#sg fragmentation au

[cyber-aster]

thought of doing some intros for the components of the fragmentation AUs but the baseline ones are pretty close to their canon description so im shifting gears to the sg one

introducing the SG Aerialbots of the Fragmentation AU! this SG runs on 'pretty much opposite of baseline' and thinking about some of them make me snicker just by how weird they are.

sg silverbolt: treacherous for funsies. sabotages and even attempted to kill the other combiners in the base just because he finds it fun and likes the challenge. tried shooting defensor once and got locked in a jar for weeks. dunno if he has reached starscream level of comically absurd treachery, but he's at the very least getting there. pretty much lives in the brig/prison of the base because he is that big of a nuisance.

sg skydive: the only reason he would ever pick up a book is to throw it at someone. has no patience to try to plan out his actions and usually brute forces his way through every problem and battle even when it results in a lot of mechs getting hurt. unironically thinks that his usual tactics are pretty good even when it usually doesn't work. everyone else sees him as an idiot. he has no self awareness.

sg air raid: a coward that needs to be dragged to duty due to his strong fear of death. fights only because he is told to and is extremely stressed the whole time. when not on duty he hides inside his room, and considering how he was maimed or got caught in the crossfire of several fights within the base, his fear is not exactly unfounded.

sg slingshot: somewhat of a suck up people(?) pleaser, but considering the characters that are the sg autobots, he's doing so out of a strong sense of self preservation and ensuring that he himself is at least useful enough to not be scrapped given how unhinged some of his compatriots are. tries to convince his brothers to not do stupid things that might get them punished. has not succeeded once.

sg fireflight: a normal guy. so normal that he's just boring. treats the war with the same energy as the average person on a nine to five retail shift. has not reached baseline dead end's level of nihilistic apathy but generally does not care much about the war or anything happening around him. he's just going through the motions of your average war crimes.

[crispy-art-on-fire]

That au of "What if Shockwave chose the Decepticons over Bee" is absolutely diabolical. I love it. Yet I wanna ask how Team Prime is going to feel about that and especially ask in what way will Shockwave do to keep Bee dead?

I imagine in this au, he will keep his body somewhere that it will never be found by team prime...Just like how sg bee kept Shockwaves' body...*gets shot by angst beam*

This plotpoint take a lot of inspo from Rise of the Beasts so basically they try to treat Bumblebee as being in a coma instead of... dead. They're still emotionally wrecks about this but they're determined to set things right. Knowing that allspark fragments can become people they're also a lot more determined to make the new bots turn to their side in case their presence is needed as well.

Unfortunately for Shockwave he didn't have that information when he was the only one who knew Bumblebee was dead, and so staged a scene to which a grief driven Longarm could request Bumblebee be taken home for his funeral. With Team Prime convincing Ultra Magnus that they should be the one to keep Bumblebee until they're sure he's beyond saving Longarm couldn't insist on keeping Bumblebee as it'd make it look like he wanted his former sparkling dead.

So forced back on his role on Cybertron he neglects his work in order to make deals with people like Lockdown and Swindle to either get the body, kill the Autobots, or gather the Allspark fragments. He also turns to the Decepticons on Earth to do the same, acting like it's only the logical option. He's wayyy more meddling than usual and so is getting suspicious glances from both sides as he spirals downwards with every step closer the Autobots gets to reviving Bumblebee and every failed plan.

[devenirmilliardaire]

Baku hôte d’un forum international sur le dialogue interculturel. Un nombre important de délégations internationales, représentants d’organisations supranationales et d’intellectuels du monde de la culture prennent part au sixième Forum mondial sur le dialogue interculturel de Baku, la capitale de la République d’Azerbaïdjan, qui s’ouvre mercredi, a-t-on appris. Baku hôte d’un forum international sur le dialogue interculturel Identité visuelle de la Biennale Interdiction de son utilisation (SG) ‘’Le dialogue pour la paix et la sécurité mondiale : coopération et interconnexion’’ est le thème de la sixième édition de cette manifestation internationale prévue sur trois jours. Il est ainsi attendu des participants, à travers une série de séances plénières et panels de discussion, d’examiner les défis mondiaux relatifs au dialogue civilisationnel et à la coopération pour lutter contre la haine et promouvoir les valeurs de coexistence et de paix, ont expliqué les organisateurs dans un document de présentation de l’évènement. déplacement du président Bassirou Diomaye Faye à Bissau 1 →A lire aussi À la découverte des perles côtières de la Côte d'Ivoire : un voyage entre nature, culture et histoire C’est ainsi qu’après la cérémonie officielle d’ouverture prévue au centre des conventions de Baku les participants vont ouvrir les discussions sur la coopération et le leadership en matière d’interconnectivité et sur la manière de tirer profit du ‘’soft power’’ pour renforcer la vision multilatérale, la solidarité et résister à la fragmentation. Mettre en valeur et célébrer la diversité culturelle déplacement du président Bassirou Diomaye Faye à Bissau 3 Parallèlement à ces panels, le 6e forum de Baku sera au rythme d’activités culturelles, notamment des concerts, des festivals et des spectacles, pour mettre en valeur et célébrer la diversité culturelle et renforcer l’esprit de collaboration et de compréhension. La tenue de ce forum s’inscrit dans le cadre de la mise en ��uvre et du rôle du “Processus de Bakou”, présenté comme une plate-forme mondiale essentielle dédiée à la promotion de la coopération et le dialogue interculturel. Baku hôte d’un forum international sur le dialogue interculturel →A lire aussi La riziculture au Sénégal: Évolution de 2012 à 2024 (analyse) L’Assemblée générale des Nations unies a adopté en 2017 à l’unanimité une résolution reconnaissant cette initiative du président azerbaïdjanais, Ilham Aliyev, comme ‘’un mécanisme important pour renforcer le dialogue interculturel’’. Les cinq précédentes éditions du Forum ont été marquées par l’organisation de plus de 250 activités et la participation de près de 10.000 personnalités représentant 180 États et 30 organisations internationales, ont rappelé les organisateurs de l’évènement.

