#brazil dangerous island

[hauntingjasper]

Blind as a bat

[rs-hawk]

Are you willing to write about anthropomorphic gorillas?

Sure, like a Missing Link type thing? I think this piece is my longest so far. I actually had a lot of fun with it so let me know if y'all want more of it :)

You were studying evolution by going backwards, starting with modern day Homo Sapiens until you ended up on an island off the coast of South America, in the middle of no where. While you always had been a huge believer in the floating vegetation theory, the idea of something as large as a primate, hominin or hominid travelling via floating clumps of vegetation seemed far fetched, even to you. Yet here you were, standing on one island of a long island chain that had previously never been studied.

"Are you sure this is even worth the time?" your assistant asked as he looked around the area, a frown creasing his face. "I know that we're searching for a link, but come on Doc. This seems like a stretch."

"I know, but this is where those trees originated, and if they ended up in Brazil, maybe that could explain how New World Monkeys ended up in South America," you say, mirroring his frown.

The two of you, and a small crew, spread out to find a suitable place to camp. Once it's found, you settle in. In the morning, you've planned to try to find any primates who might still reside here. Much to your surprise, when you wake up in the morning, you see a large humanoid footprint right outside the campsite. A knot forms in your stomach as you imagine how big that creature must have been.

Your crew is also stunned, especially your assistant. He insists on following you around like a lost pup, toting a gun. You have to tell him to stop and calm down. Human presence here already is disruptive to the ecosystem. He doesn't need to make it worse. With a grumble and a grunt, he slings it over his shoulder, taking care not to let it catch on any flora in the area.

"Look at this," you breathe, gesturing to the large footprints that you found in a clearing.

You're so excited that you feel like you're basically vibrating. Yes, this isn't even close to what you're looking for, but a primate of that size would be the scientific discovery of the century! Who knows what something like that could mean for the state of evolution. Surely you could get another grant to come back and study it.

"Be careful," your assistant mutters as you approach the footprints, measuring the size and diameter. The depth of the footprint stuns you. "Whatever left that could be dangerous."

"You think everything could be dangerous," you roll your eyes, recording your notes. "Besides, I know more about primates than you. I know that they have the potential to be dangerous. We would see this creature if it was anywhere in the area."

"Yeah," he mutters, looking around.

After a bit of back and forth, you send him back to camp to get more supplies for you to study the footprints. Once he's out of sight, you pause before following the footprints. He would be on you about following this creature, but you can't help yourself. Something is pulling you closer to it. Like a primal need to be closer to this creature. This piece of your own history.

A voice that you don't recognize came from somewhere in the distance in front of you. After a moment, a huge, towering figure comes out of the trees. The trees themselves bend to his will. Your stomach drops. You steps falter. This creature could have easily crushed you if it so chose.

The creature, a towering hulk of a something that is a perfect blend of man and gorilla. Your throat feels like it's closing up as it stops a few paces away from you. Opening its mouth, the creature speaks to you again, but you still don't understand what the words mean.

"I'm sorry," you say after a moment, the stunned buzzing in your brain starting to dissipate. This creature can speak. There's no way that your grant won't be extended. "I don't understand what you're saying."

He, you think he based on the physique this close, frowns at you. He speaks again. You shake your head. Once more. Again, you shake. This time when he speaks, you don't understand what he's saying, but you do recognize it as Latin. "I don't speak Latin but it's the root language for mine."

The creature looks at you, now shaking his head. The both of you try to communicate with each other, and it works to an extent. You're fairly certain that he comes from a small village at the base of the mountain near the center of the island. They mostly eat fruits and vegetables, and he makes gestures that leads you to believe that clothes are sometimes worn, but not the norm.

Before you realize it, you and the creature are sitting beside each other, his towering form nearly obscuring you when your assistant finally makes his way back to you.

"What is that thing?" he yells, making a grab for his gun.

"Don't! He's friendly. He was telling me about his home," you jump up, putting yourself between them.

Your assistant eyes him wearily. The creature looks at you, then back at your assistant. He says something you don't understand in Latin, then waves at your assistant. He frowns slightly. It feels like there's going to be a stand off, but instead, your assistant folds his arms over his chest, a frown steeped into his features.

"Go back to the camp. Thank you for the supplies. I will be back before nightfall," you promise, slightly shooing him away.

After a bit of back and forth, you convince him to leave. You and the creature stay together for a long time, until dusk. Every day for weeks, the entire expedition, you meet up with the creature, getting closer to him. Getting to know him and his people. You even get to see the outskirts of the village. A true testament to how amazing evolution and innovation are.

When the night before you are set to leave comes, you come to him, standing outside his village, a basket of his favorite fruits and vegetables clutched in your shaking hands. He sees you, encouraging you to come into the village. Into his home. You follow, shrinking away from the gazes of his people, who seem to know you don't belong here. And how could they not? You're so small compared to them. So fragile.

In his hut, you feel even smaller. Everything in there is so large compared to you. You haven't been able to figure out a name from your new friend, but you've taken to calling him Link in your head. Link hands you a fruit that you've never seen before he sits in what is essentially a chair across from you.

"I'm leaving tomorrow," you say quietly, looking down at your fruit. He doesn't respond. You look up at him, and you can tell even under the fur that he's frowning. "In the morning, the boat is leaving. I have to go with them."

He says something you don't understand, to which you shrug. He points at the hole that functions as a door in his hut, then at you, and waves. You nod. He looks down at his hands, his shoulders slumped forward. Neither of you say anything for a moment, then he gets up. His massive form nearly encompassing you as he stands in front of you.

He opens his mouth, then closes it. In broken English, he says, "S-stay." Your eyes well with tears as you shake your head, staring at the way his hands cover yours when he grabs them. "Me. Stay me."

You shake your head again, wishing that you could remember any Latin outside of names. Why didn't you pay more attention in class? "I can't."

He lets go of your hands before pacing around the hut. You look at the now crushed fruit in your hands. "Go me."

"What?" you look up at him, your heart soaring. Was he saying what you thought he was? Then again, your mind races. What would happen to him when you got back home? He would be seen as a specimen, wouldn't he?

"Go me," he comes back to you, grabbing your hands, the juice squishing between your fingers as he tightens his grip. "Go me. Go you. Go me."

"You can't come with me," you whisper, caressing his furry face. He looks at you like his heart his breaking. "I wish I could explain better." You slide your hands out of his, trying not to cry. You point toward yourself, "people like me," then you touch his chest, "would kill someone like you." You drag your thumb across your throat.

He seems to understand what you're saying, though he looks more hurt than scared. "Go me," he whispers cupping your face with his large hands. "Stay you?"

You shake your head, leaning into his touch. What had you been thinking? If you come back here, if you study them, they'll be destroyed. Their entire culture will be gone, consumed by capitalism and greed. Isn't that what's happened a thousand times over?

Suddenly, you're snapped out of your thoughts by the feeling of his lips pressed against yours. His fur tickling your skin. You blink a couple of times before kissing him back, surprised but happily so by the sudden show of affection. His tongue demands an entry to your mouth. You shiver, giving in to the lust and overwhelming affection for him that has sprung up on you all at once, but unsurprisingly.

His large hands trail down your body, pausing at the end of your shirt. He mutters something against your lips that you understand the gist of. He wants you as bare as him. You hesitate, your face flushing, but it only takes another tug at your shirt for you to relent. In seconds you've stripped yourself, probably the fastest you've ever done such. His huge hands cup your breasts, covering them completely. When he picks you up to settle you in his lap, you feel how big his cock is hard. Sure, you've seen it as he doesn't wear clothes, but this was different.

Maybe he's more human than you thought, because unlike other primate species, but like humans, size did seem to matter. You realize that when he breaks the kiss to look at you, then at himself. He looks... embarrassed.

You don't know what compels you, maybe just the look on his face, but you start stroking him, having to use both hands to wrap about him. His eyes fall to half lidded. His breathing hitches. Slowly, he grinds his hips against you, letting you stroke him at your leisure. You dip your head down, struggling, but managing, to take the tip of his cock in your mouth. He grunts, digging his nails into your back. You know there will be, at best, crescent shaped bruises on your back come morning.

You bob your head as much as you can manage, his grunts and soft whines spurring you on. While you can't understand the things that slip from his mouth, you can tell by the way he says them that he's enjoying it.

You do your best to get him further down your throat, bracing yourself against his furry hips, but that just makes him grunt, snorting out of flared nostrils. For a second you still, every hair on the back of your neck standing up. Every nerve screaming danger. Even in this moment, you are aware that a primate doing that can spell death. It's a common sign of anger or aggression.

You're surprised when he lifts your head off of him, shaking his head. You frown, raising your eyebrows to ask why. He pauses before adjusting you, easily picking you up and settling you back in his lap, this time with your back against his chest. You're a bit ashamed of yourself to see the mess your wetness made of his fur, but that thought abandons you as he grinds his cock against your core, but his fingers dip down in front of you, teasing your clit.

You whine, grinding back against him. With his other hand, he's back to playing with your breast, softly pinching your nipples. Rolling his thumb over your senstive center over and over again. He brings you to a surprisingly quick orgasm. He makes a sound you think sounds like a laugh before his fingers dip lower. You still, even your breathing, as he slids one finger into your dripping hole.

He starts off slowly as he fingers you, before adding another. You press yourself more against his chest, whimpering and babbling about how good it feels. This time, you're sure it's a chuckle. He spreads his fingers out inside of you, trying to stretch you out. Your head lulls to the side, leaning against his arm. You feel so full. So good. Through your haze, it takes you a moment to realize that he's settling you onto his cock.

A quiet yip escapes your lips as his huge tip fills you more than anything you've ever taken. He pauses, pressing a kiss to your shoulder. You try to press yourself down on him. You don't even realize you're chanting. Begging.

"More. More. Please! More."

He understands the premise enough to push you down lower and lower on him, slowly impaling you. He gives you time to adjust, and by the time he bottoms out inside of you, you're a drooling, babbling mess. He drops you up and down on his cock slowly, then faster and faster. You're crying out for him, grabbing onto his arms as he bounces you on his cock, the huge member even extending your stomach. You know you're soaking his fur, but you can't help yourself. You lose track of how many times him pounding and sliding against your g-spot makes you cum.

By the time he does, you're sobbing from over stimulation, and he's whispering to you in a soothing voice, stroking your hair with one hand as the other guides you to roll your hips on him. He finally cums, so much that it overflows from you. You whimper and press your head back harder against him, feeling the best you ever have in your life. How are you possibly supposed to leave him?

[ausetkmt]

Where It’s Most Dangerous to Be Black in America

Black Americans made up 13.6% of the US population in 2022 and 54.1% of the victims of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, aka homicide. That works out, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, to a homicide rate of 29.8 per 100,000 Black Americans and four per 100,000 of everybody else.(1)

A homicide rate of four per 100,000 is still quite high by wealthy-nation standards. The most up-to-date statistics available from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show a homicide of rate one per 100,000 in Canada as of 2019, 0.8 in Australia (2021), 0.4 in France (2017) and Germany (2020), 0.3 in the UK (2020) and 0.2 in Japan (2020).

