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almsspring2023 · 1 year

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Reading news and articles

As an avid news reader and global matters enthusiast this ALMS course was a great excuse to increase my daily information consumption from varied foreign sources.

I read a lot of news. Usually I stay on Finnish ones – even if staying domestic is limiting, Finnish news sites are pretty reliable in general and have an expansive enough foreign news section with occasional articles from foreign correspondents. But on occasion I surf around, sometimes for fun and sometimes to find out more about a news event that is relevant at the time. On those occasions I’ll often search for an English language news source from the country of origin.

The style of news is different in different countries and languages, but I do feel like the internet and social media in general have impacted it in a new way. The media companies feel like they have to publish news constantly and to keep it interesting to stay relevant and not be replaced by another site – as people now have the option of perusing any of the news sites in the world. But even without taking all that into account I feel like a lot of American and British news sites tend to be a bit embellishing in their style of presenting the news. Maybe it’s my Finnishness, but I like my news very dry, neutral, and matter-of-factual. Investigative long-form articles are of course a bit different, and those tend to be pretty good across the board.

For daily news, I usually skip BBC and CNN and the like. I do check those out as well sometimes, but my go-to natively English site is usually Reuters. Most of the time though I tend to go for Al-Jazeera International for English language news. It’s a Qatar based news company, very controversial especially in its native Arabic, and this is definitely something to be aware of. But the international version holds a bit different principles I’ve found, as it is under international scrutiny, and is usually pretty reliable and objective in its presentation. The perspective of a non-western-based news source feels very fresh. They do, of course, have journalists originating from the west as well, and they do report on global issues which include a lot of western matters. But they also have a ton of news from other places, especially the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. A lot of the matters that are only briefly touched upon in the western news are more expansive there, and there’s also a lot of articles from the perspective of a native instead of a western journalist. I tend to have times when I read the news from Al-Jazeera often, and times when I tend to only stay on Finnish news sites, but this course definitely pushed me to read their news more again.

After this unnecessarily lengthy start I figured I’d talk a bit about the news I’ve read lately in this blog post. It’s probably ill-advised to post every single link here as I’ve read the news almost every day, but I’ll pick some of the more interesting news topics I came across. I also included some links to my favorite long-form articles I’ve read during this course.

As I told I like to read a lot of global news. But a news event that wasn’t as greatly reported on was the Ohio industrial train accident on February 3. The weird handling of the case by authorities was something that drove me to look into how it was talked of in different sources. The perceived secretiveness drove people to come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories. I ran into it on social media which is why I’m aware of this aspect of it. Reading about it led to interesting tidbits about how during Obama administration there had been regulations of how close to residential districts trains carrying dangerous chemicals could go which were repealed during Trump’s reign but also about the sad barely functional state of the railway network in the United States. Protecting the railway company led to slow reporting and the whole case spiraling a bit out of control in the hands of the general public. Then again, a lot of people were endangered by noxious gases and carcinogens secreted by the various burning chemicals and not being preventatively cautious is also a bit dubious. Not to speak of the environmental impact. Complex situation, in any case, that takes some media literacy to navigate. Fearmongering among the public should always be avoided but the parties responsible should be held accountable for their negligence and the people evacuated if they are in real danger.

Another piece of news that I didn’t see as much in Finnish media were reports on great natural disasters. For example, on Al-Jazeera I saw a lot of reports on the tropical cyclone Freddy tearing through Malawi and other Southern African countries in March. Causing floods and landslides it has injured and killed a lot of people, and a lot of people lost their home or are still missing. The cyclone actually originated from the Indian Ocean in February and traversed all the way to Africa in the exceptionally long five weeks of its existence. It was, in fact, the longest-lasting and highest-ACE-producing (ACE stands for accumulated cyclone energy) ever recorded worldwide according to Wikipedia. You’d think these kinds of record breakers were more widely reported on, but no. I suppose cyclones aren’t something we need to worry about here (at least for now) and for that reason Finnish people can’t really relate to any news about those. The clicks are important!!! (That was sarcasm, just for clarification.)

The process of Finland (and Sweden) joining NATO has made the headlines across the world, though. The new developments are front page news on all the sources from Al-Jazeera to Reuters. All news in English are for the English-speaking world though, naturally, so it’s always a bit western-countries-centric. Of course, the kick-start for the NATO process was the Russian attack on Ukraine. This event does affect the entire world. The war has been the main event in all the news media for over a year now. One would hope Russia would cease its aggressions soon, but it doesn’t seem that way. It’s sad we have to see it every day, but it’s so much more important to not forget or ignore the situation. It is good to keep it in the media and thus the eyes of people for continuing support for the Ukrainian effort. My heart goes out for the Ukrainian people.

An interesting series I’ve followed on Al-Jazeera is called “The Cost of Living”. It’s a series of insights into peoples’ lives now that the cost of living is soaring everywhere. It’s about people living in every corner of the world, from Eastern Europe to Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and the U.S., that are poor and struggling to survive. And the prices just keep climbing up. It’s very eye-opening reading about the different circumstances and factors people have in their lives. The series really brings the glaring inequality in our world and social systems into light, and how some people just can’t catch a break no matter how they try, but also fascinating, charming and informative peeks into lives very different from mine. While it’s depressing to read about the overwhelming hurdles and difficulties, it’s also hopeful, as humans really try even when they barely have anything. But in a just world it wouldn’t be a constant fight for survival for the poor.

Here's a few of my favorite long-form articles:

This was actually a fun discovery I ended up on after a long and tumultuous Google-search the origins of I can’t begin to articulate. It’s how I found out some older news magazines such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times have digitally archived old articles going back decades. This one is about the changing environment of cargo seafaring of the 80’s. It’s an interesting little insight into the increasingly busy and professional life of seamen that also causes some ripple effects such as the disappearance of drunken sailors and the taverns they used to populate from harbors over time.

This is an old article I’ve had on my to-read list for ages and thanks to the course I remembered to read it. It’s about a subject that I got interested in by a documentary I saw at a documentary festival some years ago (Push from 2019, to be specific), and that is city real estate and specifically how giant multinational companies such as Blackstone profit off of it, blindly squashing the locals under. I suppose this is pretty relevant to my studies as well! I finally read through it now, though. It’s a good read and I recommend it to anyone. More people should know about such threats to livable and equal cities. It’s also an often-dismissed economical threat as it is a big cash flow abroad (besides the fact that it hurts poor people the most). To find a way to combat it is to the benefit of everyone and other countries should take notes.

This was an article written by a woman with Indian Dalit heritage. Dalit are the fifth category outside the four-tier Chatur Varna caste system. In India, these castes are very much still socially visible. This particular article approaches the issue by expanding upon how Dalit women used to be forced to become wet nurses for upper caste children. I think it’s a good insight into how things used to be and how it still affects how people act now. It’s cruel how Dalit women have been treated, but also heartwarming how their community comes together now as younger generations become interested in the issues of the past.

That’s a lot of text even though I tried to be brief, but I as I warned in the beginning (yes, it was a warning in disguise) like reading news and articles. I have read these news and articles almost every day, and I calculated I’ve used up around 25 hours for it. I think it’s a good way to learn about the genre of journalistic text. English language is also a great portal into the world. It’s the bridge to a lot of content that would remain unattainable especially for someone from a small language such as Finnish.

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dokifluffs · 4 years

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Can You Hold Me | Miya Atsumu

Pairing: Atsumu X Reader (gender neutral)

Genre: angst to fluffy comforttt, a little of frenemies to lovers? I tried, college

Author’s Note: Y/N was literally how I felt recently and I wanted this, and I still want this so badlyyy

Warnings: anxiety!

The wind blew through the street, making all the branches whip violently through the air as dark clouds rolled through the sky, the rumbling sound of thunder creeping closer and closer

But the rain was already here. It poured down, washing through the streets, leaving nothing dry

What seemed like streams of rain water washed past your feet in the curb as the flooding water flowed down the storm drain as cold pellets of water splashed your face with every step closer

The rain washed over the house, dimming the interior in contrast to the normal sunlight, brightening every room in the house

Atsumu lounged about the old, worn down leather couch of the living room, the only light coming artificially from his phone as it illuminated his face as he scrolled through social media and emails

The sound of the rain coming down on the house as well as the lollipop he moved around his mouth filled his ears, almost making him unable to hear the subtlest knock on the front door

He paused his scrolling for a moment, holding the lollipop still in his cheek as he sat up, the leathery furniture whining beneath his movements

And then he heard it again - the light knocking of the door

He clicked off his phone and tucked the device into his great sweatpants pockets as he peeked out the peephole, opening the door in confusion as he saw you

“What’re ya doin’ here?” He opened the door wider, eyes wide as he looked at you standing in the rain. “Get in here,” he practically pulled you in, curiosity growing more and more as to why you were here in the first place

You stepped into the house, out of the cold rain as he shut the door behind you with a firm bang, the lock clicking in place

“‘Samu ain’t home,” he looked down your body, seeing how wet you were, small puddles of rain water dripping off your coat that did basically did nothing to keep you dry as he saw

“Are ya crazy or something?” He prodded at you, his usual sarcastic and teasing tone in his voice as he leaned on the wall, his muscular arms folded over his chest as he wore a white, oversized, sleeveless tank top, the sides cut low that purposefully showed off his toned abdomen

But as quick as his teasing and joking side appeared, it disappeared seeing as you didn’t make your usual witty comeback within seconds

He didn’t miss the way you trembled, seeing you stand so awkwardly and so out of place as if this was your first time here when it wasn’t, how you practically gasped for air as you breathed unsteadily

“I-I’m sorry for coming s-so unexpectedly,” your voice sounded so fragile as you kept your eyes down, unable to look up

Your heart hammered rapidly in your chest, a slight wheeze to your breathing

Your thoughts raced so fast in your head, it felt like you were standing on the edge of a cliff- so close to falling into the sea of numbness

“Don’t worry ‘bout it…” Atsumu’s voice was different than his usual, semi-mocking tone with you but you couldn’t even tell as the room began to spun just the slightest, your head going fuzzy

Your relationship with Atsumu wasn’t the best or favorable compared to Osamu

Personally, the two of you didn’t even know if you could call each other “friends” since it had been tease after tease after tease ever since the two of you met

If anything, that was what allowed you and Osamu to get so close in the first place: the jokes about Atsumu

“Hey, what’s with you?” He stepped closer as the heel of his slippers dragged over the wooden floor

Without touching you, he leaned down, trying to meet your eyes

He felt his body freeze for a second seeing as they were filled with water yet he couldn’t tell if they were from the rain or if they were your tears but he assumed the latter

“I di- I didn’t want to be home al-alone…” you fiddled with your fingers as you mustered up the courage to lift your head, but your eyes still avoided him. “C-can I stay here, please?”

Atsumu looked down to you, confused as to what he should even say considering he had never seen you like this before - heck, he didn’t even think Osamu even saw you like this

You were usually so quick with responses, able to take jabs at one another

But that part of you was nowhere to be seen in Atsumu’s eyes

“Sure, come with me.” He led you down the hall, pushing a door open to reveal a bedroom, somewhat messy but similar to your own bedroom at home

You stood awkwardly at the door, not wanting to step, opting to look around the unfamiliar bedroom until Atsumu was back in front of you

“Here, you’re soaked.” He handed you a pair of black sweatpants and a darkish red long sleeve, stepping out of the room and back toward the living room

“Are these yours?” Your voice was still quiet when you turned, your body trembling from the cold at this point

“They ain’t ‘Samu’s. He locks his door now since I ‘borrow’ too many things without givin’ ‘em back, as he says,” he plopped back down nonchalantly on the couch where all you could see were his slippers as he played with them on his feet

You took the clothes and went into the bathroom down the hall beside Osamu’s bedroom, his door closed as Atsumu had said

“Yo ‘samu, your friend is here, come get them,” Atsumu sent the text to his twin only for no response

You set the clothes down on the corner of the counter as you stood on the towel, not wanting to get anything else wet

Your undergarment(s) was/were for the most part dry surprisingly

The clothes were big and baggy on you but they were comfy

You took a good look at yourself in the mirror, the guilt you thought you escaped from your house was suddenly back in your head, clear as day

It felt like there was a pit inside of you that you couldn’t get away from or fill was beginning to dwell inside, its stay long overdue now

Your breathing began to quicken as you stood, your eyes slowly casting downward as pins and needles pricked in your hands and feet, tingling them

The feeling of doing something wrong, being here- it all felt wrong and it all felt like your fault

You knees began to grow shaky as you gripped onto the porcelain counter for balance, only to feel that the counter wasn’t cool to the normal touch

Your hands began to shake as your legs grew weaker and weaker until you sunk to the ground as the intensity of the pins and needles grew more and more with every passing second

“What’s takin’ so long?” Atsumu mumbled to himself as he realized how long he had been on his phone, the message to his brother sent almost ten minutes ago by now which was around the time you went to change

He glanced by his open bedroom, of course not seeing you

“You okay?” He knocked on the bathroom door, hearing the subtle rain outside as well as your jagged breathing and muffled whimpers

“Y/N?” He jiggled the doorknob, finding it unlocked. “I’m comin’ in,” he announced, strangely seeing no one when the door opened

That is until he looked down

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he pushed the door open, pushing your wet clothes on the floor to the wall between the door as he knelt down beside you, tears falling from your face as you struggled to breathe

“My hands are stuck, I can’t move my hands,” you cried, your panic continuously growing for the loss of control over your hands

“Hey, shh, don’t cry, you’re gonna be alright. Let’s move ya first, alright?” He enclosed his hands over your wrist as he tried to help you up

It felt like Atsumu was on edge seeing you like this: so broken and vulnerable, a side he never imagined he would ever see from someone who, as “annoying” as he found you, lingered in his mind longer and longer after every interaction he had with you

“I can’t move my legs,” you felt so helpless and useless, your thoughts incoherent as they only raced faster, your heart hammering fast in your chest

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry-“ you folded over yourself, struggling to breathe, wanting this empty pit feeling to be gone, for the holes inside of you to disappear

“Hey, shhh, it’s alright, it ain’t your fault,” he rubbed a small circle over your back, leaning down close to the floor to get on your level. “I’m gonna carry ya, okay?”

He knelt closer to your body as he brought his arms under your body, slowly lifting you into his embrace, leaving the cold tiled floor of the bathroom and straight into his bedroom

He lowered you down onto his bed, the springs creaking under both your combined weights as he sat you in between with his legs

“M-My hands,” you felt so helpless, so vulnerable

All the control you thought you had over yourself was slipping right out of your fingertips as you trembled violently in Atsumu’s arms on his bed

“Shh, I know.. Let’s ground ya, alright?” His words came out slower and gentler, almost sounding exactly like Osamu yet there was still something different about it that you could hear, that you could feel

He watched you carefully with his hands lingering beneath your legs and around your lower back from when he carried you

It felt like you were drowning, like the space around you was closing in, that every bit of your body was screaming at you that you were wrong

“Okay,” he proceeded as you nodded your head once, as your hands trembled violently. “Y/N, take deep breaths,” his voice was low as he spoke calmly. “Breathe in…” he waited until you did the same to the best of your abilities. “Breathe out…” he let out his own breath, again, observing you as you did the same

“Again. In… and out..” He repeated this with you until your breathing improved, slowly getting stronger and stronger

“Tell me three things ya feel right now, Y/N,” he pulled you closer as he enclosed one of his hands over your own, feeling how cold they were to his touch

“I- I can f-feel.. Your war-warmth..” You gasped for air lightly, your breathing still not at its peak but at least the suffocating feeling was dissipating

“Good, what else?”

“The bed… a-and the clothes…”

“Okay, now tell me three things ya hear.”

He sat and spoke, holding you so patiently in his embrace, he couldn’t think or focus on anything or anyone else but you

“Your voice… and- and the rain-“ just as you peeked around him outside to the window, a booming crack of thunder sounded, making you jump as you moved your head back, averting your eyes from the window

“I got ya, you’re okay.” He rubbed his hand in slow, steady circles on your lower back, pulling you impossibly closer

“You can hear my voice and the rain. What’s one more thing you can hear?”

You still felt so uneasy but you slowly began to regain the slightest feeling in your hands as pins and needles tickled your hand

“Your heart…” you breathed out

“Good. You’re doin’ alright,” he looped his arm around your back, taking one of your hand in his own as he began to massage them. “Continue breathin’” he spoke as he did this

Your breathing hitched every now and then as you leaned against his chest, the warm sensation coming back to your hands after soft massages

The sound of rain as the thunder distanced itself filled the silence as the two of you sat in the dimmed room, your occasional sniffles and gasps breaking the silence

“What got ya so anxious?” He asked as he set your hand back down your lap, standing from the bed, grabbing tissues, handing the box to you

You plucked a few, doing your best tot surpress the guilt that began to cumulate once again

“School,” you sighed, tucking your knees closer to your body as you sat on his bed on the plush covers

“Is the L/N Y/N finally falling behind? Or no-“ he dramatically gasped, prodding at you with his usual antics to try to see that smile of yours. “Failing?”

“No,” you sniffled, but your voice was harder than before. It was sort of working

“I’m just- I’m over working myself and I haven’t seen anyone else in days,” your voice cracked

“Why don’t ya take breaks?”

“Cause I don’t let myself. Every time I do, I just feel guilty, and even now, just being here, I feel so guilty, like I’m doing the wrong thing, I’m not being productive enough”

Panic began to settle in as you sat there, all the stress from these few weeks of school, one heavy week after the other and there was no one at home to help you through it

Not even your parents as they were gone to work by the time you woke up, only seeing them around dinner before you went back to your room, continuing more work

Atsumu sat backwards in his desk chair, listening intently before he stood from his seat, plopping himself on the edge of his bed instinctively

Wanting to be closer to you

You kept your red eyes down as the areas around your eyes swelled

But looking closer, he could see the bags under your eyes

You fiddled with your shaky fingers, playing with the edge of the sleeves of his shirt you wore, wishing for more time

Time to relax, to do your work, to eat, enjoy life

But ever since school started up again, it felt like a clear punch to the gut and a black hole developed in your chest, eating away at the things that made you feel okay and stable

You couldn’t enjoy yourself anymore

“Can you hold me, please?” You pinched at the side of the thin fabric tank top he wore, your eyes and demeanor so childlike in his eyes, there was something about the way you were right now, it made him want to protect you

It took him a bit as he processed your words, the way you looked, how broken you were, realizing how fast his heart was beating for you now

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Sure”

The springs inside the mattress creaked once again as he laid down closer to the edge so you had as much room as possible beside him between his body and the wall

The mattress sunk around his body comfortably as you pressed your sleeve covered hands over your eyes, drying your tears, stifling your sniffles

He laid an arm down, his fingertips brushing the cool wall for your head as he watched you lay down slowly as if you were a delicate flower, laying close beside him, nuzzling against the warmth he emanated

The two of you laid awkwardly together

You couldn’t even relax into his body knowing how awkward it really was

“What’s got ya so worked up over?” He asked, breaking the silence as he stared up at the ceiling, waiting for you to fully relax since he could barely feel your body against his, aside from your head

“School…” you pushed out with a sigh

“Seriously?” He asked out of pure curiosity

This took atsumu aback since you were one of those people he knew for being on top of their work, someone in school where others held this image where they could ask you for help with anything

And to now see you so broken over something others were so sure you would thrive

“Are you fallin’ behind or somethin’?” He reached the arm you laid on, rubbing your shoulder as he laid still beside you, his other arm draped over his abdomen

“No, it’s not that, I’m just-“ you stopped to take in a breath, gathering your words. “I’m working myself too hard and I feel so.. lonely,” your voice grew softer as your voice cut out at the end but he heard you clearly

“I’ve been shutting myself in my room for too long and it feels like I can’t enjoy anything without feeling guilty…”

Your tears were hot as they cascaded over the bridge of your nose, past your other eye and into the fabric of Atsumu’s tank top

“Guilty about what? Of course you’re gonna be burned out if you constantly work. Why don’t ya take breaks?”

