#coincidence or sample or same producer?

[sparkles-oflight]

Which is gayer?

LGBT?

Or

[quinnlarrabee]

Macron's fiery Sorbonne speech targets summering American Millennials

It’s no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron gave a fiery speech about the threats facing Europe the same week that American Millennials in New York, LA, and Miami began talking about booking their one-way flights to the continent. "There is a risk our Europe could die - we are not equipped to face the risks," Macron said, referring to the dietary allergies, alternative milk needs, and tedious conversations of trust-funded, unemployed young adults who will begin their summer in Paris to attend a museum benefit that spills into a large dinner party with several professional photographers before traveling to Puglia, Comporta, or Ibiza where they will subsist on ‘beautiful tomatoes,’ flat whites, and MDMA. 

Europe has struggled with illegal immigration for decades, and there is no more pressing illegal immigration threat than American Millennials who have decided that being unemployed in Europe is less distressing for their parents than being unemployed in Williamsburg. Google searches for ‘how long can I stay in EU without passport’ spiked in late-April among Americans who have not yet bought a Portuguese passport from a guy who used to run a turnkey Burning Man camp who is now running a Golden Visa scheme in Lisbon. “Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” the choices being whether or not to search and detain for ketamine at customs and how to clearly define tipping protocol in restaurants. 

“It used to be enough to spend a couple weeks in Italy in July,” observes Coco, a 34-year-old retired gallery founder who is on the board of several art-related non-profits that she instructed her unpaid interns to start. “But now it gets so hot in Europe in July that everyone is going in June and even like, May.” Coco has several weddings and dinner parties in various coastal destinations in Europe in June, but she has not yet RSVP’d nor has she booked any travel. “I know I’m going to go, but I’ve just been too busy to look at the dates or book anything,” she says, absently picking some kind of beige matter from the left eye of her toy goldendoodle. Macron at one point asserts in his speech that Europe is “too slow and lacks ambition,” referring directly to Coco’s ambivalent European travel plans. 

Uncertainty permeates the vibe in Europe right now, not because of a military threat posed by a giant, angry country with cocked nukes driven by a weak-minded Cold War relic, but because every Millennial in New York, Miami and Los Angeles has expressed their intention to occupy Europe without declaring the targets. 

“Is very stressful,” says Aldo Melpignano, the proprietor of Borgo Egnazia, a trendy boutique hotel in Puglia that for Europeans costs €120 a night and charges 30something Americans visiting from coastal zipcodes $970. “I see the hashtags on the Instagram, like, I’m coming for your @borgoegnazia,” he says. “Va bene, Allison, when you gonna come for us, and are you gonna come with that stupid capello?” says Aldo while making a pinched-fingers emoji with one hand and pointing to his head with the other. Hotel, coffee shop, organic market, and narcotics purveyors all over Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal have echoed this desire for more resolute planning and fewer hats from the demographic that funds the less productive but more desirable EU countries.  

"We must produce more, we must produce faster, and we must produce as Europeans," Macron said, a rallying cry to European DJs to sample only vocals that were recorded in native European languages.  

“Europe must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world," Macron said, refuting the irrefutable fact that Europe has become a summer camp for unproductive younger Americans and suggesting that they be immediately deported to Bodrum or Izmir upon landing at CDG, MXP, and LIS. 

“This is a betrayal of our values that ultimately leads us to dependency on other counties,” Macron said, making an observation about Europe’s frustration with having to work between May and August in order to show American Millennials how to correctly tap their credit card on puzzling European payment terminals.

“Europe must become capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary,” said Macron, in defense of French baristas who do not like working with oat milk. Taking a hands-on approach to ensuring the EU’s “ability to ensure our security” Macron and his wife will begin their Summer at a wedding in the Aeolian Islands in early June, float around Sicily or Puglia the following week, head to Bonjuk Bay for an appearance of prominent LA-based DJ, RICHE, and then couch-surf in Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera the rest of the summer.

[unwounding]

One of my qualms with "pretty privilege"-- besides the fact it obsfuscates what's really racism and fatphobia--is the idea that women suffer from being beautiful. I vividly remember a Tumblr user considered herself conventionally attractive (who was simply thin and white, which to be fair is enough for most people) that beautiful women suffer misogyny as well (true) but also other mistreatment that inflicts only the attractive. I found this odd because I'm guessing most women have been in a situation where their kindness was mistaken for romantic interest. If not, then they've witnessed the phenomenon of "nice guys," a concept that in itself shows how men equate kindness with flirtation. It is not too much of a trek to realize that if they reserve basic decency for women they find attractive, that they're cold or even cruel to women they deem ugly.

I also used to feel bad for thinking that it was misogynistic to realize that white women can get away with being ugly through whiteness and thinness, but it recently occurred to me that it happens to men too. The most salient example of this is the viral clip of Hasan Minhaj plainly stating that white men could be plain and make it in Hollywood, e.g. Dax Shepard, while men of color, e.g. Idris Elba, Zayn Malek, etc. have to jump a higher hurdle. Even Dev Patel talked about how his self-esteem suffered for always being considered the "ugliest" character on Skins.

It took someone like Lupita Nyong'o-- gorgeous enough to make birds drop dead from the sky--for broader society to consider the possibility that dark-skinned black women could too be beautiful. This holds intraracially; a number of darker skinned black women will tell you someone who would normally be considered ugly or plain can get away with it by being light-skinned. Funnily enough, despite the push for racial diversity in Hollywood, producers are favoring biracial women over monoracial light-skinned black people. No really, if we took a sample of shows featuring black people recently, very few would have monoracial women, especially if they're dark-skinned. The only ones I can come up with off the top of my head are How to Get Away with Murder and Abbot Elementary, and it's not a coincidence that the show runners were/are black women. I'm watching Yellowjackets now and it's the same thing; they even have the biracial--who has blue-green eyes--wear brown contacts. The dark-skinned black women are, not surprisingly, secondary characters. All of this is predicated on proximity to whiteness, real or perceived, and the measuring stick of whiteness, especially in the US, is blackness. What drives me crazy about this is that everyone sees it but hardly anyone vocalizes it, which I'm guessing is why the Minajh clip circulated so much. Come on now!

[hyenahunt]

Rouge & Ruby: Eventual Affection - 4

Writer: Umeda Chitose

Season: Winter

Characters: Hiyori, Jun, Ibara, Nagisa

Proofreading: royalquintet (JP) & Skyress (ENG)

Translation: Mirei (Adam) & hyenahunt (Eve)

Jun: L-O-V-E, love! You couldn't have achieved everything you've done without it... that's what I think.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Hiyori: Oh, I know what it is! It looks just like that thing on our Chocolat Fes stage...!

Jun: Right, that's it!

Actually, the more I look at it, the more it seems exactly the same... Didja do that on purpose?

Ibara: … Do you think it turned out this way by coincidence?

Hiyori: Dear me~ I was so looking forward to trying them, but now that I see the four of them sitting together like this, I can't quite bear to!

Nagisa: …Then, how about we eat one box together instead of having one box each?

Hiyori: A splendid idea as always, Nagisa-kun! Well then, I'll have this one for myself… ♪

Nagisa: … How does it taste? Is it the same as the one I ate before?

Ibara: Yes. Given that one has already been approved by Your Excellency, I believed it would be fine to proceed as-is.

Jun: Just when did you get to try a sample, Nagi-senpai? C'mon, Ibara, you gotta invite us for that kinda thing too.

