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youarejesting · 3 years

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Sly like a... ? Part 7

[Master list] [Sly Master List] Beta: n/a (at the moment) Rating: All Pairing: Hybrid!BTS x FailedHybrid!Reader Genre: Hybrid au, fluff, action, adventure, angst, drama, slice of life. Some marked chapters will contain mature/smut scenes, BUT they will not have plot in those scenes and are 100% skippable without losing your place in the story. Words: 2.2k

Summary: Human’s strive to be better, faster and stronger looking to animal DNA. Thus Hybrids are born. As the rise for designer and Pedigree Hybrids increase, so do the failed attempts. There is one species scientists are unsuccessful in creating, but, folklore says they have been here all along, hiding and blending in with the humans for many millennia. How clever they are.

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Sleep broken by the whispers of scheming hybrids in your kitchen, "She loves blueberry pancakes so we are going to make them," Jimin's voice was softened and traveled like mist through the air. Your ear twitched as you pretended to be asleep a little longer not to spoil their plans. It was amazing to hear them all cooperating with one another.

There was a knock at the door and you almost laughed when he called out, "Someone gets the door before he wakes Y/n." Namjoon said Jungkook and Hoseok scurried to the door and opened it with a long and heavy shush.

"Y/n is sleeping," Hoseok whispered hushing the boy

"We are making pancakes," Jungkook explained, helping Taehyung inside, he dropped his bag and huddled with the others by the kitchen bench, you were watching them in the reflection of the television quietly bickering.

"Can I put the blueberries in?" Taehyung asked excitedly.

"Jungkook already asked to do that job," Jimin sighed, “and before you ask, Yoongi is cooking them, Namjoon added the flour, Seokjin added the eggs and Hoseok did the milk.”

“So there is nothing left to do,” Taehyung sounded so dejected, you wanted to tell him it was the thought that counts but Jimin beat you too with a job claimed only he could do.

“Go out back and get a few cute flowers, not too many and you can put it in one of the nice vases for Y/n, okay?”

The hybrid was quick to scamper out the back door in search of flowers. The sweet sizzle of pancake batter in a pan made you breathe deeply. You gave them ten minutes, you were being so considerate even though your neck was cramped.

‘Waking’ to the clatter behind you, you faked a yawn and quickly stretched sitting up, trying to appear like you hadn’t heard the whole pancake ordeal. It was cute hearing them whispering hurriedly and clamoring around behind you.

“Quickly put them on the plate?”

“Wait, put the flower on the tray too.”

“Someone, distract her,” Jimin said while you tried to check your phone inconspicuously.

“Good morning?” Hoseok smiled dragging Yoongi over, you continued ‘answering an email’ slowly scratching your head.

“Oh, Good morning, just give me a second to finish this email,” You signed off the fake email and saved it to your drafts. “Okay, all done, sorry just replying to some important emails to the school. “How are you this morning, should I make some breakfast?”

“Uh, Yoongi wanted to ask something?” Hoseok said and you paused, “Alright, what can I help you with Yoongi?”

“I was wondering if today when we go shopping if we could possibly pick up some, uh…” He looked around for something to come to mind. He seemed to be panicking and you stood up and took his hand.

“Yoongi, you know you can ask for anything right?” you rubbed his hands and looked at Hoseok and back to him, “Is this something personal you want to ask me?”

“No, it’s like that, I was wondering if I could get a CD player?” He said eyes widening at the thought.

“Would you like a CD player and CD’s or I can get you a phone and give you and pay for unlimited music then it’s portable and I can get you a nice pair of headphones?” You made sure knew his options, “It’s up to you honey?”

“Uh yeah, portable would be great,” he blushed his toes curling nervously in the fluffy rug. “If it isn’t too much? I mean it probably is, so don’t worry about it…”

“No it will be perfect for your studying to drown out the other boys and I will get you all phones anyway so we can just buy the unlimited music pass.” You smiled “I want to spoil you boys and get you everything you need and more to be comfortable especially if you are going through university, I don’t want you to think or be stressed about anything bad.”

“Good morning!” Jungkook grinned and you turned to see them all standing around the table with the a pancakes, “We made you breakfast!”

“Nice distraction,” Seokjin clapped Hoseok and Yoongi on the shoulders. You made a show of enjoying the pancakes and shared them with everyone telling them to get ready to go out as you were going to be doing a big shop.

Once everyone was strapped into the van and dressed you headed out to the store and found a park. “Alright listen to me, no matter what I will not leave anyone behind, so I would like you to walk in groups there is eight of us so let’s walk in two groups of four. Jimin will lead Namjoon, Seokjin and Taehyung, I will take Jungkook, Hoseok and Yoongi.”

But for now everyone follow me you guided them into the store, if you ever get lost please find an information desk in any store, they are marked with an i and they will make an announcement letting me know where you are. Otherwise, this is your temporary outing bracelets that have my name and number on them” You handed them out and they all grinned.

“Now that you know all of that lets go into the department store fore some clothes and such,” You handed Jimin a card and told him the budget he had and you all began exploring. They all trailed after you unwilling to part and well you were shopping in the same area. “Yoongi, this looks like it is your size, do you want to try it on for me?”

“Jungkook, these are your size, try them on too, I will be right outside” You smiled, we can talk the entire time. “They went in and you were talking to Hoseok and Taehyung who were giggling about different clothes”

“Seokjin, that’s a lovely shirt but try it on love the shoulders look a little narrow, Namjoon, that is interesting” You laughed watching Namjoon make strange outfits.

“Y/n, what about this pretty shirt?” Jimin asked passing Seokjin who took two sizes to the dressing room.

“That is from the ladies section,” Namjoon pointed at the blouse.

“Clothes aren’t gendered Joonie, you can wear any clothes in this store, I have this jacket at home and it is made for men but I look cute in it.” You explained, gesturing to the jacket and turned to Jimin “Go try it on, with these dress pants Jimin, I bet it will make you look really handsome”

Someone cleared there throat behind you and you smiled, Uh, that sweater is too big Yoongi, we will get you a smaller one and Jungkook they look really good, so if you want to find clothes in these sizes you may”

Seokjin stepped out and placed the smaller size on the returns rack and you took his shirt and placed it in your basket. Watching Hoseok and Taehyung and Namjoon head to the dressing rooms with fun styles.

“How do I look?” Jimin stepped out looking long legged and like a prince charming.

“Like an angel?” you laughed, “your hair is getting a little long do you want a cut?”

“It is a bit long isn’t it, maybe I should cut it,” He laughed fiddling with the ends.

After clothes, you went to a store for shoes and then to a restaurant for lunch. It was after lunch waiting by the toilets that Yoongi and Jungkook expressed their interest in an electronic store wanting to look at their headphones and computers. You sent them over but they walked back quickly.

“What happened?” You asked confused as to why they came back so quickly, they couldn’t have looked at the phones that quick. Their ears were pressed down and they looked upset.

“They kicked us out,” Jungkook mumbled, “They called us strays and said that we couldn’t shoplift in their store”

You told the boys to all put on their best outfits and walked over to the store when all your Hybrids finished in the bathroom, “hello, I am the owner of these Hybrids, we were looking to buy seven top-of-the-range laptops, seven phones, and a gaming console” You smiled but it was forced.

Jungkook and Yoongi’s ears were pressed back and their tail between their legs and you hummed, “which one said it?” Jungkook pointed at the young woman and man at the side of the store looking jealous.

The manager came out and you smiled, talking sweetly. He turned away and you winked at Jimin, “They said what to you, that you were strays and you couldn’t shoplift in the store, which ones said it, those two over there”

The two in the corner paled as you glared at the manager. “Your employees discriminated against my Hybrids.”

“We apologize they were not exactly dressed befitting to their stature?” the two tried to excuse themselves.

“Does that excuse you, I am sorry, but we might have to take our business elsewhere?” You growled quite annoyed, “These are highly sensitive young hybrids who have not had the best upbringing and you want to discriminate against them. Because they were dressed in different clothes than you deem allowed to be rich.”

“We sincerely apologize and we would like to offer you a deal,” The manager said, and you looked up at him, “We will give you our highest rate of insurance absolutely free and I will have my lovely employee Mister Choi hear take you to our private room’s and make you some drinks. Mister Lee and Miss Kim you can wait in my office.”

The young man took the drink orders and ran off, you took the moment to make sure your hybrids knew you weren’t upset with them.

“I am sorry I made a scene, I just don’t want anyone to ever look down on you, I want you to be respected as if you were human and I want you to know you are worth so much.” You consoled them patting their heads. “I would like to add the necessary programs for university students to have to be added to the laptops and I would like a selection of the best games for the console, I would like these phones here, I hear they have lots of colors, and I would like one of each color, so they don’t get mixed up.”

“For the seven laptops, phones and console and games I will throw in a free phone for you miss and insurance up to 13 years for every product and each laptop will be equipped with the required paid programs to help them through University.” He smiled as mister Choi came in with drinks he handed out Hot Chocolates and coffees.

“Are you Park Jimin, the billboard Calico?”

“Yes, that’s me, I can’t really autograph anything, a government rule” He laughed, “But I will let them know about the companies excellent service and sympathies in regards to the fair sale of products to Hybrids”

“Yes many companies, are quick to add secret fees on top but your documents seem to all be checking out., I could recommend the store as a source for the new expansion they will be needing a good computer system?”

The manager wiped his forehead sweating profusely, you had to hold back a scowl.

“This is tasty,” Taehyung hummed, his legs swinging back and forth on the seat, he was just enjoying his hot chocolate oblivious to the weight of your presence in the room. Catching his comment the manager looked up.

“Would you like to add the coffee machine, it really does make great hot chocolates?”

“If we add a coffee machine which would be greatly appreciated I would like to have some good quality headphones for free for the two your employees hurt with their words and a music subscription family pass for all the members on the phones..”

“That will be arranged,” He nodded, wiping his brow again, “Your total is forty thousand,” he said shocked but you expected it at almost four thousand each for the best laptop and almost two thousand for the best phones and a console and games and a coffee machine.

“And you are paying on credit?” The man asked, it was nice for you to leave with so much stuff and Yoongi was quiet on the drive home. Guiding him into his bedroom you sat him down to talk.

“Yoongi, I don’t want anyone to ever say anything about your worth alright, they have no idea how much you mean to me and how important you are” You stressed sitting beside him.

“Yeah I know this program means a lot to you and you don’t want it to go wrong so you got to keep us all happy.” He mumbled standing and walking to the door.

“Yoongi, no at the end of the day I want you guys to be happy in the moment if this program fails I want you all to have had a good time,” You tried to reason.

“Yeah before we get sent back to the slaughter.” He muttered, “Please get out,”

You took a deep breath and left the room unable to argue with Yoongi. Your eyes couldn’t help but sting as you stepped out into the hall.

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dustofbrokenheart · 3 years

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The Covenant: A Little Jealousy

Reid Garwin x Female Reader

Word Count: 1,886

Summary: Reid accompanies you to a grad student social and gets a little jealous. Inspired by @saviorsongs headcannon!

The night air was crisp and the moon shone brightly overhead. It was well into spring so you were able to go out in a thin coat and a dress without feeling the icy prick of freezing temperatures on your skin.

The two of you were on the way to a dinner social your department put together for its grad students. A chance to get to get to know one another outside of the stresses of school life. With midterms over with, you were more than ready to have some fun.

Almost immediately after getting the email, you sent in your RSVP and put Reid down for your plus one. He grumped a little when you told him but you didn’t take him too seriously. He’d be contrary even if it was something he was actually interested in, just to get a rise out of you.

Reid and you lived only a few blocks away from the restaurant district, and opted to walk instead of circling around forever trying to nab a parking spot. Streetlights lined other side of the road. There was ample lighting. Still, you somehow managed to lose your footing.

Another couple was coming the opposite direction on the sidewalk and you scooted over to make more room for them. But when you moved to the side, your foot got caught in a crack at just the right angle. Next thing you knew, your leg gave out and you were stumbling forward, arms swinging wildly in a failed attempt to regain your balance.

You thought that you were going to hit the cement, and hit it hard, but strong arms were suddenly wrapped around your waist. It was a little jarring to come to a complete stop and all the air in your lungs was pushed out.

“Whoa!” Reid exclaimed in your ear. “That was a close one.”

You craned your neck to neck at him with large eyes. He slowly lowered you back to your feet but didn’t remove his arms from you.

“Y-yeah,” you stammered, adrenaline still coursing through you. There was ringing in your ears and your muscles were like jello. “Sorry, I—I’m still a little shaken.”

He rested his chin on the top of your head. “You’re alright, babe,” he assured you, his presence a big comfort. “Now, let’s get moving. If they eat all the appetizers before we get there, I’m gonna be pissed.”

The adrenaline drained out of you instantly and there was no stopping the snort that came out of your mouth. “Gee. Thanks for the motivation.”

“I know, I know: I should really do motivational speaking for a living.”

He let you go but kept your hand in his. You started walking again and it took him by surprise that you were going faster than him. So much faster that he had to stretch his arm straight out if he wanted to keep holding your hand.

Reid squeezed your hand to get your attention. You saw his brow raised in question and you returned the squeeze to his hand. “What? I’m going to be mad, too, if we don’t get any appetizers.”

You arrived at the restaurant in no time, half speed-walking, half running the rest of the way there.

Inside the restaurant, the hostess led you upstairs to the room reserved for the department. There were a lot of familiar faces, classmates and professors alike. There were even some kids running around which added more energy to the affair.

Guided by his nose, Reid quickly found the appetizer spread on a table that lined the far wall. The choices were top notch. Egg rolls, hors d’oeuvres, and meat filled phyllo cups all made his mouth water.

And even better than the finger foods were the drinks.

“Am I dreaming? Or are they really serving alcohol here?” He pointed to some people who walked by with bottles of craft beer in hand.

“I guess,” you answered less enthused. You’d been to several conferences by that point and alcohol had been served at all of them. But you didn’t want to bring him down. “You should go see if they have your favorite.”

“I think I will… What do you want me to get you?”

You thought for a second. “I’m feeling like white wine tonight. See if they have any good selections?”

He brought your hand up to his lips to place a gentle peck to your knuckles and promised he’d be back. You shooed him away equal parts thrilled and flustered. Despite most people’s first impression of him, Reid was quite the romantic, and normally you loved him for it, but you could already feel the stares from his display.

