#the pyr review

[byelacey]

THE PYR REVIEW episode 01  Please enjoy a short history of the Great Pyrenees breed... a PYR-story, if you will :) 

[creekfiend]

since you're having a rough one, pls enjoy some pics of teddi on the guest bed (which is basically just her bed) with a large stuffed leek. also a little while ago we got her dna tested and she is in fact 100% great pyrenees, so now i get to say she's been Pyr Reviewed 😎

PYR REVIEWED

THE BEST POSSIBLE JOKE HOLY SHIT.

[novankenn]

2am (Chp 4)

--== Table of Contents ==--

It had been nearly three years since that day. The day Jaune Arc walked out of her life. Her legal team had reviewed the documents, and quickly advised her to agree to the terms. They were fair, and had clauses that allowed for amendment of the agreements at later dates, if a need to do so arose. So she signed them as she cried. Memories of times that shouldn't have happened feeding her depression. It had signalled a very dark time in her life, and she spiralled out of control. Loosing herself to drink, risky missions, and other activities.

“What are you doing to yourself!” screamed her mother as Pyrrha nursed a bad hangover on the couch of her mother's house. “Pyrrha, what is going on?”

“I'm fine.”

“No, you're not fine! You are far from fine!” Athena Nikos was livid, embarrassed, and frustrated. “So you are going to tell me what is going on with you, and I mean now!”

“Nothing is going on!” Pyrrha shouted back.

“Really? REALLY?” Athena grabbed a bunch of printed off tabloid articles, and threw them down on the coffee table before her daughter, “He IS a married man, Pyrrha! A married man!”

“His wife's a bitch.”

“And what about that video of you and that girl?” Athena was about to totally lose it. “Are you intentionally trying to destroy yourself? You are better than this! You have a daughter to look out for!”

“I don't have a daughter! She's gone! He took her away!”

“And I wonder why he felt the need to do that? I wonder?”

“Fuck you!”

“No, this is done. Get out of my house! You want to make yourself into a laughingstock then go, go whore yourself out like you have been. Go live in the bottom of a bottle, but you sure as fuck won't be getting any more support from me!” Athena moved to the table, and grabbed another handful of papers, throwing them into her daughter's face, “And here, these are all the contract cancellation notices.”

“What the fuck. They can't...” Pyrrha grabbed a couple of the papers and tried to focus on the fine print of the scattered documents.

“They can and did!” Athena was past livid now. She loved her daughter, and it tore her apart seeing her crumble from stress into addiction. But she was at her wits end at what to do. So finally, much like the father of her granddaughter did, she had to just distance herself. “Out!”

/=/

Jaune and Azalea had moved to Argus not long after Pyrrha had signed the custody and support agreements. He did it for a few reasons. To get away from the memories of his failed attempt at a life with Pyrrha in Vale. To be closer to his eldest sister, her wife and Az's only current cousin; and to be able to at least give Az a chance to know her mother's side of the family with twice weekly over night stays with her grandmother.

He knew Pyr was floundering. Years of constantly being in the public eye finally cracking all her will, and forcing to succumb to the stress, in less than healthy ways. Yet, he had to focus his concerns on Azalea. It was underhanded, he knew, but with tips offs from Az's grandmother, he avoided ever being around the house when Pyrrha was crashing there. He isolated his daughter from the train wreck her mother had become. Jaune didn't want to keep the two most important people in his life apart, but Azalea didn't deserve to see what her mother was becoming. She deserved to only have happy memories of her mother.

On good days, he was more than happy to drop Azalea off at her grandmother's, to spend much needed time with her mother, but those times quickly became less and less. Pyrrha was spiralling, and Jaune instinctively knew he had to protect Az from the disaster that was approaching. He wanted to reach out to Pyrrha, to wrap his arms around her, and make her struggles go away... but right now with what she was doing, it wasn't possible.

The support payments had made his life taking care of his growing girl easier, and allowed him a bit more freedom to pursue his new passion. He had long given up on the huntsman myth. He saw what that life was doing to his friends, and even though he started out wanting to be a hero, after Azalea's birth he understood something more. Heroes didn't have to be warriors fighting darkness, they could be someone offering warm hugs, and soft cheek kisses. He was Azalea's hero, and that was to him the greatest achievement he could have ever accomplished.

It was in the second year after his move to Argus, that Athena made a request of him. He had always been taught to give the courtesy of listening when someone wanted to speak with you, so he did. Without hesitation, agreed, to her request.

