#moder warfare iii

[eva-stator]

Can people stop making soap a twink that dependent on ghost. I like the ghostxsoap ship but people need to remeber soap is a grown ass man in the military, hes not going to be 4 foot 11 with zero muscle mass and 100 percent dependent on ghost. Soap could beat alot of the people who think that way in a fight easily. Also ghost is not some super insecure cry baby that woukd throw a temper tantrum if you took his mask off.

[forestshadow-wolf]

With full access of the game (mw3) coming out soon I want everyone to know that I probably won't be posting anything about it until December-ish. Partially because I don't have access to the game and will be mostly watching gameplay, and Partially because I want to avoid giving spoilers for the game

[a-gromova]

Eclipse

[blackoutspoetry]

An Unmarked Night in Urzikstan (ghoap)🪐

note - this is a snippet from a longer fic I'm writing for posting on ao3, the first few chapters are on ao3 here

(I also suggest you listen to Give by Sleep Token while reading this)

Background:

This is part of a fix it fic that takes place during the Moder Warfare III campaign. Still on the hunt for Makarov, Soap and Ghost are accidently stranded in Urzikstan and Farah arranges them a place to stay for the night. But after having a terrifying close brush with death, Ghost struggles to grapple with the idea he almost lost Soap forever. Soap tries to make it up to him.

WARNINGS: no smut, but mature themes including talk of death and violence ahead.

"You know, there was a moment there that I was scared I missed him and hit you instead,” Simon confesses, his own soup is finished but he grips the bowl hard, like he’s trying to project all the nervousness into the porcelain instead of letting his voice shake. It's scary, really, how worried he sounds. 

“You were lying there with his body over you, and I couldn’t tell if it was your blood pooling on the ground or his. I waited for you to talk to me for almost a minute before you said you were fine. And a minute doesn’t seem like a lot, but it's enough to get you thinking and I–” he took a breath to steady himself. 

“You were alright this time, but I’m worried that one day, I won’t be there to take that shot. Like last year in Las Almas or today, I just won’t be around and he’ll get to you first. Or worse, I– I am there and I’m too compromised by the stress, it messes with my head and I kill you myself because I was too worried about the immediate threat that I didn’t aim properly.” 

Johnny watches him for a moment in silence, biting the inside of his cheek. If they weren’t in the field, he’d have kissed him right there to silence the worry. But he sits and watches, trying to think of an appropriate way to act now. He can feel the heat of that fire close to his skin. 

“I won’t be able to live with myself if I get you killed, Johnny… it would ruin me.” 

Screw professionalism, the fact that they were in the field together, that this would be an inappropriate thing to do under the circumstances, Johnny reached for Simon’s trembling hands, squeezing them softly for reassurance. 

“I’m still right here, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.” 

It didn’t do much to ease the shaking of his hands, so Johnny stripped off his gloves, running a careful thumb over the skeleton pattern on the back before tugging at each of the fingers and sliding them off his hands, revealing those skilled hands beneath them in all their pale glory.

He raised one to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss against the pulse point of his wrist, right at the edge of that tattoo. One shameless step forward, closer to that fire so that the heat might begin to burn him, and he’d be fine with it, as long as Simon was on the same page as him. 

He could feel the other man’s pulse quicken under his hold as he moved to kiss the palm of his trembling hand. 

Johnny looks to find him, frozen in that position and he cups his other hand around Simon’s jaw, a pressing reassurance that he was breathing, still here. 

“You don’t have to worry about me, love. I’ll be alright, you’ll see.” 

Shamelessly, another can of fuel tipped onto the fire and they’re sitting in the smoke, getting high on the fumes. It's too much to resist now. They’ve held off the inevitable far longer than they wanted to. 

The kiss is a consolation for all that affection, unsaid and unseen  in the thick of the gunfire. It tries to make up for everything they’ve missed. Johnny cups his jaw between both hands, pulling him closer, almost bruising in its languid movement. 

He feels hot tears streak against his hands, tasting salt in the kiss before he feels Simon pull away, failing to stifle a small sob. Johnny wants to look at him, but Simon dips his head against his shoulder, clutching him tightly. 

“I can’t lose you, Johnny, I don’t have anything else, I can’t–” 

“You’re not going to lose me, I’m going to be fine, we’re going to be fine. We’re gonna get out of here tomorrow and return to base, we’re going to do whatever it takes to get Makarov, and we’re going to live.” 

“I saw it today for a moment there, I lost you for thirty fucking seconds and it felt like I was going to die with you.” 

“I’m here now.” 

“You almost weren’t,” he tugs the mask off, finding it more a nuisance than a comfort, and what Johnny sees steals his breath away.

Simon’s hair is mussed up beneath it, tousled strands falling over his forehead and his eyes look wild and distressed, accentuated more by the remnants of eye black that he couldn’t quite scrub away, eyes glistening where his tears collected around the edges of his eyes. 

“Simon,” Johnny said softly, hand finding Simon’s shoulder. It does the trick because Johnny rarely uses his name. 

Simon's eyes turned back from where they were fixated on the ground, letting the tears slide when he found Johnny’s face, smiling a little despite it all. 

He put Simon’s hand over the beating of his heart, just to accentuate the fact that he was still alive, that they were alright. 

Simon fixated on the hand pressed into Johnny’s chest. 

“You’re here…” Simon says brokenly. 

“I am,” Johnny agrees. The hand on his chest pulled into a fist in the fabric of his shirt. 

With a resigned sigh, Simon pressed their foreheads together and Johnny’s hand found its way into Simon’s hair. 

“Come hell or high water, I’ve got you and I’m not leaving you,” he tries to reassure Simon, but they both know he can’t promise anything. They both know that even if Johnny promises not to leave, to walk away from him, they can’t control gunfire and fate. 

He thinks in this case, that the thought isn’t enough to count. 

“I love you, Simon.” 