Ibara: Our schedules just didn’t line up …

Hiyori: Some excuse that is! In case you forgot, you literally called me in the middle of the night the other time...

Jun: What for?

Hiyori: Oh, did I not tell you how Ibara was already hard at work?

He called me to ask if I knew any jewellers on good terms with my family, and if I could introduce him to them. As you know, a request for help from Ibara is just so astronomically rare!

Hiyori: And that's why I introduced him to people experienced both in the jewel trade as well as jewellery design...

But to think that even the box looks like something right out of a jewellery shop... That was thanks to them, was it?

Ibara: There were quite a lot of difficulties since my request was a bit sudden…

However, their expertise helped us produce both a chocolate and a container that are up to our standards… ♪

Jun: Whoa, how did you find the time for all that?

Ibara: It was quite hard work, you know. I had to make use of nearly every connection I have, including His Highness himself, all while doing everything I could to keep costs down…

I thought of how it would appeal to our fans, or even those who would only catch a single glimpse of us at Chocolat Fes.

It truly was hard work creating a product that will give people a strong urge to make a purchase.

Nagisa: … He said hard work twice.

Ibara: It was definitely hard work, but I didn't think of it as labour. There's no other way I can describe it.

The chocolate's quality turned out very high, so I ended up wanting to create a new unit visual to match the design…

I had to squeeze the photoshoot into everyone’s schedules too, so the hard work also extended towards all of you.

Jun: You went as far as to ask Ohii-san's help, and even wanted to do so much extra for it...

You seriously put your whole heart into this...

Hiyori: Right. Even for someone like Ibara, it must have been unbelievably hard work preparing everything to this extent.

I did find myself wondering if we'd actually manage to pull all this off.

It seems that this time around you were able to completely avoid it, but were you ever tempted to use COMP's budget for this?

Ibara: I made the decision to take total ownership of this project; it will be planned and implemented by me, for Eden.

There is significance to doing it with my own power. Plus, I couldn't accept it if I didn't. I also wished to convince you all by doing it this way.

Jun: …

Ibara: This is the sort of the victory that I seek.

Bringing Eden—and myself—to the top with my own two hands… was both my desire and ambition. I had already forgotten about that budget long ago.

Of course, I have every intention to make full use of the remaining COMP budget in the future! Ahahaha ⁠☆

Hiyori: Ah, what a shame. It would've sounded so good without that last part.

Nagisa: … But, you do agree that Ibara was a good kid right?

Jun: …Come to think of it, you take on so much by yourself all for the sake of Eden and our fans.

But even then, you say you don't consider it "labour".

Wouldn't you say that's your way of showing love, Ibara?

Ibara: …What was that?

Jun: L-O-V-E, love! You couldn't have achieved everything you've done without it... that's what I think.

Ibara: …

… No, no, no. It can't be love.

Nagisa: … Quiz time. Could this be Ibara being a little embarrassed? Press O for Yes or X for No.

Hiyori: Yes is the only possible answer, of course! Just look at how flustered he is!

Ibara: Both of you! I'm not your fun little quiz topic!

Jun: Haha. The more worked up you get, the more you'll get teased for it, y'know?

So why don't you just call it "love", and leave it at that?

Valentine's Day is the victory that you've been aiming for, and no matter how you look at it, it's the Day of Love itself... ♪

[ ☆ ]

✦✦✦✦✦

← prev ✦ all ✦ next →

[absolutebl]

Not sure if you'll have an opinion on this, but I'm curious. I keep noticing a lot of casting connections between Japanese BL and another Japanese media genre I watch, and in particular one franchise. And I can't tell if it's A Thing or not. Maybe I'm just seeing it because I happen to watch both of these genres (maybe if I was into some other genre I'd see the same kind of overlap?), or for a mundane reason (e.g. maybe shows from both genres recruit actors of a certain sort/level of success?). It seems like more than a coincidence. But if it's not a coincidence, why would this happen?

The genre I'm talking about is tokusatsu shows. My family and I got into kaiju movies, then into Ultraman shows, and through that into other tokusatsu stuff. Around the same time, I got into Kdramas and eventually branched out to stuff from other parts of Asia and into BL. The franchise that most of the tokusatsu overlap happens with is Kamen Rider.

My sample size is small as I'm a recent convert to BLs, which is a weakness for this tentative argument, but I really think this might be noteworthy...maybe? Here's what I've got so far (noting years because the time range is interesting):

Senpai, This Can't Be Love! is full of Kamen Rider alums. I knew both leads (from Saber, 2020, and Ex-Aid, 2016) and their boss (from Ryuki, 2002), then heard from others on here that two other minor characters were on KR shows I haven't seen yet. This is the most extreme example by far and may be skewing my perception.

I knew Takeda Kouhei of Old Fashion Cupcake from Kamen Rider Kiva (2008), where his character is the polar opposite of Nozue (overconfident, flamboyant, girl-crazy). But then I found out he was a regular on Kamen Rider Build (2017) as well.

Less clear-cut and in the opposite direction, Nishijima Hidetoshi was in What Did You Eat Yesterday? (just heard about this quasi-BL from one of your posts) before being the lead in Kamen Rider Black Sun this year. He was also just in Shin Ultraman, the only overlap between Ultraman and the BL world I've noted so far.

At this point anyone reading this is probably picturing me like that meme of a wild-eyed Charlie Day in front of his conspiracy-theory wall collage. But I keep wondering. Is there someone in a studio role responsible for BL who's a huge Kamen Rider fan? A veteran casting director from Toei making a leap to a studio that produces BLs? Or maybe I just have a case of apophenia (unfounded pattern-finding).

Wondering if you might have some insight.

My guess is that it's actually agency stables in play. Talent agencies and casting directors get in each others pockets a lot. So often you'll see cross over actors, sets of actors, like the casting director fielded the agency's team.

Usually this is because the casting director notified the agency of the roles available and the agency also looked into all the sides, extras, etc and basically blanketed the couch with possibilities from thier stable.

So for example, Takara & Amagi are both played by Jpop idols, but while they're form different groups, they share the same talent agency.

To My Star stars Son Woo Hyun & Kim Kang Min are from the same agency and were also both in The Golden Spoon and Tale of the Nine-Tailed.

If you watch Kdramas as well as KBL you'll start to see this a lot with the sides and extras. I think Japan operates similarly. Something like Absolute BL fielded a ton of familiar faces and I think quite a few of them were from the same agency.

If casting has a good working relationship going with an agency, they can just ring them up from set to send someone over real quick if there has been a drop out or a sudden need for an extra. It's a kind of laziness but also the result of long relationships and industry networking. Also actors will travel in packs and get pulled in just because they're hanging around set while their friend is shooting, and they're often friendly because they share an agency.

I wouldn't be surprised if a number of the better KBL lead pairs turn out to be from the same talent agency and to have at least socially known each other before filming. I've never cared enough to look into it, but I would take an educated guess at 50% or so.

It's all about networking in ET.

[thelastharbinger]

To the people bringing back tired claims that bts made their success off being “carbon copies” of their 2nd gen contemporaries (because we all know bts’ debut music was what blew them up, right??), or my favorite, that we “can acknowledge their originality up to a certain point, but armys need to admit bts get inspiration from other artists”:

Congratulations, you are correct! Because guess what, nothing exists in a vacuum and you clearly have no idea what the process of art-making entails.

