Not sure if this is appropriate for this sub but figured you all would know the answer. My local chamber of commerce (which has 501 (3)(c) status has just placed its President/CEO on administrative leave. He's also a city councilman. Last month the city Manager announced that the city wouldn't be renewing its membership with the chamber of commerce because he feels its a conflict of interest to have the CEO/president serve on the city council & be able to vote on financial stuff (like voting on how to award grant money) or something like that. So the membership expires this month.
I'm just curious, as someone who works for a NPO, how much of this has to be released to the public? Does anything have to be disclosed or can it all be kept private? Apparently the board chair has been out of office since last week and isn't taking questions from the media while he's out. I'm not really familiar with the laws surrounding this so I'm genuinely curious if this can be kept private or if information has to be released upon request? The city councilman/chamber CEO/president reps my district and is corrupt. He's been trying to elevate his political career for years without success. I'm not sure why we keep re-electing him considering every time he runs for a different office he abandons us for at least a year!

Earlier today, the mayor of Warning City officially opened the new Airport-City Link metro and train lines. The metro line features two stations in the Airport District and one station in the Riverside District and the train line features several stations in the Airport and Harbour Districts as well as three stations in the City. Due to high demand for housing, the City Council have started construction of the Cois Príomh-mbóthar housing estate, which will be built north of the IC1 motorway. The estate will be powered by the N-SOT Power Station. Concerns have been expressed over the high amounts of traffic on the R45, L2 and the City Roundabout that has been caused by the W1 bus route. The W1 is the so far the only bus route in Warning City and has 65 buses spread across just 20 km of roads. Traffic and Travel Major Delays are currently on the R1, R45, L2 and on the approach to the IC1 and R1 interchange in both directions. Vehicle restrictions have been imposed on the Riverside Estate, vehicles over the length of 7 meters or more than 3 tonnes must not drive through this area. The Harbour is busy today and travel officials advise you arrive at the port no less than 2 hours before your ferry leaves as traffic is heavy on approach and inside the harbour. Disclaimer: The news stated here is unofficial and based off of events that happen in my city. These are fictional events and are not to be taken as actual news. Warningaming is in no way affiliated with Colossal Order or Paradox Interactive. Copyright: If you repost this without credit to Warningaming you will be reported.

Dawn of a new faction... ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Memory Transcription Subject: Tarva, Governor of the Venlil Republic
Date [Standardized Human Time]: November 7, 2136
Today was the day…
The ambassadors from all the other species have remained on Venlil Prime as honored guests. We all have been patiently waiting for humanity’s ambassador to arrive to address to us the new plan Meier devised for us. There was a lot of nervousness from us… We knew there were bound to be demands made by humanity in regards to their homeworld’s attack…
The ambassadors gathered on the landing platform as we patiently waited for the human shuttle to land. Cilany was there all the same, looking to get the story on what is about to unfold. Just then, we heard something entering the atmosphere. And not long after we heard the sound, We looked out over the horizon to see the human shuttle. It closed distance remarkably quickly and began to descend onto the platform before us…
It opened the hatch and…
It’s Noah…
Easy Tarva! Now is not the time for any of that! You can talk to Noah later, when you don’t have to worry about making a scene.
Noah stepped out with a strange headset around the back of his neck, and to our surprise 6 drones followed. First Meier and his extra heads, now Noah and these drones? Please creator, don’t tell me Noah has gone all crazy.
Noah stepped before us… “Hello… You all are bound to remember me from the summit on Aafa?”
Cupo responded in kind, “You are a difficult person to forget Noah, Hah!”
Noah wasn’t laughing…
Cupo coughed a bit before addressing Noah again, “Apologies… I must say I wasn’t expecting you to return… I figured you hate us.”
“OH I DO… with quite the burning passion as well…”
Noah stared into the Mazic’s eyes with a mixture of emotions. He was calm in his delivery, but hatred and disgust were the most prominent emotions in his voice…
Cupo seemed to flinch at the comment, and stepped back a bit.
“Let’s just get this over with…”
Noah spoke with a tired tone as he went to walk through the ambassadors and into the building, we all shuffled after him… Noah took his position at the podium and watched as all of the 90 ambassadors took their places to stand before him… He seemed to sigh before he sent out two drones to receive something from his ship. They went out the door, and not even a minute later the drones returned with a large television and positioned it behind Noah…
“I want you all to listen to this…”
The screen turned on… and immediately we were greeted by Strange and miscellaneous images. There was a message playing, It started with a man named Kurt Waldheim… a secretary general of the UN from long ago. There were many people that spoke up after him. In all kinds of languages that the translator had difficulty translating, all of them were warm and friendly… all of them human. So many humans long ago, seeming to greet the audience with a sense of hope and excitement.