He feels Simon stiffen in his arms. It was the first time he’d said it and the words had left his mouth unbidden, but it was the truth. He’s never been more sure of anything. 

“Don’t just say that.” 

“I mean it.” 

“You don’t. You can’t.” 

Defiantly, Johnny pulled out of his hold and looked him dead in the eye, sure as ever, voice unwavering as he placed his hands on those broad, solid shoulders. 

“I meant it when I said it. I love you, Simon Riley, and I will not leave you to face the world alone. We’re in this together. We’re a team. We’re more than that.” 

“Please, Johnny, you don’t know what you’re saying.” 

There’s something unsaid, crammed into the thick silence. You don’t know what you’re doing to me. 

Johnny finds more fuel and tips it generously into the licking flames, feeling the heat lurch up, swallow him into the inferno. 

“I’ve loved you for the better part of five years, Simon. I loved you long before I realised it. I loved you before Las Almas and I loved you when you cried into my shoulder about your father, I loved you when I watched you take that mask off for the first time, and I loved you when you kissed me at Gaz's engagement party.” 

He knows he’s laying it on thick, but he needs to drive the point home. He’s never been good with words, but he needs Simon to know this. Even if they can’t turn back from here. 

It looks as though Simon wants to say something, but he doesn’t know how to put it into words. 

Johnny is taken by surprise when Simon kisses him, hard. Their teeth clack together and everything about it feels broken and desperate, like they’re trying to lay claim on each other, needing to remind each other they’re here, and real. It's that kind of struggle with object permanence that he must fight with every day, because the second they leave each other’s sight, they’re fair game to be ravaged by the world. All they have is here, and now. 

“Johnny, this is a bad idea,” Simon says between kisses, hushed abruptly by Johnny’s desperate mouth again, another kiss skewly planted to the corner of his lips. He makes no move to slow the pace as his hands dig in under Johnny’s shirt, large, warm palms pressing into Johnny’s skin. He doesn’t try to stop. 

They’re gaining too much momentum.

“No one has to know what happened here.” 

Another kiss. 

“I will know.” 

His body acted in the opposite direction, pushing Johnny back against the armrest of the couch behind him, Johnny pulled him closer, but he hovered a few centimetres away. 

“You know how I feel about mixing work with– this.”   

“I know. But we’ve got time to kill anyway, and you know how to keep secrets, what’s one more?”

“It's a matter of decorum, it's not right.”

Johnny barely contains the eye roll. “I just wish for one moment you’d start thinking about what you want instead of what they want from you. You told me not to let the system make me its bitch, so take your own advice and start thinking for yourself.” 

Simon looked genuinely surprised for a moment. “You remember that?” 

“Course I remembered it,” Johnny says as if it should have been obvious. “Fucking clung to it like scripture.” 

Simon chuckled lowly, cause for another kiss, his hands steadied himself against the armrest. 

Johnny reached for the hem of his shirt but stilled halfway as he frowned up at Simon. 

“I don’t want to do this here.” 

Less than two minutes later saw them taking the obvious next move from there on. Though neither of them mentioned it when they moved into the room, Johnny could tell Simon’s mind had also drifted back to their earlier conversation when Johnny kissed him senseless and pushed him back onto the bed that they decided they were not sharing under any circumstances. 

He comes to sit between Simon’s legs on the mattress, feeling the old thing dip from their combined weight. 

Contrary to his earlier belief, It was a terribly small bed, he notices with a bit of disappointment, and he’s half afraid it will give in halfway through the night, what with their combined weight, bulked up from years of building muscle. 

It makes him a bit shy, if he’s being honest. 

He pushes that down though, ignores it for the more important concern weighing on his mind.

Johnny carded a hand through the man's honey blonde hair. Those soft brown eyes tracked his movements meticulously.

Simon's eyes betrayed his true nature, always. So tender and soft behind that mask, that he had to hide his face to obscure it.

Simon was by nature, a sweetheart forced to wield a gun and told he was born to fire it. But Johnny knows, he knows that they are fundamentally different.

Simon was bred into what he is today, and Johnny chose this job because there was darkness, a demon clawing out of him.

He'd carried a darkness since the day he was born, gentleness was something he'd had to learn. But Simon...

Simon used to be a soft child without an inch of violence in him. He'd gotten the cruelty beaten into him. All that love that once overflowed from him, as a child, as a toddler, as that boy with that wonderfully wide smile, was kicked out of him.

He became Ghost to survive, but Johnny found Simon in there.

"What do you want from me?"

Simon shuddered when he trailed a hand up his chest, feeling the supple ripple of muscle under his palm.

He eventually finds the words, however difficult it sounds to say.

"Just don't be afraid of me, treat me like a real man."

A real man, a civilian.

"Just touch me softly, Johnny?"

Johnny took the other man's unmasked face between his hands and kissed his forehead softly. He feels the tension in his brow subside, Simon’s hands coming up to cup Johnny’s warm palms. 

"I'll be gentle with you, Simon."

He loves him. 

He's cultivated the admiration, that attraction for his superior officer into something far more dangerous. He doesn't know how else it's supposed to go, because it felt impossible not to fall in love with him when he let his guard down.

Johnny swears he can see tears welling up in Simon's eyes.

"You are loved, Simon," Johnny kisses along his cheek, pressing soft affection into the little scars decorating his skin.

"You deserve to know that."

Without preamble, Simon pulled him closer and tugged the shirt over his head, discarding it elsewhere, out of sight.

It doesn't matter.

"Eager, are we?" Johnny jokes.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted this."

Sitting half dressed in Simon's lap, Johnny stilled as the man's hands trailed up and down his chest, squeezing softly, like he's afraid Johnny might break if he's not careful enough.

Simon's hand stills over Johnny's heartbeat and he brings his own hand to hold it in place, feeling the blessed warm skin against the rhythm of his racing heart.

"You sure about this, Johnny?"

Simon runs his hand over the cross pendant sitting in the dip of Johnny's chest. The metal is warm to the touch. He smooths the twisted chain against warm skin.