“That’s the thing,” you sat up, looking down at him, your voice sounded so dejected as it softly bounced around the room

“Whenever I do, I feel like I’m wasting time,” your voice cracked as you sniffled

The words hurt so much as they came out

Even sitting here in the presence of Atsumu, someone who was always like a pleasant thorn in your side, felt wrong

But you needed this so much - to be with someone, to hear their breathing, their voice, even the sound of someone moving around in the kitchen was enough

“I miss people, ‘Tsumu,” you sighed as hot tears cascaded down your dry face, dripping off your chin to his shirt you wore

You didn’t even care, let alone realize that you had called him ‘Tsumu like his brother had

“I want to feel okay again,” you broke as you pressed your palms to your eyes, the pins and needle feeling slowly prickling in the palm of your hands again

You felt the wave after wave of guilt and pathetic-ness crash through your body

It was only school, only about a month in and here you were

You had never felt so broken before, it felt so-

Two arms wrapped around your body, squeezing you close

The rain tapped on the glass as you nuzzled into his embrace not wanting this warmth to disappear, this scent, the sound of this heart beat

You wanted the person who was always at your side, never missing a beat to say something to you

“I hate this feeling, it feels so wrong inside of me,” you turned your face into his chest, holding onto this feeling of someone beside you

“You’re not alone,” his voice low and quiet, rumbling through his chest as he spoke, his hand secure on your upper arm, another stroking down your back before his fingers found its place at the base of your head

“There’re gonna be some heavy weeks and some light weeks, you got me?” He rest his chin on top of your head as he fell back into the mattress, still holding you

You practically laid on top of him as he tangled his leg with yours

“Breaks are good for ya,” he looked down to you, your red, teary eyes as you laid with your cheek pressed to his chest, your hand covered by his sleeve over your mouth and nose as you took deep, steady breaths again

“And if I find out that you’re not takin’ breaks, I’m gonna drag you out your room,” he brought his hand to your cheek, rubbing your tears away so your face was no longer wet

“You’re gonna be alright, I’m gonna make sure of it…” he paused until he realized his words, his true emotions for you beginning to slip out

“Cause I can’t poke fun at a crybaby,” he playfully scoffed

You repeated his words in your head, nodding along slowly as atsumu spoke words of encouragement, asking you about your week, talking through your next assignments

All to calm you back down

As the time passed, your worries slowly decreased in size but the hole was still there

Just smaller

he made sure to repeat hid words, his strokes and grazes on your body never stopping so you didn’t have to feel alone anymore

cause you weren’t

The room grew dimmer and dimmer as it got later and later

With the sound of jingling keys, the front door opened

Osamu tossed his keys to the couch, setting his backpack leaning against the side of it as he slipped out of his shoes, noticing yours was still there

Yet the house was silent

The only thing that could really be heard was the white static of the rain as it came to a steady shower ever since this afternoon

He pulled out his phone, the screen illuminating his face as he sat in the arm, looking back to his messages

“Tsk, I literally gave you one job, ‘ Tsum,” Osamu grumbled to himself noticing how there was no rice being made in the cooker as Osamu had messaged atsumu a few hours ago

The message was delivered, yet unread

With a huff, he pushed himself off of the arm of the couch, walking down the dark hall, approaching the slightly ajar bedroom door of his twin brother

Osamu nudged the door open with his foot but before he could nag his brother, he stood paused at the open door

The light for the streetlamp shined in, illuminating your bodies on the bed as Atsumu slept with one arm draped around your abdomen, legs tangled beneath the sheets that covered the lower halves of your body, using his other arm as his pillow so you could sleep on his pillow

You slept facing his chest, your hand holding onto his shirt

“‘Bout time,” Osamu smirked to himself as he shut the door silently

He had been wondering how long it would take for the two of you to finally get together and now he had his answer