[ghostofyaz]

the w.i.p.s game

Rules: post the names of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it!

Here's mine, categorized by ship:

Lightcannon (Jinx/Lux)

Another SG AU

Blue Fire

Whumptober

NaNoWriMo

Incorrect Quotes

Author Lux

Sister, I’m Not Much of a Poet But a Criminal

You are my citadel, you are my wishing well

Blue Swan *

Hanahaki *

Break the Rules *

A Different Life *

Flowers and Thorns *

Gasoline (Energy) *

Green and Blue *

Fragments *

Lightcannon + Wenclair

Love Threats *

CaitVi

Blood Magic *

Arcane - Enemy Series *

CaitJinx

Cheating AU

A/b/o Drabble

Careless Whisper

B.I.G. *

Soulmate AU *

Note: all the titles with an asterisk (*) are wips that have been partially posted on my ao3, while the rest are unpublished works.

tagged by @prettyaveragewhiteshark

tagging: @calchexxis @blood-lich-crow @yiasukink @questionablecuttlefish @fr1d4ys @mira-blue @clownpi and @goldfyshie927 because I didn't see you do this, and if you did, show me pls, I wanna see!

[alternativewinxcontinuity]

Find it on AO3

I'm Sanctified_Jasper over on AO3, most of the lore and stories from this blog can be found there, but there are some I've forgotten to cross post... if only I could remember which ones...

-

Winx Alternative Continuity:

Alternative Winx Continuity contains all the Lore and Stories that fit in the Alt Con that are Cross posted

part 1 Fairy Culture just the Lore to pad the Universe

part 2 & 3 Planetary Index

Canon Worlds Non-Canon Worlds

part 4 Fate of the Nymphs 'Nine' Nymphs of Magix, OCs and Backstory

part 5, 6 & 7 Winx Alt Con The Story in Chronological Order

Pursuit of Flame – season 1 (complete) Lord in the Underrealm – season 2 (complete) Fragment of Flame/Ocean's Throne – season 3 & 5 (in progress)

part 8 Background Noise OC collection – non-nymph addition

-

Non-Alt Con/Alternative Alternative Continuity

There may be some aspects of the Alt Con, I like my worldbuilding lore, but these stories aren’t technically? part of that continuity

Princess Solaria: Fairy Lost

Pilot Episode Canon Divergence, Stella Centric

Bloom goes to the beach instead of the Park. With help failing to arrive in time, Stella finds herself stranded on a planet that's been cut off from the Magical Dimension for centuries, low on magic and with no way to call home.

Astria Lithium (Post?) season 3 Canon Divergence Crossover/ Stargate SG-1 Crossover, Diaspro Centric - one shot

Diaspro kills a god, for revenge and his kingdom.

The Haunted Highschool Trope Complete AU, (super mild?) horror themes - one shot

For Various reasons, 5 boarding school students are given detention cleaning up an old abandoned school house, one which is rumoured to be haunted.

Hallowinx – Fairy Princesses of Gardenia (post?) season 4 Canon Divergence, fluff - one shot

The Winx play Fairy Godmothers to a group of young girls whose trick-or-treat fun is put at risk by some ruined costumes

Kaleidoscope Flutter Winx Club Oneshots, AUs, and abandoned Pilot chapters

PokéWinx Crossover/Universe Merge - one shot

Bloom begins her Pokémon Journey, and runs into someone else's problem

-

Fate Saga

Yes, I wrote for this, I confess to my crimes

Fate Saga Reaction I read the tie in novel teaser, and had some thoughts

Fire\Light they had a perfectly good chance to make Stella and Bloom gayer, so I took it - one shot

Fate: the ReWinxed Saga I put some Winx back in Fate: the Winx Saga

Fire\Starter Bloom wakes from a nightmare-memory to find her house on fire, and struggles emotionally to deal with the fall out - one shot

Wing\Lore Stella and Ms Dowling escort Bloom to Alfea and teach her a bit about the world she's entering. Bloom ends up with as many questions as before, just not the same ones - one shot

[jadelotusflower]

2019 Writing Round Up

This year hasn’t been overly productive on the writing front, but I’m not entirely disappointed. I’ve finished a long-languishing wip, got through draft 1 of part 1 (i.e. first third) of my original novel, picked up another very old wip and added a decent amount to other fics.

Fic

Corpse Flower (Star Wars)

4018 words written. What started as a spooky Halloween one shot became a multi-chapter (but of course!), the latter few completed in January 2019. Still rather proud of how this fits into the structure and mythology of the overall series.

Turn Your Face to the Sun (Star Wars)

2478 words written. I really need to work on this one some more, but I’ve run out of ideas for the bridging chapters (exactly what Obi would be up to between Luke’s childhood and adolescence). If anyone has any prompts, that would be appreciated.

He Will Not Encumber Me (Star Wars)

3705 words. A one-shot that had been languishing on my drive for a while with only an idea and a few sentences, finally finished and posted.

The Lady of the Lake (Star Wars)

1066 words written (unposted). The last part of A Year in the Life, meant to be posted for New Years (Naboo Festival of Light)  but writers block has stunted that one - I’ve said before, I always find endings the hardest. The heatwave hasn’t helped, as it’s uncomfortable enough just laying around sweltering, let alone working on the laptop. So, finishing this fic is a problem for 2020 me.

Fight Club (Star Wars)

729 words written (unposted). Luke and Mara spar-with-words fic, mostly dialogue fragments at this stage.

Twin Hearts of Kyber (Star Wars)

481 words written (unposted). The “Han” chapter which is proving somewhat difficult.

A Life Less Ordinary (Robin Hood)

7309 words written. Completed finally after an inexcusably long time, but I’m extraordinary proud of it as a fix-it AU.

Against the Dying of the Light (Merlin)

37619 words written (including unposted parts). After a show rewatch I’ve picked this post-show canon fix-it fic back up which was first started in 2012. This is my main focus atm, and I’m really enjoying working on it and it’s the most productive/prolific I’ve been all year.