Holding your head high, you smiled politely at the onlookers and quickly made your way to a table in the corner with familiar faces. You said hi to your friends and in turn they introduced you to their plus ones. The conversation flowed effortlessly and your table was almost obnoxiously loud in your laughter.

“So where’s the boyfriend? Or did you come by yourself?”

You turned to the body besides you. Ben and you had a friendship that went back to your first semester in the program. The two of you had been in the same orientation session and found that your personalities meshed together well.

You knew that he was genuinely interested in meeting the boy you constantly talked about. Reid, however, walked in at precisely the wrong moment and took the question as a challenge.

“The boyfriend is definitely here.”

Setting down a plate of food and your serving of wine, Reid draped his arm across your shoulders and planted a kiss on you. The use of tongue would’ve been obvious to anyone who watched, including poor Ben.

Breathless, you pulled back and Reid allowed it. He kept his arm where it was and turned to Ben with a hard grin. “Who’s this?”

You cleared your throat as if to wipe the slate clean, like swipe of an eraser on a chalk board. “Reid, this my friend and classmate Benedict. He goes by Ben for short. Ben, this is Reid, my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, we’re basically married,” Reid joked.

You elbowed him under the table and gave him a look. This was nothing for him to be jealous over.

Ben stuck his hand out but rather than shake it, Reid picked up something off of the plate and pushed a small piece into your mouth. His fingers linger on your lips as you chewed the unexpected bite. Your friend slowly lowered his hand, realizing that a hand shake would not be happening.

Unbothered, Reid chatted away. “Do you like it? I knew you would. When I saw they had some, I made sure to get a lot.”

You were put in an awkward position.

On one hand, if you paid too much attention to Ben, Reid was likely to get more territorial. On the other, if you gave into Reid’s posturing, he may feed into it and put on an even bigger air. Not to mention that Ben wasn’t stupid. He probably already figured out that Reid wasn’t a fan.

Yes. You would have to play this very delicately.

“It is really good. Thanks, baby.” He practically preened and continued to feed you. “Hey, Ben? Have you started thinking about your final project for Bird’s class yet?”

The two of you shared your respective plans for a class you were both in, Reid observing with sharp eyes.

“I feel stupid now that I know what you’re doing,” Ben confessed. “You’re so smart. Probably the smartest in our year.”

“Yeah. She is,” Reid answered before you had a chance to speak up. His jaw clenched and he pulled you slightly closer into his chest. The boys stared each other down until Ben abruptly glanced down at his stomach.

A loud, angry gurgle rang out. Ben looked horrified as he excused himself in a panic, presumably to rush to the nearest bathroom.

“Nice to meet you, Benedict.”

You figured out what was going on when you saw Reid trying to hold his laughter in. You glared at the blonde and he couldn’t control himself any longer. He wiped a tear from his eye he was giggling so hard.

“Are you crazy?” you hissed, trying to keep the volume down despite your anger. “That was totally uncalled for!”

He tried waving it off. “He’ll be fine. The spell wasn’t even a strong one.”

“First, he’s a good friend and only a friend. He didn’t deserve to crap his pants because you got jealous. Second, you promised to stop using so much.”

Still, he insisted, “It’s not a big deal,” as he reached to pick at the food plate.

Not backing down, you took a grape from him and flung it at his face. He rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Seriously? He’ll be fine in ten, fifteen minutes max. Until then, he can think about how douchey it is to flirt with other people’s girlfriends.”

Flirting? At what point was any of that considered flirting? “Just because someone gives me a compliment, doesn’t mean they’re interested in that way.”

At last he deflated a little. Scratched the back of his neck where skin met blonde locks. “Okay, maaaybe I overreacted…but can you blame me? You’re amazing and I’m just a guy that manages to screw up all the time.”

Reid was a great guy, no question about it, but his self-doubt got the best of him sometimes. Being the “black sheep” of the family and the Sons left him with insecurities that he still worked through. Getting him to admit he was wrong was always half of the battle. Once he did, it was a simple matter of reassuring him.

“Hey,” you said as you stroked the back of his hand. “How many times have we had this talk? I’m not going anywhere.”

“Not even for Benedict?” he pouted.

“Not even for Ben,” you answered, pulling him into a hug. “And why are you so hung up on calling him by his full name?”

Reid scoffed. “It’s so pretentious. He definitely comes from old money.”

“Umm, baby, you come from old money. Is that the pot calling the kettle black?”

He muttered so you couldn’t make out what he said.

“Okay, how about we make a deal,” you offered. He lifted his head, seemingly interested. “You apologize for your behavior when Ben comes back—and you’d better call him Ben. You do that and I’ll give you a reward when we get home.”

To show him the kind of reward you meant, you kissed the corner of his mouth, your finger trailing up his thigh. His eyes widened, the black of his pupil dilated in normal, non-magical way. Oh, he was undeniably down to agree to the deal.

You gave hi one last peck. “Now remember: Ben. Not Benedict.”

“I don’t know. Benedict has more of a ring to it—” He stopped mid-sentence when you glared. “Fine. I’ll be nice to Ben.”

He may be a dramatic goof, but he was your dramatic goof. And if he needed a reminder every now and then, along with some tough love, then you were happy to do it.

“Good boy,” you said with a big smile.

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Hopefully I did jealous Reid justice! I haven’t written him in a while so I hope he’s not too off the mark. Older Reid still has childish impulses when he gets jealous but he is mature enough to admit when he’s in the wrong now. And even though Pogue is the head foodie, I think all the boys are big eaters with the magic use and working out.

Thanks for reading :)

#the covenant #reid garwin #reid garwin x reader #imagines

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allforthecourtt · 4 years

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the foxes as shit i pulled in 4th year university

well folks... believe it... or not... i... FINISHED MY FUCKIN DEGREE WOO and so it is time for the annual post. (i cannot believe i’ve been doing this shit for 4 years) this follows my shit i pulled in high school, in first year, in second year, and in third year. the biggest plot twist to all of this is that i pulled all this shit and still earned an honours degree with distinction and got into an MA next year. so the real advice is study hard, and fuckin party harder. if i can do it, so can you. i love all of u and thank you for always being entertained by my uni hijinks. one last time, here we goooooooo

Matt Boyd: accidentally had a matching tattoo with one of my students (i really wish this was a joke)

Dan Wilds: prof that i TA’d for said that exam rooms have “a negative energy” and i said “I can’t believe you just vibe checked this exam” and then had to spend a full 10 minutes explaining him what a vibe check is while our students were writing their final exam

Kevin Day: got a rejection from a college grad program that i’d applied to. I emailed them back and told them they were wrong and the next day I received an acceptance.

Alison Reynolds: i was running a crafts station at work on valentines day and this kid goes “do you have a boyfriend?” and i said “no, not right now.” and this kid goes “oh so you’re like alone on valentines day? that sucks” and i’ve never been read harder or faster by a child

Renee Walker: one of my students asked me a very intelligent and deeply philosophical question about the nature of war being the main catalyst for change in history and i answered with an eloquent “shit, dude, that’s like really hard to answer.”

Aaron Minyard: i worked on my birthday and during that shift i told a FULLY adult woman she couldn’t do something and she had the audacity to say “but it’s my birthday!” and before i could stop myself i said “ma’am you cannot imagine how much i don’t care.”

Andrew Minyard: told my landlord that she was committing class warfare when she spelled my name wrong on my rent receipts. she did not find it funny.

Seth Gordon: had a twitter thread planning for FOUR years only for me not to be able to complete it because of a fuckin pandemic

Nicky Hemmick: referred to the medicalization of masturbation in the victorian era as the “OG no nut november” and my prof made me explain what that is to the class. it was as awful as it sounds.

Bonus Nicky: managed to get half my department on twitter to back me up (aka bully my prof into approving) my request to let me give my paper a joke title and not loose any marks

Coach Wymack: a student sent me an email in response to their grades that just said :(

Neil Josten: managed to survive no matter what life, my degree, and god kept throwing at me. just try to kill me bitch. i am simply unwilling to die.

#:'(#the end of an era #gonna miss this stupid tradition #i say as though im not going to do a 'shit i pulled during my MA'#aftg #all for the game #tfc #the foxhole court

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aal-archaeology · 4 years

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Ph.D. Applications for Anthropology/ Humanities/ Social Sciences (with examples from a success story)

Doing a Ph.D. is a really scary thought. Especially in humanities and social sciences. Especially in today’s job market.

Here I’m going to speak a little about my approach to Ph.D. applications, why I chose to do what I did, and how I put it all together including examples.

1. The Doubt

After coming out of my Master's degree, I already had a year of research set up, so I didn’t have to think about jobs like all of my friends I had made during that degree. I watched many of them struggle to find a job offer. Some were successful in attaining a job in Cultural Resource Management, a couple got smaller jobs in local museums, but for the most part it induced a lot of stress to have come out of a Master’s degree with no prospects.

How I imagined my future at that time: I knew I didn’t want to work in a museum, I knew I didn’t like Cultural Resource Management, I knew that after all this hard work I didn’t want to end up underpaid somewhere doing data entry.

A Ph.D. has always been something that I wanted. Ever since entering the Anthropology discipline, I imagined myself working towards becoming a Professor.

Here’s what I was told when I started to consider a Ph.D. Program:

“Don’t do it” (said by someone who already had her Ph.D.)

“I wish I had gone into something with more money, even after my Ph.D. its been difficult to find stable work”

“If you’re doing a Ph.D. in social sciences, ONLY go if you are fully funded, otherwise it is not worth the financial debt”

“Most people don’t get in their first try, that's why people apply to 10+ schools”

Coming up with a plan: After hearing this, I came up with a couple different options. Plan A: Apply to Ph.D. programs, if I get into one my first try and it's fully funded then I’ll do it. Plan B: Find a job in Environmental consulting, I could put my GIS experience to use, make some money, and then try again for a Ph.D. later down the road if I wanted. Plan C: Move to Japan and live out my weeb dreams (I’m part Japanese and have a lot of family there so this wasn’t as crazy as it sounds).

I was genuinely okay with any of these options. They all involve things that I enjoy, none of them are bad options, none of them would feel like “failure” if I ended up not getting into a program. I think this step is very important because it forces you to figure out what you care about, and allows you to be open to change if plan A doesn’t work out.

2. Choosing a Program to Apply to

I knew that I didn’t just want to apply anywhere. Getting a job outside of a PhD is already hard enough, and I wanted the school that I chose to reflect the work that I would put into it. As much as we want to think that name brands don’t matter when it comes to education, it sure as heck does help when it comes to opportunity and being selected amongst 100′s to 1000′s of applicants. Therefore, why not shoot for the stars? What’s the harm in trying. For this reason, I decided to only apply to schools that:

Had a prestigious name

Had a program that supported what I wanted to study and allowed for cross-disciplinary research (Digital Archaeology focused on SE Asia)

Had an advisor that had done research paralleled to mine (whether that included SE Asia or just Digital Archaeology in general).

I started research into programs with the Ivies and went down from there, also cross-comparing programs that had been ranked as best schools for studying Anthropology.

At the time of researching, the programs that stood out the most to me were:

Stanford (ideal because it was close-ish to home, fully funds their Phd students for 5 years, has opportunity for additional funding, had professor working with digital archaeology in Asia)

Harvard (had professor working in Digital Archaeology though it wasn’t in my preferred region, also has good funding, and its Harvard)

U Chicago (traditionally one of the top schools for Anthropology, however I had heard that a lot of this is because of “legacy” professors, and not much has come out of the department in recent years. Did not have someone specifically in my region of focus)

ASU (Also considered one of the top Anthropology schools, but funding is often fought for between students)

UC Berkeley (Had professors studying Asia, but it is a public school and also has limited guaranteed funding)

I sent e-mails to advisors that I thought I could support my research (this was probably around May, when applications are due Sep-Dec).

Hello Professor______,

My name is _______ and I am interested in applying to ________’s Doctoral program in Archaeology beginning in the fall of 2020. I would like to inquire whether you are accepting graduate students for this period, as my research interests align well with your research. I received my B.A. in __________ from _________ in 2017 and am currently _______. [Enter what you’re doing now, and any relevant experience that shows what you’re interested in researching]. [Enter something about their research, and why you’re interested in working with them/why you think you would work well with them]. I am eager to continue along this path and I feel as though your experience with _______could provide an interesting opportunity for future research. I would also be interested in working with [enter any other faculty that have similar interests, this shows that you’ve done some research into the program and the school in general] For your convenience, I have attached my CV here. If you have the time, I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you further about the program and future research.

Best,

Full name

I also researched the financial aid provided to incoming Ph.D. students. After doing this, the only schools that sounded good to me were Stanford and Harvard.

Yeah, I know, only applying to Stanford and Harvard was a “big risk,” but this is how I thought about it:

I don’t want to commit to a Phd program for 5+ years if it's not fully funded, doesn’t have a big name, and isn’t going to guarantee opportunity after graduating.

I wanted an environment where I knew I could be happy under immense amounts of pressure (California by family, Boston by friends).

If I didn’t get in, I had back up options that honestly sounded really fun to me, so I was okay with pursuing those instead.

I didn’t want a Ph.D. just to have a Ph.D., I wanted a degree that would set me apart from others so that I could give myself the best chance for success afterward. I wanted one that, if pursued, could lead me to become a professor.

So I applied to 2 Schools.

I got scolded for this by many people... but whatever...I got in, so ha. Why spend money and time on an application for a school that you don’t really want to go to? :P

3. Applying to a Program

What an application looks like:

1. At least 3 recommendation letters:

Mine were:

Undergraduate Anthropology Advisor who has been helping me throughout the years with grant applications, etc. She knows me well, can speak well to my accomplishments. She is also a very well decorated anthropologist.

Undergraduate Professor of Geography who can speak to my GIS coursework. I’ve been updating him with my whereabouts and successes since graduating, so we have kept in touch regularly since taking his course.

My Master's dissertation advisor (he stressed me out submitting his letter 3 hours before the deadline >:| )

It’s good to have your recommendation letters come from people within the academic world. These people can write on your ability to achieve your research goals, your drive, etc. It’s okay to have maybe one letter from a workplace environment, however, it’s best to get as much street cred as you can from these letters, and this comes from Professors that know what they’re doing.