All of high school and just a few months into college

~~~~~ Thanks for reading! Masterlist for more! Please do not repost anywhere else!

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victory-rose · 4 years

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January 6, 2021 (Wednesday)

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

This morning, results from the Georgia senatorial runoff elections showed that Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff had beaten their Republican opponents—both incumbents—by more than the threshold that would require a recount. The Senate is now split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, so the position of majority leader goes to a Democrat. Mitch McConnell, who has bent the government to his will since he took over the position of majority leader in 2007, will be replaced.

With the Democrats in control of both Congress and the Executive Branch, it is reasonable to expect we will see voting rights legislation, which will doom the current-day Republican Party, depending as it has on voter suppression to stay in power.

Trump Republicans and McConnell Republicans had just begun to blame each other for the debacle when Congress began to count the certified electoral votes from the states to establish that Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. The election was not close—Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the Electoral College by 306 to 232—but Trump contends that he won the election in a landslide and “fraud” made Biden the winner.

Trump has never had a case. His campaign filed and either lost or had dismissed 62 out of 63 lawsuits because it could produce no evidence for any of its wild accusations. Nonetheless, radical lawmakers courted Trump’s base by echoing Trump’s charges, then tried to argue that the fact voters no longer trusted the vote was reason to contest the certified votes.

More than 100 members of the House announced they would object to counting the votes of certain states. About 13 senators, led by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), agreed to join them. The move would slow down the count as each chamber would have to debate and take a separate vote on whether to accept the state votes, but the objectors never had anywhere near the votes they needed to make their objections stick.

So Trump turned to pressuring Vice President Mike Pence, who would preside over the counting, to throw out the Biden votes. On Monday, Trump tweeted that “the Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” This would throw the blame for the loss onto Pence, but the vice president has no constitutional power to do any such thing, and this morning he made that clear in a statement. Trump then tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”

It seemed clear that the voting would be heated, but it was also clear that most of the lawmakers opposing the count were posturing to court Trump’s base for future elections. Congress would count Biden’s win.

But Trump had urged his supporters for weeks to descend on Washington, D.C., to stop what he insisted was the stealing of the election. They did so and, this morning, began to congregate near the Capitol, where the counting would take place. As he passed them on the east side of the Capitol, Hawley raised a power fist.

In the middle of the day, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke to the crowd, telling them: “Let’s have trial by combat.” Trump followed, lying that he had won the election and saying “we are going to have to fight much harder.” He warned that Pence had better “come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country.” He warned that Chinese-driven socialists are taking over the country. And he told them to march on Congress to “save our democracy.”

As rioters took Trump at his word, Congress was counting the votes alphabetically by state. When they got to Arizona, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stood up to echo the rhetoric radicals had been using to discredit the certified votes, saying that public distrust in the election—created out of thin air by Republicans—justified an investigation.

Within an hour, a violent mob stormed the Capitol and Cruz, along with the rest of the lawmakers, was rushed to safety (four quick-thinking staffers brought along the electoral ballots, in their ceremonial boxes). As the rioters broke in, police shot and killed one of them: Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran from San Diego, QAnon believer, and staunch Trump supporter. The insurrectionists broke into the Senate chamber, where one was photographed on the dais of the Senate, shirtless and wearing a bull costume that revealed a Ku Klux Klan tattoo on his abdomen. They roamed the Capitol looking for Pence and other lawmakers they considered enemies. Not finding them, they ransacked offices. One rioter photographed himself sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk with his feet on it.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Capitol police provided little obstruction, apparently eager to avoid confrontations that could be used as propaganda on social media. The intruders seemed a little surprised at their success, taking selfies and wandering around like tourists. One stole a lectern.

As the White House, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security all remained silent, President-Elect Joe Biden spoke to cameras urging calm and calling on Trump to tell his supporters to go home. But CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins later reported that she spoke to White House officials who were “genuinely freaked… out” that Trump was “borderline enthusiastic” about the storming of the Capitol because “it meant the certification was being derailed.”

At 4:17, Trump issued his own video, reiterating his false claims that he had been cheated of victory. Only then did he conclude with: “Go home, we love you, you’re very special.” Twitter immediately took the video down. By nighttime Trump’s Twitter feed seemed to blame his enemies for the violence the president had incited (although the rhythm of the words did not sound to me like Trump’s own usual cadence): “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

As the afternoon wore on, police found two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., as well as a truck full of weapons and ammunition, and mobs gathered at statehouses across the country, including in Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, California, and Georgia.

By 5:00, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller issued a statement saying he had conferred with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and had fully activated the D.C. National Guard.

He did not mention the president.

By late evening, Washington, D.C., police chief Robert J. Contee III announced that at least 52 people had been arrested and 14 law enforcement officers injured. A total of four people died, including one who died of a heart attack and one who tased themself.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged people to stay away from Trump to limit their chances of being prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. By midnight, four staffers had resigned, as well as Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, with other, higher level officials also talking about leaving. Even Trump adviser Stephen Miller admitted it was a bad day. Quickly, pro-Trump media began to insist that the attack was a false-flag operation of “Antifa,” despite the selfies and videos posted by known right-wing agitators, and the fact that Trump had invited, incited, and praised them.

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis laid the blame for today’s attack squarely at the feet of Trump himself: “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, and effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

The attempted coup drew condemnation from all but the radical Trump supporters in government. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement “on insurrection at the Capitol,” saying “it is a sickening and heartbreaking sight.” “I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election,” he said, and accused such leaders of enflaming the rioters with lies and false hopes. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) was more direct: “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States.”

Across the country tonight are calls for Trump’s removal through the 25th amendment, impeachment, or resignation. The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have joined the chorus, writing to Pence urging him to invoke the 25th. Angry at Trump’s sabotaging of the Georgia elections in addition to the attack on our democracy, prominent Republicans are rumored to be doing the same.

At 8:00, heavily armed guards escorted the lawmakers back to the Capitol, thoroughly scrubbed by janitors, where the senators and representatives resumed their counting of the certified votes. The events of the afternoon had broken some of the Republicans away from their determination to challenge the votes. Fourteen Republican senators had announced they would object to counting the certified votes from Arizona; in the evening count the number dropped to six: Cruz (R-TX), Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Six senators and more than half of the House Republicans backed an attempt to overthrow our government, in favor of a man caught on tape just four days ago trying to strong-arm a state election official into falsifying the election results.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

#tw #tw politics #us #us politics #tw us politics

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romancandlemagazine · 3 years

Text

An Interview with Al Baker

I first came across Al Baker’s photography whilst looking through an old copy of a magazine called Flux I’d snaffled from Manchester’s world-famous second-hand wonderland, Empire Exchange.

Hidden in the magazine’s pages, between an interview with Mark E Smith and a review of a newly-released sci-fi film called The Matrix, were two black-and-white photos, snapped from the window of an ice-cream van, showing kids lined up for a bit of frozen respite from the summer heat. Reading the fairly minimal bit of text below, it turned out the photos were part of a series called ‘Ice Cream You Scream’.

I’d missed the exhibition by approximately 20 years, but thanks to the high-speed time-machine known as the internet, I managed to track him down. Here’s an interview about his fine photos, his time living in Hulme Crescents and the benefits of carrying cameras in a Kwik Save bag...

Classic ‘start of an interview’ question here, but when did you get into photography? Was there something in particular that set you off?

Like a lot of young people, I knew that I was creative but hadn’t quite found my place. I didn’t know whether I wanted to be a writer or in a band. I used to doodle, copy Picasso’s in biro, so off I went to art college and tried my hand at different things. All it really taught me was that I had neither the patience, technique or talent to become a painter. Photography seemed a much easier way to make images, a more instant result. Of course, the more you get into it you realise that whether you’re any good or not does rely upon patience, technique and talent after all.

Was ‘being a photographer’ something that people did in Manchester in the early 90s? Who did you look up to back then?

Not really. It was very rare to see another person wandering around with a camera back then. Even years later when I began photographing the club scene in Manchester no-one else seemed to be doing the same thing. Not at the night clubs I went to anyway.

Now it’s very different. These days you see people with cameras everywhere. Club nights almost always have a photographer. People are far more image-conscious due to social media. Today most people are busy documenting their own nights out with their phones. Look at footage from any major gig these days and half the room is filming it. Back in the 90s no-one seemed to care about documenting anything like that. You were very unlikely to see the photos that someone might be taking the next day or, in fact, ever. People often used to ask ‘What are you taking photos for?’ with genuine surprise or distain.

In terms of photographers whom I looked up to there are so many! There are great image masters like Cartier-Bresson or Elliott Erwitt. Photographers of war and social upheaval like Don McCullin and Phillip Jones-Griffiths. I liked Alexander Rodchenko and Andre Kertez, how they broke the conventions of their day with wit and invention.

I loved the dark and dirty images of Bill Brandt, and his inspiring nude studies too. I loved the city at night recorded by Brassai. Paris in the 1930s definitely seemed to be the place to be. Diane Arbus, Jane Bown and Shirley Baker. American street photographer Gary Winogrand was a huge influence on me, as was Nick Waplington’s book ‘Living Room’.

I was also quite lucky to be living in Manchester at that time. Daniel Meadows and Martin Parr had both attended Manchester Polytechnic. Denis Thorpe had worked for the Guardian in Manchester. I saw Kevin Cummins iconic Joy Division images, Ian Tilton documenting The Stone Roses. Both were regularly in among the inky pages of the NME.

I also saw an exhibition of Clement Cooper’s photographs of the Robin Hood pub in Moss Side, which was another big influence. I was also very lucky in that my very first photography tutor was Mark Warner, who produced very beautiful images, did a lot of work for Factory Records. He shot The Durutti Column’s (1989) Vini Reilly album sleeve. He was probably the first person who ever really encouraged me.

I really like that series of photos you took from inside an ice-cream van in the late 90s. What was the story behind that?

The initial idea for that project came from my friend Steve Hillman, who is an actor. At the time he was ‘between jobs’, which is an actor’s euphemism for being unemployed, so he was working an ice-cream round to help to pay the rent. I was at his flat one night, thinking aloud about where I might go next with my camera. I’d spent quite a long time following graffiti artists work around Hulme, and had my first exhibition based around that. But it only seemed to lead to offers of more work with graffiti artists, and I wanted to do something else.

I’d done a 2nd exhibition based around portraits of my friends in Hulme. I’d flirted with some one-day projects, like Belle Vue dog track, Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. Anyway, while I was talking, not really knowing what I was going to do next, Steve simply stated ‘You should come out on the ice-cream round with me. No-one ever comes to the van without a smile on their face.’ And it just struck me as a beautiful & simple idea. So, one day we just set off. 4 or 5 rolls of film and all the free ice-cream I could eat, which I discovered wasn’t very much!

What was the logistical side of those photos? Were they taken from the same van?

They were all shot on the same day, the same van, all around Salford. It was good fun, but actually very hard work. Trying to constantly find new angles, different framing and working on a hot August day in such a small confined space. By the end of the day I felt that I had enough strong images for my next exhibition. They were much jollier images than ones I’d made before. As a result, because it had more universal appeal, I got quite a lot of good publicity out of it, and Walls gave us hundreds of free Magnum ice-creams to give away on the opening night!

These days I could think of more than a few reasons why you probably shouldn’t drive around Salford photographing other people’s children without permission haha (in fact, I’m surprised that I wasn’t hung from the nearest lamppost!) but I was much younger and far more naive back then. Besides, that was something that I’d learned from living in Hulme. You don’t ask for permission. Someone will only say ‘No’. Just crack on and do it anyway.

You also documented the last years of the Hulme Crescents. A lot of people talk about that time and place in Manchester, even now—but what was the reality of it? What was a normal weekend there like?

It was quite unlike anywhere that I’d ever lived before. It looked like a fascist dystopian nightmare, only one peopled by Rastas and anarchists. Bleak concrete interconnecting walkways. No through roads whatsoever. A fortress feel to the place. The entire estate was earmarked for demolition before I arrived. Everyone else seemed to be busy moving out. But I was already spending a lot of time there, post-Hacienda, parties, friends, lost weekends.

There were lots of young people living there. Families had mainly moved out as the heating didn’t work properly, flats were cold & damp, often infested with cockroaches. There were traces of old Irish families, the Windrush generation, interwoven with punks and drop-outs.

There was a cultural & artistic flowering among the ruins. A Certain Ratio, Dub Sex, A Guy Called Gerald, Edward Barton, Ian Brown, Dave Haslam, Mick Hucknall, Lemn Sissay, all lived there at one time. It was the original home of Factory, where all the post-punk bands played. In turn that led to Factory Records, New Order, and the Hacienda. The PSV club later hosted raves and notorious Jungle nights. It was a good time to be young.

You lived there as well as shooting it. Do you think it’s important to be a part of the thing you’re photographing, rather than just an outsider with a camera?

I don’t know that it’s important to be a part of the thing you’re photographing, ‘embedded’ is what the war photographers call it, but you definitely capture different images. Certain things that might have been shocking to an outsider were commonplace, normal & every day to me. Boring even. On the other hand, I was much less likely to be robbed walking around. That meant I could take my camera places that other people couldn’t, or maybe shouldn’t!

I used to wear my camera beneath my coat so it couldn’t be seen, and I carried my film and lenses in a Kwik Save shopping bag so as not to attract unwanted attention. I got into the habit of handing that bag over the bar at the pubs I went in. I would collect it the next day if I could remember where I’d been the night before. Bless you, saintly barmaids of old Hulme.

If you look at my images of Hulme people they’re usually reacting to me and not the camera. Either that or they’re not reacting at all. They’re ignoring the fact that I’m taking a picture. That’s what gives them that ‘fly-on-the-wall’ feeling.

This is something that I put to greater effect later when I was photographing in night clubs, skulking stage side or hiding in a DJ booth. When DJs & MCs see you week in week out at the club doing the same thing they stop posing for the camera and just get used to you being there. You become part of the furniture. And when people stop being conscious of the camera, when they ignore that you’re even present, you can step in much closer. Put simply, you get better pictures. They’re much less performative and far more honest. It’s not often people can say they like it when they’re being ignored, but for photographers it’s a gift.

Do you think somewhere the Crescents could exist now, or was it just a case of the perfect accidental recipe for that kind of creative, DIY activity?

No, I don’t think anywhere like Hulme will ever happen again. I think the city council learned that lesson a long time ago. It was a dystopian utopia for us, but it grew out of failure. When I 1st went to university they warned us never to set foot there. I said, ‘But what if you live there already?’ and there was an embarrassed silence. They really hadn’t expected a poor boy from Hulme to be in the room. Now they own half of it and it’s all student Halls of Residence.

The city centre has been regenerated, redeveloped & gentrified. We can’t afford to live there anymore, and people like me are pushed out. Hulme was a failed social housing experiment, an eyesore & an embarrassment to the people who had commissioned it. People like me moved in & we made it our own. They’re never going to allow anything like that to happen again. Every quaint old fashioned pub that closes becomes a block of flats. The footprint is too valuable to property developers. One day all we will have will be faded photographs to bear witness to a very different way of living.

Was it through the Crescents that you started shooting graffiti? 

When I first arrived in Hulme I’d just spent 3 years living with mates in a couple of houses elsewhere in the city. It suddenly struck me that that part of my life was over and I had very few photographs of that time. I’d been too busy learning photography, taking the kind of photos that every art student takes: Broken windows; abandoned buildings, and bits of burnt wood. I vowed I wouldn’t do that again. I began documenting the life that was around me.

I started with the architecture, as it was quite unlike any other place I’d ever seen. It had a desperate, faded beauty even then. The whole estate had been condemned for demolition before I arrived, but the city council had given up on the place long before that.

I started to notice graffiti pieces going up, seeing the same names repeated. It was obvious that there was a small group of writers trying out their styles on a large canvas for the 1st time. Wanting to claim this derelict space as their own Hall Of Fame. I started to document them as they sprang up. Then I noted that context was crucial, and so I began to include the soon-to-be-derelict buildings in the images also. The shapes & colours of the graffiti looked positively psychedelic beside the drab monochrome of the setting.

With your graffiti shots, you show a lot more than just the pieces. Was it an intentional thing to show the act behind it a bit?

Because it was Hulme and no-one cared, these guys weren’t working in the dead of night like most graffiti writers do in the train yards and what-have-you. They were working during the day, right out in the open. So, documenting their work, it wasn’t long before I ran into Kelzo. He really didn’t trust me at first, but I kept coming back. So, I got to know them. They started to let me know where they were going to be painting next.

In 1995 Kelzo organised the 1st SMEAR JAM event (named after a young aspiring writer who used to come down to Hulme to learn, and had died suddenly from a nut allergy). That was such good fun that another event arrived the following year, another & another. Graf writers came from London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield, and as far afield as Spain. The local community came out to support and, as usual, it turned into a party that lasted all weekend.

I got into the habit of taking 2 cameras. One loaded with B&W film to capture the event itself, and another with colour transparency to document the finished artwork.

Graffiti… hip-hop… kids getting ice cream… I suppose there’s a few different subjects there, but was there an underlying thing or theme you wanted to show with your photos? Maybe getting a bit philosophical, but they’re all quite free acts—is it about enjoying what’s there?

It was more about documenting the life I saw around me. Moving to Hulme was what led to me capturing graffiti, and graffiti led to hip-hop events. Once Hulme was demolished I moved my camera into the city centre and began photographing club nights. House and hip-hop turned into Drum’n’Bass, and then dubstep. Residents and warm-up acts have now become headliners in their own right. Manchester has always been a great city for music, and it kept me busy throughout the naughty Noughties. I’ve pretty much retired from all of that now. I’d had enough after over 15 years of it. I no longer feel compelled to document something as ephemeral as a club night anymore when half of the audience are doing it themselves anyway. Then coronavirus came & properly killed it all off. I don’t know what it’s going to be like now going forward, but it’ll be someone else’s turn to document whatever that is.

What do you think makes a good photograph? 

You need to have a good eye. You need to notice & be aware of the world around you. You always see an image before you create one. You don’t require expensive equipment. Mine never was. And you don’t need to be trained. It’s one of those areas where you really can educate yourself. A certain amount of technique and technical understanding goes a long way but, again, you can pick those things up as you go along.

There are different kinds of photography, of course, but for me it was always about capturing a moment. The Decisive Moment, as Cartier-Bresson so eloquently put it. It’s something that the camera has over the canvas. For me the camera has always been a time machine. Like an evocative love song on the radio, it can transport you back immediately to a time & place long gone. It also acts as a witness for those people who were not there. Images tell stories. And we all like to hear and tell stories.

A couple of years ago I was invited to talk at the University of Lancaster for a symposium on documentary photography, which is a tradition that I had always considered my photographs sat within. But oddly, as I gave my slide-show presentation, images that I have seen and shown many times before, and thought I knew very well, I suddenly saw in a brand-new light. I could see myself in every image. Almost like a self-portrait from which I was absent but my own shadow cast large. I realised that I haven’t been documenting anything other than my own life. 25 year old images suddenly had something new to say, something new to tell me.

Do you still take photos today? What kind of things are you into shooting these days?

I don’t really do a lot of photography these days. I teach and facilitate as part of my job now. I still do the odd event but night club photography is a much younger man’s game. I really don’t have the levels of commitment, energy or enthusiasm I once did. I feel like I’ve taken enough images. If I never took another photograph ever again, that’s OK. Maybe, perhaps, I’ll get into a different kind of image making in my twilight years … but for now I’m trying to reassess the images I made 25 years ago. People are far more interested in them now than they ever were at the time. Now they have become documents of a time and place which has gone. The graffiti and the walls that they were written on have disappeared. Many of those night clubs have closed. Time moves on. The images and the memories are all that is left.