But 29.8 per 100,000 is appalling, similar to or higher than the homicide rates of notoriously dangerous Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. It also represents a sharp increase from the early and mid-2010s, when the Black homicide rate in the US hit new (post-1968) lows and so did the gap between it and the rate for everybody else. When the homicide rate goes up, Black Americans suffer disproportionately. When it falls, as it did last year and appears to be doing again this year, it is mostly Black lives that are saved.

As hinted in the chart, racial definitions have changed a bit lately; the US Census Bureau and other government statistics agencies have become more open to classifying Americans as multiracial. The statistics cited in the first paragraph of this column are for those counted as Black or African American only. An additional 1.4% of the US population was Black and one or more other race in 2022, according to the Census Bureau, but the CDC Wonder (for “Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research”) databases from which most of the statistics in this column are drawn don’t provide population estimates or calculate mortality rates for this group. My estimate is that its homicide rate in 2022 was about six per 100,000.

A more detailed breakdown by race, ethnicity and gender reveals that Asian Americans had by far the lowest homicide rate in 2022, 1.6, which didn’t rise during the pandemic, that Hispanic Americans had similar homicide rates to the nation as a whole and that men were more than four times likelier than women to die by homicide in 2022. The biggest standout remained the homicide rate for Black Americans. 

Black people are also more likely to be victims of other violent crime, although the differential is smaller than with homicides. In the 2021 National Crime Victimization Survey from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (the 2022 edition will be out soon), the rate of violent crime victimization was 18.5 per 1,000 Black Americans, 16.1 for Whites, 15.9 for Hispanics and 9.9 for Asians, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Understandably, Black Americans are more concerned about crime than others, with 81% telling Pew Research Center pollsters before the 2022 midterm elections that violent crime was a “very important” issue, compared with 65% of Hispanics and 56% of Whites.

These disparities mainly involve communities caught in cycles of violence, not external predators. Of the killers of Black Americans in 2020 whose race was known, 89.4% were Black, according to the FBI. That doesn’t make those deaths any less of a tragedy or public health emergency. Homicide is seventh on the CDC’s list of the 15 leading causes of death among Black Americans, while for other Americans it’s nowhere near the top 15. For Black men ages 15 to 39, the highest-risk group, it’s usually No. 1, although in 2022 the rise in accidental drug overdoses appears to have pushed accidents just past it. For other young men, it’s a distant third behind accidents and suicides.

To be clear, I do not have a solution for this awful problem, or even much of an explanation. But the CDC statistics make clear that sky-high Black homicide rates are not inevitable. They were much lower just a few years ago, for one thing, and they’re far lower in some parts of the US than in others. Here are the overall 2022 homicide rates for the country’s 30 most populous metropolitan areas.

Metropolitan areas are agglomerations of counties by which economic and demographic data are frequently reported, but seldom crime statistics because the patchwork of different law enforcement agencies in each metro area makes it so hard. Even the CDC, which gets its mortality data from state health departments, doesn’t make it easy, which is why I stopped at 30 metro areas.(2)

Sorting the data this way does obscure one key fact about homicide rates: They tend to be much higher in the main city of a metro area than in the surrounding suburbs.

But looking at homicides by metro area allows for more informative comparisons across regions than city crime statistics do, given that cities vary in how much territory they cover and how well they reflect an area’s demographic makeup. Because the CDC suppresses mortality data for privacy reasons whenever there are fewer than 10 deaths to report, large metro areas are good vehicles for looking at racial disparities. Here are the 30 largest metro areas, ranked by the gap between the homicide rates for Black residents and for everybody else.

The biggest gap by far is in metropolitan St. Louis, which also has the highest overall homicide rate. The smallest gaps are in metropolitan San Diego, New York and Boston, which have the lowest homicide rates. Homicide rates are higher for everybody in metro St. Louis than in metro New York, but for Black residents they’re six times higher while for everyone else they’re just less than twice as high.

There do seem to be some regional patterns to this mayhem. The metro areas with the biggest racial gaps are (with the glaring exception of Portland, Oregon) mostly in the Rust Belt, those with the smallest are mostly (with the glaring exceptions of Boston and New York) in the Sun Belt. Look at a map of Black homicide rates by state, and the highest are clustered along the Mississippi River and its major tributaries. Southern states outside of that zone and Western states occupy roughly the same middle ground, while the Northeast and a few middle-of-the-country states with small Black populations are the safest for their Black inhabitants.(3)

Metropolitan areas in the Rust Belt and parts of the South stand out for the isolation of their Black residents, according to a 2021 study of Census data from Brown University’s Diversity and Disparities Project, with the average Black person living in a neighborhood that is 60% or more Black in the Detroit; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis; Chicago; Cleveland and Milwaukee metro areas in 2020 (in metro St. Louis the percentage was 57.6%). Then again, metro New York and Boston score near the top on another of the project’s measures of residential segregation, which tracks the percentage of a minority group’s members who live in neighborhoods where they are over-concentrated compared with White residents, so segregation clearly doesn’t explain everything.

Looking at changes over time in homicide rates may explain more. Here’s the long view for Black residents of the three biggest metro areas. Again, racial definitions have changed recently. This time I’ve used the new, narrower definition of Black or African American for 2018 onward, and given estimates in a footnote of how much it biases the rates upward compared with the old definition.

All three metro areas had very high Black homicide rates in the 1970s and 1980s, and all three experienced big declines in the 1990s and 2000s. But metro Chicago’s stayed relatively high in the early 2010s then began a rebound in mid-decade that as of 2021 had brought the homicide rate for its Black residents to a record high, even factoring in the boost to the rate from the definitional change.

What happened in Chicago? One answer may lie in the growing body of research documenting what some have called the “Ferguson effect,” in which incidents of police violence that go viral and beget widespread protests are followed by local increases in violent crime, most likely because police pull back on enforcement. Ferguson is the St. Louis suburb where a 2014 killing by police that local prosecutors and the US Justice Department later deemed to have been in self-defense led to widespread protests that were followed by big increases in St. Louis-area homicide rates. Baltimore had a similar viral death in police custody and homicide-rate increase in 2015. In Chicago, it was the October 2014 shooting death of a teenager, and more specifically the release a year later of a video that contradicted police accounts of the incident, leading eventually to the conviction of a police officer for second-degree murder.

It’s not that police killings themselves are a leading cause of death among Black Americans. The Mapping Police Violence database lists 285 killings of Black victims by police in 2022, and the CDC reports 209 Black victims of “legal intervention,” compared with 13,435 Black homicide victims. And while Black Americans are killed by police at a higher rate relative to population than White Americans, this disparity — 2.9 to 1 since 2013, according to Mapping Police Violence — is much less than the 7.5-to-1 ratio for homicides overall in 2022. It’s the loss of trust between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve that seems to be disproportionately deadly for Black residents of those communities.

The May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer was the most viral such incident yet, leading to protests nationwide and even abroad, as well as an abortive local attempt to disband and replace the police department. The Minneapolis area subsequently experienced large increases in homicides and especially homicides of Black residents. But nine other large metro areas experienced even bigger increases in the Black homicide rate from 2019 to 2022.

A lot of other things happened between 2019 and 2022 besides the Floyd protests, of course, and I certainly wouldn’t ascribe all or most of the pandemic homicide-rate increase to the Ferguson effect. It is interesting, though, that the St. Louis area experienced one of the smallest percentage increases in the Black homicide rate during this period, and it decreased in metro Baltimore.

Also interesting is that the metro areas experiencing the biggest percentage increases in Black residents’ homicide rates were all in the West (if your definition of West is expansive enough to include San Antonio). If this were confined to affluent areas such as Portland, Seattle, San Diego and San Francisco, I could probably spin a plausible-sounding story about it being linked to especially stringent pandemic policies and high work-from-home rates, but that doesn’t fit Phoenix, San Antonio or Las Vegas, so I think I should just admit that I’m stumped.

The standout in a bad way has been the Portland area, which had some of the longest-running and most contentious protests over policing, along with many other sources of dysfunction. The area’s homicide rate for Black residents has more than tripled since 2019 and is now second highest among the 30 biggest metro areas after St. Louis. Again, I don’t have any real solutions to offer here, but whatever the Portland area has been doing since 2019 isn’t working.

(1) The CDC data for 2022 are provisional, with a few revisions still being made in the causes assigned to deaths (was it a homicide or an accident, for example), but I’ve been watching for weeks now, and the changes have been minimal. The CDC is still using 2021 population numbers to calculate 2022 mortality rates, and when it updates those, the homicide rates will change again, but again only slightly. The metropolitan-area numbers also don’t reflect a recent update by the White House Office of Management and Budget to its list of metro areas and the counties that belong to them, which when incorporated will bring yet more small mortality-rate changes. To get these statistics from the CDC mortality databases, I clicked on “Injury Intent and Mechanism” and then on “Homicide”; in some past columns I instead chose “ICD-10 Codes” and then “Assault,” which delivered slightly different numbers.

(2) It’s easy to download mortality statistics by metro area for the years 1999 to 2016, but the databases covering earlier and later years do not offer this option, and one instead has to select all the counties in a metro area to get area-wide statistics, which takes a while.

(3) The map covers the years 2018-2022 to maximize the number of states for which CDC Wonder will cough up data, although as you can see it wouldn’t divulge any numbers for Idaho, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming (meaning there were fewer than 10 homicides of Black residents in each state over that period) and given the small numbers involved, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in the rates for the Dakotas, Hawaii, Maine and Montana.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/14/where-it-s-most-dangerous-to-be-black-in-america/cdea7922-52f0-11ee-accf-88c266213aac_story.html)

[boxwinebaddie]

so i was shooting the shit with the girlies in the group chat earlier and we were talking about the great outdoors, which, of course, are great to everyone...EXCEPT JERSEYKYLE who is basically a spoiled brat and pampered house cat and the only thing he thinks would be great about the outdoors...is if one of them would Fucking OPEN and take him back inside to civilization, cable tv and air conditioning.

like i think in the future when j.k. is working his full-time guidance counsellor job ( mr. bro, you are everything to me, baby ) they coerce him ( probably with pastries, paid vacation time and peer pressure ) into chaperoning the 5th grade weekend overnight camping fieldtrip, which ravenstanley marsh, of course, tells him is a great idea and it’d be fun to be out in the forest....It Was NAUGHT.

i am picturing him in like the big puffy orange jacket and like the grown up version of the green ushanka/ear muffs, shivering, snifflin, shrieking, crying about bears or red, blotchy, completely sunburned, totally bugging about bugs, tear-gassing everything with insecticide,

ready to End It All...

meanwhile future ravenstan, who i like to think went back to school, minored in wildlife, became an badass emergency travel veterinarian, is constantly on the move and on location ( and by that i mean like srsly impoverished third world countries, the amazon rainforest, rural new zealand where they desperately need vets, australia with all the shit that can fkn Kill You, buttfuck -40 siberia saving the polar bears )

working with non-profit wildlife protection and conservation efforts, has a little squad of hyper-vigilant zoomanitarian search and rescue emergency animal doctors that specifically head to dangerous places doing intense emt roadside surgeries, goth boy apothecary hot boy shit, foraging for supplies, making life-saving medicine out of tiny mushrooms and pieces of tree bark, running through fields with possible landmines in it to save endangered species, going full emo indistana jones adventuring and saving the world as captain stanet in no mans land w/ all his tattoos and piercings ( hero KING! )

...just pointing and laughing at teacher yersey when he finally gets thirty min of service on the helicopter flying out of snake island, brazil having nearly escaped having his flesh melted off by pit vipers doing important smart boy science research on different poisons and his fiancé calls him bc he got a bug bite and he thinks he's Cooked.

live laugh love ravesey style, everybody.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Umair Irfan at Vox:

It’s gearing up to be another scorching year.

