#these are like....the two pictures of hunter in existence before asias | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

earthstory · 5 years

Photo

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Common name: Tyrannosaurus Rex (tye-RAN-uh-SAWR-us) Size: 12m (40 feet) in length Age: Late Cretaceous (67 - 65 million years ago) Geographic range: North America Liked: Eating other dinosaurs Disliked: tiny arm jokes Taxonomy: Animalia > Chordata > Dinosauria > Theropoda > Tyrannosauridae > Tyrannosaurus > Tyrannosaurus Rex Note: other species of Tyrannosaurus have been found in Asia

One of the largest carnivorous land animals, Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex for short) is also the most famous. T-Rex has been featured in more movies than any other dinosaur. Featured in all five of the Jurassic Park movies, T-Rex is one of the ultimate predators.

Fossils show us that T-Rex had a huge skull with powerful jaws, packed with 7-inch serrated teeth. There's been some debate as to whether or not T-Rex was a hunter or a scavenger based on the fossilized teeth. The theropod's teeth were constantly being replaced over its lifetime and more recent studies have indicated T-Rex is an opportunistic predator that both hunted and scavenged.

T-Rex was equipped with massive legs, enabling the dinosaur to run at speeds of up to 30 mph (48 km/hr). Adult dinosaurs measured 40 feet in length and weighed up to 10 tons. In contrast to its massive body, as any internet meme will tell you, T-Rex had relatively short, small arms. Although they seem vestigial and useless, the short forearms actually measured over three feet in length and may have been powerful enough to lift over 450 pounds (270 kg) each. This means T-Rex's "tiny arms" were three times as powerful as a human's.

So what were these supposed "tiny arms" used for? Well, there are a few possibilities: 1. A way to push themselves up off the ground. 2. Male dinosaurs could have used them to hold onto females during mating 3. To grab and hold onto prey before eating. So, most likely T-Rex's arms were just the size they needed to be.

In the first film of the series, Jurassic Park, we are told that T-Rex's vision is based on movement and if we encounter one, all we have to do is remain still and it can't see us. Sorry folks, but this is not the case. Based on fossils, we can see that the T-Rex skull has two large forward-facing eye sockets indicating the theropod had good binocular vision.

A study conducted by Lawrence Witmer and Ryan Ridgely of Ohio University expanded on the already known sensory abilities of Tyrannosaurus, indicating relatively rapid and coordinated eye and head movements, an enhanced sense of smell, and an enhanced ability to sense low frequency sounds that would allow the dinosaur to track prey movements from long distances.

Another study, published by Kent Stevens of the University of Oregon, concluded that Tyrannosaurus had excellent vision, with a binocular range of 55 degrees. What does that mean? Well it means T-Rex had better visual acuity than hawks and other predatory birds, and even better than humans.

The most complete dinosaur skeleton ever discovered is a T-Rex skeleton. It was dug up in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1990. FMNH PR 2081, or "Sue" is the the largest, most extensive and well-preserved T-Rex specimen ever discovered. Named for Sue Hendrickson (the discoverer), Sue measures 40 feet (12.3 m) long, stands 13 ft (4-m) tall at the hips, and weighs in at 6.4 metric tons. Despite being named Sue, the sex of the dinosaur is not known; however, we do know Sue was approximately 28 years old when he/she died. Sue resides in Chicago's Field Museum, but occasionally is loaned out to other museums. The skeleton is 90 percent complete and contains one of only two complete T-Rex forelimbs in existence. The dinosaur also runs an impressive twitter account.

-ALT

Image Credit: Image #1 - Sue the T-Rex on display in Chicago (wikicommons) Image #2 - Universal Pictures/Jurassic Park Image #3 - Dinosaur bones with T-Rex bite marks (wikicommons)

Source Credit: http://bit.ly/ReXANs http://bit.ly/1FXFlmw http://bit.ly/1JA8gfa http://bit.ly/1E0KWm5 http://bit.ly/1GXL73v

#Dinosaur #fossil #fossils #tyrannosaur rex #fossilfriday #geology #paleontology #t-rex #sue #museum #research #the earth story #jurassic park

107 notes · View notes

lowbrowanthro · 4 years

Text

Maud Wood Park: Forgotten Feminist, Proto-Anthropologist, Bad Bitch

In the summer of 2018, I spent three weeks in the Library of Congress researching twentieth-century women political leaders (think suffragettes, early legislators, etc).

Mostly I skimmed workshop pamphlets and stared, unblinking, at indecipherable handwritten correspondence. But one woman in particular had me rapt.

[Extremely Stefon voice] Maud Wood Park’s story has everything - suffragette drama, a trip around the world, and a secret (second! Post divorce! That scandalous queen!) marriage that *definitely* disappointed her dad.

(Photo from: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collection/papers-maud-wood-park-in-womans-rights-collection)

Born in 1871 in Boston, Maud Wood Park was a no-nonsense activist ahead of her time. I call her “forgotten” even though she’s well-known to scholars of women’s suffrage (NERRRDS), because she’s largely left out of public school lessons featuring big names like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Yet her work as a lobbyist with the National American Woman Suffrage Association and as the first president of the League of Women Voters made her a centrally important figure in the struggle for American women’s suffrage.

(Maud pictured 4th from the right. Photo from: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collection/papers-maud-wood-park-in-womans-rights-collection)

Even more interesting than her activism (lol sorry, women’s rights) was her personal life.

Maud did her own damn thing - she chose not to have children, eschewed religion, traveled around the world without a male escort, and never stopped fighting for women’s rights. She married her first husband after meeting him in college (she went to Radcliffe, A.K.A. ~Lady Harvard~ because She Smart And She Fancy), and then divorced his ass when she was 35. Two years later, she ~secretly~ married Robert “Bob” Hunter Freeman.

(Above: Bob and his bowler hat. Photos from the LoC collections)

Bob was ~an actor~ and theatrical agent (yes Maud, I feel you, who among us has not pined for a sensitive artistic type). They both traveled so often for work that they were never able to officially, publicly settle down and cohabitate. Instead, their marriage remained secret to all but a few close friends, and they met clandestinely in hotel rooms during Maud’s lecture circuits. They also shared a robust (there are SO MANY LETTERS, you guys) correspondence. Many of their letters focus on their interpersonal drama and semi-tempestuous but deeply-loving relationship, and you bet I read all that shit.

They had serious differences and disagreed constantly. Bob gave Maud shit about her temperament and lack of religion, and she gave him shit about his lack of logic.

In the 1915 letter to Bob below, Maud openly and unrepentantly admits to being a stone-cold bitch (my heroine..!), describing herself as “a cold, hard, self-contained, self-centred, ambitious and extremely critical woman.”

(Maud’s a Slytherin. Obvs.)

Maud knows herself. Maud accepts herself. Maud does not care about your feelings.

Bob, on the other hand, was a total Hufflepuff. In the funny 1915 letter below, Maud writes to him about how much her “man-hating” spinster friends love him, seeing him as more of a womanly kindred spirit than a man. Their high praise even inspires her to (grudgingly, poorly... Maud is all of us) embroider Bob’s initials onto some handkerchiefs, even though she “hadn’t done anything of that sort for over 20 years.”

Ah, ~True Love~ :’)

(Above: Maud and Bob, basically)

Maud was an independent thinker, and her lack of religious belief troubled Bob at first. She explained her outlook on life to him in a 1908 letter:

“I feel a sort of responsibility to myself and to others, irrespective of God’s existence or non existence. I think it is the effect of my keen perception of the rights of all other living creatures, black, white or brown, animal as well as human. It explains my passionate democracy and my sense of outrage at the injustices that women have to bear. It does not rest on love of God or recognition of Him; not even on love of men, but rather on the craving of my whole nature for justice. It’s the best thing in me, my only effective weapon against my egoism.”

Clearly, humanist ideals fueled her activism at a time when many involved in social reform movements held beliefs rooted in Christianity.

(Above: the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, for example! Photo from: https://sites.google.com/site/orangewomenstemperanceunion/background-on-women-s-christian-temperance-union)

Maud was also kind of an amateur anthropologist - she traveled around the world to study the conditions of women in various cultures.

Funded by a wealthy sponsor who supported her work for women’s rights, she struck out on a two year journey in 1909 to investigate women’s lives in far-flung locales including Singapore, China, India, Australia and New Zealand, New Guinea, Bhutan, and elsewhere.

(Above, postcard of Chefoo, China, circa 1908, from: https://www.hippostcard.com/listing/street-in-chefoo-china-postcard-c1908/16726374)

Her views reflect the times and an understanding of universal womanhood that’s been deconstructed by postcolonial feminist scholars, but she recognized the importance of cultural differences.

Before women could even vote in the U.S., Maud was going around stressing the need to understand the various ways women lived around the world.

Rather than just exoticizing foreign tropical locales, she described their complexities. Maud talked about the widespread poverty in Chinese villages in the wake of nineteenth-century British imperialism and described India as “huge and enormously complicated” in a February 9th, 1920 letter written on a train from Darjeeling to Calcutta, for example.

She exhibited an anthropological curiosity (even if she lacked a little tact), writing this detailed description to Bob on June 18th, 1909:

“This afternoon I did get off by myself in a rickshaw in a town I never heard of and poked around for an hour in unimaginably dirty and crowded streets. The Yang-tse-Kiang is a beautiful broad river, but almost deserted on the banks except for occasional cities of large towns where the foreign “Concession” is nearly opposite the landing. If we can we get away from the Concession in these places and into the Chinese town, usually enclosed by a wall. There indeed everything is different: muddy, smelly, narrow streets, swarms of men, some children and fewer women, (those who are well-to-do stay in the “Inner Apartment”) endless little dingy restaurants half on the street where the cooking is all in plain sight, ramshackle one-story houses leaning against each other in order to stay up at all. Most foreigners are disgusted and flee as soon as possible, but I enjoy it all and want to go poking up every lane and into every courtyard.”

Maud also recognized the pervasiveness of Western culture way before scholars started theorizing about “globalization.” In 1909, she wrote:

“Fate seems always to pull at my skirts and drag me back to the surroundings of the inescapable West. It’s marvelous how pervasive that is out here in the Orient – the trace of the West. –I begin to believe that there isn’t a village in Asia where you can’t buy bottled waters and find at least one Englishman. I may have to go to central Africa to get the unadulterated East; and even there I suppose I’d find T. Roosevelt or his remains.”

I choose to believe that she would have made a good intersectional feminist activist and anthropologist had she been born a few decades later.

Maud stressed that women deserved freedom above all in both her personal and professional life. She lobbied for women’s rights tirelessly both to legislators and to Bob, who started out skeptical but was eventually won over.

In the 1915 letter below, Bob wishes Maud success and writes that he’s come around in favor of women’s suffrage once and for all, finally convinced “of something which perhaps should always have been obvious, but wasn’t.”

(That’s f***ing right Bob, get it together)

Maud Wood Park - world traveler, legislative expert, and even playwright - was a fierce feminist. She seemed to foreshadow the third-wavers of the future. In a 1912 letter (one of her many extended arguments with Bob), she considered the future of the women’s movement and women’s ultimate place in society:

“I resent so bitterly the arrogance of men who attempt to say that what men want is the measure of what women should be – or the added insult of attempting to interpret Nature or the Creator for women. Certainly if there is any record of what nature intended it is to be found in the powers that she has given women. If a woman has a beautiful voice it seems likely that nature meant her to sing, etc., etc.

The moral of all this is – don’t spend any more time or words or ink in trying to show what women were meant to do. Spend your energy in giving women themselves a chance to show what they were meant to be.”

Amen.

#Maud Wood Park #Feminism #suffrage #women #women's rights #feminist #history #anthropology #research #archives #womens liberation #suffragette #votes for women #romance #star-crossed lovers #herstory #women's history

2 notes · View notes

thewolfisawake · 5 years

Text

{Home // Cavetown}

Kai held the letter in his hand. He read over the information over and over. It was correct but he still read it again and again. Across the top was printed ‘Request for Transfer.’ He walked the busy halls filled with hunters milling about. Getting new assignments, submitting paper work, and chatting. Stray eyes made him shrink into his jacket. They weren’t looking at you, he told himself. Seeing a group laugh as he walked passed still made him pick up his stride, bangs hiding his gaze.

Making it to the set of glass windows with cutouts, he walked up to one of the workers finishing some writing. The man looked up, expectant, and suddenly Kai felt sheepish as he slowly slid the paper through the opening at the bottom. The man took it as his hand held where the wrinkles on the sides were. He didn’t know where to look as the man reviewed the sheet and settled to the laminated notice on the counter.

“I...I’m thinking of transferring from the Asia branch,” he admitted into the phone. On the other side he could hear Daza kick up her feet, “About time.”

About time she said. Was it really that obvious? Or was it just Daza being Daza?

“So where are you going?”

“Huh?”

Daza clarified, “Where are you transferring to? There’s a lot of branches. Back to Oceania?”

“Ah, no. I was thinking...well, you always said how you liked it out where you lived. So I...” I wondered if I could go that way. It sounded better in his head. And as the words fell out, he was realizing how silly it sounded. Going just because his mentor said it looked nice.

“Then let’s do it. Let me know when you’re heading out so we can meet.”

He didn’t know if she was a mind reader or if she really meant that. But it still made a small smile reach him as he remarked, “Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“It’ll be about two weeks,” the man brought his attention back as he took a stamp out, “and you’ll need to get a new license when you arrive to your new branch.”

“R-Right...”

“Anything else?”

“No, thank you,” Kai replied as he gave a small bow before turning to leave. Two weeks. Yeah, he could do that.

A sigh escaped him as he started to pull the laundry from the clothesline. The breeze provided one last drying as he reached for the clips. From behind him a soft ‘ding’ reverberated His eyes fell onto the wind bell. Its bright color overshadowed by the parchment attached with Yukina’s calligraphy, “I probably should take you down, right?”

He reached his arm up, causing the the bell to ding. As if protesting being moved. Pulling back when the breeze brough his hair in his face, he wondered if it was okay. Who knew, Yukina could be back tomorrow and complain of how much of a pain it was to put it up the first time. A small smile reached his features. Kai folded his clothes into the basket and slid the door back into the apartment. Perched atop the pile was the wind bell, “I’ll put back up when she gets back.”