After all that, we watched as countless images showed themselves in a slideshow format… accompanied by beautiful and emotional music… after that, sounds of earth… before the travesty…
Birds chirping, wind blowing, cities bustling, children playing…
What is this?
I looked around to the other ambassadors and saw many with tears forming in their eyes, with myself all the same. The others that weren’t crying were on the verge of tears, or expressed horror. The Tilfish and the Harchen seemed the most distraught out of everyone…
The recording was cut… and Noah turned to address us with a pained expression. “Do you know what that was? That was our first… and our greatest message that we ever produced… all of that which you all just watched was put onto ‘The Golden Disk’. This disk was placed upon a space probe called ‘Voyager’. It’s goal, to find alien life, and let them hear our hopes and dreams to meet them. To become allies… to become friends… And that is all we wanted with YOU… you ruined our dream… you ruined US.”
A tear was seen flowing down Noah’s cheek… This is too much… This is all they wanted. And we didn’t reciprocate in any way.
“I’m sorry… but we won’t ever be able to forgive you for what has been done… So instead of wishing for OUR forgiveness? You are to meet our demands in order to atone… that’s all you can do…”
…
Atone…
“From all species who weren’t present during the battle of earth… except the Yotul… you are to pay a single tribute of 25 percent of your yearly alloy production, as well as a tribute of 20 percent of your total food reserves… We need this more than ever now…”
Wait what?
The Duertian spoke up, “Wha-why aren’t you demanding anything from them?!”
Noah responded in kind, “Because even if they wanted to, they literally couldn’t. They have few, if any, ships to send to our aid… We can overlook the Yotul in that regard… YOU are not excused. We are also willing to send eight of our mobile shipyards for them to use to build up their own defenses. Rather than being ignored and CHASTISED by you lot!”
The Duertian was quickly silenced, she silently accepted defeat in that regard… The Yotul beamed in utter joy at the news. Noah continued, “From the supposed ‘allies’ that swore to help us… except the Yotul… you are to send medical supplies to us and pay a tribute of 27.5 your yearly alloy production for the next eight years.”
…
WHAT?!
Noah held out his hand to quiet us down before we began to speak out against this condition. We were the ones that were willing to accept humanity over anyone else! Why were we being forced to pay more?!
He spoke up to gain your attention, “THE REASON? Humans function under a pack mentality… and to abandon the pack when you are needed most is a great offense. You might’ve as well just killed us yourselves…”
…
That stung a lot…
It made more sense now. We were pledged to assist humanity and didn’t follow through on that promise in any way, this eight year annual tribute was to compensate for the false promises we gave…
“And lastly? The Tilfish and Harchen…”
Noah spoke of those two, and the ambassadors tensed up ever so greatly… “For 40 years you are to remain our vassals… you will provide 65 percent of your yearly alloy production for as long as you remain vassalized… your government will be reformed as we will it.”
That actually surprised me… I was honestly expecting worse of a punishment for them.
“Your tributes are to be delivered to the Alpha Centauri system, the closest system to earth… we still do not trust you so closely to our planet. That will be something you will earn again in time.”
It was all very reasonable, and understandable. I was glad we managed to convince Meier and the rest of humanity to spare us with some level of mercy… It’s nice to know that humanity isn’t all the monster we feared it’d become…
“Next order of business? We are going to tear down federation propaganda and completely disband extermination offices and predator disease treatment facilities and replace them with our own institutions on each of your planets. These departments are to be funded by your governments and will be set up and operated by humanity until the operators are to be replaced… Humanity will be willing to hire alien life into these government funded organizations… organizations being, a police force bound by human practices and policies, animal control, and a PROPER facility for treating mental illnesses… mental illnesses which you refer to as ‘predator disease’... anyone that opposes these changes will be dealt with hostility.”
That was a lot to take in… The Zurulian spoke up, “But exterminators and treatment facilities are how we keep our societies from dang-”
“SHUT. UP. ZURULIAN!”
Noah spoke with so much venom that I almost froze up again. “Those kinds of people do not protect you. They are federation puppets meant to control you… to make you obey the federation, keep their dogmatic beliefs and barbaric practices unquestioned. We will NOT tolerate anymore of this self-inflicted brainwashing upon you…”
The human spoke boldly against the institutions that the federation has built upon our home worlds… we were to meet these demands… and I personally welcomed it.