[byelacey-portfolio]

THE PYR REVIEW - Samples and merch

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Night Sessions. By Ken MacLeod. Pyr, 2012.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: science fiction

Series: N/A

Summary: The first Enlightenment separated church from state - now the second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this enlightened age there's no persecution. But the millions who still believe and worship are a marginal and mistrusted minority - and now someone is killing them.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: child death, bombing/terrorism

OVERVIEW: I can't remember for sure, but I think a friend recommended this book to me ages ago, and I've only now decided to pick it up. The religious angle intrigued me, and I was curious to see how religious persecution would work in a sci-fi world. Overall, this book wasn't as enjoyable as I hoped, but neither was it a waste of time. I did find the worldbuilding to be interesting; MacLeod's imagining of a near future affected by climate change, AI, and religious conflict is certainly compelling. However, the worldbuilding overshadowed the actual plot far too often, so for that reason, this book gets 3 stars from me.

WRITING: I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with MacLeod's prose. It flows just fine, balances showing and telling, and feels rather "clean" overall. It does have some characteristics I associate with older sci fi, but if you're a fan of the classics, it shouldn't bother you.

Most of what didn't work for me, however, had to do with the delivery of information. This book is, in part, a crime novel, but rather than watching characters piece together information and hit the pavement, it feels as if a lot of things are told to us. Perhaps this is because the book of set in a world where detectives have a massive information network and have robots that can collect and analyze data instantly. Personally, I felt as if I was constantly attending briefings.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson as he tries to make sense of a series of terrorist attacks targeting church leaders. Ferguson lives in a near-future earth which has undergone a "Second Englightenment" - a mass secularization that has pushed religion out of the public eye. So, when church leaders are targeted, Ferguson fears the reignition of the war that resulted in the Second Englightenment in the first place.

The most compelling part of this book was by far the worldbuilding. I was intrigued by the idea of a near future in which global backlash against religion drives a number of groups underground and radicalizes others in opposition to the state. I also found other aspects of the world compelling, such as the presence of self-aware robots, space elevators, personal technology, and the various responses to the climate crisis. While this seems like a lot, I actually think they came together quite well. Since we are currently facing the rise of AI, the green revolution, and a right wing backlash, I found MacLeod's world to be an interesting speculation on where we might end up and how all these things fit together.

That being said, I do think the worldbuilding overshadowed the narrative and the mystery of the terrorist threat wasn't the driving force I hoped it would be. Without spoiling anything, I will say that I don't think the mystery really explored the concepts it set to critique/address in any detail; this book wasn't really about anything like the dangers of fundamentalism or the question of whether robots had souls. Part of the reason why the mystery felt so shallow is because characters weren't given much interiority and few of them changed or developed over time. I'll speak more about that below, but suffice it to say, it kind of felt like MacLeod expected the mystery to stand for itself, but because characters had no personal stakes in it, it felt rather meaningless in the end.

TL;DR: The Night Sessions contains some impressive worldbuilding but it ultimately held back by flat characters and a plot with too few personal stakes. While some of the details are insightful and there is a lot of potential for all kinds of commentary, the terrorist plot just did not resonate because too few of the characters were affected by the unfolding conspiracy.

CHARACTERS: Ferguson, our protagonist, is not very interesting as a character. Despite having a past as a cop who went around busting up churches, he never seems to let that past affect him, and he doesn't appear to change his attitudes towards religious folk over the course of the novel. He was given very little motive for wanting to solve this case other than general things like doing his job and saving lives. I wish he had let the job become a little more personal or let the unfolding story get to him a little more.

Ferguson's colleagues were even more forgettable, and there were moments when I forgot who they were and what they were doing. They seem to only exist to gather information to work the case, and none of them felt particularly well rounded or realized.

Even more confusing was Jessica and Dave, two people from Scotland's club scene who team up with an undercover cop to investigate anti-Christian sects. While I ki d of enjoyed the undercover cop (who was something of a drag queen), I didn't feel like Jessica and Dave had much motivation other than investigating sounded fun. They didn't feel like citizen sleuths and weren't really bringing something to the table that the cops couldn't, so I don't really understand why they were included.

Still, there were a few characters I enjoyed. Skulk, Ferguson's robot partner (of sorts), was one of the best sources of humor and had some semblance of complexity. Skulk has a personal relationship other than Ferguson and thinks about its resistance to self-destruction, so it felt like Skulk had some interiority. I also think Campbell was an interesting character in that he was a fundamentalist who takes it upon himself to preach to robots. I wish MacLeod had gone into more of Campbell's robot theology, as it would have provided some more philosophical flavor to the story and perhaps made the mystery have some higher stakes.