He promised this to no one in particular. He just really would hate if a torrent washed it away. It just one of many little preparations Kai worked on during his two weeks. He swept and dusted it from top to bottom, finding old wrappers that had fallen in obscure areas. He washed dishes and put them away. He tossed out all kinds of food. And every bit of him pained him.

When he finished, Kai flopped onto the futon. He looked at his phone. No messages. He went into his mail and started a new letter.

Are you tired of me yet?

He started it for a minute. It was a question he wondered some times but wasn’t what the content of his letter. He went on to write:

I don’t really know if these annoy you not and since you haven’t answered back, I’m just gonna think you love it ♡ ～('▽^人)

But seriously, you don’t have to read them. I just feel I need to update you as I go. Which is why I’m telling you, I am leaving the Asia branch. I know we talked about doing that together some day--and we totally can when you come back--but I’m...I’m keeping our promise. It took a while to actually do that since I kept waiting. I still am waiting but you’d probably hit me on the head when you got back and say I’m a dummy for not going anywhere for at least a year.

So I’m doing it. ╰(✧∇✧)╯ Just watch me. I’ll try and maybe--

Kai paused. He then deleted the last sentence.

I hope you come back soon. I miss you, Furu.

He hit send and closed his phone. A sigh came to him as his eyes fell onto the duffel bag filled with his clothes and the few possessions he owned. Currently resing atop it was a small gravestone with crudely carved writing on it. Kai sat up to bundle dark locks into a messy , resolving to get dinner before the bento were all gone.

“Transfer?” the word came out much louder than Kai hoped. He nodded, “Yes, this is my last assignment before going to the Europe branch.”

“Why would ever do that? You barely complete missions as is. Much less suceed at them,” to that, Kai barely covered his grimace with his cup. Going out with other hunters was expected in the Asia branch, it reminded him of the salarymen that were probably heading out soon. And this time ended up with some hunters he graduated with. Another piped up, “There’s more dangerous beasts out that way. It’ll eat you alive, Adler.”

Kai remarked, “It’s true it’s different but maybe--”

“I give it a month.”

“I thought more of two weeks.”

It dissolved into another conversation. One that he didn’t care to hear the results of. He took another sip of his drink as he watched them chatter. Yeah, it was about what he expected. Not that he really blamed them. His track record was...abysmal at best. If not for how often he worked in the two years since licensing, his rank would’ve been just as terrible. Nevermind the senpai, seonbae, and tiền bối that would offer no guidance, still finding him a fluke. Nor pay mind to those his age or younger that would refuse cooperation or participation to add to an already ill reputation.

His fellow hunters were looking at the menu and gesturing to the server. They pointed out other things to get. Their attention momentarily on him to lead the server’s gaze to him as they explain it being his last night with them. So thus, they were celebrating. Translation to Kai, they would drink and eat as if no tomorrow and he would pay for it. As they made their orders, his gaze went to his phone as his free hand twirled a lock absently. How long would it be this time.

Kai ended up giving another deep bow in appreciation and apology as he finished dumping the last of the hunters to their accomodations. He apologized to the staff again as he exited. It was well into the night now and his apartment a good distance away. He started his trek back with streetlights and the neon signage as his light. It all felt too bright and made his head spin. Or maybe that was all the alcohol. Walking past characters of all sorts, Kai tread in the general direction of home. As he went, his thoughts wandered.

He’d heard about Europe branch. As the area serving as origin for many legendary beast, it had history. It was where the Bastion started and where those connected to it where likely to be. And living amidst some hotbeds of magical activities, hunting was often more fraught with physical danger than the incorporeal and spiritual as often the case over this way. The hunters from there sometimes thought to be cut from an entirely different cloth. Tougher, more cunning, and meaner.

It would be hard. But what wasn’t in this body of his? It would mean learning an entirely different kind of tactics. Well, his journal could use the update. It could be like it was here. If it was, at least he’s used to it and there’s a few places he hasn’t been. He would be without anyone he knew. That was fine, since he could find someone that he can spend some time with on occasion. Tonight proved that. It might show what everyone had been telling him: that he wasn’t cut out to be a hunter.

Kai bit his lip, his hand brushing against his bracelet, “But still...”

He placed the last of his belongings within his bag. It felt weird looking back at the apartment. He could see the gaps from where his trinkets were taken. The collage of pictures held splotches of the wall. Some valuables left imprints of their former place. It almost look like something was missing but Kai brushed that off. It was Yukina’s place, he was just crashing there for a while.

Like a ghost.

A quiet laugh left him with a smile without warmth. His eyes grew dark as he thought maybe he should stay. At least here he could pretend he was a hunter. A really crappy one but one nonetheless. He would have to live with being the liar, the failure, but at least he was alive. Instead of this living dead. Waiting in a limbo that hurt his heart as much his body. It might’ve served him right, the monster that got so many killed. And this existence...this hell was what he deserved, a sentence he should serve out.

His head bowed as his frame trembled. Those words drifting around his head. Words that he’d thought so many times to himself. Variations of it spoken to his face and behind his back. The thoughts that made his eyes sting. The hatred that would always lead to something drastic.

His heart seem to beat in his ears as he stumbled to his feet. He wandered to the bathroom, opening a few drawers. Then he found it. Kai looked at the mirror for a moment, drawing a breath.

SNIP snip snip snip snip

It might be hard.

The hunter put down his bag onto the bed. It felt like it’s been forever since he’s had a bed to himself that wasn’t a bunk bed. Although it was merely a hotel room, he found himself wandering around the room. Looking into the bathroom, closet, and ‘kitchen’ before flopping onto his bed. Jet lag tried to creep on him when he shot back up, “Oh right.”

I could never move on and be waiting for a person that’ll never return. It might all be for nothing and it will be just like before. I could fail over and over and show just how much I don’t belong here.

“You could’ve have done this before you got here?” the worker asked from behind the glass. She seemed more confused than annoyed. He sheepishly scratched his cheek, “It just sorta happened...I’m sorry for the trouble.”

The confusion turned to perplexion however she asked no further. Instead she finished typing into a computer and showed a screen to him, “Is the information on here correct?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, just give me a minute to finish this up. Now you’re going to need a new to take a new photo. So if you’ll head over to....”

Even though I’ve told myself ‘it wasn’t my fault,’ I’ve heard dozens of times over how much it was. And despite what I’ve said...I still believe it. Maybe I do deserve to live detested and miserable. And yet...

He arrived to the meet point a bit early. It was his first mission over here and the last thing he needed was to keep anyone waiting. The coordinates were a landmark at a park. He ended up hanging around, snacking as he waited for someone else that looked...’hunter-like.’

There’s this quiet yet stubborn thought...

“I thought I was getting here early but looks like you beat me to it,” came a voice from over to the side. His gaze fell onto a guy, probably only a little older than him. He had an interesting shade to his eyes, a blue he couldn’t quite place, and definitely tall. But if his words didn’t give the guy away, a few of the scars and build would’ve.

“Ah, well, maybe next time,” he said, immediately mentally cursing himself. This was supposed to be a good first step...The guy chuckled, “Hopefully, that doesn’t mean camping out.”

The newcomer offered his hand, “I’m Emil and you are...?”

A completely selfish wish...

“Aspis,” he replied, the beginnings of a smile, “Hope we can get along.”

I want to live.

#writings #long post #fiiiiiiinalllllyyyyyy #baring fangs with a rabbit's heart

4 notes · View notes

geopolicraticus · 5 years

Text

Civilization and Urbanization

The simplest way to define civilization is that it consists of life in cities, and the word “civilization” wears its etymological relation to urban life on its metaphorical sleeve. One of the definitions of civilization that I employ—what I call my informal definition of civilization—is that civilization consists of a network of cities connected by relations of cooperation, competition, and conflict. Just a few days ago I was listening to the first of Craig Benjamin’s lectures “The Big History of Civilizations” and noticed that he briefly and without any ado defined civilization as, “...the advanced level of human social development and collective learning that could arise only once cities were established.” (In the historiography of big history, “collective learning” is used to indicate the social transmission of knowledge among human beings made possible by language.)

Prehistorian V. Gordon Childe posited an urban revolution following upon the agricultural revolution, and Childe’s classic paper on the urban revolution (V. Gordon Childe, “The Urban Revolution,” The Town Planning Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, Apr., 1950, pp. 3-17.) has furnished the most widely employed diagnostic criteria for civilization, subject to numerous permutations and variations as scholars have elaborated and modified Childe’s schema over the subsequent decades. (I wrote about Childe on cities and civilization in my Centauri Dreams post Martian Civilization.)

We tend to think of the origins of civilization on Earth as a simple before/after dichotomy in time, so that human life was the life of nomadic hunter-gatherers prior to civilization, and then civilizations appeared, and human life thereafter was civilized life. This simplistic picture is misleading. That much is obvious, but what is less obvious is that if we think more carefully about the origins and spread of civilization, the resulting picture shows us civilized life as small islands of urbanization, set in a vast wilderness, that have incrementally expanded over historical time until cities now dominate human history.

When “civilization” first appeared on Earth in the form of cities, there were only a handful of cities in various parts of the world—Jericho, Çatalhöyük, Jarmo, Ganj Dareh, Mehrgarh, Nanzhuangtou (some of which may have been more like extensive agricultural villages than cities, but the division between the two is a gray area)—which meant that “civilization” consisted of a few isolated cities surrounded by a much larger uncivilized hinterland. It literally took thousands and thousands of years before cities became relatively common, when regions of the world later boasted networks of cities actively engaged with each other (as I noted above, in relations of cooperation, competition, and conflict).

We see this pattern of regional networks of cities clearly in Mesopotamia, in the Indus Valley, in Mesoamerica, in Egypt, in Anatolia, and elsewhere. It took time for the idea of the city to spread and to grow and to mature, but already by six thousand years before present there were networks of cities as in the Indus Valley civilization, and it has been the tradition in historiography to reserve the term “civilization” for societies at this level of development, which usually also included written language (the written language of the Indus Valley civilization has not yet been deciphered), so I depart from traditional historiography by recognizing a rudimentary form of civilization existing from the time of the appearance of the first cities about ten thousand years ago.

However, even when urbanization rises to the level of regional networks of cities, urbanization is still an isolated island of high culture—what American anthropologist Robert Redfield called the “Great Tradition” (and which Barbara Ann Kipfer used to define civilization in her Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology as, “Complex sociopolitical form defined by the institution of the state and the existence of a distinctive great tradition”)—surrounded by a large hinterland of agricultural villages, and a larger wilderness that really was a pristine wilderness still peopled by nomadic hunter-gatherers, where little resembling what we think of as high culture was to be found. The villages and the nomads were caretakers of the “Little Tradition” in contradistinction to the “Great Tradition” cultivated in cities.

For thousands of years, substantial populations of hunter-gatherers existed side-by-side with villagers and urbanized city dwellers, and, of course, at first the hunter-gatherers far outnumbered the urbanized minority of humanity. One can speculate that the hunter-gatherers and the settled city dwellers traded, with the hunter-gatherers offering fresh game and resources not available locally (like obsidian) and the city dwellers offering in exchange the distinctive products of urban craftsmanship: pottery, metallurgy, basketry, and the like. It may even have been the hunter-gatherers who unwittingly engaged in idea diffusion by spreading tales of urban life to regions and peoples who had never heard of nor had seen such a thing. Perhaps some hunter-gatherers witnessed urban life first hand, and then went off to establish their own urban centers.

This process of urbanization (which is also the process of civilization, i.e., of being made civilized) is to be understood as one of the grand narratives of the human condition over the past ten thousand years, and it is a grand narrative that holds cross-culturally and down through time—a grand narrative greater than any one civilization and which has characterized civilization on a planetary scale, like Karl Jasper’s ambition to define an Axial Age in terms of, “a common frame of historical self-comprehension for all peoples for the West, for Asia, and for all men on earth, without regard to particular articles of faith.” Temporary reversals in the trend of urbanization—say, the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization (about 3,300 years before present) or the widespread failure of Roman cities (about 1,600 years before present)—interrupted the trend but did not end it.

A graph of human urbanization over the past ten thousand years would be jagged, but it would always be tending upward. While Roman cities were failing, Islamic cities were growing, and then when Islamic cities entered into decline, European cities began growing. Throughout it all, urbanization increased overall, and the industrial revolution further accelerated the growth of cities, so that the largest cities increased from about a million people to tens of millions of people.

Indeed, it was not until the first decade of the twenty-first century that the human population passed the symbolic demographic turning point of being majority urban (cf. The Rural-Urban Divide), i.e., since about 2006, more human beings have been living in urban areas than are living in rural areas, so that humanity is now a majority urbanized species. This, then, is a civilizational metric and grand narrative that began ten thousand years ago and is still playing itself out in the present. I expect to see major conurbations—the megalopolis, as it were—continue to grow in scale, with human populations increasingly concentrated in cities over the coming thousands of years, just as human beings have been concentrating themselves in cities more and more over the past ten thousand years. At some point in the future we will see the first city of a hundred million population, and then several such cities, as today we have many cities of more than ten million population.

Needless to say, the structure of human history has been profoundly shaped by this increasing urbanization, and this will continue to be one of the grand narratives of human history. Human beings may so concentrate themselves in cities that we relinquish parts of the surface of the planet once dominated by human beings back to nature, allowing the planet to heal itself, as we become more concentrated (and more efficient in our use of resources) in our urbanized centers of civilization. This might be taken as one interpretation of Doxiadis’ idea of Ecumenopolis, the world-city, and this might also unintentionally bring about E. O. Wilson’s proposal that we set aside half of the planet for wilderness—not because we planned to do so, but just because this turned out to be the trajectory of human history, though we didn’t realize that that is where we are going. This is the invisible hand of urbanization, which has already repeatedly defined the human condition in unexpected ways.

We might also unintentionally return to a condition (at least on our homeworld) in which hunter-gatherer nomads live in the wilderness abandoned by increasingly urbanized humanity, and once again, just as thousands of years ago, hunter-gatherers would live side-by-side with urbanized city dwellers. I have called this latter scenario pastoralization and discussed it in Pastoralization, The Argument for Pastoralization, and Invariant Civilizational Properties in Futurist Scenarios, inter alia.