"Certain, Lt."

[xtremeservers]

Activison Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Moder... https://www.xtremeservers.com/blog/modern-warfare-iii-lets-you-kill-opponents-with-weed/?feed_id=93222&_unique_id=650c7b6207137&Modern%20Warfare%20III%20Lets%20You%20Kill%20Opponents%20With%20Weed

[phonemantra-blog]

Activision's ToxMod: AI-Powered Voice Chat Moderation in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III In a significant move to combat toxicity in gaming, Activision, the creator of the Call of Duty franchise, is introducing an AI-powered voice chat moderation tool called 'ToxMod.' This innovative solution aims to identify and address toxic speech within the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, set to launch on November 10.  ToxMod: Tackling Toxicity with AI Revolutionizing Gaming Activision has partnered with Modulate to develop 'ToxMod,' a global voice chat moderation tool that leverages machine learning to detect various forms of in-game toxicity. This includes hate speech, harassment, bullying, sexism, and discriminatory language. Activision's ToxMod  Comprehensive Anti-Toxicity Measures Combining Forces ToxMod complements Call of Duty's existing anti-toxicity arsenal, which already includes text-based filtering in 14 languages for both in-game chat and a reporting system. The Beta Test and Human Oversight Testing the Waters Activision has initiated a beta test of the voice chat technology in North America, incorporating it into existing titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone. Recognizing the potential for false positives, especially in languages other than English, the AI-based moderation system will submit reports of toxic behavior for human review. The Fight Against Toxicity Not Exclusive to Call of Duty Toxicity is not unique to the Call of Duty franchise, but due to its massive user base, Activision is turning to machine learning to automate and enhance its solutions. Measuring Impact Effective Measures Activision reports that its previous anti-toxicity efforts have flagged text and voice chats for over 1 million accounts, with a noteworthy 20 percent of those receiving warnings refraining from engaging in toxic behavior again. FAQs for Activision's ToxMod Q1: How does ToxMod detect toxic speech? A1: ToxMod utilizes machine learning to identify various forms of in-game toxicity, including hate speech, harassment, and discriminatory language. Q2: Is ToxMod only available for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III? A2: Initially, ToxMod is being introduced in Call of Duty titles, starting with Modern Warfare III, but its application may expand in the future. Q3: How effective have Activision's anti-toxicity measures been so far? A3: Activision's previous efforts have successfully flagged text and voice chats for over 1 million accounts, resulting in 20 percent of warned users refraining from toxic behavior.

[rwbyvein]

Arctic Warfare:  Heart’s Contemplation:  Part III/IV

Weiss watched Jaune in the fighting theatre, and it felt like the first time she was seeing him. Gone was the odious clod who seemed only capable of tripping over his own feet. Here was a man with fire in his heart and loins, with power and fervour, and as soon as the battle ended, kindness. He looked over at her and she felt as if she were melting.

* * *

Weiss sat down in the cafeteria, nervously looking around, hoping her unfortunate counterpart in Ruby did not see her. She honestly did not know why she was so afraid. Their leader had remarkably proven her mettle.

Pyrrha: Do you mind if I join you.

Weiss: *shocked look*

Weiss: Oh, yes, of course. I feel... out of sorts for some reason.

Pyrrha: I saw what you were staring at before you were... out of sorts...

Weiss: I do not know what you are talking about.

Pyrrha: *reaches forward to grab Weiss' hand*

Pyrrha: *gives Weiss a knowing look*

Weiss: *gives Pyrrha a fearful look*

Pyrrha: I assure you that you do not need to hide such things from me.

Weiss: I have seen the way you look at your leader.

Pyrrha: I have also seen the way you look at me.

*pregnant pause*

Pyrrha: *moves her hand around so that their hands we held palm-to-palm, fingers grasping around the other's hand*

Weiss: *quickly looks away*

Weiss: I don't know what you want from me.

Pyrrha: This.

Weiss: *looks about nervoursly*

Weiss: I beg your pardon, but I must?..

Pyrrha: We both know what you saw, and it was unlike anything you have seen before.

Weiss: Thank you for your...

Weiss: *wanders away*

* * *

Weiss: *stares out the window in RWBY's room*

Yang: You look...

Weiss: *jumps with a start, and turns towards Yang*

Yang: I don't know, even paler.

Weiss: Oh?, simply contemplating every single moral judgement I have ever made. How would you settle a dispute between your Super Ego and Id.

Yang: Maybe if I knew what that was.

Blake: Id is your instincts and emotions. Super Ego is your rational core. The Ego moderates the two.

Yang: So, a fight between your brain and your heart?

Weiss: *clutches her chest*

Yang: Your heart knows what you want, your head knows how to get it.

Ruby: Is that how we ended up on the train?

Yang: *shrugs*

Yang: So, what's got your panties in a knot.

Weiss: It's not my panties that are...

Weiss: *covers her mouth*

Yang: So, who's the lucky lady? Ruby?

Weiss: *huff*

Weiss: Thank you, no. I will say she has made tremendous progress as a leader and a Huntress.

Ruby: Thank you, I think.

Yang: Alright, who we got?

Weiss: First I'll have to let my head and heart resolve their quarrel.

Yang: Uh-huh? Tell us how it goes.

* * *

Yang (from her bed): Ice Queen's turned into an Ice Ghost. Think we should so something about it.

Weiss (sarcastically from her bed): I'm so sorry, Yang, but my maiden's heart is maddened.

Yang: Implying you have one.

Weiss: Quiet you.

Weiss: *uses her Semblance to launch a pillow out at Yang in her bed*

Yang: *throws the pillow back*

Yang: No Semblances.

Weiss: Or what?

Yang: Or I might just use mine.

Ruby: No! No breaking our bunk beds. You know how long I've wanted bunk beds. How long I've wanted sleep overs.

Yang: Alright, no breaking beds.