2. Curriculum Vitae (C.V.): This is important because it shows everything you’ve accomplished up to this point. This is how mine was set up:

Full Name, Current Position, Email, Phone Number

Education: University Name, City, Degree in ____

Publications: In Edited Volumes, Journal Articles, Manuscripts in Preparation

Conference and Workshop Participation: Papers, Presentations

Grants, Awards, and Fellowships:

Research Experience: Project Roles, Fieldwork

Teaching Experience

Additional Employment History

Leadership and Extracurriculars

Skills/Languages

A C.V. is a list of EVERYTHING you’ve done in your career, unlike a resume which is tailored to the specific job that you’re applying to. If you’d like a specific example, send me a DM.

3. Personal Statement: This is where you tell them why you want to be there and what makes you qualified. Why should they consider you?

Personal Statement Example

1st paragraph, introduce the program and your research interests: I am applying to _____ for admission to the Ph.D. program in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology. My research interests are to explore [the consequences of ..... on the environment and human responses to environmental change] in [region of the world], and how these actions of the past can be visualized through the use of remote sensing and GIS applications to archaeology.

2nd paragraph, why you’re interested in what you’re doing: I learned the value of digital applications in archaeology through my undergraduate and master’s degree. [Digital archaeology] is appealing to me because [.........]. I first became interested in [example of why you’re interested in the topic/what inspires you]. After witnessing this, I began to seek out opportunities to partake in similar research.

3rd and 4th paragraph, what makes you qualified to pursue this degree?: I have many research experiences that qualify my pursuit of a Ph.D. dedicated to using digital methods in Anthropological research. [Talk about your undergrad experience, do some name-dropping of professors you’ve worked with], [why did these experiences inspire you to take the next step?], [how are you where you are now because of them?]

5th paragraph, what are you doing now?

6th paragraph, why this school in particular?: This is where you name drop the professor you are interested in working with, talk about how their research aligns well with yours by mentioning specific things that they’ve done such as theoretical approaches. What are you interested in doing that would fit well within this program? Are there any facilities on campus that you are particularly eager to work with? Show that you’ve done your research.

7th paragraph, what do you plan to do after you get your Ph.D. from this institution?: With goals of continuing archaeological research in ________ and expanding off the networks that I have established in _______, ________’s doctoral program in Anthropology is the ideal match to further my career as a Digital/Landscape Archaeologist. The Ph.D. in Anthropology at _______ allows for _________[reasons why you like the program]. Ultimately, my postgraduate goals are to remain in academia by continuing research and gaining a university faculty position. My foundation in archaeology gained in my undergraduate, graduate, and ______experiences have equipped me with a unique set of abilities to offer to ______’s Anthropology graduate program, and I look forward to the opportunity to exchange ideas with faculty and students alike.

Have your resume and statement looked over by as many eyes as you possibly can. It took me a good 6-10 revisions before settling on something that I liked.

4. Let the professors that you’ve been in contact with know

This puts you at the front of their minds when application review comes around. They’ll be like “oh yeah, this person messaged me about this.” I hadn’t spoken to the professors that I reached out to since those first few exchanges back in May, so sending this message was very valuable to remind them of my existence.

This email can be as simple as: Hi Professor ____, I hope you have been well since we last spoke. I am writing to inform you that I have submitted my application to _______. Since our last chat I’ve been [whatever you’re up to now that's relevant]. I look forward to hearing from _____ soon. Best, Me.

5. Productive Waiting

Yay, you’ve submitted! That was hard, but you made it through. Time to start diving into those other plans you’ve been thinking about. What will you do if you get into your top school? What will you do if you don’t get into your top, but you do get into your 2nd or 3rd choice? What if you don't get into any of them?

Remember that none of these options are bad, and in this world, you have to be open to change and welcome it. A Ph.D. is a really long commitment, and it doesn’t have to happen right away.

If you get in, accept only if:

It has the research you’re looking for

It has an advisor that’s supportive of what you’re doing

It’s transparent about what it offers its students

The current students are happy with the culture of the program and quality of life

The location is something you're comfortable with (for me having family nearby was a very important factor)

The money you are offered is enough to live the lifestyle you need to maintain good mental health

There is an opportunity for networking and expansion of your research outside of the university

As always, feel free to reach out with any questions at @aal.archaeology on Instagram or DM here! I’m happy to share my documents with you.

Happy writing!

-Lyss

390 notes · View notes

angesaurus · 4 years

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We found out Max has a heart murmur. Nothing we can really do about it. She also confirmed he has arthritis (which I figured). He doesn’t seem to be in pain but he’s so slow and rickety. So we’re just going to keep an eye on him. She didn’t want to pull teeth because she said that it wouldn’t prolong his life or anything - just again to keep an eye on his mouth. Poor dog is old.

Work has been testing my patience and I’m exhausted. No one ever seems to want to go the extra mile and everything comes down to my department and my managers manager constantly says yes to everyone and then it lands on me and my manager. The girl I have been training is lovely but she has zero critical thinking skills and questions everything.

At the school board meeting Monday they showed a video that interviewed a couple teachers and students about how absolutely amazing virtual learning is! I commented asking if they would interview families who are struggling because while this video is nice it my child is not getting the education being advertised. I had been typing up an email to send to the teacher as well that I haven’t sent yet. Well gusss who saw the comment. 🥴 so we’re going to have a meeting about my concerns. I’m just going to be honest with her. I don’t feel like he’s learned anything. He’s bored. He (kindergarten really) needs more individual attention this way. She has broken his spirit a little. He tells me he hates school now. We have tears almost daily. He went from such an engaging program to being bored - but being bored is a part of life, according to her and he needs to deal with it. I never want my 5 year old to think life and school should be boring. I’m making Dan do the meeting with us too because he’s a teacher and has that perspective. We’re just.. really concerned that he’s not being challenged and so he’s taking some drastic decreases in social and emotional health. I see it already. It’s scary. I’ve been considering reaching out to the counselor. We had filled out a survey about it and I ended up putting “check in a few weeks” rather than “let’s set up a meeting” because I was trying to be positive. But I might see how the meeting goes and then schedule something. It’s not fair to Gavin to feel so bored and think of school as a punishment. And I really believe the teacher needs to work on how she relays info and talks to the kids. She seems impressed with how much he knows - but then why is the school not offering more challenging material or small groups? They’re claiming their virtual program is amazing! It’s not perfect but it’s amazing! Also they said screen time is minimal for k-4 and they specifically engineered it that way. I’m sorry, 4 hours of screen time is NOT minimal. I speak to other moms almost daily (Facebook chat lol) and we all agree on all of the above. I just feel like he’s losing that spark so early and it’s so not fair. So that should be interesting.

On a positive note, using the treadmill, eating low carb, trying to not stress.

29 notes · View notes

troutfishinginmusic · 3 years

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The story of Grass Records: From Brainiac to Wind-Up and Creed

Images via Grass of ’96 compilation

Everything isn’t available in the streaming era. There are notable gaps in the seemingly bottomless amount of music currently available. Some of the most noticeable exclusions are albums released on Grass Records.

If you’re a fan of ’90s indie music, this short-lived New York label mattered. Though sometimes dismissed as a sibling label to Homestead Records, Grass released over 60 full-length albums ranging from pop to punk to noise to experimental music. It raised the profile of influential bands like Brainiac, Toadies and the Wrens.

The amazing thing about the label is how consistent it is. Every time I thought I was done with this article, I would listen to a band like Baboon and be completely blown away. These are all fascinating, idiosyncratic bands. This is more incredible considering the label was only around for about four years.

Much of this music is hard to find. The odd song might be lingering on YouTube, but you’re almost better off looking at your local record store or ordering from Discogs.

Why are the albums in this weird limbo? Mostly because the monied interest who bought the label in 1996 thought it wasn’t yielding a big enough return on the investment. Grass was gutted and rebranded into post-grunge/nu metal giant Wind-Up. Money poured in and these wonderfully weird records were swept to the side.

The following interviews were conducted via email, Facebook messenger and phone over the last few months. Quotes from the interviews have been edited for style/clarity. I’m eternally grateful to everyone who got back to me. I am also willing to expand this story if more former Grass artists want to reach out. If you’re one of these artists, my email is at the bottom of this story.

Seedlings

“I started in the music business purely by chance,” said Camille Sciara, who founded Grass Records.

Sciara got her start working at Record World in New York as a second job and became friendly with the store’s buyer. After attending a manager training program, she moved on to become a manager of the store. Her second job became her first.

“Then, after two years there, I became bored managing a record store and my friend Mike, the buyer, told me about Dutch East India,” Sciara said. “I started there as a salesperson and, after a year of sales, became the buyer when that position opened up. I never envisioned starting a label.”

While working as a buyer at Dutch East India Trading a friend sent her a Toadies cassette. She “loved it” and started Grass in 1993 to release it.

Grass released the Toadies EP Pleather soon after, which contained an early version of the band’s inescapable alternative hit “Possum Kingdom.” After Pleather, the band scored a major label deal with Interscope. The platinum-selling Rubberneck arrived in 1994.

“They did really well on their first major release,” Sciara said in an email interview. “But then it appeared that Interscope just dropped the ball or lost interest. They were such a great band live, I never understood how they weren't huge stars. And super cool people.”

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Tall grass

Sciara would go on to sign unique and influential bands like Brainiac and The Wrens.

“Since I had never run a label before, I was going purely on how much I liked what they submitted,” Sciara said. “Obviously not the best business model for running a label, but for the money we offered it worked to some respect. The longer I ran the label, the more I understood what was needed from them [the bands] regarding can they tour etc.”

There were few bands of the 90s that radiated weirdo energy as brightly and brilliantly as Brainiac. The documentary Transmissions from Zero chronicles the significant impact the band had on the music scene at the time. It also shows a band on the brink of mainstream success. Brainiac released two albums on Grass, Smack Bunny Baby and Bonsai Superstar, before departing for Touch & Go. The band’s forward motion was sadly cut short by Tim Taylor’s death in 1997. Prior to this, Interscope was expressing interest in the band.

“If Tim hadn't passed I'm pretty sure they'd have been the biggest [band on the label],” Sciara said.

Original Brainiac guitarist Michelle Bodine said Grass’ association with Dutch East India made the label initially attractive.

“[Camille] was super excited about us and we had total creative freedom,” Bodine said. “We also liked the 2-record deal with the option of 3 contract.”

After leaving Brainiac, Bodine would go on to play guitar and sing in O-Matic. The band released its lone album Dog Years in 1996. The album is one of the overlooked gems of the ’90s.

The Wrens’ influence reverberated in more subtle ways. The band’s first two albums, Silver (1994) and Secaucus (1996), provided a blueprint for much of the post-Pixies landscape of ’90s indie rock. They could’ve been much bigger, but still made a significant impression.

“The depth of realization in this record is unparalleled: every angle is perfected,” Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber said about Secaucus. The band’s third long awaited album, Meadowlands, dropped in 2001 and received a “Best New Music” tag from the same publication.

Rumblings of a follow-up to Meadowlands have been thrown around for the last 10 years, but a record has yet to materialize.

The level of talent the label had was staggering. A few groups Sciara thought would be bigger ranged from the Irish dream-pop band Chimera to Georgia punk band Sunbrain. “There's more, it would be long list,” Sciara said.

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New shoots

Baltimore

Baltimore punk band Liquor Bike had released one album before signing a two-record deal with Grass. The band’s first release on the label was Neon Hoop Ride in 1993. Liquor Bike was excited to be on the label because of the Homestead Records connection.

“We loved being on Grass, we toured like crazy,” singer/guitarist David Koslowski said. “We had great booking with Creature Booking.”

Between the booking agency, which had done work with Nirvana, Helmet, the Lunachicks and Jesus Lizard; and the new label things were looking up for the band. The band would have posters up in whatever towns they were playing in and mentions in the local paper. The label would keep them up to date if they had to do things like impromptu radio interviews. When they got off the road, they entered the studio to record The Beauty of Falling Apart. During this time Alan Meltzer, who bought the label from Sciara in 1996, entered the picture.

“At the onset we were pretty psyched because this guy’s got major label distribution,” Koslowski said.

It also helped that Sciara stayed on after the transition.

“We could still work with Camille, who we love,” Koslowski said. “We slept at Camille’s house when we would play up in New York. She’s an amazingly nice, sweet person and very giving.”

Koslowski said the band was given significantly more to record the follow-up based on buzz the band was getting at the time. J Robbins, of Jawbox and Burning Airlines fame, did the cover art and Drew Mazurek produced the album. The band even hired John Lay, who had previously worked with Squeeze, to manage the band.

“By that point we were having decent guarantees,” Koslowski said. “Those two years when I was on Grass I barely worked a real job. I wasn’t making a rockstar living or anything, but I was certainly able to pay my rent and utilities.”

Liquor Bike went on tour with Gas Huffer to promote the forthcoming record. On the tour Koslowski noticed there weren’t posters out and the band didn’t receive write-ups in the local press. To make matters worse, they never received CDs of The Beauty of Falling Apart to sell at shows. Koslowski said Grass had promised this.

“We were pretty confused," Koslowski said. “I mean our record had been mastered already, everything had been sent to the factory.”

Lay soon informed the band Sciara had been fired and the band had been dropped. Koslowski said the band decided to stay on the tour even after being kicked off the label. The band had old records and T-shirts to sell. They had put a lot of work into the tour and didn’t want to waste it.

Liquor Bike eventually released its third album on Merkin after failed meetings with Amphetamine Reptile, Columbia and Interscope. It was the band’s last before the members went their separate ways.

Seade was another band on on Grass that was unfortunately overlooked. Their lone album (Perf) is an underrated ’90s classic.

Prior to Meltzer, Koslowski said that he didn’t think there was any favoritism toward any one band despite the label being so prolific.

“I just think the woman loved music and wanted to spread that out to people,” Koslowski said of Sciara. “I think she legitimately wanted to help people, you know, help these bands out. She was nothing but giving.”

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Omaha

Mousetrap, an Omaha-based punk band, hoped to initially get a deal with Homestead when it sent in two 7” singles.

“Camille really liked our singles and got in touch with us.” Patrick Buchanan, Mousetrap’s singer/guitarist said in an email interview. “We developed a great relationship with her, and eventually she offered to sign us — we were given the opportunity to sign either with Homestead OR with Grass, which was a brand-new label at the time.”

Buchanan said the band thought it would possibly get overlooked in Homestead’s large stable of well-established bands and decided to sign with Grass. He also said Sciara made a large difference.

“Camille was one of the coolest people we had ever met in ‘the business’ – she just seemed really genuine, straightforward and honest,” he said. “Those are the types of people we wanted to work with. So our relationship with Camille was probably the main thing that made us sign with Grass.”