We do not yet know the overall shape of human history and civilization, not what exactly the future holds for us, but we can project into the future this trend of urbanization that has held true for ten thousand years, and we can make some rudimentary observations about humanity that continues to urbanize as well as to concentrate its paradigmatically civilized activities within urban centers. And while we could experience another urbanization reversal, as has already occurred many times in human history, I would expect that the reversal would be followed by the resumption of the same urbanization trend that we have seen since the origins of civilization.

#urbanism #urbanization #cities #civilization #V. Gordon Childe #Karl Jaspers #Robert Redfield

1 note · View note

anotherplacemag · 6 years

Text

In Conversation With Elliott Verdier

Interview by Iain Sarjeant

It’s been quite some time since our last interview, but to coincide with the release of our recent title ‘A Shaded Path’ we decided to catch up with Elliott Verdier and speak to him about the series and his photography in general.

Hi Elliott - many thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us.

Firstly, can you say a little about your background and your route into photography initially… how did it all start?

I wanted to be a photojournalist from very young. My godfather was a print collector and I spent lot of time with him looking at his collection. He shared with me his sensitivity and love for photography. Then, when I was 19, I received a grant to undertake my first trip as a photographer - a series of portraits of former Karen soldiers who were victims of landmines, in Burma.

Since then, I’ve been to a photography school in Paris and travelled for several projects during summer holidays. I went to Burma over and over again, documenting drug addicts and the Rohingyas crisis, but also visited Mongolia and Indonesia. There I spent a month with afghan refugees, living with them in a slum area, getting to know them. It changed my relationship with the people I photograph, and more widely, the way I wanted to document things.

Your project ‘A Shaded Path’ saw you spend 4 months in Kyrgyzstan with your large format camera – what first drew you to this country?

I like to travel to places where somebody like me, born in a middle class family from Paris, would have never been - meet people I wouldn’t normally meet. I want to tell explore the world away from sensational news headlines, tackle social issues, take time and break into people’s personal stories. This is why I try to find original themes that suit my everyday quest for beauty through struggling - people full of nostalgia, melancholy and sensitivity.

I was more and more interested in Central Asia after my trip to Mongolia. And I remember looking at a map and wondering what was Kyrgyzstan. I had literally never heard of this country before. I know - it’s a shame it’s not better known. I started doing some research on it and found very little information. So I decided to go for a month to see it for myself first – with a plan to return for a longer period to develop the project further.

Did you have a clear idea of how you wanted to approach the project before arriving in Kygyzstan? Is research an important element of your work, or do you prefer to let the project develop naturally as it progresses?

Not really. I wanted to work with a large format camera for the quality it offers - I had often worked with one in photography school in Paris. The thing is I bought one in Paris from an old man just before leaving, and barely tested it, not really realizing how heavy and big it was. It was clearly a large format camera for indoor studio work!

I felt it was important to leave plenty of space for the project to grow naturally - if you have a very clear idea what you will do in the field, what’s the point of doing it? You will just fill yours and others expectations. I’d rather be surprised, sensitive to what’s happening in front of me, let my impressions draw on film.

There’s a sense of melancholy about the work, a beautiful country struggling to adapt to a fast changing world and shake off it’s Soviet past. Tell us a little of your impression of Kyrgyzstan as a country… it’s landscape and people. What are the hopes of the younger generation?

I think I will always remember the first time I arrived in Kyrgyzstan. It was dawn. The soft pink light of the rising sun was touching the wall of mountains south of Bishkek. All was quiet. Everything there seemed eternal. That feeling never left me during the rest of my trip.

The young people of Kygyzstan are very connected, modern, especially in the main city Bishkek. They are influenced by Western and Russian culture, which is now globalized. But the main problem is that they feel invisible to the wider world. Today’s society is much about self esteem and empowerment. ‘A Shaded Path’ also raises an existential issue - if you don’t exist in the eyes of others, what is your existence for?

How did the people of Kyrgyzstan react to your project – were they helpful and interested in what you were doing? Was it a difficult country to travel around to make work? The portraits in the series are very powerful – how did you approach these… were they chance encounters? I’m thinking that using a 5x4 would require a certain amount of time with your subjects before photographing, planning everything… to what degree do you get to know the people you photographed?

Well, first of all, thank you. It is really some thing I have been working on a lot, but I still feel that there is no exact recipe for a great portrait. It depends so much on tiny details. In Kyrgyzstan, people were very friendly and open to me. Photography undoubtedly connects people, so when they accepted me to take their picture, they were naturally sharing their story with me. My large format camera, which needs time to settle, helps to create a special relationship with them. It will sound weird, but, more than words, I think they could feel my intentions just by my body language. It also brings some trust and respect, for the first time I was not that young silly tourist, but a real photographer in their eyes. They were naturally posing seriously, as the large format camera is quite impressive.

I was looking for new people to portray everyday, everywhere. The people in the photographs are very diverse. Some I just met quickly on the streets - but I also spent hours with veterans and nights with young people. Men and women in coal mines, fishers, hunters. I waited months for some to agree to be photographed, and spent as much time to set up some portraits, find the good spots, the good light. Sometimes, unfortunately, I didn’t have time to photograph people who were willing.

Getting to Kyrgyzstan was no problem at all – it is very accessible with no visa needed for visits under 60 days. But once there, I was arrested once by the police and detained for few hours. I was doing some pictures in an industrial area, and it was apparently forbidden. Two guards saw me and thought I was a secret agent, they were calling me “James Bond”! They took my finger prints and mugshot at the police station. And fortunately, some friends came and explained the situation, negotiating with them. I think they just wanted money from me, as police corruption is a common thing there. I can definitely say that the biggest threat over there is the police.

And what next? Have you any other personal projects planned or under way? Are you drawn to travel again to work on another similar project, or perhaps turn your camera on an aspect of your home country?

I would really like to develop some cool press assignments, because I have never done one before - I was lucky to get grants or awards for previous projects. But it’s looking possible since ‘A Shaded Path’ has been a good calling card.

But of course, I would like to do more documentary work, because long term projects are what truly drives me in photography. I am preparing something about collective resilience in Liberia, planning a first, short trip there in September. I’d like my work to follow some themes I value, something around time, memory, and existential struggling.

Settling down and having a family will come later!

Many thanks again Elliott for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us!

Elliott’s book ‘A Shaded Path’ has just been released by Another Place Press and is available for £17 here

All images & text © Elliott Verdier

101 notes · View notes

officialotakudome · 3 years

Text

New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, Tech, and Geek Culture

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/sentai-announces-upcoming-titles/

Sentai Announces Upcoming Titles

Sentai Filmworks have unveiled upcoming releases for April as well as new acquisitions:

HOUSTON, TX — February 11, 2021 — Sentai announced today that it acquired rights to the suspense-filled thriller Babylon, the anime series based on Mado Nozaki’s popular light novels. Sentai plans to release the series on Blu-ray as well as digital sell-through via select outlets.

Zen Seizaki, dedicated prosecutor with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, is assigned a seemly cut-and-dry case of false advertisement on part of a pharmaceutical company. But what starts as a routine investigation soon turns into something much darker, the strange details of the case painting a portrait of corruption and deceit that permeates the mayoral election being run in the newly formed Shiniki District. Soon Seizaki discovers depravity that puts at risk the very fabric of the Japanese justice system — not to mention Seizaki’s own sense of right and wrong.

The anime is a production of studio Revoroot (FLCL Alternative) and directed by Kiyotaka Suzuki (Psycho-Pass 2); Yutaka Yamada (Vinland Saga) provided the series’ musical composition. Babylon features the vocal talents of Takahiro Sakurai (Psycho-Pass) as Shinobu Kujin, Satsuki Yukino (When They Cry) as Ai Magase and Yuichi Nakamura (Jujutsu Kaisen) as Zen Seizaki. The series will be released on home video, including Blu-ray and digital sell-through, in Spring 2021.

Sentai announced today that it acquired NANA, the 47-episode anime series produced by Madhouse and based on the manga by Ai Yazawa (NEIGHBORHOOD STORY, TENSHI NANKA JA NAI) with 40+ million copies sold. The series has been upconverted from its original format to vivid high definition.

Two twenty-somethings seemingly share nothing in common apart from their first name, but a chance meeting on a train bound for Tokyo sets Nana Komatsu and Nana Osaki on a collision course with destiny. Nana Komatsu, a love-at-first-sight dreamer, aims to find enduring happiness in the big city. Nana Osaki, neo punk rock vocalist, pursues her burning ambitions of musical stardom and worldwide fame. As their fates increasingly intertwine, they each chase their dreams — until the harsh realities of life in big city Tokyo threaten to tear everything apart.

A production of studio Madhouse (No Game, No Life, Parasyte -the maxim-, DEATH NOTE), NANA is directed by Morio Asaka (Chihayafuru, MY Love STORY!!, Cardcaptor Sakura) with series composition by Tomoko Konparu (Blue Spring Ride, Sunday Without God, Glass Mask) and music by Tomoki Hasegawa (Mysterious Girlfriend X, D.N.Angel, Zan Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei). The series stars Romi Park (Land of the Lustrous, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Shaman King) as punk-rocker Nana Osaki and KAORI (Kaleido Star, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Pokémon: Advanced Generation) as the cheerful Nana Komatsu.

Sentai is planning an HD version for release on digital outlets with an HD home video release to follow.

Sentai announced today that it acquired home video rights to the action thriller series HERO MASK, a Studio Pierrot (Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach) production, through a worldwide licensing arrangement (excluding Asia).

Detective James Blood, member of an elite police unit, pushes the edges of law enforcement to bring down the criminal threats and terrorist organizations plaguing a beautiful metropolitan city. When the murder of Crown Prosecutor Monica Campbell crosses his desk, Blood finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy involving LIVE, a two-faced corporate conglomerate with ties to the sordid underworld of human experimentation. With Sarah Sinclair — the only witness to Campbell’s death — at his side, Blood will have to face an army of mask-wearing superhumans to uncover the truth and stop LIVE before its plans can come to dark fruition…

HERO MASK stars Yasuyuki Kase (The Perfect Insider, 91 Days) as James Blood, Yuuko Kaida (The Promised Neverland, A Certain Scientific Railgun) as Sarah Sinclair, Kouki Uchiyama (Amagi Brilliant Park, Haikyuu!!) as Harry Creighton and Junpei Morita (Eureka Seven, Naruto: Shippuden) as Lennox Gallagher. Director Hiroyasu Aoki (assistant director Hunter x Hunter Movie 2: The Last Mission) provides series composition and the script.

For Sentai’s latest announcements regarding this and other great titles, be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Sentai

A Cool Japan Fund portfolio company, Sentai is a leading global supplier of anime and official anime merchandise, distributing and curating one of the industry’s most diverse libraries of top trending and classic titles. Sentai offers thousands of hours of content across both traditional and digital platforms and is dedicated to bringing captivating stories and iconic characters directly from Japan. With hit series that include MADE IN ABYSS, Food Wars!, Princess Tutu and Parasyte -the maxim-, Sentai’s catalog continues to grow with new favorites like Bloom Into You, Revue Starlight and O Maidens in Your Savage Season, as well as classic anime series such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes and The Big O. For more information, visit www.sentaifilmworks.com.

Coming April 2021

Title: ELFEN LIED

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 350 min.

Street Date: 4/6/2021

Format: BD

Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $49.98

SYNOPSIS: Critics have described Elfen Lied as “weird,” (Anime Planet), “surprisingly sadistic,” (Gamers Edge), and “addictive”(Animesou). No wonder, when you consider what makes this series hum! Lucy, a beautiful young mutant, is bred by the military to be the ultimate weapon. Now, with government killers on her trail, the disposition of a five year old, and a hair trigger for ultraviolence, Lucy and her young friends must unravel the dark secret of her legacy before it’s too late.

Title: IRON GIRL: FINAL WARS

Published by: Switchblade Pictures

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 90 min.

Street Date: 4/6/2021

Format: BD

Language: Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $19.98

SYNOPSIS: Chris may have survived the Apocalypse, but there are still plenty of threats from the past lurking in the ruins of civilization… and now one of them is actively looking for her! At least, that’s how it seems when she encounters Joe, a member of the resistance who is trying to discover why the artificial intelligence known as JUDA has been sending out murderous cyborgs with a certain heroine as their target! Even more unnerving is the fact that a mysterious young girl Sara has been having dreams calling to Chris for help… even though the two of them have never met! And if killer cyborgs alone aren’t terrifying enough, JUDA has doubled their lethality by equipping their resurrected warriors with the latest in sword technology in IRON GIRL: FINAL WARS!

Title: SUNDAY WITHOUT GOD

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 325 min.

Street Date: 4/6/2021

Format: BD

Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $59.98

SYNOPSIS: In a world abandoned by God, the bodies of the dead will continue to walk unless they are buried by one of the mysterious Gravekeepers. Ai, one of the last children in a world where no more can be born, becomes her small village’s Gravekeeper when her mother, the previous Gravekeeper, passes on… but the arrival of a pale gun-wielding stranger destroys her village and what little remained of Ai’s old existence. Is this seemingly immortal man possibly an important figure from Ai’s past? Uncertain of what else to do, Ai finds herself compelled to set forth on a mission to learn the secrets of this strange world without proper death, unravel the mysteries of her own past, and, hopefully, find a way to put the dead permanently to rest in SUNDAY WITHOUT GOD!

Title: KIDS ON THE SLOPE

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 300 min.

Street Date: 4/13/2021

Format: BD

Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $59.98

SYNOPSIS: Kaoru Nishimi has spent his life on the move, always struggling to fit in to new schools and having to push on just when he’d started to set down roots. But when he comes to stay with his extended family in seaside Kyushu, things will be different. Kaoru wanders through high school, meeting friends who change his life forever, and discovers a new kind of music that affects him like nothing ever has before.Ritsuko, the girl whose family owns the music store, and Sentaro, the high school delinquent, both set in motion Kaoru’s fascination with this amazing thing called Jazz. Fashions may change and fads come and go, but when you put a couple of musically obsessed teens together and let them follow their muse, magic is sure to happen in THE KIDS ON THE SLOPE!