Yang: *gets hit with a pillow*

Yang: *jumps out of her bed with the pillow in her hand*

Ruby: Wait.

Yang: *pauses mid-wind-up*

Yang: *looks at Ruby questioningly*

Ruby: The floor's lava!

Yang: *jumps back to her bed*

Yang: Why didn't you tell me, sooner?!

Weiss: Pardon, but what does?

Yang: *throws the pillow at her*

Yang: Simple, you act like the floor is made of lava.

Weiss: Aand?

Yang: Well, right now we're throwing pillows at each other.

Weiss: You're throwing pillows; I'm having an existential crisis.

Yang: Over who?

Weiss: If you must know...

Yang: Uh, yeah?

Weiss: *huffs and rolls over*

[dwellordream]

“...Service in time of war was another matter from service in peace. Medieval society possessed an acute consciousness of when civil disorder had crossed into a state of general warfare. It recognised it as characteristic that the state of war suspended many of the niceties and conventions of normal life. So we find in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the idea of a tempus guerrae used to account for events that would not normally happen: in the 1220s, people remembered Stephen’s reign as a time of ‘grant guerre’ when disorder (desrei) reigned.

This consciousness can be found in England soon after the Norman Conquest. In 1070, the papal legate, Ermenfrid of Sion, noted the state of publicum bellum that had existed in England after the landing of Duke William in England, continuing as far as his coronation as king. He prescribed a moderated penance on those of his followers who had killed during it because of their obligation to serve in his host. The phrase, which might be translated as ‘open’ or ‘public’ warfare, was already well established by 1066 in the Church’s view of war. It is not just clerical sources that dwell on this as the regrettable way of a world dominated by a military aristocracy. The military aristocracy itself tells us the same. 

So, in 1166, Walter du Bec recalled that in the time of Henry I he owed knight service for his estates in Norfolk, but that a large outlying estate he held in Cornwall worth the sum of £30 annually, and which may have been held at the time by his mother, was forcibly taken over by Earl Reginald tempore gwerrae, that is, between 1140 and 1148, when civil war raged in that part of England. It was a time of forced military deprivations and Walter wanted it brought to the king’s attention that the disseisin had not been made good. Several other landowners of 1166 talked in the same way of the bad times of the previous reign.

Not many years after this, the pipe rolls following the campaigns of 1173–4 record the outbreaks in the Midlands and East Anglia as a time of gwerra, levied by the earls of Norfolk, Huntingdon and Leicester, when theft and arson were prevalent. Likewise, in the later 1230s, the Buckinghamshire knight Bartholomew de Sackville referred back to the gwerra of 1215–17, when sheriffs made inroads into the liberty of his father’s manor of Fawley, which he was attempting to recover. His lord, Earl William Marshal II (died 1231), also referred back to the same gwerra, in which he had looted and inflicted damage on possessions of Reading abbey which neighboured his manor of Caversham, where he compensated the monks.

Looking back on his already long reign in 1261, Henry III took some credit for the fact that the country had been so little afflicted with periods of ‘hostility and general war’ over the past forty five years, for maintaining a state of civil peace was the king’s task. When there was such a ‘time of war’, the knight was of course both a principal agent of disorder and the only safeguard from it other than the Church. He owed service ‘in the army and on horseback’ (in exercitu et chevalcheia), as the formula often went. The mechanics of the performance of that duty have monopolised a lot of academic attention over the years, though since the 1980s it has become increasingly evident to scholars that paid knights, rather than enfeoffed knights, were decidedly preferred by the Norman and Angevin kings of England when it came to raising forces in both peacetime and war.

Paid knights served indefinitely in their lord’s household, and the terms of their service were flexible. Geoffrey Gaimar celebrated the military household (privee maisnie) of King William Rufus: ‘all were riches chevaliers, and know that the king paid them much!’ Geoffrey noted that the knights Rufus retained (reteneit) became wealthy very quickly. They were rich and well equipped (bien aturnez) and there was no poverty amongst them. Geoffrey numbered the soldeiers (paid knights) the king could summon by writ to be as many as three thousand. This freedom contrasted very much with the army assembled by customary summons. 

Knights serving as a condition of the tenure of their estates were limited as to where and when they might serve. It was only in time of war that their service was obligatory on receipt of a summons. They could choose not to stay on beyond their contractual period of free service; if they did remain, they had to be paid. So it was that, in 1159, in assembling his great army against Toulouse, we are told that Henry II, ‘considering the distance and difficulty of the route, rather than trouble the knights of the countryside, the townsfolk and peasantry’, took scutage of sixty shillings a fee across his realm, and ‘took with him his chief barons and a few men, but innumerable paid knights’.

The earls and barons of England were nonetheless important in wartime, for they remained the core of any army a king might raise. Their resources and leadership were needed, and it was assumed that they would join the king’s army with some force or other. We are not well placed to know how magnates dealt with the need to raise forces for a royal army when they received a summons. One indication we have from a charter of John, count of Eu and lord of Hastings, concerning a campaign in 1166 is that he raised money from his tenants ‘for the wages of knights and service in which I am bound in the king’s war’, just as the king did for his familia.”

- David Crouch, “Military Culture.” in The English Aristocracy, 1070-1272: A Social Transformation 

[f107aquaticinvertebrates]

Predatory Snail (Conus)

*hehe will post our next blogpost on the account*

Group 3

I. Classification

Kingdom               Animalia Subkingdom         Bilateria Infrakingdom        Protosomia Superphylum       Lophozoa Phylum                Mollusca Class                   Gastropoda Subclass              Prosobranchia Order                   Neogastropoda Family                  Conidae Genus                  Conus

ITIS (n.d.)

II. Biology

Tropical Dwellers

Approximately, there are 700 Conus species. The majority is found throughout tropical and subtropical waters, such as the South China Sea, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean. Few species were found in South Africa, Southern Australia, Southern Japan, and Mediterranean Sea (Dutertre and Lewis, 2011). There are also existing species thriving in temperate waters such as C. californicus which are found in the North American Pacific coast(Gao et al. 2017).

