#because every species needs specialists for every single issue!!

[engagemythrusters]

makeup stores on coruscant have to be the size of an american outlet mall or something. the amount of species it has to offer product to is like. just the tip of the iceberg. beyond that it has to offer every sort of product every species needs ('skin' (or similar) care, 'hair' (or whatever) products, shadows and mascaras, perfumes, etc), it also has to have a variety within the products (like how humans need stuff for oily skin, stuff for dry skin, stuff for 'average skin') AND a variety of shades and tones within each variety (red foundations and pink foundations and mauve concealers and chartruese correctors). NOT TO MENTION ALL OF THE BRANDS.

you think a trip to your local makeup store takes forever? imagine going with your twi'lek, togruta, mikkian, etc girlfriends. you all need SUCH different products. it'd be a fucking DAY TRIP just to get EYESHADOW AND FOUNDATION.

[junipershouse]

communication in multi-species living spaces

it's relatively easy to learn a language. what is harder is learning to speak a language. this barrier becomes even more insurmountable when you do not have the anatomical parts to produce a sound used in a language, or don't have the organs to interpret the medium of that language. then, miscommunication isn't simply a case of miscommunication - it's a case of incompatibility. for example. rrikrik is a kkariko, and soh is a ki. kkariko communicate auditorily, using a specialized organ to produce noise alongside their exoskeleton teeth and antennae noises. ki communicate using low frequency waves, and their antennae organ is poised specifically to interpret said waves. kkariko lack any sort of organ to sense low-frequency waves, and ki physically cannot make the noises required to speak kkariko languages. so how can rrikrik and soh communicate?

this is an issue which affects almost every single multi-species living space in the universe. especially more political or industrial spaces, where communication is incredibly important. a lot of time and energy has been invested into figuring out ways that species with drastically different anatomy can still communicate clearly with each other. there are three methods used in tandem among multi-species living environments to ease communication. press keep reading to learn more about them! :3

the first method: common lingua franca and assistive devices

most sophant species already have hundreds, if not thousands, of languages and dialects spoken within their own species populations. in many cases, a couple of languages may emerge as "lingua franca" among the population, typically due to complex political situations. this lingua franca is often expressed in multi-species environments too.

just because somebody cannot speak a language doesn't mean they can't learn it. there are also plenty of assistive devices used by / fore example, referring back to rrikrik and soh - rrikrik could use a technological device designed to pick up low frequency waves to hear what soh is saying, and soh could use a specialist voice synth program containing a kkariko noise library to communicate in a kkariko language.

this is obviously the most labor-intensive method of communication for all involved. however, it's the most reliable and often the most personable. it feels good to be able to communicate with your friends in a language they understand, and

the second method: universal sign communication

universal sign communication (USC) is a constructed language developed in the founding age of the ICDCI by a cross-species team of linguists. the goal of USC as a language was to level the playing field by offering up a universal language with a low theoretical accessibility barrier.

USC as a lexicon relies on simplistic movements of limbs, with movements designed to be replicated by those with varying body anatomy. due to this, USC has a "less is more" ethos and relies on the stringing together of movements as opposed to fine motor control and expressiveness, with one sign or movement meaning multiple things depending on context. the only thing that a person needs to be able to communicate in USC is a moderately flexible body and potentially one limb. although some individuals without conventional limbs will simply perform the USC signs with their whole body instead. USC can be modified as a vocabulary to accommodate other more static body plans if needed, too.

this is the most common option when it comes to communicating in a work environment. USC is relatively easy to learn, is easy to understand, and doesn't require any technology. it can also be used in environments where other forms of communication are impossible. almost every cosmonaut knows at least rudimentary USC, and its required to work and live in many astral communities just because of how convenient it is in that environment. USC also has a pictographic "written" form which acts as diagrams in performing the specific signs.

of course, USC is largely inaccessible for those who lack visual senses. whilst there has been an attempt to "translate" USC into a spoken language, it sort of defeats the purpose of Universal Sign Communication. there has been discussion about developing a sort of spoken USC but it's a much more complicated feat due to the diversity of sounds vs the diversity of gestures and movements.

another pitfall of USC is the nature of its vocabulary. because USC was a language designed to be used in a professional environment, its vocab is often limited to professional topics. its easy to tell somebody what a certain lever does using USC, and even ask them how they are and if they rested well, but its significantly harder to chat about that piece of media you just love using USC. and forget about making jokes. some linguists have expanded the USC vocabulary with more casual gestures and signs, but these signs are often considered "non essential" for learners and seen as optional side studies for those more invested.

USC can also be easily misunderstood, especially by beginners. those communicating in USC are reminded to sign slowly and with intent.

the third method: received speakers.

received speakers are a specialized "memetic-will hybrid" device. "will" is a catch-all term for a grouping of energies exerted by beings onto the complex structure of energies/concepts referred to colloquially as "reality". memetic in this context refers to an idea or concept, translated into language, which can be brought into the consciousness of a being with behavioural changes apparent. this is a very basic description of both terms.

received speakers work by utilizing the memetic affect and will-energy together. the material that the received speaker made of is a sink and an amplifier of will-energy, a conductor of it. (the material used is a potentially-biological "fossil" alloy, found only in a few places.) before use, received speakers need to be calibrated to the specific will-energy of their user. after that, the received speaker will pick up on their user's will-energy and their user's will-energy only. however, a received speaker with no intentionality is useless. intentionality is built with memetic conditioning. the goal of the conditioning is to fix ideas in the consciousness of the user. these ideas are: 1: when the user communicates with a recipient, their intention with their words is transferred to the received speaker. 2: received speakers are able to send the intentionality of the communication between each other using will-energy waves. 3: despite the difference in language, the intention of the words are carried over perfectly to the recipient and they will understand the communication as it was intended. 4: likewise, the user will understand the recipient's communication with the same level of intentionality.

if both will-energy calibration and memetic conditioning are successful, then the received speaker will allow individuals with vastly different languages to communicate as if speaking the exact same dialect of the exact same language. they'll sense the communication almost instantly, and it'll be in their own voice, which can be a bit confusing to get used to. sarcasm and double-truth does not translate well using received speaker, which can be a good thing if you feel as if the individual you are communicating with is untrustworthy, but can be difficult when trying to tell a joke.

there are some issues with received speakers. first of all, they're single person use. you can't swap received speakers, or borrow them, or use one which has been used by another in the past. this is because calibration is very difficult to reverse. it's a very specialized task to reverse the calibration, and it takes a lot of time and energy. so once you've calibrated your received speaker, that's it. this also means that received speakers are a unrenewable resource. there is only so much material to make them, and there are more important things to use it for. for this reason, received speakers are often only provided to certain individuals. rrikrik was given one, as was some of the individuals they work with, but most of their crewmates do not use them.

different beings have different will-energy fields. even with the amplification that received speakers provide, some individuals just won't have the will-energy to broadcast their intention. some individuals also have high resistance to will-energy, and won't be able to receive the intention and often not be able to complete the calibration process. there is also the issue of memetic resistance. memetic resistance can be developed, but some people are just naturally resistant. for example, the sadum species is known for their memetic resistance. this makes sadum immune to cognitive diseases and other harmful things which spread via memetic transferral, but it also makes them immune to received speakers.

received speakers can also be very dangerous. if the memetic conditioning is replaced with a different sort of memetic conditioning, then a received speaker can be used to essentially brainwash or kill people.

[ospreyeamon]

on the prevalence of bounty hunters in the gffa

I’m not sure George Lucas intended bounty hunters to become as prominent as they are in the Star Wars universe. It might just be a consequence of Boba Fett Armour Rad ✨, like the invention of the Mandalorians. However, thinking about  the Galactic Republic, it does make sense that there would be a lot of bounty hunters running around fulfilling a particular societal need.

The Galactic Republic’s structure is difficult to pin down because it doesn’t have a clear real world parallel. While it’s usually the United Nations or USA that are brought up, I suggest that its closest structural equivalent is the European Union; single currency, open boarders, high degree of internal autonomy while members are still meant to be bound by the laws and rulings of the higher courts and legislature, multitude of languages and cultures, states have the right cede unilaterally without requiring permission from the central authority. There are still differences though, and the one relevant to this discussion is that we aren’t shown a Republic equivalent of Europol, or the better-known Interpol. During the prequels era there are the Republic Judicial Forces and Jedi Order, but both these organisations provide specialist and crisis assistance rather than dealing with the day-to-day dealings of local planetary and system law enforcement systems. Nobody is calling the Jedi because someone skipped off-planet rather than front-up to court after crashing their speeder through a sixth-story window. Even if local law enforcement were inclined to do such a thing it wouldn’t be permissible, because the number of Jedi and Judicials is tiny compared to the overall population of the Republic.

I think the Republic logically should have an equivalent of Interpol, which I call the Intersector Security Bureau so it can keep its acronym when it is transformed into the Imperial Security Bureau. Given how easy it appears for anybody who owns a private starship to planet-hop undetected, facilitating information exchange must be hugely important. Still, the fact that so far as I can recall the ISB is never mentioned before the Republic becomes the Empire suggests that its reach is limited before Palpatine starts beefing it up. The Jedi do a lot of investigating but mostly rely on their own resources or liaise with the local planetary authorities.

There are a few reasons why an early ISB space!Interpol equivalent might have less prominence and reach than RL!Interpol. One is that it is affected by the same resources sap as the Judicial Forces; losing work to the Jedi Order and funding to local planetary or sector law enforcement. Another is that the Republic’s diverse array of species and cultures creates a complicated environment for hashing out the cultural consensus necessary for the level of understanding and trust required for agreeing to carry out other agencies’ arrest warrants. For example, the Republic’s de facto age of majority – the minimum age at which a person can hold Republic public office, like a become a Senator – is sixteen. This is not an age of majority that member systems of the Republic are required to adhere to in any way; having species with wildly different lifespans and lifecycles like wookiees, trandoshans, and ruurians makes trying to enforce a single age of majority a terrible idea. But that means that you have a planet like Naboo, where Padme Amidala can be employed in the political office of Princess of Theed when she is nine, under the same government as Alderaan, where the heir to the throne doesn’t step up into their full public role until they come of age at sixteen. Other points of difference – attitudes to gambling, recreational drug usage, corporal punishment, reasonable person tests, etc. – create a plethora of friction points between legal jurisdictions.

Then there’s the issue that many of the planets in the Republic aren’t going to trust the governments of every other planet in the Republic. RL!Interpol is facing controversy regarding the accusation that some countries like China have been submitting warrants for arrest on people who are actually political dissidents. In the Republic that translates to, for example, corporate-controlled planets putting out warrants on whistle-blowers calling out the companies’ fraud, environmental regulation violations, debt slavery, etc.

So, if you can’t rely on intersector law enforcement cooperation to retrieve your dangerous driver before any more speeders become wedged through the windows of high-rise apartments, what do you do? You put a bounty on them.

This implies that mainstream socially respectable bounty hunting is quite different from the “I can bring you in hot or I can bring you in cold” business the Mandalorians engage in. Reputable law enforcement agencies will only want their bounties hot and minimally injured; the idea is to get criminals back so they can be tried and punished in accordance with your law. And what if a bounty hunter screws up the bounty you posted and grabs the wrong person? If they’re alive you can stick them on a shuttle back to the planet they were kidnapped from, but if they’re dead that’s a PR nightmare and now you need to chase after that bounty hunter to charge them for murder.

Looking back a couple of millennia from the Post-Ruusan Republic to the Old Republic, many of these forces are still in play. One example of a deficit in law enforcement cooperation that I found particularly memorable was Miel Muwn of the Sullustan Constable Brigade from the Smuggler class story, who personally travelled to Coruscant in pursuit of the stolen Murustavan Ruby where he deputised two Very Upstanding Lawful Citizens to aid him rather than collaborate with the Coruscanti authorities.

Additionally, the division of the galaxy between the Republic and the Sith Empire creates another reason for those governments to work through bounty hunters. Because the Republic and the Empire are either in a state of hot or cold war, they obviously aren’t cooperating on issues like intergalactic crime. If either power wants to arrest someone who has fled into the other’s territories, the most legal least likely to spark violent conflict option available to them is to hire a third party (it’s still not very legal or unlikely to end in violence). Hence, bounty hunters everywhere.

…there are so many ways that this dysfunctional excuse for a system would produce bad outcomes.

[apex-pest-control]

Controlling Mice

Reliable Pest Control Services

Even though it's tiny, it gives me the creeps. People living in Yorkshire, UK, who are plagued by rodents in their houses are understandably alarmed by the prospect of contracting one of the many diseases that these pests can spread.

Despite their cute appearance, these pests pose serious health risks due to the diseases and illnesses they spread, such as Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

If you hear scurrying, see new droppings, or discover structural damage, it's likely that you have a mouse infestation. This seemingly minor problem might easily go out of control if nothing is done about it.

Apex Pest Control is an expert at getting rid of mouse problems. Our team of pest control experts has been eliminating mice for over 30 years, and we only employ new, kid- and pet-friendly techniques.

When Do You Know You Have a Mouse Infestation?

Possible Mouse Problem Symptoms

There may be mouse noises or droppings to indicate their presence. There are, however, cases in which the warning indicators are more subtle.