In Loco Parentis (Stargate SG-1)

678 words written (unposted). A fic idea I’ve been kicking around since the 20th Anniversary (which was in 2017....ugh, I need to get myself sorted) and finally got few words down.

Original work

The Faerie Ring (working title)

19441 words written. My magnum opus (lol). I’ve done the rough draft of Part I, and need to go back and edit before I really get working on the next bit. Also hampered somewhat by lack of feedback, I gave it to a RL friend to read as she’s very good at concrit, but it’s taken her months and has only read about half, she’s very sorry about the delay and there are Reasons but it’s a bit frustrating.

Still, I think about this a lot and have the bones of the rest of it in my head, I just need to buckle down and write.

——

Total words written 2019: 77,524

Which...I mean, it’s not terrible. I’ve accomplished more I think, even in just finishing things and working on things, than the actual word count can reflect. Here’s hoping for an even more productive 2020. 

See you in the next decade, folks!

[mioships]

star guardian norah !!!! 💫 i came up with a whole sg au for melkayn and went a little ham last night on my twitter but basically shieda becomes zoe’s bargaining chip against the team of sivir, taliyah, ekko, & norah...,,, rhaast is a fragment of the First Star and harbors insatiable bloodlust for the star guardians who put him there... and while he doesn’t see himself as zoe’s “friend” (like she keeps calling him) he is more than happy to help her put her plan into fruition by taking a star guardian captive,,,

[inqorporeal]

Tagged by @sl-walker

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. (You can make your own post or reblog this one!) I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DnD campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!   

So I am NOT tagging as many people as there are files in my WIP folder, because I don’t think I have that many mutuals who write. Also, this is going under a cut because the last time I only listed subfolders, but this time I’m giving you the full list.

If you want to join in, consider yourself tagged and @ me when you post :D

Chanai - Ancient Answers

Chanai - In Dreams

Raising the Stakes

Chanai - Seeing Ghosts

Dead Zone

Izhayh - Sun and Moon

Post-66 Pirate AU

Chanai - Omphalos

SG

Chanai - Dragoon

A Revolutionary Man

In Memoriam

High School Wars

Chanai - In Doma

Manifesto

Ravvi - Farewell, Dragoon

Chanai - fragments

Passion & Providence

Chanai - It's happening

Spirit in Steel

Ingault - In Coerthas

Roots of Eden

Between Worlds

Chanai - Making Friends

Crossed Stars 2

Chanai - Machinery

Ohnaka's Eight

Chanai - Naadam

Queen of Fangs

Chanai - Courting

Galaxy Burger

Final Days

Brothers

Chanai - Ill-Thought

Chanai - Sleeping Beauty

Sano/Deron/Kurse

Chanai - A moment alone

Red Jedi

Chanai - Crystarium

R2 vs the Death Star

Chanai - Personal Issues

Nic of Time

the Ishgardian marriage proposal AU

Nameless

Last Guardian of the Blade

[nancydpolardau]

Airbnb and empty houses: who's responsible for managing the impacts on our cities? – Architecture AU

The Airbnb and empty house phenomena and their presumed links to housing and rental prices have attracted considerable media and political attention. The ABC points to the “dark side” of Airbnb and its effect on long-term rental prices. Empty houses are being linked to higher housing prices and to foreign investment, most often Chinese investment. The Australian headlines that “China buyers raise ghost town fears”.

The Commonwealth and state governments are seeking to regulate the phenomena. It is questionable whether they should and even whether they understand the data and trends.

The Airbnb question

Airbnb involves renting an entire home, a room or a shared room. Short-term rental of an entire house or flat that is available all year is equivalent to reducing long-term rental options.

Airbnb poses a possible threat to rental affordability. The income Airbnb generates in areas of cities popular with tourists causes owners of rental properties to withdraw these from the long-term rental market. It also causes investors to acquire property and enter the Airbnb market, and to increase the cost of long-term rental.

This may create a ripple effect as relatively high-income households are displaced to adjacent neighbourhoods. The scale of Airbnb impacts on rents, displacement of long-term renters and neighbourhood fragmentation has led cities such as Barcelona, New York and Amsterdam to attempt to ban, or strictly regulate, the extent and location of Airbnb.

Should similar effects be anticipated in parts of Australian cities that are popular with tourists? Data on Airbnb accommodation in Melbourne and Sydney as of December 2016 are:

Reportedly,

The number of Airbnb properties potentially removed from Sydney’s permanent rental market with an average vacancy rate of around 3% amounts to approximately half of the available rental properties.

The scale of the Airbnb phenomenon is increasing. So, too, is the company’s influence, with its membership of the Committee for Sydney and its status as a source of Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Government may well have to consider regulating Airbnb. The question is whether Airbnb is best managed by state government, or metropolitan or local government.

For example, the Victorian government has designated the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda for Airbnb development. Why should this be a state decision? Might the residents of already costly rental Fitzroy and St Kilda have their own views?

The empty housing question

On the night of the 2016 Census, 1,089,165 dwellings were empty – 11.2% of all Australian dwellings. It’s widely assumed that these empty dwellings, by not contributing to housing supply, increase house prices.

Supposing that this is the case and presuming that foreign investors contribute significantly to the empty house phenomenon, the Australian government’s 2017-18 budget introduced a levy on foreign investors who leave properties vacant for more than six months.

Not solely blaming foreign investors and also looking at domestic speculative investment, the State of Victoria has introduced a vacant residential property tax. This “is intended to encourage these owners to make their property available for purchase or rent … [but] will only apply to vacant properties located in the inner and middle suburbs of Melbourne”.

However, empty house data should be seen in context: over the previous 35 years, between 9.2% and 11.2% of houses were empty. Vacancy rates have changed little over this time. Almost two-thirds of empty dwellings on census night are holiday houses or dwellings where owners were absent. Among the capital cities, only in metropolitan Perth did the empty dwelling rate exceed 10%.