[essayly]

MBD-2 5/1 Discussion

Review the video “10 Minutes with Geert Hofstede on Masculinity vs. Femininity.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyr-XKQG2CM&feature=emb_imp_woyt Review the PowerPoint on Masculinity vs. Femininity.  Review ‘Christian Worldview’ Drives Hungary’s Stunningly Successful Pro-Family Policies: Minister for Family. By the end of this workshop, read and critically respond to at least two of your…

[garageopera3]

Romidepsin and inflamation related colon ailments: Via in vitro scientific studies for you to numerous studies

923 times, P= 2.048). Finish: The present study updates active info on #Link# tumor-related seizures as well as clinicopathological components within anaplastic gliomas, and also indicates 2 putative biomarkers pertaining to preoperative convulsions; Ki-67 expression along with EGFR amplification. These factors may provide observations regarding creating efficient remedy strategies targeted at stretching affected person emergency. (C) This year Uk Epilepsy Affiliation. Created by Elsevier Limited. All privileges set-aside.Your info involving angiotensin The second (ANG II) in order to renal and also tubular fibrosis continues to be broadly #Link# documented. Recent studies demonstrate that will amassing duct cellular material may undergo mesenchymal transition recommending which accumulating duct cellular material get excited about interstitial fibrosis. The actual Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway takes on an important part throughout improvement, organogenesis, and muscle homeostasis; however, the dysregulation with this walkway may be related to fibrosis. With this review, we all investigated whether From(1) receptor account activation brings about the particular phrase involving fibronectin along with collagen I through beta-catenin path throughout computer mouse button accumulating air duct cellular line M-1. ANG II (15(-7) M) therapy within M-1 cells elevated mRNA, health proteins amounts of fibronectin as well as collagen I, the beta-catenin goal genes (cyclin D1 and also c-myc), along with the myofibroblast phenotype. These types of outcomes have been avoided by candesartan, the In(A single) receptor blocker. Hang-up in the beta-catenin destruction with pyrvinium pamoate (pyr; Ten(-9) Mirielle) avoided your ANG II-induced phrase involving fibronectin, bovine collagen We, along with beta-catenin focus on body's genes. ANG Two remedy endorsed the buildup regarding beta-catenin necessary protein in the time-dependent manner. Because phosphorylation involving glycogen synthase kinase-3 'beta' (GSK-3 try out) stops beta-catenin destruction, all of us further assessed the end results regarding ANG The second and also ANG II in addition pyr in p-ser9-GSK-3 'beta' amounts. ANG II-dependent upregulation regarding beta-catenin health proteins quantities was associated together with GSK-3 'beta' phosphorylation. These kinds of effects were avoided by simply pyr. Each of our files indicate that will within M-1 collecting duct cellular material, the particular beta-catenin process mediates the arousal regarding fibronectin and also collagen We in response to AT(One) receptor account activation.Targets: In order to undercover the end results associated with oxidative strain concurrently about Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) task and RBC fragility underneath typical and G6PD faulty circumstances. Methods: The effects of countless n . o . (Zero) generating materials along with sulfhydryl hindering agents were simultaneously analyzed inside vitro on hemolysate G6PD actions along with RBC frailty. These kind of results have been when compared between normal subject matter and also sufferers along with G6PD insufficiency. Results: No contributor materials nitrosocysteine, nitrosoarginine and diethylamine caused powerful self-consciousness on normal along with faulty G6PD activities, even though an identical inhibition has been observed limited to greater levels of the sulfhydryl preventing agents: 2-mercaptoethanol, cysteine and also decreased glutathione. These #Link# oxidative substances marketed RBC hemolysis in simultaneous on their hang-up extents about G6PD actions.

[philipchircop]

PAST YEAR REVIEW

Here’s a creative alternative to the New Year’s Resolutions from Tim Ferriss.  He calls it a PYR (Past year review). Here’s how it goes!

1.   Grab a notepad and create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.

2.   Go through your calendar from the last year, looking at every week.

3.   For each week, jot down on the pad any people or activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions for that month. Put them in their respective columns.

4.   Once you’ve gone through the past year, look at your notepad list and ask, “What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks?”

5.   Based on the answers, take your “positive” leaders and schedule more of them in the new year. Get them on the calendar now! Book things with friends and prepay for activities/events/commitments that you know work. It’s not real until it’s in the calendar. That’s step one. Step two is to take your “negative” leaders, put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top, and put them somewhere you can see them each morning for the first few weeks of 2019. These are the people and things you *know* make you miserable, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), or other nonsense.