Some of the signs we looked for were:

Certain smells or odours

The appearance of holes

Unexplained damage to building materials

Chew/teeth markings on the wood, building materials or food items

Nests

Smear marks

Tracks

And more

Do not hesitate to contact us at this time. If what I'm about to say is of any interest to you, just nod your head. The Yorkshire pest control specialists on our team are close by and eager to assist you. You shouldn't let the annoyance of bugs in your house or company keep you up at night.

Call us right now to find out why so many people in Yorkshire count on us every year to get rid of mice, rats, and other pests so they can get back to living in or running their businesses in peace.

How can I get rid of mice as soon as possible?

Swift Action Is Necessary During Rapid Birth Cycles!

A single mouse in the house may not seem like a big deal, but if left unchecked, a mouse population can explode. The most common type of mouse in the UK is the common field mouse, sometimes known as the wood mouse.

Depending on the year, a single female of this mouse species may have anywhere from three to twelve "pups" (offspring). When you think that a female mouse can reach sexual maturity in as little as 5 or 6 weeks, it's easy to see how mouse populations can quickly become out of hand.

There are do-it-yourself options, such as mouse traps and bait, but speed is of the essence. Therefore, if you need mice eliminated quickly and efficiently, it is usually advisable to use a service like Apex Pest Control.

Apex's mouse control is the quickest and most cost-effective solution to this issue. If you need authorised exterminators to help you get rid of mice, don't hesitate to give Apex Pest Control a call.

Problems Caused by Mice

Sharing a home with mice can be extremely hazardous to your health, if not fatal. There is a real danger of contamination from mouse urine and other bodily fluids because mice like to hang out close to where people receive their food.

When mice invade a home, health concerns usually revolve around:

Development of or worsening of allergies and asthma

Hantavirus viral disease

Salmonellosis bacterial infection

Lyme disease

Rotavirus

Lice

Ticks

And more

Apex Pest Control is the company to call if you live in or have a business in Yorkshire, UK and are seeking a local pest control service. We will inspect the area and give you our professional opinion on how to best get rid of the mice. We'll provide you with free pricing estimates to help you through the project.

How to Get Rid of Mice in Yorkshire 

Service Providers Specialising in Ethical and Efficient Mouse Extermination

Step 1: Identification

Because of their distinct behaviours, habitat preferences, and reproductive life cycles, field mice and wood mice are the most likely culprits. Identifying the source of the mouse problem is the first step in any plan to get rid of them.

Apex offers a team of highly educated pest control experts who can identify the exact mouse species invading your house or business in a matter of minutes.

Step 2: Determine any Underlying Causes

Before taking any preventative measures, we investigate and eliminate potential sources of the rodent problem. Professionals from our company can inspect your home quickly and advise you on how to eliminate all mouse habitats and food sources.

Step 3: Identify Points of Entry

The existence of mice is not news to us. One of the most important parts of our services is locating and sealing off any entry points that may have been missed.

Step 4: Chemical or Non-chemical Treatment

To guarantee the best possible outcomes for our customers, Apex Pest Control only employs the most cutting-edge techniques, technology, and pest control industry standards.

Each tactic and treatment plan is developed specifically for the conditions of the specific infestation. It may be necessary to tailor treatment based on parameters like species, mating cycles, degree of disturbance or damage, and other variables.

We used a combination of chemical and non-chemical means to control mice numbers at Apex.

Step 5: Preventative Measures

When mice are no longer a concern, we may turn our attention to preventing future infestations. We hope that our consumers will rest easy knowing that these pests will not be returning to their homes.

Step 6: Follow-up

When you use Apex Pest Control, you can rest assured that your home or business will remain pest-free long after we've gone.

Non-Chemical Mice Control Treatments

At Apex Pest Control, we strive to always use the safest and most effective management methods available. Many of our customers insist that we only employ procedures that are completely risk-free for their kids, dogs, and extended family.

As a result, we employ numerous "non-chemical" techniques for mouse control, such as:

1. Exclusion and Sealing – rodent proofing

Eliminating mice is a crucial step in maintaining a safe and healthy environment at home or at work. The term "exclusion" refers to the practise of installing physical barriers inside of buildings to keep mice out.

The structure was secured and any openings that could have been used by mice were closed off. Remember that by stretching out their bodies, they can fit through the narrowest of gaps. The size of a #2 pencil lead is about right for these creepy crawlies to squeeze through.

Common Entry Points for Mice:

Small holes around utility lines or services entering the building

Garage doors and loose seals

Cracks in the foundation

Improper door seals

Loose side panelling

And more

Openings are Sealed Using a Combination of:

Metal screens

Flashing

Door sweeps

Commercial sealants

Wood putty

Concrete or stucco mixtures (for exertion or foundations)

And more

2. Sanitation & Elimination of Food and Bedding

Sources

Mice can sneak into even the cleanest of homes through crevices or by accident if they come across something of interest. The security of your home or business will extend to its interior as well as its exterior.

Items we Address Include:

Sanitation

Water and food sources

Food storage techniques

Clutter

Debris

Materials that mice use for bedding or nests

And more

3. Traps and Mechanical Devices

Mechanical devices and traps are the principal methods used for capturing, removing, and eradicating mice in non-poisonous mouse control systems.

Traditional Snap Traps

These "spring-loaded" traps are common and can be found in any hardware store in the UK. They are hidden in peanut butter-filled containers at key spots along the mice's routes. When set off, these traps kill the rodent instantly.

Glue or “Sticky” Traps

These traps have a high-tack adhesive that can be purchased separately on one side. The mouse is lured in and quickly trapped in the trap. Mice caught in a sticky trap can't get warm enough to survive, and thus they swiftly succumb to hypothermia and perish.

Live Traps

Live traps are a viable option for consumers who would rather not kill the mice in their homes or businesses but instead "catch and release" them. This environmentally friendly strategy is equally as efficient, provided the mice are released a sufficient distance from the home and into an area with enough shelter and food supplies.

Rat and Mouse Killing Techniques

We can be relied upon by customers in the Yorkshire, UK area to employ non-mechanical techniques, such as the placement of rodent baits around their homes.

We take extra care while handling these products, placing them where children and pets won't be able to get to them.

Will a Mouse Fumigation Work?

There are instances when fumigation is the best option for getting rid of cockroaches and other annoying pests. However, fumigation is rarely used or advised for rodents like mice. Fumigants use chemicals and toxins to kill pests.

Due to the low concentrations of pesticides needed to eliminate a little pest, it is acceptable for humans to re-enter the area once the air has cleared. For mice, a much more potent toxin would need to be used in a fumigation, which poses risks to anyone who tries to return to the area afterward.

The fact that rats and mice are so adept at making their homes in inaccessible places further adds to the problem. Fumigation would kill the mice, but the corpses would rot away in walls and other inaccessible areas. Just take our word for it that the odour is terrible.

How much does a mouse extermination service cost?

At Apex Pest Control, we're proud to say that our mouse extermination services are among the best in the business. There are a variety of variables that could affect our prices for rodent or mouse pest treatment.

These include:

Severity or extent of the infestation

Size of the property and building

Types of treatments needed or selected

Any additional repairs necessary

And more

Typically, the cost to install and bait four traps, as well as conduct the necessary inspections, is around £110.

Mice Removal in Yorkshire

If you suspect a mouse or other rodent infestation, please contact us immediately. Please get in touch with us so that we can discuss how we can help. We have been successfully exterminating mice and other pests in the Yorkshire area for over 30 years.

We can take care of any rodent problem, from eliminating mice in your home to eliminating mice in your business. Our quotes and advice are completely free. If you need to speak with a certified exterminator immediately, call Apex Pest Control.

[a-room-of-my-own]

This isn’t an easy piece to write, for reasons that will shortly become clear, but I know it’s time to explain myself on an issue surrounded by toxicity. I write this without any desire to add to that toxicity.

For people who don’t know: last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets. She took her case to an employment tribunal, asking the judge to rule on whether a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology is protected in law. Judge Tayler ruled that it wasn’t.

My interest in trans issues pre-dated Maya’s case by almost two years, during which I followed the debate around the concept of gender identity closely. I’ve met trans people, and read sundry books, blogs and articles by trans people, gender specialists, intersex people, psychologists, safeguarding experts, social workers and doctors, and followed the discourse online and in traditional media. On one level, my interest in this issue has been professional, because I’m writing a crime series, set in the present day, and my fictional female detective is of an age to be interested in, and affected by, these issues herself, but on another, it’s intensely personal, as I’m about to explain.

All the time I’ve been researching and learning, accusations and threats from trans activists have been bubbling in my Twitter timeline. This was initially triggered by a ‘like’. When I started taking an interest in gender identity and transgender matters, I began screenshotting comments that interested me, as a way of reminding myself what I might want to research later. On one occasion, I absent-mindedly ‘liked’ instead of screenshotting. That single ‘like’ was deemed evidence of wrongthink, and a persistent low level of harassment began.

Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Burns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.

I mention all this only to explain that I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called cunt and bitch and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them.

What I didn’t expect in the aftermath of my cancellation was the avalanche of emails and letters that came showering down upon me, the overwhelming majority of which were positive, grateful and supportive. They came from a cross-section of kind, empathetic and intelligent people, some of them working in fields dealing with gender dysphoria and trans people, who’re all deeply concerned about the way a socio-political concept is influencing politics, medical practice and safeguarding. They’re worried about the dangers to young people, gay people and about the erosion of women’s and girl’s rights. Above all, they’re worried about a climate of fear that serves nobody – least of all trans youth – well.

I’d stepped back from Twitter for many months both before and after tweeting support for Maya, because I knew it was doing nothing good for my mental health. I only returned because I wanted to share a free children’s book during the pandemic. Immediately, activists who clearly believe themselves to be good, kind and progressive people swarmed back into my timeline, assuming a right to police my speech, accuse me of hatred, call me misogynistic slurs and, above all – as every woman involved in this debate will know – TERF.

If you didn’t already know – and why should you? – ‘TERF’ is an acronym coined by trans activists, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. In practice, a huge and diverse cross-section of women are currently being called TERFs and the vast majority have never been radical feminists. Examples of so-called TERFs range from the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying, to a hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms. Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary – they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.

But accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people, institutions and organisations I once admired, who’re cowering before the tactics of the playground. ‘They’ll call us transphobic!’ ‘They’ll say I hate trans people!’ What next, they’ll say you’ve got fleas? Speaking as a biological woman, a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren’t a dimorphic species).

So why am I doing this? Why speak up? Why not quietly do my research and keep my head down?

Well, I’ve got five reasons for being worried about the new trans activism, and deciding I need to speak up.

Firstly, I have a charitable trust that focuses on alleviating social deprivation in Scotland, with a particular emphasis on women and children. Among other things, my trust supports projects for female prisoners and for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. I also fund medical research into MS, a disease that behaves very differently in men and women. It’s been clear to me for a while that the new trans activism is having (or is likely to have, if all its demands are met) a significant impact on many of the causes I support, because it’s pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender.

The second reason is that I’m an ex-teacher and the founder of a children’s charity, which gives me an interest in both education and safeguarding. Like many others, I have deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both.

The third is that, as a much-banned author, I’m interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it, even unto Donald Trump.

The fourth is where things start to get truly personal. I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility. Some say they decided to transition after realising they were same-sex attracted, and that transitioning was partly driven by homophobia, either in society or in their families.

Most people probably aren’t aware – I certainly wasn’t, until I started researching this issue properly – that ten years ago, the majority of people wanting to transition to the opposite sex were male. That ratio has now reversed. The UK has experienced a 4400% increase in girls being referred for transitioning treatment. Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers.

The same phenomenon has been seen in the US. In 2018, American physician and researcher Lisa Littman set out to explore it. In an interview, she said:

‘Parents online were describing a very unusual pattern of transgender-identification where multiple friends and even entire friend groups became transgender-identified at the same time. I would have been remiss had I not considered social contagion and peer influences as potential factors.’

Littman mentioned Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube as contributing factors to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, where she believes that in the realm of transgender identification ‘youth have created particularly insular echo chambers.’

Her paper caused a furore. She was accused of bias and of spreading misinformation about transgender people, subjected to a tsunami of abuse and a concerted campaign to discredit both her and her work. The journal took the paper offline and re-reviewed it before republishing it. However, her career took a similar hit to that suffered by Maya Forstater. Lisa Littman had dared challenge one of the central tenets of trans activism, which is that a person’s gender identity is innate, like sexual orientation. Nobody, the activists insisted, could ever be persuaded into being trans.

The argument of many current trans activists is that if you don’t let a gender dysphoric teenager transition, they will kill themselves. In an article explaining why he resigned from the Tavistock (an NHS gender clinic in England) psychiatrist Marcus Evans stated that claims that children will kill themselves if not permitted to transition do not ‘align substantially with any robust data or studies in this area. Nor do they align with the cases I have encountered over decades as a psychotherapist.’

The writings of young trans men reveal a group of notably sensitive and clever people. The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful descriptions of anxiety, dissociation, eating disorders, self-harm and self-hatred, the more I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager. If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.

When I read about the theory of gender identity, I remember how mentally sexless I felt in youth. I remember Colette’s description of herself as a ‘mental hermaphrodite’ and Simone de Beauvoir’s words: ‘It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them.’