Countries like Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Australia, and Spain already experienced record warm temperatures this year, and in the past few days, heat has killed dozens in India and Mexico. Now states like California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas are getting ready to roast as a massive heat wave settles in. It’s likely to push temperatures well into triple digits. And summer hasn't even officially started yet. It’s an alarming echo of 2023, which was the hottest year on record, but this year could be hotter still. Though the Pacific Ocean is shifting into its La Niña phase, which typically brings cooler global weather, the extraordinary warmth over the past year is still baked in. Scientists say these record highs align with their expectations for climate change, and warn that more scorchers are coming. There’s more to heat waves like this than high temperatures, though. The forces behind them are complex and changing. They’re a public health threat that can exacerbate inequality, cause infrastructure to collapse, and amplify other problems stemming from warming. But with global average temperatures continuing to rise, more records will fall.

Heat waves, explained

Extreme heat might not seem as dramatic as hurricanes or floods, but the National Weather Service has deemed it the deadliest weather phenomenon in the US over the past 30 years, on average. What counts as a heat wave is typically defined relative to local weather conditions, with sustained temperatures in the 90th to 95th percentile of the average in a given area. So the threshold for a heat wave in Tucson is higher than the threshold in Seattle. During the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the northern half of the planet is tilted toward the sun, which increases daylight hours and warms the hemisphere. The impact of this additional exposure to solar radiation is cumulative, which is why temperatures generally peak weeks after the longest day of the year. Amid the increase in temperatures in the summer, meteorology can push those numbers to extremes.

Heat waves typically begin with a high-pressure system (also known as an anticyclone), where atmospheric pressure above an area builds up. That creates a sinking column of air that compresses, heats up, and oftentimes dries out. The sinking air can act as a cap or heat dome, trapping the latent heat already absorbed by the landscape. The high-pressure system also pushes out cooler, fast-moving air currents and squeezes clouds away, which gives the sun an unobstructed line of sight to the ground. The ground — soil, sand, concrete, and asphalt — then bakes in the sunlight, and in the long days and short nights of summer, heat energy quickly accumulates and temperatures rise. Heat waves are especially common in areas that are already arid, like the desert Southwest, and at high altitudes where high-pressure systems readily form. Moisture in the ground can blunt the effects of heat, the way evaporating sweat can cool the body. But when there’s little water in the ground, in waterways, and in vegetation, there isn’t as much to soak up the heat besides the air itself.

[...] But extreme heat can also build up in places that have a lot of moisture. In fact, for every degree Celsius the air warms (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), it can absorb about 7 percent more water, which can create a dangerous combination of heat and humidity (more on that below).

Urban areas further exacerbate this warming. As roads, parking lots, and buildings cover natural landscapes, cities like Los Angeles and Dallas end up absorbing more heat than their surroundings and can become as much as 20°F warmer. This is a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. Heat waves typically last around five days but can linger longer if the high-pressure system is locked in place. “In some cases, you actually can get these kinds of patterns getting stuck, and that can lead to heat waves lasting much longer,” said Karen McKinnon, an assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the University of California Los Angeles. Eventually, the high-pressure system will start to weaken, allowing in cooler air and precipitation that can bring the heat wave to an end. However, as the warm season continues, more high-pressure systems can settle in and restart the heating process.

[...] Climate change caused by greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels is poised to make heat waves longer, more intense, and more frequent. It takes time for the dust to settle on the heat waves of a given moment, to allow scientists to evaluate just how much humans have contributed to the problem.

[...] That heat isn’t distributed evenly, however. Nighttime temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures. “In general, since records began in 1895, summer overnight low temperatures are warming at a rate nearly twice as fast as afternoon high temperatures for the U.S. and the 10 warmest summer minimum temperatures have all occurred since 2002,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This can seriously impair how people cope with high heat. The effects of warming can vary by latitude, too. Polar regions are warming up to three times as fast as the planetary average, fueling heat waves in the Arctic. In fact, cooler parts of the planet are heating up faster than places closer to the equator, so people living in temperate climates may experience some of the biggest increases in extreme heat events. Already hot parts of the world also get hotter, pushing them beyond the realm of habitability at certain times of the year. And as human-generated greenhouse gas emissions continue to flood the atmosphere — atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations recently peaked at 420 parts per million — heat waves are projected to become more frequent and more extreme.

[...]

The timing of heat waves is changing: Periods of extreme heat that occur early in the season tend to have greater public health impacts. That’s because people are less acclimated to heat in the spring and early summer. Cooling infrastructure may not be in place, and people may not be taking heat precautions like staying hydrated and avoiding the sun. That’s why early-season heat waves in the US, as we have seen across the country this year, are so troubling. As climate change makes heat waves more common, it also increases the frequency of early- and late-season extreme temperatures, lengthening the hot season. The worst effects of heat aren’t always in the hottest places: While absolute temperatures may rise higher in already warm areas like the southwestern US, heat waves can have their deadliest impacts in cooler regions, where high temperatures are less common. Warmer areas often already have air conditioning in homes and offices, while regions that usually don’t get as warm have less cooling infrastructure and fewer places to find relief. The people in these regions are also less acclimated to high temperatures and may not recognize warning signs of heat-induced health problems.

Some people are far more vulnerable to extreme heat: Elderly people and very young children face some of the highest risks from extreme heat. People with certain health conditions, like high blood pressure and breathing difficulties, also face greater harm. But even otherwise healthy people can suffer from heat waves if they are exposed for long durations, such as those working outdoors in agriculture and construction. Heat waves exacerbate structural inequalities: While cities can warm up faster than their surroundings, poorer neighborhoods — which are disproportionately home to people of color — tend to get hotter. These neighborhoods often have less tree cover and green spaces, and more paved surfaces that soak up heat. At the same time, lower-income residents may have a harder time affording crucial cooling. The pattern of heat inequality plays out on an international scale, too, with lower-income countries already facing higher health and economic costs from heat waves.

The tools used to cope with heat are also stressed by it: Power plants, which provide electricity for everything from fridges to air conditioners, themselves need to be cooled, and they become less efficient as the weather warms. Power lines have lower capacities under extreme heat, and hardware like transformers experience more failures. If enough stress builds up, the power grid can collapse just when people need cooling the most. Power disruptions then ripple through other infrastructure, like water sanitation, fuel pumps, and public transit. We’re running out of time to act: All this means that heat waves are going to become an increasingly impactful and costly fact of life across the world — from the direct impacts on health to stresses on infrastructure. But since humans share a significant portion of the blame for extreme heat waves, there are also actions people can take to mitigate them. Increasing energy efficiency can relieve stress on the power grid, and adding power sources that don’t require active cooling like wind and solar can boost capacity without adding greenhouse gas emissions.

Vox has a good article on why we are seeing longer and more severe heat waves around the world: climate change effects are part of the reason for the increased duration and severity of heat waves globally.

[gingersp1ce547]

Thiago was not expecting to be dad. Not now, nor anytime in the future. He knew how he was, and the life he led. Neither of which were suited for parenthood even though since his own father passed the idea of what kind of one he would be refused to leave his head.

Would he be able to give them half as good as a childhood as the one his father gave him? Would he leave them grieving and wondering how much of their father they knew like he did?

Should someone that shot a 15 year old in the foot be trusted with a child at all?

In the end these questions didn’t matter. Because he had a kid now and she was a sentient egg.

Fortunately, his work on the island was much less dangerous than it was back in brazil. So he could bring hope with him on his daily rounds. She seemed to like it a lot, which was a good thing because he wasn’t sure what he would do with her if she didnt other than leave her in the house with cesar but she spent more than enough time with the hacker already.

Before they had learned what liz had been up to and saved hope, thiago had been spending a lot of time with one badboyhalo. After he had saved dapper bad insisted on giving him a gift, which ended up being a whole thing of enchanted gear. He took some of it but he kept a couple pieces of his old set that liz and cesar had enchanted on, and the rest in an unsorted chest somewhere in his room like everything else he couldn’t get rid of.

He kept hanging around bad after that. Mostly because he was a real good source of information on pretty much everything happening on the island, but also because something he said to Thiago once wouldn’t seem to leave his mind.

Bad was asking about what thiago did before the island, around a month into their stay here they decided it would be ok to tell people the truth as long as they didn’t go into too much detail, so he did. Only for bad to reply “why would somebody marked by death want to fight her creatures?”

“What?”

Bad tiled his head like some kind of owl. His pure white eyes staring through thiago from under his hood. “Or at least i think it’s death. Maybe not our goddess but something similar.”

He looked thiago up and down once more. “Do you not feel it?”

The urge to throw off his hoodie and run to the nearest mirror to double check that the symbol of that fucking place was still gone was tempting. But thiago knew he didnt need it. He knew what it was like for his hand to not be his hand and this wasn’t it.

He shook his head, forcing his tongue to move from where it had glued itself to the top of his mouth, “No.”

Bad made a noise of curiosity in response but moved on. Thiago wasn’t sure if it was out of noticing his discomfort or something else entirely but he thanked the change of pace.

Unfortunately, the fact that he even got that bit of information in the first place meant he needed to go back and continue to prod for more

So far hed gotten out of bad that only the rest of team was “marked” like this. Some clearly were by an entity like thiago, cesar and arthur (bad upset about blood), but with joui and liz it was unclear. Same went for the mark itself, which bad described as almost being fuzzy. Like fog was obscuring his vision of it.

He was pretty sure that this was all bad knew, but bad was bad and liked to be a tricky little shit. One of his coworkers once wrote an article just for fun about creatures from folklore across the world. He was bored on his break and read it which was a good thing because he was not unconvinced that bad wasnt some sort of Irish fae creature. It definitely wouldn’t be the strangest thing a person was on the island (that was etoiles).

Even if bad didnt know anything else about their team, he definitely knew a lot about what happened on island, Especially when it came to politics, or as liz liked to call it, a telenovela pretending to be politics. Which was a blessing in disguise as it made writing about it much less boring on thiago’s part.

