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sugarcookiesandsins · 4 years

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Charmed [Episode 6]

➰ ot7 x reader, poly!bts x reader, mafia!bts ➰ they wouldn’t notice her until she was standing above them, a smoking gun in her hand a bullet in their heart 🌡 M 🛑 details about weaponry and similar materials, dark humor, swearing, mentions of violence 🕛 4.k+

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Following your explanation, the boys sat in silence as each of them took in the various blueprints and notes spread out before them. Processing it took them some time, and Eli took the opportunity to soothe his dry throat with the remnants of his drink.

“It’s complicated, to say the least.” Namjoon’s voice was distant as his mind wasn’t all that focused on the words coming out of his mouth.

Yoongi only snorted in response, but it was more of a reaction that he had given for the duration of the discussion so Eli considered it a win all in all and looked to the other members for their reactions. Seeing nothing else of note in their eyes, he reached for the papers to clean them up, planning on returning to his room and cleaning up, before going out for supplies. Sure, Hoseok or Jimin could probably hook them up with all that they needed but call it a con’s intuition for wanting to check out the equipment themselves.

Grabbing hold of the documents, he rifled through them and aligned the corners as he always did before getting up.

“I’m headed out for some of the basic equipment so yall can break it in before D-day.” Not waiting for an answer, he headed back to his designated room, barely sparing a minute to toss the papers onto his desk before heading to the bathroom.

With the door locked and the hot water soothing your muscles, you had some time to yourself to think. Your relationship with the rest of the boys could be simmered down to two words: grudging acceptance. Neither side was about drop their pride and invite the other out to dinner, but at least Jungkook wasn’t lunging for your throat every time he laid eyes on you.

The heist was risky, and would take some real trust and teamwork, and “grudging acceptance” wasn’t exactly the best relationship to have with the people you would be trusting with your life while completing the mission. You still were damn sure that they wouldn’t hesitate to leave you behind if they needed to; their relationship was one where they looked out for each other and solid walls were drawn against those who weren’t inside when those walls were built.

In a way, you understood. Though you didn’t have the exact details, it was obvious they went through some trauma together, one that bound them together by something greater than blood ties or brotherhood. You were the same way; the only difference was that you were alone when you built those walls and they had each other.

Shutting off the water, you stepped out into the foggy bathroom, the heat blushing your skin red. The mirror was fogged up, and the metaphor almost made you snort. It seemed that even the world was trying to tell you that within all the personas and costumes, you had lost sight of your true self, even as it stood within reach, blurry but there.

The skin on your chest was red and irritated, most likely from the bandages you used to keep your secret. You needed to spend a night away from them, if only so you could let your skin breathe.

Getting your costume back on, you waltzed out of your bedroom towards the living room, most of the boys had disappeared, but Jimin was still where you had left him, albeit in clothes more appropriate for your shopping trip. In a way, you expected Hoseok to be there as well, but Jimin oversaw their equipment.

“Do you know the weights and heights of everyone,” Eli casually asked as he thumbed through a small journal filled with more of his chicken scratch trying to find the specific page he wanted.

“Don’t tell me you’re interested in us,” Jimin scoffed obviously getting the wrong impression from Eli’s words.

“Interested in keeping you all alive yeah.” Eli turned his back on the still lounging Jimin, who had somehow managed to get even more attractive as he leaned back invitingly on their soft couch. “Don’t fool yourself shorty. I doubt you have anything that would make me want to chase after you.”

Making his way to the foyer of the apartment, he didn’t even look back to see if Jimin was following him before he slipped out and towards the elevators.

The ride down was silent once Jimin joined him, each absorbed in their own devices to pass the time. Upon exiting the tall high-rise building, Eli was none too surprised at the sleek black SUV waiting for them. They needed to buy a lot of equipment and they would need a large car to hold it all.

While in the car, both still maintained the strict silence that they had started in the elevator. Eli’s eyes were focused on the passing scenery, letting out tiny grins at the snapshots of daily life he saw beyond the tinted glass windows. They were all so oblivious to the harsh realities of the world and even if they did know, their brains would probably cut out the information deeming it too harmful to remember.

PJM

He seemed utterly uninterested in anything other than the mission. It really was odd to see how quickly his attitude adjusted when he explained the plan to us this morning. Not once did he let out his signature smile, all teeth and stupidity. It was long, complicated, and required a lot more trust than I felt anyone was willing to give him at this point in whatever relationship was forming between us.

Going out with him was most definitely not my choice, but Namjoon had insisted on it because apparently it was obvious that I was the one with the most prejudices against our new add-on. We all knew it was a blatant lie, but Jungkook had no qualifications to go shopping therefore here I am.

The car is surprisingly silent, and looking over at Eli, he’s focused on the outside world. There was longing in a sense, something we all felt from time to time; we wonder and dream of our lives with intact families and normality.

The car stops in front of a hotel, conspicuous and in the center of town; it’s perfect. Getting down, it’s no surprise that we make an impression on the surrounding people. Jimin’s face is common on the news channels and everyone knows the people he associates with, so everyone gives us a wide berth as we enter the hotel.

Walking to the front desk, the person manning the fort gives us the biggest customer service smile that I have ever seen. Jimin merely nods back before handing over a medallion and asking for, “Room 113 please” with the most conversational tone.

“Forgive me sir, but our staff is still cleaning the room for you. Please feel free to wait in our lobby and I will call you when the room is prepared.” When you enter this line of work, you should always be prepared to deal with word games and subliminal messaging. We both understood what his words meant, there was already someone shopping so we could not go in.

Most places like this did not worry about anonymity between guests, hoping that it would work as sort of a motivation to not betray the location; if someone got captured then they could name everyone else that they saw. It was more commonly seen in stores that had not gotten a footing in the black world of crime. Yet, the truly powerful locations did not need to rely on such childish motivations as that.

Jimin and I made our way to the couches a couple feet away from the receptionist. The world continued to move on around us. Initially, some were focused on our identities, but as they each needed to be somewhere else, we were left alone in the middle of the lobby. The hotel itself seemed to be the playground of the higher class based on all the brand names glittering around me and the large entourages that revolve around a single person.

In a way, that life seemed bland to me. What fun was there to have everything handed to you, sure it was novel for a little while but then it would lose it’s charm. Inherently, people get bored which is why you see celebrities always doing.

It wasn’t long before the receptionist approached us from behind the desk and informed us that they were ready for us. He motions us to follow him and we do.

The receptionist returns to behind the desk and programs a reader card to let us into our requested room. He faces us again and hands that card over with that same sickeningly bright smile. “I hope everything is to your standards.” He knows, though I do not know why I ever doubted it for a second.

Jimin nods and I follow his example of silence as he leads me down a hallway and to our room. Unlocking it with the given card, he lets me inside before shutting and locking the door behind us both. The space is small and not a room at all; it was an elevator.

Surveillance was full force as someone welcomed us to the store and instructed us not to touch anything as the decent began on its own. By my estimate, the level that we stopped at was one below the basement. The doors opened before us and we walked into a well-lit room, almost as big as a proper ballroom. Certainly, not as high but just a big in width and length. The rich vibe continued down here as well with the red walls and gold trimming on the walls and on the cabinets filled to the brim with guns and other equipment.

At the far end of the room, a man in a fitted suit stood relaxed in his posture. Not single strand of hair or muscle moved out of place as we approached him. “Welcome. Please take a look around at your leisure and feel free to ask any questions. We are here to assist.”

Jimin jets off towards the far end of the room, firmly in the directions of some automatic handgun; they suited him. I had initially pegged him at a knife person, but then again he wanted efficiency more than any perceived bloodlust so I relented on my initial judgement. His steps were quick, barely holding on to the perception of calm, but he was like a child in a candy shop, no doubts about it.

Letting him satisfy his own curiosity, I turned to the tactical gear. I would worry about the boys later, getting their measurements from Jimin now would be impossible when he seems much more interested in the custom grips on an Italian classic.

Shopping for harnesses was ironically reminiscent to shopping for clothes; they were all on gold hangers and organized by size and prices. The boys (read: Big Hit) were paying for all this anyways so I’d take advantage of that; only I knew what was really needed for this.

Shifting through them all, I decided on one with multiple points of weight distribution that had multiple clip combinations so one could vary their support based on their preference or on the limits of rope. As I was looking, I felt a presence on my 6 or 7 o’clock; it was either Jimin or the attendant.

“Is this what you wanted the body measurements for?” Jimin.

“No,” I scoffed. “I needed that information to plant fake bodies when we all fail this and need to get the heck out of dodge.”

“The confidence you have in us is astounding.” He didn’t waste time is coming back for me with the same amount of sarcasm.

“I have as much confidence in you as I do in my own survival with the group of you.” Snatching the paper with the written measurements out of his hand, I didn’t bother to head his response as I pulled out different sizes of the same harness. They would cost a pretty penny, but you weren’t footing the bill.

“Take these to the table.” I was already searching for the ropes; something strong preferably suspension or paracord, but mountaineering might work.

“Do it yourself.”

“Like you know what we need for this. Just do what I ask and maybe my confidence that we’ll survive this increase by a tenth of a percent.”

“You’re difficult.”

“But I’m good and that’s what you really need right now isn’t it? Now go.”

Deciding on some dark colored SWAT rappelling rope in 200 feet lengths. It was double braided and would be more than enough to carry our weights at 9mm in diameter. However, ti was a hefty weight, but I’d leave that to the boys. Additionally, I picked up some paracord, just in the case of an emergency lashing or situation.

Next, some infrared googles. They were also a hefty price, but trusting the boys to already have their own, I waited until Jimin returned from his second trip from the far table to confirm. Given a OK, I think he had given up on arguing with me for the sake of it, I picked out some durable ones with a heat sensor attachment.

Last in terms of tacticals, would be body suits. These would go under our regular clothes, additional protection and heat without the bulk. Of course, some bullet proof clothes would be going on top, but still a good base is always necessary.

Now to the fun part, weapons.

Jimin had already beat me to it, having laid out some stuff that he wanted for himself or that he got at the request of the other boys. A computer chip, most likely for Yoongi, catches my eye. Having a computer for research and planning would be so much easier than having to piece together scraps of paper.

Grabbing a sleek laptop off the shelf, I added it to the ever-growing pile of supplies on the table under the raised eyebrow of Jimin. He reaches for it, but I smack his hand away and firmly state that “I like doing these things myself.” I hear no further argument.

Then comes the guns. Semi-automatics have a soft spot it my heart so I grab an all-American Hollywood classic, twin Desert Eagles, metal caps, and a spool of wrapping leather; custom grip can only be truly custom when you make them yourself. Snagging some holsters, I argue mentally between thighs and sides, before just getting both; no point wasting time. Then for knifes, I grab a classic butterfly, before grabbing some more practical Damascus hunting daggers that were lightweight so they could be thrown as well.

Nodding at Jimin, I let him take care of the payment as I continued to explore the room for anything else that we might like. Closer to the door, I see a locked cabinet with oddities that most would not look twice at; they sell information. A couple flash drives being bid off, probably filled with some military programs or governmental passwords. I wouldn’t put it pas them to have one or two automatic Trojans with a logic puzzle for those dolts that didn’t know how to use a computer. Then on the far side, something unexpected.

“They say that’s a charm from the Banshee herself.” Jimin, seemingly done with the purchase, came over towards the elevator as the store took care of sending our goods topside.

“The Banshee?” This was one I hadn’t heard before.

“Yeah. She’s an assassin with some sort of moral code apparently when she kills. And she takes or makes charms from each kill to remember them. Morbid, but then again anyone who’s that good ought to have a few screws lose to not go crazy.” He wasn’t wrong.

Even Master had told me it was odd when he saw the charms, but he got used to it. The box of filled bracelets I left with Master, the only thing of personal value that I really owned anymore so my wrists were naked and empty. Yet, the feeling never hit me until now, when I saw the only charm I ever lost (a round mosaic for a contemporary artist who also profited from fakes) for sale. The Banshee name had power and with power comes profit; the betting for the charm already past the million mark.

“Don’t think to hard. You won’t ever meet her.” Jimin laughed, the kind that came from his belly and was not held back by propriety.

“And you have?” It was a good enough act, lovestruck youngster falling for a power girl he had never even met before.

“Nope. But I want to. Her story sounds interesting enough.” That was the most uncharacteristic thing I had ever heard come out of his mouth.

“Her story,” I snickered, my face trying very hard not to mock him with its expression. “A mafioso and an assassin on a coffee date. That sounds more like the first line of a joke.”

He didn’t respond, but looking back as he pushed me towards the elevator told me he was thinking. The cogs were turning either to make up a lie or to figure out how to put it in words.

“I want to know what made her this way. She is truly someone that does not care, and something must have happened to make her that way.” His voice was quiet and rippling under the surface I could hear some semblance of emotions from him. It was a change, and I let him talk. “Even you can agree with this; we didn’t just wake up one day and decided we wanted to be like this. We went through the ringer and decided that we never wanted to be that low ever again, so we went for the heights.”

“We braved the cliffs and grew wings.” Simple words, but with more meaning that even a full paragraph could hold. He simply nodded in response and the rest of the ride up was silent, each lost in our pasts.

The ride back to the apartment was no different, except for the back piled with our new supplies. Quiet and heavy, not even the driver disturbed us in our thoughts.

The boys were waiting for us when we went upstairs, all cleaned up and hair coiffed to perfection.

“How was it?” Namjoon, objective as ever wanting to make sure the boys hadn’t lost their biggest weapons source because the two of us butting heads.

“Uneventful.” Me, as I turned to the boxes.

“Normal.” Jimin, as he joined the boys on the couch.

“Did you bring us presents?” Taehyung, relaxed as always, stretching his legs on the coffee table as he watched me organize.

I put everything that I had bought for myself in one box, including my harness, a loop of SWAT rope, the extra paracord, and the body suit. The rest was laid out on the floor next to the boxes that Jimin had already organized the others’ stuff into, most likely at the store itself.

“I bought all of you harnesses and new rope. I suggest getting used to wearing them around and working with the additional weight so break them in to your own comfort.”

Jungkook scoffed, “We have our own already.”

“Of course, you do. But do they have at least a 5-point weight distribution and at lest 10 hold holds for various roping combinations?”

He stayed silent.

“No? Then I suggest you break in the one I got for you or I won’t be responsible for you screwing this up for the rest of them. I didn’t bother holding back with him. Jungkook had started to get on my nerves. I was starting to get the feeling that no matter what I did, I would never get on his good side. I had reached a conclusion; it wasn’t me personally he hated, it was the idea of me; all fun and games when matched with his cold perfectionism. He thought I was stupid and infuriating, I thought the same of him; it worked out.

Walking back to my own room, I could practically hear Namjoon trying to figure out a plan to get me and Jungkook back on better terms. But that would have to wait for another day; I needed to get my stuff together.