I don’t know whose reality I’m about to shatter when I say this but...artists study other artists *mind-blown* Except this isn’t news because you hear idols say all the time how they’re inspired by or look up to other peers in the industry all. of. the. time. But it’s cute when 4th gen idols say it and a crime when bts does it?

There’s a reason why art students are made to take art history classes. Yes, to study the greats, but also to know how artworks/artists exist & are informed by their situational context, i.e. time period, geography, politics, societal norms, etc. And why as you develop your body of work, professors will constantly point to references of other artists who work with similar themes, materials, and so forth because it can only help guide your artistic practice; it all becomes wisdom. But moreso, everything exists in conversation with each other. You can literally point to any song from any group and understand where they pulled their sound from in the larger tradition of musical instrumentation and composition.

I’m also convinced that the people saying bts are “copies” of bap, blockb, and bigbang have not familiarized themselves with the discographies of any of these artists at all (I really need people to listen to full albums and not just title tracks). Just because they’ve overlapped in genres, does not mean they sound the same. Blockb’s hiphop sound is very stylized and contrasts that which bts utilized. While both bts and blockb’s early music was very old school hiphop, hiphop is not a monolith; and the genre itself varies drastically depending on regionality like east coast/west coast (back then at least). And while we’re here, you’ve noticed that these other groups bts “copied” also got their inspiration from 90s American rap and hiphop, right? Same goes for r&b, trap, jazz and all these genres that have their roots in Western Black culture. Kpop borrows from everything. Also in an industry that heavily follows trends, you are going to find similarities among artists from time to time, that’s just how it goes.

Also, funny how y’all never bring up the way the entire kpop industry is trying to follow the bts model. It isn’t a coincidence that a bunch of fourth generation groups now have their own story line universes that are embedded into their mv’s, or how everyone is producing their own long-form, online variety content because they know that sustained audience engagement over time was part of the bts recipe for success (Top Social Artists, anyone?). Hey, remember that one time exo blatantly plagiarized a bts song? No? I figured. No outcry for them I guess. Plenty of kpop artists sample songs from other musicians--you see this a lot with girl groups, make covers of other singers, but they’re not profiting off someone else’s music are they? Yeah, same goes for bts.

Like I’m so sorry to break it to you, but saying that an artist takes inspiration from what is circulating in the cultural zeitgeist or from other musicians isn’t the burn you think it is. It’s literally just how you make art and study your craft.

[renee-writer]

Out of Time Chapter Thirty -six

AO3

“Wow!” His soft utterance has her looking up from what she was studying.

“What?”

“There is something that is the same across the board.” She stands and comes over to him. “See, it is a white blood cell but, different from anyone I have ever seen.” She looks through the microscope. Not nearly as familiar with the science of blood as he was, even she sees the difference.

“It is bloody huge!”

“Aye, just so. It must be what is keeping us alive. It is found in all our blood samples.”

“What of…” she still can’t say his name. Jamie spares her.

“Aye, his too. His was artificially made. Ours, they are a response to it. As queer as that is. For how was our bodies to know it was coming?” He frowns as he pulls the microscope back and looks again.

“Someone knew. I mean besides the horrid people that started it. God knew. We were truly made to survive this.”

He chuckles. It has a tone of shock to it. “Sorry, I just never pictured you as a believer.”

She flushes, fiddling with the empty beaker in front of her. “Honestly, lapsed Catholic here but, what other reason could there be. I mean, how many corpses did we pass yet, we are here. You were there to take care of the children, I knew where to find our first shelter, Mary reached us, you knew to come here, where you found Jenny and, Maggie and Ian Jr. alive. It is all way to big to be coincidence.”

“I agree. This is a divine appointment. What are we meant to do know is the question. Does this mean we can move freely about too?”

She starts to tap her fingers on the table. “There is only one way to find out. Someone has to go out there.” Their eyes meet and hold. She notices how incredibly blue his are. How had she not noticed that before? His breath catches at the way hers shine like a glass of perfectly brewed whisky. For the space of ten of their ragged breaths they hold each other’s eyes. She is the first to pull away. Her glance drops to the table as she finds her composer again.

“I will go.” He says. It lifts her head again.

“No! You are the doctor. You are needed here.”

“You are head of security. You are also.”

Their eyes come back together a fire there now. She starts to open her mouth to argue some more and he leans in and takes it. Her breath stops for a second before she is returning it. As they are still sitting, it is just their lips and hands making contact. His run through her hair, twisting in it. Hers grab his arms, an anchor. Tongues peak out before running together to produce deep moans.

They come apart to catch a breath and each other’s wide shocked eyes. She moves her hands up to his face and his eyes drift shut. Her heart jumps before she captures his mouth. No hesitation, they are fully exploring each other’s mouths. He needs her closer. Before he can do anything about it, his sister’s voice intrudes.

“Well, about time.”

[sinceileftyoublog]

SZA Album Review: SOS

(Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

On “Nobody Gets Me”, a song in the middle of SZA’s much anticipated second album SOS, she reveals a failed engagement, a man that left her when she was on the road due to his own insecurities. It’s the type of heartbreak that spawns entire records--and maybe it did, here--but she spends more time in the details, setting the scene than delving into the ins and outs of her relationship. “You were balls-deep, now we beefin’ / Had me butt-naked at the MGM / So wasted, screamin’, ‘Fuck that’ / Blurry now but I meant it then / Hurry now, baby, stick it in / ‘Fore the memories get to kickin’ in,” she sings, her carnal humor as blunt as it is sardonic. In the build up to the release of SOS, during an interview with HOT 97, she remarked she wants it to be understood from the album that, simply, she’s pissed. Pissed at specific men, yes, but also at men in general, at the music industry, at the collective forces that try to bring her down. SOS is a distress signal. It’s no coincidence its opening track begins with that specific Morse code while built around a sample of the Gabriel Hardeman Delegation’s gospel song “Until I Found the Lord (My Soul Couldn’t Rest)”. That is, in looking back at specific moments, SZA’s pleading with herself to overcome.

SZA heals by evaluating past versions of herself and sometimes comparing herself to various revenge-takers throughout culture. “Low” builds on her feature last year on Summer Walker’s “No Love”, reinforcing her sole interest in the physical side of a relationship, her steadfastness mirrored in the song’s dark, forceful trap beat. On “Kill Bill”, she likens herself to the title villain of the Quentin Tarantino films of the same name. “I might kill my ex,” she casually admits, before clarifying, “I still love him, though / Rather be in jail than alone.” (Producer Rob Bisel and Carter Lang’s guitar lines even echo the melody of “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”, a song whose Nancy Sinatra version is famously used in the opening credits of Kill Bill: Volume 1.) SZA identifies with the protagonist of Gone Girl. And to be fair, on “Snooze”, she throws some sympathy the other way, suggesting that when she’s infatuated with someone so much, they could be a murderer and she wouldn’t care--only as long as they were infatuated with her, too. 

Sure, there are moments of bleakness on SOS, like on “Used”, where SZA shares she’s essentially used to feeling used, the amount of death she’s experienced in her personal life and witnessed along with the world making her numb to exploitation. When she sings, “My pussy precedes me,” on “Blind”, it’s a flex, but it’s also delivered with a sigh, as if this is all that there is. But the more she lets her voice soar, the closer she gets to self-acceptance, if not self-actualization. She bends around the skitter of the hi hats and the whirring synths on the subtly thrilling “Notice Me”. Her flow is better than it’s ever been on “Blind”; the pitch-shifted melisma of the title in the chorus sounds like she’s traversing the page as well as the scales, showing what she can be in one fell swoop. Most impressive is how effortlessly SZA fronts rock instrumentals, whether the pop punk bursts of “F2F” or the “Fade Into You”-esque strumming of “Nobody Gets Me”.

