn’t even donate to Trump in 2016. (He was a major donor to a Super PAC backing Sen. Marco Rubio in the Republican presidential primary.)

That’s what makes Ellison’s decision perplexing to at least one person who was once close to him.

“He is a huge, huge liberal Democrat,” said this person. They described Ellison, a registered Democrat, as having been “so proud of the fact that he was one of the few [Fortune 100] CEOs who didn’t put greed before everything.”

“Larry looked down on Republicans of all stripes — especially the conservative evangelical ones,” the person said. “This Trump stuff makes no sense.”

*********

[meraenthusiast]

7 Steps To Building Wealth With Real Estate

Building Wealth With Real Estate

For the first 7-8 years after I started practicing periodontal surgery, I was mainly focused on getting out from under $250K+ of student loan debt using Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps. I’ll admit that I didn’t follow his advice exactly as he teaches.

For my situation, I felt I could both pay down debt aggressively while also investing for our future which goes against his principle of becoming consumer debt-free BEFORE investing any extra money.

This particular method has worked for me and should work for most people that make an above average income but…. to each his own.

The more I listened to Dave’s show, the more I occasionally heard him mention that he loved real estate as an investment. But I never really thought much of it because, again, of his recommending that we should first focus on becoming debt-free.

At the time, I was heavily invested in index funds but wanted to learn more about investing in general.

The more books I read on the subject, the more I realized that the majority of millionaires owned real estate. So if most millionaires (and billionaires) owned real estate, and I wanted to continue to grow my wealth, maybe I should get into real estate too, right?

Just like the old saying goes, “If you can’t beat ’em then join ’em“.

So a few years ago I set out to look into different options to begin diversifying a certain percentage of our non-retirement holdings into real estate. Man, am I glad I did!

During this self-education process, I’ve been able to not only read some fantastic books on the subject but also meet some incredible people that are putting out fantastic content as well.

Some of those that I’ve met are:

Joe Fairless – who focuses on apartment syndications. Joe has a great book on this subject called The Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book

Michael Blank – also teaches about apartment building investing with a special focus on raising money. You can check out his new book, Financial Freedom With Real Estate Investing.

Kenji and Leti – a husband and wife team over at Semiretired MD who offer both coaching and online courses teaching docs about real estate investing.

Yours truly with The Real Estate Physician

Cherry Chen – is an internist in Dallas that runs The Real Estate Physician site. My wife and I had breakfast with her recently and she’s full of great ideas when it comes to real estate investing.

If you’re interested in building REAL wealth using real estate, it’s important to know all of the in’s and out’s that are available.

Depending on which route you choose, it could end up being a huge commitment which you may or may not be ready for at this stage of your career.

What Holds People Back?

I often ask nervous patients what causes them to be fearful of a surgical procedure. Many cite that it’s fear of the “unknown.”

This same “fear” also prevents us from reaching our true potential in life.  Same thing can be said with real estate investing. The costs and skills that are needed with some of the different investments such as fix and flips can be daunting.

So it’s really important to understand what your options are before diving in head first. I recently heard a podcast where an investor started out doing fix and flips, a few years later he moved on to buying and selling foreclosures, then shifted to buying single family homes.

Sometimes it’ll take trying different things before knowing what works best for your situation.

A few of the questions you should be asking yourself are:

What are the different types of real estate investments available?

Is it really worth all the effort it takes?

Is this type of investing reliable enough to be part of my retirement plan?

What are other passive investing options instead?

Do I want to continue working, trading my time for money, or invest in something that could provide true financial freedom in five years or less?

Again, this is not for everyone, but you’ll see some phenomenal results if you do it the right way.

Let’s get into the exact steps it’ll take to build wealth with real estate….

7 Steps To Building Wealth With Real Estate

1) Start with your “why”

The first place to start when it comes to building wealth with real estate is….drum roll please…You!

Just like Michael Jackson used to sing, “I’m starting with the Man in the mirror.”

Many times when we seek to make a positive change for ourselves (lose weight, meet new friends, become wealthy), it’s ourselves that hold us back.

Brandon Turner over at BiggerPockets, says that there are 3 things that you must change if you want to become wealthy.

He calls these 3 things “The Wealth Tripod“.

Brandon states:

“All three steps are required if you want to build and maintain wealth. Like a camera tripod — if one of the legs is broken, the entire tripod will fall down.”

Here are the three legs of The Wealth Tripod

You must believe wealth is actually possible for you.

You must learn how wealth is built.

You must live out the steps needed to make it happen.

  The best book EVER written regarding building a “wealth building mindset” is Napoleon Hill’s “Think And Grow Rich“.

If you haven’t read it and are serious about building wealth, it’s a MUST read. Go on over to Amazon and get it HERE. Share it with your spouse and kids. It’s that good.

Ok, let’s get back to Step #1.

Do me a favor and get out a blank sheet of paper.

No, seriously, I really want you to do this quick exercise as it’s going to get you going in the right direction.

On the paper I want you to write down is as much detail, WHY you want to build wealth.

To get you started and hopefully motivated, I’ll tell you a quick story. Only a few short weeks ago, my oldest son who NEVER talks about money came up to me and said, “Dad, will you teach me about investments and real estate like you’re always reading and writing about some day?”

Listen, for those of you that have teenagers, we know that when they make it a point to put down their phones and ask us questions, we better listen. Who knows when they’ll come out of their shell again!

I’ll be honest with you, his question REALLY motivated me to continue learning and networking with people about real estate investing. What better “Why” can someone have than being able to pass it on to their kids.

Proverbs 13:22 – “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.”

So once you state your “Why” you want to really do this, then that should keep you motivated to continue doing what it takes to get involved even when things aren’t going the way you may want them to in the future.

Listen, I’ve had real estate deals that haven’t done as well as expected (think RealtyShares). That’s OK as long as you LEARN something from it and not make the same mistake(s) again. It’s going to happen. But your “Why” is going to help you get over some of those humps and push past your comfort zone to keep you on track.

2) Learn how wealth is built

If you “Google” the phrase “building wealth,” as of this writing, there are roughly 270 billion search results. That’s billion with a “B”.

This shows us that there’s no excuse why someone can’t find a resource out there that teaches how to build up a big pile of money. It ain’t rocket science.

It’s like anything else in life. If you want to get good at something then you simply:

Study it

Learn it

Master it

This is why you’ll often hear highly successful people say, “The first million is the hardest.”

It reminds me of snow skiing. I first learned to ski on a church youth group trip in high school. My best friend Mike AKA “Gummer,” pulled me aside after the first day when he noticed that I wasn’t quite catching on in ski school. He brought me up to the top of the mountain in Monarch Colorado and taught me himself.

Once I learned to ski, it clicked. After that trip, I didn’t ski again for over 20 years but picked it right back up because once you learn something, such as “making the first million,” you can then repeat it over and over again for the rest of your life.