SGS Economics and Planning estimates about 110,000 of the vacant dwellings – 10.6% of the total – were available for short and long-term rental. This small proportion available for rent, amounting to 1.2% of Australia’s houses, would probably not attract media and political attention.

Nonetheless, foreign investment in housing is a global phenomenon that focuses on specific cities, such as Vancouver, New York, Miami, London, Paris, Auckland and Sydney. Blaming foreign investors for its 107,000 empty dwellings, the Parisian government “tripled the current 20% extra that non-resident owners have to pay in council tax, or taxe d’habitation, to 60%”. Vancouver imposed a 15% tax on foreign investment in housing. Following this, “the number of foreign buyers dropped by 80%. That helped dampen house-price inflation there but pushed up demand in nearby Victoria.”

What level of government should manage these issues?

It is unclear whether Sydney and Melbourne will come to have a level of empty dwellings that warrants federal and state attention. Should this be required, the question is which tier of government can best manage the phenomenon.

It is difficult to argue that taxes should be applied at federal and state levels because foreign investment, property speculation and Airbnb affect some cities and not others. They affect some suburbs and not others.

For example, due in part to “a soft residential property market” and “lower land values”, tax revenue for Western Australia is in its third year of decline. The state government and Perth homeowners might welcome foreign investment and Airbnb to sustain tax revenue and house prices.

Would a metropolitan government, learning from metropolitan interventions elsewhere, not be better placed to manage the effects of Airbnb and empty houses?

Cities around the world are seeking to manage these phenomena and sharing experiences of how best to do this. In Australia, though, the Commonwealth and state governments presume to know best.

Richard Tomlinson, Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

from End of Lease Cleaning Melbourne|Bond back cleaning|Bond Cleaning |Vacate cleaning Melbourne https://highpowerclean.com.au/airbnb-and-empty-houses-whos-responsible-for-managing-the-impacts-on-our-cities-architecture-au/ from High Power Cleaning Melbourne https://highpowercleanau.tumblr.com/post/165540348746

[jerrymcguireau]

Airbnb and empty houses: who's responsible for managing the impacts on our cities? Architecture AU

The Airbnb and empty house phenomena and their presumed links to housing and rental prices have attracted considerable media and political attention. The ABC points to the “dark side” of Airbnb and its effect on long-term rental prices. Empty houses are being linked to higher housing prices and to foreign investment, most often Chinese investment. The Australian headlines that “China buyers raise ghost town fears”.

The Commonwealth and state governments are seeking to regulate the phenomena. It is questionable whether they should and even whether they understand the data and trends.

The Airbnb question

Airbnb involves renting an entire home, a room or a shared room. Short-term rental of an entire house or flat that is available all year is equivalent to reducing long-term rental options.

Airbnb poses a possible threat to rental affordability. The income Airbnb generates in areas of cities popular with tourists causes owners of rental properties to withdraw these from the long-term rental market. It also causes investors to acquire property and enter the Airbnb market, and to increase the cost of long-term rental.

This may create a ripple effect as relatively high-income households are displaced to adjacent neighbourhoods. The scale of Airbnb impacts on rents, displacement of long-term renters and neighbourhood fragmentation has led cities such as Barcelona, New York and Amsterdam to attempt to ban, or strictly regulate, the extent and location of Airbnb.

Should similar effects be anticipated in parts of Australian cities that are popular with tourists? Data on Airbnb accommodation in Melbourne and Sydney as of December 2016 are:

Reportedly,

The number of Airbnb properties potentially removed from Sydney’s permanent rental market with an average vacancy rate of around 3% amounts to approximately half of the available rental properties.

The scale of the Airbnb phenomenon is increasing. So, too, is the company’s influence, with its membership of the Committee for Sydney and its status as a source of Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Government may well have to consider regulating Airbnb. The question is whether Airbnb is best managed by state government, or metropolitan or local government.

For example, the Victorian government has designated the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda for Airbnb development. Why should this be a state decision? Might the residents of already costly rental Fitzroy and St Kilda have their own views?

The empty housing question

On the night of the 2016 Census, 1,089,165 dwellings were empty – 11.2% of all Australian dwellings. It’s widely assumed that these empty dwellings, by not contributing to housing supply, increase house prices.

Supposing that this is the case and presuming that foreign investors contribute significantly to the empty house phenomenon, the Australian government’s 2017-18 budget introduced a levy on foreign investors who leave properties vacant for more than six months.

Not solely blaming foreign investors and also looking at domestic speculative investment, the State of Victoria has introduced a vacant residential property tax. This “is intended to encourage these owners to make their property available for purchase or rent … [but] will only apply to vacant properties located in the inner and middle suburbs of Melbourne”.

However, empty house data should be seen in context: over the previous 35 years, between 9.2% and 11.2% of houses were empty. Vacancy rates have changed little over this time. Almost two-thirds of empty dwellings on census night are holiday houses or dwellings where owners were absent. Among the capital cities, only in metropolitan Perth did the empty dwelling rate exceed 10%.

SGS Economics and Planning estimates about 110,000 of the vacant dwellings – 10.6% of the total – were available for short and long-term rental. This small proportion available for rent, amounting to 1.2% of Australia’s houses, would probably not attract media and political attention.

Nonetheless, foreign investment in housing is a global phenomenon that focuses on specific cities, such as Vancouver, New York, Miami, London, Paris, Auckland and Sydney. Blaming foreign investors for its 107,000 empty dwellings, the Parisian government “tripled the current 20% extra that non-resident owners have to pay in council tax, or taxe d’habitation, to 60%”. Vancouver imposed a 15% tax on foreign investment in housing. Following this, “the number of foreign buyers dropped by 80%. That helped dampen house-price inflation there but pushed up demand in nearby Victoria.”

What level of government should manage these issues?

It is unclear whether Sydney and Melbourne will come to have a level of empty dwellings that warrants federal and state attention. Should this be required, the question is which tier of government can best manage the phenomenon.