Over all those years, how has the art of photography changed for you?

Back when I started taking photographs, where I lived in Hulme, the kind of music that I was into, the magic of a night club moment, there were very few people I knew of who were doing the same thing. Now I am aware of others who were. Almost everyone is their own photographer now. Mobile phones & social media have given a platform for anyone to make & share images of their individual lives, whether it be their friends & families, holidays, public events or more private & intimate moments. Anyone can document their own lives now, so I no longer feel that I have to. I do still love photography, it’s still my favourite form of art, but I don’t feel compelled to capture it all anymore.

I suppose I’ve pestered you with questions for a while now. Have you got any wise words to wind this up with?

If you want to become a photographer you must learn your craft. Keep doing it, and you will get better. But you must remember to always be honest. Make honest images. Listen to the voice of your own integrity. Don’t worry too much if no-one sees any value in what you do. If you’re any good people will eventually see it. It may take years, it did for me, but images of the ordinary & everyday will one day become historical, meaningful & extraordinary.

We live in a world today mediated by images, a Society of the Spectacle, but we still need photographers: People who have a good eye, an innate feel for the decisive moment; what to point the camera at and when to press the shutter. The images that you make today will be the memories of the future.

See more of Al’s photos here.

#Photography #Interview #Al Baker #Manchester #Hulme Crescents

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daybreak-dragon · 4 years

Text

January 6, 2021

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

He did not mention the president.

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

-Heather Cox Richardson

American historian and Professor of History at Boston College

#us politics #washington dc #capitol insurrection #heather cox richardson #trump #if you aren't angry you should be #i'm absolutely furious #politics

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blackfemmecharacterdependency · 4 years

Text

3. Upon Further Research

Simon was fine. That’s what he kept having to tell himself. It wasn’t like he truly wanted to date Grace St. Catherine. He couldn’t even if he wanted to. He had far too many habits and personal ways that made others uncomfortable or annoyed.

The last woman he attempted to date didn’t like the fact that Samantha had her own room and that she was only allowed to enter it if Samantha had approached her to be friends. If Samantha was uncomfortable, she would mewl about it and he didn’t want that type of upset over someone who didn’t have to live with her adjusting to something she didn’t like.

The last man he dated had an irrational hatred of the fact that Simon purchased multiple types of milk for different times of the day or different kinds of enjoyment. He never thought he would see someone have such a reaction to the fact that he wanted whole milk for cereal and to warm up at the end of the night before bed, low fat milk for milkshakes and accompanying a grilled cheese or a cheese and egg sandwich, and skim milk for drink mixes and casual throughout the day enjoyment. “Just buy one kind of milk and stick with it!” Truth be told, sometimes, Simon also bought 2% milk whenever he wasn’t feeling that great and nut milk for cooking. He just… couldn’t explain that it made a difference to his consumption and couldn’t understand why it made someone else so frustrated.

But, it reminded him that he had unique quirks that people found basically unacceptable. Grace seemed like a cool person, but she probably would be irritated to open his fridge and see 6 different types of milk too. Or to have Samantha refuse to acknowledge her and therefore not be able to enter Sam’s Sanctuary… or even just be annoyed that there was a room with cat trees, a little playground, cat toys, waterer, feeder, etc, and a cat that spent most of her time in the windowsill instead of acknowledging all of the luxury that had been collected for her.

Then again, it was unfair to assume what people might not like about you or your life. He couldn’t know for sure. All that he knew was that she wasn’t interested in going out with him.

That should have been the end of it, but he was very curious about that comment that her coworker made about “another hot date.” Did she have a lot of hot dates? What exactly constitutes a hot date?

Going through her photos didn’t help with that. If she regularly dated, she certainly didn’t like anyone enough to put them on her social media. Though, she did see in one of her comments she said something about VDay “my hands will be full. Worry ‘bout yourself," she’d told somebody who asked if she was trying to get “wifed up for VDay,” as a response to a photo of her in a stunning red dress, captioned with “Beneficiary Gathering #GraceLoveTheKids” She didn’t have a location, so he searched “beneficiary gathering” and came up with SO MANY things. He sighed and went back to her hashtag, wondering if it was common for her.

She used it pretty frequently! There were photos of her at a children’s hospital, photos of numerous kids, some at some center, some at parks and stuff… She really didn’t put a lot of information into her captions. Most people loved to tell you location and event and every single detail. The fact that she didn’t made her more appealing to Simon. She liked her space. He liked his too. He could relate… but also… he needed to know more.

It’s not a violation of her privacy if I don’t use anything against her. I'm just intrigued...

A few days after the date debacle, Simon found his way back into the coffee shop, this time with Samantha with him. Grace noticed him come in and sit down, but she was at the cash register, helping a customer out. When she finished, she waved to him, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was petting his cat and scrolling something. She let out a disappointed sigh. Of course, Simon had noticed her. Every single detail, including that sigh. That made him a little hopeful that perhaps she would come over and engage. Maybe meet Samantha, even. She didn’t, though. She worked as usual and didn't seem to even glance his way again.

Grace went across the street for lunch. The little deli had a small selection, but they had something that she couldn’t get anywhere else in town - chicken taco pinwheels - and she was hooked on them. She’d order a dozen of them with two pickle spears, homemade potato chips with cracked pepper and sea salt, and ginger ale with cherries. It was one of the highlights of her day to get that very same lunch any time that she worked. When she was leaving today, she almost ran into Simon. She gasped and hugged her lunch to herself. “Mr. Laurent. Sorry. I’m usually pretty aware of my surroundings. You didn’t sneak up on me, did you?” she teased and winked an eye at him.

“You know… People usually call me Simon,” he said, smiling.

“People call you?” she asked. He blushed and laughed. “Of course I’m kidding. It’s just easier to call you that because of the policy and stuff.”

“The policy?”

“At the bookstore. Normally, they don’t care if you get familiar with regulars and they share their names, but since it’s you, we’re not supposed to bother you and were told that we were to refer to you as Mr. Laurent. It’s part of orientation. I remember very vividly saying, “Well excuse me, Mr. Laurent!” She exaggerated the Frenchness of his name and he chuckled at it, then stopped and looked serious. “Because, I’m kind of a goofball. Didn’t mean anything by it..”

“No, no. It’s fine. I just think it’s weird that they do that. I don’t mind being spoken to like a normal person.” That wasn’t completely true. He hated being interrupted if he was working or doing something with a hobby…

“Okay… Simon, then,” she said with a smile. He could only give her one back in return. “And who is our little pristine friend?” She asked. Samantha was on a leash, and standing, staring, almost as though she were waiting to be introduced to this strange new person.

“This is Samantha.”

Grace stooped down and Simon tensed up. She smiled and said, “Hi, Samantha. I’m Grace. I work at your daddy’s favorite bookstore. I’ve seen a lot of photos of you, and might I say, you are radiant! Exuding opulence! You own EVERYTHING!” Samantha stepped forward and rubbed herself against Grace’s knee. “Oh, you are so adorable, but I can’t pet you right now! I’m holding stuff.” Grace stood up, looking sad as Samantha continued to rub against her shoes until Simon gathered her up.

“She never does that. Sorry..”

“No, she’s majestic. Maybe Daddy will bring you around to see me again some time, sweetie!” She blew kisses at Samantha, nodded her head to Simon, called out, “See you tomorrow, Chief!” (to which the deli owner waved).

Simon came up to the counter and noticed the man staring at Samantha. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought her inside of here. “I’m going to have whatever she just ordered, to go, please?” He waited out of the way, just in case having an animal in their eating space might bother someone.

Her deli order was better than her coffee order, that was for sure, though that wasn’t hard to beat. He shivered thinking about it. He ate in his car and pulled up to a trash bin to discard things. Samantha was sleeping very comfortably in her safety carrier.

Grace got off of work and danced out of the door, holding her perfume laced coffee. She looked up at the sky for a moment, checked her phone. He looked up too. It might rain. She didn’t seem too bothered, merely curious. She walked through the neighborhood, the wind was blowing her sweater and she was drinking her coffee, speaking to various people as she passed them. How did she DO that? Simon barely liked speaking to the people that he knew. She couldn’t have possibly known most of these people, though maybe she saw them everyday, but that meant nothing. Was she cordial and warm all of the time?

She stopped at a florist and he watched through the window as she seemed to know the guy in the flower shop too. They chatted for a while until someone came from the back with what looked like a package. It was one of those big yellow mailing envelopes and the woman who gave it to her walked her over, away from the counter to speak with her before handing it to her and hugging her. As Grace came out, she said, “Thanks! See you next time…” The guy behind the counter rushed to hand her a flower and she hugged him too. Simon… didn’t like it, even though it seemed perfectly friendly and she seemed like one of those people who probably hugged her friends and stuff. Maybe. He didn’t know enough yet. Hadn’t collected enough information.

She slipped her package into her bag, handed her presumably empty cup to the guy and he went inside and threw it away for her as she left. Simon lost her once she went into the train station. But, he felt like he collected enough information for the day. He wondered if this was daily, or if she deviated what she did after work. He continued driving past the station and headed home to work on all of his notes and more research.

One thing that he noted was that aside from her social media, he couldn’t find much about Grace St. Catherine. And, that wasn’t even much to go by, because aside from everything being private, what she shared was still limited.

But. The guy at the florist shop followed her. Simon checked his page. Heath Farmer *152 Simon didn't think much of it whenever he read the generic name, just scrolled through photos. None of them had Grace in them, but she was in his comments a lot and vice versa. It led to nothing.

He clicked on someone else's page who was speaking with them in the comments. Jalicia Barrett * 227 "Huh." He went to find others that he saw speaking in similar circles and several had no numbers there, but there were quite a few others that did have a number listed, and some were kids or teenagers. Maybe something to do with some of Grace's child benefits? He couldn't find what tied them together… But then he saw someone's page and Grace was actually in photos ON it. "Xander Helstrom *747…"

His profile pic was a younger photo of himself with pink hair, wearing a chin guard on his face and a bandana on his arm.

But, all of his current photos indicated he was older now, probably early 20s or late teens. He and Grace seemed close. There was a photo of him with her pet turtle and sliding through the set, it was the day that she bought it. So… they were most likely really good friends, or something else… Simon found himself looking at every interaction between them that he could find. They spoke like they had known each other a long time and from what he could see, this was the only person who had photos of her in her space. Maybe they were in something complicated? He searched Xander's other accounts. His Tweets were mostly about child welfare and social justice. His Facebook seemed similar, but also had memes and photos of himself and memorials for children. One caught his attention. The drawing looked similar to Grace's art style and it was of a little girl with the caption, "In honor of Hazel. She was never a number and she changed us for the better."

There were several people who commented. "To Hazel, never a number." But, then Simon saw Grace's comment.

"Hazel taught me not to worry and not to rush. She helped give me empathy and a reason to fight. I never would have made it without her. To Hazel, never a number. Always a friend."

Simon looked at the time on his phone. "Crap." It was 2 am.

He finished compiling all of his notes and went to bed. He was very curious what those numbers meant, but he couldn't dwell on it at the moment. He'd have to sleep well into the day to make up for staying up tonight. Tomorrow, he'd have to leave his car behind. He needed to know what happened when Grace got on the train.

04. Date Night

#AU Infinity Train #Infinity Train #Nesha Fanfiction #Infinity Train Fanfiction #fics #People Watching

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clexa--warrior · 3 years

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There’s a new group of villains on Fear The Walking Dead.

Well not entirely new. These are the same people who’ve been scrawling “The end is the beginning” everywhere. The same people with the submarine who are looking for Morgan who took the Magical Key from the bounty hunter way back at the beginning of Season 6.

I admit, I’m just kind of tired at this point. Tired of all the bullshit and bad writing and the tedious characters and the predictable stories. Tired of the parade of mediocre villains. Bone weary. And yet here I am, still reviewing this damn show.

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane, shall we?

TV’s Greatest Villains

At the beginning of Season 5, after the Most Horrible Villain Of Any Walking Dead Show was taken care of at long last, we got a new group of bad guys who . . . just wanted their warehouse back? And directions to an oil refinery?

Truly, these were now The Most Horrible Villains Of Any Walking Dead Show Ever.

Logan (played by a woefully underutilized Matt Frewer) was the head honcho of these bad apples and he fooled Morgan’s group into flying a plane they didn’t know how to fly far, far away to help some strangers in another part of the vast continent of Texas. Then he . . . moved back into his warehouse! The bastard.

After half a season of trying to fix the plane so they could fly back across the Pacific Ocean (which we all know separates the two halves of Texas) Logan tries to pretend like he’s a decent guy and fools the Morganites into showing him where the oil refinery is. Dastardly Logan! Then, just when Morgan and Logan decide that their names are similar enough that they might as well be friends, the Rangers show up!

They show up on horses with rifles and expertly kill Logan and every single member of his crew but for reasons (reasons!) they spare Morgan and the Morganites. It turns out that Logan was working for the evil witch queen of Lawton, Virginia—Truly The Most Horrible Villain Of Any Walking Dead Show Ever (Seriously). She is so evil that she kills the people working for her, who helped lead her to the oil refinery, and spared some people she didn’t know who weren’t loyal to her at all for reasons.

Yes, you heard me. Reasons! You don’t get to know the reasons. That’s not how scripts work. Scripts are supposed to be confusing, opaque and riddled with plot holes and inexplicable character choices.

Anyways, Virginia and the Rangers with their horses and their cowboy hats and their idyllic Texas aesthetic become the new Big Bads sometime in the second half of Season 5. Morgan and Friends make a PSA documentary to make sure anyone wandering from gas station to gas station is able to know who to call (GHOSTBUSTERS!) if they’re in trouble (which, like, yeah it’s a zombie apocalypse) because Morgan really wants to make up for all the bad things he’s done and so do all his friends.

Virginia is very mean, though, and so she makes a PSA, too, and that pisses Morgan off so bad that he takes his people far, far away to an abandoned Western-themed park-town filled with zombies and they make another PSA on the way that’s even more amazing and magical but a dude dies making it, marking the Best Walking Dead Death of All Time in the process. Seriously a dude decides it’s so important to film a selfie shot for the PSA that he dies when a bridge that’s collapsing surprisingly collapses! And then everyone is very sad!

Then, uh, after a spell at the new town that has no resources or water because it’s a theme park town instead of a real town, Wes and Alicia paint some stuff and June and John Dorie get married and Daniel plays some guitar and sings and Frank Dillane is like “Holy shit I’m so glad I bailed on this show” and then Virginia comes because Morgan calls her because instead of walking somewhere else they decide they should call the Evil Witch Queen Of Lawton so she can rescue them by splitting them all up (even Skidmark the cat!) and then the season ends with Morgan getting swarmed by zombies but don’t worry he’s still alive and they’ll tell us as much in a trailer that comes out before Season 6 because AMC is criminally addicted to spoiling their own shows for no reason on social media and . . . and . . .

Somewhere between Season 5’s finale and Season 6’s premiere AMC and showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss must have put their heads together with Scott Gimple and decided that the Rangers and Virginia were actually super dull villains, just like the last few villains (I skipped the whole Vultures plot because they were actually so stupid they put the stadium under siege but still let Madison and co. go out scavenging because somehow they never read the Siege 101 manual or something).

Anyways, for reasons that must be obvious by now, somebody must have pointed out that Virginia is not a very good villain after all, partly because she’s just not that convincing but mostly because she made a goddamn copycat PSA and someone thought that was actually a cool story because there is no God and life’s not fair and this is also why we can’t have nice things, son.

And they must have realized that the Rangers are a like a cartoon version of what might happen in Texas after a zombie outbreak (just compare this clown show to the far more realistic Vatos gang from Season 1 of The Walking Dead). All these realizations must have felt strangely repetitive after what I can only imagine were similar revelations about Martha, the Vultures and Logan. So many revelations, so little useful insight or meaningful changes!

The Believers

In any case, they had June kill Virginia after a weird series of events that also saw one of the only good characters left on this godforsaken show get killed by yet another brat, and came up with The Believers, a group almost entirely inspired by The Monkees. These totally realistic folk live underground where they grow crops and embalm zombies and talk about how you need to be able to “see” when you look at this one creepy zombie they have entwined in vines in their basement. They’re led by a guy named Teddy played by John Glover who must really be down on his luck to take a role on this ridiculous show, though he’s actually creepy as a villain so that’s something. But no, I’m not going to feel any hope or optimism because fool me once shame on me, fool me again and George W. Bush, man. He has something to say about this.

Wes and Alicia and Al and Luciana all find their way to these people. I honestly can’t remember how they found them, but they show up to scout things out. They get interviewed like we’re back in Alexandria. Things go bad when Wes runs into his long-lost brother and ends up killing him after a scuffle over a gun. Wes’s brother has had a little too much of that Kool-Aid if you know what I mean. Wes isn’t too shook up about it. Remember when the entire brothers Dixon conflict between Merle and Daryl played out over the course of one single episode of The Walking Dead? Yeah, me neither.

Luciana says stuff because she’s still on this show for some reason. She says stuff a few times and people say stuff back to her. Al checks an embalmed zombie with a helmet on thinking it might be her lover girl from Season 5, because you totally embalm zombies with their helmets still on, but it’s not. Boy I was really worried there for a second!

Alicia sets the embalmed zombies on fire so they can get away and the others escape but Alicia doesn’t and then she has to have a whole entire conversation with Teddy and it’s pretty damn awkward when she tells him “You wanna kill me? That’s not gonna happen.”

Teddy’s like “whoa damn I was going to kill you but now that’s not going to happen crap” and Alicia’s like “So there, Teddy. You jerk face with your crazy-man beard.”

He knows something about Madison somehow. And he wants to “save you, Alicia” but “I don’t need saving” she tells him and then he talks in more cryptic circles. Teddy’s been looking for someone like Alicia for a long, long time and she’s like “listen old man at least I got some lines this episode!” which, to be fair, is true.

THE END. CREDITS ROLL.

Verdict

Yes, I am clearly mocking just about everything about this show. But I didn’t come up with this crap. I didn’t come up with Martha and the ethanol, or the plane and the beer-balloon, or Totally Pointless Logan, or Ginny and her boring ass cowboys. Maybe Teddy will be a better villain than all these. To be fair, he is a better villain already in a lot of ways. Then again, the bar set by the Vultures, Martha, Logan and Virginia is not very high. It’s so low, it’s less a bar and more of a speed bump.

So while Teddy is far more intriguing than the rest, and it’s even possible that Glover’s brief appearance here in this episode was better than the sum of all the other villains in this show since Season 4, I imagine they’ll find a way to screw him up also and then, as soon as he’s worn out his welcome, replace him with some other group of bad guys. The Shouters, a group of post-apocalyptic crazy people who wear zombie faces and shout at each other really loud, led by a bald woman named Alphapha.

Here’s the thing.

We need more than just Good Guys vs Bad Guys. There are other struggles to work with in fiction. Friction between the group that causes realistic, compelling internal strife. Survival against the elements and just the struggle of surviving in a world laid low by a pandemic, maybe without creature comforts like walkie-goddamn-talkies. Or perhaps a compelling story about a survivalist group at odds with a Native American tribe over water rights, whose intertwined family histories are marred by murder and revenge, where our heroes find themselves torn between both sides of a bloody fight they know very little about.

Yeah, what a notion.

Like I said at the very top of this review, I’m tired. I’m tired of Fear The Walking Dead. I’m tired of the same crap happening over and over again, another absurd bad guys who ultimately make the same fatal choice: They mess with Morgan Jones. NOBODY messes with Morgan Jones.

Maybe Morgan can make a PSA about how mean and delusional Teddy is and then Teddy can make a PSA about how The End Is The Beginning, Actually, Morgan You Twit. It’s just all nonsense at this point and it has been since the end of Season 3. We aren’t dealing with actual stories about real people. We’re watching a cartoon with two-dimensional cartoon villains and a bunch of uninteresting flat characters. Except a cartoon would be more fun.

What is the point of this show now? It’s like a goofier version of The Walking Dead, which also suffers from too many villain groups at this point and too many characters but not this level of crappy writing (usually).

Let me predict the plot for the remainder of Season 6 and likely part of Season 7 if AMC is actually going to let the current showrunners continue driving this show into the ground:

Teddy wants the key from Morgan so he can use it to activate the nuclear bombs on the nuclear sub that’s in the middle of Texas (because Texas, you recall, is separated by the Pacific Ocean which has dried up because ZOMBIES and the sub is there now). He wants to nuke the planet because he wants to save everyone because they’re weak probably. From this nuclear wasteland, new life will spring eternal and his cult—well protected in their underground parking garage with their cute little gardens—will be the new rulers of the world. Or at least of Texas which—we know because of geography class—accounts for approximately 57% of Earth’s land mass.