After reading books, attending seminars and networking with wealthy people, I’ve come to realize that wealth is made in one of three categories:

Personal Finance

Business

Real Estate

If you’ve been an avid reader on this site, then you should be aware of the first two. In my opinion, if you really want to do it right, then focus on all three categories. But for today’s purposes, we’re going to continue focusing on #3, real estate.

Now that you know how wealth is built, let’s move on to step 3…

3) Must take action

How many times have you wanted to do something that you were excited about? What happened? Did you do it? If not, you probably started reading and learning about it but never did anything else with it because you didn’t take action.

I can “want” to learn how to improve my forehand in tennis by reading articles and watching YouTube videos ’til the cows come home.

But getting the “Federer Forehand,” like all us tennis players want, is not going to happen by itself.

Why? I’ve got to get on the court and take action. My forehand isn’t going to change to one like his by itself (even though I wish it could!).

The same thing rings true with building wealth with real estate. You can think you can do it, you can learn how to do it, but if you don’t take action, it’s not going to happen.

Nobody, not even the government, can help you.

As with anything else, “action” is the real key to finding success in whatever we go after in life. Without it, you have nothing.

It really doesn’t matter which of the three wealth building categories from Step #2 above you choose to pursue (or all three). Just make sure that you set aside a certain amount of time each week, or better yet each day, and take action.

4) Decide what type of real estate investor you want to be

Now that you have your “why” you are wanting to pursue investing in real estate and you know you must take action in order to continue moving forward, it’s time to decide on which route you want to take: Active vs Passive Real Estate Investing

Most active investors that I personally know that also have a “day job” typically have been involved in real estate in some form or fashion in the past. Usually their family has rental property and they already have some type of support for the day-to-day operations it takes to run a successful real estate business.

If you want to pursue the active real estate route, you need to have two things that we’ve already touched on:

Time

Expertise

Does your full time job and family obligations leave you enough spare time to be an active investor? If so, is this something that you’ve already been taught or have experience with?

Have you had a mentor show you what it takes to be successful in this business? If you’ve answered “no” to these questions then perhaps you’re better off passively investing.

The good news is that there’s multiple different ways to invest passively in real estate. For busy professionals such as ourselves, we want the benefit of an extra stream of income with the benefit of more time minus the headaches of managing properties ourselves.

For me, it’s a win-win situation.

For most of you, passive investing is going to make more sense in the long run.

5) Residential or commercial?

By now, you should’ve decided if you want to pursue either the passive or active route. For most of us, passive investing is the better option. Why? Because it makes more sense to go do what we’ve been trained to do instead of unclogging toilets in the middle of the night.

Here’s a perfect example of someone else that recommends this same line of thinking. One of the things I like about motivational speaker and real estate giant Grant Cardone is that he tells his audience to focus on what they do best and get really good at it BEFORE getting into real estate investing.

Now I realize that he maybe a bit flamboyant at times but he resonates with a lot of people. Many of his videos hit home with me. There have been controversies between who should we listen to, him or Dave Ramsey. I once heard that the difference between the two boils down to this:

Dave Ramsey’s message is for the masses while Grant Cardone’s is for entrepreneurs.

No matter who you end up listening to, there’s still too many people out there that want success but aren’t willing to work for it. But you did. So for you, me, and many others, we should stick with what we know best whether it’s dentistry, medicine, tax law, or whatever our trade is.

We paid the price, put in the long hours, and didn’t party like our friends every weekend so we could achieve our goals.

Don’t give that up.

Now your next step is to decide (either in a passive or active role) which type of real estate you want to invest in.

If you start searching online for different options, you’ll quickly realize that there’s tons of different choices to choose from. But you can boil all of these down into 2 main categories:

Residential or Commercial real estate

First, let’s define what each of these encompass. An easy way to remember the difference between the two is that residential real estate is four units or less. That’s it. So it includes:

single family homes

duplexes

triplexes

quads

On the other hand, commercial real estate encompasses:

office buildings

retail (strip centers)

storage units

multifamily (five units and larger)

When people first begin investing with real estate, they typically want to start off small by investing in single family homes. There are those out there that make money in this space but again, it all boils down to your goals.

When I first started investing in real estate, I also thought the way to go was with single family homes. Once I started educating myself, I quickly learned that in order to scale for larger success, it would make more sense to invest in the commercial segment.

Another reason involved the risk factor. I, like many of you, have a family and wouldn’t want to jeopardize them in any way. In my opinion, I think multifamily poses a lesser risk. You know as well as I do that ALL investments pose some form of risk. But not all have the SAME risk.

For instance, there’s a big difference betting…I mean investing in penny stocks versus saving money in a CD. For me, I like to try to get the best possible return while taking the least amount of risk. And multifamily real estate is one of those investments where you can achieve this.

6) Do your due diligence

If you’re thinking about getting into real estate investing, whether passive or active, doing so without doing your research is a recipe for disaster.

Looking back at some of my first crowdfunding deals with RealtyShares that aren’t performing is totally my fault. I didn’t do my part to not only research the property thoroughly but also the sponsor of the deal.

One of the key factors to never pass over is the market area. In one of my previous deals that has still yet to pay in two years, it was in a crime infested area which caused many people to both move out and made it difficult to get renters once they left.

Had I done my part and studied this beforehand, I’d have never made the investment. Lesson learned.

I realize that doing the research is not the most fun thing to do in the world, but it’s one of the most important parts of this entire process. Nobody is going to look out for your money more than YOU!

If you plan on becoming more of a passive investor, then you can outsource a lot of this research to professionals. But you still need to be educated enough to ask them questions on how and why they choose their markets as well as their track record within those markets.

7) Learn and utilize the “Wealth Generators”

When you invest in real estate, there are 4 main “wealth generators” you must pay attention to.

They are:

a) Cash flow

One of the biggest reasons people invest in real estate is for cash flow. I love the thought of spending time with my family on vacation knowing that each month positive cash flow is coming my way. I guess for me as a solo practitioner, it’s even better because I’m been so used to relying on only one stream of income, myself.

Cash flow is nothing more than the what’s left over after all the property expenses and mortgage is paid each month.

b) Appreciation

Appreciation happens when the value of a property increases (appreciates) over time. Just like the stock market, there are ups and downs in the housing market (2008 crash). But historically, the value of real estate has typically increased in the U.S.

I typically invest in “value add” real estate which produces “forced appreciation.” This is the concept of increasing the value while physically updating/improving the apartment.

