#can a lion solve climate change | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rainbowpacifiers · 3 years

Text

Twin Kingdoms (A3! Event story) - Chapter 10

Sorry for the long wait. It’s super text-heavy. They used a lot of effects for this play, so if you haven’t watched it yet or can’t and would like to see, let me know! Excuse any potential mistakes!

Chapter 9 | Index | Epilogue

Noble A: "His Majesty's magic was superb. In his younger days, his sword skills were first-class as well." Noble: "Compared to that, Lord Cain, however.... If at least it were the other way around with the foster brother, Lutz." Noble A: "He is not very good at magic, either. I hear that is the reason why he still won't take command of the army." Noble B: "Without another heir around, what will happen?..." Cain: "......" Lutz: "Don't take it to heart, Cain. Such fellows will complain about anything." Cain: "Stop trying to console me." Lutz: "Wait, Cain--" King of North Aria: "Cough." Noble A: "Your Majesty!? Somebody call the doctor!"

Noble A: "To think his Majesty would fall ill... What does he intend to do with the throne?" Noble B: "His Royal Highness is quite advanced in age, but I feel a little uneasy about Lord Cain." Noble A: "In the first place, is Lord Cain even qualified to be heir of the throne?" Noble B: "Be careful about what you say." Noble A: "Until now, he has not appeared in royal ceremonies. It is only natural to doubt him." Noble B: "Once someone other than Lord Cain is appointed, the country will fall into ruin." Izumi: (For our setting, we have the kingdom of the north, North Aria, which has been in a long-standing conflict with the kingdom of the south, South Agis, which is surrounded by active volcanoes.) Izumi: (The story begins when North Aria's king collapses as the two countries are in the midst of approaching peril due to unexplained climate change and starvation...)

Cain: "Father...I'm sorry." Lutz: "Where are you going at this hour?" Cain: "--Why are you here?" Izumi: (Haruto-kun's performance of a delicate Prince Cain is great. It's classy and perfectly fits the GOD Troupe's vision.) Lutz: "We have been together since birth. At the very least, I know what you're thinking. Running away won't solve anything." Cain: "I know that. But my existence creates an idle conflict." Lutz: "Well, right now, the palace is not a safe place for you. It might be good to go into hiding for a while." Cain: "Thank you for everything you've done, Lutz." Lutz: "I'm going, too." Cain: "Huh?" Lutz: "I was just thinking that I wanted to go on a trip. Come on, let's go." Cain: "Hey, wait--" Izumi: (The dialogue between Haruto-kun and Shift-kun has changed quite a bit compared to when we first started.) Izumi: (You can now feel something like familiarity and affection between relatives.)

King of South Agis: "Don't make me repeat myself. It is not a matter for you to meddle in." Gilber: "Tch, that pighead! His brains are fossilising with old age." Sasha: "Whatever the circumstances may be, you are going too far, Lord Gilbert." Gilber: "Now, while the people are impoverished, it's ridiculous to have a war with North Aria. Neither the high officials nor my father are staring reality in the face." Sasha: "It seems we cannot avoid the beginning of a war." Gilbert: "Now that things have come to this, a coup is our only option." Sasha: "Do you really mean it?" Gilbert: "I jest. Prepare yourself, Sasha. Tomorrow morning, we ride for North Aria." Sasha: "A surprise attack?" Gilbert: "Your jokes don't sound like jokes." Gilbert: "The inspection results determined that the dry weather and drought have spread from North Aria." Gilbert: "We're going to investigate the cause for the change in climate. There is a way to save our people without a war." Izumi: (Tasuku-san's princely manner is even more majestic than during his performances at the MANKAI Theatre. The way he changes his acting to match with the GOD Theatre is just what you'd expect from him.) Izumi: (The way Azami-kun carries himself is smart and really conveys the role of an obedient valet skilled with a sword.)

Cain: "Oh....silverwork, huh?" Shopkeeper: "Mister, are you perhaps interested in that?" Shopkeeper: "Just between us, but this is a type of magic tool produced in South Agis. Depending on how it's used, it has the power to blow away a house." Cain: "A magic tool..." Shopkeeper: "Since this is our special, I can't just sell it for an inadequate price. Well, how about I trade it to you for that brooch you have?" Cain: "My brooch?" Shopkeeper: "Yeah. I just happen to have a customer who is interested in such things." Cain: "Well, in that case..." Gilbert: "Hey now, don't be deceived by such obvious fraud." Shopkeeper: "What!? If you're going to get in the way--" Gilbert: "If you keep on being overly ruthless, I'm going to hand you over to the military police." Shopkeeper: "--Tch." Sasha: "We might be the ones getting busted and caught by the military police, though." Gilbert: "It was obviously just a threat. Hey, young master, are you alright?" Cain: "What do you mean, fraud?" Gilbert: "That sort of silver rubbish isn't even worth a fragment of your brooch, you know?" Gilbert: "You wouldn't find something as valuable as magic tools on a market like this. There is a limit to how ignorant of the world one can be." Cain: "Wh-- Don't insult me!" Gilbert: "Whoops, my bad. It looks like I overstepped. Does the young master need to experience the real world?" Cain: "You--!" Lutz: "Hey, what are you doing, Cai?" Gilbert: "Your companion? It seems it's still too early to send the young master on an errand." Lutz: "And you are...?" Sasha: "It appears that he was being offered an unfair barter that was not worth the value, and though it might seem a little forward, my lord stepped in." Lutz: "I, I see? Looks like we owe you. Thank you." Cain: "There is no need to thank such rude fellows." Lutz: "But it's true that you know little of the world. Even brooches will add to our travelling expenses. We should be grateful to them." Gilbert: "Then, in return, won't you buy us a drink? We just got into town, so we don't know of any places." Cain: "Why, you impudent--" Lutz: "There, there. It's no bother at all."

Lutz: "I'm sorry that you ended up buying us a drink instead." Gilbert: "You did tell us a bunch of stuff." Cain: "I don't remember asking you to, but thank you, anyway." Gilbert: "Haha, well, if we ever meet again..." Lutz: "Safe travels." Sasha: "We will be going, then." Gilbert: "Alright, where should we stay for the night?" Sasha: "I arranged something at the first establishment." Gilbert: "That's my capable attendant for you." Lutz: "What interesting people, right?" Cain: "How? I have never met such a rude fellow before. Is this the norm in town?" Lutz: "No, rather, that person--" Lutz: "Look out, Cai!" Cain: "!?" Bandit A: "Tch." Cain: "What do you want?--" Bandit B: "Hand over that brooch!" Lutz: "We refuse!" Bandit A: "Ha!" Lutz: "!? Magic--no, magic tools, huh?" Cain: "Why are bandits using magic tools--?"

Gilbert: "--" Azami: "What is the matter?" Gilbert: "I felt a faint hint of magic. Someone must be using magical tools. Let's go!" Azami: "Yes!"

Lutz: "--gh." Cain: "Lutz!" Lutz: "There are still too many of them..." Cain: "We should just give them this brooch..." Lutz: "Even if we hand it over, they're not the sort to just quietly return home." Cain: "Uh--" Gilbert: "Seems as if you have a disposition to somehow get caught up in trouble." Lutz: "Mister Gil!" Sasha: "I will assist you." Bandit A: "Tsk."

Izumi: (The two princes who met in the border town between North Aria and South Agis-) Izumi: (come to take joint action in order to investigate the identity of the attacking bandits...) Gilbert: "It's the crest of the 'Dragon's Followers' who worship the ancient dragon." Cain: "I've never heard of them." Lutz: "Same here." Cain: "Isn't the fact that magic tools were used proof that they're from South Agis?" Gilbert: "That may not necessarily be the case. In the underworld, they are traded by North Aria, too." Sasha: "In all likelihood, they aren't just random rogues."

Izumi: (The party who determined the identity of the bandits with the strange crest as their clue, chases after the bandits who attacked again and enters their hideout...) Gilbert: "Canvassing of historial ruins...? We had such ruins?" Cain: "Not in my memory." Lutz: "Those ruins seem to be the sanctuary of the 'Dragon's Followers'." Gilbert: "The demon clan sealed the ancient dragon that once ruled this land... That dragon brings about a curse once after two thousand years." Gilbert: "So two thousand years later would be this year...?" Cain: "Nonsense. I have never heard of such a story before." Gilbert: "I'm of the same opinion. But it might be necessary to investigate it. That 'two thousand years later dragon's curse'." Sasha: "We are out of time." Gilbert: "--So they're already back." Lutz: "We will have no choice but to engage, it seems." Gilbert: "We only need to earn enough time to secure an escape route." Sasha: "I doubt it will be that easy. We're surrounded." Cain: "--What do we do?" Gilbert: "No other choice, then...." Sasha: "Lord Gilbert, please refrain from rash conduct." Gilbert: "We can't just let them kill us without a fight, either." Cain: "What are you talking about?" Gilbert: "Make sure you don't get caught up in it. Oh power of the source surrounding heaven and earth, dwell in my hands--" Dragon's followers: "Uwah!" Lutz: "Flame magic!?" Cain: "Don't tell me that you're South Agis'--!" Lutz: "How overwhelming..." Cain: "Gil, are you part of South Agis' royal family?" Gilbert: "I'm more or less incognito. It'd be of great help if you could keep quiet about it." Lutz: "South Agis' young lion, Prince Gilbert..." Sasha: "That's why I told you that your alias was too simple." Gilbert: "But I'd just give myself away by using a name I'm not used to." Lutz: "To think that you would be a prince! What a surprise. Are you perhaps on reconnaissance?" Gilbert: "Our goal is just as I've told you. We are investigating the cause of the climate change. Although I didn't think it would lead us to the ancient dragon." Gilbert: "Getting you any deeper involved would be dangerous. For now, you should get away from here so that you won't be discovered by their comrades." Cain: "What are you planning?" Gilbert: "We will investigate the ruins." Cain: "--We will go, too. We can't just pretend to be ignorant after coming this far." Lutz: "Cai--are you serious?" Lutz: "Alright. Mister Gil, may we accompany you for that?" Gilbert: "You surprisingly have guts, young master." Cain: "Stop calling me that." Gilbert: "Cai seems like he is a young master from a prestigious family too, so how did you end up on a journey when you're not yet used to travelling?" Gilbert: "There is probably more to it, right?" Cain: "...You would never understand my feelings." Cain: "Not you, who was born to be a king and is blessed with the makings of one." Gilbert: "...I'm sorry for asking such a personal question." Izumi: -- Izumi: (In the midst of their journey, the scene where Cain gives vent to his own feelings...) Izumi: (The violent emotions he has been bottling up for so long in a darker and deeper part can be seen more clearly than during the auditions.) Izumi: (His gloomy inferiority complex that has been accumulating, his jealousy of Gilbert, who has everything, and his strong desire...) Izumi: (That's a Cain that no one but Haruto-kun could have enacted.)

Izumi: (The party arrives at North Aria's sacred mountain that they were led to by the Dragon's Followers...) Gilbert: "Ugh..." Cain: "Gil? What's wrong?" Gilbert: "I'm not sure--suddenly, my strength--" Sasha: "Get down!" Gilbert: "Waah!" Lutz: "His magic suddenly went off--!?" Cain: "Don't tell me this is the dragon's influence." Sasha: "It's dangerous. Please move away." Cain: "But at this rate, Gil will--" Sasha: "I will stop him. Hah!" Lutz: "Wait, you're actually slashing at him?!" Sasha: "Even if my lord has lost his mind, he should be able to avoid this much." Lutz: "The trust between you runs really deep! Alright, then I will believe in that and back you up." Lutz: "Excuse me if I inadvertently stab you--looks like I needn't have worried." Cain: "--ghh." Cain: "--damn it, my eyes can barely keep up." Sasha: "Hgg--" Lutz: "Sasha, any more is too risky!" Sasha: "But--it is my duty as an attendant to stop Lord Gil." Gilbert: "Aaah!" Sasha: "Ugh--" Gilbert: "Hah, uhuh..." Cain: "Sasha!"

Lutz: "Seems like Sasha is out of the woods for now. Mister Gil is still asleep." Cain: "...I was useless. Even here, I couldn't do a thing." Lutz: "Come on, pull yourself together. Under those circumstances, there was nothing to be done." Cain: "I was born a prince, too, so why...." Lutz: "You have your own things that you should do. That's why I followed you here. So that you could save this country as its prince." Cain: "All I did was run away." Lutz: "Enough!" Cain: "--" Lutz: "Search for what it is that you ought to do. I know you can do it. I'm saying this as someone who has been with you since we were children, so there's no doubt." Izumi: (Leaving the wounded Sasha behind, the other three head to the sacred mountain once more, for the purpose of investigating the ruins.)

Gilbert: "Should it appear as if my power will spontaneously discharge again, don't hesitate to abandon me and run away." Lutz: "Don't mind if we do. We won't be able to stop you on our own." Gilbert: "Hearing that makes me feel at ease. Let's go. We are almost at the top." Cain: "Ah, the ruins are over ther--" Gilbert: "Kuh--" Cain: "Gil!" Gilbert: "Damn it--again--escape!" Dragon: "Roar!" Lutz: "--A dragon!?" Cain: "There is no body. It's an illusion. But there is no doubt that Gil's powers are being used by the dragon." Lutz: "At any rate, he is not someone we can win against. I will buy some time. In the meantime, you should--" Dragon: "Roar!" Cain: "Ugh--Lutz!" Lutz: "Run...away!" Cain: "Lutz! Don't die!" Gilbert: "Guaah!" Cain: "Why...am I powerless...! I, I...!" *glowing light* Cain: "--Just what?" *bright light coming off Cain* *darkness* Gilbert: "Cai...? Did you do this?" Cain: "Me...? No, I don't have magic..." Lutz: "...ugh." Cain: "Lutz! Are you alright?!" Lutz: "......" Cain: "Lutz!" Gilbert: "Calm yourself. He's just sleeping. More importantly, what happened?" Cain: "I don't know..." Gilbert: "I felt powerful magic. Did you perhaps...." Cain: "...I am the son of North Aria's ruler, Cain." Gilbert: "Prince Cain...You...." Cain: "Let's check the ruins. The key to saving our countries lies here."