As I didn’t have a realistic possibility of becoming a man back in the 1980s, it had to be books and music that got me through both my mental health issues and the sexualised scrutiny and judgement that sets so many girls to war against their bodies in their teens. Fortunately for me, I found my own sense of otherness, and my ambivalence about being a woman, reflected in the work of female writers and musicians who reassured me that, in spite of everything a sexist world tries to throw at the female-bodied, it’s fine not to feel pink, frilly and compliant inside your own head; it’s OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are.

I want to be very clear here: I know transition will be a solution for some gender dysphoric people, although I’m also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria. Again and again I’ve been told to ‘just meet some trans people.’ I have: in addition to a few younger people, who were all adorable, I happen to know a self-described transsexual woman who’s older than I am and wonderful. Although she’s open about her past as a gay man, I’ve always found it hard to think of her as anything other than a woman, and I believe (and certainly hope) she’s completely happy to have transitioned. Being older, though, she went through a long and rigorous process of evaluation, psychotherapy and staged transformation. The current explosion of trans activism is urging a removal of almost all the robust systems through which candidates for sex reassignment were once required to pass. A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law. Many people aren’t aware of this.

We’re living through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced. Back in the 80s, I imagined that my future daughters, should I have any, would have it far better than I ever did, but between the backlash against feminism and a porn-saturated online culture, I believe things have got significantly worse for girls. Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now. From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’, to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.

I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don’t have common experiences, and I find them, too, deeply misogynistic and regressive. It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or – just as threatening – unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class. The hundreds of emails I’ve received in the last few days prove this erosion concerns many others just as much. It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves.

But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive. Moreover, the ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning. I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.

Which brings me to the fifth reason I’m deeply concerned about the consequences of the current trans activism.

I’ve been in the public eye now for over twenty years and have never talked publicly about being a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor. This isn’t because I’m ashamed those things happened to me, but because they’re traumatic to revisit and remember. I also feel protective of my daughter from my first marriage. I didn’t want to claim sole ownership of a story that belongs to her, too. However, a short while ago, I asked her how she’d feel if I were publicly honest about that part of my life, and she encouraged me to go ahead.

I’m mentioning these things now not in an attempt to garner sympathy, but out of solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces.

I managed to escape my first violent marriage with some difficulty, but I’m now married to a truly good and principled man, safe and secure in ways I never in a million years expected to be. However, the scars left by violence and sexual assault don’t disappear, no matter how loved you are, and no matter how much money you’ve made. My perennial jumpiness is a family joke – and even I know it’s funny – but I pray my daughters never have the same reasons I do for hating sudden loud noises, or finding people behind me when I haven’t heard them approaching.

If you could come inside my head and understand what I feel when I read about a trans woman dying at the hands of a violent man, you’d find solidarity and kinship. I have a visceral sense of the terror in which those trans women will have spent their last seconds on earth, because I too have known moments of blind fear when I realised that the only thing keeping me alive was the shaky self-restraint of my attacker.

I believe the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others, but are vulnerable for all the reasons I’ve outlined. Trans people need and deserve protection. Like women, they’re most likely to be killed by sexual partners. Trans women who work in the sex industry, particularly trans women of colour, are at particular risk. Like every other domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor I know, I feel nothing but empathy and solidarity with trans women who’ve been abused by men.

So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.

On Saturday morning, I read that the Scottish government is proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans, which will in effect mean that all a man needs to ‘become a woman’ is to say he’s one. To use a very contemporary word, I was ‘triggered’. Ground down by the relentless attacks from trans activists on social media, when I was only there to give children feedback about pictures they’d drawn for my book under lockdown, I spent much of Saturday in a very dark place inside my head, as memories of a serious sexual assault I suffered in my twenties recurred on a loop. That assault happened at a time and in a space where I was vulnerable, and a man capitalised on an opportunity. I couldn’t shut out those memories and I was finding it hard to contain my anger and disappointment about the way I believe my government is playing fast and loose with womens and girls’ safety.

Late on Saturday evening, scrolling through children’s pictures before I went to bed, I forgot the first rule of Twitter – never, ever expect a nuanced conversation – and reacted to what I felt was degrading language about women. I spoke up about the importance of sex and have been paying the price ever since. I was transphobic, I was a cunt, a bitch, a TERF, I deserved cancelling, punching and death. You are Voldemort said one person, clearly feeling this was the only language I’d understand.

It would be so much easier to tweet the approved hashtags – because of course trans rights are human rights and of course trans lives matter – scoop up the woke cookies and bask in a virtue-signalling afterglow. There’s joy, relief and safety in conformity. As Simone de Beauvoir also wrote, “… without a doubt it is more comfortable to endure blind bondage than to work for one’s liberation; the dead, too, are better suited to the earth than the living.”

Huge numbers of women are justifiably terrified by the trans activists; I know this because so many have got in touch with me to tell their stories. They’re afraid of doxxing, of losing their jobs or their livelihoods, and of violence.

But endlessly unpleasant as its constant targeting of me has been, I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it. I stand alongside the brave women and men, gay, straight and trans, who’re standing up for freedom of speech and thought, and for the rights and safety of some of the most vulnerable in our society: young gay kids, fragile teenagers, and women who’re reliant on and wish to retain their single sex spaces. Polls show those women are in the vast majority, and exclude only those privileged or lucky enough never to have come up against male violence or sexual assault, and who’ve never troubled to educate themselves on how prevalent it is.

The one thing that gives me hope is that the women who can protest and organise, are doing so, and they have some truly decent men and trans people alongside them. Political parties seeking to appease the loudest voices in this debate are ignoring women’s concerns at their peril. In the UK, women are reaching out to each other across party lines, concerned about the erosion of their hard-won rights and widespread intimidation. None of the gender critical women I’ve talked to hates trans people; on the contrary. Many of them became interested in this issue in the first place out of concern for trans youth, and they’re hugely sympathetic towards trans adults who simply want to live their lives, but who’re facing a backlash for a brand of activism they don’t endorse. The supreme irony is that the attempt to silence women with the word ‘TERF’ may have pushed more young women towards radical feminism than the movement’s seen in decades.

The last thing I want to say is this. I haven’t written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one. I’m extraordinarily fortunate; I’m a survivor, certainly not a victim. I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions. I never forget that inner complexity when I’m creating a fictional character and I certainly never forget it when it comes to trans people.

All I’m asking – all I want – is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.

[comrade-meow]

Capitalism, the New, New Left and the Gender Industry

“Inclusivity is more than a social cause, it’s a business opportunity.  It’s time to maximize your business growth.”

 - dmi Consulting

Let me get this out of the way, because it seems more than a few people still need to hear this.  

CORPORATIONS DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU!

“Diversity and inclusion ”(D&I) comprise a new business mantra.  Programs and language, based on the normalization of body dissociation, are being corporately cultivated, around the world. The programs being instituted appeal to our emotions, to entice us to believe that companies care about people and just want to create one big happy, diverse, work-family, which include marginalized sectors of society - most importantly, those who imagine they have a sex (gender is a euphemism) that is not male or female.  The overlooked are finally being given a place at the table!

Or are they?

The new, new liberal left in America, the left that has emerged out of a traditional new left, which cared about the working class, blacks and women’s rights, who yearned for a more equal and just social order, is unrecognizable to many of us who’ve long been of the traditional left.  That left, just a decade ago, sparked a potentially revolutionary movement on Wall street, calling out the financial industry and the monopolies ruining our lives and our planet.  Emerging out of the carcass of that potentially revolutionary movement, is a left that has recently climbed into bed with those same big banks.  Snuggled up in bed with them, fluffing their pillows, are Big Pharma and Big Tech.  The left, are running around screaming at protests, get wide media coverage, voices in our universities and institutions, crying that people claiming their sex is not male or female, need human rights.  These manufactured sexes are being supported by, promoted by, and advertised by Big Pharma, Big Tech and Big Banking.  This new, unrecognizable left sees no irony at all in their behavior.  

These purported new sexes, ostensibly requiring special human rights, depend on a narrative that sexual dimorphism isn’t real, that it exists on a spectrum of sexes.  This is the gender industry and with projected profit margins reaching into the billions by 2026, for surgeries on healthy sex organs alone, and the amount of advertising curated to sell it, it is going to be very profitable indeed.

How has the left been so duped about new markets being manifested out of sex, that they scream liberation every time someone dares to mention the glaring inconsistency of human rights for corporate profiteering off of young adults and children’s bodies?

The left knows corporations do not care about the color of our skin, whether we are oppressed because of said color of our skin, whether we live in an igloo or a cardboard box, whether the icebergs are melting, or whether Fukushima nuclear plant is dumping millions of tons  of radioactive waste into the oceans, externalizing the cost of doing business.  How do they not understand that corporations do not give a fu*k about anybody’s identity?  Unless those identities are opening markets.  

The constant business-woke-posing (D&I), for Black Lives Matter (BLM), the LGBT Inc, and the often, corporate mixing of both under the “Black Trans Lives Matter” slogan, is about profit. Every little advertising slogan, every word, is carefully selected to appeal to an ever-increasing fragmentation of humanity, into subcategories, to be marketed to.  It is all about the corporate bottom line.  If they can convince us that the disembodiment movement of “gender identity” is akin to the civil rights movement for black Americans, or has anything at all to do with LGB, they’ve roped us into their narrative of care.  Further, if they can convince more black Americans of their insane narrative of disembodiment-as-progress, it supports the illusion they are selling to all of us. Fortunately, that isn’t going well, so far.  Despite their efforts to corral black youth, and the relentless corporate propaganda aimed at them, black youth are not crying about their “gender identities” or clamoring for cross sex hormones.  

The left knows corporations don’t care.  The working class knows this.  It’s why the Occupy Wall Street movement evolved so quickly.  I was there,  a decade ago, at ground zero, with 40,000 people from every walk of life, as we traversed the Brooklyn Bridge, in protest of the choke hold the financial sector had on us.  Now these same people are waving flags in traditional, baby-colored, pink, blue and white, screaming about human emancipation through medical identities, while many sew themselves to the techno-medical complex for life.  

For a concise and readily comprehensible explanation of how capitalism functions, I urge you to examine the work of Stephanie McMillan, a life-long activist and an anti-capitalist.  She explains, in language that is completely accessible, how corporations are set up to compete in the global marketplace:  “To care about people over profits would jeopardize the corporatist’s position within that system, and their own livelihood.” Corporate heads, consist of those with the greatest wealth and depend on an exploited working class not just to function, but to suck wealth upward, from the bottom, creating ever more wealth for a few, leaving the masses at the bottom, with less and less.  This is a worse crisis for women across the world, who, according to UN stats, put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each day — a contribution to the global economy of at least $10.8 trillion a year. The reporting of these statistics will no longer be a true measure of what is transpiring globally,  since men will be included in the stats for women, under the new corporate gender regime.  

We are living in an oligarchic gulag, one that isn’t very private.  Our communities, as I addressed in an interview last year, are being opened to the acceptance and normalization of a male fetish based on disembodiment, creating a sexual psycho drama of our corporate and civil landscapes, for profit, while literally dismembering people and creating more identities to market to.  

Because we are governed by corporate monopolies, and the billionaires behind them, driving a steady stream of propaganda through our media, we no longer know what fake news is and what is real news.  We don’t know what men and women are (or we pretend not to know to fit in). We don’t know if people on social media or advertising are real or computer generated and our ability to speak about anything outside the corporately generated illusions plaguing us, are being penalized in myriad ways, not the least of which is controlled and censored speech.  Yet suddenly, we are to believe, and many on the new, new liberal left do believe, these monstrous monopolies that have colonized the entire natural world, have suddenly changed their ways and care about people.  They especially care about these new imaginary sexes being manufactured out of philanthropic funding, corporate cash, and the techno-medical complex.

Will Meyer, in a recent issue of Business Insider, gives us a look at the corporate woke hypocrisy, posing as care about the marginalized.   “IBM and Microsoft,” he reports, “claimed they would no longer sell facial recognition software to law enforcement, signaling their alignment with Soros backed, BLM movement, despite the fact both corporations remaining deeply invested in punitive systems that continue to harm Black and brown lives.”  The BLM movement has the same capitalists behind it as the gender industry.

Selling D&I to the public, is such big business, that there are corporations that teach other companies how to market it effectively. This fracturing of humanity, via the colonization of human sex, is how capitalism functions.  It splits everything into smaller and smaller fragments to open markets.  Where we once had a single-family physician to help us heal, we now have a plethora of specialists to treat everything from lung cancer to toenail fungus.  Where we have had a sexually dimorphic species, we now have medical identities that deconstruct sex, being foisted upon us, to open markets.

Those with wealth create more wealth for themselves, while underlings, not having access to wealth, land or goods, are forced to sell their labor for less and less money. The wealth, goods and land are all siphoned off by the corporatists. Well now the corporatists, with little left to extract, have come for human sex and they are not leaving until they have it, or we rise in resistance and reclaim what is left after their ravaging.

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird “We Come in Peace.”

This was difficult to write, and I am not sure if it makes much sense, but I promised to write this one for you, and I did my best. If you like writings about the logistics of a first contact situation go ahead and send me more ideas. I was thinking about learning about simple human biology would be interesting, 

As always I hope you enjoy feel free to comment, question, critique, message or anything else. 