The apartment syndication deals I’m currently invest in typically have a hold time of 5 years. During that time, the apartments are updated, the rents are gradually increased and then when the property is sold in 5 years, forced appreciation is noted.

c) Loan pay down

If you take out a mortgage to buy real estate (ie 4 plex), each month your tenants pay you rent, right? What they’re essentially doing is paying down your loan balance for you. This is cool because as they continue doing this, it helps you to build wealth automatically over time.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you purchased an apartment complex for $500,000 with a mortgage of $400,000. During the time that you held it, it broke even (had $0 in cash flow) and never appreciated – which is very unlikely. Hang with me here while I try to make a point.

So after the 30 year mortgage is paid off, guess what? You now own an apartment complex free and clear worth $500,000 that you never had to save for. Why? Your tenants bought it for you via the loan pay down. Good stuff!

d) Tax advantages

One of the most overlooked advantages of building wealth with real estate are the tax benefits that are associated it. Some of the advantages owners get to deduct include:

interest

insurance

maintenance

even depreciation over time as business write-offs

Plus, when an investor sells a property and exercises a 1031 exchange to reinvest the proceeds into a new property, the person can defer all capital-gains taxes. Our government loves real estate investors and uses the tax system to encourage our purchase and leasing of properties.

Conclusion

Now that you know the seven steps to building wealth with real estate, I hope you realize that there’s more to investing in it that just “making money.”

It’s really about taking control of your life, preventing burnout, and not having to worry about whether you have enough to retire on or if you can ever retire at all.

It’s about building real wealth. The kind that allows you to enjoy the financial freedom to go out and do whatever you choose to do.

Are you ready?

Are you ready to begin the process of building wealth and not having to worry about your future?

If you answered yes, I’d be happy to discuss with you my experience I’ve had with passive real estate investing in more detail. It’s what I and many other doctors invest in to quickly achieve financial independence.

The post 7 Steps To Building Wealth With Real Estate appeared first on Debt Free Dr..

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[christina-mitchell]

Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil

00:17

Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil.

00:20

Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.

21 Ways Rich People Think Differently

00:57

1. Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil.Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.

01:10

"The average person has been brainwashed to believe rich people are lucky or dishonest

01:15

That's why there's a certain shame that comes along with "getting rich" in lower-income communities.

01:22

"The world class knows that while having money doesn't guarantee happiness, it does make your life easier and more enjoyable."

01:36

Average people think selfishness is a vice. Rich people think selfishness is a virtue.

01:42

"The rich go out there and try to make themselves happy. They don't try to pretend to save the world

01:51

The problem is that middle class people see that as a negative--and it's keeping them poor, he writes.

01:56

"If you're not taking care of you, you're not in a position to help anyone else. You can't give what you don't have."

02:07

Average people have a lottery mentality. Rich people have an action mentality.

02:19

"While the masses are waiting to pick the right numbers and praying for prosperity, the great ones are solving problems

02:23

"The hero [middle class people] are waiting for may government, their boss or their spouse.

02:26

It's the average person's level of thinking that breeds this approach to life and living while the clock keeps ticking away."

02:48

Average people think the road to riches is paved with formal education.

02:54

Rich people believe in acquiring specific knowledge.

03:00

"Many world-class performers have little formal education, and have amassed their wealth through the acquisition and subsequent sale of specific knowledge

03:12

"Meanwhile, the masses are convinced that master's degrees and doctorates are the way to wealth,

03:20

mostly because they are trapped in the linear line of thought that holds them back from higher levels of consciousness

03:30

.The wealthy aren't interested in the means, only the end."

03:37

Average people long for the good old days. Rich people dream of the future

03:45

Self-made millionaires get rich because they're willing to bet on themselves and project their dreams,

03:54

goals and ideas into an unknown future

03:57

People who believe their best days are behind them rarely get rich,

04:03

and often struggle with unhappiness and depression

04:08

Average people see money through the eyes of emotion.

04:12

Rich people think about money logically.

04:17

An ordinarily smart, well-educated and otherwise successful person

04:22

can be instantly transformed into a fear-based,

04:26

scarcity driven thinker whose greatest financial aspiration is to retire comfortably.

04:35

The world class sees money for what it is and what it's not,through the eyes of logic.

04:40

The great ones know money is a critical tool that presents options and opportunities

04:46

Average people earn money doing things they don't love.

04:52

Rich people follow their passion.

04:58

To the average person, it looks like the rich are working all the time

05:03

But one of the smartest strategies of the world class is doing what they love and finding a way to get paid for it

05:09

On the other hand, middle class take jobs they don't enjoy

05:15

"because they need the money and they've been trained in school and conditioned

05:19

by society to live in a linear thinking world that equates earning money with physical or mental effort

05:27

Average people set low expectations so they're never disappointed.

05:32

Rich people are up for the challenge.

05:36

Psychologists and other mental health experts often advise people to set low

05:43

expectations for their life to ensure they are not disappointed

05:48

No one would ever strike it rich and live their dreams without huge expectations

05:58

Average people believe you have to DO something to get rich.

06:04

Rich people believe you have to BE something to get rich.

06:11

That's why people like Donald Trump go from millionaire to nine billion dollars in debt and come back richer than ever

06:22

While the masses are fixated on the doing and the immediate results of their actions,

06:23

the great ones are learning and growing from every experience,

06:31

whether it's a success or a failure, knowing their true reward

06:39

is becoming a human success machine that eventually produces outstanding results

06:44

Average people believe you need money to make money

06:49

Rich people use other people's money.

06:55

Linear thought might tell people to make money in order to earn more,

06:59

but Siebold says the rich aren't afraid to fund their future from other people's pockets.

07:08

Rich people know not being solvent enough to personally afford something is not relevant.

07:12

The real question is, 'Is this worth buying, investing in, or pursuing?

07:21

Average people believe the markets are driven by logic and strategy.

07:26

Rich people know they're driven by emotion and greed.

07:32

Investing successfully in the stock market isn't just about a fancy math formula.

07:39

The rich know that the primary emotions that drive financial markets are fear and greed,

07:47

and they factor this into all trades and trends they observe

07:51

This knowledge of human nature and its overlapping impact on trading give them strategic advantage in building greater wealth through leverage.

08:03

Average people live beyond their means. Rich people live below theirs.

08:12

Here's how to live below your means and tap into the secret wealthy people have used for centuries: Get rich so you can afford to

08:22

The rich live below their means, not because they're so savvy,

08:27

but because they make so much money that they can afford to live like royalty while still having a king's ransom socked away for the future

Average people teach their children how to survive. Rich people teach their kids to get rich.

Rich parents teach their kids from an early age about the world of "haves" and "have-nots," Siebold says.

Even he admits many people have argued that he's supporting the idea of elitism.

He disagrees.

[People] say parents are teaching their kids to look down on the masses because they're poor.

This isn't true," he writes. "What they're teaching their kids is to see the world through the eyes of objective reality--the way society really is If children understand wealth early on, they'll be more likely to strive for it later in life.

Average people let money stress them out. Rich people find peace of mind in wealth.