It is difficult to argue that taxes should be applied at federal and state levels because foreign investment, property speculation and Airbnb affect some cities and not others. They affect some suburbs and not others.

For example, due in part to “a soft residential property market” and “lower land values”, tax revenue for Western Australia is in its third year of decline. The state government and Perth homeowners might welcome foreign investment and Airbnb to sustain tax revenue and house prices.

Would a metropolitan government, learning from metropolitan interventions elsewhere, not be better placed to manage the effects of Airbnb and empty houses?

Cities around the world are seeking to manage these phenomena and sharing experiences of how best to do this. In Australia, though, the Commonwealth and state governments presume to know best.

Richard Tomlinson, Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

from https://highpowerclean.com.au/airbnb-and-empty-houses-whos-responsible-for-managing-the-impacts-on-our-cities-architecture-au/

from High Power Cleaning Melbourne - Blog http://highpowercleanau.weebly.com/blog/airbnb-and-empty-houses-whos-responsible-for-managing-the-impacts-on-our-cities-architecture-au

[cyber-aster]

Ohh, I saw your shattered glass Autobot combiners, but what about the Shattered Glass Decepticon combiners?

(The Constructicons canonically all being healers and medics in SG warms my heart and thinking of Devs holding some of that is !!!)

Holy primus it's @wwheeljack the fic author that introduced me to combiners and kickstarted my stunticon obsession-

Anyways, SG Fragmentation AU's decepticon combiners pre-fragmentation :D a lovely trio. they might not be as fierce as warriors in this universe but they more than make up for it with their other traits

SG Devastator: is still the oldest modern combiner, reforged from a crew of Decepticon medics who sacrificed their lives in a difficult battle. despite his name, devs was never quite one for destruction. while not incapable of combat, devastator much prefers fixing things up, whether they are buildings or other mechs. patient and steadfast, he is both an expert in construction and medicine. he very much considers himself the older brother to the other two combiners and checks up on them frequently, considering the fact that he's pretty much the only one can do that on a regular basis. compared to his more aloof baseline self he really cares about those two, to the point where he misses his own assignments in order to fix them up, and brings them along to help with some projects from time to time. however, his concern for others often leaves him distracted and vulnerable to attacks, usually resulting in quite a number of injuries that he needs help fixing.

SG Menasor: still created from earth vehicles, but is proud of his close association with the planet and is not afraid to admit it. really enjoys human culture and just being around others in general, with a special love for listening to the radio. quite the excitable, easygoing and extroverted mech, but has nerves of steel in an emergency situation. enjoys being on the road in decombined form and driving around earth, but is aware of his strength and the danger he poses to humans and their vehicles should he be reckless, so menas is quite aware of traffic laws in different places so he doesn't hurt humans. unfortunately, this level of cautiousness sometimes extends into the battlefield, where he would hold back his strength and speed by instinct, which often puts him on the defensive in a fight, especially against more aggressive opponents. he can hold his own, but his reluctance to unleash his full strength made him a target of mockery of the autobots and even irritates some decepticons, but he doesn't really care about what others think.

bonus fact: his level of cautiousness and unwillingness to crash into others got passed onto motormaster after fragmentation. just like Tinted Lenses sg motors not wanting to crash into others is an idea that got into my head one day and refused to leave.

SG Bruticus: the youngest of the trio (so far, again i may be bringing new teams to the AU) and very much looks up to the other two, which makes devastator and menasor quite protective of him. is really good at assessing a situation quickly and improvising on the go, and is surprisingly adept at managing logistics. is humble almost to the point of self deprecation, as bruticus feels like he can always do better and has lots to learn from others. socially awkward and speaks a lot less in public, often staying silent and clinging to either devs or menas, but is more comfortable with chatting with his brothers when it's just them in their own combiner base. not good at very complicated schemes and prefers more straightforward plans and actions. is also a very bad liar and easily folds under scrutiny, very vulnerable to pressure and taunts, often ends with bruticus distracted by the insults and requiring others, usually the other two, to assist him. is very self conscious about this fact and is trying to overcome this weakness.

hope i did these fellers justice :D ALSO GO READ THE FRACTURE SERIES IT IS AMAZINGLY WRITTEN AND WILL MAKE YOU ADORE THE STUNT LADS!

[highpowercleanau]

Airbnb and empty houses: who's responsible for managing the impacts on our cities? – Architecture AU

The Airbnb and empty house phenomena and their presumed links to housing and rental prices have attracted considerable media and political attention. The ABC points to the “dark side” of Airbnb and its effect on long-term rental prices. Empty houses are being linked to higher housing prices and to foreign investment, most often Chinese investment. The Australian headlines that “China buyers raise ghost town fears”.

The Commonwealth and state governments are seeking to regulate the phenomena. It is questionable whether they should and even whether they understand the data and trends.

The Airbnb question

Airbnb involves renting an entire home, a room or a shared room. Short-term rental of an entire house or flat that is available all year is equivalent to reducing long-term rental options.

Airbnb poses a possible threat to rental affordability. The income Airbnb generates in areas of cities popular with tourists causes owners of rental properties to withdraw these from the long-term rental market. It also causes investors to acquire property and enter the Airbnb market, and to increase the cost of long-term rental.

This may create a ripple effect as relatively high-income households are displaced to adjacent neighbourhoods. The scale of Airbnb impacts on rents, displacement of long-term renters and neighbourhood fragmentation has led cities such as Barcelona, New York and Amsterdam to attempt to ban, or strictly regulate, the extent and location of Airbnb.

Should similar effects be anticipated in parts of Australian cities that are popular with tourists? Data on Airbnb accommodation in Melbourne and Sydney as of December 2016 are:

Reportedly,

The number of Airbnb properties potentially removed from Sydney’s permanent rental market with an average vacancy rate of around 3% amounts to approximately half of the available rental properties.

The scale of the Airbnb phenomenon is increasing. So, too, is the company’s influence, with its membership of the Committee for Sydney and its status as a source of Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Government may well have to consider regulating Airbnb. The question is whether Airbnb is best managed by state government, or metropolitan or local government.