Captain Kelly stood below the ramp of the strange alien ship surrounded on all sides by her most trusted companions. To her left, her first lieutenant, to her right, her linguistics specialist directly behind her three of her most experienced men, and right to the back…. The 2nd lieutenant who had begged her on his knees to tag along. He was young and inexperienced, but then again, he had shown resolve under pressure and probably kept them from being shot. Because of him they were taking their first steps into communication with an alien race.

Above them, the ramp began to lower releasing light downwards upon them. At the top a set of sentries watched them with tense anticipation. She may not speak alien, but she knew caution when she saw it. She urged her team upwards, the boots of her space suit thudding against the strange material.

Lieutenant Vir hurried up to stand next to walk next to her a bounce in his step, eyes wide with childish wonder. She sort of hoped he never lost that, she also hoped that he would never have a reason to.

They stopped at the top of the ramp, as the door hissed shut behind them leaving them alone and stranded aboard an alien ship.

***

The atmosphere of frustration was clear. The galactic assembly’s best specialists had been sent out to attempt and make communication possible between the two species but so far, they had made no real progress. The variability in the creature’s intonations and voices made it structurally impossible to tell what they were trying to say and even identify if they were saying the same thing. A hiss from one sounded completely structurally different from the hiss from another. Additionally, they seemed to refer to themselves through a multiple combinations of the sounds.

On the other hand, scientists had made greater headway in learning about the creatures genetically and structurally. The human leader, the small one, had handed off the green-orbed creature for scientific testing, and despite its constant need to touch things, it was easy to deal with. From examination, they learned that the creature spoke based on a system of fluctuating air pressed out from its esophagus, through two vibrating vocal bands, and the interaction of its mouth, specifically a muscle within the mouth. Unfortunately each creature had varying sizes of vocal cords, tongues, teeth, and nasal passageways making communication completely different creature to creature.

Conversely, the creatures seemed to be growing irritated, as they did not understand their complex, additional, body posturing. One specifically including one digit pointing in random directions, and then the creature would get angry when they didn’t understand.

Things had ground to a halt at this point. The main creature was resting its head against the table, the second one was frantically gesticulating towards and unknown device, and the other three looked saggier than usual. The only one who didn’t seem to have changed was the green-orb creature watching from close by as a scientists took measurements about his chest.

The curious-eyed creature had been watching silently for some time before shrugging himself away from the scientist, to range across the room gathering all the chairs and dragging them into a large group. Creatures and member of the council alike stared at the creature with confusion. By the time he was finished all the chairs were piled in the circle at the center of the room. Everyone was standing ty this point having had their chairs confiscated.

The creature pulled one of the chairs forward a sharp chirp and a growl. He brought forth the next one and repeated the sound. He did this over and over again, and then urged the other creatures to do so one after the other.

“Wait, wait, I think I understand.”

“Someone, start recording.”

They ran statistics comparing the different sounds and found they had the same rhythmic pattern to them. “Chair,” They repeated.

***

“Why didn’t they get it when I said that?” Their linguist asked angrily as the aliens chirped to each other excitedly. They grabbed a chair and made a noise. It was a weird kind of sequel and hiss.

Adam did his best to copy it. The aliens parroted it back to him a few times excited with his copying rendition.

They sat down again moved by a new vigor. Captain Kelly finally let the boy over. He was proving himself to be more useful to this mission than he had any right to be, and if they were going to communicate with these inhuman beings, than they were going to have to use all of their available assets.

***

It was important to first establish the nouns for objects. Each one had to be carefully statistically analyzed for difference in language pattern, but just because they knew the names of objects meant absolutely nothing. The rules and meanings of their language would be difficult to puzzle out.

Personal pronouns proved to be an issue that took them some hours to puzzle out. Certain ones accepted He some accepted She and all accepted they although they could be an identifier for a group of the creatures though a group of creatures was not called a “They”. We was used when the creature speaking was part of the group indicated. They themselves could not be part of a they, but they could be part of a we. They seemed very reluctant to explain the difference between a he and a she, and so they left that particular mystery for another time accepting what the creatures told them as fact.

They eventually got the name of their race, though, of course, there was no direct translation. The word consisted of a short exhalation of air then a hum a chip and then another sort of humming sound.

“Human.”

It took an entire session just to explain these personal pronouns in relation to the nous they already understood.

The humans came back the next day with new equipment proceeding to draw images, and symbols that apparently represented the sounds that they made. It was fascinating to find that they had a written language proving once and for all that they were a sentient species equal to any in the galactic assembly.

The green eyed human remained integral in these discussions. Despite his inferior position in the hierarchy, he was the first to act, and sometimes, the first to understand. He was the one who made it clear that body language was just as important to the “Humans” as was spoken language. Pointing with a single digit was to indicate attention be focused on a specific object. A head shake meant no and a nod meant yes. The lifting of both shoulders was an indication of confusion neither agreeing nor disagreeing.  

“I” and “Me” were indications of the self though each creature also had a personal name. In certain cases they had three names…. Though that wasn’t discovered until later.

“I was usually followed by an action I run, I walk while “Me” Denoted something happening to a person, for me, to me, with me. Us and We acted the same way.

“You” was the word they used when speaking to another creature, when not unitizing their personal name.

Motion words followed their personal pronouns. The leader spoke the words while the green eyed creature demonstrated. He waked, he ran, he spun and he jumped.

Going, was a general term indicating the movement to somewhere, coming meant to return or to journey FROM a location.

The first sentence, “I come.”

“You come.” The creature said pointing at one member of the council.

Hesitantly they walked forward towards the human.

The room around erupted as the creatures began shrieking and showing their teeth. They fled backwards away from the horrible display of maddened barbarism. Upon seeing this the humans calmed hands in the air vital organs exposed.

No words could be shared, so no one understood what was happening.

How were we to know that facial expressions were so important?

It took another day to explain wanting something and then possession.

I want, I have, we want, we have.

General verbs followed that, beginning with easy concepts not abstract. To speak, to fly, to breathe.

All throughout they learned question words beginning with what paired with that. What to ask what something is or was, but usually paired with other words to determine context. Where for location, when for time, who, for a specific person. All which had a matching answer who paired with personal pronouns or names what with that where with here or there (here for right next to a person) there paired with a pointing gesture or some other context.

The humans surprised them indicating that their language also utilized the pat and the present is and am indicating something in the now while others required prefixes or suffixes to indicate past. Their translating equipment was beginning to pick up short sentences now, and with excitement the humans accepted the strange technology.

The green eyed human most of all.

***

Lieutenant Vir marched aboard the ship with the strange alien translation device clipped to his right ear. He was going to speak with an alien today, he was determined. Not just a sentence, he was going to get an answer to a question.

The first alien he saw had been there every day, a simple soldier, nothing more, but Lieutenant Vir walked right up to him. The creature watched in tense worry and confusion, “What is your name?”

Seconds passed.

“Gurt.”

***

It took weeks to understand the question why and even longer to explain abstract concepts. They had been there for months.

But the day came. They sat across the tale from each other Captain Kelly sitting next to her linguist and her soldiers.

“Why are you here?” The alien asked in its stilted and halting voice. It almost sounded like a bird or a parrot talking. It could have spoken through the translator, like some of the others did, but like the linguist it insisted.

“We come in peace.” Came the reply…. A reply that humans had thought up for thousands of years, in every science fiction novel and television show. An intergalactic hand of peace extending across space and time. “We want to know….. To understand.”

“You want knowledge.”

“We wanted to know that we are not alone, and now we want to be…. Friends/allies.”

“You…. Are danger.”

“Why?”

The alien paused for a long moment rubbing its head…. A gesture it had picked up from the humans, “You run quickly, jump high, sharp teeth. You want….. Eat us?”

“Predator?” The word was passed around explained and translated in the next thirty minutes.

The humans looked appalled, “No!”

“You ran and chased, following at first….. You make fear for us.

The humans convened for a long moment glowering at the green eyed creature who seemed shocked for a second butting in to the conversation, “No. I did not want to eat. I wanted…. Uh…. Allies…. I was….. Pleased.”

The translation was broken, the meaning algorithms struggling to piece together understanding form one separate mode of communication to another.

The entire room shifted in confusion and surprise. How could this be?

The predators had crossed the galaxy searching. They sought friendship in the stars despite their barbaric nature and their powerful, predatory instincts. What drove them was not hunger, or even knowledge.

Alone in the universe they sought proof…. Proof they were not alone.

[sirro85-blog]

Humans are Space Orcs: Loyalty

"Humans will pack bond with anything" is not true.

I am Professor Gleax and studying the humans has been my life's work, I have spent time with them in war and in peace in simple and in interesting times. To borrow from one of earth's great thinkers; others have studied humans and given me guidance, while my 30'000 volumes are intended to be exhaustive, I am standing on the shoulders of giants.

Humans can pack bond with anything animate, sentient or otherwise but this doesn't mean they will. My time observing Major Kovac one time soldier in the United Nations Galactic Defence Force and part time mercenary taught me this.

I had followed Kovac to earth's 2nd joint species settlement, Terrans and Votoli the humans called them "wombats" due to their similar appearance to earth's species of that name although Kovac always maintained that they looked more like small camels to him. Votoli lived in colonies with a queen similar to earth's insects but lacked the hive mind instead using various musks to coordinate the colony's activities.

It had not been a happy start to the settlement with issues regarding resource sharing and unfortunate accidents resulting in some early deaths but after 2 orbits the settlement appeared to be running smoothly. Until the Rhul settlement established itself on a nearby continent.

From what Kovac was able to uncover later the Votoli took unilateral decision to sabotage the settlement and the humans unaware of Votoli actions were hostile when accused of subterfuge by irate Go-Rhul (low rank pack leaders).

There were several skirmishes and hostilities seemed to escalate at every parlé, until a human outpost was overrun and the occupants all killed.

Major Kovac was dispatched with his squadron at full compliment, 3 troops of combat specialists and a 3rd auxiliary troop of support troops. The UNGC gave him full licence to resolve the issue, the Rhul afterall were known to be hostile to humans at times. Rhul internal politics meant that the Dote-Sim-Rhul that commanded the settlement was unlikely to be able to expect support from the Rhul homeworld.

Initially I thought the Major would resolve the conflict peacefully without needing the power of the human military machine. Sadly another outpost was overrun and the Votoli lost troops aswell and things spiralled out of hand

"We need to close the western defences Major," chittered the Votoli commander, while the Votoli were nominally in command of their own troops and positions the human warrior tendencies and the Major's reputation meant the human leader was in overall command.

"No, Wolf will have hit that position hard and extricating his men will be a challenge, when they get back his men will be tired and nothing can slow down their achieving safety."

"I doubt your men are left alive Major, a single troop can't capture that position as you admitted yourself and humans cannot outrun a Rhul, those hunting your men will be led by a Go, if not a Stad or even a Finn. A fighting withdrawal over 10 of earth's kilometres will see the last of the survivors run down." The Votoli gave a squirt of annoyance, the odour assailed my scent receptors.

"No, the Captain will have inflicted maximum casualties and as the Stad tried to respond would have targeted the communications, this will lead to a Finn pack being deployed and the men of 1 Troop will have been pushed to hold position initially, now Wolf will be leading his men back at a run, a Chet may have been foolish enough to pursue headlong but a Finn will be wise enough not to push too hard after humans, especially after Wolf has left them a few...gifts."

"I don't see how 30 humans can hold back a Finn pack..." began the Votoli.

"I know you don't," Kovac cut across him, "No more than you can see how 120 humans are enough to win this war we are encumbered in. Have faith commander," I have to admit I agreed with the Votoli, 30 humans even as good as Kovac's would not withstand an onslaught by near 200 Rhul warriors, I believed my friend Wolf was dead.

The Votoli squirted in anger and declared, "your men are dead!"

"They aren't," came the laconic reply.

"You're so sure, what is this? Blind loyalty?" Sneered the Votoli, literally dripping with derision.

For the first time the Major turned to look at his ally, "it's not blind."

A few moments later a shout went up from a lookout, human soldiers sighted, within minutes they were visible to the commanders, the Finn must have realised his quarry had nearly escaped him because he drove his pack forward harder, the humans were 500m from safety when the Rhul were less than 25 from them, Captain Wolf had his men find cover and turn their rifles on their fast approaching enemy.

I thought the Major would order the defences raised as he raised his radio to his lips and said, "Captain Dorman, if you would, Gillie, light them up."

The Finn-Rhul seemed to realise his error as the jaws of the trap snapped shut, mortar and heavy support fire rained in from Captain Gillespie's auxiliary unit as Captain Dorman signalled his men to open fire, bullets tore into the Rhul from three sides as explosives rained in from above. Less than half a dozen Rhul were seen to limp from the killing zone and while the Votoli were eager to pursue them they lost their desire when the humans would not assist them.

"Well done Wolf, your men were superb," Kovac shook his Captain's hand. "Thank you sir, need to report three casualties...I'm sorry sir."

Kovac bowed his head for a moment and gave a heavy sigh, "Thank you Captain."

3 planetary rotations later the Major was in communication with the Rhul, "I've already destroyed at least 1/3 of your forces, I suspect more than that, please return to the negotiations, we can make decisions that benefit us all"

The response was less than positive but the Major seemed to lose his temper when the Votoli liaison cut across the broadcast, "surrender!" She chirruped, "surrender or my humans will destroy you." The Major ended the communications link.