09:43

The reason wealthy people earn more wealth is that they're not afraid to admit that money can solve most problems.

09:52

[The middle class] sees money as a never-ending necessary evil that must be endured as part of life.

09:58

The world class sees money as the great liberator, and with enough of it, they are able to purchase financial peace of mind.

10:08

Average people would rather be entertained than educated. Rich people would rather be educated than entertained.

10:16

While the rich don't put much stock in furthering wealth through formal education,

10:21

they appreciate the power of learning long after college is over

10:27

Walk into a wealthy person's home and one of the first things you'll see is an extensive library of books they've used to educate themselves on how to become more successful

10:38

The middle class reads novels, tabloids and entertainment magazines.

10:47

Average people think rich people are snobs. Rich people just want to surround themselves with like-minded people.

11:00

The negative money mentality poisoning the middle class is what keeps the rich hanging out with the rich.

11:10

[Rich people] can't afford the messages of doom and gloom. "This is often misinterpreted by the masses as snobbery.

11:19

Labeling the world class as snobs is another way the middle class finds to feel better bout themselves and their chosen path of mediocrity

11:34

Average people focus on saving. Rich people focus on earning.

11:40

theorizes that the wealthy focus on what they'll gain by taking risks, rather than how to save what they have.

11:48

The masses are so focused on clipping coupons and living frugally they miss major opportunities

11:58

Even in the midst of a cash flow crisis, the rich reject the nickle and dime thinking of the masses.

12:04

They are the masters of focusing their mental energy where it belongs: on the big money

12:11

Average people play it safe with money. Rich people know when to take risks.

12:21

Leverage is the watchword of the rich,

12:24

Every investor loses money on occasion, but the world class knows no matter what happens, they will aways be able to earn more.

12:39

Average people love to be comfortable. Rich people find comfort in uncertainty.

12:48

For the most part, it takes guts to take the risks necessary to make it as a millionaire--a challenge most middle class thinkers aren't comfortable living with.

13:03

Physical, psychological, and emotional comfort is the primary goal of the middle class mindset

13:10

World class thinkers learn early on that becoming a millionaire isn't easy and the need for comfort can be devastating.

13:21

They learn to be comfortable while operating in a state of ongoing uncertainty.

13:30

Average people never make the connection between money and health. Rich people know money can save your life.

13:39

While the middle class squabbles over the virtues of Obamacare and their company's health plan, the super wealthy are enrolled in a super elite "boutique medical care" association

13:54

"They pay a substantial yearly membership fee that guarantees them 24-hour access to a private physician who only serves a small group of members," he writes.

14:04

Average people believe they must choose between a great family and being rich. Rich people know you can have it all.

14:16

The idea the wealth must come at the expense of family time is nothing but a "cop-out.

14:20

The masses have been brainwashed to believe it's an either/or equation.

14:28

"The rich know you can have anything you want if you approach the challenge with a mindset rooted in love and abundance.

[element-effect-blog]

100 Inspirational Leadership Quotes To Make You a Better Manager This Year

Happy New Year, everyone!

Like many of our team, if you're taking on the responsibility of managing a team this year, understand one thing:

The best managers aren't focused on improving their ability to supervise, they're focused on improving their ability to lead. 

Almost anyone can be trained to manage, but very few actually succeed in becoming truly great leaders.

So, while the new year confetti is still settling and before you're neck-deep in the year's objectives, here's a little inspiration. 

I've scoured the Internet to find 100 leadership quotes to help you help your team unlock their full potential and drive results for your business in the new year.

Take these quotes, tweet them out to your followers, scribble them down in your moleskin, or heck, carve them into the side of your desk -- Ok, maybe don't do that.

Whatever you do with them, remember, a good leader doesn't simply tell people what to do, they give people the skills, tools, and guidance to do it better on their own. 

100 Leadership Quotes to Make You a Better Manager in 2018

“Followers think and talk about their problems....Leaders think and talk about the solutions.” - Brian Tracy [Tweet This]

2. “Those who let things happen usually lose to those who make things happen.” - Dave Weinbaum [Tweet This]

3. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Q. Adams [Tweet This] 

4. “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.” - Max Lucado [Tweet This] 

5. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” - Henry Adams [Tweet This]

6. “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”- John C. Maxwell [Tweet This]

 “A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.” - Herb Kelleher [Tweet This] 

8. "The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." - Kenneth Blanchard [Tweet This]

9. “To lead people, walk behind them.” - Lao Tzu [Tweet This]

10. "As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." - Bill Gates [Tweet This]

He who has great power should use it lightly." - Seneca [Tweet This]

12. "Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day." - Jesse Jackson [Tweet This] 

13. "Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing."  - Tom Peters [Tweet This]

14. “The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” - Tony Blair [Tweet This]

Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts." - Erskine Bowles [Tweet This] 

16. “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” - Margaret Thatcher [Tweet This]

17. “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” - John F. Kennedy [Tweet This] 

18. “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.” - Seth Godin [Tweet This]

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” - Steve Jobs [Tweet This]

20. "Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better." - Bill Bradley [Tweet This]

21. “A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.” - Stephen King [Tweet This]

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent." - Abraham Lincoln [Tweet This]

23. "There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage." - Fuchan Yuan [Tweet This]

24. "Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow." - Chinese Proverb [Tweet This]

“To add value to others, one must first value others.” - John C. Maxwell [Tweet This]

26. "If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities." - Maya Angelou [Tweet This]

27. "Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise." - Woodrow Wilson [Tweet This]

28. "The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision." - Ken Blanchard [Tweet This]

29. "To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult." - Friedrich Nietzsche [Tweet This]

30. “The first key to leadership is self-control.” - Jack Weatherford [Tweet This]

Earn your leadership every day." - Michael Jordan [Tweet This]

32. "There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage." - Fuchan Yuan [Tweet This]

33. "The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership." - Harvey Firestone [Tweet This]

34.  "A leader takes people where they would never go on their own.” - Hans Finzel [Tweet This]

A boss says, Go! A leader says, Let’s go!" - E.M. Kelly [Tweet This]

36. "The supreme quality of leadership is integrity." – Dwight D. Eisenhower [Tweet This]

37. "I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people." - Mahatma Gandhi [Tweet This]

38. "Leadership - leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses." - Mitt Romney [Tweet This]

39. "The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." - Ray Kroc [Tweet This]

40. "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." - George Patton [Tweet This]

41. "Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people." - John D. Rockefeller [Tweet This]

42. "The speed of the leader is the speed of the gang." - Mary Kay Ash [Tweet This]

43. "Great companies in the way they work, start with great leaders." - Steve Ballmer [Tweet This]

44. "Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people." - Simon Sinek [Tweet This]

45. "Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm." - Publilius Syrus [Tweet This]

46. "A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe [Tweet This]