Hope was with him today since her quests had already been completed for the week. They bounced across the map as he handed out the latest information about the islands happenings as well as gathered it.

Cellbit and roier were off being sickeningly romantic somewhere and hope asked very politely if she could go say hi to him. Not that thiago would ever say to no to something asked as sweetly as that, he told her yes since Cellbit was technically also her dad even if it was only like 5% since he helped in the investigation to find her.

They then headed to pierre’s to restock on some potions, only to find him and maximus… maybe arguing? Thiago wasnt really sure but it could have also been flirting, or manipulation. It could go many many different ways with those two and honestly even though it was his job to know, thiago didnt wanna know. Neither did he want hope to have to witness it. So he quickly sweeped her up into his arms and turned back around to the teleporter.

She gave him a look of silent curiosity but didn’t ask. He was thankful for it today as opposed to usual worriedness. She had been alone in one spot for so long, and had so much curiosity about the world. Thaigo (and the rest for the team) wanted her to be cautious of the what she was getting into yes, but he also wanted her to feel safe enough to be able to run up to a flower she liked without asking if it was ok first.

Deciding to foster her curiosity at the cost of having to try and find a child friendly way to explain whatever the fuck pierre and max had going on, he told her that they were having a private conversation that he didnt want to interrupt. Hope, who knew all about private conversations because of her secretive ass parents, nodded seriously at this and thaigo took a mental note to explain to her at some point that not all private conversations were matters of life and death.

Next they headed to bad’s, who thaigo knew had a good stock of potions he wouldn’t mind missing if it meant keeping an egg safe. He wasnt there and a look at the map told him he was off on some adventure with dapper most likely in search of creature that the kid wanted to tame.

There was a couple other people awake but he really didnt feel like crossing thousands of blocks to go and find them, so instead the two wandered about spawn. Hope taking the lead and investigating the different buildings up close. She already knew at this point that her pais and mae where not the people to ask about how crafting materials worked and seemed happy just to silently investigate.

In the past he would have expected it to be a good break from taking care of a kid, a time to collect his thoughts. Instead he just watched her and his heart felt warm. No thoughts of the what he was gonna write about next, or how everyone back in brazil was doing drifted through his head. All he could focus on was the way hope would walk up to block, completely transfixed by it, bend down to get a look at it better, maybe tilt her head or touch it lightly before moving on to the next one.

Or at least it was all he could focus on till a sound caught his attention. Mentally, he praised the fact that his still functioning ear worked perfectly if not better than that before turning to look in the direction of the sound. In it’s place he saw “charlie” slimecicle teleporting off somewhere.

This was odd for a couple of reasons. The first being that slime did not wake up often. The second was that when he did he usually hanged around big groups of people and the third was that thiago wasnt sure where he got enough exp to teleport in the first place.

Ok, maybe that last one was a stretch but still. Call it investogators intuition or whatever you want but there was something odd happening here and thaigo wanted to know what.

A light tug on his pants brought him out of his head. He read hope’s sign pai, who was that?

“He’s another islander my dear” he replied

She broke the sign before placing down another, Where is he going?

“Most likely home”

Hope stared at him. It was a stare she most definitely learned from cesar and liz because it screamed bullshit

“He really could be going home,” hope’s stare persisted in intensity “buuuuuuuuut your instinct is right. Theres something fishy about this. I feel it too”

Are you gonna go check? she didnt have to write the and can i come for thiago to know she was thinking it.

“Yep. Do you wanna go teleport to pai cellbits and go hang out with him and tio roier while i do?”

I can go there if you want.

He frowned. A sentence like that was the hope equivalent of saying no. She was just too afraid to say that was what she actually wanted.

Still. There was a possibility, however slim, that whatever awaited them on the other side of that waystone was dangerous. If something ever happened to her and thiago knew he could have prevented it he wasnt sure what he would do with himself outside of that it wasn’t good.

He had a enough innocent peoples blood on his hands already, but to have a child’s?

You don’t know if there were any children in the holy cradle, a voice whispered. It swirled around his ears and even though the non-functioning one was well non-functioning, he swore he could almost hear in it and yet you burned them all the same.

Now wasn’t the time for thoughts like this. Hope was still waiting for a reply and who knew what slime was doing.

“You can come with if you promise you’ll teleport away when i tell you too”

Hope beamed up at him nodding vigorously before placing a sign down quickly writing I promise! And then beginning to run over to the waystone excitedly.

“Woah woah woah slow down my dear!” He called out after her. Once he caught up he added “let me go first and hold my hand the whole time.”

Trying to contain her excitement hope gave one strong nod. It seemed to be an attempt at showing she was serious.

Smiling at this and taking her hand into his, thiago and hope teleported to charlie’s base

There wasn’t much there outside of a small shack which thiago assumed was Charlie’s house. The two investigating the outside area a bit before thiago used his still functioning ear to listen to the door. After hearing nothing inside, the two carefully proceeded to enter the building with thiago leading the way.

He didnt notice anything odd at first glance until hope gently tugged his hand in the direction of something, a small opening made of dirt.

Traveling into it, they found a large cavern filled with various plants and some sort of train system. Ignoring it, thiago and hope stealthily made their way down till they could see charlie standing in front of what seemed to be. a house. Only, he wasn’t alone.

There was an egg with him. One that thiago hadn’t seen before.

Grabbing a sign of hopes he had stored away he wrote out do you know them? Before breaking it and passing the back sign to hope.

No, Was the response he got. So not another test subject egg, which meant considering how Charlie was treating this egg (with warmth and excitement), they were most likely Charlie’s egg.

Only issue was that Charlie’s egg, juanaflippa if thiago remembered right, had died months ago.

“Stay right here,” thiago whispered to hope before giving a light kiss to her head and letting go of her hand. “I’ll be right back.”

Hope nodded and stayed in her spot as thiago got closer and focused his eyes on the outline of this egg. It was times like this that he missed the range of his gun but sword and shield would have to do.

The dead don’t come back. Thiago had known this as fact since the day he learned about the “airplane crash.” But it wasn’t till he joined the order that he learned the second half of the statement.

The dead don’t come back, so when they do. It’s not them anymore. Whether that meant they were a hallucination or a creature, thiago wasn’t sure. What he was sure of was the fact that he wouldn’t let slime be killed by whatever was pretending to wear his child’s face.

Thiago jumped down ready to strike but just as he did, the egg ran back into the house with Charlie sprinting after them, leaving thiago’s sword stuck in the ground. Cursing, he ran after them, only to see the egg disappear into specks of code as Charlie cried out for it.

Code meant code monsters. Thiago was not prepared for code monsters, he was prepared for paranormal bullshit even though none had ever appeared on this island before.

Regardless, he needed to write all of this down while it was still fresh on his mind. It didn’t matter if this wasn’t paranormal, it was still dangerous even if that danger had momentarily passed.

So, thiago turned and quietly walked out the house, back to hope and then the two teleported back home.

Pai, hope wrote upon arriving what was that?

Thiago bite his lip. God what he wouldn’t give for a cigarette right now.

“We’ll figure it out.” He crouched down to her level “So for now let’s not worry about it. Okay my dear?”

Worry crossed over hope’s face for a split second, and it landed sharp like a stab in thiago’s chest.

“This scar?” Arnaldo said pointing at a long scar that wrapped around his upper arm. Usually it was hidden by long sleeve shirts but he had rolled those up to be able to kneed the dough of the bread he was making, “It’s just from a stunt that i messed up once. Nothing to worry about my dear”

Thiago took a deep breath in. No nicotine hit his lungs but the oxygen worked just fine. “How about this? I’ll let you know everything new i learn about this case. After all i need an expert on eggs, and who’s a better expert than the best egg on the island?”

Hope looked down at her feet bashfully, but with a glow of praise, “you promise?”

Extending out his pinky finger, thiago smiled gently, “of course my dear.”

Hope wrapped her own around it, and the promise was sealed.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The Hidden Truth Behind The End Of Slavery - Thomas Sowell

Slavery was destroyed within the United States at staggering costs in blood and treasure, but the struggle was over within a few ghastly years of warfare. Nevertheless, the Civil War was the bloodiest war ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, and more Americans were killed in that war than in any other war in the country’s history. But this was a highly atypical—indeed, unique—way to end slavery. In most of the rest of the world, unremitting efforts to destroy the institution of slavery went on for more than a century, on a thousand shifting fronts, and in the face of determined and ingenious efforts to continue the trade in human beings.

Within the British Empire, the abolition of slavery was accompanied by the payment of compensation to slave owners for what was legally the confiscation of their property. This cost the British government £20 million—a huge sum in the nineteenth century, about 5 percent of the nation’s annual output.38 A similar plan to have the federal government of the United States buy up the slaves and then set them free was proposed in Congress, but was never implemented. The costs of emancipating the millions of slaves in the United States would have been more than half the annual national output—but still less than the economic costs of the Civil War,39 quite aside from the cost in blood and lives, and a legacy of lasting bitterness in the South, growing out of its defeat and the widespread destruction it suffered during that conflict.

While the British could simply abolish slavery in their Western Hemisphere colonies, they faced a more daunting and longer-lasting task of patrolling the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, in order to prevent slave ships of various nationalities from continuing to supply slaves illegally. Even during the Napoleonic wars, Britain continued to keep some of its warships on patrol off West Africa. Moreover, such patrols likewise tried to interdict the shipments of slaves from East Africa through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Brazil capitulated to British demands that it end its slave trade, after being publicly humiliated by British warships that seized and destroyed slave ships within Brazil’s own waters. In 1873, two British cruisers appeared off the coast of Zanzibar and threatened to blockade the island unless the slave market there shut down. It was shut down.

It would be hard to think of any other crusade pursued so relentlessly for so long by any nation, at such mounting costs, without any economic or other tangible benefit to itself. These costs included bribes paid to Spain and Portugal to get their cooperation with the effort to stop the international slave trade and the costs of maintaining naval patrols and of resettling freed slaves, not to mention dangerous frictions with France and the United States, among other countries.40 Captains of British warships who detained vessels suspected of carrying slaves were legally liable if those vessels turned out to have no slaves on board. The human costs were also large.

[..]

None of this means that the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade should be ignored, downplayed, or excused. Nor have they been. A vast literature has detailed the vile conditions under which slaves from Africa lived—and died—during their voyages to the Western Hemisphere. But the much less publicized slave trade to the Islamic countries had even higher mortality rates en route, as well as involving larger numbers of people over the centuries, even though the Atlantic slave trade had higher peaks while it lasted. By a variety of accounts, most of the slaves who were marched across the Sahara toward the Mediterranean died on the way.53 While these were mostly women and girls, the males faced a special danger—castration to produce the eunuchs in demand as harem attendants in the Islamic world.

[..]

On the issue of slavery, it was essentially Western civilization against the world. At the time, Western civilization had the power to prevail against all other civilizations. That is how and why slavery was destroyed as an institution in almost the whole world. But it did not happen all at once or even within a few decades. When the British finally stamped out slavery in Tanganyika in 1922 it was more than half a century after the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, and vestiges of slavery still survived in parts of Africa into the twenty-first century.

