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treedoctorusasworld · 1 year

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Oak Tree Preservation: A Guide to Identifying and Treating Common Tree Diseases

Tree diseases can cause major risks to tree health. Often in the initial stage, a deadly disease might seem to be a trivial issue. However, it spreads very fast and quickly reaches an uncontrollable stage. In certain severe cases, trees can even die. Hence, controlling tree diseases by proper tree preservation services in San Diego is a must-do for optimum tree health management.

In this blog, we will talk about the diseases your trees can suffer from. Additionally, it provides you with a clear picture of the benefits of hiring professionals for oak tree preservation services. Read more to find out everything about preserving Oak trees from deadly diseases.

Key Diseases Having Devastating Effects On Your Oak Trees

Oak trees play a vital role in preserving the natural ecology of Southern California. But these trees are under threat due to infection of different fungus, insects, and pests. As a result, many native trees are killed, and the natural ecosystem has been dramatically changed. Hence, you need to preserve these trees from deadly diseases by early diagnosis, regular monitoring, and effective treatment.

Oak Wilt

This fungal disease is caused by Bretziella fagacearum that destroys Oak landscapes. The fungus attacks the pointy-tipped leaves of red Oak trees. However, their symptoms are leaf loss and rapid wilting at treetops. In severe conditions, the whole tree dies in a few weeks. After a primary infection takes place, this disease rapidly spreads through roots till the death of the trees. In this condition, tree preservation orders have to be taken by eliminating both underground and overland pathways.

Armillaria Root Rot

Different members of the Armillaria genus cause this fungal root rot that results in yellow to brown foliage, poor growth, and in the end, tree death. The major symptoms are dead branches in upper canopies, honey-colored mushrooms at the tree bases. The infected trees with stringy, soft, white wood fall over or break in storms.

Oak Leaf Blister

At the time of cool wet spring season, this fungal disease is caused by Taphrina caerulescens to red Oak trees. Due to this disease, raised, blister-like, and circular areas are found on the upper surfaces of leaves. The bottom concave and upper convex areas become yellowish-brown and yellowish-white, respectively. For oak tree preservation in San Diego, integrated strategies of pest management are required to get rid of this disease.

Xylella Fastidiosa

This is a bacterial pathogen transmitted by vectors and associated with diseases in Oak and other trees. This bacterium creates colonies in the xylem networks of plants and blocks the vessels. Hence, water transport from root to leaves gets stopped, and eventually, the plant dies. Though in maximum cases plants are asymptomatic, some plants show wilting and leaf scorching.

Leaf Spot

This fungal disease interrupts photosynthesis and weakens trees. The disease affects a limited portion of the overall leaf area. If this leaf loss is found in 2 or more consecutive seasons, the tree growth is paused and susceptibility to pest-infected, and other diseases is increased. In this condition, tree preservation services in San Diego have to be taken, such as raking up and destroying fallen leaves of Oaks.

Sudden Oak Death

The plant pathogen, named Phytophthora ramorum, causes this disease that was first recognized by the death of Oak trees in California. You can identify infection of this pathogen with specific symptoms, like flagging, wilting of Shoot tips, and gradual loss of Oak leaves. So, to prevent this sudden death, potential tree preservation orders have to be taken by removing host trees and disposing of plant debris.

Oak Anthracnose

The fungus, Apiognomonia errabunda causes the disease in different species of Oak trees. Specifically, white oak trees are susceptible to this disease that generally creates minor damages to Oak landscapes. But if this infection continues for a prolonged period, severe damages occur. Leaves become shriveled or distorted and shed in a premature stage from its canopy.

Cankers

Oak trees suffer from Hypoxylon canker with dead lesions on trunks, branches, and leaves of infected trees. The disease spreads from underlayers of barks. White rot decays are found in sapwood in the advanced stages. Symptoms of this fungal disease are thinning canopy, brownish-yellow leaves, reduced growth of twigs and Epicormic shoots on large limbs and trunks.

Powdery Mildews

White, grey patches or spots along with talcum-powder-like growth in oak trees indicate that the tree is suffering from Powdery Mildews. In case the spherical, tiny fruiting structures are seen in white color, then it becomes yellowish-brown and black in the final stage. You can find these spots on both sides of leaves, buds, and young stems. However, for controlling Powdery Mildews, effective oak tree preservation measures are the best thing to do.

Lichen

Lichen growth can be found in tree branches and look like grey moss tufts or stringy patches. Though they do not kill plants, they cause poor health of plants. Lichen creates thick layers on trees, shade foliage of plants, and cover branches thoroughly. As a result, the photosynthesis of plants gets interrupted.

Mistletoe

Most of the species of mistletoes parasitize their hosts and make abnormal growths, named as “witches’ brooms.” These pests deform tree branches and reduce the host’s reproductive ability. The only effective tree preservation order is complete parasite removal from host trees.

Potential Risk Of Insect Infestation

Insect infestation is a common problem for people having trees. In this content, it is important to understand that many of the insects survive consuming their food from the plants and trees. However, not all of them are severely harmful to tree health. Bees, for instance, live on the nectar from flowers and don’t cause any deadly diseases to the plants.

In contrast, there are certain insects and flies that affect the wellbeing of a tree, and commonly identified as tree pests. This section of our blog introduces you to a few common types of plant pests that are capable of causing deadly diseases in trees.

Galls

Galls are one of the potential risks of insect infestation, and it occurs when Oaks react to the egg-laying of wasps on flowers, branches, twigs, or leaves. These wasps inject a hormone in the plant tissues that causes abnormal growth and enclose developing larvae of the insect. Though it does not create long-term negative impacts, fatal effects are found in heavy infestation.

Oakworms

In summer and spring, oak worms eat the sprouted leaves of Oak trees. Sometimes in summer, these worms consume foliage completely. The yellow-necked caterpillars of oak worms skeletonize leaves. As a result, full branches of the trees lack greenery. Additionally, they create spider-like, silky webs with an unsightly look. Most of the trusted tree preservation services in San Diego emphasize their expertise in tackling Oakworms in trees, as many face similar problems.

Scale

Scales are one of the harmful insects for Oak trees as they suck tree sap and destroy branches in heavy infestation. Three scale types can harm Oaks such as pit, armored, or obscure. Lecanium scales are soft scales, larger in size than Obscure scales. Due to scale infestation, leaves get wilted, yellow, and lastly drop prematurely.

Bark Beetle

Ambrosia beetles or bark beetles are found in Oak trees, and they create buckshot holes on bark surfaces of infested trunks or branches. Turpentine and engraver beetles attack treetops and lower sections of trunks, respectively. The presence of these beetles is confirmed by pinkish-brown pitch tubes. These insects degrade the inner layers of Oak barks and eventually cause tree death.

Borer

The Oak pinhole borers are pests that bore deep inside stressed oaks and degrade the appearance of timber. They create galleries with regular, round cross-sections; the wood in the surrounding area is stained brown or black by ambrosia fungi. At the time of early infestation of this borer, the tunnels are found across the grain. These tunnels destroy sap and water-conducting tissues. As a result, severe impacts are found like structural weakness, branch dieback, girdling, and even plant death.

Caterpillar

The larvae or caterpillars of OPM or oak processionary moths are pests of Oak. To feed them up, large populations of OPM damage the trees by stripping whole trees bare. As a consequence, trees become more susceptible to other diseases. After the larvae turn into pupa, they remain stuck for several months till the adults emerge.

Whitefly

Whiteflies are sap-sucking insects that cause potential damage and even death of Oak leaves. With their needle-like, piercing mouthparts, the insects suck tree sap from the phloem. When they grow in large populations, the leaves turn into yellow dry structures. Though heavy whitefly management is complex, tree preservation services in San Diego are essential to get rid of it. These services include using water sprays and treating infested Whitefly leaves.

Mite-warm

Mite-warms make galls and damage Oak plants through chewing the leaves. The salivary secretions of these Mite-warms enhance the production of growth hormones. Due to the high production of hormones, cell numbers of plants increase and galls are created on leaves as a result of this abnormal growth.

For Oak tree preservation in San Diego, pesticides can be applied before the initiation of gall formation. But if galls initiate to form, they protect these mites or insects, hence, the treatment cannot work.

Benefits Of Hiring Professional Oak Tree Preservation Services

In maximum cases of plant diseases caused by insects, caterpillars, or fungus, severe damages are found in leaves, bark, roots of Oak trees that ultimately lead to death. In these conditions, hiring professional oak tree preservation services can help to early diagnosis of the disease. So you can control the spread of the disease.

Perfect Diagnosis - Expert arborists who are skilled adequately can apply tree preservation orders that include fungus treatment and good management of tree diseases. These effective services are beneficial to decrease stress on trees as well as the likelihood of damage, caused by diseases. We, the experienced professionals of oak tree preservation in San Diego, recommend taking proactive actions before these threatening pathogens can downturn beauty along with the health of plants and trees.It can get difficult sometimes to decide which treatment can be applied for which disease, unless the service provider is skilled enough and possesses volume of experience. In this condition, getting help from reliable professionals with the right skills and years of field experience can allow you to take precise steps. The experienced arborists take potential measures to preserve tree health by applying correct treatment procedures based on standard protocols of tree treatment.Additionally, hiring professional services of oak tree preservation can help to provide unique treatment with the help of a tailored and holistic approach. As a result, plants and trees can be restored to good health.

Long-term Results - With professional tree preservation services in San Diego, the landscape of a homeowner can be protected. The beautiful and well-preserved landscape can definitely benefit businesses by standing out from competitors. In this way, a potential value can be added to the property. In addition to this, the homeowner need not spend hours or invest a massive amount of money frequently to protect the landscape.After hiring professional oak tree preservation services, regular monitoring and inspection services are available to secure the health of oak trees in the long run. As professionals focus on proper diagnosis and inspection; hence it becomes easy to get rid of the diseases.

Final Thoughts

For maintaining the ecological balance in an area, it’s crucial to focus on protecting tree health. Also, to ensure that this goal is fulfilled, the first and most effective step is to develop precautionary measures. In this way, you can avoid a high infestation of pathogens and long-term damage to trees.

Removal of affected trees to restrict the spreading of deadly diseases in trees can’t be a regular practice in any way. However, this is a robust measure taken by professionals when no other alternative strategies seem ineffective. Therefore, contact a skilled and experienced expert for tree preservation services in San Diego to get proper suggestions on managing deadly diseases in tree

Original Source: How to Preserve Oak Trees from Deadly Diseases?

#tree healthcare #Family Tree Healthcare #tree service #tree care #tree #tree doctor usa #tree doctor

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thevisibilityarchives · 1 year

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Mass Effect (2007 - Present), BioWare & EA

Disabled

Summary: In the 2180s, humanity has harnessed mass effect technology, a discovery that jettisons forward centuries of advancement in a matter of decades. Space exploration, colonization, and technological advancement propel unprecedented evolution. As Commander Shepard, players assume the role of a celebrated military hero representing the human race whose life changes forever when a routine covert-ops mission unearths a deadly threat with paramount implications.

Where Mass Effect Soars – and Occasionally Flounders – in Its Disabled Representation of Joker

The release of BioWare’s Mass Effect in 2007 kicked off the first installment of a trilogy that can be credited as one of the most prolific video games in history. Right out the gate, the game brought together a confluence of traits necessary for success: an original storyline, role-playing capabilities allowing players to immerse themselves and influence the game based on their actions, high-stakes combat, and beloved science-fiction tropes and callbacks. The resulting product? A series touted as “some of the best sci-fi ever made”, which has consistently achieved critical acclaim from both critics and fans alike and sports a monumental fan base, even 16 years after its release.

There’s much to be beloved about the game, from the philosophical questions it poses about everything from genocide, xenophobia, the cost of colonialism, AI sentience and evolution, and the self-destructive nature of human beings, to the RPG mechanics that allow plays to fall in love, and define themselves again and again. Each time playing I find something new I never noticed before. With each of these three massive games that take hours to explore, building and expanding upon challenges becomes an entertaining adventure – especially when being granted the rare opportunity to do so with a character whose gender and race I have the ability to choose to my liking.

Commander Shepard’s character is deeply shaped by their experiences, background, and the choices players make, culminating in a gameplay experience with high replay value, even years after controversy following what many perceived as a less-than-satisfactory ending, and a spin-off game mired in disappointing reviews.

As mentioned in my previous post covering SyFy/Amazon’s The Expanse, one part of the successful formula of a sci-fi opera lies in the successful writing of not one, but multiple engaging characters, and Mass Effect is no exception. Commander Shepard is surrounded by a mishmash of personalities, experts with the ability to enhance your probability of ultimate survival and success in the game’s final missions over the trilogy.

No exception to this is the ship’s pilot Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, known colloquially as “Joker”, and voiced by veteran comedian Seth Green. Undoubtedly the best human pilot in the galaxy, Joker’s place aboard the most cutting-edge ship in humanity’s arsenal is no incidental placement and the writing of his character as one with a physical disability is an example of the gains made in representation in a time where “political correctness” had not yet become a charged topic. It’s a reminder that positive, respectful, and nuanced representation can and does exist – even if it does occasionally slip up.

The Power That Lies in Introductions

Unlike The Expanse, Mass Effect doesn’t grant players the reality of a future in which diversity has become the norm we would expect. While your crewmates vary in race, gender, and even species, representation flails in the way we can only expect of a piece of media designed, written, and driven at the hands of primarily white, cisgender, male video game designers in the early 2000s.