Look, I’m sorry. I’m really truly sorry but if this show continues to be a joke I don’t know why we should take it seriously. A mocking review if only fitting for a show that continues to make a mockery of itself. AMC has the resources and the wherewithal to produce a better zombie show and quite frankly audiences deserve one. There was nothing fundamentally awful about “The Holding” so I’m honestly not fully sure why I’m in such a snarky mind frame, but there was nothing very good about, either, and it’s just plain as day to me that they’re already falling into the same traps they keep falling into over and over and over again. Meet the new bad guy, same as the old bad guy. It’s all so predictable.

Because they don’t really learn from their mistakes, or because even if they do they just don’t know how to course correct. That’s the problem when you just don’t have much talent but nobody steps in and says “enough is enough!”

Because seriously, my droogies, enough is enough already.

#ftwd #erik kain #i just read the reviews #i may watch this one because reasons and adc

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feministfocus · 4 years

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How Entertainment Media has Fueled the “Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome”, and Its Implications.

by Netra Shetty

He was every single stereotype of South Asians encapsulated into one seemingly-innocent character.

If you asked me at 9 years old if there was anything wrong with the depiction of Baljeet in the popular cartoon TV Show Phineas & Ferb, I would have looked at you with confusion.

But now, I look back on episodes of the smart but socially inept Baljeet being bullied for his “nerdy” ways and complete physical weakness, watching as the racial stereotypes of my own culture are used purely for comedic relief. Unfortunately, these token ethnic characters like Baljeet rarely stay within the realms of their movie or TV show worlds. Instead the stereotypes they perpetuate are stamped into the minds of every single child watching as Ravi from Jessie speaks in an overly excessive Indian accent and struggles in nearly every sports-related activity, and the Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt’s Dong choppily pieces together his English and flounders in social situations.

“Contemporary ideologies, including the post-9/11 rhetoric in America and the global West, have contributed to a racialization of … Asians that portray them in popular media as foreigners and ‘others.’ These dynamics are further intersected by overt racialized perceptions that use obvious differences in skin color, religion, and ethnicity as markers of difference..”

Born and raised in the United States, I have been reminded on more than one occasion that my brown skin has been a mark to others that I am apparently “not from here”. A white woman coming up to me in the park asked me how long I have been in America. Her slow enunciation of words and the frequency in which she mentioned how much she loved people from Delhi (even though I neither mentioned or am from Delhi) made it clear that she assumed I was not American. Even now, on the popular social media app Tiktok, I’ve seen the comment sections of Indian-American teenagers flooded with jokes about Ravi and Baljeet, most often about how these brown boys have “made it” if they are with white girls. The hundreds of comments mentioning stereotypes like “tech support” make it clear that we are not looked at as more than the racial stereotypes forced upon us. To be an ethnic minority in America means constantly dealing with the racial baggage of being immediately stereotyped by the initial part of your hyphenated identity and to be a “perpetual foreigner” in your own country.

“Comments and behaviors that subtly alienate ethnic minorities may perpetuate the commonly held belief (implicit and explicit) that Americanness is Whiteness.” Studies have shown that the micro aggressions that exclude ethnic minorities have led to negative psychological implications. Individuals feeling identity conflict have been found to have “more depressive symptoms, and have lower life satisfaction.” Along with these often hidden psychological consequences, the creation of perpetual foreigners has caused serious and harmful problems, especially during the pandemic. COVID-19 racism and xenophobia has fueled violence and discrimination against Asian immigrants and people from Asian descent. People have been told to “go back to China” or are being called the “China virus” even though they aren’t even of Chinese descent. Attacks in Minnesota, Texas, California, and more have been targeted towards Asians or people from East Asian descent, most of whom are Americans and have lived in America their entire lives.

The creation of ethnic out groups and perpetual foreigners has deepened racial divisions in America. Our first steps to combating these problems is to address the media that fuels harmful stereotyping.

References:

Huynh, Que-Lam, et al. “PERPETUAL FOREIGNER IN ONE'S OWN LAND: POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR IDENTITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092701/#R7.

Contributors, Et. “View: One of the Main Reasons Why Indian-Americans Are Subjected to Racial Abuse in US.” The Economic Times, Economic Times, 7 May 2017, economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/nris-in-news/indian-americans-in-us-find-themselves-in-an-increasingly-strange-situation/articleshow/58554714.cms.

Fatima, Sahar. “Let's Talk About Disney's Portrayal of Indians.” Arts + Culture, 9 Dec. 2017, culture.affinitymagazine.us/lets-talk-about-disneys-portrayal-of-indians/.

“Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide.” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide#.

“(PDF) The Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner: Stereotypes of Asian Americans.” ResearchGate, www.researchgate.net/publication/233912258_The_model_minority_and_perpetual_foreigner_Stereotypes_of_Asian_Americans.

Nguyen, Viet Thanh, and The Sympathizer. “How the Model Minority Myth of Asian Americans Hurts Us All.” Time, Time, 26 June 2020, time.com/5859206/anti-asian-racism-america/.

Armenta BE;Lee RM;Pituc ST;Jung KR;Park IJK;Soto JA;Kim SY;Schwartz SJ; “Where Are You from? A Validation of the Foreigner Objectification Scale and the Psychological Correlates of Foreigner Objectification among Asian Americans and Latinos.” Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23647327/.

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dmvresearchvenkat · 4 years

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Study about Suicide rate and its dependencies

-Venkatesh Vasudevan

Hello Everyone,

Good day!!!

On going through the code book of Gapminder , the suicide rate which is alarmingly increasing now-a -days caught my attention.

Although the study was conducted back in 2010 , I suspect there are some variables which will directly or indirectly cast its shadow on the suicide rate.

Initially looking through the dataset , the suicide rate was dependent on several variables but I did circle out some of the variables with the help on literature ( References quoted below ) that predominantly affects the suicide rate.

The variables which might have a impact on the suicide rate according to the data available and my interests are listed down:

a) Income per person

b) Alc consumption

c) Employ rate

d) Urban Rate

e)Internet use Rate

The above are the data sets

Research Question: The impacts of Incomeperperson ,Alc consumption, Employ Rate , Urban rate , Internet use rate on Suicide Rates

A) Income per person,(Un)Employment rate vs Suicide rate

During the global crisis of 2008 , a study(1) was conducted to understand the impact of the economic crisis on the mental health of the subjects which might lead to high suicide rate.This study was extensively conducted in European Union , however the results were the same for USA.

The correlation coefficient of the suicide rate was linked to all the economicindices except GDP per capita income for men and however the women suicide rate was only linked to unemployment rate.

We will also have to keep in mind the GDP was used to weigh the country’s income and growth and thus cannot be used as a proxy to weigh the standard of living of the country’s pouplation.However it is used extensively on the assumption that the growth of GDP of the country will have equal impact on the total population which is certainly not the case.

To the opposed understanding of causual relationship between the unemployment rate and suicide rate , there was no deterministic relationship between them ( Results of regression analysis ). Astonishingly , the suicide rate rose higher before the unemployment rate. We can propose a hypotheses stating that the people out of fear of being unemployed , resulting in stress ,tend to suicide before their unemployment actually happens . But this hypotheses, on the contradictory suggest that the employed people take their lives far before than the unemployed ones.

Another findings suggest that the strong correlation was found on GDP per capita with suicide rates although the regression analysis did not suggest the same for EU. When the same study was conducted outside EU independently for several countries , some were found to have a strong correlation of 0.80. Likewise , some had weak correaltion and the pattern was very difficult to chalk down.

Results:

No deterministic relationship ( Causal ) between the economic indices , employment rate was found.

B) Urban Rate Vs Suicide Rate:

On the general note ,a study (2) consisting of 21 169 suicides in Denmark , found that the urbanisation increases the suicide rate ( except China & USA ) , however it is greatly dependent upon the other factors namely personal marital state , age , sex and economic stability. Living in the urbanised areas , reduces the suicidal rate in men however it increases the rate among woman particularly in between age 24-35 years or greater than 65 years. The autopsy of the suicide cases reveal that the cases reported in the urban areas are majorly due to psychiatric disorders while the rural one’s predominantly had physical disorders.

The study (3) conducted divided the timer period between ( 1997-2007 ) as early period and ( 2008-2015 ) as later period in the US.Increase in suicide rates was found in all 6 urbanisation areas where the study was conducted.But to the contrary the less urbanised areas had higher rate than the more urbanised one and the gap between them were increasing with time.During the study period , the suicide rate of the males were four times higher than the females.Studies help to understand that the access to mental health care was limited in less urbanised areas and the increased social isolation might have resulted in the increasing rate.

Results:

The result of the study is that different type of strategies are to be deployed in different areas as the prevailing problems are different for different regions.

C)Alcohol consumption Vs Suicide Rate:

The heavy alcohol consumption is often realted with psychatric problems including distress , seperation , emotional instability. The alcohol consumption might also lead to ease the stress and thus preventing the subject from purusing suicidal attempts. This is the base and the underlying logic that made me to select the alcohol consumption as one of the variables to explain the suicidal rate.

Studies ( 4) show the traditionally the suicide is common among elderly men but recently the younger males are prone to the highest risk in both developed and developing countries. The link between the alcohol consumption and the suicide is known as Kraepelin. Although the consumption of alcohol might ease the stress , often they are the precursor of depression and they tend to amplify the effect of depression. Heavy alcohol conusmers have 5 fold risk of attempted suicide than the social drinkers. In western countries women are more likely to call for help by personal support on comparison with men , however it is limited to western countries and a strong relation is yet to be found.

Another aspect of suicide is because of the alcohol dependence.About 40 % of all patients seeking treatment of alcohol dependence report atleast one suicide attempt. Kolves et al. in a psychological autopsy study reported that 68% of males and 29% of females who committed suicide met the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence.

Results:

There is no casual relationsip between the alcohol consumption and suicide rate. However the suicides are closely realted with the alcohol consumption

D) Internet Use rate Vs Suicide Rate:

It is evident that the social media has an influence on the suicidal rate (Study 5 ). A systematic web search on prosuicide search resulted in 373 Web site hits, 31% were suicide neutral, 29% were antisuicide, and 11% were prosuicide. This shows that the information available to suicide on the internet is accessible on a finger’s touch. Multiple regression analysis was conducted that resulted in positive relationship though statistically not significant for men ( P=.001 ) and significant for women ( P=.074).

Cyber bullying and cyber harrassment has also led to increase in the suicide rate. Hinduja and Patchin19 reported results from a survey given to approximately 2000 middle school children that indicated that victims of cyberbullying were almost 2 times as likely to attempt suicide than those who were not. The first documented use of the Internet to form a suicide pact was reported in Japan in 2000. It has now become a more common form of suicide in Japan, where the suicide rate increased from 34 suicides in 2003 to 91 suicides in 2005. Moreover, people with mental illness and alcohol and substance abuse problems, who may already be at high risk for suicide, may be more likely than others to use the Internet to discuss and learn about suicide methods.

Result:

However due to legal and practical complicatons a strong relationship between them is not yet found.

All the independent variables which might have an impact on the suicide rates have been well defined to the extent possible and I will report the result of my research in the same blog.

Stay Tuned!!!!

Bibliography

1) Relationship of suicide rates to economic variables in Europe: 2000–2011- Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis, Wolfram Kawohl et.al

2) Suicide risk in relation to level of urbanicity—a population-based linkage study- International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 34, Issue 4, August 2005, Pages 846–852

3) Trends in Suicide by Level of Urbanization — United States, 1999–2015 Scott R. Kegler, PhD1; Deborah M. Stone, ScD2; Kristin M. Holland, PhD2

4) Suicidal Behavior and Alcohol Abuse- Maurizio Pompili,1,2,*Gianluca Serafini, et al

5) Social Media and Suicide: A Public Health Perspective - David D. Luxton, PhD,Jennifer D. June, et al

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creepingsharia · 4 years

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“Clean Our Toilets and Take Our Germs to Your Church!” Muslim Persecution of Christians, March 2020

by Raymond Ibrahim

The following are some of the abuses Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of March, 2020, thematically arranged:

The Kidnap, Rape, and Forced Conversion of Christians

Pakistan: A group of motorcycle-riding Muslim men kidnapped and gang raped two 12-year-old Christian boys. The children were playing video games at a local arcade when a gang of Muslims approached and lured them to check out and eventually sit on their motorcycles. Once the boys were atop the vehicles, the men rode off to a remote field where “the young boys were beaten till they submitted to the demands of the Muslim men, at which point the 12 year olds were raped,” notes the March 23 report:

After the ordeal Suneel and Harry [the two boys] were threatened not to say anything by the gang as they rode off … leaving the boys behind naked. Suneel and Harry then tearfully and in pain got dressed and walked for 3 hours till home. Suneel managed to stagger home at 3:30 am early the following morning and was received by his father Naeem (40 yrs) who had not slept all night. Naeem and other family members were praying for Suneel and were shocked when they found him crying and trembling with fear.

Last reported and according to his mother:

Suneel is not eating properly. He cries all the time and has said he does not want to go to a local school. Other boys have been teasing him and it has created a dark sorrow within him. We cannot take him to church as they are all closed [due to COVID-19] and he is slowly entering a deep depression.

Separately, on March 1, two Muslim men abducted a 13-year-old Christian girl, forcibly converted her to embrace Islam, and married her off to a Muslim. Saima Javid was kidnapped while fetching water from a pump near her home. “I was deeply depressed and thought of committing suicide when I lost my daughter,” her mother said while discussing this incident. “Young Christian girls are not safe in this country. Muslims consider them as their property or slaves and therefore humiliate them as they wish.” After confirming that “our daughters are often sexually harassed by influential Muslims,” the girl’s father added that “The police did not listen to us for five days. However, when news of the abduction went viral on social media, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR # 137/20) against the abductors on March 5.” As a result, on March 26, the 13-year-old Christian girl appeared in court where she “testified that she had been abducted and was forced to convert to Islam and forced to marry [a Muslim man].” The judge ordered her returned to her family. “This order marks a rare victory for Pakistani Christians affected by the issue of abduction, forced conversion, and forced marriage,” the report correctly observes.

Nigeria: On March 12, the Hausa Christian Foundation of Nigeria announced that a young girl named Sadiya Amos had managed to escape from her Muslim kidnappers. The girl was originally abducted in early January; she was subsequently forcibly converted to Islam and married off to one of her kidnappers. Sadiya was thereafter kept in a small room under guard. One day, the guards fell asleep without locking her room. She managed to sneak out and flee back to her family’s home—only to find her father experiencing his own problems for trying to rescue her: a Sharia court was accusing him of trying to prevent his daughter from embracing Islam—and had even produced a forged certificate to that effect—in an effort to assist her abductors. The statement adds that,

The case of abducting Christian Girls and their forceful conversion to Islam as well as forcing them into marriage has become a water shed issue in Northern Nigeria…. The moment these girls are abducted, they are subjected to all manners of evil just to take control of their minds. Once they took hold of their minds, these girls will only do everything they are asked to do. While the parents fight for the release of their daughters, these abductors continue to sexually abuse these girls, hypnotized [subliminally influencing?] their food, drinks, clothes, where they sleep, perpetually evoke evil spirit upon them to the point that these girls completely lost their minds and never think of going back to their home. Usually, the moment a Christian girl is abducted they ensure that they get married to her within one or two weeks. She will be sexually abused even before the marriage to make the parents give up on her when she becomes pregnant.

Egypt: An unknown woman posing as a Coptic nun, along with an unknown man posing as her monk assistant, were exposed as frauds who were using their religious garb to target and lure young and trusting Christian girls. The issue was apparently serious enough for the Coptic pope himself to make a statement disavowing the two charlatans. On social media, the “nun,” known only as Theodora, had a photo shopped picture of herself with the pope. It is unclear what the exact scam was—whether it was for later extortion or identifying potential kidnapping victims. Elaborate schemes to target Christian girls in Egypt are not uncommon.

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: According to a March 8 report titled, “Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians,”

Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central [Muhammadu Buhari-led] government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the “Highway Bandits” 150-200.

According to numerous Christian leaders in Nigeria, the reason formerly simple Fulani herdsmen have managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the “professional” terrorists of Boku Haram is because one of their fellow tribesmen, the president of the nation, Muhammadu Buhari, is enabling their jihad.

Kenya: On March 11, Muslims connected with the Islamic terror group, Al Shabaab (“the Youth”) killed two more Christians and abducted a third in yet another roadside ambush. In the first instance, a passenger bus was stopped and stormed by the terrorists, who proceeded to order all the passengers out. “They abducted the only Christian on the bus, the mechanic, and allowed the others to continue with their journey,” a police officer reported. The second attack occurred an hour later in the same region. Two medical transporters—both Christians—delivering much needed medicine to Mandera, which has suffered much from ongoing Al Shabaab violence, were stopped in their truck; they were “killed by shooting and their bodies dumped on the roadside,” an official confirmed. In the previous three months, at least 13 other Christians were killed under nearly identical circumstances in Kenya—yanked out of ambushed vehicles and slaughtered on being identified as Christian.

Pakistan: More details concerning the February 28 torture and murder of Saleem Masih, a Christian farm laborer who dared use water from the same well used by Muslims emerged in a March 3 report: When his tormentors first gathered around and starting beating and kicking him, “they called him chura (filthy Christian cleaner), while making him lick their boots telling him kaffir (non-Muslim) dogs deserve such treatment.” They then dragged him by the hair and chained him in a barn where the torture began in earnest: they “rolled a thick iron rod across the whole of Saleem’s body which by now had many fractures and internal injuries. Saleem was tortured and spat at for at least 4 hours until he went unconscious.” The report concludes by quoting Juliet Chowdhry, a Pakistani human rights activist in the UK:

A senseless violent attack has ended the life of a young Christian man, left a mother and father heart-broken and community beleaguered. The men who undertook the attack are so blinded by hate they are showing no evidence of remorse. Overcoming such hate will take a miracle as it is ingrained into every aspect of culture and society in Pakistan and is reinforced via a biased national curriculum. It will take decades to remove such entrenched intolerance and I fear I will not see it in my lifetime…. Nations such as the UK naively continue to send foreign aid to Pakistan despite the existing social malaise – this naive attitude contributes to Pak-Government apathy and perpetuates the status quo.

The Jihad on Churches

Norway: A Muslim migrant set fire to two churches. According to the March 21 report, the man, aged 28, from a Middle Eastern or African nation, torched the churches in “revenge” for some unclear but supposedly “blasphemous” treatment of the Koran at the hands of a Norwegian. He was imprisoned for four weeks, which the court said was “not disproportionate,” as “it is a serious crime.”

United Kingdom: A 23-year-old man who was initially only described as a “Norwegian”—but who was later revealed as a Muslim born to Somali refugees—was arrested for plotting to bomb St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. “Based on the material we seized and reviewed, we believe that he may be suspected of having participated in the terror organization Islamic State,” police added. He is also accused of managing to destroy evidence in a still-in-progress terrorism case in Denmark. According to the March 23 report, his co-conspirator and fellow arrestee, Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a British woman born as Michelle Ramsden who converted to Islam in 2007, admitted to the planned terror attack: “the goal was to kill as many people as possible in a suicide bomb attack on St. Paul.” Earlier, in an encrypted chat with an undercover police officer, Safiyya had said that she would “rather die young and get to Jannah (paradise) the quickest way possible… I always know I wanted to do something big… killing one kafir (infidel) is not enough for me.” She had further expressed a desire to target a church on a Christmas or Easter day, when they would be packed, to kill more people.

Sudan: Unknown militants burned down two churches in the Muslim majority nation. According to a March 18 report from Dabanga, an independent Sudanese news outlet,

[V]iolence against Christian communities has continued, despite the changes that have occurred in Sudan over the last year… [T]he first attack took place … in Omdurman on Saturday February 29. A church building of the Sudanese Church of Christ was torched. It is not known who the perpetrators are. The second incident occurred on March 9, when militants set fire to the Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Bout, El Tadamon local in Blue Nile state. The church was destroyed completely, including the furniture and books within it.

Counting these latest, five churches have been torched in Sudan since the start of 2020.

Indonesia: Around mid-March, authorities closed down another church in response to ongoing protests by the Islamic Defenders Alliance, a Muslim advocacy group—even though the building had been used as a church between 2017 and 2020. Initially, local Muslims had complained that it had a visible cross, which the congregation quickly removed. However, that was not enough, and the Islamic Defenders Alliance issued a statement saying, “We, from the alliance, demand that the church be demolished as soon as possible.” Since Muslims first began protesting the existence of the church, its pastor has tried to find a new place to build a new church, but has been unsuccessful, as local residents reject having a church near them. “Many Christians across Indonesia face religious persecution that is embedded in the culture and legal system,” said another March report: “Christianity, both Protestants and Catholics, make up 10% of the population. That’s close to 26 million people that are being affected by this discrimination.”