Making it back to the relative haven of my room, I unpack and start customizing. First was the guns, taking the leather, I cover both handles in a primitive but more familiar imitation of custom grips, adding in the end the metal cap at the bottom of the grip because if you can’t shoot, you can at least swing. Sure, it does mess with the balance of the gun but you get used to it after a couple years of practice. Next, comes the computer. Booting up, I have never been more thankful for technology and resolve to ask someone to scan the document to upload, but after spending a couple hours with Jimin, I am ready to be alone.

Then again, when does the plan of the universe ever work in my favor? Just as I put away the rest of the gear, keeping the harness out to break in after I relax, I hear a knock on my door.

“Can I come in?” Taehyung. Lovely.

“Sure.” I didn’t bother to try to contain my annoyance, but this was Taehyung we were talking about; he was selectively blind, and deaf for that matter, to the world around him. He heard me say that he could come in but he somehow didn’t hear my annoyance.

He waltzed right in and seated himself on my bed as turned around from my desk. Glancing out the window, I could see the first signs of the evening clouding over the brightness of the day, so it was no surprise that he was dressed to go to work. Silk shirt unbuttoned just enough for anyone watching to get a peak of tanned skin tucked into tight denim. A lone silver chain hanging around his neck and thin rings of the same material making his fingers seem longer than you have ever thought was humanly possible.

Once again, he lounged. Looking back, you have never seen him as anything other than relaxed, except for that one time when you technically broke in so context matter with him. He didn’t even bother taking of his leather shoes which made you scowl.

“Any particular reason you’re hear or is it just to grind my gears?”

“Both, but mostly I have a question for you to answer for me.” He reached for his pocket and pulled out a swatch of white fabric that almost made my heart strop.

“A bandage? You want me to wrap something for you?” I didn’t let it bother me. The bandages I wore were a dime a dozen and he could have gotten it from any mom and pop medical store along the road.

“No I was wondering why you had these. If you’re hurt, that’s not good for any of us see?” Sitting up, he kept waving that bandage in front of me, taunting me like he knew all my secrets, but he didn’t.

“You went through my stuff?” Sighing, I relented. “Should have expect nothing less from a sneak thief. They are bandages for emergencies. I don’t trust for a second that Jungkook still doesn’t want to put a bullet between my eyes.”

“True. You and Jungkook really don’t get along. Though that is to be expected when the both of you have different ways of surviving.” Taehyung was smarter than you, and probably anyone else, gave him credit for. His mouth was working to distract while his eyes watched and learned from the people around him.

I didn’t respond, but I didn’t need to. Even Taehyung seemed to sense that our conversation was over as he left my room with some important parting word. “The most dangerous liars are the ones who give themselves to the lies, body, soul and heart.”

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wrotetheaboveoftoday · 4 years

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1831 Fri. 4 February

Friday 4 7 1/2 3 F46º at 7 3/4 and fair but streets quite wet, as if lately drenched with water - out at 8 40/.. - walked to the Muette gate and back at 10 50/.. - raining more or less all the while with highish wind - dressed - an hour reading Le Temps - breakfast - at my desk at 12 3/4 - wrote (all but the first 2/3 page 1) 3pp. and longish ends to M- [Mariana] and sent off my letter at 2 50/.. - ‘Mrs. Lawton The Priory, Leamington, Warwickshire Angleterre’ - Letter from her Leamington dated lastly Sunday 3pp. the ends and under the seal -

Mr. C. L- [Charles Lawton] has been unwell - Dr. Jephson had thought the ‘squire would not live 6 months but he has rallied again and may by and by be well as ever again - their house at L- [Leamington] too low and near the river - disagrees with all but M- [Mariana] thinks my aunt will go back to Shibden this summer - sees no advantage in it but lessening my expense a little I replied this advantage was problematical - begs me to rummage myself up a little and get introduced to Lady Granville, and increase my acquaintance - said the latter was difficult under my present circumstances - it was very expedient to make some change, but difficult to decide what especially in the present unsettled state of politics - said nothing more fixed than when I wrote last - not necessary to decide this month or mo. [proximo?] and should wait till then and not pother and think of it in the meantime - mentioned the Vicomte de Noés match - very accomplished very clever very pretty girl with a good fortune - to take her to one of Cuvier’s lectures - perhaps we should by and by be good friends - to meet tonight at the ball - Lady G- [Granville] ill in bad cold, and not up when I called with Mrs. Hamilton about 10 days - returned my call the next day - to be introduced to her tonight - said I was to begin going to my little apartment again on Wednesday - the air better than here - would do me good - not that I wanted any good-doing for quite well - but we are seldom the worse for a little rummage -

had my hair done - a little nap - wrote the above of today till 3 35/.. Köenig sent home my [isand?] skin this morning nicely prepared and lined and bound with scarlet - very neat - shall I give it to Lady S [Stuart] in memory of our journey? from 3 40/.. to 5 25/.. at mineralogy -

well it is well to go to to this ball yet my heart dies within me at the thought and I wish it was over? going by myself no agreeable thing at best and knowing so few people is terrible how little people guess the real state but I am better off than I was eighteen months ago when I knew nobody but Miss H who never recognized me and I had had to hunt out the de Noes to go with! well I am better off than then besides I know better how to conduct myself and there is a host of comfort in this yes thank god times have improved with me a little how I used to go with aching heart last winter longing to be back repeating to myself as I went along for consolation In rebus angustis animosus atque Forlis appare; sapienter idem Contrahes vento nimium secundo Turgida vela. ode 10. lib. 2 Horace* I shall repeat the same tonight but still with better heart thank god for all his blessings -

Dinner at 6 10/.. - read the paper - came to my room at 7 55/.. - changed my stays then sat on my sofa sleeping and waiting for the coiffeur foolish because it made the blood rise to my head which was hot and my eyes reddish all the evening afterwards Mme. Decante came 2 or 3 minutes after 9 - by and by came the garcon to curl my hair - and about 9 3/4 came Edouard himself - ought to have come at 8 1/2 - my dress white crape with five white ostrich feathers hat had come from herbaults while I was at dinner Madame Decante dressed me - not ready till 10 40/.. - just took a cup of coffee and off at 10 3/4 - about or rather more than 1/2 hour in going so long was the file of carriages -

On arriving asked Jean to see for Mrs. Hamilton she could not be found so I walked in desiring not to be announced saying I must first find Mrs. H - in I walked all along looking about for her passed and bowed to her she was talking to some gents no lady near her and looked not very comme il faut? but I felt my loneliness and walked forwards saw Lady Isabella Blatchford just before me and Lady Mexborough but avoided them as I was alone at last spied all the de Noes seated and went up to them and then felt I had somebody

Said I was looking for Mrs. Hamilton and Count de Noe walked about with me to find her could not then seeing Mr. de Hagemann walked about with him and found her in the meantime spoke to Mrs. de H Hagemann and said I was very angry she had not told me they were coming we might just as well have come together she said I had never asked if they were coming and laid the blame on me she had Madame de Bourkes niece to chaperon I begged to be introduced to the girl foolishly enough? and never saw either of them after Mrs. H [Hamilton] took me up to Lady Granville and introduced me

I just made my curtesy Lady Stuart was sitting by her and got up to shake hands with me and admired my blonde scarf and asked if it was the lyons satin and said nobody so well dress she must tell Miss Hariott all for some thing to say and pointed out Lady Mexborough sitting by whom I had seen and shaken hands with before as also with Lady Sarah (when with Mr de H- Hagemann or Count de N Noé) but somehow I thought they did not want me to sit down there and made off directly back to the de Ns [Noés] foolish? Lady had left her seat directly fancying I suppose that I should sit down by Lady S [Stuart] who said oh pray come back dont leave your corner I really had not looked at Lady G [Granville] enough to know her again and never came in contact with any of the party afterwards but was a hanger on on the de Noés was this stupid Lady S [Stuart] had refused to present me to Lady G [Granville] I thought of this for Mrs. Hamilton was here and there and every where said she must go to the Miss Gowers and was in fact a maitresse de ceremonies - had no opportunity of speaking to Lady Isabella -

Went to supper in the train of the de Noés hung behind a little and let them get away in leaving the supper then wandered about a little by myself avoiding everyone I knew or would know me by sight and Jean who was really very attentive got me my carriage brought me my cloak and boots to the room door and I was happy to be quietly away - never did ball give less pleasure to an individual - Lady S [Stuart?] and a nice party were at the next table to us with their backs turned thought I it is my own fault or not that I am not there? might I not have managed better? the de Ns [Noés] would wonder at my being so hanging on them and I was staring about all the while really and professedly the bride pretty little person would think no great things of me how could she? never was more dissatisfied in fact I can not be said to have made Lady Gs [Granvilles] acquaintance and I did nothing that answered for pleasure or profit or eclat what folly all this to be thus the maker of ones own unhappiness for what and when with better management .......

never was more dissatisfied with myself or more glad to be away - could not not get it out of my mind and now that I am writing this (on Saturday morning) the annoyance and mortification still uppermost but writing my journal does me good - spoke to and shook hands with Mr. Gregory and Henry Stuart and spoke to Mr. Frisell but the feeling alone and the whole thing had taken away all pleasure -

The supper not near so handsome as in the Stuart time - all Lord S-’s [Stuart’s] magnificent plates sadly missing - hardly any plate at all on the tables - Jean and all the upper servants in scarlet with broad gold lace and white waistcoats and smalls - other servants in blue and silver, and 2 or 3 in drab coats with scarlet facings as if they had not had time to get dress shirts - 800 people there according to Mr. Henry Stuart - did not see the Miss Gowers or Lady Granville - home at 2 10/.. in less than 1/4 hour - fine day -

* [translation from Latin:] wisely show yourself spirited and resolute when perils press you; likewise reef your sails when they swell too much by a favoring breeze (Horace)

#anne lister #anne lister code breaker #1831 #paris winter 1831

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gregellner · 4 years

Photo

Covers by Larry Rostant.

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Today, rather than reviewing David Alan Mack's three Dark Arts novels (The Midnight Front, The Iron Codex, and The Shadow Commission), I have elected to instead do an analysis of what is known regarding some of the less-explained elements of the supernatural systems underlying his secret history series, especially those that are not fully explained in the glossaries or on his website. To simplify, angels and demons will be called "Presences" for their overall designation.

For more information regarding the terminology of for the practice of magick within the series, see the pages for generalized information and the glossary. To learn more about Black Magick affiliated with the powers of Hell, see the Infernal Hierarchy and a list of demons. To look into the less common White Magick associated with Celestial powers of Heaven, see the Celestial Hierarchy and a list of most, but not all, angels present in the story.

In referencing individual angels or demons, their names will be listed entirely in capital letters, much like how they are presented within the novels and by David Alan Mack in external communications. Furthermore, the word "magick" will be capitalized when referring to one type or another, and the words "karcist" and "magician" will be relatively interchangeable, as they were in the third novel.

Disclaimer: Mentions of various entities within this analysis do touch on real-world religions, but are not to be taken as opinion on the matter beyond basic objective commentary on the story as it is presented in the novels.

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As a note: There are other systems presented within the story, primarily through general mentions, such as "Wūshi of the ancient Chinese way, Arctic shamans, [and] doctors of the African Rites" (colloquially known as "witch doctors" in common parlance), is has been confirmed that they are still working with the same Presences, just through different names and rituals.

This approach has precedence in the books, particularly in The Iron Codex's examination of the creation myth of The Mystery of the Dead God. Cultures across centuries and countries, each of them with their own cultures, all contribute to the same story of creation. The range is pretty extensive, as can be seen chronologically in Cade Martin's examination: roughly 3000 BCE Egypt, 1700 BCE Babylon, 1000 BCE Zhou dynasty China, ninth century BCE Greece, 800 BCE Judea, and third century BCE Maya, each of which would have had completely different ways of using magick to learn of the mystery.

In terms of practitioners of these non-Eurocentric methods of the Art, there are at least two culturally distinct examples deliberately shown.

First, there is the Vate Pythia, the last Oracle of Delphi, who works in prophecies and can call out to individual people who are in need of and deserving of her aid. The way that she functions seems to follow an ancient Greek form of magick, one of divine inspiration rather than yoking demons or angels into one's body or calling on them in the same ways as modern European karcists. She also appears to still worship the old gods, mentioning Chronos, the Greek god of time.

Second, there are the uses of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. In The Iron Codex, they are alluded to in that they apparently work with White Magick in ways that would enable them to translate the eponymous codex of magickal knowledge. In The Shadow Commission, a user of magick under the employ of Mossad sends a golem, a nigh-indestructible assassin, after a former Nazi agent in the United States, with its sheer durability and the method of its defeat directly referencing the way in which the most famous story of a golem in Jewish folklore was shut down (by turning the "Truth" word on its forehead to "Death" by removing one of the Hebrew letters). This more hostile usage of Kabbalistic magick is likely their "Black Magick" variation, Sitra Achra.

==========

The nadach and the nikraim are, respectively, mortals who have had their soul bound with that of a particular demon or angel, boosting their magickal power significantly. While these can occur naturally from birth, as in the case of the sole known nadach in the story and one of the two nikraim examples, certain rituals can be called forth to artificially invoke that connection to create a powerful magick user from a normal person, with powers as strong as the Seraphim. While these people are not immortal by any means, they are known to handle yoking demons or angels with less strain, with those naturally formed doing so with less need to indulge in distractions such as drug abuse than those who are created artificially.

As an added bonus, those who are fused by soul with the infernal or the holy seem capable of utilizing specific supernatural powers even without yoking a single spirit. The nadach who was bound to LEGION proved capable of splitting his consciousness into three distinct beings, and perhaps more given sufficient the time and practice. The natural nikraim in the books was capable of using an unnamed angel's abilities to project her thoughts telepathically to animals in her vicinity, nudging them to act in her favor, though not directly hearing them in response. The artificial nikraim had a more unusual gift supplied by the Seraph GESHURIEL, namely that of being able to yoke a tremendous amount of demons without being driven to madness, along with his ability to read proto-Enochian, "the language of angels in the epoch before the Fall," with relatively little difficulty compared to many others, to the point that it was described as "preternatural ease" by an onlooker. However, that one still felt weaker than the natural nikraim.

==========

There are some particulars about the Pauline Art (as opposed to the Black Magick "Goetic Art" of working with demons) that help to distinguish itself pretty extensively from the primary magick used during World War II (and, for that matter, apparently beforehand in Europe). First, let us go into the etymology of the two terms, each of which are named for books in The Lesser Key of Solomon, a five-volume grimoire on demonology compiled in the mid-17th century from materials that preceded it by several centuries.

The "Goetic" Art is named for (arguably) the most famous of the aforementioned books, the first named Ars Goetia. As it so happens, "Goetia" is also a term for a form of magick that includes the conjuration of demons.