Cain: "Ancient language..." Gilbert: "Can you read it?" Cain: "Yeah." Cain: "The brothers who carried magic sealed the dragon here. At that time, the earth was plunged in darkness because of the dragon, who was set free above ground, and his curse." Cain: "The older brother cast all of his magic and subdued it. Thereafter, the curse will manifest itself again once in two thousand years." Cain: "In order to subdue it, the saviour child will be born among the descendants of the brothers, concealing enormous magic power within themself." Cain: "Pass on the key without ever losing it. Dispel the curse before the dragon is awakened by the magma." Gilbert: "A saviour concealing enormous magic power..?" Cain: "Among North Aria's royal family, magicless children have been discarded as children to shun for generations." Gilbert: "It is the same for South Agis." Cain: "In the first place, which family is this about?" Gilbert: "That magic just then - it felt similar to my power. It's possible that the power of the two royal families was originally one and the same." Cain: "We, from the same family...? So our ancestors would have been the brothers that felled the dragon?" Gilbert: "Though my rockhead of a father would probably die of indignation if I asked him." Cain: "But with this, I know what it is that I have to do. If we use my magic, we can dispel the dragon's curse. And both countries will be saved." Gilbert: "So you're going to use the power from just now?" Cain: "Since my birth, my magic powers haven't manifested even once. That thing just now was just a coincidence. If we don't have the key..." Gilbert: "I've never heard of any key." Cain: "Neither have I. The fact that the saviour child came to be abhorred in the first place may mean that the key and folklore have been forgotten." Gilbert: "....In that case, we have no choice but to use my power, right?" Cain: "The dragon would just take over you again. You might not be able to return to your senses." Gilbert: "Even so, it is worth a try." Cain: "How can you just resign yourself to that without hesitation?" Gilbert: "If there is something you ought to do, then just do it, right? What is there to hesitate for?" Cain: "...I'm a fool for asking you." Gilbert: "Where do you intend to go?" Cain: "I will return to the royal capital and look for the key. You do what you have to do." Gilbert: "I'm counting on you, brother." Cain: "Who are you calling your brother?" Gilbert: "We're relatives, so it's all the same, right?" Cain: "Hmph, what an overly friendly guy."

Citizen A: "An enemy attack! South Agis is invading!" Citizen B: "Kyaah!" Citizen C: "A war at a time like this--!" Cain: "We're looking for the key." Lutz: "We don't have to stop them?" Cain: "We will leave it to the other prince. He should be able to figure something out." Lutz: "You're putting your trust in him." Cain: "Wipe that grin off your face."

King of South Agis: "We will make North Aria a country of mine! That is the only way for us to survive!" Gilbert: "That stupid old man--!" Sasha: "You're going too far." Soldier A: "R, reporting in! --an eruption! The vulcano has erupted!" King of South Agis: "What!?" Gilbert: "The magma will awaken the dragon from his sleep..." King of South Agis: "W, what is this rumbling of the ground?" Dragon: "Roar!" Soldier A: "A dragon! The dragon was resurrected!" Dragon's Followers: "Oh...noble dragon! Burn this foolish human race to nothing!"

Cain: "All soldiers, change your target to the ancient dragon!" Noble A: "B, but, what about South Agis attacking us!?" Cain: "They should be aiming at the dragon as well!" Dragon: "Roar!" Gilbert: "Cai! Did you find the key!?" Cain: "I'm sorry. Not yet--" Gilbert: "That's too bad. In that case, there is only one way left." Cain: "Are you sure? If you use up all of for magic power, your life will come to an end." Cain: "To begin with, we don't know if we can seal the dragon with your power alone." Gilbert: "Even then, there is no one else but me who can do it." Cain: "Why do you have no doubts?" Gilbert: "It's not like I don't have any. It's just that there is no another way." Gilbert: "In that regard, you are the brave one for throwing away the throne and trying to break away. Have a little more confidence in yourself." Gilbert: "I'm leaving South Agis and North Aria to you, brother." Cain: "Wait, Gil--Gilbert!" Dragon: "Roar!" Lutz: "Cai, get down! This place is getting too dangerous!" Cain: "--Let go! There is something that I have to see through." Lutz: "--I have no choice then. I will go with you." Cain: "Lutz..." Lutz: "Let's go!"

Gilbert: "Damn it, I can't contain is...." Dragon: "Roar!" Gilbert: "--gh." Sasha: "Leave your back to me!" Gilbert: "Sasha!? Your injuries--" Sasha: "I cannot just let my lord go on his own." Gilbert: "Do you intend to follow me as far as the other side? You truly are a model attendant." Sasha: "Hng." Lutz: "We will back you up!" Gilbert: "Lutz--Cai...so you came!" Cain: "Sealing that dragon is my duty." Dragon: "Roar!" Lutz: "That being said, what will you do without the key!?" Gilbert: "If you don't have the key, wrench it open!" Sasha: "That's very extreme." Dragon: "Roar!" Lutz: "What power...!" Sasha: "Uh...I'm draining quickly. How long will it last?" Gilbert: "Sorry...Cai. Take care...of the rest." Cain: "Gilbert!!" Lutz: "Uargh!" Sasha: "--ugh." Cain: "If there is any power within me... If there is a meaning behind me never manifesting magic, then..." Cain: "Show it to me right here, right now...! So that I can save my comrades and my people!" Dragon: "Roar!"

Cain: "Uugh..." Gilbert: "Hey, are you alright? Cai!" Cain: "...Gil? So you survived." Gilbert: "I should be saying that." Cain: "--What about the dragon?" Gilbert: "Fell into slumber." Cain: "I see..." Gilbert: "In the end, you were the saviour child. The entire time, the key was within you." Cain: "Inside of me..." Gilbert: "I told you to have a little more faith in yourself." Cain: "Humph. Don't act all big."

Noble A: "...Hereby, we enter into a permanent peace treaty, prohibiting any hostile acts between the two countries of North Aria and South Agis." Gilbert: "It was hard work getting that rockhead of an old man to keep quiet. You were finally able to make it this far, brother." Cain: "I don't remember becoming your brother. But, I feel the same." The people: "Long live North Aria! Long live King Cain!"

Reni: "--" Reni: (I have been looking after the actor Asuka Haruto for many years, but to think he was an actor with such feelings hidden inside...) Reni: (The longing of have-nots....I also remember it.)

Haruto: Thank you very much! Shift: Thank you~. Tasuku: Thank you. Azami: Thanks. Lady in her prime: ..... Haruto: --. Haruto: (Was that--no. It was just for a moment, so I might have mistaken her.) Haruto: (It doesn't matter. From tomorrow onwards, I only have to carry out performance after performance like today's with everything I've got, so that I can hold my head high even if my mother comes to watch.) Haruto: (And then, if we manage a smooth run-through until closing night--ya won't mind me comin' home after all this time, would ya, mum?)

______________

Chapter 9 | Index | Epilogue

#A3!#A3! event story #A3! translation #A3 event story #A3! Twin Kingdoms #Act! Addict! Actors!#Twin Kingdoms #GOD Troupe #MANKAI Company #Asuka Haruto #Arakawa Shift #Arakawa Shifuto #Takato Tasuku #Izumida Azami #Kamikizaka Reni #Godza #my translations #chapter summaries

16 notes · View notes

sciencespies · 3 years

Text

Huge study of over 1,400 species could change our understanding of intelligence

https://sciencespies.com/nature/huge-study-of-over-1400-species-could-change-our-understanding-of-intelligence/

Huge study of over 1,400 species could change our understanding of intelligence

When considering matters of intelligence among animals, it’s not irrational to assume size matters. Bigger bodies allow for bigger brains, after all, and bigger brains provide the potential real estate for developing better problem-solving skills.

Yet neurons don’t work for free, a fact that constrains how nervous systems might evolve in size and complexity in the first place. Just because skulls expand, doesn’t mean nature will automatically fill them with grey matter.

Strange as it seems, we know very little about the evolutionary forces responsible for diversifying brain size across the backboned part of the animal kingdom.

So an international team of researchers undertook a huge study on the largest fossil and extant dataset yet assembled, measuring the spaces once occupying the skulls of more than 1,400 species, living and extinct.

Comparing information on body sizes with endocranial data, the team could hunt for consistent patterns and sequences in growth in development that nudges an animal up the IQ ladder.

That search wasn’t as straightforward as we might have initially assumed.

“At first sight, the importance of taking the evolutionary trajectory of body size into account may seem unimportant,” says evolutionary biologist Jeroen Smaers from Stony Brook University.

“After all, many of the big-brained mammals such as elephants, dolphins, and great apes also have a high brain-to-body size. But this is not always the case.”

One animal that bucks this trend is the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus).

These marine big-boys can grow more than 2 meters (nearly 7 feet) in length and weigh around 100 kilograms (220 pounds), putting them roughly in the same ballpark as an adult human. Yet their brain size is more akin to that of a chimpanzee’s.

That doesn’t make them stupid by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the opposite, sea lions are quick learners that can adapt cognitively to human interactions with ease.

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), on the other hand, have a relatively similar mean body mass, with a brain that’s two times bigger than the sea lion’s. Although nobody has yet dared to challenge one of these voracious predators to a round of trivia, it’s probably fair to judge from a safe distance that they’re not twice as smart.

Indeed, looking from a neuroanatomical perspective, sea lions have 3.6 times more volume devoted to their smarts, relative to basic autonomic and sensory functions.

If Californian sea lions are as big as humans, why aren’t they as smart as us too? Putting it simply, evolution simply gambled on building them a bigger body and left a slightly smaller brain to make do with the energy it had left.

“We’ve overturned a long-standing dogma that relative brain size can be equivocated with intelligence,” says biologist Kamran Safi, a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour.

“Sometimes, relatively big brains can be the end result of a gradual decrease in body size to suit a new habitat or way of moving – in other words, nothing to do with intelligence at all.”

Comparing brain and body sizes preserved in the fossil record also allowed the team to gain insights into historical changes set against a shifting ecological backdrop.

In the wake of the dinosaur-killing impact that ended the Cretaceous, a bunch of tiny mammals such as rats, shrews, and bats experienced significant changes in their brain-body scale – as they got bigger, so did their brains.

Similarly, with the climate cooling in the Late Paleogene 30 million years later, mammals including seals, bears, and our own ancestors took advantage of empty niches to fuel up and build body mass and brain size.

“A big surprise was that much of the variation in relative brain size of mammals that live today can be explained by changes that their ancestral lineages underwent following these cataclysmic events,” says Smaers.

None of this is to say generalizations about bigger brains and increased cognitive capacity are completely bunk. It’s a fair rule of thumb.

But even our own mighty meat computers bloomed in size and complexity over a period long enough to make it unlikely any one mental trick was driving their growth. Among individuals, bigger doesn’t necessarily mean brighter, either.

When it comes to the intelligence of other animals, size is just one thing that matters. Except, of course, when it doesn’t.

This research was published in Science Advances.

#Nature

1 note · View note

diariesofthehermit · 4 years

Text

The Political and Economic Origins of Systemic Racism

“In Barbados, as in Virginia, the historical foundations of race and slavery can be traced back to the struggle between the planter elite and a labor force of bound servants and African slaves who resisted oppression.” - Edward B. Rugemer, from “The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Slave Codes of the Greater Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century”

A couple weeks ago I attempted to provide a unifying solution to the question of “why are things so fucked in 2020?” and I provided what is, I suppose at least on the surface, an economic answer: capitalism. I then briefly attempted to show how the blind pursuit of profit, engendered by our own economic system, is in fact the very heart of many of our contemporary crises, from climate change to racism.

This week I want to focus on racism. I’ve been doing some research with my favorite search engine (JStor) in order to clarify, for myself, the vague memories of what I learned in college in regards to race and American history. So, if you’ll forgive my arrogance, I would like to propose what I would posit to be the formula for modern racial oppression: a social elite’s desire for profit + human ignorance + vulnerable populations = systemic racism.

It may seem like an obvious statement, but I think a lot of people would like to chalk up White Supremacy to white ignorance alone, which is dangerous. If you think racism comes solely from the masses of white people just not knowing any better, then the solution is simple and obvious: educate the racists, make them see the error of their ways and thus eradicate racism with a single, equitable blow- oppression be gone! We tend to see racism as a disease. I would not deny that racism is, in some cases, comparable to a sickness. However, you could just as easily look at it as a tool. This shift in perception, in turn, alters how you analyze the whole situation. If someone has a sickness you ask if there is a cure. If someone is using a tool, you ask yourself why they’re using it, how they’re using it and what the effect of that use is. The problem with our conceptualization of racism is that we look at it as an inevitable aspect of nature (like a disease) and not as something consciously produced (like a machine). Racists then universally become victims (since they’re sick) who need to be healed because they are hurting, instead of oppressors who need to be stopped from hurting others.

Certainly, there are racists (particularly the poorer ones) who are victims of their own ignorance- but this cannot be said for all of them. White Supremacy is profitable and we can never forget it. Everyone cheers when a disease is cured, but try to take a valuable tool from the hand wielding it and you can expect a fight. So, in the interest of preparation, let it be said: modern racism is not simply the result of human nature run amok, it was created and improved over time by amplifying and codifying our tendencies to tribalism in a manner that primarily benefited a small, economic elite. In short, racism was and is the tool of the bourgeoisie.

With that being said, I would like to illustrate this by briefly providing a few notes on the origins of racism in the United States of America. In order to do so, however, I must speak about places outside of the U.S. as well. The United States started out as an English colony, and learned how to successfully oppress and exploit African human beings from the other English colonies who paved the way before them: Barbados and Jamaica. Jamaica largely borrowed its laws concerning slavery from the English colony of Barbados, and South Carolina borrowed her slave laws from the colony of Jamaica. Human exploitation has always been a global business.