Pakistan: A Muslim man beat “to near death” his Christian servant for threatening to quit unless permitted to attend church. Shaan Masih, 21, had never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and be a household servant to the wealthy and influential Muslim but was pressured into it after his father died. Shaan “was working from 7am to 7pm every day and suffered a lot of bullying at work, was pushed and beaten,” the report explains. “He was constantly called a Chura (dirty Christian cleaner) and soon cleaning toilets became a regular part of his work despite his protestations” that his original contract stipulated that he would not clean toilets. Only he, the report adds, “was required to clean the toilets and none of the Muslim servants,” who “were also treated with more respect.” On March 13, after Shaan asked his employer’s wife if he could leave a little early so he could attend evening mass at church, she exclaimed, “You Chura are always going to those dirty churches and bringing your germs into our home! Before you go, clean our toilets and take our germs to your church so that they can suffer instead.” Shaan refused: “Being before God is a sacred thing and I want to be comfortable with God and would not feel good, if I clean your toilets before I go.” When she threatened to fire him, he said he quit and went straight to church; when he returned home, his Muslim boss called and asked him to come and collect his things and get paid. Shaan “was really pleased about this as he had waited so long for the payment and was beginning to feel pressure from a large number of growing debts.” According to the report, when he arrived,

Kashif [the boss] and other servants were waiting for Shaan with a hot iron rod and leather belt. Shaan was resoundly [sic] beaten, spat at and tortured for at least 20 minutes by the family members of Kashif and his servants… While he was beaten Kashif berated Shaan for leaving his place of work without express permission from him: ‘You are a Chura and should not leave a Muslim masters premises until told to. Your nerve to stand up to Muslims is a blasphemy and I will kill you for this!’ Kashif ran inside his home to grab a gun and shoot Shaan who was by now terrified and in fear for his life.

A servant helped Shaan to escape during the commotion; he “sped towards his home bleeding along the route.” When a relative opened the door, “he collapsed on the floor” and his mother “began screaming in a panic…. Shaan fell unconscious for several hours from the pain of his injuries.” “The attitude of both the police and medical staff was really disappointing,” Shaan later said in an interview, regarding how both had ignored his pleas for justice and help. “Despite severe burns on my body and immense pain, they treated me like an animal.” According to his mother, “He used my son like a donkey, never paid him and then enacted such violence for no reason. I fear he can kill my son anytime he wants because of his influence and power.”

Turkey: The desecration of Christian cemeteries, many of which are attached to churches, is on the rise. According to a March 14 report, 20 of 72 gravestones in the Ortaköy Christian Cemetery in Ankara were found destroyed. “These attacks against cemeteries are making the Christian community across Turkey feel incredibly sad and desperate,” an Ankara-based pastor observed: “Nobody can watch over the graves of their loved ones like a guard.” In one instance, the desecraters broke a cross off a recently deceased women’s grave in a church cemetery; days earlier, her burial service was interrupted by cries of “Allahu Akbar!” “My son lies here,” another Christian woman explained: “He died last year. He was 17-years-old. Children his age came here and destroyed his grave. What type of conscience can accept this?… If my son were alive, he would not do such a thing. They have carried out similar attacks before, and no one was caught.” An “environment of hate” for Christians is behind this upsurge, said one local journalist:

But this hateful environment did not emerge out of nowhere. The seeds of this hatred are spread, beginning at primary schools, through books printed by the Ministry of National Education portraying Christians as enemies and traitors. The indoctrination continues through newspapers and television channels in line with state policies. And of course, the sermons at mosques and talk at coffee houses further stir up this hatred.

Pakistan: A March 1 report offered more details on the February 2 shooting and axe attack on Christians for daring to build a church on their land. According to the wife of Azeem Masih (32), who was shot in the head and has lost the ability to speak and other functions:

We were all asleep at 11 pm, as Azeem is a tailor and had to work from early in the morning. Suddenly we heard an evil-sounding cacophony of shouts. Some of the local community including Azeem went out of the house to see what was happening – other[s] were dragged out by a local Muslim gang that had gathered around the Christian properties. The men seemed intent to harm all the Christians; they were threatening to rape all the Christian women and beat and kill all other Christians. I was shuddering with fear. I got on my knees and prayed and then heard gunshots. After this people could be heard running and screaming. Someone told me Azeem had been shot, I ran to him and at first I thought he was dead. I sat their weeping until the police arrived and took us to hospital. I am heartbroken. Azeem and I have only recently had a child and he has hardly got to know Tabeel. Now I do not know if he will ever be able to speak to Tabeel again. I am not used to seeing Azeem like this; he has become so dependent on others, whereas he was always the first to help them. Azeem was a healthy and committed husband and father—a man of God who wanted to strengthen the church with a new building. I cannot understand why these men have acted so violently, as they were not provoked by us—we have tried to live peaceful lives.

COVID-19 Discrimination in Pakistan

Christians and other “infidels” were discriminated against and denied the same aid given to Muslims in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a March 30 report:

A Karachi NGO has denied food aid to poor Hindus and Christians, who like Muslims are suffering from coronavirus…. The Saylani Welfare International Trust has been operating in the Korangi area since 1999, handing out aid and meals to homeless people and seasonal workers. Two days ago, the welfare organisation refused to give ration cards to non-Muslims, saying that only Muslims are entitled to them. The reason for this is that Zakat, Islamic alms giving (one of Islam’s five pillars), is reserved for Muslims. The Christian man said he begged for food to no avail. Farooq Masih, a 54-year-old Christian in Korangi, said that last Saturday, Abid Qadri, a member of Saylani Welfare, with other NGO members, handed out food cards in his area. But, when they got to Christian homes, they just moved on.

“A few days back there was an announcement made through a mosque’s loud speaker in the Sher-Shah neighborhood of Lahore inviting citizens to collect the government’s announced foodstuffs,” a pastor explained concerning another similar incident. “When Christians reached the distribution point and presented their national identity cards, they were asked by staffers to get out of the line claiming the foodstuff was only for Muslim citizens.” This same pastor received numerous phone calls from his flock, all of whom experienced the same denial. “Christians often face religious hatred and discrimination,” a Christian woman, aged 50, said of her experience. “However, we never thought of this biased behavior by the majority people at this critical time of COVID-19.”

Raymond Ibrahim, author of the recent book, Sword and Scimitar, Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic. Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1) To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2) To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or second-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Previous Reports at link below.

#Islam #Jihad #Sharia #Muslim #Legal #Immigration #Persecution #History #News #Media #Politics

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theliberaltony · 5 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Graphics by Ella Koeze

In a matter of days, the Supreme Court may dramatically change the census. The court is slated to rule on whether the Trump administration can add a question about citizenship to the 2020 form. When the case was argued back in April, many court-watchers predicted that the court’s five conservative justices were ready to side with the administration. The proposal sounds innocuous enough, but social scientists and civil rights advocates worry it will deter vulnerable populations — particularly undocumented people, other immigrants and their families — from answering the census. If that happens, many people from these groups will be at risk of not being counted and huge swaths of American life will be affected. The results of the count determine everything from where grocery stores are placed to how congressional representatives are distributed.

There are few things we care more about around here than political apportionment (although, if we’re being honest, we care an awful lot about groceries, too). So we went in search of researchers who had estimated the potential effect of the citizenship question. We found several, none of whom agreed on just how big an impact this would have. But they were all on the same page about one thing — if the Supreme Court rules that the new question can be included, it could alter our political future.

Every 10 years, the updated census numbers are used to determine how many U.S. House members each state will get. So figuring out who might be missed and where can tell us a lot about who stands to gain political representation and who stands to lose. Forecasting that amounts to sophisticated guesswork, since the question hasn’t yet been field-tested by the Census Bureau — a decision that many experts regard as a scientific cardinal sin. But that hasn’t stopped researchers from trying to fill the void.

I talked to three political scientists who all took a stab at quantifying how much each state’s population would change if some of the people who seem most likely to be affected by the question — immigrants, noncitizens and Latinos — simply went uncounted. All three used different assumptions about how people will feel when they’re confronted with the questionnaire — a kind of statistical choose-your-own-adventure game. You can see five estimates calculated by those researchers in the chart below:

These estimates make different assumptions about who will be missed by the census, which led to fairly substantial differences in how evenly the undercount was distributed and which states were most affected. Estimates for population loss in California alone ranged from almost 700,000 to over 1.8 million. Notably, the Census Bureau’s own estimate (Scenario 1) was by far the most conservative. Let’s take a closer look:

Scenarios 1 through 3 come from George Washington University’s Christopher Warshaw,1 a political scientist who ran two analyses based at least in part on the Census Bureau’s estimate of the question’s effect, and a third based on his own survey experiment.2

Scenario 4 comes from Bryce Dietrich, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Dietrich worked with the Washington Post to estimate the impact that an undercount of about 6 million Hispanics would have on state populations.

Scenario 5 comes from political scientist Eric McGhee of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, who estimated what would happen if the census was poorly conducted — a distinct possibility, given that the Census Bureau is perpetually strapped for cash — and 10 percent of households that include undocumented immigrants were missed.

The question for many political observers, of course, is what all of this will mean for what happens after the census, when the states are assigned seats in the House of Representatives based on their new population count. Some clear winners and losers emerge here.

California would lose seats in all five undercount scenarios

Estimates of how an undercount would affect the apportionment of U.S. Representatives after the 2020 census, for states where any impact was estimated in five scenarios from researchers

Difference in number of seats due to undercount undercount scenario AL AZ CA FL MN MT OH TX 1. 5.8% of noncitizens undercounted 0 0 -1 0 0 +1 0 0 2. 5.8% of noncitizens and Hispanics undercounted +1 0 -1 0 0 +1 0 -1 3. 5.9% of Hispanics and 11.3% of foreign-born non-Latinos undercounted +1 0 -1 -1 +1 +1 0 -1 4. Poorly conducted census and 10% of households with undocumented immigrants undercounted 0 -1 -1 0 +1 +1 +1 -1 5. 6 million Hispanics undercounted +1 -1 -2 0 +1 +1 +1 -1

1. Based on Census Bureau estimates from Aug. 2018.

2. Partially based on Census Bureau estimates from Aug. 2018.

3. Based on a survey experiment that tested how much less likely respondents were to say they would return the census form if the citizenship question was included.

4. Partially based on the undercount in the 1990 census.

5. Based on a survey experiment that tested how much less likely respondents were to respond to individual questions on the form if the citizenship question was included.

2020 population projections were derived by the researchers and vary from scenario to scenario.

Sources: Christopher Warshaw, Bryce Dietrich and The Washington Post, Public policy institute of California

California loses at least one seat in all five scenarios, while Montana stands to gain one. Ohio, Minnesota and Alabama are all potential winners, depending on the scenario, while Texas, Arizona and Florida come out on the losing side in at least one estimate. “This is a fairly significant impact, especially when you consider that some of these states would stand to gain seats if not for this question,” Warshaw said.

We can’t really tell you which scenario is most likely to play out (assuming the court opens the door to any of them). It all hinges on which groups are ultimately missed in the final count and by how much. The actual effect of the citizenship question could be much larger than any of these estimates, if other groups refuse to respond as well. Or it could be smaller, if the Census Bureau is able to track down some of the people who don’t respond to the first questionnaire they send out. Most of these estimates are based on the idea that every person who doesn’t initially respond to the census, or who skips a question or two, won’t be counted. In reality, at least some of those people will almost certainly be included in the count because armies of census workers will fan out across the country next year to find people who didn’t respond to the initial request for information.

As the lawsuits over the citizenship question unfolded, Census Bureau officials argued that they will be able to respond to some of the fears swirling around the question through community outreach and follow-up. In an email, a Census Bureau spokesperson told me that in response to concerns about an undercount, the agency is “developing a robust communications campaign and working with communities across the country to communicate that responding to the census is safe, easy, and important.” The agency is also about to begin a test of the question that it says will help determine how many census workers are needed to follow up with people who don’t respond at first. Rob Santos, a researcher at the nonpartisan Urban Institute and the co-author of a recent report on miscounts and the census, said that these efforts could make a difference, but added that the intense publicity surrounding the citizenship question has already created an “atmosphere of fear and mistrust” in immigrant, refugee and Latino communities.

Nancy Mathiowetz, an expert on survey research, was also skeptical that the census’s follow-up efforts could fully mitigate the effect of the question. She pointed out that Latino citizens and undocumented people are already likely to be undercounted, and it’s not clear if the Census Bureau has any new tricks up its sleeve for reaching them. Some of the impact may also depend on the type of undercount that occurs. Failing to fill out part of the questionnaire, she said, might be less of a problem than leaving household members off an otherwise complete form, since the Census Bureau has said that it will try to fill in certain types of missing information using statistical techniques and administrative records, but it has no way of knowing if family members have simply been omitted. Several experts noted that conjecturing about a respondent’s race and ethnicity could create other kinds of data accuracy problems that could resurface when congressional and state legislative districts are drawn, but the issue for state-level apportionments is simply whether everyone is included in the total count — not whether all the information on each person’s form is correct.

At the end of the day, all of this sparring is a poor substitute for the rigorous, lengthy testing process that a new census question would usually undergo. If the citizenship question ends up on the questionnaire, another test of sorts will unfold in real time, with the entire American population as its subjects. And it will have concrete consequences for who gets political representation. To many social scientists and civil rights advocates, this seems like a needlessly dangerous experiment, and one that runs counter to the cautious, scientific spirit of the federal government’s largest statistical agency. But the Supreme Court may allow it to happen anyway — and if it does, we will soon learn more about just how resilient one of our nation’s oldest civic traditions really is.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux

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captainnickjohn-blog · 5 years

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Hold My Beer. I Need a Career.

Forgive me, I'm a sucker for stupid rhymes.

I normally really don't enjoy bringing attention to myself, but for my first blog post, I wanted to, well....bring attention to myself.

Specifically, I wanted to write about my interest in beer. You might be wondering, "yea, who isn't interest in a beer right now?", or just straight up, "how is that even an interest?"

Well, over the last couple years I've spent time reading books, watching videos, visiting places, speaking with experts, all about beer. It’s something I've appreciated learning more about and I wanted to discuss how this interest has brought me to where I am today. This is an exercise in reflection for me. For you, there are some insights about me as well as some decent photos of beer!

I'll be examining how my beer interest came about and how I threw myself into it. I'll also talk about how I hoped to take this interest and turn it into something of a career. Finally, some thoughts about where my head is now and how my goals may have altered, but not eliminated something that I really enjoy.

Also just FYI, it's been really f**king hot outside. Let this post be a reminder to cool off with a delicious, cold pint. *insert wink face*

Beer Beginnings

It was September of 2016, I was a line cook at Jack Astor’s and I just got moved up to becoming a server. Moving from a line cook position to serving was a lot to take in all at once: learning the steps of good service, carrying three full plates at a time (took a lot of trial and error, and hungry irritated guests), and learning all of the different specialty drinks and beers.

At that time, Jack Astor's had over 20 draught taps and already I was wondering, "how on Earth am I going to remember all of these?" As luck would have it, the restaurant decided to add an additional 20 taps to their repertoire, which made me double down with, "Seriously, how on EARTH am I going to remember all of these??"

Memorizing the names of all the beers was one thing, but retaining every beer's style, flavour profile, aroma, and attitude (I’m kidding, that's not a thing) were daunting to me. My solution: I had to learn about beer!

Back then, I was only drinking classics like Canadian or Budweiser; if it were hot enough I'd even go for a Kronenbourg Blanc or a Shock Top, but for me, that was a bit of a rarity. Hell, I honestly didn't even know that beer was broken up into two categories: ales and lagers, maybe YOU didn't even know that!

So to tackle this problem of mine, I took the time to watch several beer videos and look at beer infographics. Once I felt I knew about enough about the foundations of beer, I went back to the Astor's 40+ draught beer menu and guess what - it took WAY less time than I'd thought to remember all of the beers!

My work was done; I knew all 40+ beer taps and their styles, and I could even somewhat comfortably talk about the beers’ tastes to guests (with a pinch of BS). However, the more I spoke about beer at work and after reflecting on the beer learning I had done, I had the realization that I genuinely LOVED learning about beer. That whole process for me was actually kind of a blast.

While writing this part I've thought about a time before this where I had a blissful learning experience, and I completely blanked. That was very telling to me. So, I figured I should commit myself to learn more about beer.

To get started, I ordered the mother of all beer books from Amazon, "The Oxford Companion to Beer." Given the size and scale of it, I prefer to call it The Holy Beerble:

P.S. I am aware I don't keep a very neat workspace, coffee stains and all.

Over 800 pages of diligent research on almost every single thing about beer that you could imagine. Beer countries? No problem. Beer styles? Yup. Beer history? Child's play. That one famous beer guy who did that one famous beer thing? It’s in there. This encyclopedia was amazing. The sheer amount of research done to create this is absolutely astounding. Even today, I will read through it and continue to make notes. I even ordered a couple more books on beer:

This was fun for me. I didn't mind taking the time to learn more about something I ACTUALLY liked.

Committing to the 'Craft'

Work at Astor’s was slowing down going into the winter of 2017. By then, I would casually read beer articles online or look through some of my beer books. Beer is a fun subject to learn about and share with others. That said, I felt that it was time I should try making my own beer! I knew a solid amount about the beer-making process already i.e. the mash, the boil, fermentation, bottling, etc., and I felt I should apply what I know to make something of my own. Maybe I could impress friends and family, save money on buying beer from the LCBO or The Beer Store, and it would add another layer to this new hobby of mine.

I figured a brewing kit would be my next subsequent Christmas gift to myself, so what I did was start simple: a 1-gallon starter kit, 10 empty beer bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, other miscellaneous brewing equipment, and some 2-row barley and Cascade hops.

Homebrewing and commercial brewing are different behemoths, and I knew more about the commercial brewing process. That wasn't really going to help me here because I didn't have 50+ hectolitre tank to brew beer in, so I had to watch a few YouTube instructional home brewing videos to get in the right mindset.

I was eager to brew my first batch: a SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) pale ale. A super simple recipe to start with that would ideally lead to a nice tasting beer. For those who don't know, brewing beer require ALOT of both patience and (ugh) cleaning. Literally, I spent over half of my time brewing just cleaning all of the equipment again and again. Any sort of impurity, big or small, is enough to completely ruin a batch of beer. I already respected brewing as an art form, but I learned more about how difficult it really is to make delicious beer that adheres to a certain style. After a 6-hour brew day plus a few weeks of fermentation, this was the result:

Aesthetically, it's a nice looking SMaSH beer, right?! But the taste....let's just say the taste did not match the look. This was a very important lesson in detecting off-flavours in a beer. There was plenty of them.

I didn't get discouraged; I crafted a chocolate maple porter that tasted pretty solid as well as a decent red ale. Despite my improvements with small batches of beer, I really had a difficult time seeing myself get too serious about it. For one thing, I didn’t always have enough room to fit 10-12 bottles of beer in my fridge. Imagine I start making 5-gallon batches that can yield over 50 bottles of beer, where the hell would I put all that? And if I ruined the batch? That’s a hell of a lot of waste. So, I decided I’d stick with learning and not doing.

YouTube videos and books are great and all, but it's helpful to have a more hands-on learning experience. Enter Prud'homme - a Canadian beer education program with 4 levels of certifications, the top one being "Level 4 - Beer Sommelier."

Prud'homme Level 1 was a lot of fun, and while I knew the lion's share of introductory beer knowledge, the class gave me, even more, to think about. It was a group of 10 in my class (including myself), and each class we were given different styles of beer to try. Up until then, I never really kept any actual notes of the beers I've had, but in class, we would dissect a beer's taste, mouthfeel, finish, colour, clarity, and additional info.