The "Pauline" Art is named for the third of the volumes, Ars Paulina, itself named for Paul the Apostle who is purported to have communicated with heavenly powers. This two-book work encompasses the twenty-four angels aligned with the fwenty-four hours of the day and the three hundred sixty spirits of the degrees of the zodiac.

As Pauline magicians are bound by oaths of non-interference with the machinations of Black Magick karcists by the inter-order "Covenant," they tend to restrict their interactions with the Divine to remotely viewing actions, divining the future, healing the wounded, and defending with a variety of magickal shields. Only those who breach the boundaries and decide to become gray magicians such as Father Luis Pérez. Whether or not this is true for other traditions of magick is unclear, or if it is restricted to the White Magick side of the Eurocentric model.

==========

As stated in the general analysis of magick, yoking angels is much harder than their fallen counterparts, with the one calling for them needing to be granted the favor of the Divine and to beg of the Celestial forces, rather than invoke demands in accordance with a pre-existing pact, on account of angels still having the link to the Divine and the will behind it rather than not having that will as demons. In fact, there are no defined pacts linking humans to any one angelic patron when using White Magick, meaning that multiple distinct highly-ranked angels capable of being called upon at any one time, or even all at once.

Although not entirely unique to the Celestial side of the Art as shown in the novelette “Hell Rode With Her,” there seems to be an added focus on taking up the powers of one or several of the seven archangels and utilizing their powers in a manner similar to that of yoking demons into a karcist's body. As some notable examples, there has been the use of MICHAEL and URIEL's swords and GABRIEL's shield.

The organization of angels makes for a very different kind of chess game regarding how to defend against any one Presence. There do appear to be "dukes" affiliated with individual higher powers, as is mentioned in the aforementioned Ars Paulina itself. One example was the yoking of DAROCHIEL, BENOHAM, and MALGARAS after asking permission from the archangel SAMAEL, and another was the yoking of that of HAMARIEL after asking it of ABASDASHON, who has notably not been directly identified as an archangel in the novel nor the associated website. Specific Orders of these angels are not always described, but those who are called upon to seek aid from another angel seem to primarily be of the upper Orders. According to dialogue in The Shadow Commission, even if one were to exclude one of the seven archangels who likely take up a great many of the Presences, there are still dozens of alternative protective barriers that can be made.

Owing to the lack of contracts, and perhaps to some other oddities, it appears that specific angels can be called upon for protection against harm except for those weapons that bear the sigil of the protecting angel. While this is not entirely unique to angels, especially given its prominence throughout the novels on the demonic side, demons only appear to be used for defensive sigils of individual patrons, one of six apparent options.

One particular "trap" is known for those who use White Magick: the angel's snare, a version of a "devil's trap" used for angels rather than demons. Those who are caught within its binds when it is invoked are rendered paralyzed so long as they hold on to the Celestial Presences within. The arcane sigil itself is formed with proto-Enochian script, the language from before the demons' fall from grace.

A variety of powers provided by angels are known even outside of individually named ones, even barring those already mentioned above. While magickal injuries are difficult to heal, if not impossible, the power of an angel can be used to draw the dwindling life force from one person and apply it to another, saving one life at the expense of the one from which said life was taken. Blasts of pure light are a fairly standard use of angelic power that is easily associated with their kind.

Another relatively common ability is the use of holy fire, which appears to take the form of invisible or white-hot tongues of flame rather than the blues, greens, and perhaps other colors associated with hellfire. This form of fire seems to be more versatile than the nearly always destructive hellfire, with uses such as the conjuration of weapons, beams from the eyes, a breath of flame, and even usage in conjunction with other angels to create temporary flames for torturing the infernal powers or banishing spirits and demonic sigils.

The usage of the Sight, identified by Mack as "full-spectrum vision, including perception of invisible or magickally concealed persons and things," is different from that of Black Magick karcists. According to those viewing users of the Pauline Art, said vision takes the form of green flames replacing the eyes, or the eyes themselves seeming to "flicker" in some way to see what is hidden.

In terms of teleportation, some White magicians may be capable of teleportation, be it through a "thunder jump" in a bolt of lightning from one location to another (seemingly only through single use in at least some angels), or by summoning enormous, feathered angel wings to near-instantaneously move to another person, take hold of them, and transport themselves to another, safer location.

One of the most potent uses of White Magick in the series is the use of something identified as a "spirit hammer," a way to sever the bonds of all of the yoked spirits of a Black Magick karcist (though perhaps not a White Magick one; unproven one way or the other) from a distance by invoking an exorcism rite, with this ability only able to be utilized once before the angel ascends back to Heaven.

Certain angels can be called upon to let loose individual spells, much as demons probably can be used to the same effect, each of which have their incantations stated in Latin. While the most common incantations beyond the experiments to yoke demons or angels that are shown in the series are for exorcism, there is at least one case of a spell cast that is deliberately mentioned as tied to an individual angel, namely MARBAS, which has its incomplete incantation translate to "Spill blood."

==========

In The Shadow Commission, an intriguing magickal artifact is brought up, one that invites another wrinkle into the overall system: phylacteries. The original phylacteries are derived from Jewish folklore, more commonly known amongst the religion as tefillin. They are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, and are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers on the forehead and one palm.

In fantasy, including in this magical system, they are more often a container to hold someone's soul, allowing them to live continuously and often not age at all unless the container is somehow destroyed. Destruction of the phylactery can cause instantaneous acceleration of the soul owner's age to befit their chronological age.

In The Shadow Commission, at least one member of the eponymous group, along with probably the rest as well, has one of these artifacts, and it is known to be a particularly powerful one. It is described as thus:

It was a bottle of hand-blown lavender crystal, its body broad at the base and tapering at the top to meet a long and narrow neck. The surface of the bottle was etched with eldritch sigils, many of which Anja recognized as Enochian, the language of the angels. A fine metallic mesh had been woven around the bottle, a delicate web of precious metals pulled into hair-thin filigree. Sealing the bottle was a long cork secured with an abundance of tightly wrapped steel wire.

The use of Enochian, the language of angels, rather than proto-Enochian, helps to figure out that the means of producing a phylactery are likely infernal in origin, as said language is used in Black Magick experiments extensively, as opposed to the proto-Enochian for White Magick.

These devices are evidently extremely volatile, as a blast that was capable of destroying it caused the artifact to let loose all of its energy very explosively, to a degree similar to a very strong hand grenade, or even stronger, capable of dealing lethal damage even to an accomplished nikraim.

The most interesting element of phylacteries, by far, is the fact that, according to the owner of the one known, the soul within does not need to be that of an actual magician. The owner was not a user of any form of magick beyond that which he hired from elsewhere, but still had a phylactery, and the same can be said of the various members of the Commission, showing that one does not need to have extensive power with magick directly to be able to have a serious impact on its use and prevalence as the centuries continue ever onward.

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zoe360568 · 4 years

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LADIES GUIDE TO CELIASTAL MECHANICES BY OlIVIA WAITE

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She was a complete confection, a richly, roundly luscious, perfectly domestic delicacy. Like the Renaissance Madonna Stephen had once copied from an Italian gallery.

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You could never mistake the sound of true grief, once you had felt it yourself. It made the mettle of the soul ring in sympathy, like one bell softly chiming whenever its neighbor was struck.

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You could take a robin, put it in a cage, and carry it with you around the world—but if you never opened the cage door, how much of a difference would you have made to the robin’s life? All it would know was the view through the bars.

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Catherine’s eye traced anew the vines and flowers of the bodice, and an envious ember flared briefly in her belly.

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“My father was also a musician, sir, before astronomy diverted him. He always said music and mathematics were two sides of a single tongue.” Mr. Frampton’s smile was slight, but sincere. “I would agree, but my father would turn up his nose and insist that music is an art, not a science.” Miss Muchelney laughed in recognition.

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Words like embers danced on her tongue and she feared the lightest breath would kindle them into flame.

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Catherine lifted one hand and brushed the tears away. “I wish you had fewer reasons for it.” Lucy’s eyes were star-bright. Her lips parted on a breath that was far too soft for a sigh. Catherine’s whole body went tight and liquid—how easy would it be to just lean forward, and press her mouth to Lucy’s, and taste that sound on her own tongue?

Chapter Four

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Catherine and Lucy passed the next two weeks orbiting one another like a double star: ever moving, never touching, never truly separating. Between breakfast and luncheon they worked

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companionably in the library. After luncheon Lucy

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Catherine was not an outside observer, no more than a sailor clinging to a spar in a wreck was an outside observer of storms. She felt lightning-struck. Every conversation, every joke, every blush and averted glance sent another bolt through her. Whole territories were beginning to burn in parts of her soul that she’d always kept carefully darkened.

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propriety.

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ubiquitous

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Lucy’s shoulders relaxed in visible relief. “It’s a little unusual, I admit.” Catherine’s lips quirked. “Most beautiful ideas are.”

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It was as though someone had taken the case off the universe, and let the reader peer at the naked machinery that powered the stars.

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Falling in love with a genius was a daunting thought.

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decrypt

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As she watched, the light flickered and shifted, the blurred lens of a young girl’s notice sharpening into the more precise view of mature adulthood.

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“They don’t let you have anything whole, you know. If you don’t follow the pattern. You have to find your happiness in bits and pieces instead. But it can still add up to something beautiful.”

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bemoaning

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Aunt Kelmarsh snorted genially. “The ways of the world aren’t so permanent as they say, my dear. It was quite different in the last century. There were times and places one could be open and free about such things.” Lucy’s smile was knowing. “And there aren’t now?” Aunt Kelmarsh pursed her lips, amused. “If you know where to look for them.” “Or who to ask, apparently.” Aunt Kelmarsh put on her most mysterious air, humming innocently. Lucy laughed.

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but she had never openly acknowledged that the reverse must be true as well: love could exist—could even thrive—quite apart from the paper forms of marriage and classifications of sex. It was all at once appalling that she and George had been bitterly bound to one another in the sight of the world, while these devoted souls had had to cloak their joy and hide it behind walls and walks and secret gardens.

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Catherine made herself comfortable in the opposite seat and finally opened up the box with the thoughts she’d been hiding away for most of her existence. The inescapable truth: women could fall in love with other women.

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Strange indeed that an idea could change your life so completely, and yet fit in so perfectly with all that came before. She felt the force of it in her very bones. It was less as if her biography were being rewritten, and more as though Catherine were suddenly able to read the other set of lines that lay crosswise on the familiar page.

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was desire, the same as she’d felt for the attractive men she’d known, and some sly part of her must have recognized this all along because she had put a great deal of effort into keeping these thoughts and impulses from seeing the light of day.

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She’d believed she could bear a widow’s loneliness more peacefully than the misery of a bad marriage. But that was like choosing whether hemlock or belladonna was the better poison. In the end, they both sapped the life from you.

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But that kind of restrained flirtation was one thing. A seduction was quite another.

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Catherine was going to have to go about this carefully. One step at a time. Inviting, rather than pursuing. Always leaving Lucy the chance to retreat, or reject. It would sting, but that was nothing. Catherine valued Lucy’s freedom in this as much as her own. I want more; I understand if you don’t.

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Turning someone into a project was a terrible way to woo them.

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and inspiration slipped in like a breath and exploded in her body like a lightning bolt.

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Catherine wanted Lucy, but more than that, Catherine wanted Lucy to want her back. And Lucy wouldn’t, if she were still pining for the girl she’d lost. So Catherine let the days flow by like water while she put in stitch after stitch after stitch, as though each one were mending a small rent in Lucy Muchelney’s heart.

Chapter Five

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Let Future Lucy make the ultimate decision during revisions to the text. Future Lucy was always so much more decisive, somehow. Maybe because she was ever-so-slightly closer to death than Present Lucy?

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It ought to have been agonizing, living and working in close quarters alongside a woman so beautiful and yet so unattainable. But Lucy’s heart, newly mended, was prepared to bask in any

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sensation that was not the sharp pain of loss—so unrequited fascination for her benefactress came not as a trial, but rather as a pleasurable seasoning to any day’s difficult work. And if the feeling occasionally stole her breath and her wits and kept her awake into the small hours of the night, well, nobody had to know. Really, it was much safer and more convenient than any actual love affair would have been.

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Perhaps this was how her future could best be managed: devoting her days to scientific work and spending her nights silently, secretly pining for a woman with golden hair and clever hands.

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“I’d be delighted to show you.” Then the countess smiled. A new smile, shy and hopeful. A smile like the first ray of dawn. Lucy was enchanted.

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And now Lady Moth had made her a shawl as a gift. With her own hands. If Lucy was right, every stitch might as well be a caress.

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“I don’t think love works like that. You might as well ask the earth whether the sun or the moon is more important.”

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“You can’t always judge by what came before. Sometimes, there is a revolution.”

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“May I kiss you?” Lady Moth held her breath, then let out a sigh that formed a single word: “Please.” Lucy leaned down, as the countess leaned forward, and the kiss exploded where they met.

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Just a simple brush of one mouth against another, but it sent heat and light and stars through every inch of Lucy’s frame. She pulled in a breath and tried it again, the same way, repeating the experiment. The same result: sparkling fire.

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When the kiss broke, the countess laughed a little, sounding surprised, and Lucy couldn’t blame her. She was beyond words herself. She wanted to sink her hands into the lady’s hair and hold her in place and kiss her until the sun went dark and the moon

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went dim and the stars blew out like spent wax candles.

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A new knowledge hummed between them, taut and arresting as the note of a violin.

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Then Lucy smiled, and for a moment her gaze darted down to Catherine’s lips. It was all the countess could do not to put her fingers up to feel the heat that gaze had left there.

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The afternoon’s tender delicacy was gone, replaced by a kiss that tasted lush as wine and scorched like fire. Catherine drank pleasure from Lucy’s ready mouth, the girl’s encouraging gasps firing her newly bold impulses. She hadn’t been dizzy from the wine at dinner, but she was giddy now, the room spinning around her and the only solid thing the skin and heat and feel of the woman in her arms. The kiss went

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But Lucy’s hands were careful and soft as they unlaced the back of Catherine’s gown, loosened her

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stays, and pulled all the pins from her tousled hair. It was closer to how Narayan would have undressed her—though Narayan would never have dropped a kiss on the back of Catherine’s neck, or combed fingers through Catherine’s tumbling hair in that luxurious way. It was—it was like every touch of Lucy’s hand was a silken thread, painting a sunrise one skein of warm light at a time. At the end, Lucy wrapped Catherine’s favorite velvet bed jacket around her shoulders and kissed her once more, sweetly. Catherine couldn’t help melting a little. “Good night,” she whispered. Lucy chuckled. “Good night, my lady.” “Catherine,” she corrected the girl. Lucy paused. “Catherine.” Her tongue lingered over the name, and her smile widened with pleasure. “Good night, Catherine.” She slipped out the door, leaving the countess feeling equally comforted and abandoned and thoroughly, thoroughly perplexed.