Figure 1. Worldwide distribution of cone snails. Spot colors stand for various species number (Gao et al. 2017). Image retrieved from:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5744117/#B37-toxins-09-00397

Habitat

Cone snails are commonly found in intertidal and shallow sublittoral zones. They are present in coral reef areas, sand bottoms, and silty crevices. Some were reportedly found in mangrove areas, and in deeper waters of up to 400-600 meters (Carpenter and Niem, 1998; Dutertre and Lewis, 2011). 

Anatomy

Cone snails are gastropods. Gastropods have asymmetrical body symmetry and their shells are spirally coiled. Conus shells are cone-shaped. The spire of the shell is conical and moderately low to flat. It has a well-developed body whorl that tapers towards the narrow anterior end. The aperture is very long and narrow. There is a notch at the aperture’s posterior end, and a short, wide siphonal canal is located at the anterior end. The operculum is corneous, small, and ovate to claw-shaped. However, the operculum may not always be present (Carpenter and Angelis, 2016).

Figure 2. Ventral view of Conus shell with labelled parts.

Image retrieved from:http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5712e.pdf 

The soft body of gastropods has 4 main regions: the head, the foot, the visceral mass, and the mantle. The head protrudes from the anterior end. The foot is a muscular ventral organ with a flattened base used for locomotion (creeping or burrowing). The visceral mass is located in the spire of the shell and contains most organ systems. The mantle is a collar-like tegument which lines and secretes the shell and forms a mantle cavity normally provided with respiratory gills in aquatic species (Carpenter and Angelis, 2016).

Figure 3. Internal anatomy of Conus striatus.

Image retrieved from:https://www.marinelifephotography.com/marine/mollusks/gastropods/cones/cones.htm 

Cone snails have a specialized venom apparatus that comprises a venom gland, salivary glands, a radular sac, a pharynx, a proboscis, and a radula. The radula of the cone snail is hollowed and barbed and it resembles a harpoon. These harpoons are produced and stored in the radular sac, which is divided into two arms and connects to the pharynx. The short arm contains a few fully formed radula while the long arm is where the radulas are produced.

The cone snail uses chemosensory to detect prey. Once the prey is detected, it will extend its proboscis and shoot its radula which will inject a potent venom to paralyze its prey (Kohn et al. 1972; Marsh 1977; Salisbury et al. 2010; Schulz et al. 2004).

Images retrieved from:https://kristinabarclay.wordpress.com/2016/07/

Figure 4. Close-up photo of a cone snail’s radula (top). Cone snail radula under an electron microscope (bottom). 

Life Cycle

Most cone snail species have separate sexes and fertilization happens internally. Cone snails lay their eggs once a year. The egg masses of cone snails are usually made up of up to 25 egg capsules with each capsule containing roughly around 1000 eggs (Zehra & Perveen 1991). Two types of cone snail hatchlings have been described, the veliger stage (free-swimming larvae) and veliconcha stage (juvenile snails). During these stages, only a few will survive. In between 1 and 50 days, the snails will undergo the pelagic stage (Perron, 1983).

According to Rockel et al as cited in Dutertre and Lewis (2011), it is estimated that cone snails have a lifespan of 10-20 years. This estimated lifespan is based on the marks and shell growth of the snail. They can reach a maximum size of > 20 cm, but most species are < 8 cm  and weight < 100 g. 

Figure 5. Conus magus with egg sacs

Image retrieved from:https://poppe-images.com/?t=17&photoid=951805

Figure 6. Conus ammiralis with its egg capsules attached to Halimeda sp. algae.

Images retrieved from:http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/shell/cone/Conus-ammiralis.htm

III. Relationship with Humans

Cone snails are exploited for ornamental trade and research. 

Conus shells have economic value and are marketed as ornaments. One of the rarest and most valuable shells in the world is the Conus gloriamaris or the Glory of the Seas Cone (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2020). 

Conantokins or sleeper peptides from the geographic cone snail are short chain peptides that can affect neural receptors in fish and mammals. This peptide has great potential that humans can benefit from when it comes to paint ecpetop, drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms and learning. Con-G one of the conatokins from the geographic cone snail has been found to act as a neuroprotective agent in brain ischemia from strokes. Conus shells contain conotoxin which is used for drug development. For example, the ω-MVIIA (ziconotide) is a well-known conotoxin approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2004) to treat chronic pain in cancer and AIDS patients. It is derived from the toxin/venom produced by Conus Magus (Gao et al. 2017). Conus regius is rich in alpha-conotoxins, which can target nicotine receptors and can help in research concerning the development of medicine for Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, lung cancer and even tobacco addiction. (Kompella et al. 2015)

Death by conus?

Humans can be negatively affected by conus. It is recorded that 30 humans have died from a conus sting. Once stung, the victim feels numbness accompanied by dizziness, slurred speech and respiratory paralysis and then death.

IV. Did you know?

1. The venom from one cone snail has a hypothesized potential of killing up to 700 people. (Kapil S., et al.)

2. The Geographic Cone Snail (Conus geographus), according to BBC Earth, is the most toxic cone snail in the world. Its venom contains a protein which when isolated scientists can be used as effectively as a morphine substitute without the harmful side effects. 

3. A person was recorded to be killed from a cone snail sting in as short as 5 minutes!

4. Some cone snails are solitary in nature, like the  Conus spurius or the Alphabet cone, and the only time individuals have contact with each other is during mating!

5. The largest Alphabet cone shell was recorded at 80 mm or as large as your regular sized mountain dew can!

6. Conus species were observed to exhibit “fishermen-like” behavior when hunting for food! They use their proboscis as lures and catch their prey, scientists even coined the term hook and line method to describe this hunting behavior, just like the fishing method.