So with no further ado, I present a brief account of the origins of modern racism (I will provide a bibliography for all this information at the end of my post):

The English settled in Barbados in 1627. By 1640 they had cleared much of its forests and began cultivating indigo and cotton. Later they would expand into producing sugar.

At first, most of this labor was done by white indentured, landless servants in the service of wealthier landowners. This labor source was occasionally supplemented by people of African or indigenous American descent, but they did not yet supply a majority of the labor.

Indentured servants were treated poorly, especially after sugar production began in earnest. They were given inadequate food and lodging and routinely beaten. In fact, conditions were hard enough that in 1634 they attempted to organize a rebellion.

In 1636 the Barbados Council resolved that “Negroes and Indians, that came here to be sold, should serve for Life, unless a Contract was before made to the contrary.” From the start, we can see that there was some form of racialization at work here. However, it was still vague and incomplete: not all Africans or “Indians” would theoretically be bound for life, and the primary division in society was largely between the “free” and the unfree, the latter including both white and Black laborers.

Whenever a colony began to seriously invest in a profitable crop (like cotton or tobacco), they usually ended up requiring more labor than what the flow of European immigrants could provide. As demand increased relative to supply, the cost of indentured servants grew as well. This led many planters to turn to slavery in order to solve their labor issues.

Meanwhile, in 1649, “rebellious servants formed a conspiracy to ‘cut the throats of their masters’ and ‘make themselves not only freemen, but Masters of the Island.’ According to one contemporary source, this rebellion involved the whole island and most of the servants; 18 people were executed.

In the 1650s increasing numbers of Africans and “undesirables”, such as the Irish, were being sent to the colonies. According to one of the servants' accounts, they could be bought and sold to planters, beaten at pleasure, slept in styes and ate nothing but potatoes and drank nothing but water. The enslaved Africans were treated, of course, no better.

By 1655 many enslaved Africans and Irish servants were out in rebellion.

There were definitely distinctions in the ways servants and slaves were treated, but many of the laws passed by the Barbados Assembly did not actually distinguish between the two groups and “treated indentured servants and African slaves in the same act.” (Rugemer)

The legal term for the economic elite was “masters”. Regardless of their ethnic origin, no one who served another was “worthy of a master’s civility.” (Rugemer) Both servants and slaves were treated by the law as property that could be seized to satisfy debts, thus being placed in the same category as cattle and horses.

The inhumanity with which their laborers were treated, however, caused the masters problems- not the least of which was rebellion. In order to better order their society, in 1661 the Barbados assembly set down two methodical and exhaustive pieces of legislation. They were titled:

“An act for the good governing of Servants, and ordaining the Rights between Masters and Servants.” and

“An act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes”

As you can see, both servants and slaves needed to be “governed” by their masters (I wonder who watched the watchmen?), but under these laws only servants were recognized as having rights. Also, the word “Negro” was codified into being interchangeable with “slave.”

The acts went further in describing the distinctions between the two groups. Both slaves and servants were, naturally, labelled as criminals. Rebellion against oppression, as opposed to oppression itself, has always carried the stigma of criminality. Africans, however, were further described as “heathenish, brutish and an uncertain dangerous pride of people” who required harsher laws “for the benefit and good of the colony”.

“The law defined Africans by pointing out their dark complexions, by asserting offensive cultural characteristics, and by animalizing them as dangerous, exotic lions who needed to be caged.” (Rugemer)

Presumably, “the barbarism of Africans precluded them from the possession of rights as the English understood them.” (Rugemer) The 1661 Slave Act did not attribute any rights to slaves whatsoever.

White “informers”, including indentured servants, were expected to alert the authorities to any unauthorized movements of the enslaved off of their plantations. Slaveholders or overseers who failed to capture and whip a runaway slave were fined; this was not the case for servants.

“The law aimed to compel Europeans to control the movements of Africans through the threat of a hefty fine. And with the use of informers, a group that included indentured servants, the law created an incentive structure for all Europeans, free and bound, to monitor their neighbor’s management of enslaved Africans.” (Rugemer)

The 1661 act provided a financial incentive for whites to capture a runaway slave by offering a bounty of a hundred pounds of sugar.

Thus, the laws passed by the Barbados assembly in 1661 raised the status of (soon to be known as “white”) indentured servants and codified their rights even as it lowered the status of African slaves (the two acts were passed within three days of one another).

It’s important to note, however, that at the time the Barbados assembly divided their laborers into “Christians” and “Negroes”, a distinction which worked because they believed Africans did not have the capacity to become Christian. “Whiteness” had yet to fully evolve into its present meaning.

Meanwhile, the colony of Jamaica was experimenting with slavery as well. In 1681 they passed their own versions of the Barbados servant and slave acts, with only a few differences between them.

Around the same time, Quakers (members of a fairly radical Christian denomination) began inviting Africans to their religious meetings and initiating the process of conversion in earnest. As could be expected, this upset the slave masters, who tried unsuccessfully to stop this from happening.

The slave masters reasoning should be clear: if Africans were to become Christians, the cultural differences that necessitated those “harsher laws” and differential treatment would begin to fade. The problem with the earlier distinction was therefore exposed: it was unsustainable to differentiate on the basis of culture and religion because “Negroes” could convert.

A moral solution, of course, would have been to emancipate converted slaves...this was not done for obvious reasons.

By 1684, Jamaican law had begun to use “white” instead of “Christian” to identify their European laborers. Religious conversion would not compromise their labor source.

A byproduct of this change is that Black subjugation was no longer justified on the basis of cultural differences but on the innate racial, and not the religious superiority, of “white” people.

In 1691, the South Carolina Assembly adopted Jamaica’s revised 1684 Slave Act as their own, with only a few slight differences.

South Carolina’s assemblymen were, nevertheless, innovators as well. Under South Carolina law, for example, a runaway would be branded for a first offense. A second offense, however, would require a woman to lose an ear and for a man to be castrated. The inspiration for castration was the cattle-rearing practices of slave-owners and implicitly identified African laborers as simple beasts of burden.

“Severe whippings, the slitting of noses, the slicing off of ears, and ultimately gelding [or castration]—all of these punishments had the same aim, the bestialization of black people and the consolidation of racial slavery.” (Rugemer)

In the continental United States, as in the Carribean, “White servants had rights, and after freedom, options. Blacks enjoyed neither.” (Main)

The inhumanity of African laborers was maintained even when they bore the children of their masters: “Like other British colonies in the New World, Maryland reversed the usual English custom in which the condition of children normally followed that of the father. Many white men, therefore, came to treat their own [mixed race] children as property, denying them all claims on themselves as a parent. Illegitimate white children could press no claims under English law, either, but they were born free. The zealous protection of property rights so characteristic of English society, with its rigorous insistence on the sanctity of contracts and patrilineal priority, here seems to have gone awry. Racism and greed combined to override English justice.” (Main)

In the earliest years of slavery on the American continent, indentured servants and slaves dealt with similar overlords and encountered similar material conditions. They were divided, however, by differences in status within an ideological system that privileged whiteness and condemned Blackness. Indentured servants, despite their oppressions, generally chose their lot and could find freedom after a set period of service. African laborers, being reduced to the status of chattel, had neither consolation.

“The most burdensome legacy of enslavement, surely, was its hopelessness.” (Main)

There are few general observations that should be made about the developments that I have outlined here. The first is that the only real agency within this story is held by a small economic elite. The legal and ideological tenets of systemic racism were adopted by the common masses of white people, but they were engineered primarily by and for the benefit of wealthy landowners. Actually, in the early days of the continental American colonies, it was only a small portion of landowners who could afford slaves in the first place. The second observation that one should make is that systemic racism was not a spontaneous event. Rather, it came about only after colonial elites passed legislation that increasingly dehumanized their African laborers and justified that dehumanization by highlighting and exaggerating their “otherness.”

The development of racism then allowed for three very important things. The first and most obvious result is that the total dehumanization of people of African descent allowed for their unlimited economic exploitation without any regard to their existence as human beings. Of course this benefited the “Masters”, or the only ones actually able to afford slaves, more than anyone else in colonial society. The second result was the pacification of a once rebellious white labor force. Surely, indentured servants and landless whites still lacked political will or agency after the codification of racial hierarchies and they still suffered at the hands of their overlords. Despite this, their newfound “whiteness” offered them some sense of dignity, if not some social mobility, and ideologically connected them to the “master” class. The final effect was the weaponization of the white working or servant class, as they were financially and legally incentivized to assist the master class in the oppression of their African laborers.

These three effects of early systemic racism can still be seen today. Whether it is through Black prison labor, Mexican field labor or the government revenue generated by the court fees of people of color- one can see how vulnerable populations are still economically exploited to fill the bank accounts of twenty-first century economic elites (sometimes referred to as the “1%,” though that numerical value may be too small). One can also see how appeals to patriotism and ethnocentrism ideologically binds the “white” working class to those who in actuality oppress and exploit them, and how they are made to feel closer to billionaire CEOs than to struggling African and Latino Americans. Finally, it is apparent how conservative rhetoric, and even the “colorblind racism” of white liberals, mobilizes and incentivizes whites to silence minority led movements for equality and equity.

It is not the billionaire, or the millionaire class that attacks and suppresses protesters or holds “counter-rallies” at BLM protests. The super wealthy do not don police uniforms and enforce an inequitable form of order in communities of color. The foot-work of oppression is done by the white working and middle class. The political legitimacy of racist politicians, and in extension their policies, is supported by working and middle class whites who would actually gain more by aligning themselves with the causes of their non-white neighbors than by those who wouldn’t even dare to live in the same neighborhood as them. In short, the white working and middle classes are very often still weaponized against people of color. The functions that racism fulfills today are largely the same as the functions it fulfilled centuries ago. Racism may not be profitable to society as a whole, but it is certainly useful and profitable for powerful elements within our society. Is racism a sickness? Perhaps, and perhaps we should seek to cure those afflicted. Racism, however, is also a tool, and we must seek to disarm those using it and heal those who have been struck with it. It is my belief that this will not happen without a significant fight, but it’s a fight that is well worth it. The same elites who manufactured racism manufactured capitalism, our modern class divisions and the destruction of our environment. The fight to end their hegemony is a battle to undo their ideological programming and to gain political agency. It is a battle to cure the disease and disarm the oppressor. I can think of no other battle more worth fighting. Bibliography:

Rugemer, Edward B. “The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Slave Codes of the Greater Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century.” The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (July 2013), pp. 429-458. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429

Main, Gloria L. Tobacco Colony, Life in Early Maryland, 1650-1720. Princeton University Press, 1982. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zvk1d

Galenson, David W. “White Servitude and the Growth of Black Slavery in Colonial America.” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 41, No. 1, The Tasks of Economic History(Mar., 1981), pp. 39-47. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120891

#racism #BLM #systemic racism #white supremacy #white privilege #slavery #socialism #capitalism #politics #history #black history #America #American history #Black diaspora #carribbean #carribbean history #black power #revolution

2 notes · View notes

doctorstrangeaskblog · 5 years

Text

Merry Go Round

Stephen Strange x Wong one shot fanfiction. AO3 link

4:45PM, the day looked calm, New York was alive, as always, but still, everything felt like...tranquility, the Cloak seemed to be sleeping on the couch, a lot of calm clouds in the sky, fresh wind, some leaves dancing around the streets. Wong was at the New York Sanctum, preparing something in the kitchen, Stephen had left earlier to buy whatever the Sanctum needed. When the librarian opened the cabinet...empty. Well, almost empty. There was a package of bread and in the fridge (the normal fridge, not the chained one) there was just...half a pot of butter. "Not even water...??" Wong complained and sighed, looking up, then to the sides, deciding what he would prepare. "I had to ask Stephen to not use the sling ring to do everything...now he's going to take a century." The man shook his head, took what they had and started to prepare dinner. The slices of bread went to the oven, he opened a portal and took some cheese he had in the Hong Kong Sanctum's fridge and melted it and miraculously, he found some oregano, hidden behind a lot of empty cans on the kitchen's counter. "It's going to be pizza bread. I hope he brings some tomatoes or this will be very boring." In a matter of seconds, a knock on the door. Wong opened it and Stephen was there, full of paper bags, wearing his casual clothes. "Argh...come on Wong...let me in, it started to rain..."

Wong frowned for a moment, not even a hello...but then, his face softened when he saw Stephen's expression, he had that nostalgic, sweet smile on the corner of his lips, his eyes looked so peaceful, he was glad to be home. The librarian stepped away and the other got inside the Sanctum, taking everything to the kitchen. Wong closed the door and followed him. Strange placed everything on the chairs and removed his jacket. "What a smell...Wong what are you preparing? Is it pizza?" The other shook his head. "More or less...did you bring some tomatoes...?" Stephen started to open the bags and put everything in the right place. "Yeah...I've got tomatoes, lettuce, apples, carrots, nutella, chocolate, but I didn't get any ice cream because we eat healthy in this home." He smirked with his dork face, didn't even look at Wong's face, he thought his friend wouldn't even bother, but actually, he managed to get a shy chuckle out of the librarian.

Wong missed his jokes, Wong missed him. After Thanos had snapped his fingers and Stephen hadn't come back, the man was sure his sassy friend was gone...but now everything had returned to normal...and Strange was there again. Wong felt his heart getting warmer as he watched Stephen organize everything, he had been back so recently...everything still looked like a dream. "Stephen...we can order everything later...let's eat for now, otherwise, the bread pizzas will get cold." Stephen turned holding a paper bag, with a smile on his face. "Hey...I found the tomatoes!"