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interruptedbyfluff · 7 years

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While You Rest: Roman at Sunrise

Pairing: Anxiety/Roman/Patton

Genre: Fluff

Words: ~800

Warnings: None I think?

Summary: The sun rises on Roman thinking about his loves.

~*~

The sun slipped over the horizon and shone in through the window, and Roman blinked his eyes open. Anxiety was curled up against his chest, makeup smudged everywhere, drooling all over Roman's shirt. Patton lay flat on his stomach, mouth open, snoring, the blankets all tangled around one foot. Roman didn't think he'd ever seen anything more beautiful.

His loves. The lights of his life, glowing in the morning sunshine.

It had taken some time to accept that he could have not one but two loves, and that neither was diminished for it. To see the depth of emotion behind Patton's doofiness. To allow Anxiety into his heart. And Roman would have it no other way; struggling against neither villain nor dragon-witch, but against himself, proved the most epic battle he'd ever waged, with the grandest of rewards. These two gorgeous men had crept into his heart and turned his world upside down, set him alight with love in a way he'd never known was possible.

Anxiety seemed like a villain, at first. He looked like he was hurting Thomas, and that was unforgivable. What Roman couldn't see, back at the exposition, was how hard Anxiety worked to make sure Thomas was okay. Anxiety was the fire alarm that left you with a headache but kept you from burning alive. Anxiety loved Thomas with a ferocity beyond the mightiest roar and the sharpest sting; he loved with every fiber of his being. A lifetime of fear had given him armor of steel and sarcasm, but behind the dark plating was a heart softer than anyone could have guessed. Because Anxiety wasn’t only dark, insidious doubts. He was also golden, flickering firelight after sunset. Giddiness at the top of a roller coaster. The fluttering of a thousand tiny wings through your stomach before a kiss. Anticipation, buoyant and shimmering, bubbling up through your being and escaping as giggles. Beautiful and precious.

Anxiety was all of these things and more because he cared. He cared what happened when Thomas was faced with unknowns just over the precipice of a decision. And for that, for everything Anxiety was, Roman would take the leap.

With a potential love to woo, Roman had taken strides and bounds to impress Anxiety, stepping up his game in any way he could find. He riffed until his voice cracked, churned out idea after idea and rejected them all one by one, sought out harder and more impressive quests. And Anxiety...hadn't seemed to notice. If anything, he'd gotten more invested in their verbal repartee. It had been Patton who had to step in and stop Roman from dashing himself to bits.

Patton, who still laughed at poop jokes. Who made terrible puns and thought they were all funny. Who bounced from idea to idea with such dizzying speed no one really bothered to keep up. Patton, who noticed when Roman pushed too hard or too long or too fast. Who stepped in and told him to breathe, to slow down. That he was enough, all on his own. Patton, who overflowed with love.

Who, apparently, snored like an oncoming train. But that was okay. Because really, Roman needed that, someone who lived and breathed and slept loudly, because he would forget. It was so easy to forget people were there, surrounding and supporting him. Breathing the same air, sharing the same sunlight. So easy to get caught in himself, in the next quest, the fairest song, the thrill of proving to himself that he could. Of course, inherently, songs and quests and adrenaline were enjoyable and exciting, but really, Roman thought he might be trying to prove not just how awesome he was, but how worthy. And suddenly Patton would pull him out of his thoughts with a double-take-inducing topic switch and a cheerful grin, and he would remember. Remember that he was not alone in this quest to save himself. Perhaps, it was his turn to be saved.

So where did that leave him? The damsel in distress? What of his own damsel, Anxiety, who needed just as much saving from himself? Amazingly, Patton had helped with that too. The Dad character had simply stepped in and rewritten the fairy tale. The role told as princess was recast as a dark and golden witch who used his power to protect. The dragon breathed not fire but flowers and gave the best of cuddles. And on the last page, the dashing prince kissed them both, his happy ending not one, but two loves' true love.

And Roman did kiss them both, placing a gentle kiss in the mop of Anxiety's hair still buried in his chest, and on Patton's hand (the only part of the sprawled character he could reach). They were nothing like he'd imagined his happily ever after. They were so very much better.

~*~

A/N: Credit to @letsrevoltagaisntme for the adorable Anxiety is also anticipation headcanon.

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lauramalchowblog · 4 years

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Keto Pills: Why I’m Highly Skeptical

There are a dizzying number of keto pills on the market now. They promise easy weight loss, increased energy, and the benefits of ketosis without the pesky following-a-strict-diet part.

As savvy MDA readers, you know that optimal health never comes in a bottle. You also know that I’m a proponent of wise supplementation to support a Primal diet and lifestyle when appropriate. I’ve said before that I think exogenous ketones can be useful in specific circumstances, though they’re never necessary for success.

The question at hand is whether keto pills are likely to offer any benefit or if they’re a waste of money. I focused on pills that seem to be popular on Google searches and Amazon—ones with names like Ultra Fast Keto Boost, Super Fast Keto Boost, Keto Burn Xtreme, Instant Keto, and Keto Slim Rx. (My Amazon search history is shot now. This is the sacrifice I make for my readers.)

First Impressions: Are Keto Pills a Scam?

My first impressions weren’t positive—let’s just say that.

These products are being sold as diet or weight management pills. Their descriptions strongly imply, or sometimes state outright, that the pills will help you lose weight and “enjoy a slim and fit physique.” Most of the claims center on the general promise that being in ketosis causes you to burn fat and, by extension, lose weight (it doesn’t necessarily), and that their products will help keep you in ketosis (a claim I’ll investigate below).

The biggest red flag was when I noticed how many Amazon customers were trying to find the keto pill featured on the TV show Shark Tank. This was news to me, so I did some digging. Apparently there was a popular scam a while back wherein sellers claimed that their keto pills appeared on Shark Tank, and the sharks went wild for them. You didn’t miss anything. This never happened.

Only one product that I looked at—Keto Burn Xtreme sold by Advanced Life Science—still had that on their Amazon page as of December, 2019. It seems like some of the other products might have been falsely advertising this in the past based on older reviews and questions, though.

So it wasn’t looking good off the bat, but I’m an open-minded guy. Bad marketing doesn’t necessarily mean an ineffective product. Sure, the Amazon reviews for these pills are pretty negative overall, but maybe people just aren’t giving them a fair chance? Some folks like them, after all. Let’s try to be objective here.

Do These Keto Pills Contain Ketone Bodies?

Assuming you can trust the labels: Yes.

Exogenous ketones come in two forms: ketone salts and ketone esters. Ketone salts in commercial products are the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) bound to a salt. Ketone esters are ketone bodies bound to alcohol.

All the keto pills contain ketone salts because they are easier and less expensive to manufacture than esters. On the label they’ll list BHB bound to minerals, such as “calcium beta-hydroxybutyrate” and “magnesium beta-hydroxybutyrate.”

Do the Pills Contain Enough BHB to Be Effective?

Short answer: No, not likely.

A keto pill might “work” because it successfully raises blood ketone levels or because it brings about a desired outcome such as weight loss or improved athletic performance. In any case, keto pills are unlikely to hit the mark, but I’ll get to that.

Both ketone salts and esters raise blood ketone levels, but esters are considerably more effective. In laboratory studies, even large doses of ketone salts usually yield blood ketone levels to between 0.5 and 1.0 mmol/L. That’s enough to qualify as being in ketosis, but it’s not a knock-your-socks-off result by any means. It’s what you’d expected from following a standard keto diet. Still, plenty of people notice that they have more energy and decreased appetite in this range.

It’s probably not enough to profoundly affect certain health markers or athletic performance. For example, a panel of respected exogenous ketone researchers agreed that blood ketone concentrations in excess of 2.0 mmol/L are needed to boost athletic performance. Ketone esters can get you there, which is why most studies demonstrating the efficacy of exogenous ketones use esters. Studies using ketone salts yield decidedly more mixed results.

How Much BHB Salt Is Needed to Be Effective?

There is no agreed upon minimally effective dose for BHB salt. However, let’s use some laboratory studies as a reference point:

In this paper, Study 1, participants received about 24 grams of BHB, and their average blood ketone levels peaked at 1.0 mmol/L.

In this study, researchers gave participants 11.7 grams of BHB prior to exercise and then a second dose 45 minutes later during exercise. Blood ketones averaged 0.6 ± 0.3 mmol/L.

These researchers gave participants two doses of 18.5 grams BHB, which they noted was 60% more than the standard dose recommended by the manufacturer, prior to exercise. Blood ketones measured 0.33 ± 0.16 mmol/L prior to exercise and 0.44 ± 0.15 mmol/L at the end of exercise about an hour later.

Finally, these participants ingested 0.3g/kg of BHB, which would be about 24 grams for a 175-pound individual. Blood ketone levels peaked below 1.0 mmol/L.

How Do Keto Pills Measure Up?

Answer: Badly

Of the keto pills I looked at, the highest dose of BHB I saw per serving was 1000 mg, or 1 gram, in Ultra Fast Keto Boost Pro.

It turns out that many of the products contain the same BHB product, goBHB®. For example, Ultra Fast Keto Boost, Insta Keto, Keto Burn Xtreme, and Keto Slim Rx* sold on Amazon by nutra4health LLC are all the same goBHB blend at different price points ($19.95 – $39.95 for 30 servings). Super Fast Keto Boost and Ultra Fast Keto Boost—same thing. Per serving, goBHB contains 800 mg of BHB.

(*This is not to be confused with the other Keto Slim Rx product on Amazon that doesn’t disclose its ingredients but does promise you can “achieve your dream body” and “skyrocket your ketosis!!”)

Many pills contain even less than that. Pure Keto Boost and Instant Pure Keto list 800 mg of another blend that includes BHB salts plus other ingredients, so less total BHB. Others I checked out contained 700 mg or less.

I’m extremely dubious that 800 or even 1000 mg would meaningfully boost blood ketone levels. This is a mere fraction of the dose used in research. If the researchers could give 1 gram of BHB instead of 12 grams or more and still get a measurable effect, they would. Plus, reputable brands of exogenous ketones such as Perfect Keto and KetoCaNa offer 11.4 and 11.7 grams of BHB per serving, respectively.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that none of the Amazon reviews I read for any of these products mentioned that the reviewer had tested their blood ketones and saw a rise after taking the pills. (And I read a lot of reviews. Too many.)

Can Ketone Pills Make You Lose Weight?

Answer: No.

These pills claim that they’ll put you in ketosis, which will melt away body fat. Unfortunately, being in ketosis does not guarantee that you’ll burn body fat. You lose weight on a keto diet they same way you do on any other diet: by expending more energy than you ingest.

That said, it’s fair to say that ketosis is an advantaged state for weight loss. Ketones both suppress appetite and increase energy, meaning it’s easier to eat less and move more when in ketosis. Ketones are also anti-inflammatory and they improve blood glucose regulation. These both contribute to having a healthier metabolism so you trend toward your ideal body weight with less resistance.

If these pills actually support ketosis, which I doubt, their main benefit would probably be appetite suppression, not increased fat burning per se, as they imply. Anyway, the sellers frequently state that these should be used in conjunction with a low-carb or keto lifestyle to be beneficial. Thus, even if someone loses weight while taking them, it would be impossible to attribute it to the pills directly.

The Verdict

It’s obvious what I think: Save your money.

If you want to be in ketosis, drop your carbs, play around with intermittent fasting, or just go do a hard workout and wait to eat until W.H.E.N. (when hunger ensues naturally).

Related Posts from MDA

Exogenous Ketones Explained: Who Should and Shouldn’t Take Them

How to Lose Weight with the Keto Diet

The post Keto Pills: Why I’m Highly Skeptical appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Keto Pills: Why I’m Highly Skeptical published first on https://drugaddictionsrehab.tumblr.com/

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

Text

Iranian Missile Accidentally Brought Down Ukrainian Jet, Officials Say https://nyti.ms/2N7c81p

Video Shows Ukrainian Plane Being Hit Over Iran

The New York Times has obtained video that shows the moment a Ukrainian airliner was hit minutes after takeoff from Tehran.(VIEW VIDEO on NY Times Website)

By Christiaan Triebert, Malachy Browne, Sarah Kerr and Ainara Tiefenthäler | Published Jan. 9, 2020 Updated 3:58 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 09, 2020 |

Video verified by The New York Times appears to show an Iranian missile hitting a plane above Parand, near Tehran’s airport, the area where a Ukrainian airliner stopped transmitting its signal before it crashed on Wednesday. ( VIEW VIDEO on NY Times Website)

A small explosion occurred when a missile hit the plane, but the plane did not explode, the video showed. The jet continued flying for several minutes and turned back toward the airport, The Times has determined. The plane flew toward the airport ablaze before it exploded and crashed quickly, other videos verified by The Times showed.

This is a developing story. Check back for a detailed breakdown of the video.

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So much for all being well... I am so, SO angry. So much tragedy, and it was ALL preventable. All of it.

Students, families, children, newlyweds. Professors, doctors, engineers, refugee workers. These are some of the Canadians that were killed by your president’s rabid words and actions. As a Canadian in mourning for my fellow Canadians, and for all of the victims of Trump’s past and future madness, I beg you to get out and VOTE in November, and in the meantime, make calls to your legislators, support sane, progressive candidates, and raise your voice in PROTEST.

If this plane was shot down, it's clearly a major blunder for Iran. But our insane president also deserves blame because, if he had not ratcheted up tensions, there would not have been such a mistake in the first place (the likely belief that it was an American war plane). In the US we have felony-murder laws (if someone is killed in connection with a felony you can be liable even if you didn't directly kill them) and I'm thinking along those lines in terms of blame.

Iranian Missile Accidentally Brought Down Ukrainian Jet, Officials Say, Citing Early Evidence

An Iranian surface-to-air missile brought down the jetliner, killing everyone aboard, Canada’s prime minister said, citing intelligence reports and echoing U.S. officials’ conclusions.

By Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Anton Troianovski and Natalie Kitroeff | Published Jan. 9, 2020 Updated 3:59 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 09, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — An Iranian missile accidentally brought down a Ukrainian jetliner over Iran this week, killing everyone aboard, American and allied officials said on Thursday, adding a tragic coda to the escalated military conflict between Washington and Tehran.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said his country had intelligence that an Iranian surface-to-air missile brought down the jetliner, which was carrying 63 Canadians among its some 176 passengers and crew. Mr. Trudeau said his conclusion was based on a preliminary review of the evidence but called for a full investigation “to be convinced beyond all doubt.

“We recognize that this may have been done accidentally,” Mr. Trudeau said at a news conference in Ottawa. “The evidence suggests very clearly a possible and probable cause for the crash.”

United States officials had a “high level of confidence” that the Iranians brought down the airliner by mistake, one American official said. The official said that two missiles fired from an Iranian air defense system, the SA-15, shot down the airliner.