The longer I was in the class, the more I realized that I preferred talking about a beer's characteristics over brewing the beer myself. I'd bought and read all these beer books, I've experimented with brewing, and now I've worked towards my Level 1 Beer Enthusiast certification; clearly, there's something here for me to dive into. I'd been out of school for over a year by that point, and here was this interest of mine that I'd spent time on.

I thought to myself that I should take this more seriously and try to shape this newfound passion of mine into the beginnings of a career.

The Pursuit of Hoppiness

That nugget of internal thinking actually helped influence my decision to apply for a postgraduate degree. Before this, I'd been glancing at different school programs in London, Waterloo, Toronto, etc., but it was mostly looking at programs that might complement my Criminology degree i.e. social work.

If I'd taken this strongly to learning about beer, how can I apply that interest and start a career? I did some thinking over a couple of weeks and ultimately, I decided that getting into marketing could be an excellent opportunity to pursue my interest. Not to mention that marketing is a very versatile degree that would open a lot of doors for me.

I liked the idea of being able to help out the little guy (small-scale craft/micro-brewers) over becoming a cog in the wheel of the bigger beer corporations. Ultimately, I found my way to the George Brown College Digital Media Marketing program web page. It checked off a lot of points on my program criteria list: 1-year in length, a good distance from London, learning all about digital tools used in the workplace, and a semester of work experience!

Getting Forked

Now that I'd made a decision to pursue marketing that could lead to a gig marketing beer, I figured I should find some REAL work experience of being in a brewery.

First and foremost was trying to get a job at Forked River Brewing Company. By then I had met and developed a solid rapport with a few of their staff, and eventually, it led to me landing a job there!

In mid-March, I was hired to help in different areas around the brewery. Sometimes the bosses needed me to work retail or within the brewery, it really depended on the demand of that week. My main goal was to get a very clear idea of how a brewery operates and about their approach to marketing.

On the retail side, I would talk with customers about the beer, sharing with them all of the traits of the beers. There were also other run-of-the-mill retail tasks like handling the cash register, stocking the shelves, or just making sure that people don't steal any beer.

During my time in the brewery itself, I would mostly help the brewmasters with canning (so. many. f***ing cans.) and filling up kegs, but I was also given a chance to help with the actual brewing. I'd go in twice a week early in the morning and work for about 5-6 hours. What I enjoyed the most was the very relaxed atmosphere compared to my time at Astor's. Both were fun, but for entirely different reasons.

I was even given a chance to work a couple of beer festivals around London and in Sarnia. Those days were the most fun because I could speak about the beers with confidence and encourage festival-goers to try our stuff. Overall, I had a great time over at Forked River and I am grateful to have had that opportunity.

George Brown Ale

Before I knew it, September came along and I was starting my program at George Brown. It felt weird to be back in school but I was excited to be taking this step towards a new career. In order to keep my mind fresh on everything beer, I got a job as a bartender at Biermarkt Don Mills; they've got 150+ beers including draught and bottles. Weekends were my game, closing bar Friday through Sunday (goooood times). They were kind enough to give me another beer book that doubled as an employee handbook:

This new program was looking to be a great fit. It's worth noting though that I had spent a lot of my internship search on breweries or beer distribution companies. I wasn't having much luck with that until the next best thing came along - My Wine Canada, a wine/spirits marketing and sales company right down the street from my school building.

Was it beer? Nope. But it's the next best thing.

And also, wine's pretty great! The role itself was "Digital Marketing Manager", very expensive-sounding, right?

What enticed me about it was this internship would give me as close a perspective of what it's like to handle the marketing for beer as I could get. I was setting up social media content calendars, editing and creating photo content, writing wine blogs, drafting weekly emails, and coming up with catchy and funny captions.

Seeing the Bigger Pitcher

The funny thing is, after spending four months with My Wine Canada, I wasn't as certain about wanting to find a marketing job related to beer. Oddly enough, I spent so much time obsessing about finding a job just like it, that I forgot to really sink my teeth into marketing. I was surprised to find that I really liked learning about marketing. Made me reflect (again) on what I was doing.

In my final semester, I've wondered about whether or not my priorities were as straight as they should have been. For most of this program, I've been so narrowly focused on finding a marketing job involving craft beer that I may have completely missed other great opportunities. I don't want that to happen going forward, so I'm taking that into account and keeping an open mind without losing sight of why I got into this program in the first place. Beer is a hobby that's going to stick around in my life and because of it, I have gotten involved in great things and introduced me to some amazing people, and I wouldn't trade that away.

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inhandnetworks-blog · 6 years

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Br industrial IoT router ain Regions Associated With the Successful Spread of Ideas Identified

www.inhandnetworks.com

Psychologists report for the first time that the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) brain regions are associated with the successful spread of ideas, often called ‘buzz.’

UCLA scientists have identified for the first time the brain regions associated with the successful spread of ideas.

How do ideas spread? What messages will go viral on social media, and can this be predicted?

UCLA psychologists have taken a significant step toward answering these questions, identifying for the first time the brain regions associated with the successful spread of ideas, often called “buzz.”

The research has a broad range of implications, the study authors say, and could lead to more effective public health campaigns, more persuasive advertisements and better ways for teachers to communicate with students.

“Our study suggests that people are regularly attuned to how the things they’re seeing will be useful and interesting, not just to themselves but to other people,” said the study’s senior author, Matthew Lieberman, a UCLA professor of psychology and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and author of the forthcoming book “Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect.” “We always seem to be on the lookout for who else will find this helpful, amusing or interesting, and our brain data are showing evidence of that. At the first encounter with information, people are already using the brain network involved in thinking about how this can be interesting to other people. We’re wired to want to share information with other people. I think that is a profound statement about the social nature of our minds.”

The study findings are published in the online edition of the journal Psychological Science, with print publication to follow later this summer.

“Befor Dual SIM M2M router e this study, we didn’t know what brain regions were associated with ideas that become contagious, and we didn’t know what regions were associated with being an effective communicator of ideas,” said lead author Emily Falk, who conducted the research as a UCLA doctoral student in Lieberman’s lab and is currently a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. “Now we have mapped the brain regions associated with ideas that are likely to be contagious and are associated with being a good ‘idea salesperson.’ In the future, we would like to be able to use these brain maps to forecast what ideas are likely to be successful and who is likely to be effective at spreading them.”

In the first part of the study, 19 UCLA students (average age 21), underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans at UCLA’s Ahmanson–Lovelace Brain Mapping Center as they saw and heard information about 24 potential television pilot ideas. Among the fictitious pilots — which were presented by a separate group of students — were a show about former beauty-queen mothers who want their daughters to follow in their footsteps; a Spanish soap opera about a young woman and her relationships; a reality show in which contestants travel to countries with harsh environments; a program about teenage vampires and werewolves; and a show about best friends and rivals in a crime family.

The students exposed to these TV pilot ideas were asked to envision themselves as television studio interns who would decide whether or not they would recommend each idea to their “producers.” These students made videotaped assessments of each pilot.

Another group of 79 UCLA undergraduates (average age 21) was asked to act as the “producers.” These students watched the interns’ videos assessments of the pilots and then made their own ratings about the pilot ideas based on those assessments.

Lieberman and Falk wanted to learn which brain regions were activated when the interns were first exposed to information they would later pass on to others.

“We’re constantly being exposed to information on Facebook, Twitter and so on,” said Lieberman. “Some of it we pass on, and a lot of it we don’t. Is there something that happens in the moment we first see it — maybe before we even realize we might pass it on — that is different for those things that we will pass on successfully versus those that we won’t?”

It turns ou cashless payment t, there is. The psychologists found that the interns who were especially good at persuading the producers showed significantly more activation in a brain region known as the temporoparietal junction, or TPJ, at the time they were first exposed to the pilot ideas they would later recommend. They had more activation in this region than the interns who were less persuasive and more activation than they themselves had when exposed to pilot ideas they didn’t like. The psychologists call this the “salesperson effect.”

“It was the only region in the brain that showed this effect,” Lieberman said. One might have thought brain regions associated with memory would show more activation, but that was not the case, he said.

“We wanted to explore what differentiates ideas that bomb from ideas that go viral,” Falk said. “We found that increased activity in the TPJ was associated with an increased ability to convince others to get on board with their favorite ideas. Nobody had looked before at which brain regions are associated with the successful spread of ideas. You might expect people to be most enthusiastic and opinionated about ideas that they themselves are excited about, but our research suggests that’s not the whole story. Thinking about what appeals to others may be even more important.”

The TPJ, located on the outer surface of the brain, is part of what is known as the brain’s “mentalizing network,” which is involved in thinking about what other people think and feel. The network also includes the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, located in the middle of the brain.

“When we read fiction or watch a movie, we’re entering the minds of the characters — that’s mentalizing,” Lieberman said. “As soon as you hear a good joke, you think, ‘Who can I tell this to and who can’t I tell?’ Making this judgment will activate these two brain regions. If we’re playing poker and I’m trying to figure out if you’re bluffing, that’s going to invoke this network. And when I see someone on Capitol Hill testifying and I’m thinking whether they are lying or telling the truth, that’s going to invoke these two brain regions.

“Good ideas turn on the mentalizing system,” he said. “They make us want to tell other people.”

The interns who showed more activity in their mentalizing system when they saw the pilots they intended to recommend were then more successful in convincing the producers to also recommend those pilots, the psychologists found.

“As I’m looking at an idea, I might be thinking about what other people are likely to value, and that might make me a better idea salesperson later,” Falk said.

By further studying the neural activity in these brain regions to see what information and ideas activate these regions more, psychologists potentially could predict which advertisements are most likely to spread and go viral and which will be most effective, Lieberman and Falk said.

Such knowledge could also benefit public health campaigns aimed at everything from reducing risky behaviors among teenagers to combating cancer, smoking and obesity.

“The explosion of new communication technologies, combined with novel analytic tools, promises to dramatically expand our understanding of how ideas spread,” Falk said. “We’re laying basic science foundations to addressimportant public health questions that are difficult to answer otherwise — about what makes campaigns successful and how we can improve their impact.”

As we may like particular radio DJs who play music we enjoy, the Internet has led us to act as “information DJs” who share things that we think will be of interest to people in our networks, Lieberman said.

“What is new about our study is the finding that the mentalizing network is involved when I read something and decide who else migh cashless vending t be interested in it,” he said. “This is similar to what an advertiser has to do. It’s not enough to have a product that people should like.”

Co-authors of the study are Sylvia Morelli, a former graduate student in Lieberman’s lab who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University; Locke Welbourn, a UCLA graduate student in Lieberman’s laboratory; and Karl Dambacher, a former UCLA undergraduate research assistant.

Publication: Emily B. Falk, et al., “Creating Buzz – The Neural Correlates of Effective Message Propagation,” Psychological Science, May 30, 2013; doi: 10.1177/0956797612474670

Image: UCLA Newsroom

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crystalracing · 6 years

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My thoughts on the F1 Hybrid era 2014-present and a timeline of being a Kimi Raikkonen fanatic since 2002

My love-hate relationship with Formula 1 is very much at the Hate spectrum and it no longer feels fun. Those who read my social media accounts could easily mistake me for having the worldview of a 47 year old man, when in fact I’m 3 years short of 30. I see new school fans who only remember Raikkonen’s struggles and care little for his McLaren years, where even then misfortune lurked around the corner. There was one difference back then, however: Kimi was the new kid on the block. On any given Sunday, even after an average qualifying performance, the talismanic Finn could dazzle fans the world over. The vivid sound of a cacophonous V10 would scream in a global audience’s ears and a baby faced Finnish boy wonder from an impoverished Espoo countryside upbringing would leave a smile on millions of faces. F1 was in the midst of what seemed a never-ending Michael Schumacher/Ferrari led domination. Despite near-misses in 2003 and 2005, where the Finn took nine wins and two runners-up for the Woking-based squad in between numerous boozy nights and the beginning of a marriage to Jenni Dahlman, later doomed by the pair’s lack of commitment, bounty of love affairs and lack of mutual interests, the fans sang his praises. Fellow drivers such as Ralf Schumacher were left bemused by Kimi’s taciturn, carefree and single-minded demeanour, but the corporate sponsors found a sweet spot for the Finn: his apolitical attitude melded well to act as a figure of universal popularity- the shyness of a geek, the lackadaisical social standing of a class clown and the heart of a world class athlete. And I just couldn’t help but champion him.

The current hybrid engine formula for F1 is a mess: huge wings creating ridiculous amounts of dirty air, fat tyres, three DRS zones on a regular basis at most circuits, the fuel-saving and Pirelli’s SEVEN compounds of tyres- two of which will be not used meaningfully at all this year (Hard & SuperHard). In 2009, the teams followed a new formula with skinny wings, slick tyres and a banning of bodywork elements on the sidepods and places you wouldn’t expect an aerodynamic piece to hang off. Max Mosley also proposed a budget cap, which encourged Litespeed (Lotus/Caterham), Manor (Virgin/Marussia) and Campos (HRT) to join in 2010. Of course, in true F1 fashion, the FIA failed to follow up on such proposals to enforce budget caps and it’s only now with Liberty Media that an argument to enact a plan for cost cutting has been brought back. Sadly, the three 2010 teams were all gone by the end of 2012, 2014 and 2016 respectively. However, drivers moaned about the lack of driving challenge enforced and the subsequent bigger cars (followed by 2019 regs) begs the question:

Does F1 have an identity anymore? Is it willing to stand up for a set of sporting and technical values? Because Jean Todt et al at FIA seem sidetracked and manipulated by the corporate bosses at FIAT, Daimler, OICA & Honda.

In the decade of 2010s, only 11 drivers (Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso, Raikkonen, Bottas, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Maldonado, Webber, Rosberg & Button) have won a race despite 169 Grands Prix having taken place in this decade alone. That’s how truly uncompetitive the Pirelli era of F1 has been, especially compared to the 2000s, which had 17 different winners in 174 races. In fact, here’s a list of the past decades:

1950s- 24 different winners (87 races)/ 15 (77)* 1960s- 21 (100)/ 20 (99)* 1970s- 29 (144) 1980s- 21 (156) 1990s- 17 (162) 2000s- 17 (174) 2010s- 11 (169) (with 18 months still left to go!!!)**

*without Indianapolis 500

During 2014-16, Mercedes won 51 out of the 59 races. 2011-13 saw Red Bull win 32 out of 58 races.

From 2010-18 (as of Belgium): Red Bull win 52 (out of 169 races). Mercedes win 72 (out of 169 races). Ferrari win 24 (out of 169 races). McLaren win 18 (out of 169 races). Lotus [now Renault] win 2 (out of 169 races). Williams win 1 (out of 169 races).

******

Now I find myself amongst insecure Sebastian Vettel fans, who I do feel genuinely sorry for: if Vettel wins with Kimi suffering issues, rival fans will point at possible favourable treatment. If Kimi gets close and threatens to beat Vettel, then rival fans will point at Vettel’s tendency to be just above-average in favourable conditions. After all, none of Sebastian’s 52 wins have never been won from outside the top 3 starting spots; whilst as recently as Hockenheim, title rival Hamilton finished on the top step of the rostrum from a P14 start. Much has been made of Vettel’s awful 2014 season, where his apparent inability to adjust to a car lacking rear-end downforce enforced by the new regulations (accompanied by the now-scorned new hybrids) was worsened by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo outracing and outqualifying him. Once seen as invincible, despite Alonso’s best attempts in a clearly inferior Ferrari to interrupt his quadruple title-winning streak, Vettel had been well and truly humbled. Whilst he possesses a chirpy, charming personality, those nagging concerns over his tendency to crash out at crucial moments linger (2017 Singapore, 2018 France, 2018 Germany), whilst rival Lewis Hamilton (despite moaning more than Nick Kyrios in a tennis match) remains impervious under relentless pressure, having only lost in 2016 to his eternal rival Nico Rosberg (mostly thanks to struggling with a dodgy clutch biting point for race starts and that engine failure in Malaysia). Additionally, Kimi’s presence has reaffirmed a belief amongst rival fans that Vettel needs an obedient, passive number 2 alongside him, whilst Hamilton at the very least went head-to-head with two reigning world champs in Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button at McLaren and Rosberg, where equal number one status was mandated by Mercedes. Only twice Rosberg gave way to Hamilton: 2016 Monaco (partly due to brake issues, but possibly to atone for their first lap collision in the previous race in Spain) and 2013 Malaysia when Rosberg was told to hold station and let Hamilton take 3rd. However, it is arguable Mercedes’s sheer dominance between 2014-16 allowed them to enforce an equal driver policy with no serious threats from the opposition for either championships.

To further my claim, more bad news will come for Vettel fans when popular rookie Charles LeClerc joins Ferrari as his long-awaited team-mate: if Charles beats Seb, his time in F1 is likely to over before he turns 35 and his reputation smashed, whilst if Seb beats LeClerc, accusations of team-favoritism will re-emerge as quickly as they disappeared with Kimi’s retirement. It’s a lose-lose situation for Vettel fans, especially when you consider Fernando Alonso’s demise enforced by his own internal politics and poor career choices and Lewis Hamilton’s ability to exact the maximum out of a recalcitrant Mercedes, which has been de-crowned as F1′s fastest and best all-round chassis and engine package. To worsen matters, Kimi fans (including me) feel zero sympathy for anything that ever goes wrong for the German. Unfortunately, it does turn into hate and resentment, but only because we know what our Finnish man is capable of even in his declining years: fastest in FP1 and FP2 and fastest in Q1 and Q2 at Belgium 2018 with a record-breaking time of 1:41.501. Add to claims by Lewis Hamilton himself that Vettel has never beaten a team-mate in their “prime”: after outpacing journeymen Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sebastien Bourdais with ease, Mark Webber’s weight issues, advancing age, subsequent injuries and struggles with Pirellis handed the impetus to the Weltmeister. Followed by an infamous 2014 with the Honey Badger and a lengthy spell with a passive Raikkonen, it’s no wonder Vettel fans will easily attempt to deflect Ferrari's questionable treatment of Raikkonen to that of Mercedes’, Red Bull’s and even Toro Rosso’s treatment of Valtteri Bottas, Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo and Brendon Hartley.

Which is not to say they’re wrong, but their defensiveness is compounded by Ferrari’s historic preference for a hierarchal driver system (Schumacher & Barrichello at Austria 2002 & Alonso & Massa at Germany 2010 widely publicised), followed by recent events at Germany again this year (albeit with Jock Clear tentatively trying to make Kimi guess his cryptic message) is telling: they know Vettel has a peripheral place amongst the true greats of F1 thanks to years of Adrian Newey’s double diffuser Red Bull chassis and Renault’s V8 engine mapping system enabling Seb to play the role of the “Opening two laps” merchant. What I mean by that is his ability to create a gap of over one second within the first two laps in a standard 2010-13 race to stop the car in 2nd place from exploiting the DRS detection range against him, from which he then subsequently exploiting his car’s technical advantage to predictable perfection. Plus when you consider Lewis Hamilton’s misfortunes with McLaren, his existential crisis and a troubled relationship with ex Nicole Scherzinger and Raikkonen disappearing for two years to do WRC (and Kimi’s father slowly dying of alcoholism-related illness), it almost seemed 2010-13 was game, set and match for Seb despite occasional gremlins striking in 2010 and 2012.

I see F1 social media figures dismissing the suffering of Raikkonen fans, bemused at how thousands could be enchanted by an aloof old-school Finn, who regards journalists as vultures to be treated with well-justified caution. New school fans belittle Kimi fans, viewing them as holding a monotonous review of Raikkonen’s misfortunes and characterizing them as incapable of leaving the blame at the aging 2007 world champion’s feet, despite repeated strategy failures of a scarlet team saddled with an one-car team mentality. Bahrain saw Ferrari pit Vettel on a dangerous one stop strategy, where had it not been for a cautious Bottas, Vettel could’ve easily come 2nd, whilst Raikkonen would suffer the brunt of vicious social media abuse for stomping off to allow paramedics to tend to injured mechanic Francisco Cigarini after Ferrari failed to solve a crossthreaded wheelnut issue shared by sister team Haas; China saw Ferrari pit Vettel too late and resorting to exploiting Kimi as a road block; Baku saw the Scuderia bizarrely ignore Kimi’s dreadful pace on yellow soft compounds (yes, Kimi had indeed wrecked his last red supersofts in Q2), but then proceeded to place Vettel on the same yellow softs, which saw the German lose time to Bottas and forced Ferrari to resort to changing both cars to ultrasofts during an impromptu safety car period kicked off by the Red Bulls; whilst Hockenheim saw Ferrari absurdly miscalculate Kimi’s pace and end up with the Finn leading ahead of Vettel, followed by an awkward set of radio messages where the impatient Iceman forced the team to directly order him to let Vettel past. Subsequently, Ferrari’s shock at Vettel’s stadium crash and slowness to pit Kimi for new tyres (one lap too late!) during the SC period saw them lose a race they still could win with their “second” car, seemingly disheartened by Vettel’s blunder. Their gamble to split the strategy in Q3 for Belgium, leaving Kimi with less fuel than Vettel in the hope of quickly refuelling Kimi in the case of the rain easing (which it did) and you get the picture of a 38 year old left forlorn by a recalcitrant team hellbent on guessing their chess moves for car #7, but frightened into placing all their eggs in one basket for car #5. In a monotonous hybrid era filled with Pirelli control tyres, countless DRS zones that permit the top cars to overpower the midfielders and mindnumbing fuel saving, both Ferrari and Mercedes have isolated their Finnish wingmen to mere sideshows.