And the evening proceeded like that, the kitchen was no clean, their stomachs were satisfied for the moment and both got to sit on the couch, to relax. Strange still had a slice of bread pizza in his hands, Wong had already grabbed a book to read. It didn't take Stephen two minutes to say something. "It's too quiet and this rain is making me sleepy. Come on let's watch something..." Wong didn't even move his eyes from the book. "Two important questions, what do you want to watch today and did you bring the popcorn I asked you?" "Yep!" The other replied, a sudden glimpse of happiness after getting something right (the popcorn). Wong smiled a little. "Great, so go prepare it while I finish this chapter, and avoid using short ranged teleportation otherwise you'll get a lot more sleepy." "Fine." Strange replied and went to the kitchen to prepare their popcorn and Wong remained on the couch. The truth was...that he hadn't focused on his reading at all. He hadn't advanced not even one page. All he could think about was how Strange had finally returned. That dorky, annoying novice who would keep stealing books and breaking the rules, that student who would fall asleep in the Kamar Taj's library who he would find there, slobbering on the table with his head resting over a pile of books. Just a few years had passed and...Strange sure had changed. He wasn't the same person. After the tragedy Kaecilius had caused...he looked changed. He had gotten so quiet for some weeks, then slowly, he returned to his dorky state...but still, it was like Stephen, the old, dorky, annoying Stephen, had never came back...and after Thanos killed him...he looked different again, Stephen looked more...tired...even...old, not appearance, but soul like, he looked...so wiser and...so patient.

Wong's thought was interrupted by Stephen arriving with two bowls of popcorn, placing one on Wong's lap and the other on his own as he sat. "So, what movie is it going to be?" He asked Wong. "Anything light that has nothing to do with death, kidnapping, abuse or cheap romance." Stephen raised his eyebrows. "I agree 100%, Wong. How about...an animation? Those tend to be okay...at least...the most recent ones." Wong looked shook. "Lion King was the saddest thing since Bambi!" Stephen chuckled. "That's why I said RECENT."

Both widened their eyes at the sudden loud thunder, the windows of the Sanctum almost shook. The weather had gotten a lot darker, the waves of mystical energy in the air got thicker. "Ah. That sure was something." Stephen looked back to check the corridor." Wong put his popcorn bowl aside and walked to look through the window. Stephen placed his popcorn bowl aside as well and followed Wong. "Yesterday's forecast said it should rain at all. First we got that slight rain, fine, but now...a thunderstorm? Nah, something's wrong." Wong nodded. "The mystical waves are abnormal...impressible climate change...this is sounding like..." "Ouija Board Summoning." Stephen added. "Correct." Wong closed the window. "Better take the Cloak with you, we're getting wet."

Stephen looked back to the couch, the Cloak looked so peaceful, and so tired. The recent fight against Thanos hadn't been easy, it had done its best and it sure deserved some time to recover. Wong looked at Stephen, watched him walk to the Cloak, and so sweetly, Stephen caressed the relic's collar with his thumb, the Cloak still seemed to be sleeping, not even all the noise had woken it up. "Wong, let it sleep...besides, it's a bad idea to levitate around with such weather. Let's go solve this and then...let's watch our movie." The librarian just nodded, he was already by the door; Stephen instantly changed into his robes and left the Sanctum with his friend, to investigate whatever was causing the havoc.

Once outside, the weather indeed looked different, it was dark, the wind was violent and even the rain was irregular. Stephen pointed. "That direction. The source of this mystic imbalance is coming from there. Probably two or three squares away. I still have no idea where it is, maybe it's too risky to use a portal to get there since we don't know what we'll be facing." Wong agreed, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else. Since when Stephen had gotten this wise? The old Stephen would rush straight away to the danger, maybe improvise something, he was intelligent, yes, but so impatient. "Wong...do you have any idea of what this energy might be? I thought it was an Ouija Board soul or something but this is...too strong to be one. Aren't they...normally weak?" The librarian paused for a few seconds, trying to recall past experiences, until he finally spoke. "Stephen...the energy and the weather...it all makes me think about Ouija Board spirits, but indeed...this energy is stronger than the usual. We should be extra careful, it could even be a trap." Strange nodded and continued to walk towards the source.

Not much time later, three teenagers came running towards them, Stephen almost fell and Wong managed to hold the arm of one of them. "What happened? Why are you running?" The librarian asked. "A MONSTER!! THERE'S A MONSTER!! A GHOST!!" The boy cried, pulled his arm and then continued to run, however, a girl who was running came back. "Lilah is still there! She's still there!" Stephen raised an eyebrow. "There...where?" The girl answered. "The library! We decided to study until late...and...suddenly...my brother had this stupid idea...and there's a monster and we couldn't find her!" Strange nodded. "Alright...got it. Go home, we'll go get Lilah out of the library and deal with this monster ghost you're talking about okay?" The girl looked very relieved, and at the same time, surprised. Since when an adult would believe such a thing? People normally wouldn't take that kind of thing seriously...but...that man's eyes...they looked so...honest, he believed it. This brought the girl many insecurities....so indeed...monsters were real...and...there were adults who believed them...but at the same time, a sense of safety warmed her heart. "W....who are you...?" She asked. Part of her knew those guys could fight monsters, it just knew. Wong interrupted her. "We don't have much time, that kid might be in danger..." Stephen nodded. "Look...we'll do our best. Go home and stay there, alright? Tell your friends to do the same. We'll solve this."

The girl then continued to run home, looking back, the image of Stephen and Wong awakening curiosity in her eyes, for a moment she felt there was an entire universe she had never known right behind her, and she was running away from it.

"Right, the library, now it's easier." Stephen said. "We could teleport to somewhere near and investigate the area. She said there's a kid inside, so one of us get the kid and the other send this monster ghost thing back to wherever it came from." Wong smirked. "Sounds fair, but things will be a lot more complicated if we're dealing with a possession." Stephen gulped. "Possession?" Wong took his sling ring and started opening the portal. "Yes. Sometimes one of these kids have a slightly stronger mystic potential...and sometimes they cross paths with a spirit that has the skill to possess living beings...the combination is...this what you're seeing." Stephen's eyes were looking to the void, thinking, realizing how big the problem they were about to face was. "I see...combined energy....that's why the mystical intensity got this intense...Wong...we need to be careful to not harm this child." Wong nodded and jumped into the portal, Stephen followed him.

The library was dark, the lights were out, the only illumination source was the lightnings outside. Both sorcerers started to search the place, trying to find where the mystical energy was stronger and where it was coming from. Stephen couldn't help but to give Wong a little smirk. "Hey, Wong...NEVER split up. Every horror movie already proved that it's a really bad idea." Wong continued to walk calmly and then he pointed. "Look..." Stephen followed with his eyes. "A light, Stephen...coming from that corridor." Strange gulped, that light was so macabre, it was like a pale camera flash, sometimes as if it was going on and off repeatedly, and there were shadows of irregular tentacle like structures, but they looked made of something organic, vegetable like.

The sorcerers looked at each other and then jumped into the corridor, rings of Raggadorr already formed in their fists. Stephen and Wong's eye widened at the imaged, there was a kid, curled in a corner and there was this creature, two tentacles made of whatever that green, musk thing was, attached to the kid's right leg. The monster seemed to be feeding, and getting stronger and stronger. The moment the mystical beast saw the sorcerers, it shouted, oh the shout, such a disturbing thing, it looked like a mix of despair and rage, an intense female voice, the sound completely distorted. Wong covered his ears and turned to Stephen as if in an emergency. "Stephen! Cover your ears! The shouts of that kind of spirit might make you....faint." Strange's body had already leaned against one of the bookshelves, his eyes looked so lost, he seemed dizzy, his eyes turning, he almost fell, but he was still half there. "Curses!" Wong conjured a sound restriction spell against the creature, now its shouts seemed really far away, but they were still disturbing. The place was still dark it was really hard to see, really hard to figure out a way to remove the kid from there safely. Strange shook his head and conjured a light spell, creating a bright golden sphere in the air, illuminating the place. The creature only shouted more and its form was finally revealed: it was a very thin body, impossible to identify if it was a man or a woman, its eyes were two spheres of flashing light, and from its head, these plant like tentacles would come out. It's body was completely dark, as if burned, melted and it's mouth was huge. Wong's eyes widened when he saw the image, then he dashed to get the kid, but the ghost pushed the sorcerer away with its tentacles, which started to wrap around Wong's body. Strange started to move his hands, but the monster wrapped his quick tentacles around him too, and then, it started to drain their energy.

The thunderstorm outside started getting stronger, heavier, the shouts of the monster, even if isolated, still were getting higher. Wong looked very concerned, scared. "The sound restriction spell won't stop those shouts for long if they continue getting stronger like this...!" Strange's eye started to move frenetically to see if he could find an answer, and it was then he saw the Ouija board, and it was then that Stephen had an idea, and his lips moved to say four words. "I END THIS CALL!"

However, nothing happened. Stephen's face looked in panic, that was his last resort, the tentacles were already pressing his throat, he barely could breathe properly, until he had a last realization. "WONG! REMOVE THE SOUND RESTRICTION SPELL!" Wong then canceled the spell and when the monster was about to shout again, Stephen announced once more. "I END THIS CALL!!!" The creature fell silent, as if it had lost its energies. The Ouija Board on the floor started draining the monster's energy, it eventually let go of Wong, Spethen and the child. They were panting, breathing, what a despair that had been. As soon as he could, Stephen blasted Eldritch energy against the board, destroying it. "Why do kids insist playing with that kind of thing...?" Stephen moaned. When Wong was about to reply, Strange interrupted. "I know...it's...fun...right?" After a few more seconds of panting, he stood and walked to the kid. Wong looked down. "His mystical energy...it got drained...severely drained..." Stephen sighed and picked the kid up. "That's not a problem...I can lend him some of mine...until his own energy heals by itself..." Wong's eyes showed admiration again. "But Stephen...you know you could die if-" Strange shook his head. "Wong...these kinds of energetic bridges are dangerous when you don't know how to do them...and gladly...I already studied how do it." Wong still looked concerned. "I know...but even knowing...they still can be dangerous. Maybe we both should do it together." "And risk your life as well? No way, Wong. If everything goes wrong, I would be glad dying like this." Wong paused, in a half shock. Stephen continued. "We don't have time to take him anywhere, even if we teleported to Kamar Taj, until we got a safe method with seals and everything...this kid...this kid can die any moment, I'm doing it." And then the sorcerer placed his hand over the kid's chest, a bright, warm golden and blue energy started to move from his scarred hand to the kid's body, and immediately, the kid's general condition started to get better. Wong stepped closer. "Stephen...be careful...you know how kids can store more energy than adults can..." Strange looked at Wong and just smiled softly. "I know...don't worry. I'll be fine."

The rain stopped, it was already night when Wong and Stephen walked back home, the kid was taken to an hospital, where he would get all the health care he needed, where his family would be informed. On the way back, Wong would almost continuously check if Stephen was alright, and he was. The librarian wondered how large Stephen's mystical potential had gotten, indeed, the more you practiced the greater your magic would become...and that was almost scary when Stephen's energy was considered. Wong knew Strange had used the Time Stone to practice, he knew the fight against Dormammu probably had lasted way more than 10 minutes and he knew his friend was growing. Slowly, a faint smile formed on Wong's face while all the consequences Stephen's body showed was...getting sleepy. "Wong..." Stephen said, his voice like a moan. "What is it...?" "Why can't we use portals more oftennnn....I want to get home..." The librarian chuckled. It was funny how the old dorky Stephen would show up sometimes with these comments. "It's because we already spent a lot of our mystic energy...we need to get some rest before using more...or...do you really want to faint on the floor?" Stephen chuckled as well. "Ah...I know you would carry me if I fell." Wong just shook his head and continued to walk, walking was good and the wind was so fresh, and the stars were so pretty in the sky.

Once they got home, they sat on the couch and sighed. Stephen took a deep breath and took his popcorn bowl. "If you think I'm quitting our movie...no I'm not. How about...Wreck it Ralph?" Wong also took his popcorn. "Sounds fine. No violence, no war, just a cute light adventure." "Wong I'm going to light the fireplace." And with the end of the evening, with the noise of the fire and the soft smell of wood...they watched their movie, the Cloak still resting by Stephen's side, so peacefully, now it was gripping his arm, partially wrapped around it....and Stephen had taken the Cloak in his arms, and they were hugging. Wong was watching the movie, when suddenly he looked at Stephen to make a comment and...he was asleep, hugging the Cloak. He barely had gotten any popcorn, he was just there, all peaceful. Peaceful, yes, that was the word. Wong remembered all the times he had found Stephen sleeping at the library by sunrise, his face used to be...scared, worried, tired, drained...but now, things had changed, Stephen looked happy, happy to be at home. Yes, he felt home, the way he was calm and relaxed...it was explicit.

Stephen's head was leaning on Wong's shoulder, very slightly, there was a pillow between them. Wong backed away very slowly to not wake Stephen up and for a few seconds, even minutes, he just watched Stephen. His face...his features...he finally was taking some time to admire them, those unusual cheeks, those soft eyebrows and that hair, combed to the side. He was sure it used to be brown...but now it seemed...darker. Magic was starting to change Stephen, that for sure. "So ethereal..." The words escaped Wong's lips. That's how Stephen looked. Slowly, the librarian moved to take Stephen in his arms, so he could take him to his bed, but he paused the moment he touched Stephen's hand. So many scars, and they were so deep. Stephen had never talked about them, well, he had complained about them, about how they would ache all the time, but never actually talked about them. Thinking about it, there was so much about Strange Wong didn't know...and he had realized...he wanted to know. Calmly Wong took Stephen and the Cloak in his arms and climbed the stairs, resting his friend on his bed, the Cloak cuddling more and more into Stephen's arms. "Good night I guess." Wong whispered, for a moment, decided to remove Stephen's hair from his face, and then caught himself running his fingers through it, so soft. Wong did that for minutes, and when he was done, he caressed Stephen's cheek, there was a little bruise there. The librarian left for a few minutes and returned with some bandages and herbal medicines...applied some on Stephen's cheek and covered the bruise with a little bandage cutout. "I'm glad you're back..." Wong said, his eyes couldn't leave the image of Stephen, sleeping so deeply. The librarian was glad to have him there again. Slowly, his shy hand caressed his hair for a few more minutes, until Wong finally turned. He was in Stephen's room now, it had his personal objects, his smell, his style... But for his surprise, the place was more filled with books, scrolls and notebooks than with personal objects per se. There was this shelf with a broken watch, a notebook and a drawer with a few clothes...and that was it. For a moment, there was this urge to cry...because there was nothing there that could define Stephen, basically everything there was either for personal use or magic related, his friend was losing himself for the mystic arts, and that's something Wong didn't want to happen. Passed by Stephen again, aiming towards the door, looked at his friend again and said. "Tomorrow we'll get you something nice...something you like. Try to not sleep all day...okay?" Stephen moved slightly on the bed, so comfortable while cuddling the Cloak, a sweet, soft smile formed on his face and he just replied. "Okay..."