Title: LAIDBACKERS

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 60 min.

Street Date: 4/13/2021

Format: BD

Language: Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $29.98

SYNOPSIS: A funny thing happened to Kumi when she moved to Kyoto to take over her grandmother’s sweet shop. While she does find a store that sells cheap snacks, the supposedly empty adjoining residence is instead inhabited by three other girls: Harami, Mai, and K, plus a dog, who claim to be legendary heroes reincarnated into our world! However, that’s not as exciting as it sounds, as the Demon Lord they were seeking never showed up, so they’ve just been hanging out, waiting for something interesting to happen. That’s when ANOTHER cute young girl, Ran, shows up, and it seems that she WAS the Demon Lord, but botched up her own resurrection and now wants to make amends for the things that she did in the past. But in order to do that, she’s going to need a little demon-hunting help from the LAIDBACKERS!

Title: KAIJI

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 1250 min.

Street Date: 4/20/2021

Format: BD

Language: Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $99.98

SYNOPSIS: Unemployed degenerate Kaiji Ito spent his time drinking, gambling, and racking up bills, and was sure that his life had hit rock bottom. Then that bottom fell out when Endo the Loan Shark arrived to inform him of a friend’s default on a loan that Kaiji foolishly co-signed, making Kaiji responsible for a soul crushing 3,000,000 yen! But there is one possible way out; if Kaiji goes to a secret gambling ship and plays successfully for one night, his debt could be absolved. It’s a trick, of course, but what choice does Kaiji have? Trapped into playing a series of increasingly ruthless contests that are hopelessly rigged against the players, Kaiji finds himself a pawn in a competition where the game pieces aren’t expected to survive… and the real players are all actively betting against KAIJI!

Title: ASSASSINS PRIDE STEELBOOK

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 300 min.

Street Date: 4/27/2021

Format: BD

Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $99.98

SYNOPSIS: Against the savage monsters that lurk outside the glass walls of Flandore, the last remnants of humanity have only one defense: the mana magic wielded only by members of the Noble class. When Melida, heiress to House of Angel, fails to manifest her magic upon reaching majority, the half-vampire Kufa is sent with orders from her own Grandfather to resolve the issue… and if Melida cannot manifest mana, Kufa is to execute her for the crime of impure blood. But when Melida fails the test, Kufa can’t bring himself to kill the spirited young woman whose only fault was to have an adulterous mother. And so, instead, he commits the crime of giving Melida some of his own mana. Now, bound by magic and a deadly secret, the two must work together in order to stay alive in ASSASSINS PRIDE!

Title: HERO MASK

Published by: Sentai Filmworks

Distributed by: Section23 Films

Run Time: 600 min.

Street Date: 4/27/2021

Format: BD

Language: English & Japanese with English Subtitles

SRP: $89.98

SYNOPSIS: Are a series of bombings and the murder of a high-ranking government official linked to the actions of the huge international pharmaceutical company LIVE? Ordered to investigate, Detective James Blood of the Special Service of Crime quickly discovers far more than just a conspiracy. There’s a new technology on the street: masks as thin as paper that completely alter the appearance of the wearer’s face while also granting amazing strength and agility… at the cost of years off their users’ lives! Together with assistant attorney/murder witness Sarah Sinclair, Blood must unearth the secrets behind the masks and their connection to LIVE’s mysterious founder. But the clock is ticking down and James and Sarah may already be living on borrowed time. Because when the ultimate disguise powers the ultimate human killing machines, death can be lurking anywhere in HERO=MASK!

About Section23 Films:

Section23 Films provides home video marketing and distribution services for a variety of companies, including Sentai Filmworks, Switchblade Pictures, Maiden Japan, Kraken Releasing and AEsir Holdings. With its special focus on genre entertainment, Section23 Films distributes some of the very best anime, martial arts, and horror titles on the market today.

0 notes

tobelongtheseries · 6 years

Text

Things With Teeth

“To Belong” Writing Contest Entry Written by: Kristen M.

Anderson’s heart nearly stopped the moment they entered the study lounge. Sitting against the far wall, curled carefully into a corner, was a Kodiak grizzly. He had only ever seen pictures of one before and they didn’t do this living creature justice. Their teeth gleamed yellow and pointed under a strip of leathery gum, and sharp claws dragged against the thinning carpet. As he stared, their nose twitched. The stare of a hunter’s beady eyes pinned him down.

Reflexively, Anderson shifted into cat form and turned into a puffball of fear. Failing to climb the doorpost, he settled for slinking under a nearby table. He waited in terror for the monster at the other end of the room to eat him. Nothing happened.

Confused, he risked a peek around the table leg. The bear hadn’t moved. Sure, they were still watching him, but they didn’t seem ready to swallow him whole. The large predator merely blinked, made a few snuffling sounds and bent their massive head around their middle like a giant dog. A strange hand reached out from the depths of the fur, patting their side.

“Hey! You okay under there?” He jump-started again and hit his head on the bottom of the table. A glance to the side told him Matt had joined him under the table. His prim stance and the amused gleam in his dark beady eyes was Anderson’s exact counterpoint. Only the twitch in his Resident Assistant’s bushy red tail indicated his annoyance.

“N…nnnot really. Is that….that bear still there?”

Matt sighed, and the tail-twitching intensified. “Yes, Eden is still there. And neither of you are leaving this room until you’ve given her a proper hello.

“Wha…are you insane!? Have you actually seen those teeth? She’ll tear me to shreds as soon as I get close!” the tabby whispered intensely.

“No, she won’t. Trust me, Andi, I’ve known her for two years now. There’s literally no way she’s going to attack you. Sure, she gets opinionated sometimes, but she prefers to fight with words, not her claws. Besides, she’s likely more afraid of you than you are of her.”

“Really? Why?”

Before the panda could answer that question, however, a mop of brown curls barged into the space under the couch. It tipped back to revel a bright freckled face, amplified through horn-rimmed glasses. “I like to whisper too.” It said cheerily.

The two smaller animals dashed out from under the couch amid the woman’s laughter. Anderson reverted to human form and leaned against the wall, wheezing. Seriously, what was with all the jump scares tonight? If he got wound up any tighter he would just be one giant corkscrew. After getting enough oxygen into his lungs, he looked down to find the woman (Claudette, according to Matt) was short enough to make him bend over to talk to him. His next furtive glance to the corner told him the bear…Eden still hadn’t moved. Actually, she seemed to have sunk even further into the corner of the lounge, absently turning pages in her textbook with a claw. It might have been his imagination, but she seemed to be deliberately avoiding looking at him. He was fine with that, of course. It just didn’t seem right, somehow.

“Hey, I know you!” Claudette’s shout snapped Anderson’s attention back.

“You’re that guy from that thing!”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah, that’s SO specific, Claudie.”

“No, hold on, I’ve got this.” The brunette’s face screwed up with concentration, then snapped back to smiling with a gasp. “Dragons! You’re the guy at Institute who was trying to convince everyone that dragon shifters could actually have existed once. You were really convincing, I thought. I mean, I’m not sure I could look a dragon straight in the eye, like, right now, but still they could have been a medieval thing, you know?”

Anderson relaxed slightly. Even in the midst of panic, he was always ready to talk dragons. “Yeah, that’s me. The Crazy Dragon Guy. And really, they could still be a modern thing. We have Komodo dragons in Asia, and I hear there’s a resurgence of direwolves up in Norway.

“What does that have to do with dragons?”

“Duh! It shows that ancient forms can and will resurface in the right conditions. All we have to do is wait for the Oswald team to finish cracking the shifting genome, and we might be able to manipulate it, maybe find a way to bring a dragon out. In a controlled, restrained environment, of course. No way I’d get that close to…”

“No way.”

The new voice could only have come from one source. Two pairs of human eyes and one pair of pandas watched as Eden shook her head sharply. She would not look away from her book, but the shadow of annoyance that skimmed through her eyes chilled Anderson to the bone.

Claudette didn’t look phased. “’No way’ what, E?”

The grizzly responded with only a whining sound.

“Oh no, girl. You don’t get to walk away from this one. They already use living blood and tissue donors for the genome experiments; how is this any different? Besides, think of the discoveries, and the sight of a real live dragon breathing fire on a…”

“The only thing that dragon would be breathing fire into would be a reinforced tube in a bunker deep underground somewhere. It would not be allowed to properly be a dragon, or have any kind of quality of life other than endless rounds of testing.” The grizzly pushed itself off the ground, shifting into a tall woman with soulful eyes and a mane of red hair. She fixed Anderson in a neutral yet cold stare. “Surely you don’t think taking samples from willing donors for research is the same as genetically bringing to life an independently thinking being and forcing them to go through impossible tests just to prove a whim of your own.”

“Wow.” Matt blinked. “That might be the longest sentence I’ve ever heard you say, Eden.”

Eden half-smiled at him, then turned her attention back to Anderson. “Before designing an experiment, please consider ALL the ethics involved. In the meantime, why don’t you concentrate on something less destructive, like your art?”

The world decided to stop spinning. Anderson’s jaw dropped. “My…art?’ Eden looked away sheepishly. “I walked past you in the library a few days ago. You were drawing. You’re a fantastic artist.” The half-smile became a full one as Eden took a few steps closer. “And best of all, art can make anything you imagine regardless of it’s actual existence. So no maimed dragons.” Slowly time started again, but Anderson couldn’t bring himself to move. The trouble was, the longer he stared, the more Eden drew back in on herself. Looking away, she stammered a sorry and started backing up to her book.

“No, wait! It’s…it’s okay. It’s just that no one has ever liked my drawings before and to be honest they’re not really that good no matter how hard I work at them. I’m…glad you liked it.”

“Oh” Eden said quietly. “It’s alright. I shouldn’t have peeked. And you’re welcome.”

“Would you like to see some more? I mean, if you want to. I know we just met and all…”

Eden looked back up, the smile almost reappearing. Taking that as a yes, he got the sketchbook out of his bag and the four crowded around it. Eden slipped in next to the artist himself, admiring quietly. Her smile was bigger now. The idea that her teeth just might be more pointed than his failed to enter his mind.

#fanfic #fanfiction #to belong #contest #contest 6

7 notes · View notes

tripxtours · 5 years

Text

Countries that are best to visit in January

The month of January is significant in several aspects. It is the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. What better way to kick start the New Year than to take a trip to a place you’ve never been to before? So this January, take a chance to explore uncharted territories, seek new experiences and discover memories that will last a lifetime.

Before you pick a place to visit, the first and foremost thing to check is the weather. During January, the northern hemisphere undergoes winter, while the people of the southern hemisphere will enjoy summer. Ultimately it depends on what experience you wish to capture during your time off from routine life. While some love spending their time soaking in the sun and vacationing on a beach, some others love the ghastly beauty of winter.

In this write-up, we will help you solve this dilemma by describing the best possible adventures you can have, all the places that are simply exceptional to visit during the beautiful month of January. So get ready and dive in, and come out with your next destination imprinted on your heart.

Iceland, the land of ice and fire

They say a picture tells a thousand words; we are definite that it is true in this case. You may be wondering why a country that goes through a harsh winter is suggested in this article. Well, doubt no more. Iceland is one of the best places in the world you can witness the northern lights shimmering through the skies during the night time. Due to its significant placement geographically, it is one of the closest points to the North Pole which is the reason why the aurora borealis (northern lights) is clearly visible from here.

You can also explore the remnants of the Viking culture that still thrives in Iceland if you take a walk through Reykjavik. You can also have the chance to explore a geothermal spring such as the ones in Landmannalaugar. If you are someone who loves the marine life, you can pay a visit to the Black beach, Diamond beach and you can also get a rare chance to witness an Icelandic whale swim right beneath your boat. A country born from a volcanic eruption and filled with vast white snow, it is truly an amazing place to see. So pack your bags, grab your thermals and go!

Dubai, the land where dreams come true

Situated in a country that develops every second, this city is unlike any other. During the month of January, the people of Dubai enjoy a pleasant climate with temperatures ranging from 18-28 degree Celsius, similar to the British Summer throughout the month. You can make the most of your time in this city and try out almost all of the activities and experiences available. Make sure you don’t miss a trip to Burj Khalifa- the tallest skyscraper in the world, Burj Al Arab, and the theme park world of Dubai!

An added reason to visit Dubai in January is the DSF- or Dubai Shopping Festival that goes on with much celebration until the end of the month. This grand event simply redefines the experience of shopping. You can visit a variety of outdoor markets, flash mobs, mega sales and have the chance to win numerous rewards.

January is also the month when the Dubai Motorbike Festival is held at the Dubai World Trade Center. Here you will get a chance to witness the largest exhibition of its kind in the world and be marveled at the amazing designs and innovations in the motorbike world. You can read this blog if you still need the motivation to plan a trip to Dubai!

Australia- Endless beaches and more!

The land of coral reefs and kangaroos, Australia is a continent/nation that is truly a great family vacation destination. As it is located in the southern hemisphere, summer months include January is one of the best times of the year to explore this place. In Sydney, you can explore the city in the best possible weather with temperatures ranging from 23 – 26 degree Celsius. As you travel closer to the ocean, the chill may increase as well.

However, there is no argument about January being the ideal month to explore the beaches of Australia. Be it Brisbane or Melbourne, every ocean is a breath-taking turquoise and comes with an amazing view in this land. They also have plenty of activities you can indulge yourself in such as snorkeling/ diving in the reefs, exploring the limestone caves and trying out some water sports.

Make sure you don’t miss the cities like Sydney, Perth, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Brisbane and especially the Great Barrier Reef. If you want to try out some of the lesser explored areas, you should pay a visit to Hunter Valley, Murramarand National Park, Philip Island, Twelve Apostles, and Lucky Bay.

Cambodia & Laos, unexplored jewels of Asia

This pair of countries that often clubbed together for travel by explorers is a wonderful destination in January. With similar history, heritage, ancient buildings and Buddhist monasteries of Cambodia and the French colonial architecture present in Laos all contribute to this collective charm.

As they are tropical countries, the primary check to be made is the status of rain. During January, the weather gets as dry as it can get and you can traverse through places without having to worry of being drenched. The temperatures range around 17-26 in both of these countries.