As one of only two main characters with a disability (the other being a potential love interest who suffers from severe migraines), Joker’s presence becomes that of the stock disabled character, and in that like other characters who are (or at least have the potential to be) tokenized, his introduction within the series sets to stage for whether his inclusion will indeed become a hollow symbol of diversity or a realistic reflection of it.

The introduction of a minority character sets the first impression of how we, as viewers, players, or readers will get to know them. It can make or break some people’s interpretations of them, and even influence how they will be regarded by fanbases in the future.

The first time Joker is seen, rather than being beholden to his status as a disabled character, his personality becomes the defining characteristic of his person: the sarcastic and biting wit that lends him his name. It is not until later in the game that you have the option to uncover that he is disabled, and it is entirely possible for players to miss or forgo this interaction entirely.

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Through both this interaction, as well as the unveiling (or lack thereof) of this scene it's apparent: Joker exists to serve a purpose far beyond that of representation. He is a pilot first and foremost, a crew member second, and a source of comedic venting, and overall, his disability becomes but a detail of his character rather than reason he exists.

Typically, “the disabled characters we're presented with usually fit one or more of the following stereotypes: Victim, Villain, Inspiration, Monster. And the disabled character's storyline is generally resolved in one of a few ways: Cure, Death, Institutionalization.” (Nussbaum, 2013)

In describing the ways disabled characters are typically portrayed in fictional works, playwright and author Susan Nussbaum explores the way able-bodied writers have historically pigeon-holed disabled representation for centuries, capturing the tales of mentally, physically, and intellectually disabled people in ways that reduce them to sideline tropes meant to serve as a tool to fulfill the purpose of the main characters.

Joker is none of these things: the victim, the villain, the inspiration, or the monster. He simply is, the ultimate state of being that represents how most of us with disabilities exist. Given the state of technological advancement of the fictional universe portrayed within the narrative, his characterization becomes all the more important when we consider what it means for writers to forgo the need for the resolution Nussbaum mentions, allowing integral insight into the fact that sometimes to be disabled is to also simply learn to accept.

Forgoing a resolution

Some fans argue that Joker’s condition – Vrolik’s Disease, presents something of a “plot hole” within the narrative. Within the world of ME, medical technology has advanced along with many other types of technologies, allowing a significantly enhanced quality of life that has all but eradicated certain diseases and extended the life expectancy in wealthy nations to 150 years.

The aforementioned character with migraines, Kaidan Alenko, suffers from his condition due to his status as a biotic. Within the ME universe, biotics are those with the ability to manipulate mass effect fields, and among the human population in the last generation or two have developed as a result of several genetic testing incidents. Paired with an amplifier embedded in the base of the skull, humans who develop biotic powers can be trained to hone them, and often find themselves sought after as contractors by the military due to their abilities (and shunned just about everywhere else among humans). The first iterations of the “amps” designed cause significant side effects, the migraines being among the least severe, and death being the most.

The search for upgraded amps is a small detail found within side quests, barely noticeable and buried among the dozens, if not hundreds within the entire trilogy players can engage in–or miss–if they do not pay careful attention to the dialogue and exploration of the galaxy available to them. It is also one of several side quests in which characters who suffer some type of illness seek a quality of life resolution, be it financial compensation, moral recognition, or a cure.

Commander Shepard receives cybernetic implants in the second game, following their death in the opening of the game after being exposed to the vacuum of space following the destruction of their ship. These same implants opened up a debate as to why Joker would not receive the same treatment.

In the blog Writing Diversely, Sossity Chiricuzio touches upon a common trope that appears within disability narratives: seeking a cure. They write “Disabled people do not need to be fixed, or saved from themselves. Disabled bodies are valid just as they are, with complex strengths, wisdom, beauty, and vulnerabilities.”

These arguments at their core fail to acknowledge the idea that disabled people can learn to live without a constant desire to be “fixed”. Just as many fail to comprehend the idea that a fat person can exist in a state of self-acceptance with their body, or that a black person can touch the natural coils of their hair without feeling dismayed, disabled people can feel at ease in their body on good days – and frustrated on bad ones, without a narrative driving them for a cure.

Alternative arguments have centered around his status as being “fit for duty” by the standards of the Alliance Military, and whether in being disabled, he would actually be eligible to serve.

It’s worth noting that ME was written in the post-9/11 years, in which pro-military sentiments reached an all-time high. Games like Call of Duty and Far Cry excelled due to their appeal to a gaming community that still targeted a predominantly white and male audience.

In truth, this is where we likely need to remember that the game has a race of 8-foot-tall jellyfish-like creatures who speak in the third person. Within the United States Army, servicemen cleared for duty are eligible to serve with a disability diagnosis. Within the world of ME, The Alliance Military represents all allied U.N. forces as a whole, and it is possible that standards have changed, Joker has been cleared for duty, or that the writers simply never thought too much about it.

For those naysayers, however, there comes an opportunity for Joker to prove he is “fit for service” within the second game, further securing his status as a positive portrayal of a disabled character in a truly monumental moment.

Joker’s Big Moment

One of Joker’s greatest moments–and the greatest scenes in the ME trilogy as a whole–occurs near the end of the second game, where players briefly have the opportunity to play as Joker for a mission. While Commander Shepard is away from their ship the Normandy, it’s boarded by the hostile alien race you have been battling for the entire game, and Joker must now do what he can to both drive the creatures from the ship while keeping himself alive.

This is the only time you play as another character in the entire trilogy, and it is difficult not to attribute any importance to that decision on the writers’ behalf. Any other character could have been chosen at this moment: Dr. Chakwas, the (hot) older medic who undoubtedly could hold her own with a gun. The Janitor/Cook Rupert, who makes unsettling jokes about the nature of his dual job of cleaning the toilets and preparing gourmet meals. There is any number of crew members BioWare writers could have billed here, yet it is Joker they chose and the payout is huge.

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Playing as Commander Shepard, you come into the trilogy as a top-tier war veteran serving in the highest-rated program within the military, the N7s. For nearly all of the trilogy, you are clad in armor, armed with varying weapons, and granted various power abilities that you have the opportunity to assign yourself. Even at the beginning of the game at your “weakest”, if you know what you are doing you can make a beautiful mess of your enemies.

Playing as Joker, each and every one of these qualities is stripped away. As a pilot, you have no weapons. You have no armor. You have no powers. And more than that, due to Joker’s condition: you have physical mobility constraints.

It’s a fantastically designed scene. Joker presents no underlying superpowers or overcompensatory abilities that propel him from the realm of realism to the unbelievable. He saves the Normandy with all he has, and unless players stick to the strict timing constraints of the game given his limitations, they will die during the mission.

Single-handedly Joker saves the ship, and the writers of the game prove they have a core understanding during this mission of the ways in which physical disabilities can affect people’s lives – especially during times of physical challenges.

For all these positive areas, there is one theme where the series does potentially come up short: the question of love, and the narrative of how we portray relationships between people with physical disabilities and those who are able-bodied.

Where Mass Effect Falls Short

One of ME’s greatest calling cards is its romance arcs, and the ability for players to engage in (monogamous) romantic relationships with characters during the course of the games.

In an effort to include more same-sex options, Mass Effect 2 & 3 include non-squad mate romances, meaning Commander Shepard can romance crew members who do not go on combat missions with them but reside on the ship and assist with operations. The second and third games also place more emphasis on friendship building, a feature notably absent in the first game.

Crewmates and squad members who are not pursued by Commander Shepard often end up pursuing one another, a sensible detail granted by the writers that yields fantastic background conversation. One such pursuit is that by Joker, whose romance arc becomes a small plotline of its own when he and his love interest consult Shepard for advice on the matter.

Introduced in the second game, Joker ends up getting paired off the EDI, the ship Artificial Intelligence who progressively gains sentience and awareness over the course of the games and completely “breaks free” during Joker’s Mission mentioned in the previous section, when he removes her shackling protocols so she can help take defensive measures of the ship during the attack.

Her evolution is rapid, and core to one of the central themes of the game: can AI truly gain sentience? Can AI become a person?

As a sassy and prideful pilot, EDI’s introduction to Joker goes over as well as curdled milk, and the general development of their relationship points to its inevitable outcome despite the insistence of the writers that they didn’t intend it. When she picks up an overtly-sexy android body in the third game, it becomes all but solidified. Over the course of the year or so spent with Joker at the helm of the Normandy arguing about flight settings, telling jokes, and getting to know one another, the two develop feelings in a way that we are now seeing in real-life with the 2023 Replika AI controversy.

There lies one issue with this, however, which is that in pairing Joker with EDI, ME reinforces (consciously or unconsciously) the harmful and untrue stereotype about disabled people’s sex lives.

Whether it's the complete erasure of disabled people’s sexual desire or ignoring the barriers to sexual access they face, people with disabilities are often portrayed in ways that can be both inconsistent and harmful to healthy sex lives. While disabled asexual people certainly exist, it is important that we do not erase the majority who have or want active and healthy sex lives.

The punchline of Joker and EDI’s relationship in the third game often revolves around their inability to physically be together without her causing physical harm to him.

So the question remains…why wasn’t Joker additionally given a romance arc and the option to be picked up by Commander Shepard, whom he’s known for years and stood by? It’s hard to say, but regardless the choice of pairing him up with EDI essentially seems a decision played for “laughs” that does a great disservice to the romantic representation of disabled folks after all the strides the game takes the create such a fantastic character.

That said, there’s no discounting that Joker is an overwhelmingly adept portrayal of people with physical disabilities, and an example of where writers can and should be aiming in diversity representation. As we await Mass Effect 4, with the ending of the first trilogy we can only hope that we see new narratives that only improve further on what is an exemplary foundation.

You can purchase the Mass Effect Legendary Edition (which includes the remastered trilogy and all DLCs) here for Xbox, PlayStation, or PC, at big box stores, or gaming stores, or borrow it at your local library.

Citations:

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2021/aug/14/why-mass-effect-is-some-of-the-best-sci-fi-ever-made

https://www.metacritic.com/search/all/mass%20effect/results?page=0

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/05/15/fine-lets-debate-the-mass-effect-3-ending-again/?sh=6b7c62cd3769

https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/03/20/mass-effect-andromeda-review

https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-joker-most-important-character/

https://youtu.be/AI4lXXzpMhI

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/disabled-characters-in-fiction_b_4302481

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteogenesis_imperfecta

https://www.writingdiversely.com/post/disabled-characters-avoiding-the-tragedy-or-inspiration-binary

https://www.military.com/benefits/veteran-benefits/disability/having-va-disability-rating-doesnt-prevent-you-serving-military.html#:~:text=%20Yes%2C%20it%20may%20be%20possible%20to%20serve,disability%20compensation%20payments%20to%20comply%20with%20federal%20law.

https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/EDI?file=Jungle_planet_-_joker_and_EDI.png

https://theconversation.com/i-tried-the-replika-ai-companion-and-can-see-why-users-are-falling-hard-the-app-raises-serious-ethical-questions-200257

https://www.popsugar.com/love/misconceptions-around-intimacy-in-disability-community-48530695

https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition

#thevisibilityarchives #tva #diversity #disabled #disability #disability representation #mass effect #gaming #video games #disabled pride #representation matters #visibility #joker mass effect #seth green

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tonkibabes · 2 years

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Free infographics maker online coral reefs

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Imitating other fish feeding habits as parrots mimic people.Ħ. Making sounds like a parrot when they eat.Ĭ. Crunching on hard corals with a parrot like beak.ī. Parrotfish are known for being colorful and for what feeding behavior?Ī. Coral reefs are home to 25% of all the known marine species, but they make up only about what percent of the ocean floor?ĥ. What percentage of coral reefs are permanently damaged due to human intervention?Ĥ. At their slowest, coral reefs grow at the rate of _ per year?Ģ. Reaka and her laboratory have focused on biodiversity and extinction on coral reefs and in fossil and contemporary Crustacea, with applications to conservation and management of marine environments” Take the Coral Reef Quizġ. Marjorie Reaka - Professor at University of Maryland possible science consultant

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WWF: The Marine Ecological Research and Monitoring Aid-known as MERMAID-is a web-based tool that scientists everywhere can use, free of charge, to record valuable coral reef data both online in the office and offline on the boat. IISD: UNEP Partners with DIVE, Reef Organizations to Promote Sustainable Diving IISD: 33rd General Meeting of the International Coral Reef Initiative University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, Baltimore Organizations, Institutes, Meetings and Tools Yale Environment 360: On A Cuban Reef, A Precarious Partnership on Scientific Researchīillions of pieces of plastic on coral reefs send disease soaring Giant Great Barrier Reef colouring posterīlue Planet - natural history of the world’s oceans. Sea Life: Ocean Animals Writing and Reading For further information, please contact the cited source.Coral Reef Educational Resources What’s a Coral Reef? Coral Reef Ecology Live Feed of the Coral Reefs at the National Aquarium PostersĮducational Materials from Gray’s Reef in Georgia Note: material may have been edited for length and content. This article has been republished from the following materials. Warming and pollutants interact to modulate octocoral immunity and shape disease outcomes. “As a result, corals may be losing the battle with their pathogens as ocean stressors tip the balance in favor of disease.” Although healthy corals in thriving ecosystems also experience low levels of disease, the concern is that changing ocean conditions and increased pollution have led to increased disease outbreaks,” she said. “We can’t manage the climate damage to coral reefs,” Harvell said, “until we better understand how pollution and disease magnify the impacts of heat stress. This research supplied novel data on the role of environmental stressors in coral disease and may provide a toolkit for combatting coral disease on a local scale. “The patterns we saw in immune markers are important because they show a mechanism through which copper and warming oceans can impair the corals’ health,” Tracy said. But when copper concentrations were boosted, sea fans’ immune response failed, which suggests that copper stressed the sea fans and eliminated their immune potential, she said. In the laboratory, Tracy found that sea fans initially launched an immune response to a damaging infection at low levels of copper and temperature stress. They found that reefs with higher copper concentrations in the sediment suffered a reduction in recovery from multifocal purple spots disease – a disease that can plague the sea fans. Over a one-year period, the researchers tracked 175 individual sea fan colonies with varying levels of copper concentrations found in the sediment at 15 coral reef sites around Puerto Rico. Increased copper pollution can be a result of agricultural runoff and marine paint leaching from boat hulls. While plastics and microplastics are a well-known threat to the world’s oceans, the effect of metal contamination is poorly understood, according to the researchers. “Action to alleviate the impact of warming oceans is a priority, but understanding the role of pollutants in coral disease and mortality gives us more options for solutions.” ’19, who conducted this work with Drew Harvell, professor of marine biology. “We know warming oceans pose an existential threat to coral reefs around the world,” said Allison Tracy, Ph.D. 19 in the journal Ecological Applications, scientists report evidence of metal pollution creating danger for the soft coral sea fans. For the colorful, graceful sea fans swaying among the coral reefs in the waters around Puerto Rico, the metal copper is an emerging threat in an era of warming oceans.