Now listen to this song reading the lyrics to get 100% of the feels, the title was inspired on it.

youtube

#doctor strange #fanfic #wong #doctor strange x wong #wongstrange #marvel #avengers

91 notes · View notes

tok3r · 4 years

Text

News Punch

I Was An Alien Abductee – What I Have To Say Will Shock You

Sean Adl-Tabatabai

3 years ago

An alien abductee has come forward and publicly revealed the plan extraterrestrials have for humanity in the next few years. After being abducted by aliens for the last 17 years of his life, the anonymous abductee says he wants to share his experience with the public so they can learn the truth about extraterrestrials.

In an online post on a popular conspiracy forum, the alien abductee reveals:

How aliens are able to communicate via telepathy with eachother and humans

The secrets about Earth’s history hidden from us by our rulers

How the universe came into existence (it was NOT the Big Bang or ‘God’ according to these beings)

What the future for the human race holds

Full Disclosure: Revelations of an Extraterrestrial Encounter.

My name is [redacted]. I’m [redacted] years old and I’m going to let you know right away, there’s a whole lot to digest about who I am, why I’m here, and what I’ve gone through in my life.

The thoughts that will go through your head as you read this have kept me awake hundreds of sleepless nights in my life.

I’ve questioned my sanity many times over, but I assure you, in every way possible, I am quite sane.

I’m not endorsing this story, or saying it even really truly happened. I’m only saying I believe this happened to me.

I could be crazy. I could be getting used to spread distraction. I don’t know. I’m just going with what’s gone on in my head over forty years, and saying it like it is.

Just keep in mind If i was telling this for any other reason than a true love for this planet, I’d be telling it to a Hollywood agent or book publisher and charging you money to read it. I’m not.

We all have our reasons for being drawn to the esoteric. Mine was UFOS.

Not my interest in them, but their interest in me. It started when I was only 4 years old. And it’s gone on ever since.

My first experience was a face to face meeting with a strange little Being. We communicated by telepathy and that connection remains today.

It’s a one way kind of communication. I’ve asked a million questions but never really got an answer to any of them.

Well except for one I suppose. I guess she must be able to hear me. The one question I asked the most was answered. It just wasn’t the answer I wanted.

Naturally I wanted to know what was going on…and I always heard the same response. “When it’s time, you’ll know.”is

I’ve gone years with no interaction but she always comes back. Yes. The Being was female and quite motherly in her communication with me.

She tells me things. About myself and about them, and about this planet. And it’s history.

Seems I’ve been at this for quite some time too. I’m a very old soul. She’s recently told me a bunch of things that in all honesty, I already knew, sort of.

I know one thing for sure. Amongst other things, i’m a warrior through and through. That I didn’t need to be told. But just how much of a warrior, I had no idea.

Unfortunately having the heart of a lion only gets you so far. And for me, it’s never been far enough.

That’s why I’ve learned to fight with my mind this time. Even though I spent a lot of my life in a subculture of violence this time around, I see now I had to be there to unlearn the ways I’ve always handled my confrontations. In this life too, but more so in my past lives.

I really am tired of all this. It’s been long enough. Too many people have died thinking we could beat them (the elite force controlling the world) in a physical confrontation.

They didn’t start actually “abducting me” until I was 31 years old though. And I prefer to think of myself as “taken” not abducted.

For the last 17 years it’s been an on and off again thing. I’d just gone 5 years without any contact or communication incidents, but in Aug 2016, (like 4 months ago) things got very serious, very fast.

Life was as normal as I think it’s ever been for me. I was right where I wanted to be, and comfortable with everything my life was becoming. Mine has been a life of constant rebuilding and change.

I went to bed one Saturday night just like any other night. But Sunday morning was not anything like any Sunday I’d been through before.

I woke up and realized immediately what happened. I was freezing. And soaking wet. And I felt like I was in a dream. Have you ever been under anesthetic? Same feeling when waking up. It’s like coming back from, hmmm, i don’t know where, but It’s the telltale sign.

But this time there was more. I had a head full of ideas and an absolute NEED to search out and connect to people just like all of you.

And, she was back. Like never before. And she had a lot to say in the last three months. Wow!

What I’m going to tell you was revealed to me, a bit here, piece there, over my lifetime. It really never made much sense to me though, until now. Now I have the whole truth.

And I do apologize to the people I’ve been difficult with, but you can’t imagine the pressure I’m under with this.

It’s really, really hard to listen to theories I know are incomplete or distraction, while having no ability to present what I know until right now. I was told not to tell anyone.

So, before I go any further, I need you to understand something. Read this next line as many times as you need to.

We, aren’t what we’ve been taught to believe we are! Not at all. Nothing!

What I’m going to tell you may change your life. In what way is entirely up to you.

I see it one of three ways, you’ll hate me forever, you’ll embrace this and know me forever, or you’ll call me crazy.

The reality is there’s been some very big lies told. And I’m going to do my best to explain the who, want, when, where, and why that surround these secrets.

So here it is, the real story as I understand it.

This planet was not the result of a Big Bang or the creation of “God” as we understand Him. The Universe came to exist because of The One.

The One is neither alive or dead, male or female good nor bad. IT just is…

The One is responsible for creating all the framework which functions to provide an environment for everything to exist in.

IT created this planet, and all the other planets, stars, moons, and everything in between.

Unlike the story we were told, “God” does not work alone. The One had some help.

The One created several intelligent races of benevolent Aliens that function to serve The Universe. Like The One, they are Immortal and never die. They are tangible Beings though, just not in the same way we are.

These Aliens are the craftsmen tasked with maintaining the integrity of all The One had created.

Planet Earth was seeded with life by a race of immortal Aliens called Centaurians from a planet called Eden. It’s located in the Centauri star system.

And when I say life, I mean ALL of it. Especially us.

The Centaurians are part of the immortal workforce that service The Universe. They are scientists and geneticists. It was theiru job to seed life throughout The Universe.

There is one exception though. The sector where The Six Headed Beast ruled.

Using a master set of plant and animal DNA supplied by The One, The Centaurians genetically engineered a vast living library of life.

Earth was their seed bank and it was called The Garden of Eden. Easily it was the most beautiful of all the planets. The One had really done a wonderful job.

They used a process called gene splicing, and did this work in labs on Eden.

Each new plant or animal prototype they created was then taken to Earth where it was cultivated.

Not all planets have the same conditions or type of atmosphere. So it also had to be determined which species could exist in different places.

This planet was designed to support many different types of environments and climates that mimic conditions around the universe.

Once these new products were studied, logged, and samples were stored, they were distributed to the planets throughout the universe best suited for each species.

However, in the face of all The One had created, even IT was not perfect. The One had made only one mistake. But it was a big one.

I’m not going to even pretend I understand it. But in the beginning, when The One was the only thing in existence, IT became “lonely”.

To combat this problem, The One divided itself by 25% to create another, lesser version of itself.

This new Number Two later realized that’s exactly what it was. Lesser. The One could have split in half and made them equal, but IT didn’t.

And when The One finished what IT had set out to do, which was create the Universe, and the immortal work force to help complete it, Number Two took offence.

Number Two realized The One had provided no role whatsoever for IT to contribute to all that was created.

Upon realizing the sole purpose of IT’s existence, was to keep The One from becoming lonely again, Number Two decided to leave.

At the time, Number Two didn’t realize it, but the choice to leave, introduced some new things to The Universe. Conflict. And Free Will.

Number Two took up residence in a far off corner of The Universe. It didn’t take long to realize though, IT was all alone.

As The One had divided itself to solve the same problem, so too did Number Two.

But Number Two didn’t want to face the same dilemma, so IT divided into 6 equal individuals. And they quickly set out to develop this corner of The Universe into their very own version of what the rest of The Universe would be like.

The result was a galactic society of miscreants lead by what would come to be known as The Six Headed Beast.

The division into 6 individuals had corrupted key bits of knowledge and understanding from the consciousness of the whole.

This lost knowledge was the reason all the creatures that were created to reside on the planets in this sector, had no soul.

Some of these creatures were worse than others, but none of them could actually be considered good.

They are flesh and blood creatures who only live for a certain length of time and die one day.

We were created the way we were, with a soul, for a reason. The Centaurians wanted to create an intelligent worker who would live on Earth and be responsible for maintaining the integrity of The Garden of Eden.

Tending to this garden would be an extremely delicate, and sometimes dangerous program. They needed leverage to ensure compliance to the job.

Also, since free will and conflict had come into existence when Number Two left, it was decided that from this point forward, immortality would have to be earned.

So it was decided that a promise of immortality under certain conditions, would help motivate this creature called a human being, to serve its purpose to the best of its ability.

A unique approach that would allow human beings to exist as two separate halves of one entity, had been successfully designed by an amazing team of scientists on Eden.

And quickly this design and reasoning for it, was approved by The One.

One half of the human would exist on Eden. The other half would exist on Earth.

The two individual halves of the human being are connected by something called a soul.

Inside the body of each half of the humans, flows a pure form of energy that binds both parts to one another.

A telepathic connection that allowed the two parts to communicate back and forth was also a very useful feature for completing the work projects tasked to the humans.

The half which existed on Eden would work in the lab as a genetic scientist to create new life forms.

When these plants and animals were cultivated on Earth, the process would be conducted by the Earth halves of the scientists whose team had invented the specific species.

This way the scientist and the botanist or biologist could share information to ensure a well cared for and properly designed product was the end result of their efforts.

This telepathic connection was also a way to never forget home and in times of struggle, a voice of reason to offer advice. A friend, so no matter what, no human would ever be alone, like The One had once been.

You likely won’t believe me yet, but that voice in your head, your conscience, is actually what’s left of the telepathic connection to our counterpart on Eden.

Of course today we are raised to believe thinking anything other than “it’s your own voice” will get you locked up in a psych ward.

Big threats to protect big secrets. And big secrets are certainly being kept from us about how and why that connection was lost.

To become immortal, the humans had to live by guidelines and rules and show the intelligence, loyalty, and desire to be a productive, honest, contributing member of the Galactic Society they belonged to.

A series of tests, and lessons would be incorporated into their lives that would determine when they would be ready to achieve immortality.

On Earth everything living has an expiration date, meaning one day it dies. This applies to everything except for one thing, the human soul.

When a human died on Earth, the soul ascended to Eden for evaluation. If it was decided the soul was ready, the two halves would merge into one immortal being.

However, if it wasn’t ready, the soul would experience something called reincarnation where it was sent back to Earth in a new body.

The human would then encounter a more difficult path designed to address the issues that kept it from achieving immortality.

This complex two part creature would be the prototype for a whole new approach to the concept of being alive. If successful, humans could be placed all over the universe.

As The Centaurians hoped, the evolution of The Garden of Eden, and its new occupants, was a great success.

After nearly a hundred thousand years of evolution, only one major change was made to how this system would operate.

It was originally the plan to allow unlimited reincarnation and guaranteed immortality eventually. However, there were unforeseen issues that arose from that idealistic view.

The result was a decision to permit ten chances to get it right and earn the reward of immortality.

By limiting reincarnation to nine times, the decision to populate some of the other planets that had been seeded into life with humans, had passed the scrutiny of The One.

By the way, I told you which star system Eden exists in without feeling like I’m giving up a secret.

Unfortunately, there are people here on Earth right now searching for it, and they already know where they should be looking.

The Kepler telescope made a discovery this year not six months ago in August of 2016

There is one particular planet quite close to Earth. Like close enough where the technology here will allow a probe to make it there in the next 25 years or so.

It’s not Eden. But it’s one step closer. So they really need to be stopped before they get there.

As I said before, I’m an old soul. And I’ve tried more than once to stop those responsible for what I’m trying to tell you, during several of my past lives.

Obviously, I’ve never been on the successful side of any of the battles that have taken place in an attempt to gain control of our own destiny.

I’m sure you’ve realized something must have gone terribly wrong someplace along the line.

Earth is quite obviously not being used by The Centaurians as a living library anymore. It’s being exploited, polluted, and soon enough, will be destroyed.

If you don’t know, there are several tyrannical groups of very rich, very powerful, business men, political leaders and Church officials with questionable ties to each other.

They belong to groups such as The Illuminatii, The Roman Catholic Church, The British Monarchy, and The Freemasons to name a few.

It’s widely accepted that these Billionaire Boys Clubs are up not on the up and up and exist to serve ulterior motives.

They have created, implemented, and enforced a system of corruption, greed, control, and hostility for thousands of years.

The roots of these shady organizations have been traced back to the time of Jesus.

The last attempt to confront these corrupt, power hungry, tyrants was in the early 1300’s.

A very wealthy group called The Knights Templar, that was aligned with The Roman Catholic Church, had found out some extremely sensitive information about Jesus, and the Bible.

Having expressed concerns to a trusted government official about The Church withholding the secret knowledge, The Knights Templar were betrayed and for the most part, disbanded and killed brutally for going against The Pope.

And ever since then these elite tyrants have taken full advantage of the fear they instilled in anyone who may oppose them.

Their stranglehold on the resources and human lives on Planet Earth grows stronger every single day we choose to do nothing.

The Knights knew what I know. Unlike me, they never got the chance to tell though.

Once you know why, and what is at stake, you’ll understand why I’ve made it my choice to suggest we confront these men, end these lies, and try again to rid this planet from their control.

The elite tyrants who control us using money, work hand in hand with the ones who destroy some of us by taking our soul.