47. "I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be." -Warren Bennis [Tweet This]

48. "Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position." - Brian Tracy [Tweet This]

49. "When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter." - Winston Churchill [Tweet This]

50. "Don’t necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership." - Donald Rumsfeld [Tweet This]

51. “Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determinations.” - John Seaman Garns [Tweet This]

52. "If you really want the key to success, start by doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing." - Brad Szollose [Tweet This]

53. "You get the best efforts from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within." - Bob Nelson [Tweet This]

“A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be.” - Jack Welch [Tweet This]

55. "You get in life what you have the courage to ask for." - Nancy D. Solomon [Tweet This]

56. “A leader is someone who creates infectious enthusiasm.” - Ted Turner [Tweet This]

57. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." - Warren Bennis [Tweet This]

58. "You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that’s assault, not leadership." Dwight D. Eisenhower  [Tweet This]

59. "I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself." Robert E. Lee [Tweet This]

60. “Great leaders state out loud what they intend to do and in doing so, they get things done.” - Simon Sinek [Tweet This]

61. "Great leaders inspire people to have confidence in themselves." - Eleanor Roosevelt [Tweet This]

62. “Business leaders cannot be bystanders.” - Howard Schultz [Tweet This]

63. "Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another." - John C. Maxwell [Tweet This]

64. "If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything." - Tom Rath [Tweet This]

65. “The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes.” - Tony Blair [Tweet This]

66. “What you do has far greater impact than what you say." - Stephen Covey [Tweet This]

67. "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." - Alice Walker [Tweet This]

68. "If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else." - Booker T. Washington [Tweet This]

69. “To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.” - Andre Malraux [Tweet This]

70. "Leadership is intentional influence." - Michael McKinney [Tweet This]

71. “A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position.” - John C. Maxwell [Tweet This]

72. "You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too." - Sam Rayburn [Tweet This]

73. "Trust is the essence of Leadership." - Colin Powell [Tweet This]

74. “A real leader faces the music even when he doesn't like the tune.” - Arnold H. Glasgow [Tweet This]

75. “When people are placed in positions slightly above what they expect, they are apt to excel.” - Richard Branson [Tweet This]

76. "The real leader has no need to lead — he is content to point the way." - Henry Miller [Tweet This] 

77. “A leader is a dealer in hope.” - Napoleon Bonaparte [Tweet This]

78. “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” - Henry Kissinger [Tweet This]

79. "Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible." - Colin Powell [Tweet This]

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.” -Mohandas K. Gandhi [Tweet This]

81. “Education is the mother of leadership” - Wendell Willkie [Tweet This]

82. “Leadership is the key to 99 percent of all successful efforts.” - Erskine Bowles [Tweet This]

83. “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” - Dianne Feinstein [Tweet This]

84. "A good leader can't get too far ahead of his followers." - Franklin D. Roosevelt [Tweet This]

85. “You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.” - Jeanette Rankin [Tweet This]

86. "Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together." - Jesse Jackson [Tweet This]

87. “Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” - Sheryl Sandberg [Tweet This]

88. "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality." - Max De Pree [Tweet This] 

89. "Leaders don't force people to follow—they invite them on a journey." - Charles S. Lauer [Tweet This] 

90. "Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve." - Tom Landry [Tweet This]

"A good leader leads the people from above them. A great leader leads the people from within them." - M.D. Arnold [Tweet This]

92. "Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision." - Peter F. Drucker [Tweet This]

93. "Management works in the system; leadership works on the system." - Stephen Covey [Tweet This]

94. "Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing." - Albert Schweitzer [Tweet This]

95. "Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." - Robert L. Stevenson [Tweet This]

96. "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." - Ralph Waldo Emerson [Tweet This]

97. "To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." - Eleanor Roosevelt [Tweet This]

98. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way." - John C. Maxwell [Tweet This]

99. "Leadership is an action, not a position." - Donald McGannon [Tweet This]

100. "Surround yourself with great people; delegate authority; get out of the way." - Ronald Reagan [Tweet This]

This content was originally published here.

[robertawilliams]

Why Brexit Shouldn’t Concern the Online British Entrepreneur

Brexit.

Yep—we’re going there. Today, for the first time ever, I want to share with you exactly what I think about Brexit, how it’s going to affect UK businesses (online and off), and why you should be paying VERY close attention.

(Hint: It’s probably not what you think.)

British entrepreneurs are full of fear and distrust lately. Even as the business community settles into and tries to understand Brexit, we are afraid to act until someone else does first. No one wants to be the first penguin to jump, which means a whole lot of would-be entrepreneurs are just standing on the edge of the iceberg.

We can’t go back, but few feel ready to move forward.

The US election may have made things worse: as of November 8, there are millions of Americans feeling much the same way we felt back in June. And instead of reassuring our fellow entrepreneurs across the pond, too many have chosen to retreat back into fear and inaction.

This kind of climate can stop an entrepreneur before they even get started, and can derail otherwise successful businesses. They’re even saying so themselves:

“This is bad news for the tech industry,” , CEO and co-founder of the London-based online background checking firm Onfido.

“The outcome is a disaster for this country,” , chief executive of the UK-based peer-to-peer business lending firm, Archover. “You can expect foreign businesses, institutions, and other investors to start pulling out of the UK.”

The more I read about what Brexit is doing to our vibrant business community here in the UK, the more frustrated I get. Why?

Because Brexit isn’t the problem—fear is the problem!

I don’t say any of this to diminish the realities of the referendum, the US election, or anything else happening in the world right now. Quite the opposite! My life and businesses are in both countries, as are many of my family and friends. I know how many people are feeling conflicted right now.

But seriously, this reactionary panic has got to stop! There will always be things to be afraid of—remember Y2K? Remember 2008? Yes, those examples are different from Brexit for all kinds of reasons, but every example is different from the ones that came before. That’s how history repeats itself without any of us learning from it.

Here, let me prove it.

Here are 8 reasons why Brexit shouldn’t concern British entrepreneurs, along with alternatives that actually will make a difference for your business, your audience, and YES, even your country—my country.

8 Reasons Brexit Doesn’t Matter for British Entrepreneurs

1. Online business is global. The people you want to serve aren’t limited to one geographical space. That hasn’t been true for decades. In fact, if you’re globally focused, it’s never been true. This blog, for example, reaches an average of 130,000 unique readers every month. Only 10% of you are from the UK!Need another example? In an , Martin Mills, founder and chairman of the 43-year-old record company Beggars Group, said, “While we digest the consequences, we’d just like to reassure you all that the Beggars family is, always has been, and always will be, international, with no frontiers.” (Sounds a lot more success-minded, doesn’t it?)