==

This video pairs visual elements with Sowell's audiobook reading of his own book, "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Africa

The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after the United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called the West Africa Squadron. Although the ban initially applied only to British ships, Britain negotiated treaties with other countries to give the Royal Navy the right to intercept and search their ships for slaves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa_Squadron

The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act 1807 and based out of Portsmouth, England, it remained an independent command until 1856 and then again from 1866 to 1867.

[derpyk726]

Maya and the Three + Analog Horror

Hey guys! I have been thinking of a Maya and the three au. So I’ve been interested in analog horror, and thought if Maya and the three + analog horror would make a pretty good au.

So here’s my summary of the au. In the modern times, a newly wed couple (Maya and Zatz) are two archeologists, while having an expedition throughout South America, as well as their honeymoon 😁, but they hear rumors, that people have gone missing in the forests of Brazil, as well as in the mountains of Peru. There have also been rumors of vengeful spirits roaming around South America, looking for those who wronged them. These spirits are known as “The Three” (Rico, Chimi, and Picchu) and there is also a story, of 3 outcasts from Luna Island, Jungle Lands, as well as the Golden Mountains, who were forced to be sent to the god of war, Lord Mictlan, in order for the kingdoms to be saved. The Three died very brutal deaths, and because of Lord Mictlan, cursed to live as monstrous entities, for 500 years. The Three had hope, that the Teca army, but they came too late, and were slaughtered as well. There were gods who chose to escape because of Lord Mictlan’s insanity (Camazotz, Lady Micte, Vucub, Cipactli, and Cabrakan). The escaped Gods went away and started new lives in North America. The wife of Lord Mictlan, Lady Micte, started a family with a man and his wife, and they loved each other very much (King Teca and Queen Teca), and had 4 children. Two children are also expected from the family. Lady Micte then decides stop Mictlan, as well as free the spirits of the Three, but she sadly fails, along with Camazotz, who also left his family behind. Before going to South America to stop Lord Mictlan, Lady Micte makes a video message to Maya, one of her youngest children, that she’s sorry she had to leave her behind, because of a cause, as well as revealing that she’s the Goddess of Death. This leaves to a 27 yr old Maya, and her new husband, Zack (Zatz), while also having their expedition, as well as their honeymoon, to look for their missing parent, as well as free the Three

And now, for the Three!

Rico: Rico’s a very tragic soul, whose limbs can float, as well as his head. He tends to stay hidden from the people, who don’t know that he lives in this part of the area. But he also has company and basically journeys through South America with his friend, the Stone Giant (Picchu), while also trying to seek friendship from the Forest Spirit (Chimi). However, if angered, he will try to kill, with his magic. There is a 50% chance that you can survive Rico. But if you succeed in being friends with Rico, he will come with you, as well as have faith in you, to get the other two of the Three. He may look dangerous, but he’s just hurt, wanting to go home. He also disguises himself as a beggar when the sun arrives, always wearing a scarf, so people wouldn’t see that his head’s floating. Whenever he floats with his head, his hair also spreads, like Medusa. He also does Peasant Magic, which he mastered over the 500 years of his misery. He will try to help you go against the God of War too, as well as finding the other spirits. Rico always wanted to be lovingly embraced, if a mortal understands what he has been going through.

Chimi: Chimi’s a soul who has been deeply wronged, and is the one with the most vengeance. She has no lower body, her arms are stretched and sharp, so she can slice victims, but she also knows how to use her bow, often jumping and shooting. She has very sharp canines, clothes covered in mud and blood, her hair down and messy, her very tainted makeup, pitch black eyes, and also a very, very disturbing smile. She often talks to the Stone Giant, and also to the Sorcerer Spirit, sometimes, and often has a soft spot for them, that they are suffering the same fate as her too. If angered, Chimi will chase you on her arms (like the Japanese yo Kai, Teke Teke), and will slice the victim with her hands. Another alternate, she will try to shoot her bow at you, and once you’ve been impaled by one, she will pounce and attack you. There is a 30% chance you can survive against Chimi. If you do end up making friends with the spirit, always, I mean always, make sure that you’re not going to leave her behind, as well as betray her, so she wouldn’t get hurt and try to kill you again, but if you do, she will be very loyal to you, as your protector, while also being starved of physical affection.

Picchu: Picchu is a soul made of stone, who always roams around the Andes Mountains at night, and turning into a mountain when day comes. Picchu’s eyes are just two very deep holes, with jagged cracks below, and is always crying two water falls. He doesn’t talk, but can make sounds to show how he’s feeling. His hair is grass and vines, as well as a fruit tree on his head. He sometimes walks around the mountains, with his friend, the Sorcerer Spirit. Picchu isn’t really a spirit that kills people, but when angered, his body will have cracks, with lava inside, and well as his hair also turning into lava. His chest has a very huge hole that goes through his body. He and Rico are the most nicest spirits from the Three, but also likes spending time with his friends. There’s a 10% chance if you can survive against Picchu. If you become friends with Picchu, he’s really nice once you get to know him, and he’s also really sensitive, if you hurt his feelings. Picchu will try to give you a ride around the mountains, as well as the whole South America, if he doesn’t get caught. He too, has been starved of physical affection.

[weirdestbooks]

Secrecy and Deception Chapter 6

The Tests (Wattpad | Ao3)

Table of Contents | Prev | Next

Event: Operation Crossroads-Test Able

Location: NE Lagoon, Bikini Atoll, The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, United States of America

Date: July 1, 1946

America was incredibly nervous. Today was the day of Test Able, the first of three nuclear tests he would conduct on Bikini Atoll. He needed to understand the weapon he had created. America knew the A-bomb was a powerful weapon, but how effective was it? 

How could he use it properly? What effect did it have on military equipment? Would these bombs make the Navy obsolete?

“Will it kill us all and doom the world?” James commented unhelpfully.

“I’m ignoring you,” America snarked quietly before returning to his thoughts, hearing a small amused laugh from Rebecca.

With America’s concerns about Soviet and what he is up to, America needs to have more power than him. He wasn’t going to have a nuclear monopoly for long, so America needed to take advantage of the time he had now to understand the A-bomb better than any other nation.

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands had been nervous about the tests, fearing their effects on her land. New Mexico, the only friendly personification to experience the bomb, had agreed to keep her company and quiet her nerves.

They would be watching the tests in a different room, as several countries had come to watch them, and America didn’t want them to find out about New Mexico, even if they were aware of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands’ existence.

“Can’t we tell Father now that we’ve disowned him? It’s his family, too, and he deserves to know!” Rebecca insisted.

“We won’t!” James snapped.

“Now is not the time, guys. America needs to focus and not talk to us. There are eyes watching.” Unorganized Territory said. Sending a quiet mental thanks to his daughter, America looked around the room, scanning the countries present. Britain, Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Egypt, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, and, much to America’s horror, the Soviet Union. 

America knew Soviet was taking advantage of these public tests to find more about the bomb so he could create his own. That might be a reason why many of those nations were here. 

In any case, the tests were public, so it’s not like America could do much about their presence here. In fact, he thinks it had been DC to tell him it was the most observed and talked of scientific test in all of human history.

No pressure or anything.

The first test, the one that America would be watching today, was called Test Able. It would be a test that was similar to the way he had bombed Hiroshima. A plane would be dropping the weapon onto the ships, where it would detonate. 

Then, after Test Able, they would have two more tests. One would be a nuclear bomb that was detonated at a shallow underwater depth. The second one would be a deeply submerged explosion. 

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was especially concerned about the underwater ones. She was afraid that the people they moved off the atoll would not be able to return to due to radiation. Several nuclear scientists had also said the same thing, that there could be severe radioactive contamination. Other critics said that the tests were too provocative.

Despite the concerns, they were moving on anyway. America needed to understand the power he had at my disposal, and he needed to know how to use it. What’s the point in having a powerful weapon if you don’t understand it?

“I just wish you weren’t hurting people in the process,” James murmured.

“Trust Territory will be fine,” Unorganized Territory said. James sighed but said nothing else. While America recognized James’ concerns, the tests had to be done. They were dangerous and risky, but they were necessary.

“America!” he heard Soviet’s unwelcome voice call.

“Hello, Soviet,” America responded as the taller country approached him.

“I’m very interested in seeing what your new weapon can do up close.” He said.

“Because you want to make your own?” America questioned. Soviet laughed.

“Who doesn’t? Those bombs are full of a lot of power. Any self-respecting country will be after that power.” He responded. America smiled, stepping away from him to walk over to his father, Canada, and Australia.

“But only one of us won the race, and I made it first,” America pointed, taking note of the irritation that flashed across his face. 

“Yes, you did win this race. But don’t let that victory go to your head,” he said. America almost laughed. A young country like Soviet was trying to give him advice? That was very amusing.

“Tamper your pride lest it blinds you,” Caleb said in a sing-songy voice.

“I won’t,” America responded before ending the conversation, walking over to sit next to Australia.

“Hello, Uncle America,” she said, greeting America with a small grin. 

“Hello, my favorite niece,” America replied, causing Australia’s grin to widen.

“I knew you picked favorites,” Canada said. America flipped him off, causing him to roll his eyes. His father sighed.

“You are all so childish. America, when will the bomb be dropped?” He asked, muttering the first sentence.

“That’s barely childish!” someone protested.

“Soon, any moment now. The plane had just taken off when I came in.” As he did so, America said, spotting the plane, “See, look, there it is, you impatient man.”

America’s father scoffed slightly before he nodded at America, eyes turning to focus on the plane.

“Still rude as ever,” James said.

“America was rude first,” Rebecca pointed out, ever the defender of Britain.

America wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed but sighed and returned to watching the plane. Moments after his eyes went back to the plane, he saw the bomb drop.

“Here we go,” America muttered.

The bomb exploded above the ships. There was the bright light and the mushroom cloud, which were all watched by the observers with laser focus, and the analyzing gaze that many nations had become distinct for having. 

“That’s bright,” Australia commented lightly.

“That’s…powerful,” Dad said, sounding like the words hurt him to say.

“Don’t think he likes the reminder that we have more power than him,” James commented.

“Well, now that the first test is finished, I should go find the scientists, see what information we got from the tests, and make sure Trust Territory’s alright,” America said, standing up. 

As he walked out of the room, he noticed that Soviet was still staring out the window. He must be very intent on learning all that he can about the bomb. America would have to keep an eye on him for the rest of the time he spent here. 

If he was a threat, America needed to keep this weapon out of his hands for as long as possible.

———————

Event: Operation Crossroads-Test Baker 

Location: NE Lagoon, Bikini Atoll, The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, United States of America

Date: July 25, 1946

“I’m nervous,” Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands told New Mexico as America and his people were preparing for the second atomic bomb test.