Some of the places that should not be missed while visiting these two countries are the ruins of Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Bayon, Ta Promh, the viewpoint at Nong Khiaw, underground river cave, night markets, and the local food joints!

Hong Kong, Asia’s world city

A country known to be a merging point of the eastern and western cultures, Hong Kong is a land filled with seaside adventures, mountains, endless skyscrapers, and rural settings. Now you know why it remains one of the most sought after cities in the entire globe.

In January, this country is cool, dry and mild; making it ideal for a hassle-free sightseeing experience. Take a trip to the world’s highest bar, take an endless hike across a mountain, and simply enjoy the tranquillity that exists in this country amidst the rapid development. Equipped experiences ranging from the buzz of the nightlife and rich cultural experiences, Hong Kong is the PLACE to be in January! Explore some of the priceless attractions of Hong Kong to make your holiday memorable and simply enjoy that well-deserved vacation!

Singapore, Passion made possible

Singapore is a country that is visited well throughout the year irrelevant of seasons. However, during January, the land is cool enough to not break a sweat and this can help make your trip more pleasant. Filled with possibilities, this city has activities for the nature lover, thrill seeker and every other kind of traveler.

This city is a perfect combination of urban structures unspoiled sanctuaries and lush green parks. You should take a walk through the streets at night if you are a foodie at heart. Filled with mouth-watering spices and aromas, the streets of Singapore have a long list of must-try delicacies.

Without a visit to the Mer-lion, your visit to Singapore will remain incomplete. You can also try the hop-on and Hop-off bus tours during your time here. So this January, take a trip to Singapore and relish in its authenticity, development, and beauty.

Paris, The city of lights

If you ask someone about the best time to visit Paris, they will probably answer with the name of a summer month. Even though the summer days may be longer and warmer, there is a mystical beauty that engulfs the city during winters which are a must see. Snow covered roads leading to the Eiffel tower, kids skating on frozen lakes, and a whiff of fresh winter delicacies are all parts of the soul of Paris in January.

You can get the best of both seasons by taking a trip to Paris on this month as the winter is not quite over yet and hence the mood is still set, but it is also not too cold like during the heart of the season. The crowned winter special delicacy to try is the Galette des Rois which you can find in any bakery of Paris during this season. Rich, creamy and soft, this frangipani tart will create an explosion of comfortable flavors in your mouth. You can also try the Vin Chaud or the Hot mulled wine which is another way Parisians warm their body up during cold winters.

Another huge advantage of a winter trip to Paris is that you can go almost anywhere without having to deal with a crowd. Be it the Louvre museum, the Versailles Palace or the banks of the river Seine, you can see the true beauty of Paris without being caught in the rush of tourists.

As we conclude, we hope we’ve succeeded to incept an idea of a destination into your heart, which you would choose to follow! They say travel is the only thing that makes you richer when you pay for it. So take a chance and travel to a corner of the world this January with #NOREGRETS.

#visit singapore #sydney #activities in Dubai #australia #best time to visit singapore #cambodia #Iceland

0 notes

aardwolfpack · 7 years

Text

Childhood O.C.s

Some characters I made up before age twelve, in no particular order...

Silverhawk: A Lego Castle minifigure who had many adventures. He inherited half a kingdom and strong-armed his brother into giving him the other half. He conquered other kingdoms and eventually the entire world. His teammates were a mad scientist and an alien, and he later gained a second alien for a bodyguard and a pirate queen for a wife. When I became more concerned with things making sense I decided the Lego Castle and Pirates settings were parts of an expansive technology-free zone in twenty third century Asia. Silverhawk shifted from supervillain to benevolent ruler and his squad became the defenders of the Earth. Later still he was a conventional politician in the United Alliance of Worlds. He always wore the helmet, though.

Old Man Lead: A tough old rascal with lead instead of skin. When he wasn't busy saving the world from mutants or aliens he was telling boring stories about the good old days. His sidekick was a giant talking cat who peed acid.

Dimitri: A rad Dimetrodon with sunglasses. He solved other prehistoric animals' problems.

Silhouette: A failed artist turned superhero. He lived in the world of Marvel Comics. Despite the name, he was not a silhouette. He was host to a symbiont known only as "the Little Guy," who was a humanoid upper torso sticking out of his belly. The Little Guy could attach to other superhero hosts, temporarily granting Silhouette their powers. It sounds like I ripped off that one X-Files episode, but I created this character a year or two before it aired. I actually ripped off Total Recall.

Scum a.k.a. Alien Crusader: A a mass of organs without skin or bones living in an oblong spheroidal tank with robotic arms and legs. Despite the name, he was not an alien. He led a team of hideous mutants who fought crime. The bad guys were also hideous mutants, but they were mask-wearing conformists. Later Scum had a space ship and lived on Mars in a community of mutants who looked like him, and the whole thing shifted to space opera. Later it snapped back to superheroes, and Scum had a cloned Archaeopteryx for a sidekick.

Dr. Headsworth a.k.a. Dr. Conner: An alien who looked like a human head sliding around on a gastropod-style muscular foot. Sometimes his "head" rested on a humanoid robotic body, but usually he could be found at the controls of a giant vehicle. He was the Solar System's most skilled creator of androids, but he could never get the faces quite right. They were, however, convincing enough to impersonate planetary leaders and start the biggest war in the history of the United Alliance of Worlds.

Joanna a.k.a. Mercury: The teenage future daughter of two present-day superheroes. She went back in time to help the team prevent the bad future. You might not know this but only gases and liquids can travel through time. Mercury's superpower was being liquid. She was born normal but liquefied at puberty. In hindsight that's actually really awful. She could mimic people and things and turn her arms into blades (Original idea! Do not steal!). Her standard form was a palette swap of her best friend. That's also creepy in hindsight. Sadly Mercury was my only memorable female O.C. who wasn't a generic stock character or a direct ripoff of a copyrighted character.

Skindroid: A killer android disguised with the skin of a slain human. Only one metal finger gave him away. I made this up before I saw The Terminator (though I'd possibly heard about it).

Rhubarb & Gooseberry: Two aliens who ended up in Mediæval Europe, which ended up being future Asia. Their true names were unpronounceable. Rhubarb was a skittish being who followed Silverhawk around after he saved his life. I feel like there were important things about his character that I forgot. Gooseberry was an ambitious knight who turned out to be a disguised alien from the same planet. After Silverhawk bested him in battle he agreed to be his bodyguard. Much later I decided Rhubarb and Gooseberry belonged to two related races of interstellar warriors. Rhubarb went A.W.O.L. because he hated violence. Gooseberry was a bounty hunter who tracked him down but had a change of heart.

Larry Octopus: A reclusive inventor who lived under the sea. He just wanted to be left alone, but stuff kept happening that prompted him to summon his giant underwater vehicles and robots (which could be easily identified because they were marked "L.O."). Despite the name, he was not an octopus.

Mega 2: In this universe there were three Mega Men (though Mega 3 faded out of the picture). They were transformed from machines into humans, but confusingly still had robotic traits. Dr. Light actually built Mega 2 around a gnat-sized robot he found one day. The Mega Brothers lived in a base at the crossroads of dimensions and also had a mobile fortress (originally a treaded vehicle, but later a mechanical bull). They fought Dr. Wily's robots and other evildoers (some from video games, some we made up). Each time Mega 2 hit his head he shifted to an evil form with knight's armor and ground-shaking fists. He reverted to normal when someone said his name backwards three times. When Mega 1 disappeared Mega 2 got an upgrade. He went mad with power and had to be taken down. The Mega Brothers were later remade, and searched for the answers to their existence. A planned storyline cast the original Mega 2 as the villain.

Dr. Giff Monquake: Pronounced "JIF mon-QUAY-kee." He changed his name to that because he hated his birth name, Christopher Hurlbutz. He was an eccentric scientist with no moral compass. He was equally happy using his inventions for evil as for good. He was only unhappy if they didn't work. For a while Dr. Monquake wore "the Magic Fleece," a powerful alien artifact that looked like a white sheet with two holes cut in it. It disappeared when I couldn't think of anything more to do with it. So did his giant frog friend.

Larry & Grinder: A two-headed dragon. Larry had a crest on his head and was friendly. Grinder had a horn on his head and was ferocious, but he was a nice dragon deep down. This pair had no fixed canon, but showed up in various action figure and Lego games.

Big Metal Ton: A robot henchman who sang while he worked.

#oc #ocs #lego #mega man #childhood #things no one else cares about

4 notes · View notes

hermanwatts · 5 years

Text

Sensor Sweep: 10/7/2019

Culture Wars (Monster Hunter Nation): Here’s a fascinating demonstration of just how stupid and backwards the political gatekeepers in fiction really are. This week author Dan Simmons wrote a post about Greta the Climate Scold, and because his opinion went against left wing orthodoxy, a bunch of virtue signalling morons threw a fit.

Historical Fiction (DMR Books): Swords are a recurring feature of Talbot Mundy’s stories, as we will see as we continue our look at his work. This is especially true of his tales set in central and southern Asia, but before we begin discussing yataghans and chooras, let’s take a look at four of the blades that would have been used the armies of Rome and her enemies in Tros’s time. Keep in mind that swords that were used on the battlefield were quite different from the swords that are commonly seen in anime, comics and cover art. For one thing, they must obey the laws of Physics.

Robert Heinlein (PR News): One of the year’s most significant science

Robert A. Heinlein

fiction releases is a new novel by Robert A. Heinlein, a rediscovered manuscript titled The Pursuit of the Pankera. Heinlein is, arguably, one of the best-known writers of science fiction, with titles like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Known as the “dean” of science fiction, he died in 1988 but his books continue to sell worldwide and are often made into movies and TV series.

Robert E. Howard (Adventures Fantastic): Kane and another man, calling himself Gaston l”Armon, have stopped at an isolated inn somewhere in the Black Forest. The innkeeper isn’t a friendly sort, but he serves them a meal and then shows them to their room. A room down a dark corridor. A room with no bar for the door. Kane and l’Armon go looking for a bar in one of the other rooms, neither trusting the innkeeper. They stumble upon a secret closet in a room at the end of the corridor, where they find a skeleton chained to the floor.

D&D (Blog That Time Forgot): The Beithir is one of many serpentine creatures one can find in the folklore of Scotland – all the more unusual, since the moors & glens aren’t exactly the ideal habitat for reptiles. The fact that one beast devoured seven horses (which I hinted towards in the illustration) suggests it was a mite larger than Scotland’s modern reptiles, like the adder or the slow worm.

Science Fiction (Best British Fantasy): It took me over 10 years to find all 33 books in the Dumarest of Terra series, a far-ranging and rollicking set of science fiction novels by Edwin Charles (E.C.) Tubb, concerning Earl Dumarest, formerly of Terra, who stowed away as a child on a spaceship and now, as an adult, finds himself very far from home and wanting only to return. Earl possess genetically superior luck and is inordinately fast with his reflexes when he chooses to be (mostly to the detriment of those whom he reluctantly kills who barely have time to gasp “too fast, he was just too fast….” before they die of a chest wound).

Writing (Mad Genius Club): We’re all familiar with the terrible trope of action movies (and cop shows) where a guy takes a bullet, and then in the end of the episode, he has his arm in a sling, but he’s all better by the end of the movie / very next episode. In the really real world, people don’t end up with a little artistic bruising or smudge of blood or soot, and walk, run, and fight perfectly…acrobatically and dramatically.

Art (DMR Books): Wollheim’s instincts for spotting promising artistic talent were second to none in the entire history of the field. In fact, I considered just typing, “Frank Frazetta and Michael Whelan. Mic drop.” While Don always had an eye for a pretty picture, it was during the long decade betwixt 1962 and 1975 that he consistently kept hitting it out of the park as an art director, giving artists new to the field—and soon to be legends in their own right—their first shots at doing cover work for the American paperback market.

D&D (Skulls in the Stars): CB1: Conan Unchained (1984), by David Cook. As a company, TSR was not immune to the allure of making more money by licensing deals. Later, I’ll discuss some products that will blow your mind! One of the more obvious choices was to take advantage of the popularity of a certain barbarian, and the actor who played him!

Hard Boiled (Rough Edges): I first encountered Frederick Nebel’s work in the iconic 1965 anthology THE HARDBOILED DICKS, which made me a fan of hardboiled pulp crime fiction ever since. Editor Ron Goulart included one of Nebel’s Kennedy and MacBride stories, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But then for years after that, I didn’t read much by Nebel since there just wasn’t a lot available. Half a dozen of his stories were collected in the paperback SIX DEADLY DAMES, but I never came across a copy of it.

Paperbacks (Paperback Warrior): Author David Morrell’s 1972 action-thriller “First Blood” was a runaway hit, eventually adapted to film in 1982 and kick-starting the ‘Rambo’ franchise that’s still thriving today. Attempting overnight success, many authors and publishers exploited the idea and began releasing similar novels featuring wilderness pursuits, small town sheriffs and ex-military survivalists. As good as author Brian Garfield is, I’ve got solid evidence that his 1973 Fawcett Gold Medal novel “Relentless” may have been imitating the “First Blood” literary phenomenon.

Horror (To Much Horror Fiction): Late ’80s and early ’90s horror writer Gene Lazuta was born on this date in 1959. Lazuta wrote several paperback originals under pseudonyms (as well as a mystery series), but did not continue his career as a horror author; indeed, you can see his professional bio here. While the cover art is striking and in keeping with totemic pulp horror imagery—drippy typeface, fangs, skulls, hands crawling out of eyes.

Genre Fiction (The Silver Key): If S&S is only Howard, and defined only by what he wrote, then it’s not a genre. It’s the works of a single man. Howard created sword-and-sorcery in the 1920s, but he did not consciously set out to do so. He was trying to tell entertaining stories of blood and thunder, and make a living. When he died in 1936 there were very few indications sword-and-sorcery would survive, let alone flourish. It had a lot more growing to do.