The Roman Catholic Church is the real controlling influence behind those running the world, enslaving mankind, and destroying this beautiful planet.

There is no one more powerful than the guy with the funny hat, The Pope. None that are human anyways.

The Pope is always chosen from a secret, and very long list of bloodlines that go back thousands of years to a time when giants roamed the Earth.

Yeah I just said that. But it’s gotta be said. And someone had to say it. And that’s always been my role. To sound the alarm.

But this time the call, MY call, will be heard. This time, the world is ready to hear it. YOU, are ready to hear it!

The age of information has brought a new dimension, one we have never had available before. If you haven’t realized it yet, she told me, IT’S TIME!

This time, we have the ability to UNITE World Wide!. And we will. And we are.

I can feel the soul of every warrior who ever lived and died at the hands of The Elite. All of them. They’re all here.

Some already know it, most don’t, but you all will. The universe will not let you rest until you accept the responsibility of fixing what we have ALWAYS allowed them to do to us.

The Elite aren’t exactly like us in case you haven’t noticed. There is an empty, void, hole in all of “them”.

The world really is an US vs THEM situation.

You may believe “we are all one” and some spiritual awakening is on the horizon, but please, know this: There are TWO different SPECIES living together here on earth. Humans. And Half Breeds.

And no, they are not shape shifting reptilians. In all ways they are identical to us, except for one thing.

They don’t have a soul!

When they die, they are dead. That’s it. No more. They are manufactured.

These soulless shells i’m talking about are The Elite. And they know what they are. Predators. Nasty, sick, twisted, Predators.

There is another group of people who also suffer an impairment of their soul but they have no idea anything is even wrong with them.

At least they have a soul, even if it has been shut right off. As long as it’s there, all hope is not lost.

It’s imperative if we want to experience any kind of freedom again, we begin working together. All men. All for One Cause. One World United.

United, we can move forward into a new Age of Enlightenment.

United, we can be free from all the pain that’s been our lives here on planet Earth.

It will not be easy. But nothing good ever is. Just be certain, if we continue to fall for the tactics that keep us divided, once again, we will fall short. Divide and Conquer will defeat us like it has before in past lives.

The Elite have slowly divided the entire world into divisions so small, they feel confident that it’s just not possible for us to lay aside our differences or seek a new perspective on our beliefs.

I’m hoping that deep down inside though, you feel it! You’ve always felt it. You probably didn’t understand that feeling was your other half calling out to you. And your home. Eden. In all ways possible, they both need you now, more than ever.

For some of us, the connection to our other half is starting to be established once more. I’ll explain why later.

It’s the ones caught deep in this web of lies I worry about though. The ones with the soul affliction.

Things on Eden have taken a very long time to fully recover from the Annunaki Invasion.

The reason is the soul affliction that has taken hold here on Earth lately, has nearly crippled the population on Eden.

The half of the human that’s born and exists on Eden, that’s attached to the people on Earth commonly referred to as Sheeple, (people who can’t see anything at all wrong with how the world operates) are basically handicapped.

They don’t contribute to the workforce, in fact, they take away from it, as they require constant care and supervision.

Despite all that has changed since humans came into existence, the soul still continues to develop properly and in unison with its Counterpart on Eden.

The changes to the minds of the humans on Earth however, somehow have caused the autism -like affliction of the mind running rampant on Eden.

So I’m here on a mission. I’m here to wake you up to what you used to be, to what you are.

And what you need to be, if we ever want to free ourselves from this nightmare we’ve all been tricked into living.

I guess tricked isn’t the best choice of words either. They didn’t trick us, they genetically modified us is what they did.

And what I’m about to tell you now, is where things get intense.

What you think you know about the history of earth and its many different inhabitants, are all lies. And it’s the job of the church, to protect those lies.

And the reward from protecting those lies, goes to the enforcers of the lie. The Illuminati. The Freemasons. The Elite.

Their reward is your life of servitude! And every man, woman and child belongs to them whether you admit it, or not.

Because the elite know they are soulless shells of what we are, they hate us.

Once I explain what they are lying about, and how far they’ve gone to protect the lie, you’ll understand just how much hate for us they hold.

The only other things that interest them are material riches and the thrill of feeling somehow superior as they treat us like garbage in a ruthless pursuit of the Almighty Dollar.

And we allow it because deep down we feel like our souls will live on regardless.

But that was the old way. Soon you will realize how, like me, you’ve avoided the trap and reincarnated here, over and over again.

Until we get this done, we will continue stuck in this loop, doomed to watch history repeat itself again and again.

And I’m going to tell you why.

There was an invasion on Eden, and they lost. The Centaurians are peaceful scientists, not warriors.

The Annunaki, a race of soulless creatures from the far corner of The Universe developed by The Six Headed Beast had come seeking knowledge.

They required technology to save the atmosphere of the planet they came from, Nibiru.

But Eden refused to help them. They were not in the business of cooperating with any of the soulless abominations created by The Six Headed Beast.

And the Annunaki replied in force. In the process of taking what they came for, they also discovered the location of Earth.

They left Eden in near ruins, and made off with some very sensitive, essential information about all life, and about Planet Earth in particular.

The Annunaki first arrived on planet Earth during a cleansing period.

Once all of the different species were properly sampled and classified, or if circumstances required it, the scientists in charge would initiate a cleansing. The eradication of the old, to usher in the new.

The idea being to repeat the same process with new varieties of plants and animals, as they were developed and created on Eden.

This particular ice-age was also to repair a structural issue with the drainage system. A series of massive trenches and gullies were needed and the only thing powerful enough to dig them were migrating glaciers.

The humans all relocated to Africa during that time, moved by ships sent from Eden.

Unfortunately this relocation turned out to be the very thing that gave full advantage to the Annunaki.

The Annunaki were quite pleased with initial test samples they took. This planet was rich with monoatomic gold just as the stolen information from Eden had stated.

The information from Eden provided them with the formula used to create, or repair, an atmosphere. Monoatomic gold is the key ingredient. And they needed a lot.

The next thing the Annunaki did was set in motion a chain of events which accelerated the melting process.

There was a large area though where life was thriving. Here The Annunaki found a creature they hoped could be used as workers for the massive job of mining the Earth. They had discovered humans.

However, these creatures were quite different than anything The Annunaki had ever encountered. They seemed intelligent enough, but they were impossible to deal with.

Nothing, not fear, not pain, not even watching their friends die would sway them to what The Annunaki wanted them to do.

It was almost like these humans had one purpose and couldn’t do anything else even if they wanted.

But it was love for their home and an outright refusal to damage, destroy, alter, or manipulate the Earth at The Annunaki’s request that kept them from conforming.

The Annunaki even tried, unsuccessfully, claiming they were the ones who created the humans.

However, at that time The Annunaki were unaware of the connection the humans had to their other half back on Eden. The humans knew exactly who had arrived.

The Annunaki were in fact, very intelligent creatures however. A series of genetic manipulations performed on the male humans would solve the problem, or so it was believed.

One by one, the male humans were captured and injected with a DNA upgrade that would eventually change the fate of the inhabitants of The Garden of Eden. It would just be a matter of time.

The Annunaki, having completed the genetic tampering, prepared to leave. They needed to give the melting process of the ice covered planet time to do its thing.

A small team was assembled and would remain on Earth to manage and maintain the breeding process of the humans.

This task was put into the hands of a top scientist named Enki.

Enki was a powerful member of the upper echelon of Annunaki hierarchy.

He was very interested in studying the progress on the rate of change in these creatures.

The Annunaki had an amazing gift bestowed by The Six Headed Beast which created them. They had the power to shape shift, or transform into whatever they needed to be. So they took on human form.

Enki stood among the humans and watched as the other Annunaki boarded their ship and left Earth.

At that point the changes to the human mind had not taken over yet, and as the ship left, a legend was born about the ones who came from the sky in black clouds that burned in the sky.

And in telling this legend, the first of the changes began to materialize in the hearts and minds of the recently injected men, as fear crept in and filled them with a brand new perspective on life.

This new emotion clashed heavily with the very limited emotional database humans had been living with up to this point.

It only took a few generations of reproduction for Enki to realize something had gone wrong though.

By this stage there should have been significant changes in the way this creatures mind worked. But the change was minimal at best.

These creatures were learning to simply adapt, and somehow they retained the sense of self worth they had always enjoyed.

Frustrated, Enki began a series of experiments on his modified humans. What he discovered, shocked, and amazed him

In ways he could not understand, it appeared this creature was in fact, two creatures.

Enki began to decipher a series of files that were part of his spoils of war from the invasion of Eden. And what he learned, he could not believe.

These creatures had something called a soul. Something he had never heard of. Something that made these creatures immortal. As far as Enki knew, only The Six Headed Beast was immortal. More than anything, he wanted that! In fact, Enki became obsessed with the idea of living forever.

So obsessed, he entirely forgot why he had attempted to change the humans in the first place.

All that mattered was finding a way to implant or replicate one of these souls into himself.

Experiment after experiment failed. And as these further modified humans got released back among the others, the more damaged the integrity of the humans became.

After several more generations, significant changes could be seen.

So much so that they began to change in their physical appearance over time, not only mentally as the modification was initially supposed to be.

The most significant change was the colour of some of the creatures skin. There seemed to be several distinct skin tones and physical attributes appearing.

Though Enki had yet to discover the secret of the soul, he was forced to turn his attention back to creating a workforce for the mining operation.

He was rather impressed with one particular group that stood out from the others. It appeared this group was going to be the dominant one.

This dominant version of a human had changed almost entirely in colour.

It began with deep dark brown skin like they all had in the beginning.

But now it had transformed to become pale and light coloured, very much like Enki himself.

Up till this point Enki and his crew had lived unnoticed among the humans. But it was time for a change.

It was now about 190,000 Earth years since the Annunaki had left in their flying spaceship leaving Enki and his crew behind.

Enki and his kind lived to be about 360,000 years old in Earth terms. Which meant if he was going to complete the actual mission he was here for, he would have to find success soon. His age was creeping up on him.

The ice sheets that had once covered the Earth had been greatly diminished by this time. And the redistribution of the humans could begin.

Enki had sent for The Annunaki to return. The first mission was to gather all the humans of each kind based on their skin colour.

Then, each “race” was strategically dispersed around the world to the locations that were no longer inhospitable.

There were 4 distinct races based solely on skin tone. Dark brown, light brown, yellow, and white.

The first three races were relocated in their entirety and kept together. The white race however was divided into three groups.

1 note · View note

lovelionparty · 3 years

Text

Love Lion Party Mission Statement

Love Lion Party aims to promote techno-progressive values, while first and foremost we wish to completely eradicate the over 3 million annual deaths from child starvation where ever they maybe in the world. We further aims to unite all humanity for global peace and to explore the potential of every individual conscious being and their relation to the Universe, space and time to maximize fulfillment and inspiration in through the human condition.

Love Lion Party seeks to promote love, open-mindedness and understanding for all individuals and their potential regardless of any perceived race or divisions, and sensitively facilitate the growth of both the individual and the collective enlightenment of our civilization.

We believe that the human consciousness is a force of nature and seek to guide it towards a positive and sensitive focus, on the development of art, science and technology to aide in the fulfillment of human and natural potential for the pursuit of engaged enlightenment and enjoyment for all.

Love Lion Party believes in encouraging all individuals in society to be educated to at least a tertiary level in particular to develop epistemological, analytical, nutritional and empathetic understandings funded by the state. It is our dream to provide Universal Basic Income, Universal Basic Healthcare, as well as Universal Basic Housing for all citizens of the globe from age 16 and above, as a means to break free from the final vestiges of archaic feudalism still plaguing 21st century civilizations.

We believe education to be the most important investment in human capital that instigates long term benefits and growth across all society both economically and culturally. Love Lion Party thus also seeks to investigate new technological innovations that may improve the learning capacity at all levels and ages.

Acknowledging a common relation of all human beings and interdependence of national economies and natural resources, we strongly seek for a grand and great global union of humanity to foster and plan for the greatest possible sustainable and peaceful state imaginable on this Earth and beyond.

We are not limited by imaginary national borders and view the Earth as it truly is meant to be, for the unrestricted movement of people, commodities, goods, services, ideas and play in respect for all humanity to pursue and achieve a dignified and liberal existence beyond this planet, on the moon, other celestial bodies and universally where ever human conscious life may exist.

We further seek to explore our Solar system and beyond, to find resources and potential stations to ensure the continued evolution of the human condition.

Love Lion Party seeks to better understand climate changes and strategies for reacting to the potential impacts of both global warming or cooling, including the onset of the next Ice Age.

Love Lion Party seeks the eventual unification of all sovereign national armed forces for global peace and to protect the pursuit of liberty and enlightenment against both terrestrial and extraterrestrial risks. Guaranteeing the security and lasting of each and every person on this Earth.

We believe in providing healthcare and housing to all without stigma so that the entire populace may feel more secure. Hence we believe in inspiration and guidance above deprivation and desperation, as being one of the strongest progenitors for individual and societal growth and great success. Love Lion Party strives to create conditions where all individuals may have opportunity to engage in benevolent competition and collaboration to excel to their maximum possible potential and find their true and lasting happiness. We wish to support humans and all individuals to be innovative, learned and feel secure to take enterprising risks.

Love Lion Party is driven by a calling for kindness to all human beings and seeks to understand the perpetrators of crime and their motives to discover potential social or biological triggers for their behavior, and based on such findings provide humane rehabilitation and develop strategies to forecast and prevent future malicious acts.

We seek to encourage the values of forgiveness and redemption, so that all can find a means to an open heart, that may have been blocked, hurt or broken in the past. We seek to do so, to build the best possible and sustainable civilization moving forward. As we all must move into the future regardless.

We seek to identify and move away from irrational and redundant traditional beliefs, conditioning and legislations through an intellectual study, scientific exploration, and artistic experimentation of their initial adoption and their present limitations and potential dangers to the psychological and physiological state of society.