The Ukrainian airliner, a Boeing 737-800, went down on Wednesday morning. It had turned back toward the Tehran airport before it crashed in a huge explosion minutes after takeoff, according to an initial Iranian report released on Thursday. The report said that the plane, bound for Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, was in flames before it hit the ground but did not send a distress signal.

Although both the United States and Iran now appear to be backing away from a larger military confrontation, the new intelligence suggests that the loss of life from the downing of the plane was a direct result of those heightened tensions between the countries.

American satellites, designed to track missile launches, detected the firing of the Iranian short-range interceptor. United States intelligence agencies later intercepted Iranian communications confirming that the SA-15 system brought down the Ukrainian airliner, officials said.

A security camera captured the impact — first the predawn darkness, then a series of blinding bursts of light in the distance, followed by a storm of burning debris in the foreground.

The circumstances of the disaster raised suspicions that the airliner was brought down by a missile. The crash occurred just hours after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at United States targets in Iraq, with Tehran presumably bracing for possible American retaliation.

American officials have been reluctant to publicly assign blame for the downing of the aircraft, apparently to keep from inflaming tensions with Iran, at a time both governments were taking steps to de-escalate the military confrontation that came to a head when an American drone killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, one of the most senior figures in Iran’s government.

The SA-15 missile is designed to operate at medium to very low altitude and intercept both aircraft and guided weapons, according to military documents. It has a maximum range of 15.5 miles and can intercept aircraft and missiles at an altitude of up to 32,800 feet.

A mobile system, the SA-15 could have been brought out by the Iranian military to defend the airport if officials believed the United States military was intending to counter attack after the missile strike. If the Iranians thought that the United States was going to target their airport or other facilities with guided missiles, the SA-15 system could have been used to try to intercept them.

The SA-15 can track multiple targets, and seek to shoot down two at once, meaning it can fire multiple missiles nearly simultaneously, according to the military documents.

The comments from American officials came after the Iranians invited the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States to assist in the investigation despite previous reports that the Americans would not be involved, according to correspondence reviewed by The New York Times.

The board has reached out to the State Department to determine how to proceed, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because the correspondence was not public.

Sanctions against Iran prevent Boeing from contacting the Iranians without an export license, the people said.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, Abolfazl Shekarchi, was quoted by the Iranian news media as saying that the crash was not a result of any military action.

“This is ridiculous,” Mr. Shekarchi was quoted as saying. “Most of the passengers on this flight were our valued young Iranian men and women. Whatever we do, we do it for the protection and defense of our country and our people.”

The SA-15 launch was detected by the American military’s Space-Based Infrared System, which relies on satellites in various orbits to track the launch and flight path of ballistic missiles. While American missile defense sensors are primarily meant to defend against long-range launches, the military has upgraded the infrared satellite network to track shorter-range ballistic missile launches as well. They also can often detect launches of air defense systems, including missile systems designed to work at low altitudes, officials have said.

The infrared system also detected the antiaircraft missile fired by Russian-supported separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014 that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, officials said at the time. All 298 people aboard were killed.

The satellite data is often combined with other sources of information. For example, American intelligence can also often detect when air defense radar are turned on or activated, giving clues to what systems have been used.

On Wednesday, American officials combined the information from the satellites with intelligence from intercepted calls.

President Trump, speaking at the White House on Thursday after an event announcing new environmental regulations, was asked about the downed airliner.

“I have my suspicions,” he said. “I don’t want to say that because other people have their suspicions also. It’s a tragic thing when I see that. It’s a tragic thing.”

He added that the crash could have been an accident.

“But somebody could have made a mistake on the other side,” Mr. Trump said. “It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake. Some people say it was mechanical. I personally don’t think that’s even a question, personally. So we’ll see what happens.”

On Thursday, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said that investigators were following up on unconfirmed reports that fragments of a Russian-made Tor surface-to-air missile — a system used by Iran — had been found near where the plane, a Boeing 737-800, came down.

Ukraine was negotiating with Iran to allow the investigators to search the crash site near Tehran for possible rocket fragments, he told Censor.net, a Ukrainian news outlet.

The possibilities of a terrorist act, a collision with an airborne object such as a drone, and an engine explosion were also being examined as possible causes of the crash, Mr. Danilov said on his Facebook page.

Ukraine brings unique experience to bear on the case because of the 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight. The SA-15 is similar to the same type of missile system that caused that crash, meaning the passengers aboard the flight out of Tehran may have faced a similar fate: silence followed by a sudden explosion that sent shrapnel and debris spiraling through the fuselage before the aircraft’s uncontrolled descent toward the ground.

_______

Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, Anton Troianovski from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Natalie Kitroeff from New York. Reporting was contributed by Thomas Gibbons-Neff from Washington, Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow, Maria Varenikova from Kyiv and Dan Bilefsky from Montreal.

*********

House to Vote to Restrain Trump’s Iran War Powers

(Thank you Speaker Pelosi for standing up for our military men and women, as well as the U.S. Constitution. We must end these endless wars around the globe, that only benefit defense companies, defense contractors, as well as those who invest in defense and begin to invest in our men, women and families here at home. We are going broke because of these endless wars and leaving our children and grandchildren in massive debt. The money we spend on these endless wars could be used for so many projects here at home for: infrastructure projects, education, free college for those who can't afford it, paying educators more, Healthcare, economic incentives, training our workforce for the 21st century, free and affordable housing for the disabled to include our veterans and other invisible people, the opioid crisis, 5G networks & on and on.)

The debate over the resolution has reignited a fierce dispute over Congress’s role in matters of war and peace.

By Catie Edmondson and Charlie Savage | Published Jan. 9, 2020 Updated 4:04 PM ET | New York Times |

Posted January 09, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — The House took a preliminary vote on Thursday to advance a measure that would force President Trump to go to Congress for authorization before taking further military action against Iran, reigniting a fierce and longstanding debate over the role of the legislative branch in waging war.

The 226-to-193 procedural vote, split almost entirely along party lines, comes as Democrats — joined by two Republican senators — have raised questions about Mr. Trump’s rationale and justification for ordering the drone strike last week that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

It paved the way for the Democratic-led House to hold a final vote later Thursday to approve the War Powers Resolution, after a debate that pitted presidential power against congressional prerogatives.

“We have seen that developments can change day by day, hour by hour,” said Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts. “Should tensions escalate again, Congress should have a say before hostilities are launched. It is really that simple.”

Lawmakers were rankled by the White House’s failure to confer with Congress before the strike, and were dissatisfied with the classified notification the administration sent to Capitol Hill afterward. And they left their first briefings on the matter on Wednesday, with Mr. Trump’s national security team, irate.

Citing the mercurial nature of the president’s foreign policy and what they said was a dearth of credible information presented by administration officials to Congress justifying the strike, Democrats lined up on the House floor to argue that the week of escalating tensions underscored Congress’s duty to reclaim its constitutional authority to declare war.

“We should not be going to war in the name of the United States based on the word of one man,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. “That’s not the constitutional design.”

Still, the House measure — sponsored by Representative Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan and a former C.I.A. and Pentagon analyst specializing in Shiite militias — could amount to little more than a statement of principle, without the force of law.

House Democrats opted to use a concurrent resolution — the type that is considered to be enacted once both chambers approve it and is never presented to the president for his signature — rather than a joint resolution, which Mr. Trump could veto.

“This is a statement of the Congress of the United States,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday at a news conference, “and I will not have that statement be diminished by whether the president will veto it or not.”

The Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that to have legal effect, an action of Congress must be presented to the president for signature or veto. But Ms. Pelosi insisted on Thursday, without elaborating, that the House measure would have legal teeth.

At least one Democrat, Representative Max Rose of New York, an Army combat veteran, said he would oppose the resolution on Thursday, dismissing it as a symbolic measure.

“Today’s War Powers Resolution is a nonbinding resolution that simply restates existing law and sends the message that war is imminent,” Mr. Rose said in a statement. “I refuse to play politics with questions of war and peace, and therefore will not support this resolution.”

Most Republicans, who are often reluctant to criticize the president, especially on matters of national security, have stood in lock step with Mr. Trump and his administration, rejecting suggestions that Congress must reassert its war powers in light of the recent hostilities with Iran. They contend that Mr. Trump showed restraint and was well within his authority to respond to an imminent threat.

Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, spurned the resolution as toothless.

“This is the type of resolution that we use to invite the Soapbox Derby to the Capitol,” he said.

Other Republicans took up an argument that Mr. Trump’s advisers have made privately to lawmakers in recent days, that questioning the president’s authorization to confront Iran militarily is dangerous and unpatriotic. Representative Daniel Crenshaw of Texas, a former Navy SEAL officer, accused Democrats of “seeking to undermine” the American military and intelligence community by sowing “division and self-doubt.”

“While legitimate questions were raised, those questions have long been answered clearly and convincingly,” Mr. Crenshaw said on the House floor. “The president has a clear authority to respond to attacks against American citizens and U.S. forces.”

Mr. Trump took to Twitter before the vote to oppose the measure.

“Hope that all House Republicans will vote against Crazy Nancy Pelosi’s War Powers Resolution,” he wrote.

Later at the White House, the president tried out a new rationale for having targeted General Suleimani, claiming without offering evidence that the Iranians were “looking to blow up our embassy” in Baghdad.

Only one Republican, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, joined Democrats in voting to advance the measure on Thursday. Mr. Gaetz, while an outspoken ally of Mr. Trump, has also been among the small group of Republicans in Congress pressing to disentangle the United States from foreign wars and insist that the president seek authorization for military operations.

Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution in 1973 over President Richard M. Nixon’s veto, empowering Congress to pass legislation that directs a president to terminate military action unless lawmakers have explicitly voted to authorize them. But lawmakers have never succeeded in using it to curb a military operation, in part because it appeared to be severely weakened by a Supreme Court decision a decade later that struck down a similar legislative veto mechanism in an unrelated immigration law.

Since then, it has been broadly understood that Congress must use joint resolutions to try to terminate a war, essentially meaning that it takes the votes of two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers — the amount needed to override a veto, which is politically far more difficult to achieve. Last year, for example, the Senate and the House both passed a joint resolution to force Mr. Trump to end support for Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen’s civil war. But Mr. Trump vetoed it, and an override vote in the Senate failed 53 to 45.

The Senate could move as soon as next week to take up a similar resolution on Iran sponsored by Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia. That measure faces an uphill climb in the Republican -controlled Senate, but the administration briefing delivered to senators Wednesday so enraged two Republicans in the chamber, Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, that they said they would support it. That measure would mandate that Mr. Trump wind down military action against Iran within 30 days unless Congress voted to authorize it.

The support of the two libertarian leaning senators, who have long clamored for Congress to rein in presidential war powers, means that Democrats, who control 47 votes, are within striking distance of the majority needed to pass it.

Two other Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana, said they were considering voting for Mr. Kaine’s resolution. But his version is a joint resolution that Mr. Trump could veto.

*********

We Really Must Stop Starting Wars(AMEN, I COULDN'T AGREE MORE)

Technology is turning war into an outdated, ineffective means of resolving conflict. Here’s a crazy idea: Let’s avoid war.

By Farhad Manjoo, Opinion Columnist | Published Jan. 9, 2020 | New York Times | Posted January 09, 2020 |

Let us not go again to war. Let us not go to war because we cannot afford to “win” another war. There would be no winning this war. There is only losing, at a cost that staggers every dimension on all sides — in lives, in money, and in the squandered opportunity to do anything better with our collective time and resources on this already beset planet.

I’m speaking here of war with Iran, our current precipice. But I issue the warning more generally, too. Bookmark this page and pull it up as prophylaxis anytime the drums of war begin rattling anew: War isn’t just tragic. It is increasingly dumb and pointless, too.

War is becoming an outdated means of human conflict resolution. Technology is turning armed conflict into an endeavor increasingly dominated by what war scholars call “asymmetric warfare” — meaning that weaker powers like Iran can now marshal so much strength that they are no longer very weak, exacting a mighty cost of victory even to the world’s pre-eminent global superpower. Then there is climate change, which has ratcheted up the opportunity cost of every conflict; anytime we are fighting each other, we are absconding in the larger and more important fight for the habitability of the planet.

You may debate whether any particular historical war worked out well for its agitators. But there should be no debate that many of America’s recent wars have ended in misery for all. Our politicians talk of war as a last resort, but that is only to keep up appearances, because the truth is too terrible to admit: that our ever-more-expensive war machine (a cost of nearly $740 billion in 2020) can buy us little peace. Rather than a last resort, war now offers no resort. War can no longer be defended as the thing to do after everything else has failed. War must instead be seen as failure itself.

I had thought the futility of war might be grasped by most American politicians by now. One of Donald Trump’s rare bright spots as a candidate was his departure from the post-9/11 Bush-Cheney doctrine that doubled down on heedless American military interventionism. In his oft-stated aversion to “endless war,” Trump’s sentiment matched the public’s — a Pew poll this summer showed that most Americans, including most military veterans, now believe that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not been worth fighting. Trump seemed to be heeding the public’s caution back in the summer when he abruptly called off a strike against Iran in retaliation for its shooting down an American surveillance drone.

But in killing Iran’s most important military leader, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Trump opened the door to war. Now Iran is retaliating, and a cycle of escalation looks possible — even if, for now, Trump is backing away from further conflict. It’s beginning to feel a lot like 2003 again, with some of the same pundits and politicians who were in favor of a war with Iraq now repeating similar talking points about Iran. While noting that he’d like to avoid war, Trump himself has suggested that war with Iran would be a cakewalk: “It wouldn’t last very long, I can tell you that,” the president told Fox Business in June.

Don’t fall for it. It’s plain dishonesty: How could anyone who has lived through the quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan think war with Iran will be anything but long and brutal? In those conflicts, America’s overwhelming military might stumbled on local culture, geography, ethnic and religious rivalries, and most of all the determination of an entrenched, committed foe that could melt in and out of the local population.

As Vox’s Alex Ward points out, Iran has almost three times as many people as Iraq did when we invaded in 2003. It also has treacherous geography, and it controls a great many proxy forces across the Middle East and even in likely sleeper cells in Europe and Latin America. Iran also possesses a sophisticated cyberwar operation — it is believed to be behind recent hacks into American banks and other targets and to have spread disinformation and propaganda on social networks around the world.

The United States would overwhelm Iran in a conventional head-on war, but like China and Russia, Iran has adopted a deep capacity to mount “hybrid war” — conflict that involves both conventional and unconventional means of war. (For example, Iran could expand its operations on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, dealing a costly rise in global energy prices.) As Ward concludes: “A U.S.-Iran war would be a bloody hell during and after the fighting.”

This gets to the immense folly at the heart of our military might. Though the United States spends more on the military than the next nine countries combined, we have not been able to purchase much peace through strength. That’s because our strength is clearly of a type, and our years in Iraq and Afghanistan have made plain our vulnerabilities.