Captains Dorman and Becca reported incidents to the Major when Votoli troops seemed to break rules of engagement to inflict non-military losses on the Rhul.

The Major lead a daring raid into enemy territory and successfully destroyed the Rhul communications array, they captured the final two Stad-Rhul pack leaders of similar rank to the Major himself. The Votoli at this point had refused to accompany the humans but were acting as the defence force manning positions. When Captain Becca confronted them on this the Votoli insisted that the humans were asking too much and went so far as to blame the humans for the conflict.

The only setback was when Captain Dorman's 3 troop were unsuccessful in their attempt to capture the Rhul logistics HQ, while casualties were low it left 1/3 of the Major's combat troops exposed for several planetary days.

In many cultures my own included failure to complete an order would result in loss of command and punishment, however as the Major explained to me, "It was a near impossible task, I don't love my men because they always succeed I love them because they always try."

As the seasons changed to colder & wetter relations with the humans and Votoli broke, the humans it seemed could do no right in the eyes of the "Wombats" every victory was expected and every set back was the fault of the human forces, the Rhul were now besieged and the Major had resolved to seek peace one more time before the war reached its violent and dreadful conclusion.

This time no Votoli were invited to the meeting, even I was asked to remain outside, whatever was agreed the next event was the human forces withdrawal to their own defensive perimeter and the release of Rhul prisoners.

"You're incompetent," railed the Votoli bureaucrat at the Major, "you've given up all our hard won land and sacrificed all the advantages we had achieved." The creature appeared to have greater control of it's scent valves than most and gave less away, "everytime we look to be achieving our goal your foolishness costs us, if it hadn't been for Votoli..."

The Major appeared to lose his temper and raised his hand, "If it hadn't been for the Votoli? Do not tell me what would be the situation if it were not for our allies."

The Major dismissed the Votoli with a gesture and the creature lost it's control letting out a stream of rage, the Major had already departed.

"About as subtle as a shotgun, as manipulative as my old dad," muttered Captain Becca falling in with her commander.

Within a week the Rhul had broken through the Votoli containment and were on the offensive. No human position was attacked and no form of aggression was seen by either side.

By the second week the Votoli had been routed and only their military command post remained intact, though heavily damaged.

"You're our allies, you're pack bonded, you're supposed to protect us from this, you have to help us," wailed the Votoli high commander through the communications link.

"We were allies, you took advantage of our nature, you took advantage of who we are and exploited the best of us, we who will help anyone regardless of race and will stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends in the face of obliteration, you used us as any bully uses people, you're cowards and thugs and I will not weep at your passing." Was the Major's cold reply.

Humans will pack bond with anything and they will show a trust in their friends beyond reason, they forgive and forget and they will give their last for their own but never assume they'll let that be taken for granted.

If you ever find one ask the Votoli what happens when human friendship is taken for granted, or human love is abused.

[cedar-glade]

The Abyss of Diversity, an Ecological Mess, and A Potential First Step to Fixing It and Opening the Door to A Plethora of Information.

One plant family, above all others, from the monocot group is responsible for the largest removal of plant blindness than any other family. It’s a craze of love and sometimes even addiction. It can even cause ecological disasters from how far we take things with these monocots. 

When one walks into a grocery store you may occasionally notice the orchids in floral section and become the casual observer. Or you may have gone to a conservatory/greenhouse and observed some orchids as you were enjoying the flora. You most likely associated the idea of an orchid flower with something relatively showy with glossy leaves and you may have even noticed that floral diversity with orchids are all across the board. This observation is a good observation as the orchid family, Orchidaceae,  has incredible floral diversity, from showy to inconspicuous, caused by nearly every evolutionary pressure you can imagine.

The evolutionary subsets that involve coevolution could take hundreds of lifetimes to even scratch the surface of what could be known. Fungal experts, cell biologists, biochemical specialists, and ecological and evolutionary ecologists are just a small group of people that sometimes get stuck specializing in a single species discourse and they aren’t even botanists. 

 Besides the intensely frigid zones of the planet/ oceans, you can observe orchids in almost every other environment. For example: Eulophia petersii grows in the arid to semi arid regions of Southern Africa where it can experience what would normally seem like extreme bouts of drought and do well. Orchidaceae is also considered to be the largest current family(20k natural sp. with 100hybrid cv. being developed daily.) and the second largest natural family. We see new species discovered almost yearly; with this said, a very important notion of their diversity goes unnoticed by many people on a daily basis that should be just as celebrated as their floral/vegetative/ and niche diversity. What I am suggesting is something that can be a little matted down or even underground to what we readily observe. Its what makes the family possible to begin with; what I mean is the roots(pun intended). From macro-morphology to ultrastructural morphology the roots of orchids can be insanely unique and very important. 

How deep does the diversity go?  Aside from primary shape, location and function of orchid roots; the diversity of associated Mycorrhiza coupled with unique root bacteria available within’ and outside of the root may seem almost unfathomable when looking at extremely active and diverse ecosystems. The interactions and ecology between each species present is even more unreachable. It doesn’t help that transplanting species is in large enough numbers is impossible and ecologically damaging/ unethical. It seems like our only method for growing orchids in bulk involves our species of interest being either a seed-agar flask or a root-parenchyma tissue culture flask from very sterile lab conditions, the average person without these methods has to rely on potential divisions or kiki to even get anywhere. With these methods you can’t get a full story at all and it feels like an untouchable issue; however, this untouchable issue is beginning to be resolved in some cases. 

First, before I go any further in what I am about to attempt to explain, I’d like to introduce some functional/common morphology and introduction before a break away into resolving the issue mentioned above. 

Orchids are highly specialized, as I mentioned above, and so are their components. Just like many other organisms, survival and fitness are the prime focus and getting to disjunct populations and travelling is necessary to find suitable habitat. The majority of Orchid species, like any other large family on the planet, have evolved multiple ways of moving their seeds from location to location. The most common way to move seeds is to have wind dispersal as the primary mechanism. We see this, wind dispersal, as a major component with other large, wide spread families( Asteraceae, Poaceae, Cyprussaceae). Orchids have also found success in resource allocation, remove the nutrient layer of endosperm, make seeds airborn by flattening them and making them small enough to be carried on the breeze or birds wings, and because endosperm takes energy and is no longer being used it’ll go to seed numbers. The only issue is that when a seed lands with know tissue dedicated to primary germination, how will it grow? The simple truth is having chemical signalling and thin seed coat prone to fungal interactions. Orchids spread seeds during periods that promote the hydroponic soil surfaces to be inundated with water and motile oospores. Oospores can change direction based on chemical signalling, once these ambient Oospores are produced they will travel to these seeds and embed through the thin coat into the initial cells. At first, in many cases, these seeds are specifically useless to the fungi that have attached; but, in many cases, eventually symbiotic interaction will be established along with the initiation of photosynthesis. I say “in many cases” because, we do have our sections of mycoheterotrophs that essentially feed off of saprotrophic and heterotrophic fungi( Some coral roots exhibit this as a function.). Little is known at the moment about these chemical signals and more fungal allocation in primary germination seems to be associated with what is ambient. We see ambient germination in epiphytic members of orchidaceae often, some require dual specialized fungal associations, fungus associations with australian ferns and Arachnorchis behrii is an example of this. Either way the reliance of fungal interactions is key in primary germination outside of in-vitro- asymbiotic flasking environments. Once embedded or coated, depending on specificity (arbuscular-endo-mycosymbiont or exo-mycosymbiont), we get different forming protocorms in each species. 

What is a protocorm? It is a pre-functioning seedling that begins secondary sell differentiation in a protected environment, creating organs while relying on another organism for aid in survival essentially. Once enough symbiotic associations are finalized, or somewhat finalized, and organ growth is past it’s primary stage while conditions are right, the protocorm will form what we know as the functional orchid. This means that roots and some form of energy storage organ are functioning. In some cases, we see just thickened roots as a main storage source and functional unit, corkscrew/ghost and coralloides are examples. Other species are divided into colloquial groupings, such as polypoidal -many feet and monopodial- single foot orchids. The polypoidal groupings are usually rhizomatous or have a thickened stollon where we se monopodial groupings with canes( elongate thickened stem like organs) or pseudobulbs (stout/bulb like thickened leaf meristem topped organs that are more closely associated with a traditional stem.) These obviously are not the limit to the storage diversity by any means, as storage cells can form a number of specialized organs. Valemen layer, the outermost sheathing layer of most orchid roots that are found briefly behind the root tip, can contain enlarged sink cells for water storage although the layers primary task is water absorption and protecting the photosynthetic root layer beneath and with terrestrials it can add a layer of security to its fungal and bacterial symbionts. Many times if need be, plants, without a proper long term storage organ, may revert pack to a protocorm state until good conditions and less soil compaction are a transparent factor in the environment; this concept explains why some large individual Cypripedium spp. will “disappear” for years and then reappear to bloom years later, relying on only symbiont stimuli and energy sequestering.  

With the basic concepts of morphology down, we can move onto the issue at hand involving root-symbiont research. Obviously, with so much diversity and rarity poaching will occur. Not only poaching as an issue; but, improper ecological education, geological/botanical blindness, and failure to manage land properly to the point of mass ecosystem collapse has lead to a decline in population growth in many orchid species. So, how do we quickly restore order and mitigate damage for the future of Orchidaceae and it’s ecological interactions when it’s highly invasive to do transplanting(not to mention almost all transplants of an established plant fail)? Well, their are a couple new methods and protocol that may lead to answers. Many colleges with decent culturing programs and genetic programs are working with resource branches in the government to identify the symbionts present and necessary by species. There are tons of ethical codes involved, on a region to government basis; but, if you can get involved with local orchid societies, governments interested in ecological preservation, and biological research departments you can help reverse a lot of damage potentially.  There are two main methods of gaining this knowledge: one major one is zooplankton net bound in-situ(at native site) seed germination/protocorm removal that involves barcoding cultures after the fungus has been probed out in lab, once probed, it is cryogenically frozen for later culture libraries. A good example of one such organization doing this is The Smithsonian Institute North American Orchid Conservation Center. The second, is live root tissue sampling which also requires extremely delineate protocol and membership to specific groups that can give permits. In my State, the ODNR and EPA is working with many universities and even orchids societies, like CGOS and NOPES, to set up a standard interface in ethical collection as well as permits. In order to access these permits you do have to be part of one of these groups and be trained in protocol. 

Sources/ further reading: 

First Photo Diagram:

Second Photo: Liparis liliifolia My photo

Third: NOPES counting and photographing a roadside orchid population. My photo.

“In situ protocol at field sites for terrestrial orchids”

“Modern and current tech in seed crop production, in vitro seed germ protocol” 

“In situ concepts behind terrestrial orchid dust seeds seno latu”

“China, in-situ germination and restoration”

“On field site germ”

“In-situ and ex-situ baiting techniques with orchids”

“Perspective on seed protocorm development”

“Understanding seed to protocorm development in orchids”

“On Protocorm. Cyp. kentuckiense, research project.”

“Dist. of Pink Spider Orchid”

“Orchid-fungus fidelity: A marriage meant to last?”

“Physiological diversity of orchids”

“On Orchid Storage Anatomy”

“Endosymbiosis, Orchids:  Endosymbiotic Bacteria Within Orchid Mycorrhizal Fungi”

“Orchids, Fungi, and Symbiosis”

“Bacteria Associated with Orchid Roots”

“Symbiotic in vitro seed propagation of Dendrobium: fungal and bacterial partners and their influence on plant growth and development.”

“Bacteria associated with orchid roots and microbial production of auxin”

“Asymbiotic and symbiotic seed germination of Eulophia alta (Orchidaceae)—preliminary evidence for the symbiotic culture advantage” 

“The velamen protects photosynthetic orchid roots against UV‐B damage, and a large dated phylogeny implies multiple gains and losses of this function during the Cenozoic”

“Non-mycorrhizal endophytic fungi from orchids”

“The importance of associations with saprotrophic non-Rhizoctonia fungi among fully mycoheterotrophic orchids is currently under-estimated: novel evidence from sub-tropical Asia”

“Ectomycorrhizal Inocybe species associate with the mycoheterotrophic orchid Epipogium aphyllum but not its asexual propagules.”

“Genetic diversity patterns of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with the mycoheterotroph Arachnitis uniflora Phil. (Corsiaceae)”

[emsartwork]

Some asks!