#Free infographics maker online coral reefs

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thegreaterlink · 2 years

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Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S1E17 “Home Soil”

THE PREMISE

The Enterprise arrives at the terraforming colony of Velara III, as the process has fallen behind schedule. Sensing that the director is hiding something, they beam an away team down to the surface. Soon after they arrive, one of the terraforming team is killed by a malfunctioning laser drill. Data disables it and finds that the laser’s programming was rewritten to fire upon the staff.

Meanwhile, a crystal is discovered to be giving off mysterious light and radiation, so it’s brought back to the Enterprise and the terraforming is halted. However, the crystal begins to interact with the Enterprise’s computers, and it becomes clear that it may be alive.

MY REVIEW

My research shows that this episode was being continually rewritten as it was being filmed, and it definitely shows. It feels like this episode starts as one story and ends as an entirely different one. Both stories are fairly interesting in their own ways, mind you, but this episode suffers from its inconsistency.

Also, in regards to the terraforming… has all of Starfleet collectively forgotten about the Genesis project from Wrath of Khan? Making a dead planet entirely habitable within minutes? Sure, the last planet they tested it on tore itself apart within days of its creation, but it feels like it has far too much potential to be written off entirely.

Anyway, back to the actual episode.

The initial storyline about the malfunctioning drill to cover something up is intriguing, to the point that I actually would’ve preferred the mysterious sabotage of the station to be the main focus of this episode’s plot.

But instead this episode is focused on a sentient crystal, which looks down upon humans with the excellent nickname of “Ugly Bags of Mostly Water”, which would go on to be the title of a documentary about Star Trek fans. Personally, I prefer Trekkies.

The idea of a sentient crystal is interesting, and it acts as an effective threat by breaking free of its containment field, hijacking the Enterprise’s computers and blocking any attempts to beam it off the ship. But then Geordi determines that the crystal is photoelectric, so it’s defeated by… turning off the lights. More than a bit anticlimactic, if you ask me.

Still, it was interesting to see Star Trek veer into hard science fiction territory for once.

Also I wasn't sure where to put this, but I like the design of the terraforming facility. It's neat.

6/10 - If the rest of the episode was as strong as the beginning, then we’d have a solid episode here.

Previous Episode | TNG Masterpost | Next Episode

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nothisis-ridiculous · 3 years

Text

Duplicity

An AU where Kaidan joins Cerberus for the events of ME2.

Chapter Nine: Of Explosions, Traps, and Thresher Maws

"Who did you blow to get access back?"

Mary looked up from the safety of the relatively stationary floor of the shuttle. This wasn't a day where the nausea meds worked to full effect, but she could suffer through a grin, "Illusive Man didn't appreciate Leng's interference with our mission."

"What a bosh'tet."

"You should still avoid him, if possible."

"Come on, Shep! Give me a reason to smear him against the cargo bay walls," Jack retorted with a smug grin.

Tali huffed, "I can take care of myself!"

Mary rubbed at her temples, focusing again on the grooves in the flooring, "we might be pushing it already."

"As I said," Jack sighed, "it's an empty facility. Since when did you give a fuck about what Cerberus thinks? Did you drink Cheerleader's kool-aid?"

"I jumped at the idea of blowing up this facility if my urgency was not noted," she retorted, "and only if it was cherry flavored. Unfortunately, it tastes like watered down orange."

"You're fucking weird."

"I'm sure someone likes orange flavoring."

"And they would be wrong, and besides, have you ever tasted orange?"

"That's beside the point, Shepard."

"Why is the bastard even here?" Jack interjected, becoming the voice of reason.

Mary puffed out her cheeks, "he was elusive about it. Leng mentioned something about a confidentiality breach. Tali, did you try and hack their systems?"

Tali shook her head, "if I did, they wouldn't have caught me."

Shepard grinned.

"Cerberus has the entire Normandy bugged, and not to mention that AI. I wouldn't do something like that without you knowing about it."

Mary nodded, "I thought so. If I wanted to get rid of those bugs, what would I need to do?"

Tali went silent.

"Way to ruin your plan," the biotic gently mocked.

"Who is Kai Leng to you?"

Jack leaned back in her seat with a growing scowl, "him and some Cerberus bitch tried to capture me. It didn't happen, but some mercs got me instead."

"That explains how you got to Purgatory," Mary murmured in response.

Jack shrugged, not interested in further explaining that particular defeat.

"Please be careful with him; even Miranda seemed spooked," she cautioned gently.

"Cerberus has really got you by the balls."

The blond flinched, "I'll have you know I ignored an urgent message from the Illusive Man to bring you here." It was a poor attempt at a deflection; everyone aboard the Normandy knew about her history with a certain crewmate. Worse was the presence of nearly every friend she had left in the galaxy. Most brought in by her. She had no doubts that the Collecter threat was overly sensationalized, but for the time being, it what her only option in stopping the threat. Anderson had seen the threat for himself, but whether or not he could help remained unknown partially because she was afraid of a formal admonishing.

"I forgot how much I hate this place."

~~~

"Shepard-- we caught a break."

Predictably, the break was a trap. Mary wasn't liking the new habit of trampling through her ship in armour fresh from a fight. Or how annoyingly composed the Illusive Man always was, even in her impromptu meeting, he was waiting with a cigarette and drink in hand. The bastard knew what he had done. Worse, he was ready for her to explode.

"In the meantime... I suggest you tell your crew I didn't risk their lives unnecessarily," whether or not the microscopic curl of his lip was imagined in the end, "it would make things easier going forward."

"I'll tell them the truth, screw this half-truth bullshit," Mary leaned back on her heel, folding her arms.

"Our reports missed the petulant child side of you," he took a long drag, flicking away the butt, "can't you see this was necessary."

"Not in the way you handled it."

His pupils narrowed as he stared at her, mouth kept in a thin line. Boldened by this slip, Mary pushed it, "you'll be lucky to have my crew after this."

"Who, exactly, is going to help you? The council already dismissed you once. The Alliance doesn't care about the humans in the Terminus Systems," his posture and blank expression returned, "unless you don't care about the abducted colonies and the Reaper threat anymore."

"Fuck you!"

He issued a long and drawn-out chuckle, "I expected better behavior from you, Shepard. Be an adult, and put aside your petty grievances. You need me to stop this threat."

The coldness pierced her heart first, spreading through her veins with incredible speed until it froze the tip of her fingers. The frigidity of her body forcing her face in a neutral expression, "Akuze was no petty grievance, you conniving prick."

She couldn't lose much more face, so stomping off without a pause was well within her wheelhouse.

"Mary?"

Kaidan knew that look, not that he had to be blocking her way to read it. The emotionless mask was there for only a select few emotions, and all urged him to reach out. Whatever it was, at least meant he wouldn't have to explain why he hovered around the briefing room. He stood his ground, allowing her the time to breathe before he attempted to pry it out of her. Eventually, her shoulders dropped for the briefest moment before squaring back up.

"Talk to me," Kaidan murmured gently, "what happened out there?"

Shepard's posture had corrected, but the mask had yet to fall. Moving him into unfamiliar territory, so he waited for her to speak. Timidly, slowly, placing his hand on her pauldron once the time elapsed into the space of no response.

"Shepard," he called.

First, her body lurched forward, he instinctively moved to pull her in, but the arm that reached around him corrected course and shoved him aside. Perhaps a little harshly, as his back met the metal wall of the hallway. Finally, the mask slipped, catching the moment her eyes filled with regret that morphed with the half-assed raising of her arms, "it was a trap."

Mary spun away to the right, sputtering another few choice words as Mordin collided with her across the opening doorway.

"Go get Grunt ready; we're headed to Tuchanka."

~~~

"You've had a lot more poker practice, Alenko," the turian mused in defeat.

"Back then, I was never invited," the biotic returned snidely.

"Only because Shepard took you everywhere," Tali added wistfully, "you were both so moony-eyed."

"Is that your excuse for always losing, Vakarian?" Kaidan grinned, fighting a bittersweet blush, "careful Tali, you'll start slipping."

"You were all formally crewmates?" Thane finally decided to speak from his corner of the mess hall table. His gaze lingered longer on the human. The other two were obviously connected to Shepard. His short time aboard the Normandy, he hardly saw the Commander and this man in the same room.

The human's next smile a little less forced, "yeah. With Joker at the helm. Those were crazy days."

"Much simpler times, just chasing a rogue spectre across the galaxy."

Tali hummed, "it felt more heroic back then."

"To hell with Cerberus," the man muttered.

Thane stood from his seat, this talk of the past making him feel further like a stranger in this group. Why Officer Alenko had invited him in the first place was a mystery, he hadn't attempted to speak with anyone. Not out of malice but out of desire. Shepard's words about him socializing with the crew to find meaning the sole reason he attempted this game.

The three looked up at him in unison.

"We can change the game."

"You can just stay and talk if you want."

"Look at you guys scaring away the new blood."

Thane glanced between the group; they were a good sort. He shrugged in an effort not to disappoint them, returning to his seat; he had little else of import to do.

"How about a game of go fish?"

The turian turned to the man, "isn't that a children's game?"

"I thought keeping your credits would be an enticing offer," Kaidan returned smugly.

"I already owe you a small fortune when you do decide to collect," the turian drawled, "might not be wise to encourage you to do so."

"I'm banking on interest too, Garrus."

"You would," Garrus chuckled, his eyes sweeping to the quarian, "but Tali, I've always wondered why your faceplate is tinted. Doesn't that distort your vision?"

"Garrus my e-"

Grunt barrelled by the table, taking the L2's attention with him. Adding biotics to the already large Krogan only increased his appetite, especially after a fight. The youngster looked pleased, settling down at the table with whatever was easiest to sweep into his arms—tearing into the still bagged loaf of bread sideways, the group watching with mixed reactions.

"Grunt," Tali was the first to scold, "you should be a little more careful."

"He's just a growing boy, Tali," Garrus replied.

The krogan looked up and around the table with a sheepish grin, "I am a boy no longer. I have passed the rite, and with my battle master, have defeated a thresher maw! You should be in awe!"

"That's no small feat-" Thane finding himself suddenly the chatty one.

"It was glorious! A worthy opponent. So big and in your face," Grunt continued to gloat through mouthfuls of bread and plastic.

"And Shepard?" the man dared to ask.

"The best battle master. Our enemies should be afraid!"

"Was she upset?" Tali pressed.

"No- she fought bravely."

Garrus was next to speak, "nothing odd?"

The krogan groaned, "she fought well. So well, she was too tired to speak."

Kaidan shuffled from his chair, hesitating as the turian and quarian took turns locking eyes with him, "am I supposed to sit here and do nothing?"

"I wouldn't test her patience."

Tali folded her arms, "what could you even do? Guilt trip her again?"

"Ouch," Kaidan flinched, running a hand through his hair, "I deserved that one."

Grunt looked around the table, cocking his head to the side. Thane went still, achieving a far better understanding of the situation than the confused krogan. Until Miranda, followed by Kai Leng burst from the second officer's office, both beelined for the elevator. Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan moved to intercept the pair.

"Out of our way," the Cerberus assassin seethed.

"Do you have a death wish?" Garrus tried to defuse him with humor and a well-intentioned claw on his shoulder. It did not work; the man's eyes only narrowed the anger held in his posture, doubling.

"Keep your dirty talons off of me, bird!"

Tali pulled Garrus back, allowing Kaidan to get in the way.

"That wasn't necessary," the biotic stated bluntly.

Leng rolled his eyes, "and neither is whatever fit Shepard is having in the elevator."