Among other shortcomings, our military is still buying mostly big, old defense technologies (like aircraft carriers and bombers) from the military-industrial complex, even if many of these technologies face obsolescence under a future of artificial intelligence, unmanned battlefield robots and other cyberweapons. Our country’s efforts at adopting artificial intelligence technology in the military might not be enough to counter our rivals, including Russia and China.

The upshot is this: The United States holds military supremacy over the world’s waters and the airspace, but our control is limited and contestable. The last two decades have made clear that even for America, war is never simple. We should fear it. We should avoid it.

And we ought to look for more fruitful things to do with our money and our lives, like making life on earth more livable, not less.

*********

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doxampage · 6 years

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Book Printing: High-End, Case-Bound Look-Books

My fiancee found two print books at the thrift store this week that together weighed about twenty pounds. They are perfect-bound art books. One is a “look book” showcasing street art in both New York City and Barcelona (four-color throughout, with bleeds and minimal text).

The other is a catalog of art prints. This one really needs its own table, it’s so heavy. Its contents have been broken down into photography, still life paintings, floral paintings, figures, etc. While it doesn’t cover all art periods, it really does provide a visual survey course in art history.

My fiancee picked these up as a resource for our art therapy work with the autistic: idea books to help us come up with new and thought-provoking art projects that will challenge our students. But as a print broker, I also noticed the superior print book production values these two case-bound books display.

The Street Art Book

Street art–as the book NYCBCN, by Louis Bou, suggests through its imagery—is a reflection of urban life applied to all manner of canvases, ranging from the sides of trucks to ramps in skating parks, from posters plastered over windows to walls emblazoned with graffiti. All of this is art. All of it tells a story about what it’s like to live in New York City or Barcelona.

I see a number of qualities in the book printing work that will affect the reader on a subconscious level:

The paper stock is substantial (probably 100# text). This not only prevents show-through from one side of a page to the other. It also gives a sense of importance to each page. A thinner press sheet would feel flimsy.

The paper is almost invisible. The ink coverage is just that thick, and every page bleeds on all sides. However, here and there you can see the specular highlights (i.e., areas with no halftone dots, or very tiny ones). The paper is an exceptionally bright blue-white shade. Granted, in contrast to the surrounding heavily saturated colors, the white would naturally stand out and seem whiter than usual. However, the bright blue-white press sheet does still increase the brilliance of the colors, since process colors are transparent. That is, the whiteness of the press sheet enhances the intensity of the ink colors.

The book is more than 600 pages in length. No other binding method I can think of would be appropriate for such a long print book as the case binding chosen by the book designer. Perhaps a perfect bound option would have worked. But for such a large and heavy book block, case binding does make this book seem a lot more durable. After all, the case on which the book block has been “hung” has to support approximately five pounds of weight.

In addition to the case binding, the book has been Smyth sewn. You can see the stitches holding the book signatures against one another now and then as you page through the print book.

The book cannot lie completely flat since it is a case-bound book (and not a lay-flat bound book). Nevertheless, it is a loose-back book (the fabric “crash,” to which all book signatures have been glued, has itself not been glued to the spine of the book-binding cases). Therefore, the book almost lies flat, or as flat as one can expect a 600-plus-page book to lie. Since the spine is loose and the book is large—and clearly designed to be used a lot and last a long time—it is clear that the thickness of the crash and the thickness of the paper work together to ensure the print book’s durability. You can see the attention to detail. Bookbinding clearly is an art.

Given the gritty nature of the subject matter, it seems fitting that the cover is made of 4-color-printed litho paper laminated to the chipboard of the binding. (Or, rather, this is not a cloth-bound book in a dust jacket.) The intense color of the cover art is augmented by this treatment. And adding the title of the book in large foil-stamped letters (both reflective and textured) provides an even more intense and edgy tone to the print book.

While I’m not certain about this, the intensity of the interior art and cover art would suggest the following: either the printer added fluorescent ink to some of the process colors, or the printer used touch plates (additional colors beyond the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black).

The Fine Arts Book

The cover of this book just says Art. It’s a catalog. In fact, the price list is printed right on the interior front cover. Like the first book, this book is case bound. Unlike the first book, which I would consider to be an art book meant to showcase street art, this is a book used to sell printed reproductions of fine art prints. Nevertheless, it will give the careful observer a good education in a number of contemporary styles and approaches to the fine arts.

It is also especially heavy: perhaps five times as heavy as the first book. When you open this case-bound book, the crash does not come away from the spine. Unlike the other (“loose-back”) book, the crash of this case-bound book has been glued to the spine of the binder’s case to increase the durability of the print book. (This is called a “tight-back” book.) After all, it is especially heavy, and it has to last a long time and be used regularly as a reference. I firmly believe that a loose-back book block of this weight might otherwise tear away from its case after numerous uses.

Here are some further thoughts about the production values of this book:

There are numerous index tabs inserted between press signatures. If you look closely, it is clear that they were folded in (maybe two inches from the face trim of the print book) and then opened so the thumb tabs would extend past the trim of the book pages. This is why. If the tabs had not been folded in, they would have been trimmed off as the guillotine cutter came down to flush cut the face (outer vertical side) of the book. To avoid this, a bookbinder folds in the tabs, trims the book block, and then opens the tabs for final use.

As with the other book, the designer has chosen an especially bright white (blue white, since it appears even whiter than usual) press sheet to showcase the images. Since this is a case-bound catalog, to be used to sell art prints, the images of the fine art prints are relatively small. Positioning a small number of images on a page and then surrounding them with a lot of white space make reading the 800-plus-page book less daunting. The commercial printing press sheet seems to be matte (not gloss or dull). This makes reviewing the imagery easier on the eyes. But to make the images “pop,” the designer has also apparently varnished the photos.

As I consider the length of the book and its weight (maybe ten pounds), it is clear that all of the elements of the case binding add to its durability. These include the tight-back case binding and presumably Smyth sewing (everything is glued too tightly for me to see the stitching, but Smyth sewing would add additional durability), plus the exceptionally heavy end-sheets and flyleaves (the papers to which the book block is attached and which are in turn glued to the interior front and interior back covers).

The goal of this print book is to present to the reader a huge number of images. These have to be attractive (a number of images per page but with ample white space). It looks like the colors in the prints may have been augmented (either with fluorescent ink added to one or more of the process colors or touch plates with additional inks beyond the usual CMYK palette). But beyond everything else, this book is meant to last. It is clear to me that the artistry of the binding has both a functional component and an aesthetic one.

The post Book Printing: High-End, Case-Bound Look-Books appeared first on Printing Industry Blog.

Book Printing: High-End, Case-Bound Look-Books published first on https://getyourprintingcompanies.tumblr.com/

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marthawelsh · 6 years

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Guy Creates Las Vegas Race for Friends and It’s Amazing

Everyone needs a friend like Gabe Sinna.

Sinna recently celebrated a birthday, and decided to invite some friends to join him in Las Vegas for the festivities.

Lots of people have done that. But Gabe Sinna isn’t everybody.

After months of planning, Sinna created an ingenious game for his friends to play, inspired by the hit travel competition on CBS, “The Amazing Race.” And his game has raised the bar for Las Vegas scavenger hunts forever.

Trust us, the word “amazing” isn’t used lightly here.

See, just about everyone has a friend who’s a planner. But Gabe Sinna is more than that. He’s a savant. He’s a genius. He’s a freak.

And we’re not just saying that because Sinna dove deeply into the recesses of this very Las Vegas blog for nuggets to inform his “Amazing Gabe” race.

Gabe and the better half of the teams competing in the “Amazing Gabe” race.

While Sinna orchestrated an entire Las Vegas trip for his friends, we tagged along on the part that featured downtown. Not only do we work downtown (in marketing at Fremont Street Experience), the area is home to some of our favorite places in Las Vegas.

Sinna did extensive research about downtown before creating his race, then built his “race” using elements of “The Amazing Race,” including “Detours” and “Roadblocks.” He even used artwork inspired by the show. Told you he’s a freak.

This is the photo caption where we don’t mention how much free time Gabe clearly has.

At the beginning of each leg of the race, Sinna distributed clues (“Route Info.”) and his friends, all couples, got to explore downtown in a fun, unique way.

It should be noted Sinna’s friends are also sort of freaks, as they made matching T-shirts with Sinna’s face on them for each team.

Gabe’s friends weren’t messing around. It’s a little thing called “bragging rights.”

The “Amazing Gabe” race included a carefully-curated list of things to do downtown:

Take a photo with the gold nugget replica at Golden Nugget

Get a pic with a million bucks at Binion’s

Try a scorpion shot at Nacho Daddy

Visit Banger Brewing

Ride the SlotZilla zipline

Visit Golden Gate

Rub Buddha’s belly at The Cal

See the Berlin Wall at Main Street Station

Ride the Downtown Loop to the Gold & Silver Pawn shop

Take in the Neon Museum

Grab a dog at American Coney Island at The D

The downtown race culminated at Pizza Rock, of course. Did we not mention Sinna reads this blog?

Gabe Sinna’s friends are apparently fellow Las Vegas aficionados, because they navigated his clues with relative ease. (It was determined later the Internet may have made some of the clues too easy to solve. Thanks a lot, blogs!)

Everyone got to express their feelings about Communism at the Berlin Wall display inside the restroom at Main Street Station.

Ultimately, the red team won.

Congrats, Joe and Angie. You’re Internet famous. Not redeemable for cash.

As mentioned, the downtown “race” was just part of the fun. Sinna created a nearly 20-page, spiral-bound booklet for his friends.

The booklet included, among other things, his friend’s favorite drinks.

This is what we meant when we said, “Everyone needs a friend like Gabe.”

There were also agendas for other days of their trip, shuttle schedules, maps of The Strip and downtown and a page for his friends to note which Vegas casinos they’d visited.

One of our favorite parts of his booklet was devoted to a photo hunt. Sinna created an extensive list of Las Vegas-themed photo ideas, including images of:

Bachelorette with a sash

Slot win of more than $50

Any celebrity (yes, a photo with this blog qualified)

A doppelganger

Guy with a mullet

Bike cop

Tasteful side boob

Pink flamingo

Vegas sunset

Neon sign

Party pit dancer

In line at White Castle

Any Elvis

Showgirl with feathers

Guy named Don (I.D. required)

David statue at Caesars Palace

Pay phone

Night club line

Kissing at the Bellagio fountains

Now, that’s a Las Vegas photo hunt right there.

What happens in Vegas goes into the Cloud.

Sinna’s booklet also included another scavenger hunt list with items like “business card from a pit boss,” “slot ticket worth .01 (exactly),” “show ticket stub,” “deck of casino cards” and “trifecta of porn cards (brunette, blonde and redhead).”

While we love Las Vegas a lot, we bow before the love Gabe Sinna clearly has for this town. Seriously. His name even has “sin” in it.

Thanks to Gabe for letting us tag along on several legs of the “Amazing Gabe” race! We were truly impressed with his knowledge of Vegas, as well as his organizational ability, as it’s well-known we are personally bereft of the planning gene.

We are not a heights person, but for some, winning prevails over woozy.

If you’ve done anything even remotely as creative as Gabe for a Las Vegas visit, we’d love to hear about it. We won’t hold our breath.

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Amazing Gabe

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karingottschalk · 6 years

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Panasonic has been scoring some especially impressive runs with its Micro Four Thirds stills photography and video cameras lately, the Lumix DC-GH5, the Lumix DC-G9 and most recently the Lumix DC-GH5S, so it is deeply disappointing watching them drop the ball, even hurl it over into an adjacent field, with yesterday’s announcement of the Lumix DC-GX9, supposedly the replacement for the Lumix DMC-GX8.

Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens, for “street photography”.

Perhaps “drop the ball” is too delicate an expression to describe the magnitude of what has occurred with the GX9 so I will borrow a phrase from Amazon’s DPReview and instead name it a fail.

More accurately, a major fail.

Screenshot from a google search for the GX9.

The GX9 with either of its apparently bundled kit lenses may be a good entry-level camera and lens combination for those new to the Micro Four Thirds sensor format or to the GX9’s rangefinder-style form factor though it is a rather costly entry-level combo compared to, say, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85, also named the Lumix DMC-GX80 in some territories outside the USA.

The Lumix DC-GX9 comes with a kit lens, which one depending on where you live

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS standard zoom lens

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f3.5-5. Aspheric Power OIS standard kit zoom lens

Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric prime lens, equivalent to 30mm in the 35mm sensor format.

In Japan, the Lumix DMC-GX80/85 is referred to as the Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark II with the Lumix DC-GX9 actually designated the Lumix DC-GX7 Mark III.

The camera known as the Lumix DMC-GX7 in Japan appears to be the same as the camera called the Lumix DMC-GX7 elsewhere.

Image from Panasonic Japan’s Lumix GX7 Mark III aka Lumix DC-GX9 product page.

Panasonic Japan’s naming is at odds with the company’s convention everywhere else where, for example, GX8 denotes the professional, top-end version of a line of cameras, GX80 and GX85 denote the second-level version of the same line and GX800 and GX850 denote the third-level version of the GX rangefinder-style line.

Top view of Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 Mark II on the Panasonic Japan website’s product page. The GX7 Mark II appears to be the same camera as the one designated GX80 or GX85 in other territories.

As my partner reminds me, former employer Canon follows a roughly similar naming convention for its cameras whereby its DSLR product range falls into three levels, DSLR for Beginners, DSLR for Enthusiasts and DSLR for Professionals though with the further complication of Mark I to IV and probably beyond thrown in for good measure.

Panasonic’s coming and current GX-Series rangefinder-style cameras

Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Power OIS lens

Panasonic Lumix GX8 with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric II Mega OIS kit zoom lens

Panasonic Lumix DMC-85, also named DMC-GX80 in certain territories, with Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX850 aka DMC-GX800

If we borrow Canon’s camera naming convention, then Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GX850/800 is their rangefinder-style camera for beginners, the DMC-GX85/80 their rangefinder-style camera for enthusiasts and the DMC-GX8 is the camera for professionals, which indeed it is in my experience and that of a number of other professional moviemakers and stills photographers of my acquaintance.

Three highly-esteemed photojournalists and one documentary moviemaker who use Panasonic Lumix GX-Series cameras

Photojournalist Ian Berry of Magnum Photos using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7.

Photojournalist Thomas Dworzak of Magnum Photos using Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7.

Photojournalist Daniel Berehulak who shoots for The New York Times amongst others using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8.

Documentary cinematographer Rick Young uses several Lumix DMC-GX8 cameras and many Panasonic lenses for TV production clients.

And then there is the Lumix DC-GX9.

Lifestyle photograph from Panasonic media/press release image collection depicting Lumix GX9 with the pricey Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens.

Judging by the product itself, its specifications and its marketing material including product and lifestyle photographs, the GX9 is not aimed at professional cinematographers and photographers including those working in the fields of documentary and photojournalism, but rather at “street photographers”, beginners and enthusiasts, to borrow Canon’s terminology.