7. The cone snail is the only recorded species in the animal kingdom to use insulin as a chemical weapon, a hormone that is also used to help diabetic people! Even though this is used as a means to catch prey, scientists actually used insulin from the cone snail’s venom and combined it with human insulin creating a new type of insulin called mini-Ins. 

IV. References

Chivian, E., et. al. (2003, November). The Threat to Cone Snails. Retrieved October 3, 2020 from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/9046809_The_Threat_to_Cone_Snails_1

Gao B, Peng C, Yang J, Yi Y, Zhang J & Shi Q. 2017. Cone Snails: A Big Store of Conotoxins for Novel Drug Discovery. 2017; 9(12): 397. DOI: 10.3390/toxins9120397

Geography Cone. (2018, September 21). Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/g/geography-cone/

Hall, M. (n.d.). Conus geographus (geography cone snail). Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Conus_geographus/

Kane, S. (2017, December 4). The most venomous animal on Earth is truly surprising. Retrieved October 3, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/most-venemous-animal-cone-snail-2016-2?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Kohn, A.J. (2016). Human injuries and fatalities due to venomous marine snails of the family Conidae. DOI: 10.5414/CP202630 

Kompella SN, Hung A, Clark RJ, Mari F, Adams DJ. 2015. Alanine Scan of α-Conotoxin RegIIA Reveals a Selective α3β4 Nicotine Acetylcholine Receptore Antagoist. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2015; 290(2): 1039 DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M114.605592 

Kohn, A.J. (2016). Human injuries and fatalities due to venomous marine snails of the family Conidae. DOI: 10.5414/CP202630 

Safavi-Hemami, J., et. al. (2014). Specialized insulin is used for chemical warfare by fish-hunting cone snails. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 10.1073/pnas.1423857112 (2015).

Sygo, M. (1999). "Conus spurius" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved October 03, 2020 from https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Conus_spurius/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2020. Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/animal/cone-shell

Xiong, X., Menting, J.G., Disotuar, M.M. et al.(2020). A structurally minimized yet fully active insulin based on cone-snail venom insulin principles. Nat Struct Mol Biol 27, 615–624 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-020-0430-8

[a-gromova]

Pew~* 😎👉👉

[hydralisk98]

The Imaginary World of ______ by Keri Smith (Module 0x000; aka the database)

Brainstorm:

The Alchemist

pfsrd

D&D 5e

Loups-Garous de Thiercelieux

UNO & DOS

XXIIVV’s Paradise & “Parade”

Portal 2

Portal Stories: Mel

Half-Life as of Epistle 3

Alien

Pokemon

A bag full of apples

Winnie the Pooh (Soviet Union)

Alternate futures and histories from other planets

Mark Rosenfelder

Sabaton

Rammstein

Eminem

Beatles

Neumond Recordings

Bee Gees

Black Sabbath

EU4 OST

Hans Zimmer

Kenji Kawai

Christian Clermont

Disco

Xerox

Commodore

IBM

DEC

HP

60s-70s Quebec’s cultural revolution

Windows 3.11

1910-1925 era

World War 1 and resulting civil war type of conflicts

Wolfenstein: the New Order

Retrocomputing culture

Soviet cartoons

History

Enlightenment eras (~1755 onward)

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle aka philosophy as a rational discipline

Subliminals community

Plushies’ textures

Moderate socialism

Central europe’s rural areas

Nineveh

Nimrud

S-expressions

Lisp programming languages

Assembly

ALGOL

C

Julia

Python

Rust

British Colombia climate

Montreal and its suburbs

Wien

Paris

Villages/Towns

Turkish Angora Cats

Tigers

Bears

Lizards

Insects

Ancient Mesopotamia’s wardrobes

Old china culture

Japanese Meiji Imperial Era

Symbols

Latin

Ancient Greek

Old Assyrian

Sumerian

Proto-Celtic

Breton

Proto-Uralic

Hungarian

French

German

Portuguese

Spanish?

English?!

Building blocks

Autism

Calm noise soundscape

Keycaps’ typing sounds

Old computers’ sounds

Beavers

Furrets

2000s cartoons

Adult Swim

Underground cultures

Goths

Wicca

Grunge

Vintage

Dumb terminals

Pocket calculators

Home computers

Old mainframes

AI service grid

The two first “Indochina” wars

Memes

Gen Z

Text adventure games

Telex

COMECON trade

Medieval intellectuals

ZX Spectrum

IRC chatrooms

MU* games

Top down grand strategy games and rogue-like RPGs

Nuclear warfare

PDP-8

PDP-11

PDP-15

VAX

Robotron

Zachtronics TIS-100

Sid Meier’s Civilization V

Paradox Interactive’s Europa Universalis III & IV

Hypnospace Outlaw

Pen & paper games

4D toys

Baba Is You

Terraria

Counter-Strike

Call of Duty World at War

Kerbal Space Program

The Stanley Parable

Quake/Half-Life 1

Rene Magritte

Dwarf Fortress

Sandstorm

Powerwolf

Dragonforce

Manowar

Minecraft

Open source community

Linux Mint

Debian

KDE

Solaris

FreeBSD

FreeDOS

Inferno OS

Plan 9

Rudy

Amber

Olive green

Sea blue

Salamanders

Groundhogs

Abstract syntax trees of lexers and compilers

Oracles

Wizards

Shapeshifters

Sea fleets

Land armies

Modern warfare

Guerrilla culture

Kriegsmarine

Wehrmacht

Superheroes

Rationality

New age spiritualities

Polished wood

Chiptune

Fresh winter cold air smell

Garfield

Boxes

Cardboard

Papercrafts

Plastic 3D prints

Words of wisdom

Angels

Zen

Chi-Nu Kai tank

0.0 Wilson, 0.4 Taft, 0.6 Theodore

Colonialism

WW1 Triplanes

Elves

Fantasy Dwarves

Fantasy Tieflings

Fantasy Gnomes

Fantasy Golems

Morphological Freedom

Transhumanism

Extremely far future time-travelling peoples

Aliens

Droids and Synthetics

Sylvans

Linguistics

Geopolitics

LISP 1.5

Shell scripts

Demoscene

Terminator

X-Men

Planet of the Apes

300

Men in Black

The Addams Family

The Matrix

The Hunger Games

Da Vinci Code

16^12+1988 aka the 0x10c Mojang’s cancelled game

[...]