1. Thank you! honestly a lot of the reason why ive produced so much for this show is because everybody is really involved and supportive. I’d love to develop my own show but also ayyyyyy ignio strafi my main man hmu whenever you wanna reboot the sparkly babes. @iamanemotionaltimebomb 2. Thank you!!! i love giving characters defining traits, and even though i understand it makes animation harder/more time consuming i think it really adds to the show. 3. i didn’t do anything to them?? i think tumblr was like.... glitching out with some of my posts tho cus i would look for stuff i had saved on my personal blog and not be able to find things i knew should be there so it might be that. I’ll go back in my archive and make sure its tagged appropriately tho  4. personally i think the fairy forms top off power wise at enchatix, and then its just changing uniforms for different jobs. like you wouldn’t wear a lab coat to fight a fire and you wouldn’t wear a fire suit to mix chemicals 5. So if the island is big or has actual seasons(ex. Britain, Japan, fuckin Australia/New Zealand technically) they would just be either Silva or Mare Lynpheans. but i could see small tropical islands having their own subset yeah, @just-kairi

6. Not a bother at all! I’m planning on doing a full villains set as the next thing, im glad people are looking forward to it ^-^ 7. I’m gonna be doing the pixies for sure! I haven’t watched pop pixie at all, but for a while there I thought pixies were all female and elves were a separate all male species lol, i might just do that since the pixies are supposed to reproduce asexually(i heard??). @weirdghostly (i can’t tag u???) 8. yes! when i did believix redesigns i didn’t really think about it but I’m planning on revisiting them and adding sophix/lovix and the alternate wings.  9.  I don’t actually.... I’m already running one webcomic and i’m not much of a writer lol so i haven’t really mushed everything together for my winx ideas. I’ll probably do more short comics for it in the future tho!  10. omfg yes i love those designs when i was gathering references for sirenix it was sooooo hard to to use those because theyre so beautiful. Yeah it would prob have to be a commission just cus i’m swamped with other things rn :/ @hug-all-platelets 11. i mean ya ur right they just never should have killed nabu(is he officially dead or pulling a sleeping beauty on all of us?). As much as I would have loooooooved aisha to remain single because how awesome would that be, it would be a little weird to have her be the one winx member to not be involved romantically, because i mean. there is that stereotype/meme of “strong independent black woman who don’t need no man”(closely related to the “sassy black woman” stereotype) which is Problematic with a capital P, but regardless, nex and roy showed up. i honestly think the love triangle was resolved pretty quickly considering how long rainbow likes to drag relationship drama on? but yeah poly aisha/nex/roy would have also been cool. I think the reason she chose nex is because he “proved” himself, he ultimately had more perseverance and passion than roy, which is something i think aisha would specifically look for. shes strong physically and personality wise, she would want to be with people who can keep up.  12. Both! Riven is the tallest specialist, and musa is the shortest winx. i am....... very partial to height difference....... For their relationship, i think they wouldn’t even start dating until like season 3 era at the earliest.(this is partially why season 4 is so rough for them, its a new relationship) a lot of their issues would stem from their attachment issues and how they respond to insecurity. Riven’s mom left him, just fucking dropped out of his life while he was a young kid, leaving him with (in my universe) an emotionally distant and dismissive father he could never please. So Riven responds by pushing people away before they can reject him, becoming controlling, or dismissing them in anger and pretending not to care about their opinion. Musa’s mother was taken away from her by illness.  I think it happened in musa’s early teens, since it’s clearly still a tender subject in the first season. A parents death is painful no matter the circumstance, but a sickness that slowly steals the person you love away from you must be incredibly painful. As a result, Musa experience a lot of anxiety about the people she loves leaving her(whether by their choice or not), and becomes clingy, emotionally demanding, and sensitive. When Riven pushes her away Musa tries to push her way back to him, when Musa wants Riven to act certain way or do something (even if its irrational and she is at fault) Riven dismisses her needs because it means he can keep himself safe from failure. They have similar problems but the way they respond to it ends up escalating every issue. They do eventually grow and become vulnerable with each other. I think that riven still left at the end of season 6, but they didn’t exactly break up, they both recognized that Riven needed some time away from the specialists to work on his own shit and gain confidence in his own skills, so it turned into a low key long distance thing. (if he hadn’t come back in season 8  they would just decide to break it off but lol he’s back) anyways..... enjoy this essay lol

[thecoroutfitters]

In the right-hand model, it’s in the identical plane. When an object can’t be superimposed onto its mirror image, then it’s a chiral object. Just take the next simple example.

This graphic looks at a range of the most usual easy derivatives that can be obtained within this manner. So as to conserve space, structural formulas will frequently be written out in 1 line. Here is a more complicated example with numerous alkenes.

What You Must Know About Iso Organic Chemistry

Every lab is anticipated to keep up a strict grip over the quality together with suitable documentation. https://expert-writers.net/thesis-help/ Benchmarking Benefits ISO 17025 certification makes it possible for the labs to make sure they’re performing the testing properly and keeping up the apt standard. Organic products are verified to create sure organic integrity was maintained via the packaging practice.

How to Get Started with Iso Organic Chemistry?

Acetone is extremely flammable. A hydroxy naphthalene like naphthol needs to be regarded as a phenol. Hydrocarbons can be categorized into two categories depending on the presence of a benzene ring, a circular kind of hydrocarbon.

While I write benzene ring, it’s important to realize that other aromatic systems like naphthalene exist. Carbon-hydrogen molecules are known https://school.wakehealth.edu/Research/Institutes-and-Centers/Clinical-and-Translational-Science-Institute/Maya-Angelou-Center-for-Health-Equality/Health-Equity-Education-and-Training as hydrocarbons. For molecules aside from hydrocarbons, still other types of isomers are possible.

The Secret to Iso Organic Chemistry

Inorganic chemistry compounds find a good deal of use in medicine and wellness care. The nursery is a wonderful place to get started! In case the leaving and adding happens at the very same time, it is known as an S2 reaction.

The average quantity of acetone an adult in america gets from food isn’t known. Taking a look at the qualification is the very first thing with which the selection procedure ought to be started. He was employed as a chemist at Dupont for 42 decades.

If you haven’t already done so, you ought to read my prior post and make sure that you are conversant with the chemical tests listed here. A number of the reactions are cross-referenced for more information. This summary is designed to help in the right use of italic in preparing manuscript material.

The phenomenal development of organic chemistry during the last ten years buy essays and the switch by the indexes of Chemical Abstracts to use a lot more systematic nomenclature implies that the proper time is now. The significance of organic chemistry has been lately recognized owing to its comparison with normal chemistry. It’s helpful to understand what’s organic chemistry in order to understand which books or sections to use if researching chemistry questions, e.g. looking-up info in textbooks and via other sources and media.

Because pre-med students come from quite a few different undergraduate programs and regions of the nation, it’s understandable why there was the maturation of a standardized means to compare individual students wishing to obtain entrance into medical school. Just bookmark the video at the right time of learning so that you’re able to have easy access to it at the right time of revision. Since the training course is self-paced, you might finish the course in fewer than 16 weeks.

Dr. Pryor is a specialist on oxidative stress and the usage of the antioxidant vitamins in human well-being. For example, if you have a construction company but your consultants don’t have any earlier experience of working with the building industry, they might not be in a position to do justice with your ambitious project. A reputable consulting firm will walk together with you throughout the implementation practice.

Alkanes aren’t very reactive compared with other chemical species. The character of alcohol oxidation is dependent greatly on the molecules reactivity and the essence of the oxidizing reagent. Loss of small molecules like water is normal in condensation reactions.

It’s also essential to note that symmetrical vibrations do not lead to absorption of IR radiation. Make because many correlations as you are able to. This sort of electron displacements results in polarization of the bond.

Lies You’ve Been Told About Iso Organic Chemistry

To acquire pure ethanol from the fermentation mixture, the procedure for fractional distillation has to be carried out on the consequent solution. Lab results have demonstrated that parabens are easily absorbed via the epidermis and are observed in 90% of breast cancer tumors removed from patients. If a reaction demands the supply of a specific sum of heat it’s endothermic (H is positive).

The Basics of Iso Organic Chemistry

The synthetic organic chemist examines the molecule they would like to make to observe how it may be constructed. The vinyl group is like the allyl group. The interesting issue is that not all chemical bonds are made equal.

Do recognize, there ought to be a regulator to assure you have the suitable mix. The displayed structural formula indicates all the atoms and all the bonds. Unlike inorganic compounds, there are a few thousands of organic compounds in the present moment.

The simplest approach to understand any organization is to realize the processes used to run the enterprise. Find more details on the Altmetric Attention Score and the way the score is figured. Qualifications whenever you’re going through the screening process for hiring a consulting firm or consultant, you shouldn’t forget to think about the qualification of the group members that are likely to control your EMS.

Using Iso Organic Chemistry

Now the 2 layers can be separated into their various beakers. It follows that, in case there are two unique atoms, or groups of atoms, attached to every carbon of the carbon carbon double bond, they are sometimes arranged in various approaches to provide distinctive molecules. Attached groups are often drawn at the surface of the ring, but you can occasionally find them drawn in different places with the ring rotated.

Sometimes there’s more than one possible selection of parent chains. When you wish to indicate that a chain is intended to be a side chain, it’s written in parentheses. The parent chain is going to have the best number of carbon atoms.

For instance, the hydrocarbon methane, that is the key part of natural gas, has just a single carbon and four hydrogen atoms. If for some reason there aren’t any crystals visible, a gravity filtration can be carried out. Following this mixture cools slowly there needs to be large crystals present.

from Patriot Prepper Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. Are you ready for any situation? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[revolutionwhoop]

(R)Evolution 03: The Ugly Truth About Darwinism

Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

♡

There was an explosion. There were storms. There were inexplicable things happening that night. The scientists were saying that the situation at the lab was the result of some type of attack on the facility. That biological warfare was used and that the building fortunately had protocols in place to create a force field to shield the place from leaking… unfortunately, an explosion disabled the force field and a virus was possible released.

Folami worried. She had overheard that whatever virus released there would affect their powers, and she knew that she couldn’t be the only person in the city with powers. There were people like her all over the world. She had even met a couple whenever she was in college (well, when certain versions of her were in college) and that was a small town. There definitely had to be some here. And if that virus got to them, what if their powers were activated immediately when they breathed it and someone else was there? If somebody who wasn’t evolved to the state that she and people like herself were saw some of the things that they could do - it would be like a worst case scenario in one of those shows about people with superpowers.

That was what she called them when she was little, or more accurately, what her eldest sister called them. She was the only one in the family like this, so she presumed that she probably got it from her dad’s side. She and her sisters had different fathers. Her mother was not one to be held down forever. Why was she thinking about this? She needed to be figuring out what the hell that she would do now? She was employed at the place before it blew up and the people in charge purposefully left her for dead! She figured that all she could do at this point was go online and see if any people in the city with evolved genetics had spoken about it.

♡

The military issued a contamination isolation that affected a big portion of the city… and they created a barrier to keep possibly affected people trapped within the area.

Likewise, travel was temporarily suspended in and out of the city.

Treya Cooper was at the front of the line where one of the barricade openings was, insisting to the soldier, “There’s no way that I ingested or breathed in anything from that laboratory site. Do you know how far away my hotel is from that place? I came to this city for a conference, Man. I was supposed to be back in Mississippi two days ago.”

“Fat chance, Lady. No flights out until the city is cleared. It could take weeks,” the soldier told her.

Her eyes widened, then she furrowed her eyebrows. “You must be joking,” she said.

“Wish I was. The people are becoming more aggravated everyday.”

“I can’t stay here for weeks! What am I gonna do for work? How will I eat? Are y’all providing for us while you trap us here?”

“Not to my knowledge, but you don’t have much of a choice, Chick. I suggest you go back to your hotel, speak with them and see if they’re doing anything charitable, considering that they’re all stuck in here, too…” Before she could refute, someone got through the barrier, and went running for their life. A few others appeared ready to follow, but a sniper delivered a kill shot to the runner’s heart and everyone screamed and began to rush away from the barrier. “Damn shame,” the soldier said, shaking his head as someone came out of a nearby van, dressed in hazmat suits and collected the body. Treya had her hand over her heart.

She had seen people killed online. There was a new trend of people posting the bodies of slain black people “for awareness” and she had accidentally seen several via autoplay, no matter how many times she disabled it. But, this… in real life, a few feet away, and in such a scary way. She couldn’t even tell where the sniper was, and couldn’t think of why the body would be retrieved in such a way.

“What is it that they think that we’ve been contaminated with?” she asked, through tears, when she finally came out of her shock.

“Something that they don’t expect any of us to live beyond,” he said. For the first time, he turned to her, set a hand on her shoulder and repeated, “Go back to the hotel. See what’s what. If they don’t help you out, come back and see me tomorrow and I’ll hopefully have more information.”

“Are you gonna be shooting people, if they get out of this enclosure?”

“If I have to,” he said, with a simple nod. She left. The people who were out and about were in a state of madness.

♡

The scientist woke his Princess of Spades up with an injection. She opened her eyes quickly, but couldn’t move. “Good morning, Princess. I want to explain some things to you, as I’m sure that you’re quite confused. First, you’ll noticed that you can’t move. You can’t touch me. You can’t use your ability against me. Second, the girl that you tried to woo into helping you has been killed.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “She was trying. I’m not sure what her plan was, but it didn’t come to pass, as you’re still in my possession and she’s dead. Third, obviously, I know what you can do. You control people.”

“No. You’re wrong,” she said, softly.

“Then, tell me.”

“I see inside of them. I know their hearts, their conscious cares and fears. I speak to their hearts. I speak to their morality. I only empower them to do what they know is right.”

“What a pathetic ability,” he mused.

“Only to a narcissistic psychopath. Most people want to do what’s right, but they’re either confused as to what that is or they’re too afraid to do it. My power doesn’t work on you, because you are filled with darkness. Even that small shred of light within you would take whatever power that I grant your morality and corrupt it. You are unsaveable.” She barely moved her pinky and sighed.

“Probably because I don’t want or need to be saved.”