Professional users are conspicuously absent from the Lumix DC-GX9’s marketing material in contrast to that of its predecessors, the Lumix DMC-GX7 and Lumix DMC-GX8.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 with Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens

Magnum photojournalists Ian Berry and Thomas Dworzak were depicted working with the GX7 while Australian expatriate photojournalist Daniel Berehulak produced photographs and video footage in Cuba with the GX8.

In the GX9 press kit, the sole user image is that of a youngish female holding a GX9 with optional though reportedly essential accessory eyecup and optional though reportedly necessary plastic hand-grip, sporting a Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 Aspheric prime lens.

At time of writing, the GX9 apparently cannot be bought body-only but with the kit lens designated for the particular territory in which it is bought, and research to date indicates that may be one of three lenses, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-60mm f3.5-5. Aspheric Power OIS and the Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric.

B&H Photo Video currently has the GX9 with 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 kit zoom listed at $US997.99 and the Leica Summilux 12mm f/1.4 priced at $US1,297.99.

Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 Aspheric prime lens

I suggest that this pairing of the GX9 with the Leica 12mm f/1.4, the lens costing far more than the camera plus kit lens much less camera body only, is a highly unlikely choice for the camera’s apparent user base, whether beginner, enthusiast or street photographer.

The two kit zoom lenses are more appropriate choices priced well in line with that user base, with the Leica Summilux 15mm f/1.7 prime lens a more appropriate choice for a street photographer, however that is defined, with something of a purist’s attitude to lenses.

I own a Panasonic Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspheric Mega OIS zoom lens bought as-new secondhand from an eBay seller whose camera came with it as kit lens.

The 12-32mm is a perfectly fine, sharp and well optically-corrected lens despite its tiny size and pancake prime lens dimensions that I bought for use when photographing in the middle of daylight outdoor events where I need to be as discrete, as near-invisible as possible.

In other words, classic photojournalism, documentary and breaking news situations.

SmallRig Cage for Panasonic GX8 1844, the camera cage I use when shooting documentary video with my Lumix DMC-GX8. Even with accessories attached, the GX8’s form factor and tilting EVF allows me to work right in the middle of crowds of strangers at public and private events.

The Leica Summilux 15mm f/1.7 might be a useful choice for those purposes, too, but I find it an odd focal length almost halfway in-between my two preferred prime lens choices, 14mm and 17mm or 17.5mm, though I may change my mind if I manage to borrow one for some extended real-life testing.

I would choose none of these kit lenses, 12-32mm, 12-60mm or 15mm for shooting video though the latter may be appropriate if attached to a drone camera.

Documentary video requires the use of lenses with good manual clutch focus, linear focus-by-wire or fully manual lenses for fine control of focussing as a graphically creative and emotive storytelling element, and my preference is Olympus’ M.Zuiko Pro prime and zoom lenses while Rick Young has a large set of upper-end Panasonic Lumix and Leica lenses.

The Panasonic marketing staff’s apparent confusion over the Lumix DC-GX9’s naming, user base, best choice of lenses and indeed overall message is reflected in their marketing materials and website content.

If going by the press kit user photograph then I would give them benefit of the doubt and assume their main GX9 user base is street photographers.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM5 would have been best choice if going small for street photography

I make no claim to the title street photographer though I do keep my eye and hand constantly exercised by carrying a camera every day and making storytelling urban documentary photographs so I have some well-qualified thoughts on best cameras for street photography.

Were Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-GM5 still in production, I would choose it due to its tiny size, good-enough 16 megapixel sensor and for looking as little like a serious camera as possible while delivering excellent quality results.

Even better, the cigarette pack-sized GM5 was made in three colourways, all black, red and black, and silver and green, the green and red being, one hopes, fake leather.

Street-bound members of the public glancing at a street photographer equipped with one of these would be even more oblivious to the presence of a serious photographer than if spotting somebody with a GX9.

Panasonic’s DSLR-style stills camera solutions, the Lumix GH5 and Lumix G9

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 with Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 Aspheric zoom lens

Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 with Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 Aspheric zoom lens

If that photographer were toting a DSLR-style camera of any size and brand with prime or zoom lenses of any size and shape, I can guarantee the street photographer in question would be noticed and their presence would adversely affect the images they produce, no matter how terrific the camera.

There is one feature that the GX7, GX8 and GX9 can boast and that remains unique amongst contemporary digital cameras and that is their tilting electronic viewfinders.

The Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex Camera

I value my Lumix DMC-GX8 for many things but foremost is for its tilting EVF, the closest thing I have nowadays to the tilting or upright magnified viewfinders of one of the finest analog cameras for unobtrusive, fly-on-the wall documentary photography and photojournalism.

As with the Rolleiflex and its telephoto and wide-angle variants, the Lumix DMC-GX8 with its tilting EVF and fully-articulated monitor are brilliant solutions for those two forms of photography as well as portraiture where you need your sitters to rapidly relax on being confronted by the top of your head rather than staring down the barrel of a sniper rifle-like DSLR.

Panasonic, please give us the fully up-to-date GX8 successor we need right now and deserve, and stop trying to fob us off with this Lumix GX7 Mark III.

There is no substitute.

Links

Untitled: Stories of Creativity, Innovation, Success – 4/3 Rumors: (FT5) First image of the new Panasonic GX9 leaked! – COMMENTARY – contains a list of features I want to see in the real upgrade to the GX8.

Untitled: Stories of Creativity, Innovation, Success – Panasonic Announces Lumix DC-GX9 Rangefinder-Style Camera – List of Links and Videos – besides links to a large number of articles, press releases, reviews and videos, this article contains a gallery of product photographs.

Image Credit

Header image concept and quick hack by Carmel D. Morris.

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Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with 12-60mm Lens – B&H

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera – B&H

Panasonic Cheaps Out, Dumbs Down and Winds Back Professional Rangefinder-Style GX Camera Series with Lumix DC-GX9 Panasonic has been scoring some especially impressive runs with its Micro Four Thirds stills photography and video cameras lately, the…

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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Ukrainian passenger jet carrying over 170 people crashes in Iran, killing all on board

By Isabelle Khurshudyan, Erin Cunningham and Sarah Dadouch | Published January 08 at 2:20 PM EST |

Washington Post | Posted Jan 09, 2020 |

MOSCOW — A Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people from Tehran suddenly plummeted into a field early Wednesday without a mayday from the cockpit, killing all aboard and leaving investigators hoping that recovered flight data can offer clues on the cause.

In the aftermath of the crash — whose passengers and crew included Iranians, Canadians and Europeans — Ukraine banned all flights from Iranian airspace. A similar move was already taken by several other countries amid rising tensions between Iran and U.S. forces in the region.

Meanwhile, the probe into the crash was underway with Iran pointing to a possible aircraft malfunction and Ukraine apparently leaving open other paths of inquiry.

At least one U.S.-based aviation expert said it appeared the plane was "not intact" before it hit the ground. And a former Federal Aviation Administration accident investigation chief, Jeff Guzzetti, said the crash carried "all the earmarks of an intentional act."

"I just know airplanes don't come apart like that," Guzzetti said.

The Ukraine International Airlines flight, bound for the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, went down just before dawn after departing from Imam Khomeini International Airport, south of Tehran. The plane was approaching 8,000 feet when it abruptly lost contact with ground control, officials said.

About four hours earlier, Iranian forces launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles into Iraq, targeting an Iraqi air base with U.S. personnel in response to an American airstrike last week that killed the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

American passenger airliners and others have avoided flying over Iran because of the risk that they could be mistaken for military aircraft. Iranian authorities said "technical" problems were likely behind the crash of the Ukrainian Boeing 737-800.

Ukraine's Embassy in Tehran initially concurred, issuing a statement ruling out terrorism and suggesting likely engine failure. It later took down the statement without explanation, raising questions about whether different scenarios — including an "external" cause such as a missile — were being explored as potential reasons for the crash.

But Iranian officials pushed back again that theory. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, an Iranian armed forces spokesman, said "rumors" that a missile brought down the plane were "completely false."

He was quoted by Iran’s Fars news agency as calling the missile speculation “psychological warfare” by the government’s opponents.

The Ukrainian Embassy said a commission was investigating the crash and that "any statements about the causes of the accident before the decision of the commission are not official."

A video circulated on Twitter that purported to be of the crash and showed the plane as a bright light, possibly on fire, descending against a dark sky, followed by a burst of flames.

Guzzetti, the retired head of the FAA’s accident investigation division, said the details of the crash publicly available suggested the plane was brought down deliberately.

“To me it has all the earmarks of an intentional act. I don’t know whether it was a bomb or a missile or an incendiary device,” he said.

If the video of the flaming plane is accurate, “I can’t conceive of a failure that could cause that much of a conflagration,” he said.

An engine fire, for example, would take a substantial period “to consume the airplane,” said Guzzetti, who was an air safety investigator and engineering specialist at the National Transportation Safety Board for 18 years before joining the FAA.

The abrupt cutoff of flight-tracking data emitting from the plane also indicated that it was “a sudden catastrophic event that created a power loss throughout the whole airplane,” he said.

Todd Curtis, an aviation safety analyst for the website AirSafe.com and a former Boeing safety engineer who assisted in accident investigations, said it appeared — based only on video and photos from the crash site — that the plane was coming apart before it hit the ground.

“The wreckage pattern was very consistent with a plane that was not intact when it hit the ground,” he said. “I didn’t see a large central crater.”

This means the crash could have been caused by an in-flight break up, in-flight explosion, midair collision, structural failure, an external strike or a major system malfunction with the aircraft, Curtis said.

The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Ali Abedzadeh, said that Iran would not send the recorders to the United States, and that the investigation would be led by Iran, Mehr news agency reported.

“It has not yet been decided where the [recorders] will go” for data extraction, Abedzadeh said.

He said that the pilots “did not contact the control tower” before the crash. “We were not informed of any technical problem from the flight crew.”

Ukraine International Airlines purchased the plane as new and its first commercial flight was June 2016, the carrier said. It had its last routine technical maintenance Monday.

The possibility of “a mistake made by the crew is minimal; we just don’t assume that,” Ihor Sosnovskyi, the airline’s vice president for flight operations, told a briefing, according to Interfax news agency. “Given their experience, it is very difficult to say that the crew may have done something wrong.”

Many of the passengers were Iranian. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry listed 176 victims, including 82 Iranians; 63 Canadians; 11 Ukrainians, including nine crew members; 10 Swedes; four Afghans; three Germans and three Britons. Iranian officials said more than 140 passengers were Iranians, suggesting that some may have had dual citizenship.

The Sharif University of Technology in Tehran said that 13 of its students and alumni perished in the crash, most of them mechanical engineers or science students.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his Facebook page that he was “personally involved in supervision over all measures to be taken.” A Ukrainian team planned to head to Iran to investigate the crash and identify the bodies of Ukraines killed.

In a briefing Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk called for avoiding speculation about the cause of the crash and said Ukraine will insist on maximum transparency in the investigation.

He said that the government suspended all Ukrainian flights over Iranian airspace until “the reasons of the tragedy are determined.”

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “Our government will continue to work closely with its international partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated, and that Canadians’ questions are answered.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered “all possible assistance” to Ukraine. In an apparent message to Iran, he said the United States “calls for complete cooperation with any investigation into the cause of the crash.”

Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization said that both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder were recovered, but that the latter was severely damaged.

“Although it is damaged, there is still a chance to retrieve the pilots’ conversations from it,” a spokesman for the organization, Hassan Rezaeifar, told state media.

The Boeing 737-800 is a single-aisle aircraft designed for short and medium-range flights. Airlines around the world have flown them for more than two decades, with thousands of them in service.

But the plane has been involved in accidents. In 2018, a crash in Papua New Guinea killed 47 people, a 2016 crash from Dubai killed 62, and a 2010 Ethiopian Ethiopian Airlines crash claimed 90 lives.

Regulators have more recently scrutinized possible safety risks on the 737-800. In early October, the FAA told airlines to inspect more than 1,900 Boeing jets after cracks were found in some of the aircraft’s wings. Dozens of them were later grounded after cracks were found in a part of the plane that connects the wings to the fuselage.

The newer 737 Max was grounded worldwide last year after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10, the second fatal crash of a 737 Max in less than five months. In October 2018, a Lion Air flight crashed off the coast of Indonesia, killing all aboard.

The grounding resulted in a crisis for Boeing that led to its firing of CEO Dennis Muilenburg two weeks ago.

“This is a tragic event and our heartfelt thoughts are with the crew, passengers and their families,” a statement from Boeing said. “We are in contact with our airline customer and stand by them in this difficult time. We are ready to assist in any way needed.”

Major international airlines — including the flagship carriers of France, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands — also either halted flights to Iraq and Iran or restricted aircraft from flying through both countries’ airspace. Germany’s Lufthansa said it would resume Tehran flights Thursday.

Other commercial airlines also rerouted flights, including Australian carrier Qantas, Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines.

On Wednesday, Canada updated its travel advisory for Iran, warning against any nonessential travel to the country “due to the volatile security situation, the regional threat of terrorism and the risk of arbitrary detention.” Ukraine International Airlines lists its Tehran-to-Toronto service as one of its most popular routes.

_______

Cunningham reported from Istanbul. Dadouch reported from Beirut. Paul Schemm in Dubai, Amanda Coletta in Toronto and Aaron Gregg, Michael Laris, Douglas MacMillan and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

**********

176 people died in the Ukrainian plane crash in Iran. Here are some of their stories.

By Jennifer Hassan, Miriam Berger and Amanda Coletta | Published January 08 at 12:43 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 08, 2020 |

A Ukrainian airplane carrying 176 passengers crashed minutes after taking off early Wednesday from Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all passengers and crew members on board. The cause of the crash is currently unknown, although Iran cited “technical problems.” As the investigation continues, Ukraine’s Embassy in Tehran issued a statement ruling out terrorism and then removed it.

The fatal crash unfolded during a particularly tense time in the region: In a growing conflict with the United States, triggered by the killing of Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Iran fired more than a dozen missiles targeting Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops four hours before the Ukraine International Airlines jet went down.

The victims include 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians in addition to nine Ukrainian crew members, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three Britons, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry. More than 140 passengers were Iranian nationals, according to Iranian officials, suggesting that many possessed dual citizenship.

A list of names and birth dates shared by the airline capture the human scale of the loss. Some of the victims had barely even begun their lives: Thirteen of the passengers were younger than 10. Two were born in 2014, another in 2016 and one in 2018. Many victims shared the same last name, a sign they were probably related and possibly traveling with other family members. Almost half of the passengers on aboard were born in 1990 or after, meaning their lives came to an end at age 30 or younger.

As the extent of the tragedy continued to unfold, so, too, did details about the lives of the victims. Some had been traveling; others had been living abroad and visiting loved ones. At least two couples on board were newlyweds.