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands had been watching the waters of the lagoon, where she knew the atomic bomb, Helen of Bikini, was. Her nerves about Test Able made her interrogate New Mexico for hours about the test and how it was for her. 

“I know. It's nerve-wracking, waiting for it to explode and just not…just not knowing what’s about to happen. At least I was fighting for most of it. I only got called back ‘cause they wanted to see if it hurt countrypeople,” New Mexico responded, moving to stand next to Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and putting a hand on her shoulder. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands sighed.

“I’ll just be grateful when these tests are over,” Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands said. New Mexico nodded.

“So will I. I understand why Dad and his people feel they are needed, but they are…” New Mexico said before trailing off with a shrug. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands understood what she was trying to convey. Despite mixed feelings, the tests were happening for a reason. As much as Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands wished she could stop them, she knew she held no power in that choice.

She knew she was lucky to be alive, after what America had done to her mother.

“Well, hey, at least it is only three tests, and we’ve already completed the first one.”

“Yeah, it could be more. I just hope that I’m not going to be a permanent testing ground. I don’t want all nuclear tests America ever does to be tested here.” Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands said. She didn’t want to become a testing ground. She…she had people that needed the land more than America did.

“Dad promised that your people would be able to return to this atoll. So testing here definitely isn’t going to be permanent.” New Mexico pointed out. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands nodded.

“You have a point there,” she said, remembering when America moved her people to Rongerik Atoll. America and his military had built them houses, and all of them had seemed confident that they would be able to come back. 

“See? The tests aren’t forever. Just for July and August. I think. It might depend on how much information Dad gets out of these tests. Not that he’ll test more! Just that he might take longer than August to get all the information!” New Mexico said, stumbling over her words. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands laughed.

“Thanks, Xico,” he said. New Mexico smiled and opened her mouth, most likely to respond, before a man opened the room door. 

“The bomb is going to be set off in two minutes.” The man informed them. New Mexico nodded.

“Thank you for letting us know,” she said. The man nodded and left.Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands exhaled a shaky breath. New Mexico sat in the chair next to her and grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here if you need it.”

“Thank you, but I’ll be fine. I just…this is my home, and I don’t want to see it destroyed,” Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands said, releasing her hand. Every second seemed to tick by excruciatingly slowly as the silence in the room became deafening. 

Then it happened. A giant bubble of water broke the lagoon's surface, and a colossal wave began rolling over the ships and heading toward them. 

“That’s way more destructive than Able.” New Mexico muttered.  

“At the very least, it looks that way. Although tidal waves might form from that.” Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands muttered, thinking of all the ways that could hurt her. 

After a while, although Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands couldn’t be sure how long, as her focus wasn’t on the time passing, the wave subsided, and she could see several ships were gone. 

“Well, that’s the second test down.” New Mexico commented. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands snorted. 

“Wish it was the last one,” she said. She wanted her atoll back, and she wanted her people to be able to return.

She just wished it would all be over soon.

[kurosnakes]

Snake Island

Snake Island, or its actual name, Ilha da Queimada Grande, is an island located off the coast of Brazil. The island gained its nickname from the enormous amount of snakes rumoured to be living there; about one snake per square meter (10.8 square feet). The place is much too dangerous to live for humans, as fishermen usually get attacked as soon as they set foot on the island (in modern times, lighthouse operators died, forcing the authorities to automate the lighthouse).

There is also a lot of diversity in the kinds of snakes you can find there, including the highly endangered gloden lancehead pit viper.

Fun fact: Queimada is Portugese for forest fire.

Love, Webster

[bethanythebogwitch]

Australian fakemon: birds

Continuing with my fakemon region based on Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand with some bird Pokemon. I'll admit, this region is primarily based on Australia with a bit of NZ, like how Paldea is primarily Spain but with a bit of Mexico and Brazil. This entry, however, is very New Zealandy. The islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand are very interesting in terms of biology as they are or were home to tons of unique birds. Prior to humans introducing dogs, rats, and the like, birds were the dominant vertebrates of the islands.

Previous posts: starters, more starters, misc 1, misc 2, and early-game standards

For my early-game bird line I took a bit of a challenge. I wanted to make an early-game normal/flying bird and make it interesting. I'll let you judge if I succeeded.

The first stage is Kakawiet, the Silent Pokemon, Normal-type. It is normal rather than normal/flying because it is flightless. Kakawiet are drab, flightless, and unable to make a single sound. While they live a boring existence, every Kakawiet dreams of being a performer and this dream urges them to grow strong and evolve. Kakawiet is based on the Kakapo, a flightless parrot from Aotearoa/NZ. Like the Kakapo, it is flightless and a drab green. Its name comes from "Kakapo" and "quiet"

Kakawiet evolves into Kakaphony, the Loud Pokemon, normal/flying type. Having evolves, Kakaphony is one step closer to achieving its dream of being a performer. It can fly, has become brightly colored, and can finally sing. Having just gained a voice, Kakaphony is not very good at singling, but insists on doing so loudly and frequently, much to the frustration of humans trying to sleep. The more they practice, they better they get and a Kakaphony that becomes good at singing will evolve. Kakaphomy is based on parakeets, more specifically, the Australian Budgerigar, which has become a popular pet. It also takes some inspiration from the elaborate decorations found on some birds of paradise, some species of which are found in Australia. Its name comes from "kakapo" and "cacophony".

The final stage is Orkakastra, the Performer Pokemon, normal/flying type. Only a few Kakaphony gain the skill at sing and dance needed to evolve. They are master auteurs, capable of making performances that can inspire even the most jaded of minds. To see an Orkakastra in action is a sight none will forget. Trainers need to learn to control their Orkakastras, as a poorly-trained one will often drop whatever it's doing when inspiration for a ner performance strikes it. Orkakastra is primarily based on cockatoos, which can be found through the Australasian region. It also has the color scheme of a rainbow lorikeet, a bird found in south Australia. Notably, the birds that inspired this design, the kakapo, parakeet, lorikeet, and cockatoo are all parrots. Orkakastra's head crest is based on the ones poosessed by cockatoos, but I also wanted it to look like the silhouette of the Sydney Opera House to add an extra layer of performing arts inspiration. Its name comes from "kakapo" and "orchestra". This line (at least the second two stages) would have an ability that increased the power of sound-based moves. Combined with STAB, this would let moves like Hyper Voice do great neutral damage and is the reason I made the line normal types.

If you're making Aotearoa/New Zealand Pokemon, how can you avoid doing a kiwi (bird) as a kiwi (fruit). Meet Hokakiwi, the Kiwi Pokemon, grass-type. While it looks like a bird, Hokakiwi is actually a large fruit. Legends say that somewhere deep in the forest is a tree that grows all Hokakiwi. Because many Pokemon enjoy the taste of Hokakiwi, they are shy and reclusive creatures that are rarely seen. The hard skin of the shell body protects them and they can withdraw their heads when in danger. I partially based Hokakiwi and its evolution on the Maori legend of how the kiwi lost its wings. In the story, the tree god Tane-Mahuta realizes that bugs are eating his trees so he asks the bird god Tane-Hokahoka (note that I found multiple names for these characters from multiple sources) to get a bird to eat the bugs. Tane-Hokahoka asks all the birds if they will give up their wings to live on the ground and eat bugs and only the Kiwi agrees to do it. Each stage in this evolution line uses the names of one of the gods. Hokakiwi comes from "Tane-Hokahoka" and "Kiwi". I considered making it a grass/rock or grass/ground type to reference England's Bulford kiwi chalk hill figure, but decided I need more mono-types.

Hokakiwi evolves to Moahuta, the moa Pokemon, grass-type. After evolving, Moahuta became so large and sturdy that most Pokemon can't hunt it. Free from the fear its previous stage had, Moahuta has become a prideful giant that strides through the land without fear. Its only predator is Poukakire (see below) and the sight or sound of one drives Moahuta into an intense panic that will cause it to drop its haughty attitude and do anything to escape. Moahuta is based on moas, giant flightless birds that once lived in Aotearoa/New Zealand until the first human inhabitants hunted them to extinction. Adult moas are believed to have had only one natural predator, the Haast's Eagle, which will come up again. While Hokakiwi was based on a kiwi fruit, Moahuta is based on a dragonfruit. This is mostly because I think dragonfruits look cool, but they have been imported to NZ as a crop. Moahuta's name comes from "moa" and "Tane-Mahuta". I see it being a defensive mon like Tangrowth.

The final line starts with Snowai, the Snow Eaglet Pokemon, ice/flying type. Snowai need to be incubated in extremely cold temperatures so their nests are only found at the tops of tall mountains. After hatching, the mother will make each chick a snowball they they will live inside until evolution. Snowai are weak and ungainly and rarely leave their nests. Because of this, they are very rarely seen, but their cries echo across the mountains and can be heard miles away. People used to think the cries were omens of bad luck due to not knowing their origins. Snowai is based on a Haast's eagle chick. Haast's eagle is an extinct species of giant eagle from Aotearoa/New Zealand that hunted moas. They went extinct after the extinction of the moa destroyed their primary food source. Snowai is also based on the mythical hakawai, a bird who was never seen but its call could be heard and symbolized bad luck. Some anthropologists have suggested that the hakawai may be based on cultural memories of the Haast's eagle. Snowai's name comes from "snowball" and "hakawai".

Snowai evolves to Poukakiri, the Ice Eagle Pokemon, ice/flying type. Masters of the skies of the Goorda Region, nothing on the ground is safe from a hunting Poukakiri, but their preferred prey is Moahuta. Poukakiri lives in the snowy mountains and only comes down to hunt, so they are rarely seen and many legends have grows of them descending from the sky and carrying off humans. It is said that if the air suddenly becomes colder, a Poukakiri is flying overhead and you should get inside to be safe. While fierce hunters, Poukakiri are also caring parents who dedicate themselves to raising their weak Snowai offspring until they can evolve and hunt on their own. Poukakiri is based on an adult Haast's eagle and the legendary poukai, a bird from Maori legend that would carry off humans to eat. The poukai is possibly based on cultural memories of the Haast's eagle, who could easily have killed a human if it wanted too. Poukakiri's name comes from "poukai" and "makakiri", a Maori word for "cold" or "winter". I view this line as being akin to Magikarp in that you have to raise a weak first stage to evolve it into a powerful second stage.

[ghostlemon36]

Hellooo! I’m here to attempt to give you a summary of the qsmp so far! There are already some recap videos out there, some made by the qsmp itself, but so far I do not think any are up to date with the current arcs?

Ok so, spanish speaking and english speaking YouTubers wake up on a train one day heading to a vacation island! They make it there and get weird messages from a duck telling them to restore power to the island. However, there is a gigantic wall separating half of the people. The weird duck (which we later find out is the manager/spokesperson for the federation) tells them one rule, and that is not to press the big red button on the wall.

So of course people go to press the button. (The YouTuber Vegetta managed to do it first) AND THE THE WALL EXPLODES! The duck tells the people that they broke the one rule on the island and now they are unable to leave.