That’s it! Try it out and see how it goes.

[heliosthegriffin]

Where was he?

Jaune opens the door to his house and walks in, he takes off his jacket and puts it on a coat rack, then closes and locks the door, then proceeds to the kitchen.

Only for a light to come on as he passes the living room, Jaune turning his head to see Pyrrha sitting in his loveseat, her hand on a chain connecting to the lamp.

“Where were you, Jaune?”

Jaune scrunches his face in worry. “How long have you been waiting there?”

“Don’t try to sweet talk you’re way out of the question.” Pyrrha says coldly.

Jaune’s brow raises. “Alright, not that I was?” He shakes his head.

“I was just getting in some practice before I came home.”

“So, you weren’t out being mentored by someone else were you?”

“No, Pyr you’re the only sensei I need.”

Another light comes on, Yang sitting on a ottoman, with her hair slightly iridescent in weak flames. “So you weren’t out drinking then?

Jaune stares for a moment. “Why are you in my house?”

“Don’t try and sweet talk me, lover boy.”

“What?” He pushes his hair out from his eyes. “No, you know I would never drink without you, Yang.”

Two lamps comes on, Ruby sitting with Weiss on his recliner, their small size almost filling his comfy chair.

‘How many lamps do I own?’ He stares at the one in Ruby’s hand. ‘That’s a flashlight.’

“So, then weren’t playing video games with any other best buddies?” Ruby said

Weiss frowned at him. “Or reviewing your financial plan for the month, with any polymaths?”

“Ok, this is starting to get weird.”

“Don’t try and sweet talk us,” Ruby said.

“Your sweet lies fall on deaf ears,” Weiss followed.

‘This has to be staged.’ Jaune thought with a grimace. ‘I must have forgot something, I hope it wasn’t a birthday.’

Jaune sighed. “No, Ruby you’re the only best buddy I can play games with, and Weiss, shut up. I don’t ask you to do my taxes, but here you are anyway.”

Another light comes on, this time from the top of the stairs and Blake comes walking out from a steaming bathroom. “What do you have to say to me?”

Blake shrugged. “My hot water heater is bust, so I’m just borrowing yours.”

Jaune nods. “Alright fine.”

Then Blake switches on the lights up stairs. “Don’t try your poet tongue on me human, were you hanging out with any other token faunus?”

“Blake, I’m friends with Sun, Illia, Adam, your parents, Fiona, and acquaintances with several others, I have no brain sane clue what your talking about.” Jaune says tiredly.

“Oh... Who else are you editing for then!” Blake accuses.

Jaune looks at her blankly. “Nobody, I don’t have the time.”

The lights in his kitchen come on, Nora sitting on the countertop. “Oh, don’t try and seduce me with your lustwords, Mr. Arc, you weren’t weight lifting with anybody else, were you?”

Jaunes eye starts to twitch. “We just got done with a workout fifteen minutes ago!”

The refrigerator open, revealing Ren. “Then you weren’t hanging out with any other sworn brothers then?”

“No, I fucking swear!” He then turns to look his friends in the eyes. “Why are you all so insecure?! You make me look tied up and strapped down in comparison!”

They all look awkwardly around.

“Besides, all I did was go lead another team, and hang out with another all girl team for an afternoon.” Jaune says plainly before opening up some yogurt.

Shocked gasp and wails open in Jaune’s living room.

“You traitorous bastard!” Nora wails.

“You were supposed to be our leader, Jaune!” Pyrrha screams.

Tears go down Ren’s face. “You son of bastard, how dare you!”

While team RWBY was similarly betrayed.

Jaune sighs. “Am I not allowed to work with another people that aren’t you guys are team RWBY?”

“NO!” Was the overwhelming answers.

“Maybe you guys should calm down?” Jaune says taking a bite of yogurt.

“Jaune, I thinks it for the best, you leave for now.” Blakes says comforting Ren.

“This is my house, I bought the land, the resources, and built it myself, so no I don’t think I will.”

“Then, I think you should sleep on the couch, while we take the master bedroom.” Weiss says.

Jaune takes another bite. “No,”

“Then you should sleep in the guest bedroom, while we-” Yang begins.

“Alright, cut to the chase, we are you all here?” Jaune says bluntly.

Ruby fidgets in her seat. “We might, or might not have blown up our penthouse.”

Jaune nods, then stares at his despirng team. “Why are you three here?”

“Because, we heard rumors you were training with another team.” Pyrrha says patting Nora on the back, while she pats Rens.