[tremendouspeachduck]

It’s time for a vacation! white water rafting near Portland

Do you like fruit in your wine?  Do you want to know why women are flocking to Pres. Trump?

My Dream Vacation

Arrive Portland by car or rent one and drive to The Bonneville Fish Hatchery –

hike// Guides can take you on the moderate, switchback trail from the hatchery  that’s 2.2 miles roundtrip, or head to Wahkeena Falls for the 5.4 mile loop

Keep driving,   enjoy your headquarters !  At Rowena Overlook, you have two options. 1-mile hike to the crest of Tom McCall Nature Preserve, with views in every direction (including the river below). Or the steeper 3-mile Tom McCall Point Trail which will get you 1000 feet elevation gained and spectacular views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and the gorge.  tour a Hood River orchard and farm. Don’t forget to sample their cider!

From this location, be sure to drive back and forth to visit and enjoy:

whitewater rafting with Class II and III+ rapids. Gear and guides provided May - October

Later hike or bike in the or Deschutes River State Recreation Area. canyon and even take a dip in the river.

   and  tour of the

Terra Blanca Winery

OMG this is what I make in Sept. - Wow - all my drinks are not added to the new recipe online book - check out the so-far drink section HERE

We all need a Sept song, right?

& Estate Vineyard! The views are spectacular, and don’t miss their vineyards, wine caves, and a tasting,  later remember Columbia River Trail is open for a walk, run or biking    

visit every single winery  and more

Nez Perce Hell’s Canyon historic trail

Why not improve your strategy, thinking skills?  Play the game

More Youth-Available Jobs in the Summer

It is obvious that a major issue plaguing America’s cities is violence. 2016 marked Baltimore’s second deadliest year on record with 318 murders largely in part to gang-related warfare. In Chicago, 300 people were shot and 50 were killed in January 2017 alone. 

While a “no-tolerance” stance towards gang violence would work in an ideal world, there are more active strategies that can be implemented to tackle the rising rate of violence in America’s cities. Summer job programs for city youth are a realistic and proactive approach to the issue of gang-related violence and have been proven to help the problem. 

With more of these jobs available, kids are given the opportunity to gain valuable skills and experience in the workforce, while also keeping them off the streets. It is imperative that state-funding be allocated to these programs in order to create these opportunities. Otherwise, there is very little stopping inner-city youth from joining gangs and becoming a part of the violence occurring across the country.

Funding for Urban Public Schools

Why so terrible?

 Well, The omnibus budget provides a $5 million pilot grant program to expand the creation and use of open educational resources, free online and usable education materials.

Criminal Justice Reform - In Nov, 2018  President Trump just backed the prison and criminal justice reform bill, the First Step Act.

Anti-poverty iniative

Please leave message below, then Go To top, nav to previous or next

[newstfionline]

Facebook censored a post for ‘hate speech.’ It was the Declaration of Independence.

By Eli Rosenberg, The Intersect, July 5, 2018

At first glance, the Vindicator’s Facebook promotion did not seem designed to make waves.

The small newspaper, based out of Liberty, a Texas town of 9,175 outside of Houston, planned to post the Declaration of Independence on Facebook in 12 daily installments leading up to the Fourth of July--242 years since the document was adopted at the Second Continental Congress in 1776.

But on the 10th day, the Vindicator’s latest installment was removed by Facebook. The company told the newspaper that the particular passage, which included the phrase “merciless Indian Savages,” went against its “standards on hate speech,” the newspaper wrote.

The story about how Facebook had censored one of the United States’ founding texts on the grounds that it was hate speech has traveled around the world. And it is another glaring example of how the mechanisms that tech companies use to regulate user content--many of which involve algorithms and other automated processes--can result in embarrassing errors. Facebook uses a mix of human work and technological efforts to moderate its content.

Facebook has since apologized to the Vindicator and restored the newspaper’s post.

“The post was removed by mistake and restored as soon as we looked into it,” the company said in a statement distributed by spokeswoman Sarah Pollack. “We process millions of reports each week, and sometimes we get things wrong.”

The Vindicator’s managing editor, Casey Stinnett, wrote that the newspaper believed that the post had been flagged through an automated process in the piece it wrote about the ordeal. The passage that Facebook blocked, paragraphs 27-31, speak unsparingly of England’s King George III as part of a list of dozens of complaints about the king that follow the text’s much repeated opening lines.

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions,” it reads.

Hate speech is generally not permitted on Facebook, though the company notes that context is important to its evaluations. Pollack said the phrase could violate Facebook’s hate speech policies but its removal was a mistake due to a misunderstanding that the quote originated from the Declaration of Independence.

“Unfortunately, Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans,” the Vindicator noted, adding that “there is a good deal in that passage that could be thought hateful.”

Last year, some Trump supporters thought NPR was spreading “propaganda,” after it tweeted the Declaration of Independence’s text in short portions.

Facebook has come under the microscope for removing some content in the past, including the famous photo from the Vietnam War that depicts a naked child running away after a napalm attack. As The Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tracy Jan wrote, “Moderators have deleted posts from activists and journalists in Burma and in disputed areas such as the Palestinian territories and Kashmir and have told pro-Trump activists Diamond and Silk they were ‘unsafe to the community.’”

Stinnett wrote that he saw some irony in the episode.

“This is frustrating, but your editor is a historian, and to enjoy the study of history a person must love irony,” Stinnett wrote. “It is a very great irony that the words of Thomas Jefferson should now be censored in America.”