So for two weeks they build their bases and get to know each other. (I believe important personal lore happens for iRoier during this time as well, his friends betray him? I am unsure.)

Then one day, they are presented with dragon eggs. The duck makes an announcement that when the wall exploded, it woke up a dragon and it flew away, leaving her eggs behind. The islanders are paired into teams of two to take care of an egg together.

Each egg only has two lives, and they have to be taken care of and have tasks done everyday or they die of neglect. These eggs are played by admins, so they act like full characters. Over the next few weeks, three eggs will die. Juanaflippa, the daughter of ElMariana and Slimecicle, Tilín, the child of Quackity and Luzu (no one knew if Luzu or Wilbur was the father because both were absent at the time.) and Trump, the son of Maximus and DanTDM.

The eggs are in increasing danger as the island gets more dangerous and more things aim to kill them. There is an entity seemingly made up of binary code that kills eggs, taking them down to one life.

One day, there is a storm on the island and a ship crashes to the shore. On this boat are five YouTubers from Brazil, Cellbit, Pactw, Mike, Felps, and Forever. They are given an egg and they name him Richarlyson. These five are absolutely thrown into the thick of everything.

Cellbit starts investigating the Federation and starts a secret organization called The Order. He ends up getting kidnapped by the federation and tortured, but gets a bit of information about the island in return.

Felps also gets kidnapped later on because the streamer was going to Japan for two weeks. (There’s a joke in the fandom that getting kidnapped by the federation is getting sent to Japan, because I believe this has happened 2-3 times.) And Cellbit starts investigating his best friends disappearance.

I’m going to stop here with the summary because there is just So Much. (Qsmp feels like the One Piece of smps to me) I’ll do my best to summarize from here another day >:]

But this summary is around 1/3 of the story so far, and the story is still going! I recommend jumping into watching vods or streams because every perspective is different and not knowing much about the story does not effect much in my opinion! There’s a new islander that may be a good pov to watch if you want to get into streams, her name is Bagi and she is wonderful.

HELLO??? OMG THANK YOU???

This was so nice of you to type out agskahjahajaa I’m dying a little you’re my new favourite person (/lh) I would die for you this is amazing

I should jump onto Bagi streams, she seems funny as hell from what I’ve seen, thank you so much anon omg

[demonfox38]

Completed: Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished

Place your bets on how many times I mention the words "Zelda" and "salmon" in this evaluation.

One term may be self-explanatory. The other…you'll find out.

I think I've been exposed to a fair amount of video games. If I've beaten hundreds of games, it's only because I've played thousands. What's limited my ability to fully experience as many video games as possible? Well, time and money are obvious restrictions. I'd put my nationality as a strong third contender. Which, yes, you're allowed to call bullshit on that, what with my nationality being American and all. I didn't have to go through half of the shit that someone from Brazil, Poland, or Russia had to just to play a damn video game. But, my tastes are Japanese, tainted Nintendo-red from the recovery of the home console market in the 1980s. Even with as much cultural and fiscal exchange that goes on between Japan and the United States, there are still going to be keystones and touchpoints that I am going to miss. Influences, spectral as they are, that I want to discover.

The "Ys" series is one such case.

I don't have sales figures for "Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished." I can't definitively say that this series has influenced dozens of video games that I have enjoyed. What I can do is point at certain scenes within the game and go, "Shit, Nintendo ripped this part off in "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past."" The amounts of ports this title has received over the years may also be a good indicator that "Ys I" was a darling of the 1980s Japanese home computer market. The PC-88 seemed like a good home for the title, but it damn well didn't stay there. Hopping to the MSX2, MS-DOS, X68000, TurboGrafix-16, Sega Master System, Nintendo Famicom, PlayStation Portable, and the gosh darn Steam market is testament to just how far this game has gone over the years. Hell, that's not even half of the consoles and computers this game has turned up on. It's a Blanche Devereaux of video games—old, present in more places you think, and enjoyed by a surprising amount of people.

"Ys I" (and the series at large) stars Adol Christin, a man driven by a salmon-like instinct to dive face-first into danger the first chance he gets. Such reckless behavior leaves him shipwrecked on an island after managing to plow through a wall of storms that has killed everyone else that has dared to cross it. (You are free to check off "Link's Awakening" from your "Potential Zelda Games Ys Influenced" bingo card.) After recovering from his little escapade, Adol plunges head-first again into the troubles of the island, seeking the goddesses that seemingly have left the island abandoned, as well as six tomes containing the great knowledge and destruction of the mighty civilization Ys that fell long ago. Who else seeks these tomes? Where are all of these demons coming from? Why does this island have so many blue-haired chicks, and why does Steam want to give me three achievements for harassing one of them?

Look, I don't think the original game was designed by delinquent perverts. Whoever made the achievement list might have been, though.

As you may suspect, a lot of how I understand "Ys I"'s design is through my understanding of "The Legend of Zelda" and its subsequent games. Is that a fair comparison to make? Well, they are roughly the same age, one being published in 1986 and the other in 1987. Different systems, sure. Same environment. It's not like "The Legend of Zelda" is the be-all, end-all of top-down fantasy action games. But, more games of this build are likely to emulate "Zelda" than "Ys," even when I talk about "Ys" being an influential younger sibling plot-wise to the former's later titles. If we want to be a bit more diverse, we can throw "Hydlide" into the mix. But, there's always a danger with having an American talk about "Hydlide." Especially, if they don't put that game's age into context!

Look, it's way fairer to compare games from 1986 and 1987 than games from 1984 and 1987. Three years of difference then is like decades of difference now. People and technology evolved that fast. The Japanese economy and Moore's law were amazing like that.

Because I am familiar with the "Zelda" game style, "Ys I" was initially difficult for me. (Okay, it was extremely difficult at two specific points later in the game, but let's just start with the initial play style.) See, one important design detail about "The Legend of Zelda" is that its main hero is left-handed. This helps a player center their shots, often putting them square with their foes. Adol, as you may have guessed, is not Link. Adol is a "Dungeons and Dragons" rogue in a weapon and armor set that should be way too heavy for him. His modus operandi is to crash into an enemy's back or sides, slamming in that flanking bonus for all its worth. He is not a salmon jumping into a bear's mouth (although, I suppose he is that narratively.) He is a salmon plinking off the side of a bear until it inexplicably explodes.

This style of fighting can feel messy to a "Zelda" veteran. It's not something that can't be overcome, but it does require some study. However, it does feel more natural than the "hold A to go offensive / release A to defend yourself" situation that "Hydlide" had going on. At least, a person is way more likely to figure out "Ys I" naturally than they would "Hydlide." I guess playing "Ys I" after "The Legend of Zelda" is a bit like learning how to drive a car with a manual stick, then being given an automatic car. Like, sure, the automatic is simpler. But, if you're used to taking control, you'll feel uncomfortable having that control removed from you. At least, a bit on ice.

I don't know how "Hydlide" fits into that analogy. Maybe it's like going from a manual car to a car that operates on "Red Light Green Light" rules, but you don't figure that out before crashing it into an electrical pole.

Don't expect much in terms of combat evolution with "Ys I." The tools that Adol gets are meant more for hocking or trespassing than any changes in how you attack. There's no bow or boomerang to give him some range. If you get a weapon, it's just another sword with more power. Nothing much outside of a little numerical boost. (Okay, a power bonus, and actually allowing damage on two bosses, but we'll…we'll get to those damn bosses.)

Everything comes down to you hauling ass into combat, then tearing Adol's ass back out. The poor boy has almost no invincibility frames to speak of, so it's very easy to make silver sashimi out of him if you aren't careful. While he does have some automatic health recovery, it requires him to be still and either in an open area or using a particular ring that you get later in the game. Sure, you can pop a healing potion from time to time. Just maybe not when you'd need it, like in a damn boss fight!

Seriously, man. What's up with that? Do you need to set out the fine china before you can take a sippy, Adol? That's very un-salmon-like behavior of you.

Because so much of the combat revolves around this hit-and-run style of swordplay, a lot of the boss design and tactics will devolve into "run at that guy the first chance you get" and "run in circles until you can stab that guy." About the only major curveball the game throws at you with this is requiring silver equipment for precisely two bosses. These bosses are also infuriating in the "Ys I" variant I played. Like, I easily spent 20-30 minutes killing a boss that only takes a minute to kill when done correctly. It's never a good sign when you open up an FAQ only for it to go "LOL, good luck." It got to the point where I had to mute the game just so that I would stop getting distracted by the awesome music. That's what these bosses did to me. They drove me into committing audio felonies.

Now, this boss issue is something I lay at the feet of the designers for the "Ys I" variant I played (the Chronicles+ Steam port.) See, when I look at PC-88 footage for these bosses, I don't see the particle hell that I had to endure. Even other ports aren't as aggressive as the Chronicles+ version. I don't know if someone had bullet hell brain rot or wanted to throw as many projectiles on screen as possible just for a computational flex, but man, was it aggravating. 

If everything about "Ys I" was as frustrating and repulsive as those bosses, the game wouldn't have survived past its inaugural entry. Lucky for it, the game has a lot of things going for it aesthetically. The game puts a great deal of effort into its character portraits and sprite work, blending top-down action with full portraits like something out of a visual novel. It can be a remarkably peaceful game to look at. Like, I did end up taking breaks while digging through an abandoned mine or a massive tower's annex just to admire what little sunlight came down upon gently swaying bridges. The Chronicles+ version is at least pretty. I'll give it that! Even the original release has its charms with its sprite work. Frankly, I think the main screen and final boss portraits look better in the PC-88 version, if for nothing else than for the feelings of imaginary nostalgia and subtle chills I get looking at them.

While "Ys I" doesn't have the most complex plot in the world, it was certainly leaps and bounds ahead of most games from the 1980s. The game puts a great amount of effort into its NPCs, giving several their own portrait artwork and side quests. Hell, in the Chronicles+ version, you even get an achievement for talking to everybody. While never being fully conclusive on the exact nitty-gritty of Ys' fall, it's clear to understand what has happened to this place, as well as its goddesses. There are a lot of games that run Shintoism through European trappings, sure. Multitudes of goddesses, talking to sacred trees, sometimes getting swords out of them—I can think of at least two "Zelda"s and two "Tales" RPGs that work with the same tropes. However, this was one of the first games to do this, and it did it very well. There were at least two twists that I didn't see coming, one of which was quite shocking. Half of it was me not assuming that all brunets are related, sure. The other half? Well, let's just say I got more of a response out of it than when a certain "Final Fantasy" character got notoriously shafted.

The best quality of "Ys I", by far, is its soundtrack. I'm not kidding when I say this is how I was originally exposed to the game. A lot of what I listen to while working is video game soundtracks from the 1980s and 1990s. When this came up in my recommendations, I definitely took note of it. When it's not being eerie and mystical, it's driving with that sort of intensity rarely seen outside of late 80s/early 90s Japanese rock. If you are a synth fan, you owe it to yourself to listen to it. At least, give it three and a half minutes.