When SZA brags, it’s sometimes sandwiched between bouts of insecurity, and both sides of her internal monologue are all the more powerful because of it. “Nobody Gets Me” and the finger-snapped “Special” are buoyed by the “I might steal your girl” confidence of “Conceited” and it’s refrain of “I’m bettin’ on me”. “Far” samples words from Sadhguru, a famous yogi she met, saying, “If nobody wants you, you’re free”, as if SZA is rising to the top alone. What follows, though, is a broadcast dialogue over whether that very mode of thought is even worth it. Ultimately, it’s the words of folks since departed that ring truest. Her late grandmother Norma Rowe introduces “Open Arms” with, “When you do your best...that’s all you can do,” a breakthrough that allows SZA to realize “I’m the only one that’s holdin’ me down”. And then there’s album closer “Forgiveless”, which features samples of “The Stomp” by Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Bjork’s “Hidden Place”, songs by two of the most iconoclastic figures of the 90s and early 2000s with whom SZA likely feels a kinship. “I don’t mind burnin’ bridges,” SZA declares. ODB’s closing words profess love for everyone. SZA has that love to give, but on SOS, she’s unafraid to let you know when you’re impeding her ability to love herself.

[whitepolaris]

Shaman's Portal

Out in the Oklahoma Panhandle lies Beaver Dunes State Park, a recreational playground centered on hundreds of acres of gleaming silica sand dunes, where visitors can camp, hike, swim, and dune-buggy their way across the vast sandy hills. There's a reasonable entry fee, so the only real downside is the slight possibility of being captured through a mysterious human-snatching gateway.

It's called Shaman's Portal, said to have swallowed more than a handful of unsuspecting travelers and vacationers over the last few centuries. The exact spot where the disappearances have taken place has not been determined, but it's fair to say that, wherever it is, anyone's stumbled across it simply hasn't reported back.

If the accounts are to be believed, the first recorded occurrences date back to the sixteenth century when conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado traipsed across the continent from Mexico, passing through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, looking for the famed Seven Cities of Gold. A friar on the expedition allegedly wrote in his journal about the loss of three men when camping near the dunes in Oklahoma.

It was the work of El Diablo. That night be the sandy hills we had been warned by the natives to avoid, we lost three able bodied men of valour: Juan Viscaino, Marco Romano, and Juan Munoz. They had been hunting game for the men when the three ill-fated men were taken from us in a lightning bolt of green.

The "lightning bolt of green" coincides with the bright-green flash of light more recent observers say accompanies a victim's abduction, an indication that the same phenomenon has endured for at least half a millennium.

In 1894, settler Nancy Wright is said to have vanished amid the dunes attempting to rendezvous with her lover. In 1977, Bill Gruendyke, a camper from Colorado, disappeared as well, leaving behind both his vehicle and campsite. The night before he vanished, locals reported seeing those telltale signs flashes of green radiance. One morning in 1997, a group of young campers from Kansas woke to discover one of their companions missing. Again, a fellow camper reported seeing the emerald light the night od the disappearance.

The source behind the phenomenon, often referred to as Oklahoma's Bermuda Triangle, is yet undermined, but there are several theories. Some believe it may be some kind of interdimensional portal focused on the infrequency trampled spot amid the dunes. At the other end of the theoretical spectrum is the idea that the disappearances are the result of boring old sinkholes. As for the flashes of green light, they may simply be discharges of static electricity; visitors to similar sand dunes regularly experience small shocks due to the friction of wind and sand grains.

The most popular theory, however, involves the existence of a UFO buried somewhere among the sand hills. A number of years ago, a group of relatives attending a family reunion claimed to have seen a crowd of military-looking personnel digging out-or possibly covering up-something alien, late at night within the park. The family was spotted by the uniformed men, who detained them for several hours and warned them not to talk about what they saw. Following up on the story, a researcher named Dr. Mark Thatcher investigated the area in the 1990s and hired a geologist to test soil samples. The two men found unusual levels of ionization and electromagnetic radiation, which the scientists equated to similar findings at both the legendary UFO crash site in Roswell, New Mexico, and the Bermuda Triangle. However, they too were approached by officials who produced government credentials-remember, it's a state-run park-and warned them to cease and desist, an admonition they evidently took them to heart. Dr. Thatcher has since fallen off the radar.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of the story once and for all, Tammy Wilson, founder of the paranormal research team Eerie Oklahoma, sent out some feelers in 2006 hoping to gather more information. In return, she was contacted via e-mail by an individual using the alias Davis Humes, who warned her not to visit Beaver Sands and to forget anything she knew. Humes listed a number of researchers, including Dr. Thatcher, who had disappeared as a result of their investigations, and advised Wilson that it would be in her best interest to move on, as well.

After several exchanges between Humes and Wilson, Humes claimed that it was all a hoax that he himself instigated in 1997 as a psychology experiment about the nature of urban legends and conspiracy theories. He said he abandoned the experiment long ago, but thanks to the Internet, the mystery of "Shaman's Portal" took on a new life of its own. Having received this admission by Humes, Tammy Wilson considered the matter closed.

The only question that remains, of course, is whether the confession was genuine or simply a last-ditch effort to head off further scrutiny by discrediting the legend as a simple practical joke.

[jcmarchi]

ESA and NASA team up to study solar wind - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/esa-and-nasa-team-up-to-study-solar-wind-technology-org/

ESA and NASA team up to study solar wind - Technology Org

In the run-up to April’s total solar eclipse, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter and NASA-led Parker Solar Probe are both at their closest approach to the Sun. Tomorrow, they will join hands in studying the driving rain of plasma that streams from the Sun, fills the Solar System, and causes dazzlement and destruction at Earth.

Both Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe have very eccentric orbits, meaning that they fly in near to the Sun to get a close-up look, and then fly far out to give their onboard tech a chance to recover from the intense heat and radiation. During the next week, for the first time ever, the two spacecraft will both be at their closest approach to the Sun – what we call the ‘perihelion’ – at the same time.

What’s more, this closest approach coincides with Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe being at right angles to each other as they look towards the Sun.

Daniel Müller, ESA Solar Orbiter Project Scientist, explains why this positioning is special. “On this day, we have a unique spacecraft configuration, where Solar Orbiter will have its full suite of instruments pointed towards the region on the Sun where the solar wind is produced that will hit Parker Solar Probe a few hours later.”

Scientists will compare data collected by both missions to better understand the properties of the solar wind. Because Solar Orbiter is at its closest to the Sun, its telescopes will observe with the highest resolution. The simultaneous close approach by Parker Solar Probe means that only a few hours after the source regions of the solar wind have been imaged by Solar Orbiter, the plasma of this nearly pristine solar wind be sampled in space by Parker Solar Probe. This will allow scientists to better understand the link between the Sun and its heliosphere, the huge plasma bubble it blows into space.

But wait… at its closest approach, Solar Orbiter is 45 million km from the Sun, whilst Parker Solar Probe is just 7.3 million km away. So how does Solar Orbiter observe something that later hits Parker Solar Probe?