2. You can’t change change. My dad used to say there are only three things you can count on: death, taxes, and change. It’s true, and it means there’s no excuse to ignore or stall on your business just because something has changed again. Things will keep changing, and those changes will always scare off the people who weren’t meant to be here in the first place. Will you be among them, or will you step up? If you choose the latter, you’ll be in good company. “We are where we are,” , CEO and cofounder of Love Home Swap and founding chair of Sharing Economy UK. “And now entrepreneurs need to draw on their ability to embrace change and deal with adversity by tackling these challenges and carving out a new way forward.”

3. Success demands risk. Some of the UK’s most successful businesses were started in times of uncertainty, including the £5-billion Virgin Group. And if we end up in another recession, there’s some proof out there that . It is an entrepreneur’s #1 job see the same situations that others see and react differently. We don’t run for safety; we advance into uncertainty. And then we win. Like Bronek Masojada, CEO of Hiscox, said, “The dogged entrepreneurs are more likely to say that the economic environment has made them more likely to succeed. This is true grit.”

4. Your only boss is YOU. Government drama doesn’t dictate my success or lack thereof, and the same is true for you. Brexit doesn’t sign your paychecks, refer you for promotion, or sign off on your expenses. Why would you give it, or any random entity, that much power over your business? Who’s the CEO here, anyway?!

5. The stats are irrelevant. within 5 years. Early on, Brexit had of failing. Until election night, Hillary Clinton had of winning the presidency.What do all those stats have in common? They don’t matter. They make for great headlines the morning after, but all they’re going to do for entrepreneurs is scare you into thinking everyone else knows more than you do. They don’t. But as we learned above, the only one who makes that final decision is you. Especially now, when the pollsters are nearly guaranteed to be wrong.

6. Constraints make you more creative. If few are investing in business because they don’t want to put money out in an uncertain economy, you’ve just learned something very important about them: they’re operating on fear. You can choose to mirror and join in their fear, OR you can see this as an opportunity to either find funding elsewhere, or try to make things happen without outside funding. Constraints require you to think of things in a new way, and make no mistake: the ability to produce with constraints is an essential skill for any entrepreneur to have. The sooner you learn it, the better.

7. Entrepreneur is a verb. (It’s not, really, but stick with me here!) You don’t get to be an entrepreneur if you’re not going to act like one, and it is exactly NOW, when everyone else is too afraid to act, that your bravery and expertise is needed more than ever.

8. This is what we’re here for. If you’re REALLY an entrepreneur, it’s time to prove it—real entrepreneurs live for this stuff. Maybe not Brexit specifically, but what I hope you understand by now is that Brexit was never the thing that mattered, anyway. It doesn’t matter what your personal or political feelings are about it—it’s the climate of fear that Brexit has created that is a problem. Acting in spite of fear is what all the speakers, bloggers, and fellow entrepreneurs you follow have been talking about for ages. It’s what everyone else talks about when they talk about us. And now it’s your turn to live a story worth telling, and build a business worth talking about.

Who’s Really Affected by Brexit?

If you’re afraid to start, scale, or act in your business since Brexit, it’s not you who’s most affected, though it can certainly feel that way.

It’s the people you serve, or want to serve.

The community you’ve been thinking about, gathering, and maybe even inspiring until now is still out there. And now more than ever, they’re counting on you to stay focused and keep sharing what you know. If you, as their leader, are acting from and projecting fear, you’re going to create more of that in your community.

If, however, you commit to action, forward momentum, and the “keep calm, carry on” mindset… well, then you’re really made of the good stuff.

British entrepreneurs have what it takes to get through this, and to inspire the rest of the world in the process.

Your ‘Beat Brexit’ Challenge

Brexit doesn’t determine your success (or the lack thereof), but your reaction to it will have a lasting effect on the community that needs you. This post has given you insight from a number of successful UK business owners, and I hope those insights have helped.

But there’s only so much you can do while reading a blog post. Your audience is still waiting for you to speak up, take action, and lead them to achieve their dreams.

This week, I challenge you to be the first penguin to jump. Despite fear, uncertainty, Brexit, buzzwords, blah blah blah. Jump.

Just jump.

Source

http://www.chrisducker.com/brexit-british-entrepreneurs/

[meowsaidmayaanime]

What I'm Watching August 2016 as of 8/31

Natsume's Book of Friends 8/31 partial watch

This is an adorable anime, I started watching italmost right after Durarara, and if school hadnt just started this week, I would have been fully caught up. As of this post I have only watched seasons 1 and 2 fully, and a little bit of season 3. So in technicality I will write my opinion of it after I am all caught up on the September monthly watches, but because I got halfway through the series while still in August I decided to put this little note here, haha.

So yes, I have been watching this super cute, heartwarming, feel good anime. It's about a boy named Natsume who can see yokai. Often times I get very weary about plots (whether anime, tv show, movie, ect) where the main character can see something no one else can. However this anime does a good job focusing more on the stories rather than simply torturing the main character through ostracization. Well, I will pick this first impression review that I usually do in September when I finish the four season that have been released. So look forward to it!

Durarara 8/27 Addendum (see original post below Time of Eve)

I talked about this anime a little further down in this post after I finished the first season (so read that first if you haven't yet). I finished the entirety of the show last night and wow. It's an incredible story, so intricate and everything is woven together. It's one of those shows where because they switch between multiple characters and plot lines within the show, and because it is a mystery with new information and twists happening all the time, that you forget your own emotions about the characters sometimes.

Tons of things happen that make you feel for the characters and suddenly exclaim in reaction to something, but because your so constantly wrapped up in the story line, trying to figure out how this relates to that, and what this persons motives are, and whats going to happen next that you focus so much more on that than anything else. It constantly has you thinking, which I love about the show. A show that doesn't rely on pure emotion and shock to keep the audience in, but sheer curiosity. It's a good mystery, a really, really good one.

Though I can see why some people may not like it because it makes you think too much, or because there's less pure emotion, or because it's so intricate and you can't keep up, or even because the pacing is somewhat relatively slow. But I assure you, if you can get past all that, this is an amazing show. It's not one that I will gush over, and try to force you to watch, because that's not the kind of show it is. It's just well put together, as I assume the light novel is.

I've just starting reading the light novel, and there is so much more to it. I'm on chapter two and while the anime's first episode did a wonderful job capturing the events and feel of the light novel, the light novel has the intricate detail and thought of the characters that is impossible to convey through any other medium. I am really excited to be reading the source material, and I hope that it will be able to expand and close up some of the holes from the anime that the studio could not fill. When I finish, I'll definitely talk about it (when is the question since not all the novels have been translated...), so look forward to that, because I know I will.

Great show, good to watch if you like intricate, multi-character, multi-story, mystery, action, somewhat supernatural, 'semi-natural' anime. (p.s the dub is pretty dang good.)

Time of Eve 8/21

Yes, yes, I'm well aware that in this giant span of time I've only managed to watch one short 6 episode-er anime. I was on vacation and then fell down the rabbit hole which was the Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 game.