Mousetrap would go on to release three albums on the label, starting with Cerebral Revolver in 1993. The band was a big influence on Commander Venus, an Omaha band featuring a young Connor Oberst.

“They were definitely a big deal in Omaha and everybody loved them,” Oberst said of Mousetrap in an episode of the Turned Out a Punk podcast earlier this year.

Commander Venus came in contact with Grass through Mousetrap. The band signed to the label when Oberst was only 14. The band also featured Rob Nansel, who would go on to co-found Saddle Creek Records. Oberst said the band recorded its first album, Do You Feel At Home, in 1995.

“That was a good experience and a learning experience,” Oberst said. “I also think it kind of made it more apparent that even if you do get an opportunity like that, you know, you’re a little fish in a big pond. And maybe people aren’t going to work as hard or care about it.”

He said that this was mitigated by having the support system of a local scene in Omaha. The band ended up releasing its 1995 debut on Lumberjack, which later became Saddle Creek. The band released one more album, The Uneventful Vacation, before Oberst formed Bright Eyes.

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Promoting growth

Alan Meltzer came into the picture with a retail background. He had previously owned Titus Oaks Records in Long Island. He went on to found CD One Stop in 1985, which was purchased by Alliance in 1993. Meltzer became Alliance’s president during this time but left the company in 1995. Meltzer acquired Grass in 1995 from Dutch East India Trading (the label’s owner/distributor), finalizing major label distribution through BMG in 1996.

“When I heard the Grass repertoire, I almost fell down,” Meltzer said in a 1996 Billboard Magazine article. “I heard so much good material.”

“Alan was shopping around looking to purchase an established label with an extensive catalog that he could pour endless money into,” Sciara said. “He originally wanted Homestead Records. A great label owned by Dutch East as well. But once he saw the contracts and issues with some of the ‘grey’ areas in them, he then moved on to Grass.”

Meltzer did have some legitimate interest in the label as an artistic venture.

“He absolutely was obsessed with the Wrens once he heard them and Commander Venus,” Sciara said. “He was sure with all his resources, money and big ass staff he could make them huge stars. He failed. Not the bands’ fault.”

Grass would have the name (and credibility) of an indie, but the corporate reach of a major. Meltzer looked at the new situation as the best of both worlds.

“We’re not a major label, but we’re not an undercapitalized, disorganized independent that’s out there on a wing and prayer,” Meltzer said. “We’re somewhere in the middle. We’re staffed, we have the organization, and we’ve got the know-how. I opted for major distribution because the majors are better at it.”

Grass kept Sciara on as a VP of A&R (artists and repertoire) and expanded Grass’ workforce to 20 in-house employees, according to the Billboard article. The label’s future looked bright. Bodine left Brainiac and formed O-Matic (also signed to Grass) when the change happened.

“…It seemed better – they had a nice office in Manhattan with an open stairwell area and glass walls,” Bodine said. “It was very modern and cool. The budget was much bigger. They hired more people and we felt like we had a good support system.”

“When we went there it felt like money,” Koslowski said.

Koslowski only met Meltzer once at a Grass Christmas party.

“He was a typical New York money guy when I met him,” Koslowski said. “I didn’t get a good vibe. He didn’t have that indie spirit that Camille had unfortunately.”

The meeting didn’t go well.

“I remember drinking a bit and messing with him,” Koslowski said. “I said ‘hey Alan I wanted to see if I could run this by you. You know that new Liquor Bike record we’re working on? We got the artwork but we just wanted to run the title by you and make sure it’s cool. We want to call it Eat My Fuck Asshole.’”

Meltzer and his wife were horrified, according to Koslowski.

Yellowing, patchy

In an oral history with Stereogum, Wrens bassist and singer Kevin Whelan said the band was picking up steam.

“So Secaucus came out and it started to do somewhat well and “Surprise Honeycomb” was starting to get recognized and played on different shows, and we thought that international fame was around the corner,” Whelan said.

And then the call came in.

“He [Meltzer] said, ‘Well, boys, I’m not going to give you any more money. If you don’t sign with me today, it’s over.’ So, I remember, we sat in the van, we looked at the empty gas tank and we were like, ‘Well, I guess we’re not signing, let’s get the credit cards out and see how we can get home.’”

According to the Wrens’ website bio, Meltzer wasn’t pleased.

“[Meltzer], infuriated, commences layoffs of involved record company personnel and vows that ‘the next band to walk through that door will be made famous – at any cost,’” the bio states. “The next band through the door is Creed. Grass Records becomes Wind-Up Records. Creed becomes famous at any cost.”

By the time of the Wind-Up transition, Moustrap had already fulfilled its contract when it released its third album The Dead Air Sound System.

“At that time, Mousetrap was not very active,” Buchanan said. “I think we had become rather disheartened by how much time and love we put into the band, while getting very little recognition on any type of national level. At that point we were physically and mentally exhausted by constant touring and recording, with very little in the way of tangible success to show for it. So we didn’t really have any relationship with the label by the time it became Wind-Up.”

When the label wasn’t as successful as Meltzer thought, he brought in Steve Lerner. This was effectively the end of Grass Records.

“I was let go along with 8 to 10 others when Meltzer brought in Steve Lerner to run the company,” Sciara said. “The new staff felt Grass was too much related to me so hence a name change.”

“With Lerner serving as his right-hand man, the duo transformed Wind-up into a $100 million-plus sales operation with multi-platinum acts like Evanescence and Creed,” a 2007 Billboard article said.

Death, new high-yield crops

Grass was rebranded as Wind-Up, a key player in the nu metal and post-grunge universe, in 1997. Many of the Grass bands were dropped to make room for the likes of Finger Eleven, Creed and Evanescence. Meltzer, who ran the label with his wife at the time Diana, finally found his cash machine.

“I was extremely happy because, although Creed was a mega-seller and saved his label, I wanted nothing to do with that and the direction the label was taking,” Sciara said. “Not knocking it. You need artists like that to sustain a label that had an enormous payroll and nice offices. I totally get it, it’s a business. But I was happy running a small label with smaller contacts and cooler bands that didn't have to compromise their sound to write a ‘hit.’ That’s what he was always looking for.”

The transition to Wind-Up in 1997 did have some overlap with former Grass artists. The second Commander Venus album was released by Wind-Up and Thick (with a later release on Saddle Creek). Pollen, a rough-edged pop-punk act that had released two albums on Grass, dropped Peach Tree on Wind-Up. Baboon’s sophomore album Secret Robot Control was also released in 1997 on the new label.

Slowpoke’s Virgin Stripes, the final vestige of Grass Records, was a co-release with DGC in 1998. The album didn’t break the band, but it’s not a stretch to imagine it could have (especially since it boasted a song as infectious as “Belladonna”). The album retains some of band’s outsider noisy energy, but delivers it in a package palatable enough for the post-grunge crowd. Past this point, Wind-Up focused mostly on its new sound.

Koslowski didn’t initially know Wind-Up was the successor to Grass. One day someone mentioned to him that he was labelmates with Creed.

“I was like ‘wow, OK I guess he got his hit,’” Koslowski said.

Meltzer died in 2011 at 67. He made headlines by leaving $1 to his chauffeur and $500,000 to his doorman. Bodine saw this as frustrating because of how he left things with other Grass bands.

“He owed lots of bands money so it’s just really fucked up that he didn’t pay them/us. Liquor Bike did get theirs before he died only because they were persistent,” said Bodine.

In 2013 Wind-Up was purchased by Bicycle Music Company with distribution by Concord Music Group. In 2015 the two companies merged to form Concord Bicycle Music. Craft Recordings manages the label’s reissues.

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Rare strain

Aside from Brainiac and The Wrens, many of the bands on the label aren’t on streaming platforms. The physical releases on Grass are mostly out of print. A sea of fantastic experimental indie music remains in this gray area. This doesn’t seem to be changing.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t a clue about if there are plans of Wind-Up re-releasing any back catalog,” Sciara said. “It’s sad really. Holding peoples’ artistic work hostage or just ignoring it seems cruel. Hopefully Wind-Up did the right thing and gave them back their masters, rights etc. Or at least license it to someone else to release.”

The three Mousetrap albums are stuck in this place.

“I wish more people had the chance to hear our music, so yeah I wish it was easily available,” said Buchanan. “Sure, we wanted to be popular — but the most important thing for us was that we made the music we wanted to make. We always did things our way — for ourselves, with no regrets. So even if the albums are harder to get, we’ll always have the memories — and those who were there to witness it will, too.”

Liquor Bike’s lawyer was able to secure the master tapes and artwork for The Beauty of Falling Apart with no questions asked. The band also has the master tapes for Neon Hoop Ride.

“Crazily enough, Grass did not make us buy Beauty of Falling Apart from them,” Koslowski said. “I have heard from some of my fellow Grass artists that they wanted to charge an incredible amount of money.”

Neon Hoop Ride was remastered and briefly available on streaming services. The album was only available digitally and did not get a physical rerelease.

Greener pastures

Following her departure from Grass, Sciara started Ten23 (Oct. 23, 1996 was the day she was fired from Grass). The label released The Wren’s EP 1135 before folding.

“It seemed like a great idea,” she said. “Didn't put out anything else after that release. It was an expensive endeavor starting a label from scratch, so to speak, and at the time I was unemployed.”

From there she went on to work at the Knitting Factory label group and eventually Narnack Records. She uprooted from N.Y. to move to L.A. to work at the latter. She eventually ended up back in N.Y. where she was a manager at Petland Discounts for 12 years until it closed in 2019.

Buchanan has gone on to release music as Vicious Lovers. Mousetrap has plans to release new music for the first time in 20 years according to Buchanan. Some of Mousetrap’s music can be streamed here:

Michelle Bodine went on to play guitar in Shesus, which was signed to Narnack. The band released an album and an EP before splitting up. Bodine has since been participating in Brainiac reunion shows and was featured in the Brainiac documentary Transmissions from Zero.

David Koslowski went on to play in the post-rock band Vivid Low Sky and the power-pop band Gerty. He currently owns a coffee shop/record store in Baltimore called Baby’s on Fire.

“I loved every aspect of being on Grass, except for the very end,” Koslowski said. “I also loved how diverse Camille had the label. A lot of friends from that time from those bands, I’m still friends with them. It was like a really cool little group of people that all got to share in something for as brief of a time period as it was.”

If you have questions, information or concerns I can be reached at [email protected].

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article spelled David’s last name as Kozlowski. It’s actually Koslowski. Also, J. Robbins just did the cover art for the band’s third album. Drew Mazurek actually produced it. Godplow is a great band but they’re from Minneapolis, not Baltimore.

#grassrecords #indie #90s #brainiac #thewrens #mousetrap #liquorbike #baboon #toadies #omatic

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ddagent · 4 years

Note

Love the podcast prompt fill! If you decide to continue on with this one, this reader would be happy!!

Thank you so much! I am overwhelmed by the response to the podcast verse, so much so that I had to write a sequel! Prompt #91, here we go!

B: You are listening to The Bear and the Poorly Written Maiden. This podcast contains strong language, violence, and explicit sexual content.

J: The complete opposite of Brienne’s undergraduate degree.

(rustling sound)

B: Really? We’re barely ten seconds in and already you’re picking on me.

J: Fine, fine, I’ll be nice. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to The Bear and the Poorly Written Maiden. And good evening to you, Bee. How’s your week been?

B: I saw you this morning for breakfast.

J: I know, but the listeners don’t know that. Also, you should say that you saw me earlier today. Saying you saw me for breakfast will make people think we’re sleeping together.

B: Oh please, like anyone would think we would be sleeping together.

J: It’s a podcast, Bee, they don’t know what either of us look like. Not that there’s…not that there’s anything wrong with how you look. You look…fine.

B: I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.

J: Aren’t you going to say something nice about me?

B: You’re a lot less annoying than when we first met.

(laughter)

J: I honestly thought you were going to kill me that first week.

B: Well Cat…I mean, Cee, our head of department and my doctoral adviser, told me I was better off waiting for you to drop out, or move to a less rigorous study program.

J: Nice to know she had faith in me from the very first day.

B: (shocked gasp) You…you…okay, listeners, Jay and I have known each other for five years now, and I have just managed to reach a point where we can have a conversation without him insulting me. The first week, nay the first day, he turned up in the lecture hall and every time I went to raise my hand he would jump in and answer the question first. He had to be the centre of attention. At one point, Cee actually told you to sit the fuck down.

J: I’d had private tutors all my life; I didn’t know any better.

B: That’s your answer for everything. (pause) We should probably get back to the podcast. Do you want to do all the housekeeping? I know you enjoy the sound of your own voice.

J: You’re so rude to me. Everyone thinks you’re as pure as the Maiden, but you’re got a mean streak in you.

B: Because you’re rude to me first!

J: That’s your answer for everything. (Bee gasps) Anyway, as we’ve said, this is The Bear and the Poorly Written Maiden. We read bad historical fiction and analyse it against our considerable knowledge in the field. We are both descendants of Goldenhand the Just and The Blue Knight, a popular topic in historical fiction and the real focus of this podcast. You can catch up with previous episodes wherever you get your podcasts, and you can send us questions or topics for future episodes at [email protected].

B: And we really do welcome your comments and questions. So far the only people who have emailed us are the Dornish restaurant down the road giving us coupons, and my Dad who wanted to say he overheard someone say he listens to the podcast, and wanted to congratulate us on our success.

J: Thank you, Papa Bee, we appreciate the support. And the ginger biscuits you sent last week, they were delicious.

B: I wouldn’t know, Dad, Jay ate them all.

J: And in the worst segue way of all time—

B: —don’t you dare.

J: We’re currently reading Pools of Blue, by Alys Morrow. Last chapter involved Ser Blue going to Goldenhand’s chambers, where he proceeded to…go down on her, before Goldenhand made the historically inaccurate error of claiming Ser Blue’s maidenhead before their hands were tied by a septon. The following chapter is entitled The Rising Sun, which will be read today by Bee.

B: Do I have to?

J: We agreed; we switch off chapters. Come on, Bee. I have faith in you.

B: Fine. (clears throat) Goldenhand awoke beside his beloved. Creamy rays of sunlight sprung through the open window, bathing he and Blue in a halo of warmth. The cerulean sheets were crumpled and stained and kicked to the far foot of the bed. Both of them lay naked across the feather mattress, and Blue’s lithe form—right I’ve got to stop it there, because I think we’re heading into historical inaccuracy and we’re barely a paragraph in.

J: Morrow’s describing Ser Blue as lithe.