“And I was, I am not an exclusive member of team JNPR, I will team up with anybody during the required situation, because I am a Huntsman. Just because you three try to force that fact away, does it make it any less true.”

“We team with team RWBY.” Nora said weakly.

“That doesn’t count, we might as well be one big team on a good day.” His teams heads went down.

And Jaune felt a little bad, despite them likely stealing and making copys of his keys.

“Alright, guys don’t be down, even I might train or go on the occasional miss on with other people, doesn’t mean team JNPR isn’t number one in my heart.” Jaune said with a smile.

“You mean it?” Ren asked.

“Oh, 100%.” Jaune said simply. “Anyway, I’m going to take a shower, uh, feel free to stay the night or week or year, or whatever.”

Then Jaune walked up stairs.

Silence filled the room.

Till Blakes ears started moving. “Anybody want to go watch him shower?”

“Yes,” Was the overwhelming answer.

[rotten-dan]

If you like long videos and essays I have some recomendations:

An essay of Fa/r cr/y 3 by Pyr/ocynical

https://youtu.be/z77lmes2bFo

He also made an 8 hour video about the british series Uto/pia and it's american reboot, though I haven't watched it myself

https://youtu.be/PFx2QM0Z8Qo

A rank of EVERY Si/mpsons episode by L/S Mar/k

https://youtu.be/39t7TQ2mymA

And my favourite videogame review video, a YI/K review by Runn/ing Shi/ne

https://youtu.be/VH7JQtp5Jkc

that last ask reminded me that i hadnt answered this

thanks for the reccs!!

[byelacey]

👁️‍🗨️ SERUFF 👁️‍🗨️  AWOOCIFER 👁️‍🗨️ BARKANGEL 👁️‍🗨️ subscribe to the pyr review for free comics every monday!

[doctor-plagueis]

Nora’s (Arc) worries

Nora was often called reckless and impulsive, but there was one thing she always had planned for her everyday life, and she did it expertly, speaking of its almost time to do it today!

She stalked her prey with surprising silence, she could not afford to mess this up, getting closer she saw her target : her Beacon partner, and friend (Also secret crush) Jaune Arc.

Nora had taken upon herself to take care of her partner, making sure he eats, sleeps and drinks well. Nora would even personally train him in the gym and had made Pyrrha herself train his swordsmanship, Jaune had come a long way in the semester he's been in Beacon... Anyways back to the task at hand!

When Nora got to Jaune she...touched him, not sexually! No she was taking his temperature making sure he wasn't feverish or sick, checking his breathing and making sure he was alright.

" Phew, you're ok.... alright, Jaune's...ok... " Nora said worriedly, she was scared of something.

" Nora " " Ah! Ren don't scare me like that! you almost made me wake him up " " Sorry? Anyways, why do you always check on Jaune first thing in the morning? " Ren asked the question with a hint of worry and curiosity while moving out of the dorms with Nora, wouldn't want to wake their teammates up for no reason.

" I guess you don't remember... " she said slightly... saddened? " Remember what? " " The time you were sick Ren! " She almost shouted " You were sick! We didn't have money! And I was scared of losing my brother! And, and unf!? Ren!? Why are you... "

" Sorry...big sis... " said Ren while embracing Nora " Sigh it's ok, I'm sorry for getting out of hand... " Nora's voice was calm and reassuring, almost motherly, stroking his back and hugging him all while holding back the sobs in her chest, she had to be strong if she was to be a huntress!

" 'm fine now Renny you can let go " " Ok... " They're words were whispers but they were deafening.

" So...do you have a thing for our leader, sister? " "What!? nooooo.........." Nora lied...badly " I'm just making sure my partner is healthy and well Renny "

" Nora, you can talk to me you know " " I know but i swear I'm just checking him ou~p checking up on him! Hehe he he... " " Well now, that was a slip up wasn't it? " Ren said smugly, and approvingly?

" Sister, if I were you I'd make my move sooner than later, I believe you know others have their sights on our...how do you say it? Ah yes "Fearless leader" "

" Wut? " " Oh for Brothers sake sister! Seriously, you haven't noticed? Nothing at all? Ruby has a blatant crush on him (I think she's also crushing on Penny), Weiss has started warming up to him after he stopped the forced flirting and freaking Pyrrha! You haven't noticed Pyrrha yet, HOW!? " He said almost unbelieving his sister is that oblivious and all she said after was.....

" .........oooooooohhhhhhh...........crap! "

Hey y'all! This is my first real long one shot thingy, so please review it and tell me if i did well!