Anyway, I had seen this anime in passing a few times, but finally decided to give it a chance when one of my co-workers recommended it to me. It was definitely worth the watch. Time of Eve is a sci-fi anime taking place in the not quite as distant as you might think future, where androids are commonplace within the average family home. We follow Rikuo who, after reading the location log of his family andriod, discovers that the andriod visited a cafe of her own free will. Confused and concerned, he visits the cafe to find that its only rule is to treat humans and androids equally without discrimination. From here on he, and the audience discover that there is more to androids than just being a robot, and that they are, or have been steadily developing their own individuality.

Right off the bat I was immediately reminded of both Ghost in the Shell and Chobits. Mostly Ghost in the Shell for the political-socio topics the anime discuses. Its actually quite fascinating, not just the topics and themes, but the personalities of the characters as well whether or not they are human. Its a very realistic/natural anime, with a surprising amount of character development for being only six episodes long.

My only critiques would be about the animation itself. Its generally rather smooth, the art style included, however there are many moments where the movement of the camera and characters is very choppy and shaky. This happens mainly when there isn't much movement happening during the scene. Whereas scenes where characters are doing a large amount of movement are very smooth and well animated. I'm not sure how intentional the 'choppiness' of the animation was, but I can tell that the studio chose to focus its animation budget on certain areas more than others.

Regardless, the animation is easy to brush off considering how well the show drew me into the story, mentally and emotionally. I would recommend this to anyone interested in sci-fi, robots/androids, and those who like to question what it is to be 'human'. (It's also a good commentary on 21st century culture and what kinds of things our technology could lead to).

Durarara (season 1) 8/8

Its about a boy named Mikado who decides to go to a highschool in Ikebukuro to fulfill his longing for the excitement of city life in contrast to living in the country where nothing every happens. Here he hears about and witnesses strange rumors about the headless rider, gangs, and other odd phenomenon that are happening in the city. That's how it begins, but we learn very quickly that Mikado is not the only main character, and that there is a lot more going on in the city than just Mikado would know.

I actually decided to start watching this because of this shirt I got with my Akibento back in May featuring Celty the headless motercylcist from Durarara and Haruhi from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. (btw not my own image)

Yes this was back in May, and yes I did start watching it a few months ago only to now finish the first season. Its a very slow paced anime, like a slow burn, which is why it took so long for me to get through. Don't get me wrong its a good anime, and I did want to watch which is why I periodically came back to it after i finished binge watching a bunch of other anime. It's just slow paced, and not one that will hook you and chain you down to your seat for the next 6+ hours. Hell, I've binge watched anime that I've liked much less than this one.

That being said, its not just slow paced but it also has numerous stories happening at once. Which makes it hard to give a good synospis on. We immediately learn about or at least meet almost all the characters, and are introduced with a number of plots, topics and questions. All which seemingly have nothing to do with each other, but end up intertwining to create a complex and fascinating story. by the time I finally managed to get halfway through, I consistently watched the remaining episodes back to back. The fact that it was available in English dub on crunchyroll also really helped, that way I could do my packing for my vacation while watching it.

Its a great low key supernatural mystery anime. I say low key, because the supernatural aspect is sort of laid back? It's not an in your face over the top kind of supernatural, and it being supernatural is not even the main point of the show. Which is very nice. It's like a semi-natural action/mystery/supernatural anime. Further the characters and story lines are well put together.

All in all, I really like it and I'm going to keep watching. I don't know if it's something that I would necessarily be able to recommend, because that relies heavily on what kind of anime you would like. If you like semi-natural, complex, slow paced, laid back action/mystery/supernatural then you'll like this. But if you cant handle the slow pacing, or prefer more out of the above genres this is not one for you.

Dance in the Vampire Bund 8/6

I actually remember watching this anime, or at least i remember watching the first episode, back in middle school? Possibly? we either way, I loved the first episode, even re watching it now I still really enjoyed it, which was disappointing when the rest of the anime turned out to be so different.

In the show, vampires have just come out of hiding and declared their presence to the world. The princess of the vampires, and current ruler Mina, pays Japans debt and intends to use her political hold over the government to purchase an Island and have it become its own separate country designated only for vampires. Meanwhile Akira a highschooler who recently lost his memory finds out he and Mina have an important past that he cannot remember.

The problem that I have with this anime is that they try to mix a very 'young' or immature story line with a significantly more mature one. They try to mix a highschool vampire warewolf memory loss, basically everything that is the epitome of a bad pre-teen romance with mature themes such as the VERY heavy political aspect that takes up a good 50% of the anime. And not just government politics, but socio-historical political relations between different species and cultures. Don't get me wrong, its still a better love story than twilight, but the fact that it is a highschool love story pretty much ruins it for me.

I wouldn't recommend this, hell i didn't even have the will to finish the last few episodes. The political parts were great and fascinating, but the immaturity of how conflicts are resolved between the main characters is very disappointing. The show either tries too hard to appeal to an older audience, or tries too hard to appeal to a younger audience. Either way I didn't really like it.

Hyouka 8/2 TOP PICK FOR THIS MONTH!!

So the first thing i need to mention is that this show is first and foremost a slcie of life that happens to include a lot of mystery. Not a mystery that happens to be a slice of life. I originally thought it was the latter which was why I was disappointed that it didn't end the series with a mystery arc, but instead the way a slice of life would.When you acknowledge the show for what it really is, a natural slice of life, it is amazing. For numerous reasons.

First the artwork is so incredibly detailed and beautiful. Second the visuals are distinctly different for each thing ti tries to convey, and completely succeeds in doing so. The audio is amazing, the music is beautiful, the animation is so smooth and they even animate things that aren't necessary to the plot but are animated anyway to make it all feel so REAL. Not to mention the episodes and mysteries are so well written!

look at the incredible amount of detail they put into EVERY SINGLE SCENE.

even when the background is blurred!

even people who we never learn about or see again have details in their clothes, faces, and expressions. I checked, we NEVER see these people below actually interact with the main OR minor cast.

I almost forgot, this show is about Houtarou a high schooler that sees the world in 'gray'and whose motto is "If I don't have to do it, I won't. If I have to do it, I'll make it quick." Convinced by his already graduated sister, he joins the classics club which was endangered to be disbanded because there were no more members. He meets a girl named Eru who also joins the club and discovers that he has a knack for solving mysteries. That is, only when Eru earnestly goes to him and yearns for him to solve the mystery because her curiosity cannot be contained. From there they quickly discover that the classics club has a past shrouded in mystery.