Hell, if you need a professional recommendation: former Capcom sound designer and current music professor / bird aficionado Hideaki Utsumi owns at least two variants of this game. I would imagine he would be much better at articulating how awesome this soundtrack and its programming is than I would.

As an additional note—one of the original composers for this game (Yuzo Koshiro) went on to make his own audio company, as well as contributed to a crapton of additional video games. (Not that Mieko Ishikawa is a slouch! She's holding the "Ys" series and other Nihon Falcom titles down just fine.) The particular interest I have with Mr. Koshiro is his contributions to "Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin." Like, yeah, the "Kid Icarus Uprising" stuff is mildly interesting, and anyone who is anyone in the Japanese video game music industry has ended up in a "Super Smash Bros." soundtrack at some point. But, ya know. I might like "Castlevania" a little bit. I could easily see his work slotting right into that series. (Or, hear, I guess.) Frankly, I'm surprised he wasn't called in to do more.

And, hey—if you're looking for more soundtracks that the pair worked on, check out "Sorcerian." Really confuse your YouTube recommendations. (Unless you're already on whatever pulse wave I'm already surfing, I guess! Then, I'm certain it's easy for us to shoot soundtracks we've both already heard to each other.)

I am curious about the limited amount of animation used by the Chronicles+ version of "Ys I." Originally, the animated intro was what made me think this game was based on a re-release set on the first PlayStation console. (I suppose it could have been a PlayStation 2 re-release as well.) It's a lovely intro! I dig it. I just don't know why the ending didn't have that quality to match it. I mean, I guess a still image was all the original "Ys I" had as well. It just feels weird to not have that same effort extended to the ending—especially, after all the effort I put into getting to it.   

Maybe the "Ys II" ending has a bit more going on with it.

I may have one or two ways to find that out…

I'm left in a weird place with "Ys I." It was mostly a good experience, but when it was bad, it was godawful. I can't imagine most modern gamers would have the patience or undead ego it requires to beat either of the bastard bosses I mentioned before. It's only 9 hours if you're going in raw, but man, will you come out raw in at least one of those hours. If you need a test of your ability to overcome absolute bullshit, then I guess you can give the Steam version a try. Honestly? I'm more prone to recommend an older version, even without my having played the older versions. The PC-88 version at least looks like something an average human could have beaten. At least, something that would have become a mind worm to the general development of games that followed in its wake. The Chronicles+ version…man, I don't know. At least don't pay full price for that. Especially not when my recommended solution would be…let's just say, not using any silver. Running black flags to ruin magical black capes.

Honestly, Adol should have just jacked that cape like Dorothy Gale and the Ruby and/or Silver Slippers. Clearly, its previous owner isn't getting any more use out of it. Might have been a pain in the ass to wash out and mend after the stupid sword fight, though.

[witchyfashion]

Throughout history, around the world, there are many examples of the mass disappearance of people living in small towns. Easter Island in 1718, Hoer Verde, Brazil, in 1923, Lake Anjikuni, Nunavut, Canada in 1930, Roanoke Island, Virginia in 1587, all were found deplete of humanity. Meals remained rotting on dinner tables, pets wandered aimlessly, not a soul to be found. The same ancient evil that devastated these places has arrived in a small eastern Colorado town. A fog covers the small town and closes in on Tom Benton and his family. Susan Benton watches the day turn to night from the inside of a store. She is determined to get home to warn her husband and son of all the destruction she witnesses. The evil that lurks within the fog feeds on humanity but has special plans for those with anger deep inside. Bobby Benton has seen the face of evil outside his bedroom window in the darkest hours of the night. The man who appears at his window offers a veil of redemption to those holding onto anger and rage.Let me in…..As the fog wraps around the Benton family home there will only be a narrow chance at survival. The evil that has gathered outside seeks a way in, but young Bobby Benton knows the true risk may be the secrets each member of the family holds. The greatest danger may not be the violent, evil creatures who await them, but each other. Can Tom Benton and his family escape the issues of their past in time to save themselves from Croatoan?

https://amzn.to/46xf8e6

[captain-kraken]

It's that time again, Happy WBW! Is there a real world place that inspired one of the locations in your WIP? If so, what is it and why did you select it?

Thank you for the ask! Sorry about the late response!

For the islands I started with the basic "theme" for each one - ice, water, sun, and wind. Then as I started building the nature, I looked at a lot of inspiration photos of different places. So this is based only on the natural areas, rather than the cities and towns.

Bahavi's nature was inspired a lot by Costa Rica, Brazil, and Mexico. Also a little bit of Australia in the "danger zone" sense lol.

Elohia was mostly Finland and Norway, with some Antarctica thrown in.

Auren's main influence was the Sahara desert and the countries included within, especially Egypt.

And Kazete's nature was mostly inspired by the UK.

[wherespaulo]

Trail Racing in New Zealand with Race2Adventure

Feb 18-26, 2023

I’ve always been on the lookout for companies which organize international adventure tours based around running – yet I’ve always been surprised to find that these companies are few and far between. So I was happy to discover Race2Adventure back in 2013 when I ran in Panama with them. Since then I’ve also been on running tours with them in Peru (2015) and Chile (2017) as well as well as a non-running trip to the world cup in Brazil (2014). For Merritt Hopper, the owner of the company, New Zealand had always been on the radar and would be a special one, but it had been delayed a few years due to New Zealand’s strict policies during the covid pandemic.

I’d just spent a couple of weeks in Australia followed by a week’s hiking on trails around Queenstown so was already well acclimated to the time zone and weather by the time I met up with a couple of the runners in an Irish bar, Pog Mahones, over a couple of Guinness’s. I immediately hit it off with Pete, Merritt’s uncle from upstate New York, and Chris, a talkative, mean looking ex-marine from Idaho.

The kick-off meeting in the Queenstown Community Centre was a chance to catch up with many old faces from both organizing staff and runners as well as meeting many new ones, such as Nathan Fa’avae, a world renown New Zealand adventure racer who was helping out with some of the race courses. There were too many to mention and I always cherish being able to catch up with friends around the world whom I’ve not seen for years – to just carry on where we last left off. And Race2Adventure is a great way to do this. There would be about 100 runners covering a range of abilities and I had no idea where I fitted into this – so there was some trepidation on the eve of the first race as we sized up the competition.

RACES

Race 1 – Arrowtown to Kawarau Bridge (6.1 miles)

It was good to be back in the quaint old gold mining community of Allentown for the start of the first race. A two mile brisk walk along the Arrow River to the starting line and then we were off! A 6.1 mile route alongside the Arrow River to the Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge. I was pleasantly surprised by my respectable fifth place finish, half expecting to be overtaken by a few other runners at some point – I did suspect more stiff competition was to come over the next few runs though, especially as they would be shorter, faster runs!

And much respect to those fearless runners with nerves of steel who finished off with a bungy jump over the river from the 43m high Kawarau Bridge, considered to be the ‘home of bungy’ – although the very first bungee jumps were actually from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in England in 1979 by crazy members of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club. And special kudos to those who even went a step further (ha ha) by doing the 134m Nevis Jump. I opted for the much more cowardly option of zip lining, superman style. I’d surmised that my legs would refuse to comply with the request to step off the bungee platform into thin air.

Race 2 – Lake Pukaki (4.3 miles)

The NZ sun is deceptive. It might only be 70F, but the sun has an increased intensity due to the hole in the ozone layer. And didn’t I know it! After that first race I’d clearly been lulled into a false sense of security as a number of other runners, less affected by the sun’s intensity and clearly faster over the shorter distances, hit their stride. There was big Brian, a big yoga bloke in a big hat, which I would forever see bobbing up and down ahead of me. This was a tough run for me but I did manage to increase my standing towards the end as a few runners surprisingly wilted even more than me. A plunge into the icy cold lake was a must after such a hot run, with the ladies taking the lead on the NZ tradition of skinny dipping.

Race 3 – Lake Tekapo (3.1 miles)

During this trip I would forever be reminded of my previous visit to New Zealand’s south island over the new year of 2014/15 – like a series of deja vu’s. Such as at the start of this race next to the Church of the Good Shepherd by the lake – I knew I’d seen the church before but couldn’t quite place it. It seemed strange, as though it was in a previous life. I suppose in some way it was. Places can seem different when  visited at different stages of your life, when more water has passed under your proverbial bridge. You’re not the same person so naturally have a different perspective.

A pleasant run through the lakeside pine forest where Brittany was forever encouraging me to keep up with her – yeah good luck with that! Runners are like that though, always supportive of each other. I sometimes wish we were all more like that in other aspects of life too -- to outspokenly  encourage each other just like runners do.

Race 4 – Castle Hill Loop (4.2 miles)

Great to have steadily falling cool rain for a change as we set off from the Castle Hill Community Hall, but I found the initial 600ft steep uphill section, which zig-zagged through the mountain beech woods, really tough. However, once I came out of the woods onto the high, flat open section over grassland, I did get my second wind, gaining ground on some of the runners who’d overtaken me on the uphill section.

As I was flying back through the woods on the steep downhill section I was surprised to suddenly hear footsteps right behind that were keeping up with me! I pulled to one side to let them pass only to realize it was Luciana filming me – how the heck was she keeping up with me at speed down this tricky section while filming at the same time?

Race 5 – Lake Wanaka (3.3 miles)

This was a short lakeside sprint along the edge of a forest, at flat out speed until you ran out of steam – no chance of waiting to get a second wind here so I didn’t really expect to excel. And I didn’t!

Overall position

Well done to everyone for giving their all, and special congratulations to Corinne, a fellow New Yorker, who won every race by a mile! I finished in a respectable 11th position overall for the week and vowed to ensure I do a bit of speed training for the shorter distances next time so I could keep up with big hat yoga bloke Brian and mean looking Chris.

OTHER STUFF

There was plenty of time to relax in-between races where we were ferried around in two coaches -- I opted for the beer bus replete with alcohol infused rap music and our hilarious driver, Stu, who would have us all in stiches by regaling dubious stories over the microphone, in a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ dead pan voice, related to the local geography we happened to be passing through.

There were the glow worm Caves in Te Anau, wine tasting at the Kinross winery (accompanied by prolonged banter with Lindsay on the correct pronunciation of ‘Gewurztraminer’);

boat trip around Milford Sound;

hike to the Franz Joseph glacier (couldn’t believe how far it had receded since my previous visit eight years ago);

star gazing from the hot spring-fed pools near Lake Tekapo, watching movies from comfy sofa’s in the tiny Paradiso Cinema in Wanaka and exploring Christchurch -- all interspersed with plenty of convivial rehydration at various watering holes and restaurants.

After this action packed week I looked forward to the next Race2Adventure where I could once again catch up with both old and new like-minded friends. I also looked forward to visiting this extraordinarily beautiful country once again when I might even finally get a good look at the kea bird which had now continued to evade me over three separate trips to New Zealand. Maybe it’s just the universe’s way of providing just one more reason of many to lure me back to this magnificent country.