“If that’s true, then why have you taken so many of us? Those others in the lab - I’ve already looked inside of them. All of them were like me. They have powers. Your people took us to study us, yes… But, why? Why do most scientific studies exist? Because the scientist is looking for an answer to something. In your case - to evolution. You’re on a lower stage than we are and you can’t stand it. You want to be like this, and you’re not smart enough or powerful enough to be…” He injected her again and she passed back out.

“Rude,” he declared, before leaving her there, strapped to the chamber and closed it back.

♡

The city was on curfew, much of it shut down, trains weren’t running, cars weren’t allowed to go certain routes… Honestly - this was what she expected the end of the world to look like. Miranda texted her mother in the morning that she was fine, then ignored every single phone call from her afterwards. She already knew how those talks would go. Mrs. Browning would try to convince her to leave the city and say that the news proves that she was right all along, the big city was evil, and nowhere inside of it was safe. Miranda would then have to refute, letting her know that as a matter of fact, for her safety, much of the city was currently off limits and even if she wanted to leave that she couldn’t, because they were being so safe that folk couldn’t fly out, at the moment. Fortunately, classes were currently cancelled, so she didn’t have to focus on at least that one aspect of life, at the moment.

Instead, she curled up on the couch to watch TV and check the news several times. Usually, she hated the news. There were so many scare tactics and mass hysteria that she avoided it at all costs. Her memory was extremely good, flawless in fact. She would remember every single image and word that she saw or heard and decided at the mighty fine age of 12 that the news wasn’t where she wanted to find stuff to store in her mind for the rest of her foreseeable future. But, when something heavy happened - a natural disaster heading her way or something like whatever happened… She couldn’t help herself from being curious and concerned.

The fact that they seemed to only be speaking about the fallout, instead of explaining what happened was extremely concerning to her. First of all - no outlets seemed to be speaking with any normal people. Reporters weren’t taking it to the streets to see how the people possible affected felt, so she knew that meant that they must be trying to keep their distance.They were speaking with this professional and that specialist, this scholar and that leader. Not a single one of them explained what went down. Eventually, Bright White Light Industries released a list of all of the people who were inside of the building at the time of the attack and many began to mourn their lost loved ones or the loss of life, in general. At that point, Miranda checked out of the news. She now had 162 names and faces in her head of people who would never see their families again. It shouldn’t have happened, and she was curious to know why, but they weren’t going to tell anyone. She figured that out when the story changed from the horror of the attack to “justice for the fallen.” Yeah, but who attacked? Why that building? What is this virus that was mentioned, but not explained?

♡ At the Round Table, in the Dark

“The launch of the virus was a success. As predicted, whenever the virus was introduced into the system of the subjects, even subconsciously, their powers activated. They reacted, without even being awake and those who did wake up reflexively used their ability in self defense,” the scientist reported, showing a projection of the footage that he recorded of the inside of the facility during the launch. “Some of them had powers that ensured that they weren’t killed by the powers of the others, unless those powers only affect certain types. But, I have people retrieving any survivors found in the rubble,” he showed another projection of bodies being dug up, or snatched as they climbed out, injured. “We also have our soldiers in place to take the bodies of anyone who tries to escape the radius.”

“What will we do about these… What are we even calling them? Because, they aren’t human. They’re something else.”

“They are human,” the scientist corrected. They are humans who have naturally evolved beyond our current state. They’ve been called many things in various forms of lore. I believe that the most accurate would be to call them mutants, as they are already affected by the mutation that I believe will eventually be a part of human physiology. Some time in the future, humanity as we know it will be extinct, and those who are called human will be like these. Our main goal for the moment should be to get rid of all of those unworthy of this mutation and to figure out a way for those of us who are worthy to obtain it to do so and get ahead of the publicity.”

“And just where are you with figuring out how to make us like them?”

“I’ve created a way to grant abilities to the standard human, and the army of super soldiers that serve us are living proof of the possibility. We have not yet determined how to keep the condition.”

“So, they lose their powers, after a while?”

“They lose their lives. The ability doesn’t protect them in the same way that those who are born in that stage of evolution does. The ability does the opposite. It wears at them. It cuts their life expectancy in half.”

“So, at this current time, the only thing that you can do for us is to grant powers to us for less than forty years… and most of us are already that old.”

“That’s not exactly what I described, but sure. The formula is not yet complete. That’s why we have another facility in usage to further my work. If I’ve failed this assembly, kill me and find a scientist who is as good as me to finish what I’ve started.”

“Calm down,” another man at the table said. “We need to focus. Before we even knew that these people existed, we inherited the honor and responsibility of orchestrating and perpetuating systems to sift out the dodos. We’ll continue to ensure that undesirables are excluded from basic human rights and quality of life until we can achieve the level of evolution that it takes to openly wage war on the dregs with abilities. Increase the media coverage of the Big Guy in the White House and all of the plans he’s moving forward with, and in the meantime, mobilize our forces to exact higher levels of social injustices. Right now is a great time, in the city, because of the commotion of the attack. Many people are running wild and everybody outside the area are looking to blame someone. The police are our first line of defense. Select a few to offer a good, national newsworthy job in exchange for a transfer to a place of their choosing. If there’s nothing else?”

The scientist had more, “I want to try a mind controlling agent, for the event that the serum does not get perfected. I will need additional fund to work on this, as well.”

“You should always be working on mind control agents.”

“I will remember that.”

“In summation, the hot topics to currently stick with - patriotism, terrorism, immigration. We’ll bring vaccines back into rotation once we’ve figured out a way to undergo our evolution. When we get that power, those abilities, we submit the virus in vaccine form, and all those in the regular world will spontaneously activate. We make ourselves the invincible exceptions, prove that powers are fine, but ONLY within legal parameters, just like everything else. They’ll have to register, we’ll have the database and use who and what we might need accordingly. The terrified masses will likely handle the rest of them.”

[edmonton-optometrist478]

Read Through This To Learn Information On Vision Treatment

There are many features to good eyesight treatment. You have to know how to care for your skin about them. Furthermore, the way to take care of the attention is important. If you want to find out more, this information has some great info for you personally. Continue reading to learn more about it. As though people who smoke didn't will need one more health related cause to stop, this routine also threatens view. Because smoking deprives every single cellular inside your body of o2, one thing view need every second, tobacco users work the risk of destroying their eyesight with each puff of your cigarette. Safeguard your eyesight by giving up smoking as soon as you can. Prevent repeated vision strain, to the long-term wellness of the eyes. As the the occasional squinting isn't gonna do a lot cause harm to, if you're performing it on a daily basis, your sight could possibly be in danger. Specialists suggest obtaining an test to ascertain should your pressure is due to wanting sunglasses and to normally go simple in your view. When you work in front of the pc the whole day, you ought to rest your eyes often. Your eyes have a tendency to never blink if you are looking at the pc display screen. This could trigger dried out eyes and other eye anxiety. Appearance away each ten mins approximately and blink to relax your eyes. Consume a healthy diet to help care for your eyes. Particular foods, particularly those rich in natural vitamins C and E, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids may help guard your vision while you age group. Achieve green leafy vegetables, "oily" species of fish, beans, chicken eggs, nuts, and citrus food items for the best outcomes. If you're going out into solid sunshine for almost any time period, be sure you dress in a hat by using a large brim. Although sun glasses do protect your eyes into a specific level, a head wear will keep sunlight from them completely. Your eye lids could be notably at risk of melanoma, something you can prevent by just showing off a cap. Consume food products that are known to advertise very good vision overall health. This can include various leafy vegetables, including collards, kale and spinach. Lemon or lime many fruits provide vit c, that can help to keep up your eyesight. In addition, proteins options for example legumes, eggs, and lentils can confirm good for your eyesight. People who put on contacts need to take especially excellent care of the eye. Whilst connections are extremely ideal for eyesight, in the event the resources are not appropriately cleaned and maintained, it might be most likely harmful to view. Ensure your relationships would be the proper medication and you comply with all guidelines given by your doctor. Wear sun glasses - consistently. Ultra violet rays might cause vision and epidermis injury, even on gloomy days and nights. Look for sun glasses that provide Ultra-violet protection. They can be more expensive, yet your eye well being makes it worth while. Avoid glare whenever possible, such as that out of your electronics. Glare is really a concentration of brilliant lighting, which means you know it is not necessarily best for your eyesight. If Prairie Eye Care - Edmonton Optometrists work with your device in which glare is a problem, you should acquire an contra --glare screen protector for the notebook computer, phone or tablet. Visit the eye doctor consistently to examine for just about any inconsistencies which could disrupt your perspective and impact the standard of your vision. When you have any issues, this doctor can give you connections or glasses you so that you will are not squinting in the daytime, that may cause distressing migraine migraines. If you wish the eyes to appearance and feel their finest, drink lots of water. The greater number of hydrated you will be, the less you may are afflicted by darker communities. Hydrated skin doesn't enable the veins to show, making sure that your raccoon eyeballs (darkish circles) turn into a thing of the past. Take pleasure in a cup of coffee every morning. If you're looking for an additional alibi to drink gourmet coffee in the morning, then you've found 1. Research indicates that ingesting a couple of servings of caffeine each morning can certainly assist replenish tears which help maintain view moistened. Retain the restriction at two mugs or you'll do a lot more damage than excellent. Constantly put on appropriate eye security. Each year, lots of people end up blinded because of inappropriate defense gear at your workplace. When working with chemicals or equipment that may cause little dirt to travel, protect the eyes. A simple pair of protective glasses could mean the difference in between experiencing and getting blind. As you very first go through, you need to look after all parts of your vision region. Should you failed to know significantly about this, reading this article report certainly helped you. Make sure you save this article for upcoming guide. Then, get started adding many of these wonderful tips into motion. You may assist your eyesight.

[lunationgeckos]

(1/2) Hey! Thank you SO much for that long reply! It’s really comforting to know that there are definitely people who struggle with this issue too. I originally took her to the vet because she hadn’t eaten for a month and I was a bit concerned. I assumed she was just ovulating but the vet told me she would have to lay the eggs she was carrying. I called them today and let them know she has still not laid them. They said they should go ahead and do the surgery while she’s still strong so there

(2/2) will be a better chance of survival. The thing about my vets is the act like they have all the information on everything and have never informed me if they have a lapse in education. So I assume they know what they’re doing? But I’m still worried. I’m hopping she’ll just lay the eggs before her surgery next week so this whole thing can be done.

From the way this is phrased, I’m going to assume that your vet is an all species or mammal vet who takes other species less frequently?  I’m not about to decry a vet, but I will say that they are people and can be fallible in things they aren’t as experienced in.  The entire field of medicine is sometimes, unfortunately, ruled by educated guesses and what you read on paper.  This happens in human medicine frequently and that’s for doctors who only have to be studied on a single organism!  

Not all vets will defer to others, either.  They may feel that they really do know what they’re doing or have done it a time or two and feel confident in their practice.  I don’t want to keep making leaps of logic here.  I’ve probably made my point.  Here’s the thing.  On paper, a female that looks like she has eggs.  Hasn’t eaten in a month?  That could be going by the book, and of course anyone who doesn’t deal with reptiles much often thinks, ‘My god, not eaten in four weeks!’  When it can be very natural for a reptile.  I’ve even talked to vets who are surprised by that because they are mammal focused.  That’s what they see every day.  It’s not their fault at all.  

And while it is absolutely true that doing surgery early while they’re still strong enough is paramount, with major surgery there still needs to be a level of certainty that it’s absolutely necessary.  The first vet who treated Nalani didn’t know that you had to stitch their skin back a certain way or risk it never starting to heal.  Those are just things in the small details.  Is this vet not reevaulating your girl?  Did she have new symptoms?  Did they ask? 

But didn’t you say in the other ask that she still had something of an appetite?  When is the last time she ate?  Is she losing weight quickly?  Is she showing any signs of discomfort?  If she’s eating, is she still going to the bathroom normally?  Is she managing to pass even just urates?  

What did the vet use to diagnose these eggs?  Did they take x-rays?  Did you get to see that or take them home/get them emailed?  You could consult another vet with those possibly.  

If you’ve taken pictures of her during this ordeal, compare earlier pictures to her most recent to see if she’s looking lots thinner.  I’d be happy to take a look at pictures of the girl, too. But I’m no professional.   

Again, I’m not personally a vet and am not going to outright say your vet is wrong.  But if they aren’t at least an avian specialist, and they don’t deal with reptiles on at least a semi-regular basis, I would ask if there are any specialists they know of in the area that they could point you to.  

Or if you’re nervous about that, see if you can find a reptile or avian vet that does come up in your searches online, even if they’re a bit of a ways off and ask if they know of anyone closer by.  When I moved here I did tons of searches and didn’t manage to come up with much, so I went by what some local people said.  

But once this blew up and I actually found a reptile specialist vet, well they had a whole list of names because they knew of one another, if not knew each other personally.  These are in a fairly large square mile radius and the one vet referred to them all by first name.  Vets in an area usually know one another pretty darn well, in my experience.  The ‘vet community’ always seems pretty tight knit to me, and frankly if they don’t know other vets, I’d kinda wonder about that.  

The specialist I found was semi-retired and had given up his specialist practice, which is why I hadn’t been able to search up his name before  I only found his name when I did a specific search for the small city that my nephew lives in, called them, and asked if they knew of anyone further out.  None of these vets had come up in searches for the metro area alone.  