Its incredibly well done, I love slow the pacing myself, because it fits the flow and nature of the anime. However I do have a number of issues with it myself (some reveal content spoilers so I won't state those here).  I admit that the way they ordered large mystery arch and single episode mysteries was not handled well at the very end. Don't get me wrong the ending fit the characters incredibly well and was very good and realistic, however considering the quality of the larger mysteries that were prevalent through the rest of the anime, I feel that they should have ended the series with a multi-episode arc and then one final single episode arc, rather than many single episode arcs strung together.  The anime was an adaptation of a light novel, which covered 4 out of the 5 published novels. I've taken a look at the titles of the chapters and it seems that the 5th book is quite the elaborate story. One I would have liked to have seen in the anime, though would clearly have gone over the 22 episodes the anime ended at. Perhaps since this write up for the episode is already so long, I will create a post just about this anime. It definitely deserves more talking about!

Anyway, I do recommend it to veteran-ed anime watchers. It has a wonderful pace that does not push by quickly, great character development and insight, and fascinating mysteries and dialogue regarding such. Its perfect for anyone who loves natural slice of life. Those who enjoy mysteries would also enjoy this, as long as they understand that it is mostly a slice of life, and thus will follow the format of slice of life and not the format of a mystery anime. Its a stunning anime.

[consciousowl]

Wage Love Through Sacred Activism

The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.

~A Course in Miracles

We so often hear of this country waging war against that country. Security is thought to depend on military preparedness. It is thought that force is the final arbiter, that “might makes right.” Rarely do we think of waging peace. If we do, how do we do it? Do we merely become passive? Our opponents might either ignore us or consider us pathetically weak. However, if we wage love, everyone will get it. The greater we feel love toward our perceived adversary, the faster the barriers will disappear. We are all human, and we are all divine. It no longer matters as to the color of our skin, our nationality or our religious identification.

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Love has everything to do with it. Love is the most powerful force in all the universe. Dante wrote about the “Love that moves the sun and other stars.” It was love that created us, and it is love that sustains us. If you try to change the world through force, money or persuasion, we can predict what difference you will make. However, when you truly love someone, transformation is possible. All forms of evangelism rely on this. If you don’t really love those you are trying to convert, your efforts will prove futile in the end. We are now at a point in history where material weapons are self-defeating. Skillful means requires “weapons,” weapons to heal, and not to destroy. Do you have total confidence right now in any single human institution: government, corporations, education or organized religion? If not, we must turn within to see lasting results.

Become Spiritually Mature

How Can I Actually Wage Love?

You can get in touch with yourself at the deepest possible level. Below your persona, your social mask, lies your shadow. Beneath your shadow lies your Divine Self, at the nucleus of your being. God IS love. Love is not merely an attribute of God. Love is the very essence of God. At the core of your being, you ARE love. At first this may seem a little scary, as you in all likelihood spend precious little time exhibiting it to others. Love is not something you have to work up, it is how you are when you are truly in touch with Who You Are, and all the barriers have been removed.

Once you know love lies deep within you, you can do something to get in touch with that inner truth. A good practice is to find someone you consider an “enemy,” and systematically bless him or her, day after day. You can say within yourself, “I love you.” If you don’t feel it, that’s OK. Just get used to the idea. Eventually, it will become a living experience. You don’t need to struggle at it. You just need to be extremely persistent.

What Is Sacred Activism?

Mahatma Gandhi called his form of social and political action satyagraha. “Satya” means the truth, or pure being. “Graha” means to grasp, to cling to, to hold fast. Satyagraha means to hold fast to the truth. However, he had an important twist. You are to love your opponents while you hold to your own truth, regardless of the consequences. If you lose patience with your adversary, and frantically insist on getting your own sweet way, you’ve blown it. You’ve missed the whole point. Gandhi called off one of his greatest campaigns when his followers killed a policeman. The ends never justify the means. The means ARE the end. If you want more love in your life, start loving whoever is in front of you. Sacred activism today speaks to our commitment to the earth, and life on this planet. We honor all sentient beings. Everything that happens around this planet affects us one way or another, whether or not we are conscious of it. Everyone and everything within our experience is WITHIN OUR OWN EXPERIENCE. Nothing is ultimately “out there.”

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How Can I Connect with the Sacred?

You may be a secular humanist, extremely uncomfortable with organized religion, theology and creeds. Yet, most likely there is something sacred in your life, even if it is simply freedom of thought and conviction. As Voltaire put it, “I may not agree with a word you say; nevertheless, I will defend to death your right to say it!” What do you care deeply about? A few years back, I couldn’t stand the idea of people chopping down all the rain forests. Since 9/11, my vision has focused on eliminating forever the option of killing in the name of God. If you want to commit murder, don’t lay it on God’s hands! Look at beauty in your life, whether it is a gorgeous beach, an enchanting painting or a lovely young lady. You want nothing to happen to this. You will do whatever you have to do to see that this beauty flourishes. It could be the Grand Canyon, or Sedona, Arizona. It is your sacred spot; so devote your life to it.

How Can I Move from My Head, to My Heart, to My Hands?

•   My Head: Open your mind to the new physics, such as the idea of nonlocality, that everything is linked to everything else--time and space are no obstacles. This is not just a poetic metaphor, but the way it actually works in a high-energy physics lab. We are all ONE; this is the underlying truth behind our myriad appearances. •   My Heart: Learn about the people whom you might consider to be adversaries. If you fear Russians, learn about contemporary Russia, and what the average citizen goes through. I promise you, it will be very different than you think. If you are concerned about North Korea, go meet some Koreans in your city. Learn about the history of the people. The Korean War was no picnic. It was a disaster for both the U.S. and the United Nations. It set up bad will for generations. Start to feel the plight and frustration of the other side, while not getting sucked up in all the drama. •   My Hands: When you start to think and feel unity and love, you will begin to take action. You need not do anything spectacular. Call your local Congress Person. Call your U.S. Senators. Call the President. Compliment them on making a difference, and recommend they take action that will bring us all closer to love and peace. Whatever you do, say it with love. Remember: Every call to a Congressperson is interpreted as representing 10,000 votes. Every single call!

How Can I Go Global with the Miracle of Love?

You can open yourself up to the possibility that the world, even the very Universe, Itself, spins within the context of your Ultimate Being. Everyone and everything that seems “out there” is really inside you. You are responsible. This doesn’t mean that you are guilty and should be blamed. Guilt and blame are actually evasions of responsibility.

When you take responsibility for your own experience, that everyone you interact with is in some way your own creation, you will find that you really love your creations. Why would you seek to destroy them? Realize that today, everything has gone global, just like the World Wide Web. You can touch people instantly. In addition, people from all parts of the world now live together, as in our large metros. Think globally. Act locally. This is true, not only for environmental issues, but for every issue. You don’t have to take responsibility. It is an option. You don’t have to be magnificent. You don’t have to mobilize your inner power. But why not? The world’s greatest challenges are your greatest opportunities. Is there a better game anywhere?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

- Marianne Williamson

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