"So you're going to make it worse by demanding she stop?"

"Kaidan, we can't let her damage the ship," Miranda added gently.

"Yeah, I know," Kaidan sighed, rubbing at his temples, "but she won't. I don't think she will, anyway. It's her way of coping."

"By letting off biotic charges?"

"Yeah, I know, but has she damaged anything?"

EDI piqued up, "damage remains cosmetic."

Miranda placed her hands on her hips, "well, this is why we hired you, Alenko. Make her stop, or we'll be forced to act."

"Next time, a little warning after she's faced a Maw would help."

~~~

Riding through the elevator of the Normandy was an old pastime. Something about being crammed into a small space with blank walls let her think. About the good, about the bad, about anything that needed her consideration, really. She had spent hours in the old elevator; they moved much too quickly in the new ship. With more floors and staff came more distractions.

Usually, it involved much less biotic discharge, but this time that display kept the peace. The strain to keep it contained and from flaring too brightly occupied her mind pushed out the thing... the creature... that kept trying to wedge back in her mental space. Pulling it all back in, only characterized by a faint aura around her form, was another challenge. She kept her back to the person.

Ignoring it until the crinkling of a bag pulled her attention.

The opened bag revealing the light reddish-brown contents within, "I thought you might be hungry."

She looked Kaidan up and down, resting on his gentle gaze. Why was she so stubborn? Was he really so different? Did who he worked for matter? She couldn't pretend that all she saw of Cerberus was bad. She trusted Jacob- he had many of the same qualms she did about the organization but continued under their banner without compromising his morals. Her work was good fighting to protect the galaxy from the Reaper threat. Sure at the moment, it felt solely based on saving humans from the Collector threat, but they were only a tiny piece of the problem. She saw no shift in Kaidan, despite the things he had done after she passed. The same integrity, the same aggravating calm, the same compassion.

Perhaps she was unfair. What would she do to bring back the man she loved?

Huh, love was a funny feeling—a light but at the same time heavy notion.

Fuck this.

Fuck the forced distance.

If they were going to die, why waste what could be their last moments together?

"Kaidan."

Pushing the chips aside, she wriggled her way into his arms. A hand threaded through her still damp hair, his nose pressing into the top of her skull. The other arm supported the small of her back, cradling her in gently. Mary breathed in his familiar scent, no different than the man she knew two years ago. It was this easy. Some, but not all, of her worries faded into the background. She had missed physical comfort.

"Wrex was there," it was all she could offer.

Kaidan's chest rumbled, the patch pressed against her forehead an unwelcomed annoyance. A reminder. Hot and blinding, the logo was all she could focus on as it rubbed against her.

Maybe she was weak, but she could not separate the horror from the uniform.

He let her escape without a fuss, leaving him empty-handed.

#fshenko #mass effect fancition #cerberus au #female shepard x kaidan #kaidan alenko #duplicity #mass effect

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max1461 · 3 years

Text

Just read Scott Alexander’s post on “conflict theorists” vs. “mistake theorists” and, hmm. I have several thoughts. First, to summarize the concept for anyone who hasn’t seen it before: Alexander links to a reddit post by user u/no_bear_so_low, who originated the idea, saying

There is a way of carving up politics in which there are two basic political meta-theories, that is to say theories about why different political ideologies and political conflict exist. The first theory is that political disagreements exist because politics is complex and people make mistakes, if we all understood the evidence better, we’d agree on a great deal more. We’ll call this the mistake theory of politics. For the mistake theorist, politics is not a zero-sum game, but a matter of growing the pie so there is more for everyone. The second theory is that political disagreements reflect differences in interests which are largely irreconcilable. We’ll call this the conflict theory of politics. According to the conflict theory of politics, politics is full of zero-sum games.

u/no_bear_so_low claims that both the far left and far right are more amenable to conflict theory than liberals are, who lean more towards mistake theory. Alexander seems to agree, though in his own post he’s speaking mainly about Marxists in particular. He summarizes the concept as follows:

To massively oversimplify:

Mistake theorists treat politics as science, engineering, or medicine. The State is diseased. We’re all doctors, standing around arguing over the best diagnosis and cure. Some of us have good ideas, others have bad ideas that wouldn’t help, or that would cause too many side effects.

Conflict theorists treat politics as war. Different blocs with different interests are forever fighting to determine whether the State exists to enrich the Elites or to help the People.

In addition, Alexander subdivides the categories further into “hard” and “soft” versions:

Consider a further distinction between easy and hard mistake theorists. Easy mistake theorists think that all our problems come from very stupid people making very simple mistakes; dumb people deny the evidence about global warming; smart people don’t. Hard mistake theorists think that the questions involved are really complicated and require more evidence than we’ve been able to collect so far [...]

Maybe there’s a further distinction between easy and hard conflict theorists. Easy conflict theorists think that all our problems come from cartoon-villain caricatures wanting very evil things; bad people want to kill brown people and steal their oil, good people want world peace and tolerance. Hard conflict theorists think that our problems come from clashes between differing but comprehensible worldviews.

So what do I think about all this?

Well, it seems to me that this framework is (a) a fairly reasonable descriptive dichotomy, in the sense that, yes, a lot of people do genuinely seem to fall into one of these two camps, and (b) a horrible dichotomy on which to base any prescriptions about political meta-theory, in that these are both awful (and obviously wrong) ways to think about the world. Now, Alexander doesn’t explicitly give any such prescriptions, but he does describe SCC as “hard mistake theorist central”, and generally speaks of mistake theory in approving terms, while speaking of conflict theory in disapproving ones. I think this is bad.

At a base level, my problem with both these “theories” is that they’re, in some sense, just too optimistic.

I agree, for example, with the hard mistake theorist sentiment that the world is full of extremely challenging technical problems, that these problems can be the source of real human suffering, and that the only way to address these problems is through data collection and empirical analysis and hard technical work. And I agree that this will often produce unintuitive conclusions, that run against people’s gut sense of what the right policy might look like. I agree that the state is diseased. I do not agree that “[w]e’re all doctors, standing around arguing over the best diagnosis and cure.” People, it turns out, often do have genuinely different and irreconcilable values, and genuinely do envision different ideal worlds. In addition to that fairly mundane observation, there genuinely are a lot of bad actors, who are just in the game for their own benefit. The world is full of grifters, schemers, and petty (or not so petty) tyrants; on an empirical level that’s just not something you can deny.

On the other hand, I agree with the easy conflict theorist sentiment that, e.g., “bad people want to kill brown people and steal their oil.” There’s plenty of pretty immediate proof of that to be found if you look into the history of colonialism¹, or the slave trade, or US foreign election interference in the twentieth century. Actually, just so I’m not pissing anybody off by only mentioning “western” examples, I’ll include the Khmer Rouge and the Holodomor and comfort women and uh, you get the picture. For god’s sake, the Nazis really existed, and yeah, they really believed all that Nazi shit. In retrospect they may seem like implausibly evil cartoon villains, but in fact they were real flesh and blood humans, just like the rest of us. You think that was just a one-off?

And on a much more mundane note, sometimes (actually, very very often), ordinary people just have incompatible ethical axioms. Sometimes people have genuinely different values, and there are no rational means to sort out which value-set to choose. I suspect this is at least part of the reason for the rationalist community’s skew towards mistake theorizers, in that their favored intellectual tool has more-or-less nothing to offer when it comes to selecting your values (=ethical axioms, =terminal goals, etc). I mean, of course rationality is good for diagnosing contradictions in your value set, but it can’t tell you how to resolve those contradictions. That’s the domain of intuition, empathy, and aesthetics, were data cannot light your way.

However, I do not agree with the conflict theorists’ underlying sentiment that if “the good people” were just in charge, everything would be better. After all, there are all those pesky technical problems with unintuitive solutions getting in the way, requiring all kinds of expertise and thorough empirical study and uh, plenty of them might not even be solvable.² This is a huge deal. It’s incredibly easy to have the best of intentions and still make horrible mistakes by virtue of just... happening to have the facts wrong. Not through malice, or self-interest, or even some nicely-explainable sociological bias like white fragility or whatever. Just because problems are hard, and sometime you will fail to solve them. Even when people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.

Here’s a handy latex-formatted table for your comprehending pleasure:

lol, we live there.

So this all sounds a bit pessimistic and, well, I suppose it is. I think we have a responsibility to acknowledge the gravity of our situation. We could, conceivably, live in a world that was structured according to either the conflict theorist’s vision or the mistake theorist’s vision, but we don’t. We live in a much scarier world, and if we don’t face that terrifying reality head-on, we’re not going to be able to overcome it.

Now, in general, I’d say I spend a lot of my internet-argument-energy-allowance trying to persuade [what I perceive to be] overly conflict-theorizing leftists in the direction of a greater recognition of the genuine technical difficulty of the problems we face. It's probably worth making a separate post about why I think a “denial of unintuitive solutions” is so common on the left, but I’ll just mention here that I think it relates to what I once jokingly called the “Humanistic gaze”. That is, the bias to view everything quite narrowly through the lens of the humanities, and to view all problems as fundamentally sociological in nature. When the world is constructed entirely by humans and human social relations, there’s a level at which nothing can be unintuitive. After all, an intersubjective world must ultimately be grounded in subjective experience, and subjective experience is literally made of intuition.

I usually don’t spend much time pursuing the dual activity (trying to argue liberals out of [what I perceive to be] an overly mistake-theorizing perspective). This is largely because, well, I think the optimistic assumption that mistake theorists make —that most people have basically compatible goals, and that relatively few people are working out of abject self-interest or hatred or whatever— is so obviously false that it doesn’t warrant as much genuine critique as it warrants responding with memes about US war crimes. The principal of charity is best extended to ideas, not people or institutions. You can take the neocons’ arguments seriously without extending charity to the neocons as agents.

The post concludes with Alexander writing

But overall I’m less sure of myself than before and think this deserves more treatment as a hard case that needs to be argued in more specific situations. Certainly “everyone in government is already a good person, and just has to be convinced of the right facts” is looking less plausible these days.

And uh, yeah. Indeed.

So, in conclusion: is politics medicine, or is it war? No, it’s politics.

There are disagreements, and conflicts of interest, and coalition building, and policy-wonkery, and logistics. There is, as with anything involving the state, the implicit threat of violence. (That’s where the state’s power comes from, remember? Whether it’s their power to tax, or their power to enforce individual property rights to begin with. Their power to regulate or build infrastructure or legally construct corporate personhood or whatever. There’s more than a bit of game theory involved, sure, but the rules of the game are set through the armory.) Every scholarly technocrat with double-blind peer reviewed policy suggestions still ultimately just decides who the guns get pointed at, if at several layers of abstraction. Every righteous people’s vanguard is still bound by the mathematics of production and the dynamics of a chaotic world. There are no easy solution, not conceptually easy nor practically easy. And unless we recognize that on a very deep level, we have no chance of fixing anything.

[1] I’d quote my go-to example here, of the truly ghastly stories relayed to linguist R. M. Dixon by the Dyirbal people of Australia about their subjugation at the hands of white settlers, but unfortunately I don’t have his book with me at the moment. Also this post would require several additional trigger warnings.

[2] I mean, after all, there are only countably many Turing machines, and the set of all languages with finitely many symbols has cardinality 2^(aleph_0)!

#society #for posterity

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lilflowerpot · 4 years

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I have a question about Galra parenting! I know in previous posts, you've talked in length, about colonies who's job is to raise Galra children, and that their parents, if soldiers, request to be put on planet, as a form of guard. If so, who raises Galra children, since they are mostly raised in group? Is there an assigned nanny of sorts? What qualifies a care taker to be put on a planet such as that? Is there a more maternal subcategory of Galra that is known to fill the position? Part 1

(cont.) Would the caregiver have any children of their own? Human society tells us that females make better caregivers. Is that true for Galra? Followup question what would a misdeed as a child be? What would be considered misbehavior? As a human getting into fights would warrant punishment but for Galra this isn't the case. And what would an appropriate punishment be? For humans, unfortunately, spanking is commonplace. Is this the same/similar to Galra? Ignore me if you've covered this before.

The Galra are very much a collectivist culture in that the needs of the Empire as a whole are prioritised over the needs of the individual, and so the practice of communal child-rearing has long-since been considered the norm because it’s always made sense for the community to look after their young as a whole rather than expect individuals to do so while simultaneously juggling full time employment. It’s also both physically and mentally beneficial for young Galra to be surrounded by other kits as opposed to suffering isolation, but as Galra genetics are aggressive to the point of limited fertility (dual-foetus pregnancies being virtually unheard of, as one typically absorbs the other), having more than one sibling is relatively uncommon and more than two a rare occurrence indeed, so by the time a second conception occurs the first child might have been alone for many decaphoebs: ergo, nursery colonies are the obvious solution, allowing young Galra to socialise regularly with a large group of peers.

Your average Nursery Colony might have 40,000 children (all Imperial citizens but not necessarily all Galra), an equal if not greater number of parents doubling as educators, and a handful of specialists (likely a hundred or less) who are there in leadership roles as the most educated in the Empire: these are the Dayak [i] [ii], scholars held in the highest regard as they possess a deep knowledge of many subjects.