To answer this question, we need to look at the difference between remote sensing and in situ instruments. Both missions carry both instrument types on board, but whilst Solar Orbiter carries more remote sensing instruments, Parker Solar Probe carries mostly in situ instruments (no current camera technology could look at the Sun from so close a distance and survive).

Remote sensing instruments work like a camera or our eyes; they detect light waves coming from the Sun at different wavelengths. As light travels at 300 000 km/s, it takes 2.5 minutes to reach Solar Orbiter’s instruments at closest approach.

Meanwhile, Parker Solar Probe’s in situ instruments work more like our nose or tastebuds. They directly ‘taste’ the particles and fields in the immediate vicinity of the spacecraft. In this case, Parker Solar Probe will measure solar wind particles that travel away from the Sun at speeds of more than a million kilometres per hour. Though this seems very fast, it is more than 500 times slower than the speed of light.

“In principle, Solar Orbiter alone can use both methods,” points out Andrei Zhukov from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, who is working on the joint observations. “However, Parker Solar Probe comes much closer to the Sun, so can directly measure the properties of the solar wind – like its density and temperature – closer to its birthplace, before these properties change on its journey away from the Sun.”

“We will really hit the jackpot if Solar Orbiter observes a coronal mass ejection (CME) heading towards Parker Solar Probe,” adds Andrei. “We will then be able to see the restructuring of the Sun’s outer atmosphere during the CME in great detail, and compare these observations to the structure seen in situ by Parker Solar Probe.”

Teamwork makes the dream work

This is just one example of how Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe are working together throughout their missions. Parker Solar Probe’s instruments are designed to sample the Sun’s corona (its outer atmosphere), targeting the region of space where the coronal plasma detaches to become the solar wind. This gives the scientists direct evidence on the conditions of the plasma in that region, and helps pinpoint how it is accelerated outwards towards the planets.

Beyond accomplishing its own science goals, Solar Orbiter will provide contextual information to improve the understanding of Parker Solar Probe’s in situ measurements. By working together in this way, the two spacecraft will collect complementary data sets, which will allow more science to be distilled from the two missions than either could manage on its own.

Solar Orbiter helps predict the total solar eclipse

The wispy ring that we see around the Sun during a total solar eclipse is its corona. Solar Orbiter data collected during the next week will also be used to predict the shape that the corona will take during the upcoming eclipse.

Researchers from Predictive Science Inc. use data from telescopes on and around Earth to create a 3D model of the solar corona. In advance of every total solar eclipse, they use this data to predict what the Sun’s corona will look like from Earth.

For the first time, Predictive Science will incorporate data from Solar Orbiter’s Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument. This will allow them to add information on the Sun’s magnetic field from a unique vantage point to improve their prediction.

The prediction is already available here. It will evolve in real time as we approach the eclipse and Solar Orbiter data is added.

Predictive Sciences Inc. prediction of the 8 April total solar eclipse, as of 28 March 2024

Don’t do a Galileo – use eye protection!

The total solar eclipse will cross North America on 8 April 2024 starting around 11:07 local time. Total solar eclipses are rare opportunities to see the Sun’s beautiful outer atmosphere, normally outshone by the brilliant surface. But great care must be taken to wear appropriate eclipse sunglasses in order to avoid eye damage.

Source: European Space Agency

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[iamdotwav88]

The Legend, the Assassin and the creative visionary who helped change my perspective on life…

It was winter of 2022 and I was laying on my sofa, listening to 90’s hip-hop and other underground tunes, when I came across a Kool G Rap song titled “Real Life”. The song was incredibly catchy, sexy and reminded me of a summer night cruising through the city while looking at the skyline and smoking some good herb. New York hip-hop has been my top selection ever since I can remember when I first developed a love for underground rap and hip-hop. I’d put Nas, Kool G Rap, Wu Tang Clan, MF Doom, Mobb Deep among other artists on shuffle but lately, I’ve sparked curiosity for artists from the West Coast and the South- so that definitely enabled me to expand my horizons musically. I had OutKast and UGK incorporated into a random hip-hop playlist I compiled together, then PUTS, The Pharcyde, and Dilated Peoples were added along with other artists- Alchemist making an appearance and the playlist began to expand. I immediately delved into the song “Real Life” and decided to watch the music video and research who produced that song. I discovered two men in the video who looked very familiar to me and it began to click, Cypress Hill was in that music video with Kool G Rap and I looked up the group members of Cypress Hill soon after, seeing that the same producer of Real Life was a man named DJ Muggs. Sure this was a recent discovery for me but it was magical. There he was - he piqued my interest not only physically, but as soon as I kept on listening to more of Cypress Hill, I discovered that he produced a plethora of songs over the course of 30 + years and eventually, I became enamored by his music and persona. He created an entire musical Collective called Soul Assassins well outside of just his Cypress Hill fame. He has worked with artists from many different genres of music over the decades and has even scored music for several films. Incredible. He even acted in a Soul Assassins movie that is being released soon. I have never seen any other music producer really go beyond their own limits like Muggs. Coincidently, DJ Muggs is originally from Queens, exactly where Kool G is from so he decided to incorporate New York sound into some of his productions while switching back to Latino-influenced hip-hop fused with dark, hazy beats that he sampled from other genres that essentially was Cypress Hill’s identity. I noticed that Muggs has been currently working with another Queens-based rapper, Meyhem Lauren, who slightly reminds me of a cross between Biggy and Kool G Rap. It’s refreshing to see this creative dude tap back into his NY roots.

I would get lost in some of his songs. His music touched me so significantly in unique ways that nobody’s music has ever had the same effect on me- not even some of the DJ’s I grew up listening to, such as DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Herbie Hancock and more. I began to watch his interviews and listen to more of his music. A few songs in particular, including General Principles featuring Wu Tang’s talented GZA the Genius, was on repeat and got me through some incredibly melancholy, dark and fucked up thoughts that made me reevaluate where I wanted to go with my life. Where I’ve been, isn’t it. Call it an outlet, it doesn’t matter. It helped me not want to throw myself out of a window. My apologies for anybody that is triggered seeing this, but I have to be sincere. I’m over those thoughts now, please rest assure.

Going back to the topic of Wu Tang Clan, seeing the game of chess incorporated into hiphop music especially how much of it is spoken about in Wu’s lyrics, was so refreshing to see. Reminded me of my childhood when I used to play chess, but I wasn’t any good. I even began to appreciate Cypress Hill more and discovered that B Real is also a chess player. I can honestly say that Cypress Hill is one of my all time favorite music groups aside from Muggs’ production. I love B Real and Sen Dog’s chemistry and lyrical flow. I like Eric Bobo’s drumming style. Where have I been all these years? Speaking of years, S/O to all of the other artists you’ve worked with throughout the years.