Thirty-five-year-old Saeed Khademasadi Tahmasebi, an engineer and postgraduate researcher at Imperial College London, had recently married Niloofar Ebrahim, a psychology student in London: Both Tahmasebi and Ebrahim perished on the plane, his brother-in-law, Amir Vaheat, told the British newspaper The Times. The couple had married in Britain and then traveled to Iran for a wedding ceremony.

“They were a wonderful, beautiful couple and they were so happy together,” Tahmasebi’s sister, Sally, 41, told the British newspaper The Telegraph. "This is too terrible for words. We cannot believe what has happened.

Imperial College London, one of Britain’s top universities for science and engineering, paid tribute to Tahmasebi. “Saeed was a brilliant engineer with a bright future,” the university tweeted. “His contributions to systems engineering earned respect from everyone who dealt with him and will benefit society for years to come. He was a warm, humble and generous colleague and close friend to many in our community.”

BP engineer and British national Sam Zokaei was also on the plane. He was 42 and had been working for the company for over a decade.

“With the deepest regret, we can confirm that one of our colleagues at BP, Sam Zokaei, was a passenger on the Ukrainian International Airlines plane that crashed in Iran this morning, reportedly with no survivors,” the company said in a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday. “We are shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic loss of our friend and colleague and all of our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Another British victim was identified by British media as 40-year-old Mohammed Reza Kadkhoda-Zadeh. The divorced father of a 9-year-old girl had traveled to visit family Iran during the Christmas holiday break and was on his way back to Britain via Ukraine.

Kadkhoda-Zadeh ran a dry-cleaning business in the seaside town of Brighton and was fondly recalled by Stephen Edgington, who ran a business next door.

“It is so shocking and it is very upsetting for everyone who knew him,” Edgington told The Times. “He was a lovely man, very quiet and polite but a really nice guy — we got on very well indeed and it is a tragedy.”

Canadian officials say that there are at least 63 Canadians among the victims, according to preliminary reports, but noted that the number could change as more information becomes available. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement Wednesday expressing his shock and condolences.

“Our government will continue to work closely with its international partners to ensure that this crash is thoroughly investigated, and that Canadians’ questions are answered,” he said in the statement. “Today, I assure all Canadians that their safety and security is our top priority. We also join with the other countries who are mourning the loss of citizens.”

The Ukrainian flight was popular among Iranians traveling to Canada, as there haven’t been direct flights between the two countries since 2012, when Canada broke off diplomatic relations. Canada has a sizable Iranian diaspora community that grew after the country’s revolution in 1979. According to a 2016 census, more than 210,000 people in Canada are of Iranian descent.

The University of Alberta in Canada has confirmed that two of its professors who were married, as well as the couple’s two daughters, were on board the Ukrainian jet.

Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand were both professors of engineering and had been traveling with daughters Daria and Dorina, Masoud Ardakani, the associate chair of the university’s electrical and computer engineering department, told Canada’s Canadian Broadcasting Corp. broadcaster Wednesday.

Payman Parseyan, a member of the Iranian-Canadian community in nearby Edmonton, told the broadcaster that he knew many people on the plane.

“There was 27 of them total from our community,” Parseyan told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio’s Edmonton AM.

Parseyan told Canada’s Global News that other victims from Edmonton’s Iranian community included a doctor, medical student and student of clinical psychology.

“They leave behind families and people they love and they come to Canada, and often they’re second-guessing, ‘should I leave my family behind to do this?’ ” Parseyan told Global News. “Then they move here and they do all this, just to board a plane and have it all washed away.”

Matthew Grant, the director of media relations at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said the university will provide support to anyone there affected by the crash.

“We are aware of reports that Marzieh (Mari) Foroutan and Mansour Esnaashary Esfahani, two University of Waterloo PhD students, were listed on the passenger manifest of flight PS752,” Grant said in a statement. “We continue to work with the relevant authorities to obtain more information.”

Foroutan, who is listed as a PhD student in geography on a University of Waterloo website, was researching how algorithms and technologies in remote sensing could be applied to study climate change. Esfahani is listed as a PhD student in civil engineering.

The Canadian victims also included Parisa Eghbalian, a dentist in Aurora, Ontario, a town outside Toronto, and her daughter Reera Esmaeilion. The pair had traveled to Iran to celebrate the engagement of Eghbalian’s sister, Manijeh Ghotbi, one of her co-workers told The Post. Eghbalian’s husband and Esmaeilion’s father is Hamed Esmaeilion, a dentist and award-winning writer in Persian.

Eghbalian, who immigrated to Canada from Iran in 2010, was “a very kind, nice and happy person,” Ghotbi said. “I will never, ever forget her laugh and smile.”

Reera, she added, had big green eyes and was “beautiful inside and out.”

Alan Shepard, the president of Western University in London, Ontario, said in a statement that four of its students — three graduate students and one incoming graduate student — are among the victims.

The University of Guelph confirmed that Milad Ghasemi Ariani, a PhD student in marketing, and Ghanimat Azhdari, a PhD student in geography, were among the victims. Azhadri’s partner, Hamed Alibeiki, also died in the crash. All three were returning from visiting Iran, said Franco Vaccarino, the university’s president.

Azhdari belonged to a group called the ICCA Consortium, which advocates for indigenous people and their lands. The group said she was a member of the Qashqai tribe and described her in a statement as a “true force of nature” and one of its “most cherished flowers.”

The Iranian Student News Agency also reported that a number of Iranian students were among the dead.

On social media, Iranians mourned the death of passengers Pouneh Gorji, born in 1994, and Arash Pourzarabi, born in 1993. The two had married six days earlier, according to local media accounts.

The couple were computer engineering students at Sharif University, an Iranian university on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. The university listed them among at least 15 Sharif students and alumni who died in the crash.

As Iranians sought news of loved ones, one surreal tweet was making the rounds.

“I had predicted that night before my flight, the war would begin,” Mojtaba Abbas Nejhad, who was on his winter break from the University of Toronto, tweeted on Tuesday. "Guys, forgive any good and bad you experienced with me.”

Abbas Nejhad was on the Ukraine-bound plane.

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Amanda Coletta reported from Toronto.

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Iran crash presents embattled Boeing with new crisis

By Taylor Telford and Douglas MacMillan | Published January 08 at 11:34 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 08, 2020 |

As investigators scramble to determine what caused a Boeing 737-800 to crash early Wednesday, the plane’s maker is grappling with another catastrophe as it continues to reel from its 737 Max crisis.

The Ukraine-bound 737-800 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s main international airport, killing all 176 on board. Early reports from Iranian state media attributed the crash to engine failure. Ukraine’s embassy in Iran at first concurred, issuing a statement ruling out terrorism but then removed it without explanation.

A later statement from the embassy said a panel has begun an investigation and “any statements about the causes of the accident before the decision of the commission are not official.”

The disaster comes as Boeing struggles to rehabilitate its image after two fatal crashes within five months led to the global grounding of its 737 Max in 2019. That crisis has cost Boeing more than $9 billion and led to the firing of chief executive Dennis Muilenburg just weeks ago. The Chicago-based company is facing scores of lawsuits from victims’ families, shareholders and airlines such as American and Southwest. In December, Boeing announced it would indefinitely stop production on the Max in January — which it had continued to produce at the cost of $1.5 billion a month — a stoppage that could ripple throughout the economy and jeopardize tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

The 737-800 is one of Boeing’s most popular planes, with thousands in operation worldwide. It’s part of a class of aircraft known as “next generation,” or NG, which has been in service since the mid-1990s, and does not use the MCAS flight control system whose flaws played a role in the 737 Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The Iran crash was the 10th fatal accident of a Boeing 737 NG plane in its commercial life, according to Todd Curtis, an aviation safety analyst for the website AirSafe.com. The plane has had about 0.06 fatal events per million flights, the lowest rate among modern aircraft that have flown for several years, Curtis said. A 737-800 was involved in a 2018 crash in Papua New Guinea that killed 47, a 2016 flight from Dubai that killed 62, and a 2010 Ethiopian Ethiopian Airlines flight that killed 90.

The plane has faced regulatory scrutiny recently. In early October, the Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to inspect more than 1,900 Boeing jets after cracks were found in some of the aircraft’s wings. Dozens of them were later grounded after cracks were found in a part of the plane that connects the wings to the fuselage.

“This is a tragic event and our heartfelt thoughts are with the crew, passengers, and their families,” Boeing said in a tweet Wednesday. “We are in contact with our airline customer and stand by them in this difficult time. We are ready to assist in any way needed.”

The Ukraine International Airlines jet that went down Wednesday was three years old and had been serviced on Monday, the Kyiv-based carrier said in a statement. After the crash, Ukraine and the flagship airlines of France, Germany and the Netherlands suspended flights in Iranian airspace.

The Iranian Students’ News Agency, a state-run media organization, shared a video that it said showed the crash. In it, a ball of flame descends in the distance before erupting, lighting up the predawn sky. Another video tweeted by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency showed parts of a plane scattered and on fire on the ground. Iranian officials and state-run media have attributed the crash to an engine fire.

“There is no similarity between the issue here and the Max,” said John Cox, an airline safety consultant and former pilot, who described the plane as a “veteran workhorse.”

The plane’s CFM56 engines are jointly produced by General Electric and Safran, a French manufacturer. The CFM56 is among the best-selling jet engines in the world, with more than 30,000 of them delivered to date, according to the company’s website. In a statement, the company said any speculation regarding the cause of the Iran crash is “premature."

Modern aircraft are designed to be able to fly safely for more than an hour in the event of engine failure with a single engine, but a significant failure could cause damage to other parts of an aircraft.

Rescue workers recovered the black box from the crash site, Iranian state media reported, but Ali Abedzadeh, head of Tehran’s Civil Aviation Organization, said Tehran will not send it to the United States — as some countries do for assistance in data collection. He said Iran would lead in the investigation of the crash, which killed 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians, according to a tweet from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko.

“Politics have no place in an accident investigation. We fly these airplanes all around the world, all across geographic borders,” Cox said. “The investigation needs to be excluded from the tensions of any governments. I am hopeful the Iranians will follow international protocol and allow any parties that can add value to the investigation.”

He added grounding the plane would be “ill-advised” until much more information is available.

Boeing is the single biggest component of the Dow Jones industrial average. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC in August that problems with the 737 Max had been big enough to shave 0.4 percent off the entire U.S. gross domestic product for a period this year. Ross said he expected an uptick when the problems were fixed, but it’s unclear what the effect might be, as Boeing is stopping the jet’s production. Its shares fell 1.3 percent in premarket trading.

Curtis, who previously worked as a safety engineer at Boeing, said the company typically provides information to support crash investigations outside the United States.

“Even if Boeing can’t be in the investigation in Iran, it’s likely they will be involved,” he said.

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Aaron Gregg contributed to this report.

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After the Boeing crash near Tehran, who will investigate?

By Rick Noack | Published January 08 at 11:51 AM EST | Washington Post | Posted January 08, 2020 |

Amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, one question loomed over the crash of a Boeing passenger jet in Iran on Wednesday: Who will investigate?

Everyone on board the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines flight was killed in the crash, which occurred shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, including many Iranians and Canadians. Iranian officials blamed the crash on technical difficulties. The Ukrainian Embassy in Iran initially published a statement that ruled out terrorism, but it was later taken down.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the public “to refrain from speculating and making uncorroborated theories.”

Past crashes involving U.S. plane maker Boeing’s aircraft have compelled U.S. foes to set aside their resentments and allow American experts access to crash sites or to crucial evidence, because those countries lacked the capabilities or experience to conduct complex investigations alone.

But amid the spike in hostilities in the Middle East, any such understanding between Iran and the United States appeared far from evident Wednesday. Only hours before the crash, Iran had launched ballistic missiles at bases housing U.S. military personnel in Iraq, in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani last week.

Iran said Wednesday that it would not hand over the flight recorders, or “black boxes,” to Boeing, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency. The quick rejection of assistance probably also signaled unwillingness to cooperate with other U.S. authorities, such as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

It is also unclear whether the NTSB, other U.S. agencies or Boeing would be willing or able to take part in an Iranian investigation, even if requested by Tehran. (The United States is diplomatically represented by the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.)

In a statement, the NTSB said it was “monitoring developments” and “following its standard procedures for international aviation accident investigations, including long-standing restrictions under the country embargoes.”

“As part of its usual procedures, the NTSB is working with the State Department and other agencies to determine the best course of action,” the statement read.

The head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Ali Abedzadeh, said it was unclear which country would analyze the Boeing 737-800′s black boxes, according to Mehr. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said he and his Iranian counterpart have agreed “to coordinate further actions of our investigation groups closely to determine the cause of the terrible plane crash,” according to a tweet cited by Reuters.

But it’s unclear whether Ukraine possesses all the capabilities needed to aid the investigation. Germany, for instance, declined Ethiopia’s request to analyze the black boxes of a crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane last year because German authorities believed that officials in the African country lacked the necessary preparation and skills.

European lawmakers were among the first to call for an international investigation Wednesday. “This has to be examined internationally,” Omid Nouripour, a foreign affairs spokesman for Germany’s Green Party, told broadcaster NTV.

The engines of the crashed Ukraine International Airlines plane reportedly were produced by a company partially based in France.

After the Ethiopian Airlines crash, for instance, Ethiopia requested multiple European nations to analyze the plane’s black boxes. French investigators agreed to do so in the end, as they have particularly extensive experience with some of the most modern Airbus planes that are manufactured in France.

France’s analysis of the Ethiopian Airlines black boxes appeared significant at the time because the plane was a Boeing 737 Max 8, not an Airbus jet.

The French investigative authority for civil aviation safety rejected claims that it was seeking to create a competitive advantage for Boeing competitor Airbus by assigning blame to the U.S. plane manufacturer. The results of such analyses — including when U.S. authorities provide assistance to foreign states — are usually secret and can be released only by the country officially in charge of the investigation.

At times, political disputes have pushed countries where incidents occurred to hand over responsibility of investigations to third parties.

However, the norm, according to Annex 13 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, is that states where an accident occurs are in charge of the investigations, even though the NTSB may “designate a U.S. Accredited Representative and appoint advisors to carry out the Obligations, receive the Entitlements, provide Consultation, and receive Safety Recommendations from the state of occurrence.” Iran ratified the convention in 1950.

Other parties to that convention have in the past opted to set aside differences with the United States and allow private or official U.S. representatives to be involved.

For example, the crash of a 39-year-old Boeing 737 after takeoff from Havana last year occurred amid deteriorating relations between the Trump administration and Cuba. Still, Cuban officials notified the NTSB, which appointed a representative.

Only one passenger survived the crash, in which 112 people died. The Cuban-led commission — supported by U.S. and Mexican officials — later contradicted prior conclusions and argued that errors by the plane’s crew “in the calculations of weight and balance” were to blame for the crash.