You might've noticed a few things so I'll just get the out of the way shall I?

Ren calling nora big sister : my personal head canon is that nora is the oldest member of both teams.

Ren calling Nora sister at all : this is a Nora's arc thing so i decided to establish Ren and Noras relationship right out of the gates ( They "became" siblings while surviving in Anima alone )

Will this be updated? : Hard maybe my blog is still about my OCs so don't expect much fanfic here

That's all folks! See ya!!

[sixx02]

Lil JNR

Jaune wasn’t sure what to make of the scene in front of him.  His parent’s had left Saphron in charge while they were gone on a mission.  Them randomly leaving was something he was used to, but what he didn’t expect was for them to return with two children, both girls(?).  Inside he was crying, he already had 7 sisters, he didn’t need two more.  Though, that thought stopped when he realized they were shaking.  He took a deep breath and shivered, they had to be no older than 8, the same as him.  But they looked so, defeated.  It hurt watching them, so much so that in his own confusion he ran up to both of them and wrapped his lanky arms around them.  

Admittedly they were both taller than him, he was small for his age, but he was sure that he’d grow in time.  Both of them shivered in response to his touch, unsure of why this unknown child suddenly approached them only to wrap them both in his small arms.  He didn’t know himself either if he was being honest.

Turning to his parents he stared quietly waiting for an answer, his mother finally gave way.

“Jaune, these are Nora and Lie.”  She paused, as she noticed the way that Lie responded to his name, “Ren... his name is Ren.”  She corrected herself, noticing that the boy calmed after.

This piqued Jaune’s interest, it was a boy!  Turning to his dad who looked like he wanted to say something.  “Due to... unfortunate circumstances, they’ll be living with us going forward.  They’ll be your new sister and brother, Jaune.”  

Jaune blinked, so he was sorta right, they were going to be siblings, while he wanted to jump for joy about getting a brother.  He decided that it could wait, for some reason he just wanted to hug them.  All he knew was that he wanted to hold them.

________________________________________________________________

Right so here it is, one of the things I’ve been wanting to do for a while.  I’m not sure if this will be the format I go with al the time.  The idea is that Ren and Nora get adopted by the Arcs and before anyone wonders, this is totally going to be Renora and Arkos story, cause damn if I’m not consistent on my likes.  

The idea is that becaues of the incident, the trio will be trained, I’m not sure if I want them to be in Vale or if I may move them to Argus so they can meet Pyr early.  Because of what happened to the village, Jaune’s parents decided it was important to train their children.

Anyways reviews, hate, love, or whatever you want to throw at me is appreciated, never done this tumblr thing before!

[moistmailman]

Jaune, on his laptop: Man, I just can't find any halloween costume for me. Like seriously, all of these are so boring. Hotdog costume, nurse outfit, cowboy, sexy Pyrrha Nikos' costume, duck costu— wait, WHAT?! HOLD UP!

Pyrrha: W-wait, what did you say?!

Jaune: Holy shit, Pyr, there's actually a skimpy version of your outfit on here!

Pyrrha: You can't be serious! Let's me see!

Jaune, turning laptop: Look!

*Pyrrha looks at the screen to see a very scandalous version of her outfit*

Pyrrha, blushing: Oh my gosh! Thats so weird! That can't be a real costume.

Jaune: Its real, Pyr. And it's really popular too. It sold like 2000 of them today alone.

Pyrrha, blushing more: Oh my gosh! You can't be serious!

Jaune: I am. Oh, there's some reviews for it too. Let me read some....."My boyfriend has the biggest crush on Pyrrha Nikos, so I'm buying this and am going to surprise him with it tonight." And uhm...she added a winky face at the end of the review.

Pyrrha, face in her hands: Oh my gosh. This can't be real.

Jaune: And it's only— oh damn, only 20 dollars? That's not bad actually.......I wonder if it comes in extra large?

Pyrrha: Youre......you're not planning on buying this, right?

Jaune, chuckling: What? Pfft, no. I would never. Why would I buy this stupid yet funny costume? Heh heh, *Ahem* Hey, can you throw me my credit card real quick?

[10minus6cosm]

Group C and G Streptococci a Potential Zoonotic Threat in the Kitchen

The first ever case of zoonotic fish-associated S. dysgalactiae subspecies dysgalactiae (SDSD) infection was isolated in our lab in 2005. This was during a period when we were actively looking out for cases of Streptococcus iniae, another fish-associated zoonosis (see an earlier post).