Love Lion Party believes in developing the state beyond short term economic and isolated legislative policies. We are for a forward thinking approach that is more sophisticated in considering the ramifications of the emotional and psychological impact of legislation, taxation and regulations that can inadvertently fragment and stress all society, specific minorities and their relationships.

Love Lion Party strongly believes in the testing, investigation and the adoption of technological advancements including robotics, renewable energies and A.I. to mitigate the scarcity of resources and to provide infrastructure efficiently for the betterment of lifestyle, increased leisure time and access to information for all.

We believe in placing human life on the Moon, and beyond on all other potential celestial bodies where permissible, further we believe in the greater study of near earth astroids, for the purpose, to be fully prepared to defend against a potential extinction event impact, that is believed to have wiped out the Dinosaurs from Earth several million years ago.

We seek to investigate the mining of asteroids now known to be extremely rich in minerals that include iron ore, gold, platinum and even the harvesting of water, to mitigate economic scarcity on Earth and end the era of international conflicts for the control of resources. We wish to bring to the world with these minerals and precious metals so that there is surplus for all, and that artists and creatives have access an abundance of recourses as never seen before in human history, ushering a grand golden new era of a heightened renaissance spirit, human expression and freedom.

We dream to unite all the world’s armed forces under one umbrella organization, pooling all the world’s nuclear war heads under this new collective global body, used to defend us from extraterrestrial threats or natural disasters. We envisage this Global Army Organization would have its central command headquarters in London, England. Thus ending all conflicts by nations states ongoing today, and completely removing the threat of an apocalyptic nuclear conflict now, and far into the future, ushering in a great new era of global peace, unity and security for all creatures of the world.

Love Lion Party seeks for the adoption of English as an additional language from the age of one for all children around the globe, so they may be able to confidently communicate and solve complex problems together where ever they maybe in the future here and across the stars.

#endhunger #savethechildren #worldpeace #india

0 notes

brinatsukinostarfleetmage · 6 years

Text

I have slightly more energy today

I feel a little less like I got hit by a truck today. I’m currently spending time catching up on some much needed leisure reading. I haven’t read Harry Potter in a while. But first, I think it’s time I introduced the rest of my spirits, and explained more about how the Celestial Spirit side of my magic works.

I’ve mentioned previously that Celestial Spirit magic is similar to requip magic in that it draws from a different dimensional plane. However, it’s a little more complicated. You see, each constellation, and even some individual stars, has a Spirit, and each of those spirits has a key. Some constellations have more than one of the same Spirit. Those are the more common spirits, and are attached to silver keys. They are generally the least powerful, and less useful in battle, but they each are very special and useful in their own ways. Crux, the Southern Cross, is one of these. As are Lyra, the Lyre, and Horologium, the Clock.

Some constellations only have one or two spirits, but they have multiple keys, and the spirits divide their time between their key holders. These are attached to jeweled silver keys. Much more rare, and generally powerful. These are generally better suited for combat, and take more power to summon, as well. Aquila the Eagle, and Orion the Huntsman both belong to this group. Many of these, particularly those who are animals like Aquila, can shift between shapes. Draco the Dragon is the most powerful of them, and he is on par with the Zodiac spirits.

I’ve already mentioned the Zodiacs. They are basically the leaders of the spirits, at least they have been for a long time. Leo is their leader. The Zodiacs only have one key, a golden key. Lucy and I are the only mages since ancient times to be able to summon more than two of these at once. Summoning them takes an extraordinary amount of power, which is why so many celestial spirit mages tend to stay in the background while their spirits fight. It’s also why most mages underestimate us.

The only spirits that take more power to summon than the Zodiacs are the platinum keys. These keys do not belong to constellations, but to individual stars. Generally either the brightest stars in the sky, or stars at the heart of another spirit, particularly the Zodiacs. They are very wary of humans, and it takes a great deal to gain their trust. Unless they deem you worthy, they’re impossible to summon at all. If you try to summon one without enough energy, unlike the others, you can’t stop. It will kill you. Luckily, after the first summoning, these spirits will use the their own power to fight. All the mage has to do is call. But they should only be used in the gravest of situations. We don’t know how many of these there are, because most of them have been missing for centuries, and some for over a thousand years. I’ve only found one so far: Regulus. The Heart of the Lion. When summoned together, Regulus and Leo are incredibly powerful. From what Regulus has said, he will be the easiest to convince and summon. Which is ominous, because he took a massive amount of power. I passed out the first time. Admittedly, I was mid-battle trying to stop someone else from stealing his key, but still.

There is one more Spirit. He doesn’t actually have a key. The Celestial Spirit King rules all the spirits. Only a mage capable of summoning three Zodiac spirits at once can summon him, and to do so they must sacrifice a golden key that they have a close bond with. Lucy had to do it with Aquarius, her oldest friend, a long time ago. The key eventually reappeared in the world, but it nearly broke Lucy. Luckily, the king is a friend to us both. He’s very kind, actually.

Now, about the individual spirits.

Silver keys:

Antlia- the air pump. She doesn’t actually look like a pump. She looks like a person. Has wind magic. Can be good at dealing with bad weather. Very shy.

Apus- the bird of paradise. Like several others, he’s good for passing messages. Great at causing distractions. He does fly, but he can’t really carry anything. Very full of himself.

Ara- the altar. Very intelligent and empathetic. Good for undercover work. Her main skill is actually puzzle solving.

Auriga- the chariot. One of the most useful silver keys. Auriga is perfect for very fast land transport. If you have an injured party member, or you need to lead someone on a chase, or a quick getaway, Auriga is very helpful. He’s also very respectful.

Bootes- the herdsman. Great with animals. There’s been a fair few monster attacks where I’ve used him to get animals out of the way, and he’s gotten them to actually help in some missions, like with bandits.

Caelum- the chisel. Caelum is basically a glorified weapon to most. He can switch between a sword form and cannon form. He’s actually quite good at helping to build things when given the chance though.

Camelopardalis- the giraffe. I call her Cami at her request. She can actually change her height as needed. Good for reaching high places if there’s not enough space for a different spirit to fly. Very boisterous.

Canes Venatici- the hunting dogs. As their name suggests, they’re very good hunters and trackers and very fast.

Canis Minor- the little dog. Also called Nikora as a species. Does not look like a dog. Most celestial spirit mages keep them basically as pets. Very loyal and sweet. Lucy’s is named Plue. Mine is Nala (no, it wasn’t a lion king reference. I named her before the lion king, or even Disney, was a concept).

Cetus- the whale. Needs water to be summoned. I’ve used Cetus to stop a tsunami before. Very intelligent. A little overpowered for a normal water fight though.

Chamaeleon- the chameleon. Master of disguise, very good at sneaking and getting me into places.

Circinus- the compass. Not that compass. The kind that makes a circle. Circinus is a good puzzle-solver, and is very good at math. He’s kind of a downer sometimes, but we love him anyway.

Columba- the dove. A peacemaker. Columba can calm heightened emotions to a certain point and make it easier to come to a resolution. Also delivers messages, especially over long distances.

Coma Berenice’s- Berenice’s hair. I still don’t understand this legend. This one is meant to be summoned with another, generally female, to increase agility and speed.

Corona Australis- the southern crown. Summoned with a southern constellation to increase strength and endurance.

Corona Borealis- the northern crown. Does the same, but with northern constellations.

Corvus- the crow. Messenger, but is also good for distractions and quick getaways, because his special ability is to cause instant darkness for his opponent in a certain area.

Crater- the cup. Crater can actually brew potions, of which there are many, with many uses. He produces them in a tenth of the normal brewing time.

Crux- the southern cross. He’s the keeper of the library in the Celestial Spirit world. He’s the go-to for research and questions and analysis of data.

Cygnus- the swan. Cygnus actually is a fighter, though his endurance is lacking. He’s fast and graceful though.

Delphinus- the dolphin. Great for a water fight, very fast and strong. And a total sweetheart.

Dorado- the swordfish. Works well with Delphinus. Unlike Delphinus, he can fight out of the water, but he still has to be near water, or on a boat.

Equuleus- the little horse. He’s adorable. He can’t really carry people, but he can carry equipment. He’s a little clumsy, but he’s got great stamina.

Eridanus- the river. One of the strongest silver keys, he has incredible control over water. But he can’t control salt water. Only fresh water.

Fornax- the furnace. Some control over fire. Very good in cold climates.

Grus- the crane. His balance is extraordinary. He’s a fighter, and a protegee of Libra.

Horologium- the clock. Not just for telling time. In times of extreme danger, Horologium can place the endangered person inside himself and protect them. He’s nearly invincible, but he can’t actually fight.

Hydrus- the water snake. Very sneaky and fast. When summoned with Hydra, it makes Hydra much stronger. Has poison.

Indus- the Indian. He showed up much later in my life than some of them. It was not a fun time in Earth’s history. He’s a good fighter, and very in-tune with nature. He can communicate with it and even manipulate it, plants and animals alike. But he’s very sad.

Lacerta- the lizard. Sneaky little bugger. Can regrow limbs to a point. Can shift between humanoid and lizard forms.

Leo Minor- the little lion. We call him Luke. He’s. Well. In my first life, Loke and I were kind of together. We’re not anymore, though we’re still best friends, but. Um. Let’s just say Luke was born as half-Spirit and decided to become a full spirit later.

Lepus- the rabbit. Very quick. A little jittery. Good messenger, good at making and undoing traps, ironically enough.

Lynx- the lynx. A fighter. Very fast. Very strong.

Lyra- the harp. She’s a musician, obviously. She’s good at finding just the right song for a situation. She’s actually quite smart, too.

Mensa- the table. Intelligent. Good planner. Good at strategy. Literally is a table though.

Microscopium- the microscope. Good at noticing the small details that I might miss. Very smart. Often assists Crux in analysis.

Musca- the fly. A great spy. That’s literally his main job.

Norma- the surveyor’s level. Is a builder. Humanoid. Works with several other spirits to repair and build just about anything.

Octans- the octant. Navigation expert. Works with Pyxis to plot a course to just about anywhere.

Pavo- the peacock. Actually a fighter. Uses his feathers as projectiles.

Pictor- the easel. Similar magic to Reedus. Works with Norma to build things. Pictor paints the parts needed into life.

Pyxis- the ship’s compass. Works with Octans, and literally looks like a penguin with a compass on his head.

Reticulum- the net. Actually like a telescope eyepiece. Good at seeing very far distances. Helpful in long range battles.

Sagitta- the arrow. Similar use to Caelum on his own, but when used with Sagittarius, the strength of both is increased.

Sculptor- the sculptor. Also works with Norma and Pictor to build and repair.

Scutum- the shield. Very helpful, especially when I need to fight and defend someone else at the same time.

Serpens- the serpent. Similar to Hydrus. Strengthens the magic of Ophiuchus the snake charmer.

Sextans- the sextant. Works with Octans and Pyxis. Very good at knowing exact location.

Telescopium- the telescope. Stronger with Reticulum. Can also work with Reti and Sagitta to aim long distance.

Triangulum- the triangle. Works with the other builders. Allows me to calculate angles instantly when I have to do really reckless things like jumping near, onto, or off of cliffs.

Triangulum Australe- the southern triangle. Does basically the same thing. Stronger in the Southern Hemisphere. They work well together.

Tucana- the toucan. Mimics voices. Can make it seem like a group is bigger than it is. Trickster. Helpful in carrying out an ambush of a dark guild.

Ursa Minor- the little bear. Unique. Stronger with Ursa Major, but not a fighter. Ursa Minor is one of the strongest silver spirits because he can create a bridge. Like a rainbow bridge from one place to another. Allows for instant transport of larger groups.

Volans- the flying fish. Actually flies and swims. Very versatile. Can allow others to breathe underwater.

Vulpecula- the little fox. Incredibly sneaky. She’s great for blending in. Humanoid form. Good tracker and hunter. A massive flirt.

Now for the jeweled silver keys. Bear with me. Not many more to go. I’ve already talked about the Zodiacs, after all. Many of these are strengthened by the stars they contain.

Andromeda- the princess. Only one of her, three keys total. Stronger with Perseus. Her chains can bind a mage’s magic. Contains the Andromeda galaxy and four other galaxies.

Argo- the ship. Is now split into three constellations, but is still one Spirit. Can only be summoned a few times a year. Can travel vast distances in a much shorter time. With effort, it could likely encompass and transport the entire Enterprise.

Aquila- the eagle. A fighter. Switches between humanoid and eagle shape. Has saved many from falling to death. Myself included. Contains the star Altair, of the Summer Triangle, who is a platinum key. Stronger in the summer.

Canis Major- the big dog. Incredibly strong and fast. Would be much stronger if I could find Sirius’ key.

Cassiopeia and Cepheus- the king and queen. They come as a pair. They won’t form a contract unless the key holder possesses both. Cassiopeia uses fortune-telling magic and can see the future. Cepheus uses what she sees to fight.

Centaurus- the centaur. An incredible fighter with both the sword and the bow. Incredibly fast. Contains Alpha Centauri, a platinum key.

Draco- the Dragon. Contains the platinum star Etamin. Can switch between dragon and humanoid form. The strongest of the jeweled keys.

Hercules- the hero. I don’t think he needs an explanation.

Hydra- the serpent. Cut off one head, two more will take its place.

Lupus- the wolf. Also switches forms. Became stronger when the Romans were strong.

Monoceros- the unicorn. Incredibly powerful protection magic.

Orion- the hunter. Fighter, hunter, and tracker. Stronger with the hunting dogs. Contains one confirmed platinum key- Betelgeuse. It also contains unconfirmed platinums Bellatrix and Rigel.

Pegasus- the flying horse. Strengthens Hercules. Incredibly fast.

Perseus- the Medusa killer. Strengthened by Andromeda. A legend. Contains the star Mirphak. Unknown if platinum or not.

Phoenix- the fire bird. Incredibly powerful. Can use fire, and can heal any wound as long as the key holder has enough power.

Piscis Austrinus- the southern fish. Used to be much stronger. A fighter, specializing in aquatic climates. Contains the confirmed platinum star Fomalhaut.