B: The complete opposite of every description there is of Ser Blue.

J: Keep reading, maybe it’s a typo. We’ve found seven already in this book.

B: Alright. Both of them lay naked across the feather mattress, and Blue’s lithe form was open to his heady gaze. Her legs were long and supple; her skin like the cream expressed from the teat of a cow. I really hate you for making me read this.

J: Come on. Keep reading, let me get the colour chart.

B: The blonde patch of hair between her legs was damp, as if covered by morning dew. Goldenhand was tempted to place his hand there, see if his sweetling was as wet as how she had gushed the night before. She had soaked the sheets, covered his golden fingers in her thick juices.

(Jay sniggers)

B: Stop laughing. Her hips were slender, her waist so small he could wrap an entire arm around it. That’s not right. From all the reading I’ve done on my ancestor, she was my height, my build. She’s not some dainty little maiden.

J: Even in the fight scene with the pirates, Goldenhand ultimately finished the job after her botched rescue attempt. And, canonically, Ser Blue was the better fighter after Goldenhand, well, lost his hand.

B: Canonically the better fighter, you don’t need the caveat.

(Jay laughs)

J: He was knighted at sixteen. Ser Blue wasn’t—

B: —you cannot compare the privilege of a teenage boy in one of the nine great houses to a teenage girl in a minor noble house! And she was a gifted fighter, better than he was. In the single fight—

J: —you always do this, you always bring up the bridge. He was in chains, he’d been a prisoner for years. And we have no corroboration of that fight other than the ramblings of one of Lord Bolton’s men, and as a story passed down through the generations. There is no physical proof.

B: Well, is there anything we can agree on?

J: That this book is terrible, and honestly, I can’t listen to another word of it.

B: Agreed. Put it on the list?

J: On the list.

B: Well, we’ve made the executive decision to put The Pools of Blue by Alys Morrow on our ‘Inaccurate and Awful’ list a full 227 pages earlier than planned.

J: Thank the Gods. So, what’s next?

#braime #jaime x brienne #mine: paragraph prompts #ship: braime #anonymous #fic: podcast verse

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socialjusticeartshare · 4 years

Text

At Least 19 Children at a Chicago Shelter for Immigrant Detainees Have Tested Positive for COVID-19

A coronavirus outbreak at a Heartland Alliance facility on Chicago’s South Side may be the largest outbreak of the virus in any shelter for immigrant youth in the country. At least 19 children and two staff have tested positive.

Update, April 14, 2020: On Tuesday, Heartland officials said that the number of immigrant children in their care who had tested positive for COVID-19 had nearly doubled, from 19 to 37. Of those, 28 were asymptomatic at the time of the testing, the agency said. “To our knowledge, there’s not an increase in staff cases,” a spokeswoman for the organization said. “We are working hard to obtain testing for staff, too.”

Update, April 21, 2020: Heartland officials said five more immigrant children in their care tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 42. A Heartland spokeswoman said Monday that 33 children were asymptomatic at the time of testing. “All children are doing well and their prognosis is very good,” the spokeswoman said.

At least 19 children and two employees at a Chicago shelter for immigrant youth have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, in what appears to be the largest outbreak of the virus in the country in shelters for unaccompanied minors.

According to an email sent to staff Sunday, Heartland Human Care Services officials said the first positive test results were reported at its Bronzeville shelter on Friday and that additional cases there were confirmed over the weekend.

On Monday, officials from Heartland Alliance, the umbrella nonprofit organization that oversees the shelter program, confirmed the positive tests and said they expect there will be more cases.

“We are operating under the assumption that we will see additional positive diagnoses as we receive results from the other tests that have been administered, and the steps we are taking to ensure the health and safety of our participants and staff are based on that assumption,” Mailee Garcia, a spokeswoman for the organization, wrote in a statement. “The prognosis for all of the children in our care is very good, and we are continuing to focus on our participants’ health and well-being.”

As of last Wednesday, only six COVID-19 cases had been confirmed among children and adolescents housed in shelters around the country, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the nation’s shelter program. All six were at shelters in New York.

ORR officials said there were also 39 “self-reports” of positive COVID-19 tests among personnel affiliated with shelter programs in six states as of Wednesday. ORR has not provided updated figures, despite repeated requests since Friday.

COVID-19 is a less serious health threat to children than it is to adults.

Heartland, according to the copies of the email obtained by ProPublica Illinois, began “trying to secure tests” for children at the Bronzeville shelter after some of them displayed “COVID-19-like symptoms,” wrote David Sinski, executive director of Heartland Human Care Services.

The email doesn’t detail symptoms, when they became evident or when children were tested. But by Friday, Heartland officials learned that one of its “participants” — as the immigrant children and youth are called — had tested positive.

On Saturday, officials were told that three additional children had tested positive. By Sunday morning, they received positive COVID-19 diagnoses for an additional 15 children, bringing the total to 19. According to the email, 10 of the 19 children are asymptomatic. Two staff members have also tested positive.

“We understand that receiving this news may leave you feeling uncertain and scared,” Sinski wrote to staff. “I want you to know that we are committed to providing you with the information that you need to know in order to keep you and your loved ones healthy and safe.”

It’s unclear how old the infected children are or where they are from. But the Bronzeville shelter, a four-story converted nursing home that can hold up to 250 boys and girls, is licensed to house children from infancy to 17 years old.

Officials said they “immediately” move children to an isolated environment when they show any signs of any illness, including COVID-19, to minimize any risk of community spread. Since Saturday, Heartland has “enhanced our social distancing measures” at the shelters to limit the contact among children and between children and staff, Garcia said.

In his email, Sinski wrote that all remaining children at the facility are being tested and that he expected those results by Tuesday. He also asked all employees who worked on the floors where children who tested positive were living to stay home with pay for two weeks. Staff members who undertake “specific activities” with children will be provided N95 masks, gowns and gloves, and are being screened for COVID-19 symptoms before each shift.

Heartland officials said they are now contracting with additional nurse practitioners to be at the shelter for every shift. They are also exploring a house parent model, which would have a subset of staff be onsite full time for the coming couple of weeks, officials said.

The next several months could bring hurricanes, floods and fire, on top of the pandemic currently raging through the country. How do you shelter in place during an evacuation?

Heartland officials said the organization is in close contact with ORR and city public health officials.

Shelters for immigrant children, nursing homes and other congregate facilities must report to the city of Chicago when there are two or more positive COVID-19 cases, according to a March order. The city’s Health Department then provides “tailored guidance to facility staff on infection control, including cleaning protocols and how to properly manage both COVID-19 positive and exposed individuals,” a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that clusters of cases have been identified in “several facilities.”

Garcia said the organization is “doing all that we can to advocate for additional testing kits for participants and staff across our programs.” She added that “our team have been stellar and courageous champions during this pandemic, committed to both a high level of quality care and being creative and supportive to each other during this challenging time. They are true heroes.”

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which licenses the shelters, has been notified that children at the facility tested positive. “We’ve been in contact, and we’re offering assistance,” said agency spokesman Jassen Strokosch.

Heartland officials said a professional cleaning company has performed multiple cleanings of the facility in the past week and will continue to perform weekly deep cleanings.

According to ORR guidance meant to limit the spread of COVID-19, children who have symptoms and are recommended for testing are isolated from other children pending test results. Shelter programs are required to do twice-daily temperature checks of immigrant children and alert ORR if a child has a temperature above 100 degrees. ORR has also implemented a mandatory temperature check for anyone entering a shelter, according to officials.

ORR has also stopped placing children at shelters in California, New York and Washington, with limited exceptions, and said it is trying to find local shelters for newly arrived immigrant children to limit air travel. Previously, children were moved to shelters around the country where beds were available.

About 2,800 children are being held in the nation’s shelter system. There are 69 children at three shelters run by Heartland. The organization previously operated five shelters, all in Chicago, but has consolidated the program in response to COVID-19. “Our census was lower and consolidating sites has allowed us to implement the measures ... to safeguard the health of our staff and participants,” a spokeswoman said.

No children have tested positive for COVID-19 at another group of shelters in Illinois run by Maryville Academy, a Catholic child welfare agency, said Sister Catherine Ryan, Maryville’s executive director. About 30 teens are currently housed at two Maryville shelters.

“I’m very grateful that all of our children are fine,” Ryan said. “Obviously, we are taking a lot of precautions to keep it that way.”

Lawyers and advocates for detained immigrant children say they’ve been worried an outbreak would occur in a shelter. Lawyers went to court in late March to ask the federal government to speed up the release of children in its custody.

“It’s been our concern all along as advocates that jails, prisons, detention facilities, even licensed shelter detention, it’s where we’re going to see the massive outbreaks and it’s going to be exponentially higher than in the broader community,” said Holly Cooper, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of California, Davis.

Cooper said she is particularly worried about children who have preexisting conditions that have not been identified by shelter officials or ORR and will make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.

“The goal,” she said, “is to get kids out of congregate care because there’s no way it can comply with [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance even if you’re using all the hand sanitizer in the world.”

Duaa Eldeib contributed reporting.

Update, April 13, 2020: This story was updated to include new comment from the Chicago Health Department.

Article Source

#coronavirus #covid-19 #kids #immigrant detainees #chicago shelter

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the-daily-sandstone · 4 years

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Life as I know it

Well, I come from a small college town in the Midwest of the USA. Home of many great thinkers and doers, to say the least. My first steps into life were brutal, my father lost our housing, and my mother was the only one working for as long as I recalled.

We drifted while I was an infant, for the first year of my life. We toured with the Grateful Dead, sometimes I have dreams about Garcia. The Tour of ’89, across the states. Years after the experiences I had all kinds of dreams, once life was less chaotic. Mother knows some of them really happened.

In ’91 my brother entered the picture, and sometime after we had an A-frame in the woods. I remember the woods always felt so magical, I was never afraid of them. I felt I belonged to them. Father seemed to always nap while mother worked, and he did not feed us until she came home. I would eat worms or sneak butter to try to keep my brother and I from going hungry.

Earth worms aren’t that bad, never chewed them, always swallowed them whole. Last time I had one I think I was 9 or so years old. Father used to abuse us, as I learned later, in more than just physical ways. It was often going from extreme emotions to the other, and I can’t recall every memory. The ones I do know aren’t the best to reminisce on. Though I have a few from then I treasure. Like the time I fell so hard in love with the neighbor girl, I told my cousin I was going to marry her when I was a full hand (5 years old).

She was beautiful, I used to play her music on my guitar, or run off around the neighborhood with her. One time we snuck into a horse field to try to talk to the horses. When we realized they did not speak with us, we were stuck, I felt foolish, but it did not matter, I was holding her hand.

My brother had a worse time with things. He was younger and had terrible luck with the woods. One time I was thinking we were warriors and needed to battle wasps. So, I talked him into fighting them with me. We threw rocks at a nest, he got stung a few times. Suppose it was stupid, but I was having fun for the time.

That’s how things went. I grew up wanting more of nature, and my brother wanting less of it. My girlfriend moved away and so did we. After the A-frame we lived in her basement on a sub-lease, and then off to apartments. First thing I tried doing was walking around naked like I used to in the woods. Had to learn the rules the hard way.

Used to get in trouble in school, and well, felt like no one was teaching me the rules. I was just expected to know them or something. Heck, first grade was spent in in school detention, without a teacher, doing all assignments for the year on my own. That year was awful.

Therapy did little to help. I was too young to know what was wrong with me anyways. I felt I was evil, and all I needed to do was accept what came my way.

It wasn’t until third grade I was diagnosed ADHD, but the meds just gave me tunnel vision and I don’t feel they helped me focus. Sometimes I would hear a crowd talking when no one was. Other times I would think people were talking about me when passing them by.

By the sixth grade I was moved up a grade in math and learned Boolean algebra. Taught myself Qbasic and started programming music apps, little trivia games and some basic text adventures. I remember one time I wanted to make my own operating system mockup. Back then, there weren’t tutorials. Google barely had relevant results, and YouTube wasn’t around, or heard of for me. Around the same time, I taught myself HTML with a manual from a friend. And then went and taught children at the Middle Way shelter.

By high school I started smoking weed, quit my medication, and was playing and composing for violin. I taught myself to read and write sheet music from a Beatle’s Anthology piano book. Middle school did not teach me that, everyone said they had private lessons for it. Took me about half a year before I stopped writing the names of the notes above the manuscript.

I graduated with a crap diploma, some blue core crap the Bush administration made up for no child left behind. Yeah, I had a few honors and advanced placement courses, but I never read the books in English, and never showed my work in math.

After high school I went off to work in Denali, Alaska. Washed buses, climbed mountains, and lost myself to some ladies. One I somehow managed to become friends with and stay in contact all these years.

I was 19, and well, I still managed to eat mushrooms, smoke weed, and drink wild turkey that summer. In fact, one night I was with a lady, reading the epic of Gilgamesh, on mushrooms. That was the night I decided I wanted to be a writer. I read one more work from sacred texts, the Romance of Antar. I wrote my first work of fiction as an adult under the pen name, Leon Sandcastle, with the tile, Epic of Aphromann. My friend was really captivated by the writing, as she put it. I wrote it on a free writing app trial, Zoho Writer. The files are lost officially, I’ve since tried contacting admin about getting the copy, but I couldn’t remember the email (plus the email is gone now) or the password. The printout I had I threw away when I moved back into my mother’s. I just felt then it was terrible because well, one reason. I had written the work and dedicated it to my brother, but he felt it wasn’t him in the story. I felt I had done my brother wrong.

College was a mixed bag. I really did not know for certain what I wanted to be. I had no job offers on any of my hobbies, and my only work experience was mostly manual/menial labor, what with fast food, construction, Denali, and some landscaping. I chose to pursue them all. Liberal arts, science, math, English, and more science.

I was working on contract for the Department of Natural Resources, on some youth program from the governor. Work, study. Over and Over.

I had to save up for a replacement violin. After I returned from Denali, my brother became extremely sick, he burned my violin and my mother had him committed. It was awful to feel and see him go through. His diagnosis changed so many times. His story got better.

Friend found a local luthier from the university program, when I played it, I felt I was amidst the ferns and pines and all the wonders of nature. He had named it Khimaera (not sure on spelling). I bought it on contract with a monthly rate based on my term with the DNR. By the end of the summer, I owned the violin.

I met a woman that year, showed her my family’s farm up north. Went to a talk at the university with her. The last time we were together, she took my hand, held it to her heart, and asked me to marry her. And I told her no.