Fiction (Ty Johnston): This was more space fantasy than true fantasy, but it still rocked along with plenty of monsters and sword-swinging action. In the far future, Earth is ruled from another planet by the Dream Lords, semi-benevolent humans with vast powers of the mind. Yet the world of the Dream Lords is crumbling as one evil figure vies for their power. Fortunately, this evil being is thwarted by the mighty thews of our hero, an heir to being one of the Dream Lords.

Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): In short, making a hobby normie-friendly is a mistake. Gates exist. They will be kept. Either you hold those gates to keep those who do not belong out, or they will hold those gates to keep you–the rightful hobbyist–out of the very domain you made possible. To that end, having some barriers to entry is good. Uninituitive mechanics is one. Liminality is another; liminality is anathema to normies, who are too often NPCs requiring a script to execute to function, and liminality confounds that entirely.

Cinema (Unz.com): Todd Phillips’ much-anticipated new film Joker is an origin story starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, who becomes the Joker. Frankly, both of Ledger’s origin stories are more interesting. The question on everybody’s mind is: How does Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker compare to Heath Ledger’s?

D&D (Goodman Games): “Co-author of Dungeons & Dragons games?” What did that mean, I asked myself. I could not recall ever hearing of this David L. Arneson before and now, suddenly, here he was before my eyes, being touted as having had a hand in the creation of my beloved D&D. How was this possible? How had I never come across him before? I quickly consulted the rulebook of the Basic Set and, lo and behold, there was his name on the title page: “By Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.”

Comic Books (Lovecraft E-zine): That said, Swamp Thing originally came out of the gate roaring, the creation of two legends in the comics industry having a blast. The two individuals in question would be the writer Len Wein and the artist Bernie Wrightson. Len Wein wrote for every major superhero book published by Marvel and DC from the time he entered the field in the very early seventies until shortly before his death in 2017.

Sensor Sweep: 10/7/2019 published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

0 notes

cruzjournal745-blog · 6 years

Text

20 Things You Should Know About Uganda Research

Whodunit: Who Or What Exterminated Our Ancestors?

Modern human beings (Humankind) evolved from various other primates, most probably from primate supply in Africa when DNA relationships are analysed. We have a 98% compatibility with monkey DNA. Nevertheless, there was a lengthy chain of in-betweens twixt monkeys and also contemporary human beings, the two essential transitions being a bipedal gait (Australopithecus) and device use (Homo). The intriguing points are that while all the in-betweens have actually gone extinct, the genealogical primate supply didn't; the change to contemporary humans was so fast that it stinks of synthetic choice, not all-natural. Are the in-between terminations and the very quick shift to contemporary human beings linked?

Review: 4.5 billion to 5 million years ago.

Divide the roughly 4.5 billion year background of Planet Earth into say five million year segments. Now visualize yourself 4.5 billion years ago leaping from one segment to the following. Also provided a 5 million year jump, would certainly you see much modification per jump? No, you wouldn't. You 'd notice a little modification, yes, yet hardly anything extreme or major. That applies as you jump from section to section - a little change, a little more adjustment, even a little bit even more change as you obtain better and further gotten rid of from your starting factor. The structure of the ambience gradually, ever so gradually adjustments; life begins as well as solitary celled critters arise. After numerous, many sector jumps, these evolve easy multi-celled animals, etc. However modification is so progressive that it's hardly noticeable from one segment to the next. The exemption would certainly be when there's been a mass extinction event, so if you jump from 70 million years ago to 65 million years back, yes you would certainly discover that, oops, where are the dinosaurs? After that things settle back down again to really sluggish yet extremely certain price of modification.

Now concerning 90 leaps of 5 million years each will certainly bring you to approximately a time 5 million years earlier. Observe meticulously the landscape, atmospheric make-up, and also the different life kinds. If you're in Africa you just may notice the early stirrings of the hominoid branch that will ultimately lead to us. Currently do that last jump. Jump that last section. Is the resulting modification major or small? If you addressed yet once more 'minor', placed on your dunce cap. That adjustment is one of the most major of all the step-by-step 5 million year jumps. Now does not that strike you as weird? It's constantly been a reasonably minor slope of change, now all the sudden the slope escalates.

Evaluation: 5 million to 500,000 years back.

Currently separate that final 5 million year sector into say ten parts of 500,000 years each. Do that same incremental dive. Not all that much changes from one 500,000 year block to the following one to the following one. However that last jump from 500,000 years ago to today - well, there's that rapid slope once more. There a massive change from that last 500,000 years ago to the present. At the start, there were no Homo sapiens. At the end, well simply take a look around you - billions of Homo sapiens all over you.

Testimonial: 500,000 to 50,000 years back.

Divide that last 500,000 year block into ten sections of 50,000 years each. By the time you reach the last of those 50,000 year blocks, a lot of Homo varieties have reoccured, with only a couple left - Homo neanderthalensis and also naturally Homo sapiens, and also in separated Java, Homo floresiensis.

Testimonial: 50,000 to 10,000 years earlier.

Take into consideration that last 50,000 year block. At the beginning, Homo sapiens exist, yet there's no human being to mention. But we do have the very first of 2 relative abrupt advancements. 50,000 years ago, offer or take, modern people 'created' culture. Cave art and rock paintings appear; likewise carved porcelain figurines; human beings began to bury the dead in addition to severe products.

Currently separate that final 50,000 block right into 5 components of 10,000 years each. At the end, with only 10,000 years delegated go, we now have only one hominoid varieties left, Homo sapiens. In just that final 10,000 year duration, you'll see the change, because family member brief time period, in varied components of the globe; human beings go from a nomadic hunter-gatherer existence to domestic settlements.

Review: 10,000 to 1000 years ago.

If you split that last 10,000 year block right into ten components, then you go from world to a technical world.

Review: 1000 to 200 years earlier.

Separate that final 1000 block right into say five parts, as well as you go from a technological human being to a sophisticated world, and also the progress is still undertaking a rapid development.

Okay, let's return back to approximately 5 million or so years back, possibly a shade a lot more.

Someplace around 8 to 6 million years back, our family tree divided off from the monkey family tree. Our lineage is composed of great deals of links, concerning 20 varieties understood until now, some straight (like your grandparents as well as parents); some simply branches off the main as well as aren't direct (like your relatives, aunties and uncles).

Here are the starting links in that chain that we understand around.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis came on the African scene concerning 7 to 6 million years earlier. We're not exactly sure if this hominoid types was a parent or a cousin.

Orrorin tugenensis was slightly much more current, dating to approximately 5.8 million years earlier. Once again, parent or cousin isn't clear.

Ardipithecus ramidus and also Ardipithecus kadabba were recognized to strut their stuff 5.8 to 4.3 million years ago as well as are credited with remaining in a direct straight chain to ourselves.

Below are the next web links in the chain starting with the introduction of the bipedal gait.

AUSTRALOPITHECUS (hominoids with an undoubted bipedal stride) had their beginnings from roughly that 4 to 3 million years ago era, provide or take.

* Australopithecus anamersis existed down Africa way some 4.2 to 3.8 million years earlier, an apparent forefather to Australopithecus afarensis.

* Australopithecus afarensis is popular many thanks to Lucy (of "overhead with rubies" fame). Australopithecus afarensis were around from approximately 3.6 to 3 million years ago though it appears there's a space in the fossil evidence of some 200,000 years twixt Australopithecus afarensis as well as Australopithecus anamersis. When hominoid fossils are as infrequent as they are, such voids typically aren't surprising.

* Australopithecus bahrelghazali has actually been documented from about 3.5 million years prior to the present.

* Kenyanthropus (or Australopithecus) platyops (relying on that you talk with) was a modern of Australopithecus bahrelghazali as well as Australopithecus afarensis dated again to 3.5 million years back.

* Australopithecus africanus: If Australopithecus afarensis faded out of the picture some 3 million years earlier, they were changed by this crowd, who reigned from concerning 3 million to 2.5 million years back.

* Australopithecus garhi comes upon the scene equally as Australopithecus africanus vanishes subsequently at concerning 2.5 million years prior to today.

Our Paranthropus relatives branch off around that 2.5 million year mark. First up was Paranthropus aethiopicus at 2.5 million years back. Now there is some disagreement concerning names.

* Australopithecus boisei or Paranthropus boisei? Whether parent or cousin, they were around from concerning 2.3 to 1.4 million years ago, and also hence evolved in the past, and also went kaput after, Australopithecus robustus or Paranthropus robustus.

* Australopithecus robustus or Paranthropus robustus? What's in a name anyhow, The truth of the issue is that this African varieties is dated to 2 to 1.5 million years back.

HOMO (device manufacturers) had their origin somewhere from 2.5 to 2 million years back.

* Homo Rudolfensis (varieties similar to Homo habilis) populated Africa 2.5 to 1.9 million years ago.

* Homo habilis hit the scenes about 2.3 million years ago and also lasted until about 1.6 million years ago.

* Homo ergaster: In one informing of the story, Homo ergaster was post Homo habilis but pre Homo erectus as well as dated regarding 2 million years ago to 1 million years ago. Other anthropologists appoint the name Homo ergaster simply to the African version of Homo erectus. That's due to the fact that a hominoid species was about to leave the stroke of genius!

* Homo erectus was that varieties that flew the African successful stroke. It was the first such forefather of ours to move from Africa (though not all did naturally). They ended up in western, eastern, and also South-Eastern Asia. Fossil remains have been found in Java as an example. Homo erectus endured and also thrived extra as an Asian species compared to an African one, making it through up until roughly 200,000 years earlier in Asia after their 2 million years ago beginnings in Africa, and also as Homo ergaster, passed away out 800,000 years before their Eastern matchings.

* Homo floresiensis (Java just) was an isolated descendant of Homo erectus that has the distinction of being our most recent ancestor to go extinct. Homo erectus did so 200,000 years back, however that separated community held on till an extremely short 12,000 years ago. That's almost modern-day times!

* Homo heidelbergensis: Homo erectus additionally spawned one more out-of-Africa species, Homo heidelbergensis who spread out over Europe from 700,000 to 300,000 years ago, most likely by means of migration from their forefathers in western Asia.

* Homo antecessor is the Homo erectus varieties that conquered Europe, often called an additional European version of Homo heidelbergensis. Homo antecessor lived in Europe from concerning 1 million years ago to approximately 300,000 years back.

* Homo rhodesiensis coincides as Homo heidelbergensis, just the African variation. So, presumably Homo ergaster gave rise to Homo rhodesiensis equally as the out-of-Africa version of Homo erectus gave rise to Homo heidelbergensis. Like Homo antecessor, Homo rhodesiensis put up around for only 700,000 years - 1 million years ago to 300,000 years past.

* Homo neanderthalensis, being a west Oriental and also European types is the apparent descendant of those various other European hominoids, Homo antecessor as well as Homo heidelbergensis. Of all our vanished forefathers (600,000 to 35,000 years ago), Neanderthals are one of the most renowned, however we still do not the exact degree of interaction, also reproducing (preferably) between them and also the last and final types on the listing - us.

* Homo sapiens (takes shape 400,000 to 200,000 years earlier, however probably closer to 200,000 compared to 400,000, a minimum of that's the consensus. Another consensus is that Homo sapiens were just the second African native to move from Africa after Homo erectus, some 60,000 to 50,000 years earlier.

There are possibly still great deals of undiscovered species that create additional web links as well as branches in the chimp - modern-day human chain, but the above are enough to show the point. A hell of a lot of our forefathers went extinct - cause or creates unknown.

Comfortably enough each types of Australopithecus and also Homo lasted long enough to give rise to the next species of Australopithecus or Homo before going 'poof'. Now to reword Ian Fleming's James Bond enemy Goldfinger, 'Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; 3 times [or much more] is enemy action'. Currently 1 or 2, even 3 in-betweens - those in-between ancient primates supply (roughly 8 to 6 million years ago) and modern-day guy - that went the means of the dodo could be explainable. That EVERY such in-between species went 'poof' is begging for a natural explanation, a description that I discover doing not have.

Over an as much as eight million year duration, from initial advancement to ultimate extinction, all those parental web links in our ancestral chain and also kissing relative branches has had that ultimate going kaput scenario take place to them. Regarding any kind of one of them is concerned, that cradle to major history was over a rather short duration as geological periods go. I mean many species exist for numerous years; some for tens of millions; also some for thousands of millions.

Great deals of varieties, say of ants, tuna, frogs, snakes, bears, felines, monkeys, etc. exist side-by-side, share usual area, yet of all the hominoid types, Australopithecus as well as Homo, there continues to be currently simply one. Just one currently exists as that only types, that obviously being Homo sapiens - just how very odd. Why should modern-day humans, as well as modern-day human beings alone, having this long chain of in-betweens leading up to us, yet which not exist, be the 'last guy standing' as it were?

If any and all web links in the chimp - contemporary human chain progressed normally (the requirement model), after that you would certainly anticipate those adjustments that developed in the first place to last a spell. The African continent (activity city and ground zero essentially) as well as African environment wasn't rising and fall that dramatically that no quicker had you advanced to fit in with that environment than it did an overall flip-flop and also swiftly somersaulted to and fro again and again creating limitless terminations (no types can endure for long under such circumstances) Click here and new opportunities for our future generation of ancestors (quickly to go vanished subsequently). Sadly, that does not wash given that other animal species made it constantly with that as much as eight million year period, in that exact same environment, without a care on the planet, including, other primates, like the chimpanzees, while apparently a dozen approximately of their naturally progressed descendent species remained in continuous quarrel! That's all the more perplexing due to the fact that all of these links in the chain bring about Humankind were "smarter compared to the average bear" as well as primate also. Even if Africa were a killing zone, how come the exact same circumstances played out in Asia as well as Europe too?

Plainly contemporary humans, responsible for exactly what's been described the most recent mass extinction event (of modern flora as well as animals), didn't annihilate their forefathers since modern human beings weren't around for the majority of that shift duration. All Australopithecus as well as most Homo types went vanished before contemporary human beings came on the scene. Did the next generation in the line of descent kill off the previous generation, in a way comparable to speculation that contemporary people eliminated their kissing relatives, the Neanderthals?

Something's fishy. As a matter of fact physical sociology texts simply note that hominoid types W, X, Y & Z have gone extinct given that they are clearly no place to be discovered active in the world today, but they can just hypothesize about why - they don't know. They have not the foggiest idea why the Neanderthals don't walk the Earth today, so they just guesstimate opportunities.