[norsesuggestions]

please tell me about which swedish rulers I should fight, why and if I would win over them or not

because you said “ruler” and not monarch, i am going to take some liberaty and also discuss prime ministers, nobility and such like, which for the majority of swedens history often of equal influence and power than the monarch, or even during certain epochs, actually much more important to the rule of sweden than the monarchs:

Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden during the reign of Gustav II Adolf and Queen Christina (in office between1612–1654):

this dude was basically the actual de-facto ruler of sweden during Gustav II Adolfs wars, and during the youth of Queen Christina.

he famously given the credit for laying the foundation for the modern adminstative state appartus of sweden. among things he did, was creating the adminstrative län in sweden, a system still in use today.

was also a TOTAL DICKHEAD. during his rule, particulary the oppression of sami people increased. obssesed with starting wars. wanted to create and then uphold the swedish empire created by the conquering of Gustav II Adolf. in general a bad dude.

FIGHT HIM. if you will win? idk, but like, it your damn duty to fight axel oxenstierna if you are face to face with him.

(not saying that Queen Christina and Gustav II Adolf were blameless or something, but this dude is very much the one who held the reign for the practical politics of the swedish state during in particular the epoch of Gustav II Adolf constant warfare).

Per Albin Hansson, Swedish Prime Minister 1932–1936 and 1936–1946. leader of the socialist democratic party of sweden 1925–1946.

dude most famous for popularizing the concept of “det svenska folkhemmet”, a concept which was…. extremaly influential on modern sweden. and which i do not have space to explain here.

BUT, crucial to the ideology of folkhemmet was the the stable heterosexual couple. well amusingly so, Per Albin did actually have two seperate families, and two seperate wives, of which he never told anyone in the public eye about.

so please fight him, do it by mentioning this fact, and you will win i promise. do it!

Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden 1969–1976, 1982-1986, leader of the socialist democratic party of sweden 1969-1986.

this dude was famous for being quick-witted and have a sharp tongue in political debates. so yes fight him, to make him happy, because political discoure was his fave thing.

then hug him, and tell him from me, and a large majority of swedens population, that we miss him very much ever sense he got murdered in 1986, and that we wish he was still with us (because then he could yell at the politics of the current socialist democratic party among things)

do not fight him seriously. just play fight with him, and then give him a loving hug (also perhaps ask who murdered him, we still have no idea in sweden to this day….).

Jean Baptiste Bernadotte [royal title, rarely used today in sweden: Karl XIV Johan], King of Sweden 1818–1844

the replacement for the heir of Gustav III, of which the parliement also disliked. found in a bar by the swedish ambassador by chance according to legend. the ancestor of the current royal family of sweden.

also, forced norway in a union with sweden, which was a major dick move. fight this dude, he was a general in napeolons army, so you will most likely lose, but do it anyway.

Oscar II, King of Sweden 1872–1907and King of Norway 1872–1905

some nobody swedish king who tried to win back the power for the royalty over the parliement. pffft. a doomed project! he was alive during the rise of the working class movements in sweden, which demanded seats in the swedish parliment, and also when it became totally clear for all that Norway would not be that damn forced union that Bernadotte forced them into, anymore.

of which the different dates he ruled sweden and norway gossips about.

old-fashioned grump, fight him. you will win, just like the dissolving of the union of norway and sweden, and the march of democracy won during his lifetime. you might say, why fight with someone who is already laying down? well, he has a very punschable face.

do it!

honorable mention: different irrelavant monarchs of sweden during the 20th, 19th century, 18th century who we do not even learn the names of in school, because they were tbh mostly, or entiraly irrelevant to the actual politics of sweden:

fight them. they are laying down i know. but do it. you will win (just as the politicans of sweden won over them in life).

Gustav III, King of Sweden, 1771–1792:

tried to not be irrelavant as the majority of the 18th century swedish monarchs were. well, he was not irrelavant, but failed entiraly in bringing back the power to the monarch, because he got ya know

murdered by the parliement because of it

but, well, because he is going to get murdered, it feels like a over-kill to actually fight him. look at a play with him or something instead! he was a fan of the arts, so just trick him into believing you are totally on his side.

then join the murder conpiracy i guess *shrugs*

Karl IX, King of Sweden 1599– 1604:

this is the father of Gustav II Adolf, which is what is mostly known for today in sweden. He was one of the many sons of Gustav Vasa, who fought among eachother for the swedish throne after Gustav Vasas death.

also known for, according to legend, dying because of the pure rage of seeing the danish army in the distance (or well heart-attack brough upon by rage at seeing the DANES).

this dude is therefore clearly very ready to fight, but you should not, because you will lose. he did after all win that power-battle between the sons of Gustav Vasa and ended up on top. so, WELL, he is clearly terrifying.

avoid Karl IX at all costs.

Göran Persson, Socialist Democratic Party, Prime Minister of Sweden 1996–2006,

Carl Bild, Moderate Party, Prime Minister of Sweden 1991–1994,

Fredrik Reinfeldt, Moderate Party, Prime Minister of Sweden 2006–2014

the triangle of evil and in general horrible swedish prime ministers of my own life-time. please fight all these guys and their neo-liberal reforms of swedish politics!

FIGHT THEM! (well not with violence literally, because these guys are all still alive, and saying such things would be threath according to swedish law i think. but you know, fight them with words and politics).

(our current prime minister, the socialist-democratic Stefan Löfven is not listed because i have not yet made up my mind about him as a person. these other 3 dudes i have a personal vendetta against!!! we will see with Löfven, if he ever shows enough personlity for anyone to figure out who he is).

Final words

so that was some of them! making this kind off list is hard for sweden, we have existed as a nation for several hundreds years. when we should start count the start of sweden remain in debate, but well, often we calculate the state of sweden from the reign of Gustav Vasa, with start in1523, but ALSO, we often include medieval sweden in our calculations and and…. its complicated? yes?

my point, there are so many people to list in the category of “rulers of sweden”, so haha, this is just a selection of some of them. we are missing the majority of them on this list!  

[supershafiqjan-blog]

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