Galra parents may apply for a position upon any given nursery colony alongside their child/children providing their trade will benefit the community there rather than solely drain its resources (and the Galra abhor idleness, it goes against their entire culture as a very physical people, so this is not usually a problem): this includes soldiers, yes, but also agricultural workers, engineers, scientists, artists, and scholars most of all. Imperial children are provided the best of all things, and chief among these is a top-tier education as they are the future of the Empire. Rather than having designated “teachers” the Galra believe in a hands-on approach to cultivating their youngest minds (kinetic learning is generally the most effective method for rambunctious little kitlings who would riot if kept at a desk from dawn til dusk) and so they’ll have people of all professions on-planet for the express purpose of allowing the children to really experience the world rather than just hear about it second-hand. They express an interest in science? Let’s go and see the new shuttles being built! Art? Well there’ll be no understanding how sunlight plays on water if you haven't witnessed it for yourself! Agriculture? This is how we plow the fields and moderate the ph of the soil to produce only the finest food for the Empire! History? The druids have kept archives dating back millennia, and many of the recent ones take the form of AI, so why not ask your questions of Empress Zetian herself?

In humans, the whole “women are better caregivers” thing is a distortion of the fact that way back when humans were a hunter-gatherer people, men were sent out to do the actual hunting & gathering while women stayed back to care for the young. Why, you ask? Not, as many people seem to believe, because the females of our species are predisposed to be weaker than the males, but rather because they are more valuable on a biological bases. In terms of ensuring the longevity of a clan’s bloodline, one woman could realistically carry no more than one pregnancy per year, whereas one man could impregnate any number of women: this means that if all the clan’s men went out hunting, and only one returned, the group would replenish and survive, if the reverse occurred, they would almost certainly die out. Ergo, that lingering belief is a product of misogyny, because there is no reason that being biologically one sex or another should make you a better/worse caregiver in modern society.

...Which is a long-winded way of saying that no, the Galra firmly believe that the best caregivers are the most educated and naturally nurturing, which has absolutely nothing to do with sex or gender or anything other than an individual’s personality.

As for misbehaviour, it’s less about the physical act of fighting and more about the way in which the child conducts themselves (once again linking back to the Galra code of honourable conduct): sparring against a playmate or even brawling in a group? Good! Acting with your peers to victimise one child and/or not allowing the individual you are sparring with to yield? Absolutely not. While corporal punishment is used within the military - lashings for acts of insubordination or misconduct, typically - it is not done so outside of that, and never against children. As I’ve said, they’re considered to be far too precious, and additionally where an adult Galra has the mental capacity to understand that X action results in Y punishment, and will therefore know why they are being subjected to physical repercussions, for children this is not always the case and considered quite uniquely cruel because of it. When a kit misbehaves, they would instead be subjected to a sort of "time out” (the worse / more frequent their misconduct, the longer they would be kept separate from their peers) and as the Galra are incredibly social creatures, this threat of isolation is typically an ample deterrent.

#the Galra Empire is one of the most advanced civilisations in the universe and this is why I hate to see them reduced to ''antagonists''#they have an entire culture that might be alien (badumtss) to us but is actually incredibly nuanced and beautiful #just because someone's way of life is drastically different to your own doesn't make it wrong kids #((I thought I'd queued this forever ago but I had in fact not))#((it has been sitting in my drafts for a Good While))#Ao3 Little Blade #sa screams back #galra history & culture

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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

Photo

It must exhibit the event in a way to excite awe and veneration and that which may be required to give superior interest to the representation must be introduced, all that can show the importance of the Hero. Wolfe must not die like a common soldier under a Bush…To move the mind there should be a spectacle presented to raise and warm the mind and all should be proportioned to the highest idea conceived of the Hero….A mere matter of fact will never produce this effect.

- Benjamin West, artist of The Death of General Wolfe (1770)

The Death of General Wolfe (1770) by Anglo-American artist Benjamin West (1738 – 1820) is certainly the most celebrated and iconic paintings depicting a military historical event.

The Death of General Wolfe depicts an event from the Seven Years’ War (known as the French and Indian War in North America), the moment when Major-General James Wolfe was mortally wounded on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec on 13 Sept 1759. This painting then captures a pivotal event in the Seven Years’ War that decided the fate of France’s colonies in North America.

General Wolfe commanded the British Army and successfully held the British line against the French and won the battle. Unfortunately, General Wolfe was killed by musket wounds.

In death, General Wolfe gained fame as a national hero and became an icon of the Seven Years’ War and British dominance in North America.

It was Benjamin West who really imprinted Wolfe’s heroics on the British imagination. West was a British North American artist, who painted famous historical scenes. West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, as the tenth child of an innkeeper and his wife.He was entirely self-taught and went on to gain valuable patronage in the American Colonies. Later he toured Europe, eventually settling in London.

The image West created was so popular that West made an identical painting of the same scene for George III of the United Kingdom, one year after this painting. In total, four other additional versions of the Death of General Wolfe were also produced by West.

Wolfe’s death at the time was seen as heroic and art just immortalised him, mainly thanks to Benjamin West. And like all immortalisations it’s not meant to be historically accurate but is representative of a greater ideal.

Indeed West’s crowding of the foreground in The Death of General Wolfe, though inaccurate, is completely in keeping with his expressed desire to arrive at a ‘perfect’ philosophical truth by melding literal and ideal truth. Though only a few actually witnessed Wolfe’s death, such a depiction would have lessened the monumentality of the scene and, therefore, would not have conveyed to the viewer the perfect truth implicit in this particular death. West chose for his subject the entire Battle of Quebec, and focused on Wolfe’s death as its crucial and most heroic moment.

In this painting, West departed from conventions in two important regards. Generally, history paintings were reserved for narratives from the Bible or stories from the classical past. Instead, however, West depicted a near-contemporary event, one that occurred only seven years before.

Secondly, many - including the great Sir Joshua Reynolds and West’s patron, Archbishop Drummond - strongly urged West to avoid painting Wolfe and others in modern costume, which was thought to detract from the timeless heroism of the event. They urged him to instead paint the figures wearing togas. West refused, writing, “the same truth that guides the pen of the historian should govern the pencil [paintbrush] of the artist.” King George III refused to purchase the painting because the clothing compromised the dignity of the event.

Yet despite West’s interest in “truth,” there is little to be found in The Death of General Wolfe. Without doubt, the dying General Wolfe is the focus of the composition. West paints Wolfe lying down at the moment of his death wearing the red uniform of a British officer. A circle of identifiable men attend to their dying commander. Historians know that only one - Lieutenant Henry Browne, who holds the British flag above Wolfe - was present at the General’s death.

Clearly, West took artistic license in creating a dramatic composition, from the theatrical clouds to the messenger approaching on the left side of the painting to announce the British victory over the Marquis de Montcalm and his French army in this decisive battle. Previous artists, such as James Barry, painted this same event in a more documentary, true-to-life style. In contrast, West deliberately painted this composition as a dramatic blockbuster.

This sense of spectacle is also enhanced by other elements, and West was keenly interested in giving his viewers a unique view of this North American scene. This was partly achieved through landscape and architecture. The St. Lawrence River appears on the right side of the composition and the steeple represents the cathedral in the city of Quebec.

In addition to the landscape, West also depicts a tattooed Native American on the left side of the painting. Shown in what is now the universal pose of contemplation, the Native American firmly situates this as an event from the New World, making the composition all the more exciting to a largely English audience.

Eighteenth-century notions of masculinity promoted honour and courage in the face of war and death, tragedies that bound men together in pain, suffering, and anguish. The Native American symbolises the masculinity of an alien culture, that of the natural, uncivilised man. His naked body is displayed in opposition to the clothed Europeans, whose military uniforms signify masculinity, courage, and strength.

Although the Indian, as a warrior, is part of the scene, his nakedness and accoutrements – trade blanket, hunting pouch, and body paint – simultaneously single him out. His partial nakedness likewise affects how we see him: both exposed and covered, he is available to our gaze yet hidden from full view.

At the same time, the Native American’s gaze directs the viewer’s gaze to the fallen hero, who reclines in a supine, feminized position. In contrast to the activity and purpose demonstrated by the British soldiers, the Iroquois and Wolfe are inactive and passive, qualities coded as feminine. Wolfe’s pale skin, wounded state, and expressive face with upward-looking eyes reinforce this impression.

Nakedness is in fact implicit in the fallen hero, whose gaping wound – covered by a white cloth – opens his body to expose his vulnerability. His nakedness is displaced onto the Native American, who, although passive, displays a heroic, muscular body. The Indian thus combines masculine power with feminine weakness, underscoring both his strength and his subservience to British power. By rendering the Indian as naked and vulnerable in his seated pose, West diminished his threat and placed him in a secondary position, as a tributary to the British forces during the French and Indian War.

Perhaps most important is the way West portrayed the painting’s protagonist as Christ-like. West was clearly influenced by the innumerable images of the dead Christ in Lamentation and Depositions paintings that he would have seen during his time in Italy. This deliberate visual association between the dying General Wolfe and the dead Christ underscores the British officer’s admirable qualities. If Christ was innocent, pure, and died for a worthwhile cause - that is, the salvation of mankind - then Wolfe too was innocent, pure, and died for a worthwhile cause; the advancement of the British position in North America. Indeed, West transforms Wolfe from a simple war hero to a deified martyr for the British cause. This message was further enhanced by the thousands of engravings that soon flooded the art market, both in England and abroad.

Benjamin West’s The Death of General Wolfe justifiably retains a position as a landmark painting in the history of military art. In it, West reinterprets the rules of what a history painting could be - both in regard to period depicted and the attire the figures wore - and at the same time followed a visual language that would have been familiar to its eighteenth-century audience.

Indeed almost immediately as The Death of General Wolfe was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771 it became one of the most frequently reproduced images of the period. For West himself, he impressed King George III enough (despite his misgivings on how he clothed Wolfe) and with his patronage he was mostly responsible for the launch of the Royal Academy, of which he became the second president after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

West is quoted as saying that “Art is the representation of human beauty, ideally perfect in design, graceful and noble in attitude.” But here in this painting beauty and truth seem to be at odds. This is where one can get lost in the weeds of art and aesthetics. Roger Scruton suggests that great art has always shown the real (truth) in the light of the ideal and that in doing so it is transfigured. A great painting does not necessarily have a beautiful subject matter, but it is made beautiful through the artist’s interpretation of it. To be transported by beauty, from the ordinary world to, as Scruton calls it, “the illuminated sphere of contemplation.” It is on that plane one can contemplate truth in art and life.

**Wolfe's death and the portrayal of that event by Benjamin West make up half of Simon Schama's historical work Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations (1991). This is well worth a read if you want to discover more about this remarkable subject and painting.

#the death of james wolfe #art #aesthetics #painting #seven years war #bejamin west #war #military #hero #icon #history #quote #britain #canada #quebec #art criticism #roger scruton

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trouwnutritionsouthasia · 3 months

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Mycotoxin Risk Management in Poultry

Feed Safety and Quality-Mycotoxin Risk in Poultry

Microbial contamination

Without solid feed hygiene and preservation strategies in place, Enterobacteriaceae, moulds, and yeast in raw materials and compound feed can easily make their way into feed on the farm. Taking an integrated approach to feeding hygiene is even more important now that formaldehyde has been banned as a feed hygiene enhancer in many countries. For poultry producers that process their own feed, a feed mill scan can assess critical control points on microbial, colony-forming units and identify potential pathogenic threats in raw materials, process lines and compound feed.

An effective quality control programme should include regularly sampling raw materials and cleaning process lines, silos, and feeders on the farm as well as removing residual biofilm in process lines. Treating feed and feed materials with buffered and synergistic blends of organic acids, offered by Selko, can support hygiene and strengthen the natural barrier against gram-negative bacteria in the first part of the digestive tract

Mycotoxin impact

Poultry is vulnerable to mycotoxins, the secondary metabolites of moulds, and can suffer severely, especially when exposed to a combination of different mycotoxins. The most critical mycotoxins for poultry production are aflatoxins, Ochratoxin A, trichothecenes and fumonisins. Ever since their discovery in the 1960s, mycotoxins have caused headaches for feed and livestock producers.

One critical factor contributing to mycotoxin risks is the use of high-fibre diets for layers. These diets cause sustained exposure to multiple mycotoxins, which can negatively impact layer performance and producer's economics. Long-living birds can succumb to chronic toxicity after consuming low levels of mycotoxins every day over time.

Another factor that makes mitigation challenging is the fact that binders are not a solution to all mycotoxins. More than 600 mycotoxins have already been discovered, and researchers continue to identify more every day. Combatting mycotoxins goes beyond binding alone and requires more effective methods that improve both gut health and immunity, enabling birds to endure mycotoxin exposure without a major impact on their health and performance

Mineral optimisation