We had isolated a Streptococcus from the blood culture of a breast cancer mastectomy patient with cellulitis ascending her upper limb to the chest following a puncture injury of her index finger on the same side. She had been cleaning fish (Red Tilapia) and shrimps at the time. This is a typical setting for S. iniae infection. However, the isolate was alpha-haemolytic, PYR negative, and Lancefield group C. So this was not S. iniae which is beta-haemolytic, PYR positive, and not groupable, The API 20 STREP had identified it as S. dysgalactiae subs. dysgalactiae/equisimilis which is entirely in keeping with a large colony Group C Streptococcus. So nothing special here-or perhaps...?

After getting over my initial disappointment, I read that Streptococcus dysgalactiae (SD) comprise 2 distinct subspecies. The more commonly encountered Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE) are large colony β-hemolytic Group C and Group G streptococci that cause pharyngitis, skin and soft tissue infections in humans, much like  Group A Streptococcus pyogenes.

On the other hand, SDSD are classically described as α-hemolytic Group C Streptococci that cause disease in animals, especially cattle. And just recently, SDSD had also been found to cause disease in farmed fish...SDSD are not mentioned in textbooks of human clinical microbiology. So we were potentially sitting on the first case of zoonotic SDSD infection!

To cut a long story short we eventually were able to prove our isolate was indeed a fish associated SDSD by comparing pathogenicity gene sequences with those of fish isolates (Koh TH, 2009).

DB49998/05 the first case of zoonotic SDSD infection.

DB49998/05

We have since picked up a few other SDSD isolates.

DB60705/15

DB60705/15

DB60705/15 was an alpha-haemolytic Group G Streptococcus isolated in 2015 from blood culture of a patient with right breast cancer and lymphedema of the arm on the same side. This patient was discharged before we could interview her but Providencia stuartii, a known fish pathogen, was isolated from the same blood culture. Interestingly, this isolate also had the same multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) and emm type profile as DB4998/05.

STREP 97/15

STREP 97/15

STREP 97/15 was isolated from a sample of fish meat (Red Tilapia) purchased from a supermarket. This was during a large outbreak of Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in non-pregnant adults in Singapore (see https://10minus6cosm.tumblr.com/post/132590510556/serious-group-b-streptococcal-infection-in-adults), and we were investigating fish meat as a source of GBS. I was intrigued to find a beta-haemolytic (usually a sign of pathogenicity) Group G Streptococcus in the fish meat, and even more surprised to find it was SDSD (remember they are supposed to be alpha-haemolytic). However I subsequently found an article that showed that other researchers were also finding strains of SDSD that were beta-haemolytic (Jensen, 2012). Of course finding SDSD in a sample of fish meat does not prove that it was originally in the fish as we cannot exclude contamination by human handing of this fish. However when we did the molecular analysis, the pathogenicity gene profile, and alignment of gene sequences did indeed cause DB49998/05, DB60705/15, and STREP 97/15 to cluster with fish rather than human isolates.

DB53993/17

DB53993/17

DB53393/17 was a beta-haemolytic SDSD (non-groupable because of auto-agglutination) isolated in 2017 from a patient who had a mastectomy for breast cancer and presented with upper limb oedema and cellulitis on the same side. This time I had a chance to speak to the patient but try as I might I could not elicit a history of fish contact from her. She was a food stall owner who only handled chicken meat. As far as I could tell from my review of the literature till then, SDSD did not infect chickens. However when we did the molecular analysis, not only did DB53393/17 not cluster with human isolates, it was also closely related to an isolate that had been isolated from a chicken! In the late 1980s-early 1990s, there had been an investigation of focal dermatitis and cellulitis in broiler chickens in Canada that yielded beta-haemolytic SD. This article was easy to miss because SD were not explicitly mentioned in the title.

The genomes of these zoonotic SDSD have all been sequenced and it is clear that they form a separate cluster similar to animal isolates and distinct from  human isolates (Koh TH, 2019).

Clustering of human and animal isolates of SD based on tuf (elongation factor Tu) gene sequences. The length of the horizontal lines is in proportion to the differences between sequences (ie a longer horizontal line indicates sequences that are more dissimilar).

So summing up.

1. SDSD is a zoonotic pathogen. 

2. While it is likely to be rare, it is possible that SDSD is under-recognised in clinical microbiology labs as it can appear beta-haemolytic like the human pathogen SDSE. Phenotypic methods including MALDI-TOF are not good at discriminating SDSD from SDSE.

3. Women who have mastectomy and lymph node clearance for breast cancer are particularly susceptible to ascending infection and sepsis, and need to take care to avoid penetrating injuries when handling meat or fish.