Probably it's time to scrap the typical model for an option and extremely un-standard situation. May there be a third party behind things? The secret is that while modern human beings are but one types, there are many types.

Once upon a time, an extremely, long time earlier, an extraterrestrial intelligence, deliberately (they detected Planet's bio-signatures like an oxygen environment) or mishap, uncovered and shown up on Terra Firma, as well as somehow(s) or various other set up shop. Perhaps it was for clinical objectives; perhaps a good spot for R&R; maybe as a station or home away from house; maybe as a swarm.

Now being a high-tech type of culture (well they did receive from there to right here after all), and also of a curious and also clinical yet functional curved, assumed it a grand long-lasting concept to get the indigenous earthlings to offer them, in much the same way we get some animals to offer us - equines, camels or donkeys/mules for transportation; seeing-eye canines for the visually handicapped; watchdog to, well guard points; canaries in the mines as an early warning system for hazardous gases; felines to clear the ranch of grain-eating computer mice; birds to eat the pests; and more. Obviously, in order to get animals to serve us, it not just helps to tame or quasi-domesticate them, yet to synthetically improve their all-natural capabilities or looks. Therefore attack dog become bigger and fiercer; equines for competing purposes are bread to end up being quicker; as well as aesthetics aren't overlooked either so we breed animals to look by doing this or in this way just because it pleases us to do so; and so on. Therefore numerous a tamed pet now can be found in types; just like human beings been available in types - see the link?

One trait we use animals for is work - oxen pull the plough, and so on. Well, maybe our extraterrestrials had the same ideas way back after that. However certainly the standard supply with which they had to work with could always be enhanced, like human beings reproducing quicker horses.

The most valuable characteristics aliens would certainly service or with would be points like knowledge; mastery; a free pair of appendages with which to adjust objects; binocular vision; all valuable points masters want in their servants. You do not use equines or pets or cats or even apes to plant and also harvest cotton - you 'em ploy' Negroes back in the gold pre Civil War days of the Deep American South. It's The Same the British Navy - you shanghaied the great unwashed to function as your basic lowest-of-the-low seafarers.

Sadly, back after that, the best of the most effective on offer were the primates. To obtain them up to the required common required by the aliens needed a bit of not all-natural, however man-made selection. Call it bio-engineering; genetic modification, the goal was to synthetic a life form of higher use to them.

So you begin with the initial ideal prime supply offered (primates) and unnaturally type as well as adjust as well as pick and also alter them until you arrive at the modified next or second generation. The original stock, in this case the chimps have actually served their prime purpose and also are of no additional use, however since they were currently around as well as well adapted to their environments and also native environment, their stock advanced, as it does to this day.

The following or second (now slightly modified) generation subsequently is unnaturally manipulated to generate the 3rd generation. As soon as the 2nd generation has actually served its function its cast adrift and left to take care of themselves but they are NOT well adjusted to their environments and natural environment, and also their stock did NOT advance however whether quickly or slowly however undoubtedly, went vanished.

The third generation triggers the 4th generation and also therefore the third generation go kaput also, a fabricated development unadapted to the natural world. And so forth and so forth

0 notes

josephkitchen0 · 6 years

Text

Tips on Raising Chickens with Dogs

Can raising chickens with dogs work for you? It depends on the dog. And it depends on you.

We had an easy start to raising chickens with dogs. Oh’no, the Chicken Mama, who is half husky and half Australian Shepard, is such a docile dog that she doesn’t even bark. No, really. A year and a half after moving in, our next-door neighbors realized we had owned her the entire time. Though we were very wary when we purchased our first chicks, we realized with the next batch that we had an ally. Oh’no babysat the chicks, camping out beside brooders. When I fed the chicks, she waited in anticipation so I could lift them and let her lick their butts. We didn’t have a problem with pasty butt at all. When I had my first ducklings, I let her loose in a well-monitored room with them. Instead of bothering them, she herded them into places she felt were safe.

Harle

Tater with the chickens

Tater, the Pyrenees/German Shepard isn’t the mothering type. She’s the protective type. At first, when she was younger than two years old, we had to teach her not to chase the chickens. They were so fun to chase! But she never tried to hurt them and now, she’s our main line of defense against chicken predators at night.

Ready to Start Your Own Backyard Flock?

Get tips and tricks for starting your new flock from our chicken experts. Download your FREE guide today! YES! I want this Free Guide »

Our dogs lived peacefully side-by-side with our chickens. We chastised the dogs when they ate the chickens’ food, and they learned soon that the food and the chickens were both off limits. When we let the chickens out in the morning, Oh’no and Tater were right by my side.

Gozer

Then we got this guy… Gozer, the purebred German Shepard.

He doesn’t look like a vicious creature that would kill nine chickens and ducks before he reached 6 months old, does he? In defense, we didn’t just “let him” kill nine birds. At first, he only attacked them when we were gone for too long, but then he attacked them if we were gone at all. We started locking him in the house while we were gone. Then he started killing them when we were at home but distracted. So then we partitioned off the yard with a four-foot-high fence. Two more pullets perished before we extended the fence to eight feet.

I needed to thin my flock, but this is not how I wanted to do it.

Gozer is not a friend to my backyard chickens. Maybe he will be when he matures. Maybe he never will be. But for now, we have to keep our flock safe.

Breed and history do matter.

Some dogs have a higher prey drive than others. Breeds that will probably not be trustworthy around your birds include:

1) Dogs that were bred to hunt especially dogs bred to hunt small animals. These include terriers and retrievers.

2) Dogs that weren’t bred to be family animals. These include breeds raised in the Americas, like huskies, and breeds raised in Asia. Why are European breeds more often trustworthy with chickens? Part of that is because they were raised to be trustworthy with small children, and to honor the pack status of the family. Also, Europe developed a lot of shepherding dogs, which had to be trusted to watch over newborn lambs without hurting them. Pyrenees and Akbash are among the most trustworthy dogs for poultry, for this reason.

3) Dogs with pre-existing emotional problems, like abused rescue dogs. If you have rescued an abused dog, you understand that the abuse often damages the mentality of the animal. Also, abusive owners don’t often give dogs the discipline they need.

Age matters.

This includes the age of both dogs and chickens. When we started socializing our dogs with our chickens, we didn’t let them roam around together unless the chickens were full-grown. The dogs got their noses pecked and they learned from the bossier hens that they were not to be messed with. By the time we had this established, I started training them with the babies. And as stated earlier, Tater chased the chickens when she was younger. Now that she’s four years old, she doesn’t bother them at all.

You matter when raising chickens with dogs.

Training is the most important part when raising chickens with dogs. Your dog will not respect your chickens unless you teach him to.

1) Your dog needs to understand those chickens are yours, not his. You will not stand for any mistreatment of your chickens.

2) Your dog needs to be closely monitored until you know you can trust him. This is tedious, but allowing him to get away with it won’t help. And in case you’re wondering… finding a dead bird in your yard when it’s too late to discipline him, is like allowing it to happen, according to your dog’s understanding.

3) Younger dogs need distraction and attention. Often, attacking small animals is a way of acting out. If you have a large breed dog, there’s a chance you’re not exercising him enough.

4) Your dog might need a fence. Yes, you want them to be friends, and run around in the pasture together. I hear you. I understand your pain. Prepare to build a fence anyway.

How do you stop your dogs from attacking your chickens?

I’ve been told to tie a dead chicken around my dog’s neck and let it stay there for a week. Gross. I live on less than 1/8th acre, and the nearest house is 15 feet from mine. That cannot and will not work for us, though I’ve read it has worked for others.

Maybe you can chicken-shame. Chicken-shaming is when you catch a chicken, hold it up to your dog, and chastise your dog when he tries to touch the bird. We chicken-shamed Tater. After she learned not to go up and touch the bird, we started holding chickens on her back. Soon she learned to just let it happen. When we caught her with an egg in her mouth, it only took one egg-shaming lesson to make her stop. She did not like being chased around the yard by a guilt-inducing egg!

When raising chickens with dogs, maybe you can pay constant vigilance to both and train them to leave each other alone. This worked with Tater. With enough effort, she stopped chasing chickens.

But I also dog-sat two dogs for a friend: a miniature schnauzer and a giant schnauzer. At the time, I had a very small flock, all enclosed within chicken wire and wooden slats. Both dogs tried to force their way through the wire. I turned the hose on the giant schnauzer, and she learned her lesson. The owner sent shock collars, but I used them only twice when the giant schnauzer got too close to the coop. The miniature schnauzer, though, was the biggest dog-jerk on the planet. The shock collar only served as a temporary discipline. This dog actually watched to see when I was busy, and that’s when he chewed the coop wire. The biggest amount of damage was to him; he chewed so much wire I found blood spots on the floor! He never got far enough to hurt the chickens, but he got far enough that I had to repair holes or the raccoons would make them bigger. However, I knew that I could not trust that dog at all. When I expanded my flock and allowed them to free range in the yard, I told my friend I could no longer care for her dogs.

So, how do you know if raising chickens with dogs will work for you?

You need to build a fence when raising chickens with dogs. This is the answer you did not want to get from this article, isn’t it? Build a fence. Spend extra money and make it a strong fence. Get hardware cloth instead of chicken wire. Maybe even chain link!

I know, I know… you’ve heard different things. You’ve heard:

But… I saw a Cesar Millan video! Yes, I know. I’ve seen that video as well. But remember, The Dog Whisperer makes his money on success. Would he air that video if that particular dog had failed his training?

But… My black lab is the sweetest thing! I can trust him with my children, so I’m sure he wouldn’t hurt my chicks! Your black lab wasn’t bred to retrieve small children for hunters.

But… My friend has a black lab that she can completely trust with her chickens! I have seen many pictures of black labs surrounded by baby chicks. These labs are often older, having spent a lifetime serving the owners of those chicks, and their standing in the pack family has been established. Your black lab may act completely different. Do not expect your dog to act like another dog, and do not leave your babies unattended until you know exactly how your dog will react.

But… I really really want my little farm to live in harmony! We all do. I really enjoyed those years when I could fill up food and water, go to work for nine hours, and come home to a safe and protected yard. That was harmony. We loved it. And your dogs and chickens may someday live in harmony, with enough training and attention.

Gozer may someday live in harmony with my flock. But not now.

Definitely not now.

Do you have other tips or tricks to share when raising chickens with dogs?

Tips on Raising Chickens with Dogs was originally posted by All About Chickens

0 notes

ropedropnet · 7 years

Text

Walt Disney World News From D23 – A Recap

As readers of this site probably know, this past weekend was the 2017 D23 Expo out in California. Though, as a Disney fan, I was interested in a lot of the goings on from the weekend, I was most interested in seeing what Disney was going to announce related to Disney World.

Here’s what happened:

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Information about Star Wars Land starting coming out early at D23 when Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek unveiled a detailed model of the Disneyland version of the new land. TouringPlans has some more detailed pictures of the Star Wars Land model, as does WDW News Today, and Disney has posted a video “fly through” of the model:

youtube

The name of the new land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, was actually discovered in Disney webpage source code a day before it’s official announcement during Saturday’s Disney Parks & Resorts panel. As part of that announcement, Disney gave more details on the two two attractions that will be part of the new land:

One attraction will make you feel like you’re on a Star Destroyer inside a hangar bay. It’s an attraction built on a scale we’ve never done before.

Here is a link to WDW News Today’s look at the ride vehicle for that attraction that is supposed to bring you in a close confrontation with the First Order.

Disney describes the second attraction as

giv[ing] guests the opportunity to fly the Millenium Falcon, piloting the ship, shooting blasters or preparing for hyperspace – all while completing a critical mission. But how you perform on the mission holds even bigger stakes: perform with skill and you may earn extra galactic credits, while bringing the ship back banged up could put you on the list of a bounty hunter. End up on Harkos’s list and you may face a problem if you show up at the local cantina!

Chapek also announced that Galaxy’s Edge will feature appearances from popular characters Chewbacca, BB-8, and everyone’s favorite Star Tours pilot, Rex (who will have a new role as the dj in the cantina.)

Overall, the presentation hinted on the new “reputation” features of the land that were previously announced (i.e., your flight on the Millawnium…err…Millenium Falcon having consequences), but did not give details as to how that will be implemented. Thanfully, Inside the Magic has a fantastic interview with Imagineer Scott Trowbridge that gives strong hints as to how that system will work:

“If you do a great job flying the Millennium Falcon, you might find a few more Galactic Credits coming your way. But if you bang the ship up and bring it back all damaged […] when you roll across the street to the local cantina, you might hear from someone in the cantina that there’s even a bounty on your head because you owe more money than you have.

That’s just one quote from the interview, and I’d encourage anyone who’s interested in Star Wars Land, to head over to Inside the Magic and read the whole thing.

After discussing the land, Chapek confirmed earlier reports that both coasts will get their respective Star Wars lands in the first half of 2019, with the Disneyland version of Galaxy’s Edge opening before the Disney World version (which isn’t surprising based on the reports of the construction progress in both lands.) That said, with Star Wars: Episode IX scheduled to open on May 24, 2019, I would imagine Disney will try to get Galaxy’s Edge open in time to capitalize on the film’s advertising, etc… (and, coincidentially, a few weeks before Bob Iger’s contract expires on July 2, 2019.)

In more Star Wars news, the rumored, immersive, Star Wars Hotel was also officially announced. Chapek described the new hotel as:

“It’s unlike anything that exists today. From the second you arrive, you will become a part of a Star Wars story! You’ll immediately become a citizen of the galaxy and experience all that entails, including dressing up in the proper attire. Once you leave Earth, you will discover a starship alive with characters, stories, and adventures that unfold all around you. It is 100% immersive, and the story will touch every single minute of your day, and it will culminate in a unique journey for every person who visits.”

If I heard things correctly, he also said that every room will have a window looking out into space. If the “virtual space” windows are half as good as everyone says the “virtual portholes” on Disney cruise ships, we could be in for a real treat. I’d imagine that Elyssa and I will be making reservations as close as possible to the hotel opening.

Hollywood Studios

In non-Star Wars news related to the Studios, it was confirmed that the previously announced Toy Story Land is scheduled to open in 2018.