There is something about you that just draws me in. But I feel dejected that my efforts have lead me to nowhere. What entices me the most about you, is that raw energy that you bring to the table, your unapologetic and brash nature yet how subtle and humble you are. You always remain somewhat of a mystery to your audience and I can’t help but feel excited to listen to one of your songs.  You’re so versatile that you can work with any music genre besides hip-hop. You don’t necessarily like to conform but try to stick to maybe more of that and not really focusing on what your male listeners care about - half nude women in music videos. You’re much better than that with extraordinary talents in music and the visions you have. Who can forget your “Muggstep” phase back in 2011-2013? So incredibly cute. Trust me when I say, that’s the side of you that arouses me. You intimidated me but in a way, if I spent enough time with you, I’d feel comfortable around you. Your dark complexion, aqua colored eyes, rugged and distinctive features are only a small portion of what’s attractive about you. The way you spin around 180 degrees on the turntables, just like you did during the DMC competition during your youth, nothing changed and I love that about you. You’re full of life. You even hold up gang signs like it’s a fashion statement and look mellow yet assertive doing so — the confidence you exude, the way you effortlessly put together melodies in such a harmonious way. You even did backup rapping for Cypress Hill back in the day, I remember that. There is nothing you cannot do musically even if you took up a new instrument. Your talents are unparalleled. Your rebellious nature is unwavering.

Aside from your music, even though I don’t know you on a personal level, I tried to achieve that and failed because I was anxious and scared shitless. I don’t know if you realize that. I only know what I have seen on the surface level but I'm mostly a blank canvas to you. I think you may be genuine and you actually are loyal and care about your fan base. You have probably had an overwhelming amount of fans and groupies try to win your over attention but my goal hasn’t even been that. I care more about your life, upbringing and what made you continue being passionate about music. Your wealth, popularity and fame hasn’t been important to me. It’s just you as a person, but I don’t want to get into semantics and I’ll just leave it at that for now.

Either way, I would apologize because you didn’t do anything wrong - that was my bad. If I could take it back, I would. You’re someone who I value even if we don’t personally know one another. It’s not as though I can easily communicate with you, it’s not really feasible thus I’m going to try to once again— leave it alone for now. It’s too fresh. If you happen to see this, I hope you know that you are unique, you are a visionary, you are creative and you are someone I would probably never get bored speaking with. Unfortunately, my anxiety and nerves interfered and you did not see the positive sides of me when we did briefly meet. I hope that I’m not overstepping anything but if I could get another chance to see you and maybe speak to you, I’d do it in a heartbeat, under different circumstances that is. Thanks for making incredible beats and being generous to your fans. Thanks for pushing weed legalization and getting on the SNL stage 30 years ago, lighting that joint and not giving a damn. You made a statement. You’re bold, never afraid to push the envelope, are hardworking and unlike any music maker out there.

For any haters who don’t support you, they have poor taste and fail to understand you. You think I may one of those people but I wouldn’t be writing this entry in my blog if that was the case. I’ve always supported you until I became bitter and upset. So I want to try and know you better, not just on the surface level. I haven’t taken any of this lightly and I broke down because sometimes, I don’t know what I’m even doing truthfully and it’s an unsettling feeling. To meet someone important to me and have it backfire, was not my intention. My life isn’t at all where I want it to be but I won’t get further into that now. What I can say, is that you’ve indirectly inspired me to write more about music, create content and do different things that I never envisioned myself doing. I’m becoming more fearless now, am starting to take better care of myself mentally and physically and am finding ways to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve learned how to stand my ground and no longer put up with anybody’s shit thanks to you. I wish I could forget all of this and move on, but I don’t think I’ll be able to. In the interim, I don’t have much of a choice. I have to handle a lot of important matters but you’re definitely still on my mind. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t pursue your music or your life story sooner but you’ve indirectly done a lot for me through your music.

Our families are both European immigrants. We’re 20 years apart. Dali is one of my favorite artists and I was the Dali museum in Florida. Fell in love. There are many layers I want to peel away if you allow me to.

I’m giving credit where credit it due. Never forget how rare you are. You will influence so many other artists for years to come, however, nobody will be able to replicate you. It’s just a generational thing. The way you grew up listening to your uncle’s classic rock records and the street environment you grew up in — helped shape your music style. It’s simply engrained in you. So in general terms, someone either has it or they don’t. You were simply born to make music.

Take care of yourself. You have my respect.

Good times | Bad times

Till later.

-z xx

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[mainscosmetics]

Xo sample manager

#Xo sample manager update

#Xo sample manager series

Have I convinced you of the benefits yet? If so, then it’s pretty straightforward to start getting your library organized.Īfter years of personal experience, lots of research and just being in the world of electronic music production, we at EDMProd have come up with a simple yet solid process for getting your samples, presets and files ready to go. It also happened to amass ~70k streams on Spotify, which was a lot for me at the time too. While it may be a coincidence, I think it was my best track at the time (although my sound has largely changed since then). During the creation process, I was finding great sounds left, right and centre because I had already found them. Nobody has the same exact library as you.Ī personal example: my track Test was created in early 2018 once I had recently curated my favourite samples into Ableton Live 10’s ‘Collections’ feature. So if you needed another reason to get organized, think of how it will make you a more unique producer. When you find your favourite sounds, you’re refining your taste, and inevitably, crafting your sound. Organizing your samples, deleting sounds you don’t like and saving your favourite sound effects racks are all going to help you in your sound curation journey. Finding Your Soundįinding your sound isn’t downloading a new preset bank, or a sample pack, or a new processing technique.īut it is the culmination of lots of them, refined over time. You generally only need to do this stuff once! Well worth the time investment. So, don’t be afraid to do upfront work that will shave seconds and minutes off production time. If it takes you 2 minutes instead of 4 to find a sample that fits during the production process, and you use an average of 15 samples per song, that’s 30 minutes that you’ve saved. After all, how long does it really take to find a plugin or preset?īut when you think about the production process, you realize that shaving seconds off processes that you repeat time and time again adds up immensely. You might think that this type of file organization is pedantic and ineffective.

#Xo sample manager update

Set your DAW to auto-update so you don’t have to search for an update every time.Chop up parts from a bunch of samples so you don’t have to manually find chops every time.Rate your presets in your favourite synth, so you don’t have to find the good ones every time.The above was a great example – set up a favorites folder so you don’t have to spend 20 minutes finding a sample for every track. Is there something you can set up once, so that you don’t have do keep doing something else that is unnecessary? This isn’t ideal.īoth these examples would benefit from using a “favorites” folder, which we’ll talk about in this article, but beyond that, having an organized file system for your samples/plugins/presets helps immensely with creativity and workflow. If your samples are unorganized and you can’t find decent sounding drums quickly, the melody in your head might fade away as you focus on something else.Ī similar example: if your presets aren’t well organized and/or you don’t know them well enough, you’re going to waste time looking for a decent sound for the melody in your head. You’d like a basic drum beat as a backdrop so you can record it easier with your MIDI keyboard.

#Xo sample manager series

You want to be able to quickly find/create the sounds you desire before an idea or series of ideas in your head fade away.Įxample: you have an idea for a melody in your head. Here are a few reasons to organize your files and have easy access to your tools. Organized doesn’t necessarily mean ‘clean’, but it can. The truth is, it’s not the mess that’s helpful, but the access to your tools and materials that are actually helpful.įor one producer, that can look messy, yet for another, their studio might look spotless. You may have heard that messy spaces can make artists more creative. To put it bluntly, nobody has benefitted from specifically being unorganized. While we could talk about all of these stages, in this article, we’re going to be focusing on file organization, as it’s arguably the most undervalued. Most people neglect pre-production entirely, which is a mistake. To do this, we can optimize our pre-production to make our production sessions more effective and focused. Therefore, it’s essential to make the most out of every opportunity we have to produce. Most of us have a limited time to make music. Pre-production is everything you do before you sit down to write a new track (or work on an existing one).