Koh TH, Sng LH, Yuen SM, Thomas CK, Tan PL, Tan SH, Wong NS. Streptococcal cellulitis following preparation of fresh raw seafood. Zoonoses Public Health. 2009 May;56(4):206-8. (no free access)

Jensen A, Kilian M. Delineation of Streptococcus dysgalactiae, its subspecies, and its clinical and phylogenetic relationship to Streptococcus pyogenes. J Clin Microbiol. 2012 Jan;50(1):113-26. (free access)

Messier S, Quessy S, Robinson Y, Devriese LA, Hommez J, Fairbrother JM. Focal dermatitis and cellulitis in broiler chickens: bacteriological and pathological findings. Avian Dis. 1993 Jul-Sep;37(3):839-44. (no free access)

Koh TH, Binte Abdul Rahman N, Sessions OM. Comparative genomic analysis of Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies dysgalactiae, an occasional cause of zoonotic infection. Pathology. 2019 Dec 16. pii: S0031-3025(19)30432-5. doi: 10.1016/j.pathol.2019.09.016. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31859005. (no free access)

[tachyonpub]

Tachyon tidbits featuring Jane Yolen

The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.

Photo: Jason Stemple

John DeNardo at KIRKUS enjoys HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE.

Almost as old as fairy tales, or so it seems, is the practice of retellingfairy tales. This proves to be not as repetitive as one might think. As Marissa Meyer states in the introduction to Jane Yolen's magical collection HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE, fairy tales have lots of angles from which to view them. Yolen's collection is proof of that sentiment. It contains twenty-eight alternate versions of fairy tales that differ slightly from the originals, thus providing a remarkably different kind of story.

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Each of the stories in this collection are light and fun making the entire collection a breezy read with genuine smile-inducing moments.

QUIRKY CAT’S FAT STACKS also liked the collection.

HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE is an absolutely astonishing collection from the mind of Jane Yolen. If you’re a fan of fairy tales, or reading twisted versions of them (not to say that the original versions aren’t exceptionally twisted to begin with…) then this is something you may want to look into. Yolen has mastered the art of looking at a story in a different light, breathing new life into a tale told thousands of times.

But this novel isn’t just a compilation of short stories (though I would have been very happy with that much) but also notes on the stories, and even some poetry. Not every story has an explanation or a poem [an explanation follows every story --TP], but most of them have one or the other. It really adds to the depth of the tales being told. Personally, I loved this touch as I wasn’t always able to identify the fairy tale her works were being based off (more than one of them I was not familiar with in the first place, as it turns out).

The stories and poems here vary from whimsical to disturbingly dark; leaving the reader feeling haunted or chilled. Being that these are fractured fairy tales, most of them have a darker undertone. Sometimes the elements used could be considered disturbing, but they’re all beautifully written despite that.

Daniel Dern for FILE 770 comments about reading Yolen’s World Fantasy Award winning collection THE EMERALD CIRCUS.

I’m about halfway through, it feels wrong to read these hastily.

I READ THAT BOOK! reviews THE TRANSFIGURED HART.

This is a lovely little fairy tale like magical realism like story.  Richard and Heather are both 12 years old and both of them have seen the white deer.  Richard thinks that it must be a unicorn.  They both want to save it from the hunters.  We get to know Richard, Heather, and the deer individually and together as Richard and Heather develop an unlikely friendship.  I truly enjoyed the story and I think that children and adults alike will enjoy it as well.

Daniel Haeusser at SKIFFY AND FANTY SHOW discusses 2018 Nebula Awards Showcase, edited bv Yolen.

As usual, I’m behind and am just now getting to write up these thoughts on the 2018 Nebula Awards Showcase, edited by Jane Yolen for Pyr. Until April when the 2019 showcase comes out, it is the latest of annual volumes published since 1966 to reprint the nominated and winning stories for the previous year. Though this past year’s winners might be more in the forefront of your mind, revisiting – or discovering – the stories in the 2018 showcase (published 2016 and 2017) could be even more rewarding. I had read many of the stories at their original appearance, and going back to these again for a second or third time felt in some cases like meeting old friends, and in a few cases felt like appreciating something wondrous that I had somehow missed on that read a couple years back.

For more info on HOW TO FRACTURE A FAIRY TALE, visit the Tachyon page.

For more info on THE EMERALD CIRCUS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover designs by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE TRANSFIGURED HART, visit the Tachyon page.

Art by Thomas Canty Design by Elizabeth Story