By all means, if your girl sounds like my story did, then it’s probably time for surgery.  But if she’s eating some, going to the bathroom pretty normally, is still plump/holding her weight, and still seems the same as always, just get a second opinion.  Looking around on forum posts in the last two months as I have, I’ve seen people who had surgeries SCHEDULED with their vet, get told to go get a second opinion only to find out that the first vet had mistaken fat pads for eggs.  It can happen.  

I don’t want to get your hopes up that nothing is wrong, here, but you just want to be sure.  Two full weeks truly eggbound would be quite a while.  Your girl should be showing some sign of distress by now, I would think, even if it’s just the bloating and fast weight loss.  

[sirro85-blog]

Humans are Weird: Addiction

T'Loss marvelled as the humans poured themselves small glasses of more concentrated poison and with a chant of "drink 'em high, drink 'em low: friends forever, here we go!" performed "shots".

Many of the more junior members of his unit were drinking with the humans keen to take part in this ritualistic celebration following their successful operation. T'Loss had insisted that those in his command stopped after they had imbibed 3 of the human "units" knowing how poorly his race tolerated the ethanol.

"It's good to see humans can even corrupt entirely different xenotypes to their ways of debauchery and excess"

T'Loss turned and saw Major Kovac standing a few strides away, he was clutching a mug of steaming brown liquid, T'Loss assumed it was filled with coffee seemingly ever present in the Major's life.

"Our juveniles can be foolish in the extreme, it is understandable to see humans with your fractional life spans behave so perilously and for the Rahtoul to be swept along by it when you proved so...adept in this last campaign."

Gesturing at the steaming mug of coffee T'Loss asked, "you do not partake?"

"No." The Major answered

"A command issue?" T'Loss half queried, the captain had already explained why she only stayed for a single drink.

"Not for me, I don't drink any alcohol"

"I believed it part of your culture?"

"Well part of some of our cultures certainly," the Major said, "I don't drink because I'm from a long line of alcoholics"

T'Loss didn't recognise the word: alcoholic.

"My parents and their parents were addicted to alcohol, they drank it to the point that it controlled their lives, it killed them in the end." The Major explained.

"I am sorry for your loss," stated T'Loss, recognising the human custom, "I don't understand, addiction?"

Major Kovac sighed and turned his head away from T'Loss slightly, "Well in my family it's alcohol or narcotics...Well that's true of so many families, especially Glasgow my home town"

T'Loss paused, he'd been through this before with humans, "I'm sorry I do not understand the word addiction"

Major Kovac grinned and shook his head, "of course you don't, well it's when humans develop a physical and psychological need for a substance or action" he paused and gave a little groan, "this might take a while...Humans release Serotonin and dopamine when they enjoy something, or rather the enjoyment is the serotonin...I don't fully understand it but essentially if you experience pleasure there's serotonin involved...dopamine is in there also, oh and endorphins there is a pleasure experience of some kind involved with endorphins, i don't know I'm a specialist in urban conflict not an endocrinologist"

T'Loss nodded, it was known how human brains responded to chemical release.

"Well if a human starts to use a specific substance or action to elicit this pleasure response that can become the only source of their pleasure...is a simplistic way of describing it. If the human becomes reliant on the substance then, at the very least, they experience severely low mood if they don't partake in the action or substance, we call it getting a fix."

"And this dependence on the addictive source of serotonin is viewed as a negative?" T'Loss did not see a danger with this.

"Well not always, in the case of my father he started drinking alcohol more than socially normal and it's inebriating effects led to his unemployment, eventually he lived his remaining life perpetually drunk and died from the poisoning effects." The Major appeared to lose his train of thought and stared into the distance, "not all addictions are necessarily bad but they become an issue when they become the focus of your life."

"So addiction is an issue when it has affected your life negatively?" T'Loss asked, feeling he was beginning to understand, "it has a neuro-chemical manifestation but is only viewed in the negative if it's impacting on social constructs?" T'Loss felt something akin to panic, it was known that human behaviour was literally alien, more so than any other race, they were quick to anger, pack-bond and to feel joy, it was an entire race of badly raised juveniles. "As a species you all accept the risk of alcohol!?" He choked out staring at his juniors now watching one soldier "Strapedo" a bottle of wine.

"Ahh most people enjoy a drink in the evening or at the weekend to limited ill effects, it's just people like my family that take it too far...and yes as a society in general we accept that."

"You have a genetic disposition to alcoholism?" Why hadn't this been bred out?

"I suppose I do, but perhaps it's behavioural, at times it seems worth it, some of our greatest minds have had addictions."

"So only certain members of your race can become addicts, I used that correctly?" Perhaps the Rahtoul could screen fore this trait before hiring any humans in the future.

"Yes, you did," the major paused, "well, I suppose we all have some form of addiction, I 'need' my coffee, but without it all I suffer is headaches, irritation and increased fatigue, also 'needing' caffeine is so socially acceptable, we print it on t-shirts, that being said we do the same with alcohol..." Major Kovac grinned, "amongst my group of Godless lunatics I have 31 smokers, I'm not supposed to know that 12 of them take pain relief medications they aren't prescribed, about eight have real adrenaline addictions, a solid core of them probably 40-50 would easily be described as addicted to the gym-they get super cranky and stressed if they don't work out," he paused looking fondly at his "godless lunatics" and gave a small smile, "I probably fit that description too, and the Captain, Becca probably easily fits the description of a sex addict."

"Addiction is intrinsic to your nature?" T'Loss said struggling to keep his voice calm, inside he felt both awe and dread sweeping through him.

"We like pleasure releases and will seek them out, repeatedly."

T'Loss stared at the band of humans on his vessel, quite how these bizarre chemically dependant, impulse driven juveniles with apparently no impulse control or common sense had ever managed to get out of their caves let alone manage interstellar travel while chasing every second of pleasure they could find baffled him. Humans it seemed were entirely driven by their emotions and desires.

So I am aware that I haven't really done justice to the intricacies of addiction, feel free to add to the recovery and treatment aspects. Feedback is always appreciated =).

[luckycatkryptonite]

7 COMMON INTERIOR DESIGN MISTAKES

Bad light

Lighting plays an important role in interior design. Most people choose to equip only overhead lighting, which is one of the main mistakes. Experts recommend using different types of lighting. Recessed lamps and chandeliers are suitable for general use. But do not forget about additional light sources. For this purpose, floor lamps, wall and table lamps are used. The choice of lighting in the interior is very important. It focuses on certain details. Lighting is chosen depending on the style in which the room is decorated. Natural light is equally important. It creates coziness and comfort in the room. A smart lighting system is a very effective way to visually enlarge the space. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the purpose of the premises. Bright light is not recommended in the bedroom; soft and diffused light should be chosen. In the kitchen, on the other hand, it is necessary to illuminate the work area. The main mistake that is made when creating interiors is the choice of single-plane lighting. The chandelier must be complemented with sconces, lamps and floor lamps.

Arrangement Of Furniture Along The Walls

An equally popular mistake that came from the Soviet era is the arrangement of furniture along the walls. Initially, this method of furnishing was chosen because the backs of the furniture were unfinished and often did not have an aesthetic appearance. However, headsets are being offered today that look equally good from any angle. Furniture placed along the walls conceals the space. Therefore, it is not necessary to install a wardrobe or headsets around the perimeter of the room. Interior items can be used to delimit zones. With the right choice of place for furniture, you can achieve the visual effect of expanding the space. As a result, the owners will become more convenient and comfortable indoors. The arrangement of furniture should be thought out in advance. Interior items should not interfere, while free access to any thing should be organized. Kits are often offered in furniture stores. However, such headsets are not relevant now. Such a setting looks boring and primitive. Objects from various sets look much more interesting, which are combined with each other in shape or color. Do not leave cabinets along the walls. Bulky sideboards, wardrobes, shelves, just a few decades ago, were placed around the perimeter of the entire room in almost every home. Today, this situation is not relevant. Designers offer more creative solutions. Whatnots, racks, cabinets can be located in the center of the room. This technique will make it easier to delimit the space, to highlight separate zones. Many people mistakenly believe that the center of the living room should be inserted free. But this is only suitable for those who often throw parties, and they need a kind of dance floor. If there is no central part in the room, it does not just look empty, the furniture composition in it seems scattered. Therefore, designers recommend organizing a Lounge zone: a long pile carpet, a low sofa, an armchair can be placed in the center.

Dimensional And Small-Sized Furniture In Interior Design

In catalogs and in pictures, furniture, most often, looks very attractive. However, its dimensions are not always suitable for certain premises. Therefore, each room should be measured before purchasing. It is necessary to compare the dimensions of the furniture with the dimensions of the room, draw up a plan of how and where it will fit. The parameters of the furniture depend on the room in which it will be located. So, it is better to choose a roomy wardrobe for outerwear if the size of the room allows it. Built-in wardrobes are recommended for small rooms. In small rooms, it is better to use multifunctional interior items. Furniture, sofas, beds and wardrobes should look and match harmoniously. If possible, it is better to order interior items according to individual sizes. A small apartment doesn't need a huge dining table. It is better to choose transforming furniture, compact interior items. Storage of things is considered one of the most pressing issues for small spaces. For this purpose, built-in wardrobes, beds with hidden shelves, etc. are selected. In recent years, furniture made of tempered glass or transparent plastic has become popular. It retains its functionality, but does not clutter up the space. The room visually leaves more free space.

Curtains

The final touch in the design of any interior is the selection of curtains. Tulle curtains, roller shutters, blinds are presented in a wide range, thanks to which they can become the main accent and decoration of any room. Inappropriate curtains, on the other hand, will nullify all efforts to create a cozy and stylish interior. When choosing curtains, you need to pay attention to what role they will have, functional or decorative. The color of the curtains is also taken into account. It can be chosen both in the general color scheme of the room and in contrast to it. The most common mistake that is made when decorating an interior is low-hanging curtains. Usually their length is chosen at the level of the window frame or slightly lower. However, designers recommend not to skimp on size. To make the curtains look really beautiful, the fabric can be two or three times wider than the window opening. In the interior, such curtains will become the main accent that will help diversify the monochrome design. Bright saturated colors of curtains are relevant for interiors, where neutral or light tones are mainly used. It is also important to consider the style of the room. In some of them, for example, high-tech, modern, loft, roller blinds or blinds should be preferred. The choice also depends on the purpose of the room. It is recommended to hang a thicker fabric in the bedroom so that natural light does not interfere with your rest. In the kitchen, aluminum blinds will be more appropriate. If the interior is decorated in a classic style, then you should opt for Roman blinds, curtains, light tulle.

An Abundance Of Artistic Element Design

Artistic Element Design add zest to any space. But do not get carried away with them, since a large amount of decor in one room can create a feeling of clutter, hide the space. Designers use additional elements to emphasize style, highlight some accents. But by equipping the interior on your own, you can make some mistakes. So how to use the decor correctly so that it looks harmonious in the overall style and does not violate the original idea. Live plants and flowers are currently in trend. Large cacti, small compositions of different species are relevant in modern styles. Natural plants and flowers are especially relevant in an eco-style, which is impossible to imagine without them. And, of course, do not forget that they make the air cleaner. Carpets are relevant again. They are recommended even if the flooring is good. Textile products add comfort and coziness. Jute weaving is in trend this season. Popular are carpets with oriental patterns or geometric patterns, depending on which style is chosen for the decoration of the room. Small rugs in the form of hide should be used in the bedroom, which give a pleasant tactile sensation. Large carpets in rooms are used with care. They must be stacked so that the legs of the sofa or bed do not stand on it. You should not use a lot of cheap accessories in the interior; it is better to opt for unique original items. You should not use meaningless decorations in the interior that will litter the room, get out of the general style. When choosing accessories, you must follow the rule of moderation in everything.

Balcony Not Used

When arranging the interior, they often forget about the balcony. Indeed, today it is not only a place for storing unnecessary things, as it was a few years ago, but also a completely independent room that can be used for arranging a workplace or recreation area. Experts recommend choosing the interior of a balcony or loggia, depending on which room of the apartment lacks square meters. This can be an office, a playroom, a place for cooking, etc. Since the balcony in most cases is a small room, when arranging it, first of all, you need to pay attention to functionality. You can choose different style for decoration, it depends on the general solution for the whole apartment and should not stand out too much. On the walls, you can place small shelves where you can store all the necessary little things. In order to add comfort, a small sofa can be installed here.The balcony may well become a workshop. Creative people will be able to stay here with their thoughts and ideas. In any case, designers advise not to forget about the balcony and not to make it an ordinary storage room, but to use every meter of space as efficiently as possible.

Incompatible Colors

The choice of color is an important consideration when setting up a design. How the design will be perceived as a whole depends on the correct combination of shades. But this is where many people make serious mistakes. Among the most common are the choice of white as a base. Such an interior will look too boring, so it is better to take care of a few bright spots, especially since white is in harmony with almost any shade. Among the mistakes, they note the adherence to fashion trends in color solutions, because this is not always appropriate for a particular style. Therefore, first of all, you should focus not only on fashion, but also on the features of the interior, your personal preferences. During the day, in natural light, the room looks completely different than in the evening. The overall impression of the color scheme can change over the course of one day, which must be taken into account when choosing shades. Contacting a specialist will help you avoid major mistakes when creating a cozy, stylish and functional design.