High-quality poultry feed should not only be free of contaminants but also provide the necessary minerals to support growth and performance. Trace minerals like zinc, copper and manganese are essential to the growth and development of poultry but providing them in the wrong form and amount – either too low or too high – could negatively impact a bird's productivity. Achieving consistent delivery of an optimised level of trace minerals supports multiple essential functions in poultry, including the production and quality of eggs, reproduction and embryo development in layers and growth performance, and immune and oxidative response in broilers. Optimising the levels of minerals in feed can benefit overall health, immunity and oxidative response in birds.

Traditional inorganic trace minerals can bind feed antagonists, such as other minerals, fatty acids, vitamins, enzymes or phytate molecules. This can cause problems in the gut, impairing mineral absorption and promoting oxidation. Supplementing poultry diets with either hydroxy- or organic sources of trace minerals can increase the amount of biologically active minerals delivered to the entire length of the intestine, improving mineral absorption, performance parameters, gut health and carcass characteristics in broiler chickens.

When it comes to minerals, more is not always better. Excessive minerals can find their way into animal manure, which can, in turn, end up in soil and lead to environmental contamination. Over-dosing minerals is no guarantee for better outcomes. The best outcome results when the right sources of trace minerals are efficiently used at the right level to maintain the homeostasis of minerals in the animal.

#Mycotoxin risk #animal feed #animalhealth #dairy #poultry #animal nutrition #Mycotoxin management

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x-theafrofuturist · 3 years

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COMMXNDMXNTS AND UNDEBATABLES OF THE AFROFUTURE:

An Afrofuturistic Manifesto for Black Art

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Afrofuturist CommXndmXnts

Thy work shall take up the entirety of space while respecting the space of others.

Thy shall not input traumatizing imagery in media for Black folX

Thy shall show thyself

Thy shall collaborate with other Black WomXn

Thy shall be a safe space for Black WomXn and Black folX

Thy shall make each scene in coordination with archival footage

Thy work shall not be linear

Thy work shall not fall into White Validation Syndrome[1]

Thy shall use AAVE without explanation; you know, you know

Thy shall honor the Ancestors

[1] (Mazama, 2018)

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Undebatables in Afrofuturism

Post-colonialism is false. We are still living in colonialism and are suffering its' effects. It has reshaped and adapted to take on many forms.

White fragility is an escape from the accountability of the privilege that was set up by racist, oppressive, criminal, social, and institutional systems.

Black folX can be both human and alien. Magical and normal. Extraterrestrial and terrestrial. We can co-exist in varying realities and identities.

We are operating on CPT.

AAVE language is only reserved for Black folX. No appropriating it and masking it as your own if you are not Black.

Black folX can be merry, have joy, and frolic...

without the threat of police being called on them...

or be assaulted...

or be confronted and questioned by white womXn with our being in a space.

I speak for my experience. I do not speak for all Black folX, nor is all our stories are the same. We encompass any narratives and have different experiences. We are all not the same.

Not all Black folX are poor, have rhythm/dance, can rap, nor will rap on cue when you demand it.

If the hair is on my head, don’t touch it nor say, “Where did you buy it?” or “It looks so real.” Mind your business.

Don’t counter my grievance with your grievance to minimize and suppress me.

Stop gaslighting Black WomXn when we speak up about our grievances.

The term Hotep should not be used to describe so-called “woke” Black folX.

And so-called “woke” Black folX need to stop gatekeeping information with patronizing, paternal condescension.

Code-switching is exhausting. Stop pushing “proper English.”

If you feel uncomfortable with my presence, do not expect me to make myself smaller to accommodate you. Your discomfort is between you and your god.

Black folX need to stop saying, “We are not our Ancestors.” Our Ancestors fought peacefully and burned shit down too. We are them.

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Expansions

In molding a world for Black folX in the future, we must be intentional with our actions. No new world can form without Black folX. No new world can develop, especially without Black WomXn. We are "mother civilization." Societies and pop "culture" is Black culture appropriated and watered down from Black WomXn.

The CommXndmXnts and Undebatables are in direct correlation with physical space. As we construct a physical space that is a safe space for Black WomXn, these CommXndmXnts and Undebatables are rules that will enable this space to come to fruition while catering to the needs of Black WomXn. In modeling and intentionally creating an Afrofuturistic future where Black bodies are free to be merry about, the success of an Afrofuturistic future lies in the protection of Black WomXn.

Black WomXn have been on the frontlines of every liberation movement. Despite our work that contributed to the success of other groups, white supremacy and patriarchy still profoundly affect the lives of Black folX, but more specifically, Black WomXn, ranging from racism, reproduction rights, not receiving recognition and credit, and more than there is space to list. This experience alone brings an inseparable connection of racism, sexism, and classism. These three elements are tied so bound together that for exclusion of one will only prompt the other two to be highlighted and take center stage. Without racism, sexism and classism take hold. Without classism, racism and sexism are intertwined. Upon encountering a Black WomXn, the societal definition of gender and the color of our skin leaves no escape from the inseparable chains of racism, sexism, and classism, all of which to be present simultaneously.

Black Queer WomXn's recognition was often shoved to the back end "for the good" of the Black community. In part due to their identity considered not crucial to the movement; thus, their identity would "muddle" the message that correlated with conservative views, despite fighting for the liberation of all Black folX. Along with internalized homophobia, those who identified as Queer or a WomXn, our voices were often diminished and "shushed" away for a male leader to carry the voice of the Black community. We are currently experiencing Black WomXn continuing to lead the fight for Black and Brown bodies' liberation. In the male-dominated Civil Rights movements, the sexism and marginalization again Black Queer WomXn has led to Black WomXnism. Despite the Suffrage Movement, white feminism used the work and labor of Black WomXn while simultaneously silencing Black voices and benefiting off of white privilege.

How do we get to this point?

The Afrofuturistic CommXndmXnts and Undebatables serve the purpose of creating a space where the inseparable chains of oppression associated with Black WomXnhood do not hold the velvety to cause harm for Black WomXn.

An Afrofuturistic landscape acknowledges that Afropessimism and Afrofuturism coexist simultaneously[1]. Like Black folX, there are intersections of both that influence the other. Varying identities can coexist, so will in the Afrofuturistic landscape. Afrofuturism revolutionizes patriarchal systems that were created to confine and control Black bodies. Rather than rewrite, revise, gloss over, or suppress history, we must acknowledge these patriarchal systems and revolutionize through dismantling and destroying so that Black folX can, in fact, frolic freely. Afrofuturism is the result of these systems, and we craft our own. Rather than integrating into "dominant culture," we should be allowed to live separately without the threat of the "other," which is non-BIPOC folX, invading and colonizing us. Afrofuturism allows for Blackness and Black folX to be expansive, not confined. To be free, we cannot submit to white culture or seek their validation and approval.

With Afrofuturism, there must be a balance for Afropessimism as well. In an Afropessimistic world, the reality and weight of colonialism and imperialism's lasting effects have no escape. This constant reality is reinforced by institutional, social, and systemic institutions, reflecting racism, classism, sexism. The Afropessimism is that of the present moment, reminding us eradication of exploitative systems is not synonymous. When reform occurs in abolishing these systems, it is in correlation with an Afrofuturistic world being molded.

The very act of thinking and molding a space for Black WomXn is a radical act. While we can take steps to this radicalization, the systems of racism, classism, and sexism are the productions of a patriarchal and capitalistic world that have profited and have been sustained by the exploitation and labor of Black WomXn. Reclaiming time and space is such a radical act that the systems that exploit and benefit from the bodies of Black WomXn will be dismantled and destroyed to pave a true revolution that is not centered around white liberalism.

For an Afrofuturistic world to exist, it must first be a world that is a physical and mental safe space for Black WomXn. Black WomXn birthed us, and yet we have exploited off of their pain and labor. Black WomXn must be able to be free and not policed by our bodies. The CommXndmXnts and Undebatables are a beginning step in molding and crafting this space intentionally inclusive of Black WomXn.

[1] (Edwards, 2020)

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Context of CommXndmXnts

CommXndmXnt: Thy work shall take up the entirety of space without thy work impeding and overwhelming the space of others

In first molding a space for Black WomXn, I must first incorporate this into my own life and work. My work shall take up as most space as possible that is allocated to me while also respecting other artists and their work. In coexisting with varying experiences and stories being told, as I demand to carve out a space for Black WomXn, I shall also respect other artists' work.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall not input traumatizing imagery

In acknowledging that pain and joy are intertwined with one another in the Black experience, pain is often exploited for a profit, with joy masked for its former. More specifically, the trauma and pain inflicted on Black WomXn on-screen are horrendous to us. It becomes a spectator view for those who are outside of Black WomXnhood. The trauma and pain when being depicted for other subjects, there is a proud conservatism and privacy. To allude to the pain but respect it for the subject. Shield the audience from being pained and respecting the privacy again for the subject, which is usually a non-Black WomXn. For Black WomXn's pain to be communicated and gain empathy, every lash in an enslaved movie must have the blood splashed across the camera lens. In 12 Years a Slave, the night engulfs and hugs the master as he rapes his captive. The moonlight shines down on the horrendous and decrypting and dehumanizing act. The silence and echoes of the crickets add to the heart-wrenching show and violation. This pain and rape scene is set up as a show so audience members can be captured by the moment, hypnotized by it, and not tear a single eye away from the screen.

For our pain to be communicated, we must be demeaned and dehumanized, stripped of identity and emotion. This leads to the desensitization of Black WomXn's pain, adding to the mistreatment suffered by doctors that underestimate our pain and leads to our death. Black WomXn's bodies are not respected. We are treated as disposable waste that reaccumulates. Showing Black WomXn's pain and trauma with more gore will not cause any action. Only temporary empathy that is dismissed from the mind once the movie or tv show ends.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall show thyself

Identifying as a Black WomXn, this work is representing a part of me. As I show myself more in my work, this can be a restorative and therapeutic tool in unlearning biases and conditioning and being able to frolic mentally and physically freely in an Afrofuturistic world.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall collaborate with other Black WomXn

Collaborating with other Black WomXn ensures to the multifaceted experiences of Black WomXn are included. No narrative is the same, yet all narratives encompass the being of a Black WomXn. Collaborating with other Black WomXn ensures that money and opportunity circulate within the Black community. As I rise, others must as well.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall be a safe space for Black WomXn and Black folX

Self-explanatory. Period.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall make each scene in coordination with archival footage

The archival footage serves to document at the earliest possible time that Black WomXn were molding and currently creating with the Afrofuture in mind, consciously and subconsciously. In drawing parallels of Black history, the Afrofuture and the present archival footage serve the purpose of grounding and acknowledging our Ancestors fought and worked with the Afrofuture in mind, regardless of if the term was coined then or not.

CommXndmXnt: Thy work shall not be linear

Time is a social and artificial construct. We are operating on CPT. Subjectivity in time is in correlation with production and commerce. Production and commerce that has led to the exploitation of Black bodies. Time is limiting.

Going against time is a radical act and a decisive act in choosing the power of rest. Rest is revolutionary. To rest should not center around the business hours of our exploiter. Rest needs to be center around the needs of the body. We suppress our body's needs to keep up with forced capitalism that highlights production and commerce over mental, emotional, and physical health. Rest is revolutionary of the Afrofuture.

CommXndmXnt: Thy work shall not fall into White Validation Syndrome

Our pain, art, value, and trauma should not be recognized and validated by white people to be considered accurate. The need to be identified and acknowledge by those outside our community will ultimately be our downfall. Insisting to be accepted by white culture will only compromise our own sanity and quality of work.

The mental and cultural relocation has caused a need for belonging for some within our network. Seeking white validation will only result in more protracted suffering and suppression, for we have to suppress ourselves to be deemed as of value. Leave the shackles of this thinking behind.

We add to our oppression seeking that we are acknowledged and integrated by the dominant culture. Black WomXn's bodies will continually be satirized and mocked with or without white validation. We sacrifice ourselves to be approved by others who have no relation or idea of Blackness.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall use AAVE without explanation

My language. I will use it as I will. I will not be shamed for code-switching.

CommXndmXnt: Thy shall honor the Ancestors

We are here because our Ancestors fought and survive to get to this point. Saying “I am not my Ancestors” is disrespectful and disregards the work and fight our Ancestors lived and died for. They lived and died for us. We will not disrespect them.

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LANGUAGE

Language plays a crucial role in acknowledging identities while also following rules that adhere to imposed gender roles. The significance of X is intentional in acknowledging identities that have been erased due to misogynistic language and suppression. The X alludes to the identities beyond the English language incomprehension. The English language is limited and Anglo-Saxon based, which is rooted in patriarchy. In acknowledging the vastness of gender and escaping the binary, X is a gender-neutral language. It is a language that is not rooted in the oppression of groups that have been oppressed and silenced. It is the intentionality of correcting a wronged history.

An example of this intentionality of recognizing those silenced is using X in the word folX. "Folks" have traditionally been seen and accepted as a gender-neutral term. The inclusion of X in reference to titles and nouns that refer to humXns is a means to highlight those who have been impacted and affected by misogyny. No group is exempt from colonial influence, either be directly or indirectly.