[longflex]

Hash pipe weezer

Contents 1 Appearances 2 Overview 3 Alternate Versions 3.1 Live (SS2K) 3.2 Edits 3.3 Remix 4 Censorship 5 Single artwork 6 Covers 7 Music video 8 Formats and tracklists 8.1 Retail CD singles 8.2 Retail vinyl singles 8. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock, Alternative Album Charts. 'Hash Pipe' is the lead single and third track from Weezer 's eponymous 2001 album, The Green Album. Due to the pandemic, both Van Weezer and the Hella Mega Tour were rescheduled to 2021. Van Weezer was originally scheduled to be released in May 2020 to coincide with the Hella Mega Tour, which was going to feature performances by Wezzer, Green Day, and Fall Out Boy. Coincidentally, at the same time, our manager said, ‘Hey you guys should sample the Crazy Train riff in a song.’” Weezer - Hash Pipe (Letras y cancin para escuchar) - Uhhh / I cant help my feelings Ill go out of my mind / This players out to get me cause they like my. “The song was good, but the riff was…It was okay but it wasn’t the greatest guitar riff of all time, which I felt like it should be. Hash Pipe Lyrics by Weezer from the CAPS: Campus and Pub Songs album - including song video, artist biography, translations and more: Uh I cant help my. “The song existed with another riff,” Cuomo told Guitar World. Said Cuomo, Once, I think it was in 2000, he Osbourne. In the latest issue of Guitar World, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo recalled that the heavy-riffing track, found on the band’s 2001 green album, had originally been offered to Osbourne. In the track “Blue Dream” off of their newest album, Van Weezer, the band sample the lead guitar riff from Black Sabbath’s “Crazy Train” and are said to be sharing writing credit with “Crazy Train” writers Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley. In fact, if things had panned out differently, Hash Pipe could have appeared on an Ozzy Osbourne album. While “Hash Pipe” ended up on Weezer’s Green Album, the band have not lost touch with Ozzy Osbourne or his music. In another reality, it might be interesting to hear him singing that song.” “I sent it to him, but he didn’t end up using it. “Once, I think, it was in 2000, he asked if I had any songs for him, and I just happened to have written ‘Half Pipe,’” Cuomo said. According to Guitar World, when Cuomo sent Osbourne a demo of the song, he declined his offer to use the song on his next album. When I asked my neighbor, a huge Weezer fan, which record we should cover, he rattled off about five of their biggest hits, but then he smiled and said ‘but there’s nothing like driving down the freeway at 80 miles an hour with ‘Hash Pipe’ cranked.’ That stuck with me when it came time to decide.“Hash Pipe” was written and recorded by the band in 2000. Keyboardist Steve Porcaro had this to say: “Covering Hash Pipe was an absolute blast. The bands record label did not want to release Hash Pipe as the first single, because of the songs content, so, the band had to fight for its release. Ours drops Aug 10th, and I hear KROQ is getting thousands of requests from the teaser we recorded the other day - who knew? Kudos to Steve Porcaro for running with this as the Producer.” Gratitude to the fans for embracing this fun little accident. Now I guess we have to do some crazy mash up live someday. Thanks to Weezer, their manager Jonathan, and their fans as they have been really nice to us…and they didn’t have to be. It is an unlikely collaboration, but some of the best ones are unexpected. We give you our version - with a little of our thing on it like they did their ‘thing’ to ours. My 30 something kids were flipped over Weezer recording two of our songs as they are fans and we picked ‘Hash Pipe.” The irony that we were smoking hash before these guys were alive was not lost on us, and the other is it has a killer melody and a great groove. It seemed only right that WE - Toto did a version of one of their songs so we started digging around, listening to a bunch of their music, which I have grown to like a lot. They did two of ours and ‘Africa’ took OFF. It was all started by a sweet 15-year-old girl named Mary. They did a good job too, but we never saw hit records coming from it. For music credits, visit brbr1-6 playersbrNetwork FeaturesbrNetwork Players. Toto’s guitarist Steve Lukather had this to say about the cover in a press release: “We were blown away at the response Weezer got doing our old songs. Add Hash Pipe by Weezer to your Rock Band song library. Toto had previously announced their intentions to cover Weezer’s “Hash Pipe” and now that cover is also out. But then a week later they actually covered “Africa” and it ended up becoming Weezer’s biggest hit in years. Back in May a teenaged Weezer fan named Mary convinced the band to cover Toto’s 1982 hit “Africa” via a jokey Twitter account fittingly named “weezer cover africa by toto.” At first Weezer covered Toto’s “Rosanna” instead, a song also featured on their Toto IV album (it’s the opening track, “Africa” is the closing track).

[gaiafertility]

Is Self-egg Surrogacy an Option in Cyprus?

Egg donation in Cyprus is permissible given the egg donor stays anonymous. Moreover, the same egg donor in Cyprus cannot donate more than 5 times in his lifetime.

Besides, the intended parents can also go for self egg surrogacy option in the country. In a layman’s language, self egg surrogacy is similar to any other type of traditional surrogacy, with the exception that the prospective parents' eggs and sperm are used for the IVF.

To put it another way, gestational surrogacy, which is more common, is comparable to self egg surrogacy in that the surrogate appears to have no genetic connection to the child.

We all know that couples frequently choose surrogacy when the intended mother either doesn't have a uterus (due to genetic removal or surgical removal) or has particular requirements for one (septum, bicornuate, arcuate, or due to infection like Tuberculosis). Surrogacy therefore emerges as the most practical option for a couple who has tried and failed to conceive a child through IVF and now wants to try a more realistic alternative.

During the process, the intended parents may opt for the services of egg donor bank in Cyprus given the issues with the eggs of the intended mother. The same egg donation in Cyprus also comes in picture in case of single parent surrogacy or same sex surrogacy in Cyprus.

Is there a different procedure for self-egg surrogacy in Cyprus?

In order to begin the self-egg surrogacy process, prospective parents must first register with an egg donor bank in Cyprus or even a surrogacy agency. They must first sign a contract and provide all necessary data. During the same phase, the estimated dates for the following steps will be determined.

Synchronizing the menstrual cycles of the intended mother and the surrogate

In addition, the expectant mother is given the proper medication to help her menstrual cycle coincide with the surrogate's. On the other hand, the surrogate mother will also take the prescribed medication to promote endometrial growth at this time.

After the beginning of her menstrual cycle, the intended mother receives hormone injections to help her produce a large number of eggs. A fertility specialist at one of our IVF clinic partners closely monitors the females throughout the 10- to 12-day procedure.

During their first encounter with medical personnel, the couple receives information about the entire procedure. Additionally, they are informed of all available options and procedures in the case.

Retrieval of intended mother's eggs

The patient's eggs are then extracted while under anesthesia, and using the IVf procedure, they are fertilized in a lab with the partner's sperm. It's possible that the prospective father will choose to keep a sample of his sperm for use in the future and not need to stay at the facility.

Embryos are created in 3 to 5 days after the sperm and eggs are fertilized in a lab. These embryos need two to three days to fully develop. The IVF clinics' fertility specialists perform both cleavage and blastocyst transfer depending on the quantity of eggs extracted, the quantity of grade A embryos fertilized, and the prospective parents' medical background.