There was a lot on my plate sophomore year, as to why I told her no. I had began having visions in my sleep, or so it felt. I would dream and see my dream in the headlines of the morning news. I’ve since googled some of them to realize it could not have been true. However, I dreamt my grand uncle Brokenfeather would die of cancer and the Mississippi river would flood. I dreamt my friend from Alaska lost her father after his voice went horse. I dreamt I met a woman in the desert and changed her life.

I still morn the passing of my grand uncle. And days after I emailed my friend about the dream, she sent me word he had cancer and his voice was horse.

The woman I met in the desert was a meth addict who for some reason believed I was Jesus Christ, and we were married. I told her some things, and last, I know of her, she called me to thank her. That I had in fact changed her life. She got off the streets and got clean.

I used to write Obama, and the MI-6, I even wrote Stephen Hawkings about some things that were later televised in his words.

I would be sitting there, seeing people talking and hearing their words, and if I followed up on the conversations, people would ask what I was talking about, that they weren’t speaking.

I was homeless from 2010-2013. Officially receiving permanent housing out in California, in 2013.

I moved back to my mothers after a long drawn out claim for disability was awarded. I now own two violins, classical guitar, electric guitar, wooden Cherokee flute, a ukulele, midi keyboard. Took on some more hobbies along the way. On contract to compose full orchestrations for a client making a video game.

My success? While I was homeless I did not pursue drugs or alcohol, it felt almost more a prolonged camping venture, fraught with me becoming a victim to theft at the end. If there’s one thing I can say, is that California is the worse place on earth.

Naturally I’ve not included every single event. But this should give you the gist. My official diagnosis is Schizoeffective Depressive. No I’m not two people, that’s a different type, (schizotypal).

Thank you for your time.

Leon Sandstone

The Daily Sandstone

#introduction #helloworld #firstpost #blog #biographical #self-interview

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bananonymity · 5 years

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oh dear a hetalia university au

THE PROFESSORS

Alfred Jones - Film Studies

-Specializes in genre film, especially film comedy

-Class participation points is if you livetweet your observations and thoughts on a film that you watch in class with the hashtag #JonesJokes1100 (1100 is the course number)

-If you go to him for office hours he will spend half of the time recommending cult films to you

-Will find any excuse to screen at least one (1) Fast and Furious film in any of his class

-Hides snack food in the (public) classrooms he teaches in, will share with the class if a student finds it first

-thinks jean-luc godard is a punk bitch who weighs 20 pounds soaking wet

Arthur Kirkland - Literature

-Children’s Literature and Fantasy specialization

-that one professor who bumbles into class in sweater vests and an entire teapot

-”Hi everyone, class is canceled today. I couldn’t find a fucking parking spot.”

-Bring up in his class that Lord of the Rings is an allegory of WWII. I dare you.

-YouTube autoplay defeats him every time

-”IT’S. IN. THE. BLOODY. SYLLABUS.”

Ludwig Beilschmidt - Advisor

-Poor man is responsible for arranging the schedules and eventual graduation of 18,000 students who eat spaghetti out of a shoe when they run out of plates

-Takes every panicked and not necessarily sober student’s frantic emails about a major change with weary stride

-Definitely drinks in the office

-Brings his dogs to campus for therapy dog Thursdays. Then proceeds to pet the dogs himself for two hours

Francis Bonnefoy- Studio Art (all credit for characterization goes to @thedisappointedidealist12 )

-A tortured contemporary artist who needs to teach millennials/gen Z students to appreciate and critique modern art

-makes it a goal in life to baffle and infuriate his students, but once in a blue moon would make a really good point in his lessons that blows everyone’s minds

-Forces students to go to gallery openings and art exhibits with him for extra credit so that he can talk to death about what he thinks about every piece to them

-will fail anyone who said ‘I could have painted that.”

-bonus: argues with Alfred all the time about the merits of French new wave cinema

Gilbert Beilschmidt - Political Science/History

-Leadership class to study famous leaders in history, how they exercised and spread their influence to the people.(is it just me or does Frederick the Great take up a lot more of the syllabus than the other topics?)

-Seemingly easy-going and a human disaster but once add-drop period is over your nose is on the grindstone and you realize that this man actually knows his shit plus some and also you might fail but hey, you’ll have fun doing it

-if his class survives the semester he will take them to the bar and buy them all shots

-”Dear Professor Beilschmidt, This is Xiao Mei from your Political Psychology class. Would it still be okay for me to take the final tomorrow at 12PM? Thank you for your time! Regards, Xiao Mei.” “whatever -- Sent From iPhone”

Elizaveta Hedervary- Gender Studies

-on one hand, she’s the professor who will invite students to her home to spend the holidays if they cannot go home for break

-on the other hand, there is a reason why No Other Faculty dares to take her parking spot

-she and Gilbert use the same class room back to back, which has led to petty territorial rivalries and pranks

-Will publicly drag you and your unfounded opinions in class in the gentlest, most ruthless manner

-You can skip the test if you beat her in arm wrestling in front of the class (spoiler alert: you can’t)

Lovino Vargas- Dining Hall Manager

-Makes it his life goal to change the campus’ perception of the dining hall food by working hard and cooking delicious food

-WILL complain with every breath about budget, quality of groceries, poor pay, and college students who think putting spaghetti-os on a piece of bread is a meal

-on the flip side, very attentive to the students, especially female students, and keeps an eye out for any sign of unhealthy or eating disorder and encourages them to eat wholesome meals. if he catches a student skipping meals because of workload, he will shove a bruschetta in their hands and glare at them until they eat

-a bit too scared to go on strike over pay, although Francis encourages it wholeheartedly

Antonio Carriedo- Librarian

-In the past, he and Arthur were rivals to graduate summa cum laude in their programs. now, Antonio is taking it easy

-Still unironically uses nineties style catalogue cards because it relaxes him, also his computer mysteriously malfunctions every time he tries to use it to locate a book for someone

-if you ask him for a book he will somehow have you sharing your life story right at the help desk for a good fifteen minutes. he WILL forget what book you were asking for

Yao Wang - Business

-Uses memes to stay relevant with the youth (“Don’t forget to YEET”)

-Often invites students to a group lunch after class is over and remembers all his old students’ names

-Don’t even think about trying to leave class early. He may not call you out but expect a threatening Office jpg to airdrop into your phone

-loves it when students bring their children to class, will hold the baby while lecturing

THE STUDENTS

Emil Steilsson - First Year Undecided Student

-Freshman from Iceland, first time leaving his home and struggles to put himself out there to make friends or meet new people

-Raised in a large and close household but because he’s quite a bit younger than his brothers, doesn’t always feels like he belongs

-Also, his first time being away from his brothers, which gives him an anxiety that he will never admit

Leon Wang - First Year Film Studies Student

-Freshman from Hong Kong and Emil’s roommate

-Professor Wang’s kid brother; Yao Wang will bring him tupperware of home cooked Chinese meals every Thursday which Leon will not admit to deeply appreciating

-He will share all his food with you, but he will also eat all your food in return

-A bit of an age gap between him and his brother, and he was raised mostly in boarding schools in England growing up, so he doesn’t get to see his parents often and therefore unconsciously deals with a complex of feeling unwanted or shuffled around

-If he wasn’t such a nice kid Emil would probably have a nervous breakdown having Leon as a roommate (their tidiness levels are Very Different)

Michelle - Second Year Art Student

-Sophomore from Seychelles and fast friends of the boys

-Has a work study job at Professor Bonnefoy’s department

-She has trouble fitting in with the other students and often feels a bit left out from her peer group, despite her friendly efforts

-Because she pursues art, she often worries about her future job prospects, and lacks much confidence in her skills in any other field

#hetalia #aph #aph prussia #aph germany #aph america #aph england #aph france #aph spain #aph china #aph iceland #aph hong kong #aph seychelles #aph south italy #i made a side blog just to post this #doesn't matter to me if this is the only post on this blog i just needed it somewhere #thedisappointedidealist12

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transcendentalmaggot · 4 years

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(This is just me screaming about living with a disability in our present hell and being in a constant state of precarity with everyone asking when I’m going to “get better”)

Finally received approval of my temporary disability from January... and only for January. The paperwork was delayed due to a combination of me being incredibly ill and my HR department not sending the paperwork when they told me they did, but I didn’t expect it to take this long. The approval, received on March 26th, also included a request to submit additional paperwork for approval of February’s payment. I had already called and emailed my case worker to confirm they received the February paperwork weeks ago but I guess that will be delayed until my doctor fills out a form that is simply a retread of the same information included on the original form with different wording and a bunch of information on physical labor that is completely irrelevant to my job. Temporary disability through your job is almost always determined on a month-to-month basis but it’s never taken this long for a response when I’ve had to go on it on the past due to my disabilities. I knew both the health and disability insurance policies at my job were significantly worse this year than the last based on the information we received for the New Year because the company is naturally looking to save money by cutting benefits while moving our warehouses to the south to save even more money on labor. The new owners (a holding company looking to maximize the value of this bullshit, useless company until they sell it in two years for a profit) literally sent an email at Christmas letting us know we’d receive our holiday bonuses for this year but as a matter of policy we wouldn’t be receiving them in the future. Of course I’m expected to be grateful I have any insurance coverage at all working a CS job where I’m making minimum wage but somehow I feel less gratitude than I do an overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety for the future. I haven’t been able to get several tests or doctor’s evaluations completed due to the pandemic and financial considerations (my deductible was met in late February, perfect timing) so of course my health status hasn’t changed. The hospital I go to in NYC has cancelled all non-urgent procedures and appointments on a case-by-case basis and despite my concerning blood work re: my kidney function I’m being forced to wait by the insurance company handling my disability claim with no consideration of the current crisis. I understand the need to do this for hospitals but please be cognizant of the shitty position people with chronic health issues are being thrown into during the pandemic. I can make telemed appointments with my doctors but everything is being held up by the need for tests and lab results.

There’s also something grim about the fact that the outstanding balance I owe from this year’s deductible to the hospital is almost the exact amount I received to live on for the month of January in March.

I’m exhausted and sick and completely isolated from my friends and chosen family outside of instant messaging at my dad’s house and I don’t know if my health will ever get better or if I’m going to need major surgery in the near future and if I’m going to be fired and lose my health insurance by the time I find out. My boss emails me every two weeks to ask about my health as if I’d ever give her more information on my status than she already has. My manager keeps texting me prayers at random intervals. I’m purposefully isolating myself from the people I love because I constantly feel like a burden - I hate not being able to be there for them because being this sick feels like a full time job. Apparently their awful treatment of me was because of how “needed” I was. These texts and emails keep mentioning how productive and beloved by the customers I was while I was constantly being criticized for not bringing my numbers up. I was only number 2 or 3 in the reams of useless data my boss pores over as a fucking job and the obvious reaction to that is to make me feel awful knowing about my health issues so I can raise my numbers even higher. I don’t know if I can return to this job without completely sacrificing the last shred of my sanity. Between the pain, the exhaustion, and the panic attacks induced by people berating me with the job title “happiness ambassador” I don’t think I can handle working with these assholes anymore. But then I remember that any job in CS involves this level of mental degradation and at least I had health insurance. Fucking insurance. I’ve lived my entire life under the crushing terror that I would lose my insurance. I’m just tired. I’m so fucking tired. I can’t afford the medical supplies I need to live without it and Medicaid is incredibly awful to ostomy patients in terms of providing enough supplies. But maybe that’s my fear talking, I’ve just helped a lot of people with catheters and other supplies who didn’t receive a sufficient supply through their state’s Medicaid program through support groups for my condition in the past and the problem has only gotten worse with the severe under funding and cuts to the program. I want to believe it isn’t so awful but experience has taught me time and again to expect the worst.

I’m trying to hold onto hope but everything feels too heavy right now. I’m just going to numb myself with video games until I’ve cried myself out. I’m too exhausted for another panic attack today.

#venting #personal #this is just stream of consciousness because i can barely think #getting better feels so fucking pointless if it’s even possible #most of my issues are chronic and will get progressively worse #i am lucky enough to have some family support but i am definitely the black sheep of my family and it is very lonely here #this is my version of screaming in the middle of the woods #disability #i don’t know how much longer my landlord will waive my rent because i’m not well enough to live at my apartment on my own right now #every facet of society is set up to make life that much more difficult for the unproductive #being sick suuuuuucks #long post #covid19 #this is probably incoherent #i'm too mentally ill to motivate myself to get better physically at this point

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ustadjeeonline-blog · 4 years

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some Critical Best Practices for On the web Teaching: Be Prepared

Ustad Jee Online

We are in an unprecedented time using higher education being disrupted, while traditional classes are being transferred online, at least for the time being. Regardless of whether this will continue for any time period remains to be seen. This has taken place at an interesting time for area of distance learning as many from the for-profit schools have sealed, and the growth of new on the web schools has slowed. The volume of online schools growing is fixed, and competition comes from classic schools offering online classes.

Ustad Jee Online

Which has a move of traditional instructional classes to an online platform, you will find a challenge for many educators for you to adapt to a virtual natural environment. Those educators who instruct in this environment already, for instance myself, are already accustomed to setting up a virtual presence. However , when online teaching can be gratifying for those who can adapt to this, there are many demands for education in this environment, and it can always be quite challenging at times. Whether new to online teaching and also have extensive experience, you will find just about the most important measurements is the end-of-course student evaluation. You will also seen by completion of the required facilitator obligations, which typically includes engagement in class discussions and comments for learning activities.

To assist you to prepare for the requirements of on the net teaching, there are critical guidelines you can implement to ensure you are generally effectively and substantively done your class. These are the merchandise of my work as a web educator, along with my job in faculty development, and have been reviewed by the strictest involving standards and applying these types of standards to faculty I've evaluated. You can use these best practices being a checklist for the development of your personal online teaching practice, it doesn't matter how long you've taught classes online.

Online Instructor Essentials

The method that you manage your time and the regular schedule you create can ultimately determine how successful you might be as an online educator. Both the tasks which are going to take those most amount of time are category discussions and feedback. If you don't allow enough time for these responsibilities, and you fall behind, you are going to experience rushed when trying to finish what is required of a person. The ultimate result is either getting minimal participation, minimal responses, or both. A feeling of currently being rushed may also show up in the disposition as well, if you turn out to be agitated when there is not enough the perfect time to complete the required tasks or even deadlines are nearing. Your own personal students will sense this kind of, even in an online environment, and there is subtle cues which display in the word choices used in on the internet posts and messages.