For example, the Victorian government has designated the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda for Airbnb development. Why should this be a state decision? Might the residents of already costly rental Fitzroy and St Kilda have their own views?

The empty housing question

On the night of the 2016 Census, 1,089,165 dwellings were empty – 11.2% of all Australian dwellings. It’s widely assumed that these empty dwellings, by not contributing to housing supply, increase house prices.

Supposing that this is the case and presuming that foreign investors contribute significantly to the empty house phenomenon, the Australian government’s 2017-18 budget introduced a levy on foreign investors who leave properties vacant for more than six months.

Not solely blaming foreign investors and also looking at domestic speculative investment, the State of Victoria has introduced a vacant residential property tax. This “is intended to encourage these owners to make their property available for purchase or rent … [but] will only apply to vacant properties located in the inner and middle suburbs of Melbourne”.

However, empty house data should be seen in context: over the previous 35 years, between 9.2% and 11.2% of houses were empty. Vacancy rates have changed little over this time. Almost two-thirds of empty dwellings on census night are holiday houses or dwellings where owners were absent. Among the capital cities, only in metropolitan Perth did the empty dwelling rate exceed 10%.

SGS Economics and Planning estimates about 110,000 of the vacant dwellings – 10.6% of the total – were available for short and long-term rental. This small proportion available for rent, amounting to 1.2% of Australia’s houses, would probably not attract media and political attention.

Nonetheless, foreign investment in housing is a global phenomenon that focuses on specific cities, such as Vancouver, New York, Miami, London, Paris, Auckland and Sydney. Blaming foreign investors for its 107,000 empty dwellings, the Parisian government “tripled the current 20% extra that non-resident owners have to pay in council tax, or taxe d’habitation, to 60%”. Vancouver imposed a 15% tax on foreign investment in housing. Following this, “the number of foreign buyers dropped by 80%. That helped dampen house-price inflation there but pushed up demand in nearby Victoria.”

What level of government should manage these issues?

It is unclear whether Sydney and Melbourne will come to have a level of empty dwellings that warrants federal and state attention. Should this be required, the question is which tier of government can best manage the phenomenon.

It is difficult to argue that taxes should be applied at federal and state levels because foreign investment, property speculation and Airbnb affect some cities and not others. They affect some suburbs and not others.

For example, due in part to “a soft residential property market” and “lower land values”, tax revenue for Western Australia is in its third year of decline. The state government and Perth homeowners might welcome foreign investment and Airbnb to sustain tax revenue and house prices.

Would a metropolitan government, learning from metropolitan interventions elsewhere, not be better placed to manage the effects of Airbnb and empty houses?

Cities around the world are seeking to manage these phenomena and sharing experiences of how best to do this. In Australia, though, the Commonwealth and state governments presume to know best.

Richard Tomlinson, Professor of Urban Planning, University of Melbourne

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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[zermin]

18 February 2017

Transcript of Secretary-General’s remarks to Munich Security Conference

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is indeed a great pleasure for me to be back in Munich now in this new capacity.

We live in a dangerous world. We are witnessing a multiplication of new conflicts, old conflicts seem never to die – be it in Afghanistan or Somalia – and these conflicts are becoming more and more interlinked and linked to a new threat of global terrorism. If one looks from Nigeria to Mali to Libya, Israel-Palestine, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, it is clear that all these crises are connected to each other. Fighters moving from one place to another and sometimes going back to countries of origin, namely here in Germany, representing a huge threat to our common global security.

Now, many of these conflicts were borne of the fragility of states. In the beginning, they were internal conflicts, sometimes asymmetric, normally with huge violations of international humanitarian law and huge suffering, displacement of populations, but then other states become involved – either as parties to the conflict or supporters of the parties to the conflict. They internationalize, [become] interlinked, more strongly, and the truth is that they have been developing in a world where power relations became unclear.

I lived the Cold War, the bipolar world. I lived as Prime Minister [during] the period of a unipolar world. Now, yet we are not in a multipolar world, we are in a kind of chaotic situation, probably leading to a multipolar world. But in these chaotic situations with unclear power relations, impunity and unpredictability have been the name of the game. And it is in this context that I believe that we need and, I’ve said it several times, a surge in diplomacy for peace. Members States will have to assume the leading role, but I presume the Secretary-General of the United Nations can, using his good offices, be an added value in that surge, acting as a catalyst, sometimes a convener, but always as a bridge-builder and an honest broker. And trying to make countries understand, especially those that are involved as parties to a conflict or as supporters of the parties to a conflict, that independently of their differences, their contradictions, their different perspectives, the truth is that the danger for them and the danger for us all, let’s say Syria, for instance  not only the suffering of the Syrian people, not only the destabilization of the region, Iraq, refugees in Jordan and Lebanon – but the threat feeding global terrorism, the threat to us all is such and the threat to the countries involved is such that I believe the intelligent thing to is to come together and put an end to this kind of conflict.

It will not be easy. We will also need a lot of preventive diplomacy, a lot of efforts in mediation, and we especially need to have a strategy to address the root causes of these kinds of conflicts in the world.

There are things that are obvious: the alignment of the sustainable and inclusive development with the sustaining peace agenda. It is clear that development is an important element in the prevention of conflicts, especially if it is inclusive and sustainable.

It is clear that we need to address the fragility of states and to support states, institutions, civil societies, to become stronger, more resilient that will help diminish the tendency for states to be involved in conflict situations.

It is also very important to understand the linkages with what I would call today’s global megatrends. If one looks at climate change, population growth, urbanization, many times chaotic urbanization, food insecurity, water scarcity, massive movements of people – all of these trends are becoming also more and more interlinked, enhancing each other, strengthening each other, and there have been dramatic consequences, namely the competition for resources, increasing the probability of conflicts to take place and generating dramatic humanitarian situations.