Transfer of embryos

Following the embryos' implantation into the surrogate's womb, ultrasonography is used to monitor their development. The age and medical background of the prospective mother are two factors that affect how many embryos are implanted here. The fertility doctors at the clinics frequently use 1-2 Blastocysts or 2-3 cleavage stage embryos.

Following the procedure for embryo transfer, the surrogate mother must take hormone supplements like oestrogen and progesterone. After that, she should rest and unwind for two weeks before checking for pregnancy.

Final words

Regardless of whether it’s about egg donation in Cyprus or self-egg surrogacy, the intended parents must connect with a reputed surrogacy agency. This way, they can make the most out of the arrangement while keeping up the surrogacy laws and regulations of the country.

[mi6-rogue]

Host and viral determinants of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the Syrian hamster

Preliminary report; Airborne transmission is one of the major routes contributing to the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Successful aerosol transmission occurs when people release respiratory particles carrying infectious virus in the fine aerosol size range. It remains poorly understood how infection influences the physiological host factors that are integral to this process. Here we assessed the changes in breathing, exhaled droplets, and released virus early after infection with the Alpha and Delta variants in the Syrian hamster. Infection with the two variants led to only nuanced differences in viral tissue titers, disease severity, or shedding magnitude. Both variants led to a short window of detectable virus in the air between 24 h and 48 h, which was poorly reflected by upper respiratory shedding measured in oropharyngeal swabs. The loss of viable air samples coincided with changes in airway constriction as measured by whole body plethysmography, and a decrease of fine aerosols produced in the 1-10 m aerodynamic diameter range. We found that male sex was associated with greater viral replication in the upper respiratory tract and virus shedding in the air. This coincided with an exhaled particle profile shifted towards smaller droplets, independent of variant. Transmission efficiency of Alpha and Delta did not differ on average but exhibited clear variation among donor individuals, including a superspreading event. Transmission leading to substantial dual infections only occurred when both viruses were shed by the same donor and exposure was prolonged. These findings provide direct experimental evidence that quantitative and qualitative assessment of exhaled aerosols may be critical for understanding the limitations and determinants of efficient airborne transmission, thus allowing us to control the pandemic with non-pharmaceutical interventions. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.15.504010v1?rss=1%22&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr Read more ↓

[kiddyw25]

The Significance of the Solo Dungeon (And Some History pt. 2)

Disclaimer: This is a bit of a big post, I've added a TLDR section at the end of the post if you don't want to read about the details of the history of the story.

ORIGINS OF A STORY The first iteration of Paradigm (under the title "Kingdoms of Darkness" — which we thought was a very cool and edgy name) was very loosey-goosey in its pacing and tone. It is what you would expect from a couple of normal fifteen to sixteen-year-olds to produce.

The friend who had approached me to draw a story idea of his wanted the series to start with a couple of in-universe legends and tales non-diegetically explained. It was to be literally a whole page of writing; practically a novel prologue. These served to be the world-building exposition of the universe. I remember he had started reading a manga series that had used the same technique and wanted to replicate it.

At the time, I didn't know any better, but with the grace of hindsight, this is a terrible idea that nobody who aspires to be a storyteller and writer should ever do. But forgive our innocent and naive mid-teen selves.

TONE TORNADO The original's tone was significantly different from Paradigm's. As we were amateurs (and I am still, although I hope and pray that I've improved since then), we did not understand/could not implement the concept of steady tone.

Here was a story about a crippled young boy who decided to save a princess trapped in a tower without any preparation. We introduced the male lead — who then was named Go Benjin (this came from my desire to have a joke where a character commands him to "Go! Benjin!" and he would respond "yeah? what's up?") — as a child whose mother was telling him the tales that I mentioned above.

Soon after, we show the traumatic incident where the bandits murder his mum, and cut off his left arm... and then we skip to a present where his dad became a raging and abusive alcoholic.

He hears a couple of adventurers talk about a trapped princess in the infamous Crimson Tower and decides to foolishly attempt to rescue her.

For some reason, off-page, the adventurers give him the information about the tower and in his attempt to find supplies with non-existent funds, he goes to a strange shop where he touches what would become the Left Arm of the ████████████ and the old, weird, one-demonic-eyed shopkeeper woman looks into his future and decides to give him everything he needs to survive the tower. A fire extinguisher and a huge magnet, all stored in a bag that's bigger on the inside.

That is a sample of what the story was like. Not a word of it is a lie, and as you can see, tonally, it's a little bit (a lot of bits) of a mess.

As I mentioned in the previous post, when my friend went home overseas and gave me the go-ahead to do what I want with the concept, I knew that I had to expand the origins of the main character's power a little bit more.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SOLO DUNGEON That is exactly what the creation of the Solo Dungeon functioned as when I started reworking the original concept in this new context of an "RPG System" story. I realised that I couldn't just have the demon hand randomly be in a weird, random store, out in the open where anyone could see/touch it. It had to be a little bit more deliberate than that series of coincidences.

However, by expanding on how the main character gets the Left Arm, it meant that I had to push back the introduction of the Female Lead (don't worry, that's going to happen in the next arc).

The Solo Dungeon also adds more mystery into the world and allows me to introduce the reader to some of the "game" concepts inherent in "RPG System" stories. This provides more diegetic, natural and palatable worldbuilding, and allows the more expository side of the story to be justified by the System itself.

Slowing down the pace of the character introductions also allows the reader to spend a bit more time with the main character (renamed Ryuu in Paradigm), and allows for more character building.

FIXING THE TONE To fix the flip-flopping of the tone, I decided to focus on more of the serious side of the story. Focusing more on trauma, and serious character moments.

Of course, I still needed some levity, and that's why I wrote the scene with Gorou and Saito in chapter two. Currently, Ryuu is very much a serious character, but once the Female Lead comes into the story and acts as his foil, it will lead to some light-hearted interactions.

That trauma dictates everything Ryuu does, how he does things and how he reacts to things. And to just ignore/skip that was a mistake in the first iteration of the story, one that I wanted to rectify by adding the Solo Dungeon arc as part of the character introduction.

Along with the more serious overall tone of this story arc, I had to replot and completely redo the Crimson Tower storyline. It will still end up achieving the same things. Ryuu will meet the Female Lead (Sophia). But the journey to get that is completely different to fit the new direction and tone. No more slapstick/visual humour with a fire extinguisher and a literally huge magnet.

LOOKING AHEAD As I said in the previous post, a lot of the originally planned storylines in the first iteration (except for the Crimson Tower), are pretty holistically the same. The "RPG System" concept changes quite a lot of the context but changes little of the content.

At this point, I've completely plotted and written the whole Solo Dungeon/Introducing Ryuu arc, and I've started plotting the rest of Volume 1. I'm feeling confident about the state of Volume 1 and future volumes after discussing at length about the story and plot points with my proofreader: Beens.

CONCLUSION I'm sorry that this is another huge post. Obviously, I have a lot to talk about and the development of the story has a lot of history.

Thank you for your time, and next week, I'll talk about why I haven't really put a lot of description to Ryuu. It's a deliberate writing choice as well as the fact that I'm not that good at describing how people look.

KIDdyW25

TLDR -The first version of Paradigm had really bad pacing and tone. -To fix the pacing, I added the Solo Dungeon story arc. -I also decided to focus more on the serious side, to begin with, to fix the tone problem. (There will still be levity and breaks from the serious tone, just not jumping from alcoholic-dad-serious straight to slapstick humour without warning). -I'm confident with the state of Volume 1's story developments.