Something more important to consider is the contract an individual agree to when you become a school member and accept a category commitment. You need to take the time to assessment the faculty expectations, specifically if you are new to the school, to be certain you know all details about functionality requirements. Should you have any inquiries, it is best to contact your Department Lounge chair or supervisor. The most important timeline requirements involve giving an answer to learner questions, regardless of how shared or sent. You will likely get audits and/or performance opinions, and when you do, use this tool as a means of self-development to help you continue to learn and expand.

Making a Transition: From Classic to Online Teaching

For people who teach in a traditional school room and now must teach on-line, there will be a learning shape which will happen quickly. The initial adaptation is becoming used to the actual technology platform or LMS, and discovering the technical tools which can enhance the mastering experience. The most significant challenge intended for traditional educators, who are new to teaching online, is getting together with learners who are not noticeably present. The lack of visual tips can be overcome at times when a webinar is integrated into your classmates program. However , for most in the class, it is functioning without having a live class and aesthetic or verbal cues. At this point the words posted become the principal form of communication and this helps it be much more challenging to assess the particular intent or meaning connected with what is being stated, especially when a learner has difficulties with academic writing.

Precisely what an online educator must sooner or later learn, often through some practice, is he or she is a single who must keep the class interested, not the course elements. If a learner is not make an effort to participating or is not found in class, it is the instructor who have must work to re-engage the learner, and do and so within a timely manner, for a disengaged learner may rapidly become dropped from the study course. This means learners are looking for, and sometimes expecting, their instructors being highly engaged and contained in the course, and conscious of their needs. An instructor cannot journal onto their class a couple of times a week and hope this really is sufficient. There must be ongoing as well as active involvement to retain an online class, and work towards the developmental of the requirements of all learners.

6 Important Best Practices for Online Instructing: Be Prepared

What follows are best routines you can implement now, regardless of length of time you've taught on the web. If you have implemented some or perhaps all of them already, you can use this a checklist to advise yourself of what's necessary for your work as an educator.

Ideal Practice #1. Become the Assist Your Learners Need

Any time learners enroll in a class, they can be likely aware of their failures already. When you begin the process of suggestions and note those inadequacies, it may only serve to further more confirm they are not capable of doing well in their academic studies. That is why you must take a supportive method to your feedback and the tutorial approach used as you connect to your learners. Consider at the same time the fact you and your students are separated by long distance, or as I call that, the distance factor. Your enrollees are going to read what you posting and share before you at any time have an opportunity to explain the idea, which means everything you write will need to have a supportive tone on it. How you write, along with that which you write, can and will identify the future of the learner, plus the effort he or she will keep in your class. Find whichever way you can to be the assist your learners need by using time to read what they write-up and write, and admit them as learners.

Finest Practice #2. Develop a Way of thinking Which Encourages Positivity

You could have likely read about nurturing a rise mindset in learners, and this also can occur even in your grown-up learners, provided the conditions in the online class are favorable to do so. This is not just a response to a beautiful LMS or scientific tools, it occurs any time an instructor has a disposition and also mindset which encourages positivity. This means you have become aimed at your learners and you carry out strategies to encourage and uplift them. In my post, Learn 5 Essential Learner-Centered Approaches for Online Instructors, I mentioned my use of videos to get feedback. I also use limited videos to encourage individuals as well, along with small paper prints I create to uplift them.

There will be times when you experience challenged, especially when a spanish student sends an email and visages their frustration in an annoying manner. The most effective strategy to acquire when you have a negative reaction is usually to write in a Word document, subsequently step away for a few short minutes to regain your balance. If you return, you will likely be able to target once again and better help the learner. When you make an environment which feels good, from the perspective of the pupil, you have managed to accomplish another goal: You have helped humanize the learning experience. This also helps take the distance factor outside of distance learning.

Best Practice #3. Be a Leader in Academics Writing

Many educators aren't hired because they are professional copy writers. Regardless of the academic writing ability you possess, consider this to be a constant area of development. I use anything document to develop my debate posts, to help ensure We've managed the mechanics. What you wish to remember is that your scholars are watching what you article in discussions and create as you provide feedback. When there are numerous academic writing issues, this may send a merged message if your feedback stresses academic writing errors typically the learner has made. If your institution offers resources within an on the net writing center, this may be of great benefit for you and any student who needs further advancement. If these resources are generally not immediately available for you, there are many online language resources you can find. You want to lead the way having academic writing and show your own personal learners you take it just like seriously as you enforce the item when feedback is presented to them.

Best Practice #4. Become a Master of Your Study course Materials

What I've mastered over time about course prep is the need to learn my training materials. When a course is usually pre-developed for you, it may seem most is needed is to join often the discussions and participate, then provide feedback based upon the actual written rubric. However , this is certainly far from what is required for training course preparation. Every instructor have to review the course resources thoroughly and completely, in the same way a starting point, in order to be able to engage in class discussions in a substantial manner and provide substantive opinions. More importantly, ongoing development signifies reading and finding solutions related to the course matters, as the use of supplemental solutions will help provide context on your discussion posts and the comments you develop. When you end up being the master of your course components, you are creating additional learning chances for your learners.

Best Process #5. Be Determined to Get a Lifelong Learner

As you are mingling with your learners, and you recall why you love to teach, you happen to be encouraging them to develop a enjoy of learning. If you want to come to be even more effective in this technique, you can continue to cultivate your own personal determination to become a lifelong novice. While you may not be a spanish student now, you can find professional improvement opportunities of your own. Many academics institutions encourage or call for educators to publish, and this offers a very good opportunity to conduct investigation into areas you are interested in mastering. There are many affiliations you can also enroll in and likely find webinars to go to. What I've done like a Modern Educator is to compose online articles and web sites, as a means of continuing my analysis and writing, even if I am just not publishing in an public academic capacity. It nonetheless allows me to share my expertise and expertise, while attaching with other educators, sharing tips, information, and strategies.

Greatest Practice #6. Establish a Normal of Excellence

Over time you may evaluate and refine your own instructional practice. It will be a result of what has been successful, the particular strategies which have not provided you well, lessons you could have learned (some the right way yet others by mistake), and most significant of all, feedback you have got from learners in many distinct forms. Typically the feedback My spouse and i learn most from arises within the classroom, as I consider new strategies and obtain replies in response. There is a excessive standard I have established with regard to myself. At the beginning of my find employment as an educator I was very hard about myself when I made errors. But now with time and process under my belt, I realize both successes and blunders have served me nicely. It is not possible to become a best online educator without having educated for some time and even then, you'll still must be open to learning along with development as learner requires evolve. I can state along with certainty the needs of students today are different than we were holding 15 years ago when I first acquired my start. But developing a standard of excellence presents me a sense of reputation to myself and makes selected I am working to the best associated with my abilities.

I properly understand there are many inherent problems associated with online teaching, and the most are related to time and less direct contact with learners. Still I've found it can be a very satisfying experience because I am capable of getting to know my learners superior to I ever could within a traditional classroom. This may seem unusual to someone who has by no means taught online, who perceives learners face-to-face, but this perspective comes from being able to control each and everyone of them inside a discussion, getting to know them by way of weekly learning activities, and interesting with them through direct interaction. While I am separated via my learners, I have found instruments to bridge this distance and replace the distance which has a virtual presence. Now with these kinds of six critical strategies, I am able to further assure learners Therefore i'm there to support them and the progress in a nurturing, optimistic, and supportive manner. When you can take this approach yourself, you could possibly and your learners will find on the internet learning to be a viable in addition to enjoyable form of education.

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judgestarling · 5 years

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The Origin of the Term “Junk DNA”: A Historical Whodunnit (Second Edition)

As textbooks would have it, the term “junk DNA” was coined in 1972 by Susumu Ohno as part of his work on the role of gene and genome duplication. I met Susumu Ohno at a meeting in Crete many years ago, and the way I remember, he told me that he “deliberately” chose a “provocative term” to emphasize the “uselessness” of this DNA fraction. (Indeed, the term “junk” comes with a “semantic baggage” since it used as a synonym for heroin and male genitalia—two terms that are verboten in polite company.) At a dinner, Ohno also told me (and other newbies) that rosé wine is produced by mixing red and white wines.

I no longer believe either of these historical “narratives.”

It all started with my obsession to read very thoroughly every article that I quote, instead of relying on indirect references. In this day and age, in which articles are signed by hundreds of authors, the vast majority of whom don’t even bother to read their “own” publications, I stand out like a nigella seed in mayonnaise. This disorder is probably due to my association with Mina Graur, who is a historian who only trusts “primary sources.” Indeed, so strong is her belief in primary sources, that I am quite certain she wouldn’t even trust a textbook description of the double helix—she would want to read Watson and Crick’s (1953) article, as well as their notebooks, correspondences, and preliminary drafts, and if possible interview each and every one associated with the lab in Cambridge including the janitors. What can I say? She does NOT trust “secondary” sources!

For a few years, I engaged in a bitter fight with the quacks of the ENCODE Project over “junk DNA,” and to my dismay, I realized that I cannot find a copy of Susumu Ohno’s (1972) article “So much ‘junk’ DNA in our genome.” So, I started searching the net for the article. My searches led me to discover three publications from 1972 that mention “junk DNA.” The above-mentioned paper by Susumu Ohno, an article by David Comings, and a New Scientist commentary by Tim Hunt.

Solving the origin of Comings’ “junk DNA” was easy. He got it from Susumu Ohno, who was his colleague at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. Indeed, Comings quotes two “in press” papers by Ohno. The most interesting thing about Comings’ article, however, is that his treatment of junk DNA is much more thorough and much more informative and much more considerate than Ohno’s cryptic article, in which the term “junk” is only mentioned in the title.

The origin of Tim Hunt’s “junk DNA” proved to be much more interesting. In 1972, the future Nobelist was a 29-year-old researcher at Cambridge trying to understand messenger RNA and the great amounts of DNA that never produce mRNA. In time, his research led him into a different area of study, and in 2001, Tim Hunt shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Paul Nurse and Leland Hartwell. The work for which he was conferred the highest accolade in the sciences had nothing to do with either mRNA or junk DNA—the Nobel was in recognition of his discovery of proteins that control cell division.

In his 1972 commentary, Tim Hunt uses the term “junk DNA” to refer to “the large amount of nucleic acid that never finds its way out of the nucleus, which does not fit in with the old categories of genes and messages.” Note that Hunt’s 1972 “junk DNA” employs a mechanistic definition of junk DNA that is different from but not at odds with our current understanding of junk DNA as “useless and harmless.”

Where did Tim Hunt get the term? I sent him the following email.

“I have recently realized that although the late Susumu Ohno is credited solely with the coinage ‘junk DNA,’ he was not the only person to have used the term in 1972. In your ‘How mammals get the message’ in New Scientist, you have an entire section entitled ‘Why all that junk?’ In this section you mention “junk DNA.” I am curious whether (1) you got the term from Susumu Ohno, (2) he got it from you, (3) you coined it independently, or (4) you got it from a third person. I would greatly appreciate your help with this historical puzzle.”

The reply by Dr. Hunt was surprising.

“Gosh, yes! I did write that piece, and I never met Ohno. I got it from Sydney Brenner and/or Francis Crick—it was certainly current in Cambridge at the time. Maybe they got it from Ohno? You should ask Sydney.”

So, I wrote Dr. Brenner. The first sentence of his reply made the puzzle even more profound.

“I can confirm that we were using the idea of “junk” in the genome in the sixties at Cambridge.”

Really? The sixties? If the term was indeed current in the sixties, it is entirely possible that the term may have found its way into the literature and hasn’t been detected thus far. If it was there, I was determined to find it.

Enter Google Ngram, with which one can find short phrases in over 5.2 million books (published between 1500 and 2008) that have been digitized by Google.

With Google Ngram, I struck gold, a 1963 paper by Charles Ehret and Gérard de Haller entitled “Origin, development, and maturation of organelles and organelle systems of the cell surface in Paramecium.” The paper which was published in Journal of Ultrastructure Research is huge—42 pages and 86 figures. On page 39 it is written:

“While current evidence makes plausible the idea that all genetic material is DNA (with the possible exception of RNA viruses), it does not follow that all DNA is competent genetic material (viz. ‘junk’ DNA), nor that all Feulgen-positive material is active DNA.”

This was completely unexpected. Nine years before Susumu Ohno, two authors wrote about “junk DNA” in a casual manner without even bothering to explain what junk DNA is. If we assume that non-”competent genetic material” is the same as nonfunctional DNA, then their use of “junk DNA” was entirely modern. The problem was that I have never heard of the authors before. Who was Charles F. Ehret? Who was Gérard de Haller?

A little more digging revealed that Charles F. Ehret was a very important person, as evidenced by the fact that The Washington Post published an obituary on his death in 2007.

“Charles F. Ehret, 83, a scientist whose study of circadian rhythms led to a widely popular anti-jet lag regimen that improved the trips of untold numbers of world travelers, died February 24 of multiple illnesses at his home in Grayslake, Ill.

In more than 35 years of experimentation, Dr. Ehret found that the headaches, nausea, disorientation, fatigue, and malaise suffered by globe-trotters had almost nothing to do with thin air and the dizzying effects of supersonic speed, as was commonly assumed. Rather, jet lag is a matter of crossing too many time zones too quickly for the body to adjust. It can be ameliorated by adjusting eating, activity and sleep schedules according to a strict system that Dr. Ehret developed.”

A search of the literature revealed that the paper in Journal of Ultrastructure Research represented quite a detour in the scientific life of Dr. Ehret. With the exception of a 1948 paper in The Anatomical Record, entitled “The mating reaction of multimicronuclear monstrosities in Paramecium bursaria,” his entire research program dealt with circadian rhythms, jet lag, and light exposure.

Interestingly, Dr. Ehret worked on many different organisms which, according to The Washington Post, included “single-celled organisms, rats, his eight children, and volunteers.” Rats and eight children? That sounds like a winning combination!

The amount of information I could find on Gérard de Haller was quite minimal. He became Professor of Protistology at the University of Geneva in 1969. He mostly published in French, and the last known address for him was the Molecular Systematics Group at the University of Geneva. As far as I could ascertain, he published his last paper in 1993. In October, 2013, I wrote to the head of the Molecular Systematics Group, Jan Wojciech Pawlowski. He replied promptly.