And I would say climate change and population growth are probably the two key elements. And in climate change, the commitment of the international community to stick to the Paris Agreement and to be more ambitious than the Paris Agreement was and to make sure that we stay the course in regard to it is absolutely essential. And I would say on population growth that new attention needs to be focused on that, especially in Africa. And for me, a key condition to address it is the combination of education and the empowerment of women and girls. This is probably the best way to be able to address the problems of excessive population growth that is impacting dramatically in some parts of the world.

At the same time, it is important to recognize that the asymmetric effects of globalization are also contributing to these problems of global peace and security. Globalization has been an incredible generator of wealth, of prosperity, improving living conditions mostly everywhere in the world, decreasing absolute poverty quite substantially.

But globalization had its losers. Globalization – it was asymmetric, as I said – and there is, in some parts of the world, in several communities, the feeling that they were left behind, that nobody was taking care of them, and this has generated with the increase of inequalities.

Fortune has just published that the eight richest persons in the world have a wealth that is similar to the wealth of half of the poorest part of the world’s population. And, of course, too excessive of inequalities are also an generator of instability and unrest. And all of this has undermined the confidence between peoples and public opinion and their political establishments, and also the confidence in relation to international organizations.

We see huge pockets of youth unemployment, and I believe that is probably the biggest threat in relation to our global security. There is nothing worse than a young man or woman [who has] graduation from university, not having chance to find a job, not having any hope, nothing worse than this situation and nothing better for the recruitment of violent extremist organizations or of terrorist organizations.

And at the same time, this lack of confidence between peoples and their political establishments is something that needs to be looked at, not as blaming the people, but as trying to understand the reasons and trying to figure out why these rust belts of this world are generating a huge change in the geography of politics. Understanding the people, understanding their concerns, their anxieties and fears, and caring for them, and trying to find solutions for them is absolutely essential to re-establish the confidence between political establishments and populations.

The philosopher that has more influenced my political life has been Habermas, and for Habermas, one of his contributions to thinking is that one of the key elements of a modern democracy is the permanent interflow of communication between political societies and civil societies, and the fact that that flow of communication has an impact on the political decisions and an impact on the change of that action that might be necessary in political decisions, independently of the electoral moment of the electoral periods.

Now, the challenge for us is: how do we get into this interflow of communication in a digital era? With the new information and communication technologies, in a world in which everything goes at enormous speed, but we absolutely need to preserve the capacity of countries, of governments, of institutions, to have long-term strategies, to have visions for the future. And one of the worst worrying symptoms of today’s difficulties in the world is that there are so few countries that show the capacity to present a long-term strategy in relation to their own objectives.

So, in this context of a lack of confidence of people in relation to their own institutions, there is also a lack of confidence of people in relation to multilateral institutions. And when one needs to respond to global challenges, more and more global capacity, more and more multilateral instruments, the truth is that for the EU [European Union], for the UN, for other organizations, we also feel that lack of confidence. And the only responsive reform – we need to deeply reform our international institutions in order to be able to meet the expectations of the peoples of this world.

In the case of the UN, we are engaging in three areas of reform.

First, the peace and security strategy, operational setup, and architecture. We are investing essentially in peacekeeping- we need to be able to shift more and more resources to prevention and peacebuilding. On the other hand, the operational setup in peacekeeping takes place in countries where there is no peace to keep, and there is, I think, a solid debate that needs to be engaged on about this puzzle – robust peacekeeping, peace enforcement, counter-terrorism. How can these things be linked in operational setups around the world and how can we ensure that way that we operate is effective and meets the requirement of populations and the protection of populations? And how can we use partnerships with other entities, taking profit of our competitive advantages – the EU, the AU [African Union], other organizations around the world?

And finally, the structures: our structures are also dysfunctional in the UN in relation to the capacity to manage the peace continuum from prevention to conflict resolution to peacekeeping to peacebuilding and to long-term development.

The second area of reform: the UN development system. We are too fragmented. We need coordination and accountability and we need to make sure that independent capacity of evaluation is established to measure not only our agencies’ performance according to our mandates, but how they perform in relation to contribution to our global goals that were fixed in the summits of last year, in climate change and in the Sustainable Development Goals.

And then, management reform. The rules and regulations of the UN have been made – if there was a conspiracy to make sure that we would not be able to operate, that conspiracy would lead exactly to the rules we have. And we need to engage with Member States to make them understand that it is not [by] micromanaging the Organization that we are going to be effective and cost-effective – that we need to have flexibility, that we need to have simplifications of procedures, to have decentralization of decisions, to have, again, transparency and accountability in order to be able to deliver.

Allow me a last observation as we are here in this Munich conference.

We have a situation in which we are completely obsessed with the crises of today and with the need to respond to them. But I think that we need to also consider that the problems of peace and security in the future will have new dimensions for which we need to be prepared.

Today, cyberspace is already a major concern for us all. Let’s be clear: we lack the multilateral instruments to address the problems of cyberspace. But we have artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, that are there, enormous progress in the private sector, enormous potential for a generation of well-being for mankind – or for man and womenkind. But at the same time, huge risks in many dimensions – in security dimensions, but also in ethical dimensions. And there is a lack of knowledge in government, in international organizations, about what these new areas represent, the private sector being clearly ahead with scientific and technological breakthroughs that really are changing the nature of relations in our world. To develop a capacity of analysis, of discussion, and to be able to think about models of governance for these new areas of scientific and technological development that will be essential in our lives in ten years’ time, is absolutely crucial. I believe that when people will meet herein 10 or 20 years’ time in Munich, we will probably be discussing other things in relation to the priorities of today, but I hope we don’t get to those discussions too late and [having done] too little.

Thank you very much.

Q: [On Syria]

SG: I think peace is only possible when none of the parties to the conflict think they can win. I’m not sure we are yet there in Syria. I’m afraid that some might still think, and I think it’s a total illusion, that they might win that war, so I’m not optimistic about the short-term solution for the Syria crisis.