In a more dramatic move, however, Disney also announced that The Great Movie Ride will become Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The first ever Mickey-themed ride is inspired by Mickey Mouse cartoons and Disney describes it as:

put[ting] you inside the wacky and unpredictable world of a Mickey Mouse Cartoon Short where you’re the star and anything can happen. This zany out-of-control adventure features surprising twists and turns, dazzling visual effects and mind-boggling transformations that happen before your very eyes.

More concretely, Disney says this attraction

will feature a new story and a new singable attraction theme song as well as a new experience we’re calling “2 1/2 D.” No glasses required. Walt Disney Imagineer Kevin Rafferty said teams are inventing new technologies that turn the flat world of a colorful cartoon short into a “dimensional display of amazingness.”

In order to make way for this new attraction, The Great Movie Ride will be closed on August 13, 2017. Though I’ve not ridden The Great Movie Ride as much recently, I have fond memories of the attraction. Unfortunately, it was in dire need of an update and a refurb, and it looks like Disney couldn’t (or decided not to) bring all the necessary parties together to structure the licenses necessary to make that happen.

No targeted opening date was given for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

Epcot

Many people went into this D23 thinking it was going to be a turning point for Epcot (though, there is a definite split on whether or not such massive changes is a positive development.) Regardless of your thoughts as to whether major changes should take place, however, Disney announced a ton of new changes for Epcot. It also indicated that this is just the beginning of a massive overhaul of the park.

Chapek described the Epcot reimagining as staying true to the “original vision” of Epcot, while also making it “more Disney, timeless, relevant, [and] family-friendly.” I’m sure a lot of ink will be spilled on think pieces over the next couple of days discussing how some of these announcements relate to Epcot’s “original vision”, but, for now, I’m going to focus on what’s upcoming.

To set the stage, new concept art for Future World was shown during the presentation that featured–what looked like–a complete reimagining of Future World. Since Disney did not release that image along with the rest of its media assets, however, I view those ideas as more in the “developing” stages than some of the other items. (A lot can change between initial reimagining and the final product.) If you’re interested, though, here’s a link to a photo someone took of the concept art

As far as actual new attractions, the first announcement was a new Guardians of the Galaxy-inspired attraction that will replace Universe of Energy.. There were not a lot of details given about this attraction, with Disney saying:

Epcot’s brand new E-ticket attraction will be based on the rockin’ and action-packed world of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and is the next step in how guests can encounter these characters at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Previously, rumors have suggested the ride will be some kind of new coaster, but none of that has been confirmed, yet. As with the Great Movie Ride, Universe of Energy will close on August 13, 2017 to begin construction of the new Guardians ride.

The second announced new attraction coming to Epcot is a Ratatouille ride similar to the one at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris.. This ride will be part of new area in the France pavilion and Disney says that in this attraction:

guests will be able to shrink to Remy’s size and scurry to safety in a dazzling chase across a kitchen with the sights, sounds and smells of Gusteau’s legendary Parisian restaurant.

Both of these attractions are targeted to open prior to Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in 2021.

Other Epcot related changes include a new, updated Circle-Vision film being added to the China pavilion and updated films for Mission: SPACE, including “a brand new Green Mission that will take guests on a stunning tour around the Earth, with younger cadets joining the adventure for the very first time.” According to Disney, Mission: SPACE is scheduled to reopen this August.

Adjacent to Mission: SPACE will be a new “out of this world” restaurant. Though not many details were announced, it seems likely the restaurant will feature “windows” looking out into space (like the Star Wars Hotel will have.) The fact that it’s going to be run by the same group that runs Via Napoli and Morimoto Asia gives me high hopes.

Magic Kingdom

Recently, rumors had been quite strong that the TRON coaster from Shanghai Disneyland would be making its way to Disney World. Many of the rumors suggested this new experience would end up replacing the Tomorrowland Speedway. Well, the rumors saying that TRON is coming were right. It is slated to open in advance of Disney’s 50th anniversary in 2021. The interesting part of things, however, is that the attraction will “sit in an entirely new area right next Space Mountain.” This seems to suggest that the Speedway is sticking around (and, also, hopefully means that there won’t be any issues requiring changes or removal of the beloved People Mover in order to accommodate the new TRON attraction.)

Another Magic Kingdom item that had not been on anyone’s rumor radar is a new theater coming to Main Street U.S.A.. The “new entertainment venue will be based on the iconic Willis Wood Theater in 1920s Kansas City, where Walt lived after he left Marceline. ” Disney hasn’t yet announced what new entertainment will be coming to the theater, but it seems like this venue could be used to house the shows shown on Disney Cruise ships or similar like performances.

Unfortunately, there were no announcements about a new night time parade coming to Disney World. For months we’ve heard rumors about Disneyland’s Paint the Night parade coming to Disney World, but now it looks like that parade is simply moving to Disney’s California Adventure. (I’ve also heard rumors about Main Street Electrical Parade coming back to Disney World, but I’ll believe that when I see it.) Until then, it looks like Magic Kingdom will continue to operate without a night time parade (outside of the holiday parties) for the forseeable future.

Overall Resort Changes

The rumored gondola system that will connect Disney’s Art of Animation, Pop Century and Caribbean Beach resorts with the Studios and the backside of Epcot was given the name Disney Skyliner. It’ll be interesting to see what an increased amount of people using the International Gateway might mean for that (significantly smaller) entrance. As it stands currently, a boat full of people arriving can clog things up for a few minutes. I wonder what a steady stream of people arriving on gondolas will do.

Also on the transportation front, Disney’s rumored “Uber-like” service was branded Minnie Vans. Details on this new transportation option (such as cost) are scarce at this time.

Finally, Disney announced the new Disney Riveria Resort. This resort seems to be what people previously thought of as the “moderate” Caribbean Beach DVC (in no small part as a result of its location adjacent to Caribbean Beach). With the rebranding and gondola system, however, it’ll be interesting to see if the cost of this resort ends up being more in line with the rest of DVC options.

Other Odds and Ends

In news that made Elyssa crack a smile, Disney announced that there will be new themed dresses coming to The Dress Shop. Hopefully, Disney will be able to actually keep these in stock.

Disney also announced that the various Disney Stores around the country will be redesigned. As someone who tries to get a little bit of a Disney-fix by wandering into my local Disney Store ever week or two, I’m interested in seeing what this new redesign looks like.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see from the length of this post, the 2017 iteration of D23 Expo had a lot of Disney World news. At this point, I’m still trying to process things, but my first impression from the new announcements is pretty positive. We are getting a number of interesting new attractions, without losing things like the People Mover or Impressions de France to make way for them (for now, anyway.)

Out of all the new attractions, I’m probably most exited about Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and the TRON coaster. Finally having a ride dedicated to the mouse that started it all is awesome, and I have high hopes that the Imagineers are going to give the attraction a lot of love and care. Meanwhile, the Shanghai version of TRON is that park’s highest rated attraction (and have a soft spot in my heart for the concept of little “people programs” running around in my computer.) Can I make my reservations for Disney World’s 50th birthday now?

That’s it for my recap. Thanks for reading See you at the Galaxy’s Edge!

(NOTE: If you’ve made it this far, but you still want to read Disney PR’s take on all the Disney World news, they have a press release available that talks about everything.)

The post Walt Disney World News From D23 – A Recap appeared first on Rope Drop [dot] Net.

from Walt Disney World News From D23 – A Recap

#walt disney world #disney #Dining #DVC #Epcot #Featured #Hotels #Magic Kingdom #Resorts #The Studios

0 notes

gift4sure · 7 years

Text

Best-christmas-gifts-for-PS4-gamers-2016

You had believe that is frequently false, although that choosing presents for your ps enthusiast in your lifetime could be ease itself. Obviously there are usually a membership to ps Plus activities to become purchased, and sometimes even the swank Pro? You find a superb assortment of presents that any enthusiast will love, in a variety of costs that may support any budget and come below. It’s, obviously, the idea that matters, but showing your present off -providing savvy is very enjoyable, also.

Rock-Band 4 Group in a Container

Should you really kept down this past year on buying Rock-Band 4, you created the best phone. At start, Harmonix had however to work the kinks out – or include audio In The Kinks – the series’ revival on units that are existing. Nowadays, however, it’s absolutely the easiest way to perform the world’s best karaoke sport and also the total group pack is discounted to $150 (or occasionally cheaper whenever a purchase is certainly going on.)

Watch product:Rock-Band 4 Group in a Container Pack ps 4, Amazon, $149.99/£118.34

Last Protector Trico top

The Final Protector is virtually legend’s material. People purchased PS3s so that they might perform the 3rd sport from Group Ico, which appeared to become distinctive and as stunning whilst the two activities that arrived before it, Ico of the Colossus. Initially due out in 2011, it confronted numerous setbacks and waited…and so followers waited…and waited…and were ultimately compensated due to their persistence this season. The kitten/poultry/mount/puppy Trico is really anything unique to as charming, see and frustrating as any real world pet. Trico may be the miracle that game titles can create’s image, which top is just a beautiful indication of this nature.

Watch product:Trico tshirt, ps Equipment Shop, $20.00/£15.77

Ps clothes

Winter, usually, is fairly chilly. A period of frosty fingertips and noses, and toughest of, cold tootsies. Safeguard the ps enthusiast that you experienced against feet that are freezing with one of these fashionable clothes, bedecked using the legendary icons that are controller’s. Clothes would be the ideal method to stealthily function your preferred system into your clothing, silently proclaiming your assistance while still searching workplace-prepared. It’s like instructing your legs a key handshake. Footshake. Whatsoever. Brent, They’re great clothes.

Watch product:Sony PlayStation Standard Cotton Clothes, Group Of 3 Sets, Amazon, $33.29/£26.26

Final Fantasy 15 Limitededition blu ray Soundtrack

Even when its tale is all around the location, there is no questioning that Final Fantasy 15is soundtrack is amazing. The standard version includes more than 80 monitors in the sport, but when you pre order the very first-work limited-edition on blu ray, you receive a lot of accessories which will make that one of the very thorough Final Fantasy audio selections actually launched. You receive a disk using the Device documented for that sport and also the tunes Florence, along side behindthescenes movies. You receive a disk with unique violin preparations of numerous of the tunes of FF15. In addition you obtain a guide full of liner notes compiled by musician Yoko Shimomura that is guide. But probably all’s greatest reward is just a blu ray disk comprising each and every monitor you are able to pay attention to in the Regalia of FF15 – that is almost 300 tunes comprising nearly three years of Fantasy activities. This launch is arriving a little warm, delivering in Asia on November 21st, therefore cargo could get swept up in traditions in the event that you plan to pre order like a present – but thinking about the prosperity of audio within this amazing bundle, your intended receiver probably will not mind the delay when it comes.

Watch product: Final Fantasy 15 Unique Soundtrack Limitededition [Blu Ray Audio Disk], Square Enix Shop, $109.99/£86.76

Bloodborne Artwork Guide

Along with having finely-tuned fight and raw – but reasonable – trouble, Bloodborne has figures and some undoubtedly stunning surroundings…in a frightening, headache-causing method. Beast style, the structure, guns, as well as your Hunter’s garments are intricately-designed, with each option contributing to the entire sensation of majesty and fear. This is actually the ideal present in case your family member knows than their very own hometown. Reasonable warning: the wording has translations, although this guide is of Western source.

Watch product:Bloodborne Standard Artworks, Amazon, $50.49/£39.81

Scuf Customisable control

Within an era where from coaches to coffee-can be customised for your flavor that is particular it appears unusual that the regular selection of control color amounts from dark to blacker or, if you should be truly fortunate, dark-blue. If you wish to break-away in the tradition (and who doesn’t) why don’t you attempt creating your personal mat. Customisable that is completely right down to form and the duration of the thumbstick you’re liberated to select the colors you would like for every product that is specific. They’re then, although not inexpensive is it possible to place on being alone at the next gambling a cost meet up having a control that you’ve created? (Yes you are able to, it’s about £150).

Watch product:Customised ps Control, ScufGaming, (costs differ) roughly $190.25/£150.00

Ps Platinum Wireless Headset

Strangely, many people don’t like reading the looks of gunfire from the additional space (we presume they’re simply attempting to prevent spoilers). Preserve aural with one of these comfortable headphones that are super, filled with integral microphone. Being an additional reward, they use your notebook, also; you’re all set and simply plug-in the dongle. The sound-quality is difficult to defeat for that cost, and also the style that is folding helps maintain when they’re not getting used them tidily from the way. Essential-have for almost any ps proprietor.

Watch product:

Established ps Coloringbook

Actually believed that Drake must increase his wardrobe? Or considered how a Smurf would be looked like by Kratos? Engage your urges that are innovative with this specific coloringbook offering the many legendary figures that are PlayStation’s. Coloring for children, you realize; reports show that it’s an established tension-reliever, and certainly will help offset nervousness large blood-pressure, and insomnia. In the event that you don’t wish to you don’t have to color within the outlines. No view from us. Donot forget it to be gone with by the colored pens!

Watch product:

Watch product:Koh I Noor Progresso Woodless Colored 24-Pen Collection, Various Colored Pens, Amazon, $14.89/£11.74

DEB is for Future

Indoctrinate your kids towards the methods for the Traveler early with this particular cute picture-book that describes the lore that is game’s much better than the overall game does itself. We child. (not necessarily.) The-art is enchanting enough to create actually the Hive appear type of adorable. Hmm…but is G for Cat or protector? You’ll need to study to discover! (No kids necessary for purchase.)

Watch product:DEB is for Future, Amazon, $12.20/£9.62

Unique ps Tote

I understand, it’s irritating you can’t allow everybody know your allegiance constantly. And occasionally you don’t have purses that are sufficient. Wherever this is available in: an elegant looking airliner back designed to appear just like a traditional 1994 PS1 that will be. It’s all your cra… to be fit by a good size for you makes an immediate declaration whenever you step-out and stuff. It’s both awesome and useful.

Watch product:Unique ps Tote, Place Cash, $57.02/£45.00

from gift4sure http://www.gift4sure.co.uk/best-christmas-gifts-for-ps4-gamers-2016/

0 notes