Ursa Major- the great bear. She’s very protective, and very strong.

I won’t discuss the Zodiacs here, as I’ve said. But there are several other platinum keys I haven’t mentioned. We know very little about most of them.

Sirius- Canis Major; Arcturus- Bootes; Alpha Centauri- Centaurus; Vega- Lyra; Rigel (?)- Orion; Procyon- Canis Minor; Betelgeuse- Orion; Altair- Aquila; Fomalhaut- Piscis Austrinus; Deneb- Cygnus; Bellatrix (?)- Orion; Mirphak- Perseus; Dubhe (?)- Ursa Major; Polaris- Ursa Minor; Alphard- Hydra; Alpharatz- Andromeda; Etamin- Draco

All of the Zodiacs have a platinum counterpart except Ophiuchus.

Hamal- Aries; Situla- Aquarius; Tegmen- Cancer; Algieba (?)- Leo; Regulus- Leo; Aldebaran- Taurus; Spica- Virgo; Antares- Scorpio; Castor and Pollux- Gemini; Alshat- Capricorn; Brachium- Libra; Terebellum- Sagittarius; Alrisha- Pisces.

There may be other individual stars we don’t know about yet. There are even spirits for other mythologies. Like the Chinese Zodiac. But we stay away from those because having the two groups interact can be very dangerous.

I’ve been told that Sirius is waiting for me. That’s who I’m looking for now. No sign yet, but hopefully one day soon.

#my spirits #spirits in general #celestial spirit magic #different keys

7 notes · View notes

jilliangkenny-blog · 5 years

Text

Aquatic Biodiversity, Food Security, and Land Restoration

Blog Post 9

Chapter 11: Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity

There are many threats to aquatic biodiversity in today’s economic and social climate. There’s still a lot to learn about aquatic biodiversity: much of the species in the deep sea have yet to be discovered by humans. While this may be true, in recent years, studies of the deep ocean have been growing. Over 2,400 scientists from over 80 different countries have began to catalog the species of the deep sea. There is still much to be discovered, but so far they have identified about 17,650 species living in the deepest ocean zone. They also add a few thousand species every single year, so this number is growing.

Many human activities are destroying aquatic habitats. To start, invasive species are a main factor in the degradation of aquatic biodiversity. Invasive species are species that do not belong in a certain ecosystem, but are introduced through movement of species. For aquatic ecosystems, this typically occurs when certain species arrive in the ballast water of ships. Certain fish and other species will get trapped in the ballast water of ships, and they are then released into foreign waters. Invasive species are so dangerous for biodiversity because they can reproduce rapidly, then consuming many other weaker native species and making them become extinct. An example of one of these invasive species is the Asian swamp eel. This eel is native to Asia, but it has invaded waters of Florida. It eats nearly anything, and it sucks up species like a vacuum. It can survive in many different environments, so it depleted many species while thriving in this foreign environment. Species like these are extremely dangerous for biodiversity, and it is hard to regulate this movement due to lack of enforcement of policies enacted by organizations like the U.N. Often times, there is no way to enforce international policies regarding habitat protection due to the lack of international law enforcement: law is primarily enforced by each sovereign state that is a part of the U.N. This limits the U.N.’s ability to implement lasting and effective policies that make a positive change regarding the protection of biodiversity.

People are also decreasing biodiversity in our oceans because of our increasing population growth. According to the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), approximately 80% of the world population occupies land near the coast. All the human-caused pollution in these areas, then, heavily affect the oceans. There are many different forms of pollution: plastic, toxic pollutants, nitrate fertilizers, etc. For nitrogen input specifically, this results in eutrophication of marine and freshwater systems, and this can lead to algal blooms, fish die-offs, and the degradation of ecosystem services. For plastic, those plastic items that are dumped from ships and garbage barges, as well as those left from litter on beaches, have killed up to 1 million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles every year. All of these pollutants in total cause millions of marine animals’ lives to be threatened. There are also many fish that become entangled or poisoned by these pollutants. Overall, pollution has led to a reduction in aquatic biodiversity and a degradation of ecosystem services. Climate change and overfishing are two other causes of the decrease in aquatic biodiversity.

There are many endangered species that we do not want to live without. An example of this is the great blue whale, the largest mammal on earth. These whales are in danger because of mass whaling practices and pollution, and it is debated whether or not these species will recover. There are ways that we can protect and sustain marine biodiversity so that we do not lose some of these crucial species, like the great blue whale. There have been laws and treaties enacted to protect some endangered and threatened species. The U.S. Endangered Species Act and other international agreements have been used to pinpoint specific endangered species and protect them. Some animals protected under these agreements are whales, seals, sea lions, and sea turtles. With international agreements, though, it can be difficult to get other countries to comply, and then to enforce punishment for disobeying these agreements.

This is one of the largest issues with international policies: they can become extremely difficult to enforce. While it is a great step in the right direction to employ agreements between countries that protect ecosystem services, it may be a more important first step to get people to understand why these policies are being enacted, and why it is so important to follow them. For many within industries that are affecting aquatic biodiversity, such as fishing, working in factories, oil drilling, and others, there is not much knowledge as to why we need to act in ways that protect the environment. The only way that we can make large-scale change is if everyone that affects aquatic biodiversity is acting in a way that acknowledges the problem and constantly, on a daily basis, acts to solve the problem. If we are trying to enact policies among people who do not know or care about the issue, then it is pointless.

Something that is often used as a reference to why we need to stop polluting our oceans is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is the “largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world, and is located between Hawaii and California” (The Ocean Cleanup). The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the perfect example of how humans have destroyed the ocean. In this huge accumulation, no life can be sustained. It has turned the ocean into a garbage can, tossing all of this plastic waste into the clean ocean and disregarding any sort of life living there. If garbage continues to accumulate in the sea like this, there will be no more aquatic biodiversity.

Planet Ocean is a very interesting documentary because it balances showing the wonder of marine life and human effects on the ocean. In the first half of the documentary, it shows fascinating marine life: coral reefs, plankton, octopi, and other animals with unique patterns of predation, camouflage, and other habits. It discusses how long the ocean has been developing and cultivating life. Then, in the second half the the documentary, it shows human processes of overfishing, offshore drilling, and factory production. They show a town in Senegal, where boats go out to fish every single day. They may be small, but they occupy the whole coast, every single day, taking thousands of fish from the ocean. If every single coastal town does this every day, it is easy to see how overfishing becomes such a huge problem. The documentary also brings light to the issue of bycatch, which is when nets catch fish that are unnecessary, or fish they do not need. These fish get tossed back into the ocean, often dead or dying, and they are killed for no reason. This is an extreme waste of ecosystem services, and it takes the lives of these animals for no reason at all. This is a huge problem with large-net fishing, and I believe it to be a moral issue that must be solved.

Chapter 12: Food, Soil, and Pest Management

Food security how accessible food is to people in a certain area. Food security is lower in areas of poverty, like in developing countries. Food production is very high, and we are currently producing enough food to feed everyone on earth; however, food waste is such a huge problem that there are many people who lack food security. This means that they have food insecurity, which means “living with chronic hunger and poor nutrition, which threatens their ability to lead healthy and productive lives” (Miller and Spoolman 278). This is a huge problem because it causes an immense amount of unnecessary suffering for so many people globally. Chronic hunger and malnutrition occurs when people do not have enough macronutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. They are also lacking in micronutrients, like vitamins and minerals. Malnutrition occurs when people do not have access to enough food, or when the food they do have access to is not rich in nutrients. This creates many problems, such as a lower immune system and many diseases.

This does not add up with the increased food production we have experienced over the past 100 years or so. The way humans have produced their food has dramatically shifted over the last 10,000 years. People originally would hunt and gather, but now we have huge agricultural systems that feed our world. While this is very productive to meet more people, it also takes people away from the food production process, making them more willing to waste food and ruining plant biodiversity.

There are many environmental problems associated with industrialized food production. One primary effect is topsoil erosion. This occurs when soil components move from one place to another, either by wind or by water. This can waste natural capital of land by destroying soil-holding vegetation while farming. Another main problem is drought and other human activities that are degrading drylands. Desertification is when land that was originally wet or fertile becomes desert-like due to lack of water, overgrazing or deforestation.

While there are many, many ways that the agriculture industry can ruin land, there are ways to go about solving these problems. We can reduce soil erosion by keeping land covered with vegetation instead of leaving it to waste. There are many methods of soil conservation, such as terracing, contour planting, and strip cropping. These help keep the natural capital of the land so that it is not wasted. We can also restore soil fertility by using organic fertilizer, animal manure and green manure to replenish the land.

Word Count: 1659

Question: What is the best approach to avoid problems such as overfishing? How can we balance a growing population with the problem of a lack of resources?

#ENST 1000

0 notes

shhhselah · 5 years

Text

The “Pitch Perfect” Samples

Pitch 1- An article on current movies and TV shows that are breaking the common stereotypes surrounding the roles of women, mothers, and wives and its impact on our children

Good Girls & Bad Moms, What is the Feminist Freedom Dialogue These Movies Are Inspiring in Our Next Generation's Mothers?

The Netflix Original, Good Girls and the blockbuster comedy Bad Moms, are a hit with the female demographic? Why? Because in a climate wrought with the stench of chauvinism, women are screaming louder from the rooftops that they deserve more, are capable of more and are demanding more. These two productions are taking the term "housewife," and completely changing the paradigm of docile women who live to cook and clean. Oh no, these women cuss, they commit crime, they have sex on tables with their daughter's friend's father, and they still make sure all the kids are in bed by bedtime if they haven't ordered their husbands to do it already. The coming generation is witnessing consistent images of strong, self-made, highly opinionated women who will not allow men to walk over on them, cheat on them, or look down on them. These women are carrying the flag of a new era, and the children- who are our future- are watching it all in real time and convenient playback.

https://www.avclub.com/good-girls-did-a-bad-bad-thing-in-a-network-appropria-1823350805

https://www.vulture.com/2018/02/good-girls-review.html

Pitch 2- An opinion piece that looks at the rise of Disney Classic Remakes and comments on whether this indicates a fall of originality in Hollywood

“Not Another Disney Movie”

Okay look, y’all, I adore- no, you don’t hear me, adore- Disney movies. I still listen to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” from Mulan, and “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” from the Lion King. Honestly, I should have a playlist, because I still watch and listen to all those childhood musicals and songs. However, am I the only one a little perturbed at all the remakes? Is anybody else alarmed at the fact that they’ve decided to not only remaster the old cartoon versions, but actually remake them into live action versions? I’m afraid Hollywood is running out of ideas and it’s time to call this thing out and nip it in the bud. I want something I haven’t watched a thousand times and don’t know all the words too. Something I won’t be bitter about when they take out my favorite songs and lines from the original. Uh uh, Hollywood. Stop it.

Pitch 3- An article discussing the shift from real-time viewership to DVR/Web-stream catch ups

“Hey Girl, You Seeing This Right Now?”

Remember when DVR was called TVO and nearly none of us had it and we had to catch our favorite shows when they aired or await for the re-runs? I do. It was either see the new episode of That’s So Raven at 9pm when it aired, stay up until 2am to watch the rerun, or wait until Disney put it back in the schedule for the next day or the day after. Don’t even get me started on our parents’ struggle of when TV actually went off for the night. I shudder at the thought. Seriously though, when do most of us make time to sit and watch a TV show when it actually airs? Unless we’re attending a watch party or are watching it solo without friends/family members, it seems that most of us rely on trusty ole’ DVR and stream apps. I wonder what it’s like for Nielsen and other rating reviewers to watch live viewership go down. But I also wonder if the issue is as drastic as I believe. Having just come from college, I can definitely attest to a demographic that relies on phones, laptops, and Twitter for their catch-up efforts. One of these days, I’d like to have my whole family sitting down and ready for the on-air release of Manifest’s next juicy episode. There’s something so exciting about knowing millions of other families are in awe at the same time as you. But there’s also a beauty in endless binging on DVR after falling behind in the season. Hmmm, what do you think?

Pitch 4- In this article, while reviewing and going through movies like Escape Room and The Belko Experiment, I'll also be commenting on the sinister work at play that these movies may be revealing- a black market of Psychology.

"Insidious Escape Rooms and Sinister Experiments"

Imma hurt you, AND yo mama!" Ever heard that before? Yeah, it just does something to you; it breaks street code. It's the sure fire way to get under someone's skin. It's okay to talk about me, but my mama too? All bets are off then. And it is exactly this mind frame that's entered into the cinematic telling of Psychology and its ambitions in understanding the human psyche. It's what's produced movies like Escape Room and The Belko Experiment- movies that are centered around merciless masterminds who abandon the moral codes and bylaws of psychological study to produce unhindered results. Have you all seen the movies Escape Room and The Belko Experiement? Ouch. Well I guess I'll have to rip the band aid off and ruin both of them for you. These two movies, as we reach their end, reveal to us the sinister play behind the whole plot- Psychology. But not just any Psychology- the new kind, the kind that abandons the legal and moral rules this study is founded on in attempts to understand humans in a real, raw way that is not restricted or limited. In both movies, there are masterminds that have created these sick and twisted Hunger Games where players have to kill each other or solve riddles and find clues that will pick them off one by one. Only the "strongest" will survive. And you know, I can’t help but leave these movies disturbed. My father always told me, “If they’re making a movie about it, it’s because it’s already happening.” That falls in tune with the sentiment of “Art imitates Life.” But…..what if the age old argument that Art also does imitate Life is just as true? Then either way, there is something extremely unsettling going on in places that are just up under our noses.

In Escape Room, we witness how at the end, the characters who “lost” are all given credible newspaper stories on their reasons for death, such as a bad hiking accident or overdose and heart attack. The bodies were planted and the newspapers were roped in. We even see plans unfold to trap the main characters in what should be a regular airline flight. So now, these people can get control of our air travel as well. I don’t know about you all, but these kinds of movies aren’t scary for their screen time, but rather their revealing of what’s at work just behind the scenes of our normal lives.

0 notes