But I believe the effort should be to convince those that are relevant to the parties to the conflict – and we have the United States, Russia, we have Turkey, we have Saudi Arabia, we have Qatar, we have Jordan, we have a number of countries – and, too, some of these countries have been directly involved, either in the conflict or in supporting the parties to the conflict, and to convince each of these countries that the Syria conflict has become a terrible threat for them – not only for us all, but for them – and that it s in their best interest to stop the conflict independently of the different perspectives that they have about the conflict is, I think, absolutely necessary, and I believe that we are not yet there.

And so I think it is essential to put on track the political process. I hope that Geneva will be possible. It was very important to have in Astana a ceasefire, but the political process is essential.  And also, I think it’s important to say that there is no way we can defeat Daesh if we don’t find a political, inclusive solution for Syria and for Iraq.

The idea that we can fight terrorism and let populations feel marginalized – not represented, angry – is, in my opinion an illusion. To defeat terrorism, it is necessary to fight terrorists on the ground, but it is necessary to eliminate the situations that allow for them to easily recruit new people and to replace those that are eventually killed in anti-terrorist action. And one of the things we will be doing in our UN reform, and I hope to have the General Assembly’s support for that, is to reform the UN counter-terrorism structure and to make sure that we are much more effective in support to Member States in this regard. The UN is not going to fight terrorism on the ground, but we have 38 organizations in the UN dealing with counter-terrorism and, as you can imagine, this is not the right way to do it. So we are going to present to the General Assembly a project of reform to bring things more effectively together and to establish more effective mechanisms of coordination and command.

Q: [On the proposal for Salam Fayyad to serve as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Libya]

SG: As I said several times, I think it was a serious mistake. I think that Mr. Fayyad was the right person in the right place at the right time, and I think that those who will lose will be the Libyan people and the Libyan peace process. And I believe that it is essential for everybody to understand that people serving the UN are serving in their personal capacities. They don’t represent a country or a government – they are citizens of the world representing the UN Charter and abiding by the UN Charter.

Q: [On the role of market economies and development aid in the eradication of poverty]

SG: I think, for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, we have to combine a number of instruments. For me, the most important instrument is to support countries to generate their own resources, and that has to do with tax reform. It also has to do with the capacity to create environments for investment to be attracted, and it also has to do with our capacity to work together, to fight against tax evasion collectively, to fight against illicit financial flows and money laundering, to support countries in their effort for themselves to reform their tax systems and to make the environment more friendly to business.

On the other hand, development aid is also essential. It is a relatively small part of the total, but it is also essential. In many countries, there is no other way. We have situations of fragility in the world in which it is obvious that the private sector will not be coming so soon because of the extreme fragility of those situations, and there, development aid is an absolute must. But then we have to empower the international financial institutions to leverage more resources and to facilitate access to capital markets and to private sector investment, so it’s combining all these instruments that we’ll be able to eradicate poverty.

But let’s not forget one thing. The biggest contribution for the dramatic reduction of poverty in the last decades was China. We can discuss whether China is or is not a market economy, but we should not forget that China, from the statistical point of view, we really had a fantastic improvement in the [reduction of the] number of absolute poor, but that extraordinary result comes largely from the Chinese contribution.

[cyber-aster]

fuck it *tosses another AU into the tumblr void as if i dont have enough in my head already

BEHOLD THE FRAGMENTATION AU

combiners/gestalts (term used interchangeably) start off as one consciousness that can both function as an independent (albeit really big) transformer and coordinate its separate components in some sort of hivemind

HOWEVER overtime the components start developing their consciousness and personalities. Neither gestalts in either faction are aware of this potential development and they are freaking out their body parts attempting to communicate. Chaos ensues.

there is a lot more to this AU like the fact that Devastator was essentially created from the Constructicons' corpses but like. that's the core concept.

oh yeah and i made an SG version as well running on the same lore but with sg characterizations for characters involved. because a good section of my brain permanently houses plot bunnies and i had a vision of sg defensor being creepy.

fic incoming but no guarantee when i will finish because one is still struggling to finish a single fic. asks r welcome tho.

[cyber-aster]

extremely delayed follow up to this request from way back when. for the anon who sent the request, sorry for keeping you waiting for so long

mood of the prompt is 'light/uplifting'. since I've introduced the sg con trio in sg fragmentation au, here's an sg menasor pov! he's such a sweet guy :D he really likes earth and this will be passed onto his components down the timeline.

also tagging @wwheeljack for inspiring my love of this big boy :D

A semi truck followed by four smaller cars sped across a long highway under the morning sun. Perhaps due to his components' origins as vehicles of this planet, Menasor always loved Earth and its roads. Whenever he had the time, he would decombine, bridge to wherever he wanted to explore, and drive around the place as much as he can. Humans take notice to his presence. After all, his faction badges are all clearly displayed, and it's not every day you see four smaller cars tailing a large truck like a flock of ducklings. Sightings of him always stirred passersby to point in excitement and say hi. While he always enjoyed the company of other Cybertronians, especially his brothers, Menasor liked being around humans just as much, even if he usually had to stay decombined while doing so, communicating only through as many gestures and sounds as four cars and a truck can muster. His root form allows him to speak freely, but his immense size would definitely scare off some humans, which would not be good. Being around the residents of this planet helps remind him of what he is protecting. This wonderful world and its inhabitants. It inspires him to train harder and fight stronger against the Autobots, who want to plunder this world for its resources until nothing remains. Menasor noticed a few cars and trucks on the road alongside him. Enthusiastically, he sounded his horns as greetings.

[cyber-aster]

having a crap ton of AUs in your head at the same time is really funny because you have like multiple incarnations of the same character in your head at the same time.

for example, there's tf entropy's 'asshole teenager who likes to throw things' superion, fragmentation au's 'oldest sibling trying to keep himself together' superion, tf sg tinted lenses au's 'living incarnation of the AAAA battery vine' superion, and sg fragmentation au's 'would have turned on the autobots if he wasn't too much of a coward to commit to treachery' superion.

all four of them coexist in a corner of my brain. all of them. and that's just counting Peri. I have way too many fictional characters in my brain at all given times.