“Prof. Gérard de Haller is a Honorary Professor of the University of Geneva. He was one of the jurors of my PhD thesis and the head of Protistology Laboratory since 1969. His specialty was the biology of ciliates. As far as I know he is still alive, although he is not scientifically very active since his retirement. I saw him last time about 2 years ago when he came to the University to participate in a ceremony for one of his younger assistants. He is still on the list of University Professors.

I was looking for more information about him but could not find anything more. However, I can easily find someone from his family who live in Geneva if this is necessary.”

In the end, the person who managed to find Gérard de Haller was Robert Hirt, Professor of Evolutionary Parasitology at Newcastle University. In May 2014, I got an email from Prof. de Haller.

“As far as I can remember, the first time we spoke of junk DNA was at a seminar with Werner Arber around 1958 or so, and I know that Eduard Kellenberger's department, where Werner was working, was in close contact with the big bosses of the raising DNA science [at Cambridge]. Unfortunately, that’s all I can remember, except that these were great times!

I asked Werner Arber, but he couldn’t add anything. He mentioned Francis Crick as a possible "inventor" of the term.”

At this point, I was quite certain that Ehret and de Haller did not invent the term “junk DNA.” They used it properly and in the right context, but it wasn’t theirs.

I wrote about my findings in my blog, and ended the article with an appeal.

“In the manner of the appeals by Oxford English Dictionary, I would like to ask the readers: Do you have an earlier record of the term “junk DNA”? Please submit your evidence by email.”

Soon afterwards, an anonymous reader found an example of “junk DNA” from 1960.

“Following your example, I've been trying to find earlier "junk DNA" quotes using Google. I found this quote in the Year Book of the Carnegie Institution, Washington July 1, 1959- June 30, 1960 (Volume 59, page 278).

‘It is much more difficult to imagine how the different DNA’s could act as templates for the similar RNA’s. This is the problem that can be avoided most easily by considering a large part of the DNA to be junk.’”

The authors, however, did not like the concept of “junk DNA’, although they admitted that there were precedents.

“The idea that a large part of the nucleic acid is nonfunctional is repugnant. It seems unlikely that such an inefficient mechanism would have survived through evolution, although it must be remembered that enzyme molecules are very large in comparison with their active centers.”

The Carnegie Institution report was written by eight members of the Biophysics Group within the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Yes, “Terrestrial Magnetism”!

Several names stood out. Sadly, Richard Roberts died in 1980, Ellis Bolton in 2006, and Roy Britten in 2012. The person with which I was most familiar with was Roy Britten, who was was the discoverer of repeated DNA sequences in the genomes of eukaryotic organisms, and later studied their effects on the evolution of genomes. I have met Britten several times at scientific meetings, and if there was one thing clear, it was the fact that he was not a fan of “junk DNA.” When Roy Britten died in 2012 at the age of 92, his obituary in the journal Science was written by his close collaborator Eric Davidson.

So, I wrote to Eric Davidson, and got the following email.

“First off, I wouldn't exactly consider that citation as related to the later nonsense about junk DNA of the Leslie Orgel/Francis Crick variety. At Carnegie they were strictly concerned that year with the protein coding sequence load of the DNA, as seen through the lens of ribosome structure/function, without considering the function of mRNA and tRNA.

As for Roy, you are right, he couldn't stand the idea of junk DNA, but that was in reference to the Crick usage (which we heard about verbally all the time from him and others of his circle; in those days, late 60s and early 70s Roy and I were hotly involved in arguments about the organization of animal genomic DNA). Anyway, Roy could not possibly have been responsible for the Year Book citation you sent because that particular report concerned the year Roy wasn't even at Carnegie; he was in Denmark working on yeast. The Biophysics report then and in the succeeding few years at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism was written by the senior people, Bolton and Roberts, I think mainly Bolton (with whom Roy did not get along particularly well in intellectual terms). Roy was then very junior in the hierarchy and he wrote his own report on that year's activity; it is very doubtful he could have inserted anything like that even ex post facto. So, I don't think it is a likely hypothesis that Roy originated that term in any way shape form or manner, then or later.”

Is it possible that Davidson was wrong and one of the authors of the Carnegie report did coin the term “junk DNA” as a pejorative? One such precedent comes to mind. In 1955, British cosmologist Fred Hoyle derided a theory by American physicist George Gamow and called it a ridiculous "Big Bang." The name stuck. As far as “junk DNA” is concerned, however, there is little evidence for the pejorative-nickname hypothesis.

Why did the Biophysics group at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at Carnegie found the concept of “junk DNA” to be repugnant in 1959? The historical context was explained to me by Alexander Palazzo from the University of Toronto.

“To understand this report, you need to remember that it was written two years before the discovery of mRNA. Back then it was believed that each gene made a separate RNA that got incorporated into a ribosome (i.e., ribosomal RNA). Thus, according to this model, each ribosome contained information within it to make a single protein. Of course, today we understand that ribosomes are only enzymes, and that the protein-information is contained in mRNA. But considering that >90% of cellular RNA is rRNA, their old faulty model is understandable.

The Roberts’ group was analyzing the length of E. coli rRNA. In the discussion they write about the size of proteins and note that some of these are very small. In contrast, there was too much rRNA in each ribosome. This discrepancy indicated that in these cases the additional RNA was likely non-functional. Interestingly, Roberts missed a critical fact that was pointed out by others—that rRNA was not large enough to code for certain large proteins (beta-galactosidase, for example).

Roberts' group also noted that all rRNAs looked the same, whereas the nucleotide composition of DNA varied considerably. Thus, some DNA must not code for ribosomal RNA and this is where they invoke the idea of junk DNA.

Note that a new form of RNA (messenger RNA) was recognized in a landmark paper by Brenner, François Jacob and Matthew Meselson in 1961 making this whole discussion moot. (And yes, I'm aware that James Watson's group also demonstrated the existence of mRNA…)”

How should I summarize my current understanding on the origin of “junk DNA”—the term and the concept?

First, there is evidence that the term “junk DNA” was already in use in the early 1960s (e.g., Aronson et al. 1960; Ehret and de Haller 1963). I am, however, almost certain that none of these authors coined the term. All clues point to Cambridge in the late 1950s. My guess is that the term originated with Francis Crick, but at present I have no evidence for this claim.

And what about Susumu Ohno? I was reminded by a reader that “a conceptual discovery is usually ascribed to one who first stuck his/her neck out to push the viewpoint.” It doesn't really matter who said what first. “We remember Charles Darwin, not because he discovered natural selection (and sexual selection) or because he was the first to propose that adaptive evolution is due to selection. Others, e.g., William Charles Wells, Patrick Matthew, James Cowles Prichard, William Lawrence, and John Sebright, may (or may not) have recognized evolution by natural selection long before him. It was Darwin, however, who staked his reputation on what was considered at the time a grave heresy. It is, of course, interesting that Hunt, Brenner, De Haller, Roberts and perhaps others toyed explicitly with the idea of "junk DNA" before 1972, not to mention others who may have entertained the same idea without calling it "junk." However, it was Susumu Ohno who stuck his neck out and put his reputation on the line by advocating a very unpopular and contentious idea.

In my latest book, I decided on the following phrasing:

“We have written evidence that the term “junk DNA” was already in use in the early 1960s (e.g., Aronson et al. 1960; Ehret and de Haller 1963); however, it was Susumu Ohno (1972, 1973) who formalized its meaning and provided an evolutionary rationale for its existence.”

Literature

Aronson AI, Bolton ET, Britten RJ, Cowie DB, Duerksen JD, McCarthy BJ, McQuillen K, Roberts RB. 1960. Biophysics. pp. 229–289. In: Year Book: Carnegie Institution of Washington. Volume 59. Lord Baltimore Press, Baltimore, MD.

Comings DE. 1972. The structure and function of chromatin. Adv. Hum. Genet. 3:237–431.

Ehret CF, G. Haller G. 1963. Origin, development and maturation of organelles and organelle systems of the cell surface in Paramecium. J. Ultrastruct. Res. 23:S1–S42.

Hunt T. 1972. How mammals get the message. New Scientist 18 May:373–375.

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theculturedmarxist · 5 years

Link

Ignore the clickbait title. According to NakedCapitalism:

I don’t know what’s gotten into the Times. The article is a comprehensive and link-heavy round-up of the Trump administration’s efforts to gut carbon-cutting and biosphere-friendly regulation, and so the editor comes up with a headline that works as clickbait if you have a thing for dishwashers, and is otherwise eminently skippable.

Of all the conservative efforts to persuade the Trump administration to weaken the nation’s environmental rules, the dishwasher lobby might be the most peculiar.

“Dishwashers used to clean a full load of filthy dishes in under an hour. But now they take an average of two and a half hours and STILL leave dishes dirty!” reads one online petition promoted by FreedomWorks, a libertarian offshoot of a group co-founded by the late David H. Koch and his brother Charles Koch, who made their fortune in fossil fuels. The decline of American dishwashers, the site says, is “all thanks to crazy environmentalist rules.”

The petition, titled “Make Dishwashers Great Again,” is just one part of a broad campaign coordinated by conservative organizations with ties to fossil-fuel companies. Trump administration emails made public as part of a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club shed new light on the effort, designed to persuade the Trump administration to weaken standards on a long list of home appliances.

One such email, sent in June 2018 to supporters of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, urged them to write to the Department of Energy supporting the creation of “a new class of ‘fast dishwashers’ that can complete a cycle in an hour or less.”

“This will require more electricity and more water and so D.O.E. will have to relax the efficiency standards,” the email said, adding that hundreds of comments had already been filed “with the help of FreedomWorks and several other groups.” (The D.O.E. is accepting comments for or against the move until Oct. 16.)

The weakening of dishwasher rules is just one of many cases where a Trump administration regulatory rollback is in fact opposed by the very industry the White House claims it will help.

“We appreciate the sentiment,” Jennifer Cleary, an executive at the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, wrote in a 2018 letter to administration officials. But weakening the standards would incur “additional costs for manufacturers and, ultimately, consumers.”

The administration is also preparing to loosen proposed Obama-era standards for tailpipe emissions on cars and light trucks, even though automakers say the move would cause them “untenable” instability and hurt their profits. It also plans to eliminate rules that restrict methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure even though some companies have argued for continued regulation.

The Trump administration has already moved forward with numerous other efficiency rollbacks, including weakening energy standards for light bulbs, effectively freezing standards for gas-powered residential furnaces and making it tougher for the federal government to set new efficiency rules.

The administration has also tried to eliminate funding for Energy Star, a popular federal government program that lets companies put Energy Star labels on products that meet energy efficiency standards. It has moved to allow companies to more easily opt out of testing meant to ensure that their products comply with efficiency standards.

And last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee noted that the Energy Department had missed legal deadlines for more than 25 energy efficiency standards mandated by Congress for appliances like air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines, and directed the department to report back on its progress within 30 days.

In an interview, Daniel Simmons, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, defended the department’s actions.

“People’s time is a nonrenewable resource. People get frustrated when their appliances take longer, whether it’s dishwashers or washing machines,” he said. The department, he said, had received “an overwhelmingly positive response from consumers who were tired of waiting for their dishes to dry.”

“It’s not our job to meet industry’s wishes,” he added. “At the end of the day, we’re answerable to the American people and not any particular interest group.”

The rollbacks have significant environmental consequences. Eliminating inefficient bulbs alone would save electricity equivalent to the output of at least 25 large power plants, enough to power all homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to an estimate by the Natural Resources Defense Council. And tougher standards for furnaces alone could reduce carbon dioxide pollution by nearly 85 million metric tons by 2050, equivalent to the annual emissions from 22 coal-fired power plants.

Carbon dioxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that, when released into the atmosphere, is a major contributor to global warming.

Dishwasher makers themselves dispute that dishwasher performance has gotten worse because of environmental regulations and they say they aren’t looking for weaker standards. A study from Consumer Reports said this year that today’s dishwashers use roughly half the water and energy of 20 years ago. In fact, using a modern dishwasher tends to be more energy- and water-efficient than doing the dishes by hand.

“It’s confounding, it’s hard to explain, this blanket attack on regulations,” said Jason Hartke, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a bipartisan nonprofit organization that represents businesses, environmental groups and consumer advocates. “I don’t think they’re listening to industry,” he said. “They’re trying to put out-of-date, inefficient products in American homes.”

Much of the support for these rollbacks has come instead from a small group of conservative, free market organizations, many allied with the fossil fuel industry. For example, a secretive policy group financed by corporations, the American Legislative Exchange Council, worked alongside the gasoline producer Marathon Petroleum to urge legislators to support weakening the clean-car rules.

The Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute, a group that disputes that climate change is a problem, has promoted the effort to roll back dishwasher regulations, filing a petition that directly prompted the dishwasher review. As a nonprofit organization, the Competitive Enterprise Institute isn’t required to disclose its donors, though a recent gala organized by the institute showed that the institute counts among its donors groups that have long been aligned with fossil fuel interests.

Sam Kazman, the group’s general counsel, said its policies “are based on our principles, not on what our supporters think about specific issues.” He added, “We wouldn’t be surprised if they support this initiative — especially if they do their own dishes.”

The FreedomWorks regulatory policy manager, Daniel Savickas, said the Competitive Enterprise Institute had flagged the dishwasher issue and the groups had decided to combine their efforts. “We try and roll back burdensome regulations and make life easier for consumers and manufacturers,” he said.

“The dishwasher in my apartment is absolute garbage, and I have to run cycles multiple times,” Mr. Savickas said.

The crux of their argument is that energy efficiency standards have made America’s dishwashers ineffective with ever-longer cycles, to the consternation of users. “Why should the government mandate these models rather than leave the choice to consumers in the first place?” Mr. Kazman said.

Dishwasher manufacturers say that’s not how they see it.

“Certainly, cycle times have changed over time, as you increase efficiency,” said Ms. Cleary of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which represents 150 manufacturers behind 95 percent of the household appliances shipped for sale within the United States, worth more than $30 billion a year. “But consumers still have so many options,” she said, including one-hour cycles.

In fact, 87 percent of dishwashers sold in 2017 included a quick cycle that can wash and dry the load in an hour, according to the manufacturers association.

The dishwasher debate takes a wonkish turn, devolving into dishwashers’ ability to clean “lightly-” and “normally-soiled” dishes. The Competitive Enterprise Institute contends that quick cycles clean only “lightly soiled” dishes.

A survey of 400 models by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers showed that only about half indicated that “the recommended soil level for the quick cycle was ‘light.’”

“When consumers are using these shorter cycles, they appear to be satisfied with them,” Ms. Cleary said.

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