Another example includes using the X with words with "man" or "men." Examples of this include changing "woman/women" to womXn and "humans" to humXns. In this manifesto, particularly, "amendments" and "commandments" are changed to amXndmXnts and commXndmXnts.

Each time "men" appear in sequence, "e" will be replaced with X regarding gender and authority, such as “men” and “amendments.” Correcting gender-identifying words means correcting the default language of masculinity that has impacted and formed the English language (Kerr, 2019). In pointing out misogyny and intentionally adding X, it acknowledges an oppressive system.

The deliberate and intentional inclusion of the X when referring to womXn and folX is a radical act in acknowledging identities that has been silenced by language and limited by it. It is the deliberate inclusion of identities that have been overshadowed or not acknowledge. X acknowledges that gender and sexuality are fluid, with varying identities existing and coexisting at once. The X is a push against the standard, gender confining language. It allows for Black folX to be as they please.

Thy Shall

Having been raised in a Southern Baptist Church, words such as "rules," "forbidden," and "laws of God" are centralized in the Christian belief and verbiage. These rules are centered around the "10 Commandments." These commXndmXnts establish morality and governance that humXns must abide by for soul security in the afterlife. This fear and laws drive those to "do good" and into submission. This same fear and irrefutable laws are used as grounds for repression and suppression. The "10 Commandments" were used as grounds of obedience with the penalty of being deprived of entering the pearly gates of Heaven.

The beginning of the manifesto opens with the "Afrofuturistic CommXndmXnts." In replicating the original "10 Commandments," the "Commandment" language takes an authoritative tone. There is no room for debates or questions. These commXndmXnts are absolute. The commXndmXnts are rules that humXnkind must follow. In mimicking the authoritative and absolute tonnage of the "10 Commandments," the Afrofuturist CommXndmXnts sets a tone in the art process that allows for Black folX to exists. The commXndmXnts serve the purpose of elevating Black WomXn while also protecting them. In addressing a world and safe space for Black WomXn to prosper, we must first create a model that is free of misogyny and the effects of colonialism. The commXndmXnts sets a stage that protects Black WomXn rather than suppressing them into a patriarchal, submissive, demeaning will. Rather than establishing actions and forbiddance, the Afrofuturist CommXndmXnts serve the role of establishing a physical, emotional, and mental space that is free of symbols of oppression. They serve as a protection rather than establishing morality that is Eurocentric based.

Black WomXn

When referring to Black folX, the “B” will be capitalized.

“…We capitalize Black, and not white, when referring to groups in racial, ethnic, or cultural terms…Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community. White carries a different set of meanings, capitalizing the word in this context risks following the lead of white supremacists”[1]

In capitalizing womXn, it will happen in the sequence where Black is first. Black WomXn is a title that is synonymous with being a noun.

[1] (Laws, 2020)

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Addendum

Water will be used as a portal through time.

With the water used as a portal, a tool of the Afro future, water symbolizes the sacredness it has within the Black community. As water is essential to life, it is also used as a tool against Black communities in either denial of it, a weapon during the Civil Rights Movement on protestors, or environmental racism resulting in disasters impacting Black communities detrimentally. The water serves as a grounding tool in acknowledging the Afropessimism of the reality of imperialism's lasting effects on the African Diaspora. Water is where my Ancestors lay and rest, the ocean floor of unmarked graves.

Cisgender mXn's face will not be shown no more than 3 times.

We live in a world that privileges mXn subconsciously and consciously. In breaking and dismantling our patriarchal system's brainwashing and misogynoir, we must break from the automatic default of comparing our experiences with others. We can give insight, but the comparison of experiences leads to demeaning and minimizing of others. In challenging the world and societal standards and highlighting the varying intersections of Black life, spaces must coexist. In this space that is relating to Black WomXn, cisgender mXn are limited in appearance. In allowing for Black WomXn to frolic freely, a space must be created that is inclusive of solely them and their needs, free from misogynoir and those who resemble it.

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Glossary

AAVE – African American Vernacular English, aka. Black English. A dialect and socio-linguistic language developed by Black folX due to theft from the motherland and forced into enslavement in the Americas. Oppression of language through suppression in education and dislocation led to the creolization of English[1]

Afrofuturism – Experienced through folX of African descent existing and being in spaces and identities that we have either been erased from, suppressed from, oppressed from, and/or not imagined in[2].

Afropessimism – acknowledges the reality of the last effects of colonialism, imperialism, brutalization, and theft of people in relation to folX of African descent.

Black WomXnism – Not feminism. As defined by Alice Walker, “… a wom[x]n who loves other women sexually and/or nonsexually … committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female” through challenging patriarchal systems that have oppressed Black folX[3].

Black Space – A space purposefully created for Black folX, free of paternalism, colonialism, and misogynoir.

CPT – Colored People’s Time

Hotep – Egyptian word that means “at peace.” Has evolved to describe Afrocentric Black folX. Also used to describe a person who is “either clueless parody of Afrocentricity…or someone who’s loudly, conspicuously and obnoxiously pro-Black but anti-progress”[4].

Misogynoir – Coined by Moya Bailey; it is the “anti-Black racist misogyny that Black Wom[x]n experience” is internalized. This leads to the over-sexualization of Black Wom[x] and adding to existing stereotypes about Black WomXn[5]

[1] (Sidnell, n.d.)

[2] (Young, 2016)

[3] (Rahatt, 2020)

[4] (Young, 2016)

[5] (What is Misogynoir?, 2020)

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Work Inspirations:

Edwards, L. (2020). Afrofuturism Collab. (L. Edwards, Performer) Durham, NC.

Laws, M. (2020, June 16). Why we capitalize 'Black" (and not 'white'). Retrieved from Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php

Mazama, A. (2018). Retrieved from Cognitive Hiatus and the White Validation Syndrome: An Afrocentric Analysis: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75447-5_3

Rahatt, C. (2020, February 04). How Alice Walker Created Womanism - The Movement That Meets Black Women Where Feminism Misses the Mark. Retrieved from Blavity: News: https://blavity.com/blavity-original/how-alice-walker-created-womanism-the-movement-that-meets-black-women-where-feminism-misses-the-mark?category1=Books

Sidnell, J. (n.d.). African American Vernacular English (Ebonics). Retrieved from Language Varieties: https://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/aave.html

Syms, M. (2013, December ). The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto. Retrieved from The Third Rail: http://thirdrailquarterly.org/martine-syms-the-mundane-afrofuturist-manifesto/

What is Misogynoir? (2020, February 12). Retrieved from Blackburn Center: https://www.blackburncenter.org/post/2020/02/12/what-is-misogynoir

Young, D. (2016, March 05). Hotep, Explained. Retrieved from The Root: https://www.theroot.com/hotep-explained-1790854506

[More to be added and edited...]

#afrofuturism #afrofuture #manifesto #black womxn #black women #black aesthetic #black art

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thevisibilityarchives · 3 years

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The Seep, Chana Porter

LGBTQIA+, BIPOC

Summary: Chana Porter paints a surrealist image of a world transformed into a utopia following the subtle arrival of an alien species called The Seep.

Full review: As the rovers Perseverance and Zhurong scour the Martian landscape, we await with bated breath what could be the discovery of past life on the Red Planet. First Contact fantasies have interested sci-fi (and horror) lovers for decades. From the iconic radiobroadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds (1938) to the racially charged implications of Niell Blomkamps’s film District 9 (2009), we are both fascinated and overwhelmingly anxious about what it may look like to meet an extra-terrestrial species for the first time.

Often, these depictions present alien species as hostile, a threat to organic life on Earth through superior technology and clear devaluation of humanity. Even the late physicist Stephen Hawking compared the arrival of intelligent extra-terrestrial life to the violence of European colonialism. These themes provoke stories revolving around dominating species like those found in the Mass Effect games, rather than the coexistence of lovable critters like R2-D2 (Star Wars) or the pug-nosed E.T. (1982).

But what if rather than initiating an interstellar war, the arrivals of aliens brought about the end to human suffering? Not through widespread annihilation, but the creation of a paradise that eradicates the roots of said suffering. That is the basis of Chana Porter’s The Seep, a dizzying fantasy of bliss as the world we know is transformed at the hands of an alien species.

The Seep, an extra-terrestrial species, quietly arrives and taints the water supply before making its existence known. What could have sinister implications instead ends up creating a utopia, in which capitalism is abolished, healthcare is plentiful, and talking bears provide empathetic ears while bartending.

Trina, a transgender Indigenous-American woman reflects upon a world that is too perfect. Too blissful, too resolute even in its flexibility. Often misquoted, the Buddhist theme that “life is suffering” makes Trina ponder exactly what life is without suffering. In the world that The Seep creates, Trina is ill at ease that all can truly be at peace, and undergoes journeys both internal and physical as she seeks to confront The Seep and the supposed paradise that has transformed life on Earth beyond even what the staunchest Bernie-bro could envision.

Given the epic amount of fiction that hinges on the negative implications of extra-terrestrial contact, it’s refreshing to see a work in which things go right. Even more so, envisioning a world in which many of our current struggles are alleviated imparts a note of hope following a year where the economic downfalls of capitalism and private healthcare have forced us to face inequity head on stronger than ever before.

The Seep is delicately layered in a way that it is easy to become lost in the blissful fantasy of Porter’s socialist utopia and remember the pain Trina experiences as she reels from the departure of her wife, who seeks a new life The Seep offers in the form of literal rebirth. Even the suffering of loss Trina feels is meant to be mitigated by the sheet depth of her wife Deeba’s choice to pursue a new life free of trauma. Even amidst the talking bears and overt socio-political commentary, Porter gives us emotions that are raw and real, and can invoke something in every single one of us.

The Seep can be found here on Thriftbooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-seep_chana-porter/23859348/all-editions/?resultid=ace7d2e1-ae6c-40fe-acfd-334b732bc8b9

At the major retailers listed here: https://www.chanaporter.com/the-seep.html

Or preferably, through ordering at your favorite local bookstore!

#lgbtq #queer reads #lgbt representation #lgbtqia #bipoc characters #bipoc representation #bipocbookstagram #literature #fiction #novella #chana porter #bipoc #reading #transgender visibility #visibilityarchives

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swtorpadawan · 4 years

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Promises

Author’s Notes: The following obviously applies to my main Jedi Knight OC, Corellan Halcyon, but I feel it could apply to a great many JKs, so i’ve used gender-neutral pronouns where possible. Graphics courtesy of Wookiepedia, since i’m away from my screen captures at the moment. The Sith Lord known as Lord Scourge wants Revenge against Vitiate, the Sith Emperor. He wants revenge for what the ancient Sith Lord did to him three hundred years ago, granting him immortality but taking from him everything that made life worth living. He wants revenge for being forced to serve as his personal executioner for all of that time. It is true that Scourge may have started down this long and arduous path out of a sort of enlightened self-interest. Vitiate, Scourge knows full-well, is a threat to the entire galaxy. He has known that from the moment he met him in person so many years ago. The Emperor is a threat to everyone who has ever lived and to everyone who ever will live. But his anger and rage at his ‘Master’ have only deepened over the centuries. Scourge is incredibly fortunate that he burns cold, one of the side-effects that he suffers as the result of Vitiate’s ritual. Were it otherwise, the Emperor would surely have sensed the profound danger that his Wrath represented, and the unrepentant traitor has no illusions as to how that confrontation would end. After the Dromund Kaas operation, Scourge claims to stay with the Defender’s crew simply to be certain that the Emperor has left them no further surprises. But somewhere deep down, Scourge knows that this isn’t the end of it. Something of the Emperor has survived. But he also knows the Jedi Knight will be there to see the prophecy through no matter what it takes. The Knight’s resolve is the equal of Revan’s, of the Exile’s and of Scourge’s himself. Perhaps even greater. And Scourge will therefore aid the Jedi however he can. Lord Scourge stays with the Jedi Knight because they promise him Revenge.

Fidelitin Rusk has been fighting one battle or another for his entire adult life. He is considered ruthless and sometimes even reckless by his fellow Republic soldiers, and sometimes even by his crewmates. Rusk – the third-oldest member of the crew but perhaps the oldest in practical life experience – accepts these assessments without rebuke or defense; he is what he is. His entire mindset was constructed for battles and wars that had to be won regardless of the costs. Rusk has fought so hard and for so long that there are some days when even he starts to forget why he does what he does. Indeed, there are times when Rusk disapproves of the Knight’s choices, believing that they risk too much for others and that they are far too willing to however briefly put aside the greater mission to save even a single life all while the entire galaxy stands at risk.

But deep down, the lost soldier’s only true purpose has only ever been to defend those who cannot defend themselves. He was born and raised by a colony of pacifists; that didn’t stop the Empire from annihilating his people. When he looks at the Jedi Knight – so selfless and so brave, so willing to put themselves on the line for those who need them, he is reminded of the justness of that cause. And as he wins battle after battle and that cause is served, than perhaps everything that Rusk has done has been worth it.

Sergeant Fideltin Rusk stays with the Jedi Knight because they promise him Victory.

Contrary to popular belief, Doctor Archiban Kimble knows perfectly how the rest of the galaxy, and even his closest allies aboard the Defender, view him. The man who calls himself Doc is seen as an arrogant, misogynistic, self-aggrandizing, fame-seeking, womanizing nerf-herder; a man who has left a seemingly endless line of women high and dry over the years, from Prudy and on down the list. Honestly? Doc wouldn’t have it any other way. Letting people believe that he cares so little about his personal relationships gives him a sort of shield against the things in the universe that he doesn’t want to deal with, all while still allowing him to continue to enjoy the things that keep him going.