In this social media age, I see a culture of outrage galore amongst the F1 community. With the fan base no longer proliferated over internet forums, instead it is centralised amongst Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram, all of which provide more accessible platforms with user-friendly interfaces implemented, the need to find issues that don’t even exist is prevalent. The agonisingly rapid decline of F1′s spectacle has left fans increasingly tribalistic, with winning amongst those supporters of drivers in front-running cars the only source of satisfaction remaining. Unfortunately, I am now more Kimi-focused than I was in the mid-2000s: back then it wasn’t close to feeling like life and death if Kimi struggled (and boy, he had his bad moments then). I could easily applaud other drivers such as Jenson Button and Mark Webber when success came their way. I even supported Felipe Massa in his bid to win the 2008 World Championship, despite being at Kimi’s expense. But now seeing fans stirring up bile and provocation to humiliate reviled drivers leaves me feeling hollow. It makes me lust for the days when social media was not a thing; just myself sitting in the front of the couch watching ITV or BBC. But thanks to Sky and internet streaming, I find myself drawn to my laptop to avoid the increasingly jingoistic F1 TV presenters on Channel 4. The days of Jim Rosenthal, Tony Jardine, Steve Rider, the linguistically discombobulated Mark Blundell and Louise Goodman feel like another lifetime ago; the days before such partisan nonsense emerged with Lewis Hamilton.

The trivialities have surpassed the main racing events, where transfer gossip and who-said-what is more entertaining. Salacious news about drivers’ private lives now seep through the paddock; asking drivers to sing silly songs and journalists wanting to be friends with the drivers and team personnel where everyone becomes too familiar. The loss of mystique and luster of a Grand Prix environment, where fans become too emotionally involved in events where they possess little power to truly influence and instead whine and cry when things inevitably fail. In the past, with no social media or mobile phones, you had to actively find local neighbours and tour race tracks to find your motor racing pals; now a “friend” is merely a follow button away on a major social media platform.

We now live in the era of “Trial by Social Media” where a truly overemotional or defamatory comment can be validated by a high number of likes, reposts, retweets and reactions.

To make matters worse, not only are tribal lines drawn along with teams and drivers, but debates such as Grid Girls and the Halo. Frankly, there are idiots on both sides of the debates for both issues, who believe they hold the moral high ground and act like they are holier than thou against those who disagree with them. So now only are the drivers, sponsors and teams competing against each other on the track, the press room and the pits, but the fans and journalists are competing against each other for social media brownie points! Strawman anyone with any ridiculous quote and you’ll win! (Of course Kimi Raikkonen fans too are susceptible to nonsense comments. Social media unleashes your emotional rambling at any given moment). But in lieu, one thing about Charles LeClerc’s accident at Belgium stuck out and that was the journalists going on rambling lectures about how the Halo certainly saved his life, despite a lack of any scientific research concluded to prove the Halo actually stopped the McLaren of Fernando Alonso even making the slightest contact with LeClerc’s helmet. The extreme moralistic beating dished out to the viewing audience over the Halo and Grid Girls is jarring. Plus constant gimmicky sideshow jokes from WTF1 and their obnoxious jokes of “That’s Radillon, actually,” which carry no punchline and have already been brow-beaten to death by its strange following. (I know, not entirely related, but I needed to fit a bit about that dogshite WTF1).

F1, along with other motorsport series, has banged about attracting millennials and Gen Zs, but honestly at this point it is literally about as far from cool or hip as you can get.

In addition, I fell out with one truly moronic member of Lewis’ fans: a man with the most conflicting and contradictory political views I’ve ever seen (he reacts to political events and what celebrities say on a whim) and an inability to judge drivers properly at all. A man who was distraught at the idiotic outrage at Lewis Hamilton’s “Boys Don’t Wear Dresses” joke, which was clearly showing Hamilton mocking old conservatives who would demand strict gender roles at all costs. I openly wrote a tweet defending Lewis and comforted his fan via a reply to one of their tweets. But when Raikkonen stormed off after his Bahrain pit stop debacle, this same Lewis fan joined in the outrage mob when everyone called Kimi something around the lines of being a crap human being. I had to block/unblock him simply to avoid verbally abusing him and having my account suspended, as he used his reasoning of excusing of Logan Paul (a bell-end who misused the Japanese’s accommodating nature to insult their culture and deliberately walk into a suicide forest for his own attention seeking sick nonsense and despite having a prejudicial view of East Asians, now has a Hapa girlfriend in Chloe Bennet) to justify roasting Kimi. I’m sorry, but just because you failed to understand the lack of morality in one certain vile human, so you then pick on a softer target who never intended to provoke controversy, is the act of a weak, cowardly and dumb individual.

It must be remembered how badly Kimi was treated in 2008, where Massa gained the upperhand for Ferrari in this article:

Why Kimi was not on top of his game in 2008 by wrcva

https://f1bias.com/2012/04/05/truth-about-kimi-ferrari-santander-2008/

But enough of that, I want to talk the glorious past in my rose-tinted glasses: how I began my life as a bonafide Formula 1 fan.

I started watching the sport in 2002 with a wide-eyed approach due to being 11 years old. Whilst it was in the midst of a Michael Schumacher/Ferrari dominated time span, I had hope his monopoly of victories and championships would end. Mika Hakkinen had retired and in his place came a fellow Finn, Kimi Raikkonen. I was unable to articulate what attracted me to become a Kimi fan, as I initially chose to support Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella & Alex Yoong (!). Whilst I came to cease my backing of Ralf and the hopeless Yoong, I struck by curiosity to the Iceman when I witnessed the 22 year old firmly plant his foot flat through the Kemmel Straight in Spa-Francorchamps, blinded by a heavy plume emitted by Olivier Panis’ stricken BAR-Honda (some things never change!) Through reading a 2002 ITV F1 Guide book, which now lies battered and almost shredded, its description was one of a rebel and a selfish Espoo native, who had lucked his way into the McLaren #4 seat at the expense of his supposedly more deserving Sauber team-mate Nick Heidfeld. That initally turned me against Kimi, believing he had a silver spoon in a figurative sense, but an astonishing drive to P2 in 2002 Belgian GP qualifying, followed by an outrageous rear end save on Sunday began to sway my stubbornness. It proved his storming drive in France to P2 (which he lost the lead in the later stages thanks to running on Allan McNish’s Toyota engine oil) earlier that year was no fluke in a season blighted by major reliability issues, which saw the Finn retire from 11 out of the 17 races held in 2002. That year saw Kimi pick up his maiden podium and fastest lap in Australia and four podiums, plus Raikkonen outqualified elder team-mate David Coulthard an impressive 10-7. Sadly, the mechanical failures would prove a harbinger of what overshadow Kimi’s time at Woking.

2003 would see Macca continue its MP4-17 chassis in a D specification, with plans to introduce the MP4-18 in Canada. A rapid change in FIA sporting regulations (plus a promised abandonment of traction control from Silverstone onwards) was enacted, as the sport’s owners unanimously agreed that F1′s appeal would fade if a certain scarlet team’s monotonous accumulation of wins was not at least curbed in the slightest. Melbourne qualifying, in its new one-lap shootout format with two sessions split between Friday and Saturday, ended with a predictable Ferrari one-two of Schumacher followed by obedient no.2 Rubens Barrichello (or Bwoahrrichello). The new qualifying regulations stipulated cars to carry the race fuel and tyres they’d start with throughout their Saturday qualifying single-lap run, which left the heavily fueled McLarens of DC & Kimi in P11 and P15. On race day, the heavens opened and the track was damp at the start. Raikkonen pitted for dries on the formation lap, so he had to encounter the early laps with caution as the field eventually copied the Finn’s switch to grooved tyres (remember those?) during the early laps of the race. Lap 17 saw the Iceman grab the lead, which he would hold until lap 32, where a drive-thru penalty was administered to the Finn for speeding in the pits. Later a wheel-to-wheel encounter between Schumacher and Raikkonen saw the German lose his bargeboards and Juan Pablo Montoya threw away an improbable 2nd career win on lap 48 with an inexplicable spin. Coulthard flew past for what would be a 13th & final career victory; Montoya took 2nd and Kimi clinched 3rd ahead of a frustrated Schumacher limping in 4th. The race craft was present in the Espoo native’s driving, but the consistency and legendary race pace would appear in the next race in Malaysia. Sepang saw Kimi start an average 7th, but drama at the start delivered the Finn a lucky break. Schumacher lunged at Jarno Trulli’s Renault in a mistimed maneuver and the Italian’s young team-mate Fernando Alonso led, albeit held up the field after taking a fortuitous pole in a Renault qualifying 1-2 abetted by a light fuel strategy. It was all the impressive as the Spaniard was carrying the flu, but after Raikkonen made light work of Heidfeld to grab second, McLaren’s tyre durability and heavy fuel strategy allowed the Finn to overtake Alonso in the pit stops and beat Barrichello’s 2002 all-conquering Ferrari by 39 seconds. Many participants had melted in the sweltering southeastern Asian humidity, but the Iceman had arrived and an impressionable 12 year old had found a new hero.

The 2003 saw Kimi miraculously remain active in a title fight in a two-year old chassis, which was never replaced due to the MP4-18′s dreadful manufacturing structure. Ferrari’s new F2003-GA was revealed in Barcelona, the fifth round of the championship, but Schu would only beat the Spanish local hero Alonso by 5.7 seconds. The youthful zest of Kimi saw him over-commit in turn 7 on his Saturday Q lap, sending him to the back of the grid. Pizzonia stalled on the grid for the start on raceday and Raikkonen hit him unsighted. Along with another spin in Canada Q2 and a subsequent puncture in the race, Kimi toiled to P6 and lost the championship lead to the mighty Red Baron, a lead he would never recover. The following Grand Prix saw Kimi, though, take his maiden pole position in Q2; despite not taking an overall fastest sector time on the Nurburgring circuit, the 23 year old Finn clocked a 1:31.523 with race fuel aboard; his Friday Q1 lap was a dazzling 1:29.989, just 0.08 slower than Montoya’s 2002 pole lap. Race day saw the Finn storm into a nine-second cushion over Ralf and everything went as planned in his scheduled pit stop on lap 16. In spite of having regained the lead, lap 25 disaster struck: a Mercedes-Benz engine failure. The sound of the V10s rang around the historic Rhineland venue from all cars but one: car no #6. For the first time in my twelve years, a sudden rage of anger engulfed me.

The rest of season saw Raikkonen accumulate 2nd places regularly, but the aging MP4-17 and adequate Mercedes power unit lacking the potency Kimi required to challenge the emerging Williams-BMW FW25s, followed by a resurgent Schumacher, whose Ferrari had been limited by a batch of Bridgestone tyres which struggled mid-summer, as its French counterpart Michelin found a upper hand for the first time since its return to F1 in 2003. Hungary saw Michael humiliated as a gallant Alonso took pole and lapped the five-time world champion around the tight confines of a circuit colloquially referred to as “Monaco without the barriers”. After being stuck behind Mark Webber’s Jaguar before the initial pit stops, Raikkonen took a steady 2nd albeit 17 seconds behind Spain’s debut F1 race victor. 13 races down with 3 races left saw the championship reading Schumacher 1st with 72 points, Montoya 71 points and the young Kimster 70 points, somehow punching above his car’s weight despite losing further points in a first lap collision in Hockenheim in the previous round. Team-mate Coulthard, meanwhile, was floundering in 7th place with just 45 points in a season where many British commentators had declared 2003 as make-or-break for the Scotsman. But the scheming Maranello boys were working overtime to study the rulebook, where they found Michelin’s front tyres had expanded to 283mm rather than the stipulated 270mm. Whatever performance loss Michelin had suffered in remolding their compounds remains unknown to this day, but Monza came and McLaren had capitulated in their battle to get the MP4-18 into race trim. Schumacher won for the first time in front the raucous Tifosi since Canada, Montoya took 2nd and Barrichelllo nipped into 3rd. Kimi took 4th with a MP4-17D that was at the end of its development cycle. Despite heading to Indianapolis with a seven point deficit, Raikkonen took a valiant pole and took a solid lead until the rain came. Fellow championship contender Montoya screwed up massively by turfing Barrichello into the gravel trap at Turn 2 on lap 3 and his subsequent drive-through penalty brought his driver’s championship challenge prematurely. The Michelin wet compounds were no match for Ferrari’s Bridgestone wets, which had a decisive advantage, leaving Raikkonen struggling in fourth when the track dried and mathematically out of title contention.

Thankfully the Indy circuit dried swiftly when the downpour seized and Kimi stormed past Jenson Button’s BAR, which had been leading for 15 laps (!) and elder statesman Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who was driving his penultimate race for the fabled Sauber squad. 2nd was the end result for the Iceman, who headed to Suzuka on a nine-point deficit to a prospective sextuple world champion. Only a win for the McLaren driver and a failure to finish in the top 8 for the Red Baron would suffice in making Kimi what would have been then F1′s youngest world champion, just five days short of his 24th birthday. A late downpour left Schumacher down in 14th in Q2, whilst Raikkonen took a mediocre P8 with Coulthard alongside him. Race day saw Montoya (whose Williams team still had a chance for the constructors’ title) and Alonso launch into an early 1-2, only to retire as quickly as they had surged into those positions. Barrichello controlled the Japanese GP as if he had been Ferrari’s team leader, whilst Maranello’s contracted lead driver carved his way through midfield like he’d been staggering through a hangover after having drank a crate of beer, with collisions with brother Ralf et al. Dutiful team-mate Coulthard fell behind in the pit stops to allow Kimi to run in 2nd in the hopes of an unlikely mechanical failure to Rubens and Michael to stutter, but neither happened. Schumacher, frantically wiping his heavily oiled helmet and clearly unaccustomed to tackling midfield cars for position, somehow fought into P8 and won his record-breaking 6th world championship in the most uncharacteristically clumsy manner.

Raikkonen lost the championship by just two points (91 to Michael’s 93), but the new points system of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for the top 8 (instead of the top 6) proposed by guileless Irishman Eddie Jordan had aided the Finn’s unlikely challenge. Under the former 10-6-4-3-2-1 system, Schumacher would have won the title at Indy with a round to spare and Jordan would have take 5th in the constructors’ largely thanks to Fisichella’s unexpected win at Interlagos (where only the intermediate compound was taken due an idiotic new rule to limit teams to one wet weather tyre choice), but Eddie’s boys were left in 9th out of 10th. 2003 was a step towards the changing of the guard, although whilst the grandmaster held onto his crown by the tip of his tongue, the likes of BAR (later Honda, Brawn & now the mighty Mercedes), Renault, Jaguar (now Red Bull) & Toyota had taken major leaps forward and BMW impressed with their engine’s driveability and outright top end power, but let down by the Williams’ poor strategic planning and a mercurial driving duo of Ralf and JPM. Jordan, having won two races and finished 3rd in the constructors’ in 1999 and challenged for the drivers’ title with the now-retired Frentzen and a dynamite Mugen-Honda power unit, had slipped down 6 places the F1′s pecking order in just four years thanks to a lack of investment, as F1′s emerging manufacturer era was in a full swing.

2004 saw Schumacher and Ferrari regain their full-time dominance of F1. Mercedes’ reliability was tragic; Raikkonen retired from 5 of the first 7 races with engine maladies thanks to F1′s new engine rules which mandated power units lasted for an entire race weekend or force drivers to take a ten-grid place penalty, something the Finn became familiar with. Schumacher equaled Mansell’s record of 5 wins from the opening 5 races of a season, whilst Jenson Button emerged as a genuine contender, having taken his maiden podium at Sepang where he held off Barrichello in the closing laps. Elsewhere, Jarno Trulli was beating Fernando Alonso, who seemed rather erratic and possibly complacent after his promising 2003 season (sounds a lot like a young Dutchman in 2018, whose father drove his last season with the lowly Minardi team in a damp whimper). Trulli broke Schumi’s winning run with his sole career win at Monte Carlo, where Alonso crashed after running wide trying to pass Ralf’s misfiring Williams and the infamous collision between embittered enemies Schumacher and Montoya, both incidents occurring in the Tunnel section. However, Trulli’s Renault honeymoon would eruptively hit freefall, culminating in his embarrassing concession of the final podium spot at Magny-Cours where Alonso had taken pole and looked a likely victor until Ross Brawn’s ingenuous four-stop strategy for Schu’s car scuppered a second career win for the Spaniard. Michael proceeded to win 12 of 2004′s first 13 Grands Prix, whilst McLaren built a new B chassis. Then came Spa and the start of the King of Spa legend.

Raikkonen qualified an unimpressive P10 in mixed conditions. The two Renaults took 1-3 split by Schumacher, who was looking to take his 7th drivers’ crown. Race day arrived and despite Trulli/Alonso leading the first quarter of the race, engine troubles for Fernando and an early pit stop paved the way for Kimi to gain control of the race, after surviving the first lap carnage from the backmarkers. Daily Express editor Bob McKenzie, who had pledged that he would run naked around Silverstone if McLaren won a race in 2004, honoured his deed at the following year’s British GP in front of cackling Raikkonen and a smug Ron Dennis.

Jarno Trulli would later become the first of a long list of team-mates mysteriously screwed over by having Fernando Alonso as his driving partner (Fisichella, Piquet Jr, Massa, Raikkonen, Vandoorne spring to mind anyone?), whilst McLaren announced the arrival of Colombian firecracker Montoya to join icecool Kimbo for 2005. An early tennis (!) accident sidelined Monty and early setup issues meant the potential of the MP4-20 had been withheld in the flyaway openers, but Imola saw Kimi sprinting out of the gates. A dominant pole pointed towards to an emphatic Kimi win, but race day saw his CV joint fail after just 8 laps. Wins at Barcelona and Monaco brought the Iceman into title contention, but he lagged 22 points behind fast starting Alonso. Then Nurburgring came, the scene of heartbreak just a couple of years prior. Raikkonen, having come off a run of leading 160+ consecutive laps, look set for a third straight win but he flatspotted his tyre whilst lapping Jacques Villeneuve and a subsequent vibration saw the McLaren’s suspension explode on the very final lap. Alonso, driving at 70% his car’s potential clinched an easy win ahead of Nick Heidfeld (who would never win a F1 race), increased his lead to 32 points. Point blank no. 3 for Mr. Raikkonen of 2005, who was now 32 points down on the 23 year old Spaniard. With the engine regs tightened to a power unit life of two full weekends, predictably Mercedes would suffer issues in the practice sessions in France, Britain and Italy, the last of which Kimi astonishing set the fastest qualifying lap but was forced to start 10 places lower. Raikkonen took 19 points in those three weekends combined, whilst Alonso grabbed 26. Add in Montoya’s lack of concentration whilst lapping backmarkers (Monteiro in Turkey and Pizzonia in Belgium) and another mechanical failure at the Hockenheimring, it meant Kimi never could truly chip away at Alonso’s advantage, which remained sub-30 points. It set the Spaniard up to become F1′s then-youngest champion in Brazil, where McLaren didn’t even bother asking Montoya to concede the race lead to Raikkonen as it was so obvious Alonso would keep hold the 3rd place he required to be crowned in Interlagos.

Suzuka 2005. Kimi’s greatest race. Started P17 after a washed-out qualifying. It was astonishing race in a season where only one compound of tyre was permitted for all drivers, culminating in the Indy-gate farce where all Michelin-shod cars withdrew due to safety fears of tyre exploding around the oval section at turn 13. However, despite Alonso and Schumacher joining the Finn near the back, there was still a constructor’s championship to be won for McLaren thanks to nine race wins thus far. The quality of overtakes was pure as there could be: Alonso’s ace manoeuvre on aging Schumacher at 130R is still highly-regarded by his own fans, but his victory chances was wrecked by race control ordering him to drop 13 seconds to let Christien Klien’s Red Bull after an illegal overtake under yellow flags. Montoya crashed out on lap one after a ludicrous entanglement with another aging fart, this time Jacques Villeneuve in an underfunded Sauber. Giancarlo Fisichella led the race comfortably after Ralf Schumacher pitted absurdly early for fuel in a blatant publicity stunt by Toyota to grab headlines of a home pole position for media value. However, despite a 20 second gap having been built him and Raikkonen, the Finn relentlessly decimated the midfield runners with no DRS or gizmo nonsense (traction control aside) and with five laps to go, Kimi peered into Fisi’s mirrors. On every approach to the Casino chicane in the final lap, the beleaguered Renault driver kept resorting to holding a tight line, leaving his exit compromised and gradually more vulnerable to Raikkonen closing up on him to size up a move into Turn 1. This was possible despite Kimi having to ease off the throttle in 130R due to oppressive dirty air turbulence of the mid-2000s chassis; but yet come the penultimate lap, the impossible had become the inevitable. Fisichella inexplicably, possibly wilting due to an inability to pump consistently fast lap times which were became sadly more common in his later decline, again took a tight inside line into Casino Sqaure chicane despite being a tough spot for cars in behind to lunge forwards to make an overtake. His Renault squirmed with his tyres burning out from his overly-defensive driving and Kimi pounced. Giancarlo wiggled to the inside line across the start-finish straight (and almost touched the pit wall!), but was powerless to stop Kimi overtaking around the outside of Turn 1 on the final lap.

2006 was Kimi’s final year at McLaren. With Schumacher revitalised in his hunt for title no.8, BMW having taken ownership of Sauber, Williams now an independent team, Red Bull very much a thing, Jordan having become a second-hand shed for billionaire investors to pump-and-dump at whim until Vijay Mallya saved them at the end of 2007 and BAR fully sold into the Honda’s shares thanks to the European Union banning of tobacco sponsorship- something which has starved racing teams and youngsters of much-needed funding- F1 was changing again. Michael Schumacher was now 37 and Felipe Massa had replaced Rubens Barrichello as his right-hand man. Raikkonen had now grown tired and appeared increasingly soporific with McLaren’s reliability being worse than any other down the pitlane. With the joint worst retirement and reliability record with equally luckless Mark Webber, Maranello had seen a wonderful opportunity to snap a disgruntled Finn, who had been declared “Ferrari’s next world champion” in a F1 Racing Magazine in 2001. Luca di Montezemelo laid an ultimatum with Schumacher: the German would have to drive alongside Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari team-mate in 2007 or retire. Michael chose the latter option in an emotional post-race reception at Monza and the rest they say is history.

*****

Despite of all this, seeing Kimi’s heartbreak in the hybrid era and his changed attitude as a father-of-two has endeared me to him far more than I ever did in my teenage years. I can see he is more focused than ever and he’s a better man than he was ten years ago. If I saw lose then, I wasn’t as bothered as much then as I am now (and yes, the passion of being a hardcore Kimi fan boy is burning me out).

#f1 #Formula 1 #Formula One #fernando alonso #lewis hamilton #sebastian vettel #Kimi Raikkonen #raikkonen #vettel #Scuderia Ferrari #ferrari #mercedes #mclaren #red bull #Max Verstappen #daniel ricciardo #ricciardo #verstappen

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