But a man who worked his through medical school on his own merits and who has consistently chosen to serve as a combat medic on some of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy doesn’t do so just for fame, fortune and women. He could have had all that and lived in style while conducting research projects for a major pharmaceutical company back on Coruscant. No, once upon a time there was a young Archiban who set upon this path, and who did so for far nobler reasons then Doc would ever admit to anyone. Doc doesn’t know how, but for some reason, he knows that when the Jedi Knight looks at him, they see something beyond the broken healer who has put up a shell around themselves. The Knight then offers the medic an opportunity for a more meaningful existence than he could have ever dreamed of.

Doc stays with the Jedi Knight because they promise to always Help others.

Some days, Kira Carsen feels like she’s spent her entire life just trying to be true to who she is in a galaxy that seems determined to force her to become something else. She was raised on Korriban by some of the most sadistic and fanatical Sith in the galaxy, the Children of the Emperor. Every time she sees one of her ‘siblings’ returning to the dormitories with missing pieces of their memory, she cringes and pulls up her blanket around herself. And when Kira returns one night and realizes she can’t remember what happened to her, she knows that soon, there will be nothing left of her identity, either. The survival rate of acolytes who flee the Korriban academy cannot be higher than two percent. Most flee into the wilderness and, when they aren’t immediately hunted down and killed, become ‘broken’, running around in gangs, often going mad. But ten-year old Kira smuggles herself out on an outgoing cargo ship, and a week later she’s on Nar Shaddaa. She sees the suffering of people, there. Those who are unable or unwilling to kick something up to the Hutts quickly find themselves sent down. The slums where refugees congregate are almost as cruel and unforgiving as Korriban. Life is hard, but here, Kira discovers something about herself. Inexplicably, she actually cares about other people; especially the ones who take her in, and who are too weak to fend for themselves against the predators among them. Then Kira meets Bela Kiwiiks and joins the Jedi Order. Kira is unbelievably grateful to Master Kiwiiks. The Togrutta got her off Nar Shaddaa, gave her a home and a place in the galaxy, and has given her a place in the galaxy and the chance to do some good. Master Kiwiiks is like the mother that she never had. Kiwiiks is gently but firmly trying to teach Kira to be the best Jedi she can be.

But as proud as she is to be a Jedi, Kira Carsen is trying to be the best version of herself.

When she meets the Jedi Knight, everything changes very quickly. Somehow, the Knight trusts Kira against the Black Sun at the spaceport on Coruscant, and then later still when they’re hunting down Tarnis. When Master Satele instructs the Knight to take Kira in as a Padawan, Kira is elated. She follows the Knight’s lead, but she feels more like a partner than their apprentice. The Knight talks with her instead of at her, and they learn a great deal about themselves and the galaxy from each other. When Kira’s past is revealed, the Knight supports her unquestioningly; first against Valis, then against Master Jaric Kaedan and finally against the Emperor himself on Darth Angral’s dreadnaught. When Kira finally purges the Emperor from her mind, she feels the Knight reaching out to her, aiding her the entire time.

(All this comes before that night under the stars on Tython, when Kira finally jumps the Knight and they become far more than partners.)

Kira is still herself, learning and growing at her own pace. There are times she questions the Knight’s choices. She groans when they take in Doc and worries a great deal when they let Scourge join. But through it all, the Knight never asks Kira to compromise herself; they never tell her how she should feel or think about anything. The Knight simply asks Kira to trust them. And she does. The doubting Jedi questions many things; but they never question the Knight, because the Knight has never questioned her.

Kira Carsen stays with the Jedi Knight because they promise to let her be Herself , and because they let her become the best version of Herself she can.

T7-O1 – Teeseven to his friends – has served the Jedi Order for decades, and quite frankly, they would be hard pressed to find anyone who has done so with greater devotion. The astromech droid is more than content to carry messages and conduct reconnaissance for the Jedi as they continue to adjust to their home on Tython.

But for the mechanical servant, the most satisfying period of his existence was during the time he served as a companion to Jedi Master Ven Zallow, one of the greatest heroes of the Galactic Republic during the last galactic war. Zallow was a true champion of the ideals of both the Jedi and the Republic, serving with wisdom and strength. The little droid misses those days, fiercely. He knows the work he does for the Order is important, but nothing was more fulfilling than knowing ones actions have helped right a wrong or saved a life.

After ten years of waiting, Teeseven is finally partnered with another hero. This one is even kinder and more powerful than Ven Zallow; they seem to do nothing but sacrifice for others. In the Jedi Knight, Teeseven has found a champion who can save the entire galaxy. Privately, the little droid does worry. He worries that the cruelties of this galaxy will weigh on the Knight, that they will become bitter with loss, and will eventually fall short of their ideals as so many Jedi have before. But Teeseven will be there for the Knight, no matter what. They will follow the Knight into the darkest places in the galaxy, as they blaze a light. They will be the Knight’s friend, and show the Jedi the way. In return, the Knight will help Teeseven be what the droid always wanted to be.

T7-O1 stays with the Jedi Knight because they promise him that they will always be Heroes.

#swtor #t7-o1 #teeseven #kira carsen #fideltin rusk #sergeant rusk #doc swtor #doc #archiban kimble #archiban frodrick kimble #doctor Archiban Kimble #lord scourge #swtor writing #jedi knight #oc: corellan halcyon #corellan halcyon #hero of tython #playing the light side isn't always sexy but it does help

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fatehbaz · 4 years

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Another compilation of thoughts on apocalypse; dystopia; better futures; post-crisis resurgence, contemplated during first week(s) of pandemic quarantine. [Part 1.]

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Pedro Neves Marques. “Parallel Futures: One or Many Dystopias?” e-flux. April 2019.

[I]t is important to remember that some futures never went anywhere – they were not allowed to – and yet they survive. These are futures that have been suppressed and canceled by colonial power. [...] I’m talking about parallel futures. By this I mean futures that have always been present, but that, together with the worlds they belong to, have been forced into one future only. […] There is only one planet, but there are many worlds inside it.

Writing from an Afrofuturist standpoint, artist and writer Kodwo Eshun suggests that the colonial present is managed by both a preemptive and a predictive power. “Preemptive” means that colonial power must control the past so as to deny the emergence of any future other than the one desired by the colonialist. “Predictive,” in contrast, implies that power must manage the present in such a way that the future is predetermined in advance. It is the active production of future horizons, compliant with power, that comes to shape the present. […] Borrowing a term from anthropologist Michael Fortun, one could call this preemptive prediction a “future anterior”: the forceful imagination of a technoscientific future that by its very utterance determines the shape of things to come. The future anterior orients the present toward a predetermined goal, while also rereading the past in its image. This is perhaps why Eshun writes that it is not the future that emerges from the present, as one would normally think, but rather the present (and the past) that arrives from the future. Colonial power creates a future in advance, so that no other will take its place. I want to ask how we can think through colonization and decolonization as a matter of futures. Colonization – of bodies and minds but also of nature itself – has always been as much about the negation and control of possible futures as about the erasure of the past […].

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Indigenous Action Network. “Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto.” 2020.

Apocalyptic idealization is a self fulfilling prophecy. It is the linear world ending from within. Apocalyptic logic exists within a spiritual, mental, and emotional dead zone that also cannibalizes itself. It is the dead risen to consume all life. [...] Its an apocalyptic that colonizes our imaginations and destroys our past and future simultaneously. It is a struggle to dominate human meaning and all existence. [...] There is a song older than worlds here, it heals deeper then the colonizer’s blade could ever cut. [...] Why can we imagine the ending of the world, yet not the ending of colonialism? We live the future of a past that is not our own. It is a history of utopian fantasies and apocalyptic idealization. It is a pathogenic global social order of imagined futures, built upon genocide, enslavement, ecocide, and total ruination.

What conclusions are to be realized in a world constructed of bones and empty metaphors? A world of fetishized endings calculated amidst the collective fiction of virulent specters. From religious tomes to fictionalized scientific entertainment, each imagined timeline constructed so predictably; beginning, middle, and ultimately, The End. [...] This way of unbeing, which has infected all aspects of our lives, which is responsible for the annihilation of entire species, the toxification of oceans, air and earth, the clear-cutting and burning of whole forests, mass incarceration, the technological possibility of world ending warfare, and raising the temperatures on a global scale, this is the deadly politics of capitalism, it’s pandemic. [...] We are the antibodies.

The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual invasion of our lands, bodies, and minds to settle and to exploit, is colonialism. Ships sailed on poisoned winds and bloodied tides across oceans pushed with a shallow breath and impulse to bondage, millions upon millions of lives were quietly extinguished before they could name their enemy. 1492. 1918. 2020 …

Biowarfare blankets, the slaughter of our relative the buffalo, the damming of lifegiving rivers, the scorching of untarnished earth, the forced marches, the treatied imprisonment, coercive education through abuse and violence. [...] The day to day post-war, post-genocide, trading post-colonial humiliation of our slow mass suicide on the altar of capitalism; work, income, pay rent, drink, fuck, breed, retire, die. [...]

The anti-colonial imagination isn’t a subjective reaction to colonial futurisms, it is anti-settler future. Our life cycles are not linear, our future exists without time. It is a dream, uncolonized. [...] We will not allow the specter of the colonizer, the ghosts of the past to haunt the ruins of this world. [...]

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Phil A. Neel. Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict. 2018.

St. Louis is where storms collide. [...] And as the air currents grapple over the middle-American sky, the storm-swollen Mississippi grinds forward below. Once-uncommon “freak floods” are now standard, the levees overcome every few years and large chunks of St Louis and its surrounding suburbs washed away by the intractable inertia of a river bound to outlive any city. [...] In recent years, growing climate chaos has only intensified this ambient war, each “extreme weather event” more volatile and less predictable. [...] The result is another slow apocalypse.

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Hugo Reinert. “The skulls and the dancing pig: Notes on apocalyptic violence.” Terrain. 2019

In a newspaper interview a decade or so back, during an earlier peak of reindeer-crisis discourse, a [Sami] herder named Johan Mathis Oskal put this issue very succinctly: “If the authorities do cut the number of animals by half, and we then get a bad year [udr], we might be left with no reindeer at all. That would be an eternal catastrophe.” […]

“Apocalypse” […]. The word has something of the titillating about it: a streak of prurience, redolent of spectacle and sentimental violence, the interminable grind of […] death-fulfillment fantasies […]. It feels indulgent; more specifically, perhaps, it echoes the affects and fantasies that are invested in the anthropological project of salvage – as a collective enterprise of acquisition and reification rooted, all too often, in the postulate of an apocalypse of the Other. […] The image of a reindeer excess has haunted the edges of the State in Norway for almost two centuries now: a fevered, imaginal swarm always threatening to overspill the borders, invade the cities, eating the land bare. [...] The underlying impulse has persisted: a will to contain the herd, to control them, reduce – and through this, to control and reduce a segment of the Indigenous Sami population that in conspicuous ways has resisted normalization […].

The escalation of this […] narrative has coincided neatly with the escalating interest of national and international actors in “developing” the tundra […]. “Death has occupied the tundra,” one headline proclaimed. […]. The miasma of this moment is simultaneously an effect and an instrument of governance: a kind of ambient manufactured context [...]. Acting on the vision of a vast catastrophe – a charnel dream of bodies that rot in the snow, devastation, collapsing systems, the stench of blood – the providential State deploys the killing-violence apotropaically, in a preemptive move: “To prevent them from dying, they must be killed.” […] In this sense, the reindeer crisis is also legible as a performance, a spectacle of justification orchestrated by the State in its own periphery: “disaster as a form of governance” […].

“Eternal catastrophe.” To someone like Johan Mathis, excess appears as a temporary and survivable mismatch in the calibration of herd size to grazing resources. The problem resolves itself: “nature itself reduces the [reindeer] number.” […]. Contrast this to the State narrative – in which excess appears as the continuous potential for a terrifying breakdown, a rampant and unregulated proliferation in which the dead scatter like leaves, chaotic and numberless across an incompletely known terrain. Even the possibility of that crisis disrupts the sovereign claim of the State over death. The threat of force tries to reestablish that claim, at least symbolically – aligning reality with a theory of power that takes this control (over death) as simultaneously total and already-given but also always under threat, inherently insufficient. In the crisis, the State falls chronically short of its own theoretical claims; the answer to that “failure” is expansion, growth, intensification of control, the further consolidation of power.

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Nat Marcus. “At the Hellmouth Coatcheck.” Flaunt. November 2019.

Note that city limits are often transversive; radial lanes rather than walls at the perimeter. [...] Escalating seismics aside, the Hellmouth obviously wouldn’t open under Los Angeles, but rather off-center, somewhere out-of-pocket like Sunnydale. [...] Chicago acts like a trellis or lays out like a sheet of graph paper, one edge wet and thus easily torn away by Lake Michigan.

How, or assuming what posture, do we guide ourselves through the present via the future, if short-term futurity looks rich with suffering, and in the long-term, it’s merely void?

Apocalypse is a gradient, and the inferno [...] isn’t devoid of politics: while I write this ledger, the number of residents of what could be called hell on earth (shoreline eroding, uninsured pharmaceutical deadlocks, Western wars fought elsewhere, etc.) only grows. [...] By our current trajectory, those existing outside hubs of capital -- beyond the spatial and/or ideological limits of capital and major cities, the subaltern and incalculable -- will be swallowed by ocean or fire first. One doesn’t need a prophet’s eyes to see this. [...]

A bell-hooksian love ethic is one by which love is recognized as a form of action, one undertaken to stimulate the personal and spiritual growth of oneself and others. [...] Hell is either already here or just around the corner [...], at cross-hatched odds with the orderly loop of the city filled with law, may simply allow us to step into the shrinking space between those two places, and be here willfully [...].

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