“Lastly? We wish to form, The Human Protectorate… We aim to create a senate for our faction soon enough, with all species, both vassal and ally included. We will defend you and you will remain loyal to us… in return for your loyalty we will seek to re-establish your lost cultures, as well as return to you all the people stolen away from you by Dominion as Cattle. Stolen away from you by the Federation. Once all your debts are repaid? We wish nothing more for your loyalty to the faction we wish to create with you…”
…
Wow…
That was a pledge of devotion that I, nor anyone was expecting…
“Do you all agree to the terms humanity has set forth?”
There was a collective nod as we all had a newfound anticipation and drive.
“I think we can all agree with your human terms… this will be a glorious achievement for us all!” The Duertian spoke with a glee in her voice.
“Good… ambassadors will be sent to each of you along with our defensive fleets when they arrive… I… am to remain Venlil’s ambassador…”
…
Oh Yes~!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(LORE DUMP!)
:: The plan devised by the New UN council received a massive majority vote, with 86% agreeing with the course of action that would be taken... especially the one against the Krakotl once they get to Nishital~. The reason for the total one-eighty is because this plan is far more detailed an explained underneath the council's reworkings... unlike Meier's which was vague to the punishments that species would receive... The videos also attributed to easing the more of the populace than was initially expected... ::
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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CRESCENT CITY, CIRCA 2064.
The city was almost unknown at the start of the century. It didn't have the vibe of Seattle's Boeing SeaTac, or the overwhelming might of NorCal's "Silicon Valley." In fact, it wasn't much of a city at all. But, after decades of investment, its become a small but incredibly influential force on the American West Coast.
It was Crescent City's peculiar legal situation which made it so attractive to industry. Due to reforms in the late 2030s, the Government had stewardship over a huge swath of land as "a sovereign territory within Northern California." Ironically, that same wave of reform in NorCal also pushed corporate interests to search for less restrictive jurisdictions.
At any rate, an extremely lucrative deal was hashed out with the governmental leadership: a special economic zone in Crescent City's port, heavily dominated by corporate interests. In exchange, an exorbitant yearly rent payment would be distributed to the city’s council, and corporate forces (they claimed) would help police on the remaining sections of the city’s land. NorCal, happy for the excuse to give the companies their own neoliberal playground, turned a blind eye to the whole affair. Cyberlibertarians flocked to the city for its lax laws on body-modding, drugs, guns, gambling and prostitution. Companies flocked to the city for tax purposes.
In a matter of years, undeveloped coastline became choked with skyscrapers. Illegal squatter communities formed in the barren, native highlands, away from the pressing control of the city. However, Corporate forces still regularly arrive to burn down encampments, and wasteland-dwelling rebels ride through city streets on jeeps or bikes. The city itself is a patchwork of high-rise complexes and immigrant communities, carved into expansive "corporate parks" created by rival factions. Heavyweights like Shuzuoka, Bryer-Stanley, and Nwajiuba can all be found there.
The so called “Red Zone” was a pleasure district, located in the heart of Crescent City’s corporate wonderland. It had sprung up in the late 2050’s, a new development that promised a world of pleasure, hedonism, and stress relief. New buildings, a monorail link to the Metro, it had been the hot, new development. It was the go-to place in town to get fucked up, and get fucked. Bars, body-modding clinics, tattoo parlours, strip clubs, and brothels were the norm, and it had a reputation for the particularly wacky and weird. It was also where I lived and worked.
The establishment I was working in was called Bloom, owned by the elegant and elusive Lady Sapphire, a former sex worker herself, who’s hard work had earned her an empire of debauchery. And she loved it that way. Her marketing has lots of Georgia-O'Keefe-style suggestive flowers, but in neon. Lady Sapphire’s Bloom was one multi-story building. Strip club on the ground floor and basement, the bar, club and discotheque above that, photoshoot and private rooms upstairs, and actual living quarters on the top floor. Bloom is a jack-of-all-trades: stripclub, porn studio, a tight-knit community for the women who work inside it. Everyone gets a vote and everyone decides on pay... but everyone knows Lady Sapphire is really the one in charge.
I worked there as a security guard, meaning I was always on the front line of wacky and weird. Out of everyone in the city, why did Bloom hire me as security? To quote Lady Sapphire: “One, you can take a punch. Two, you're not an asshole. Three... Indy thought you were cute."
I’d gotten the job when I’d gone to the Bloom with a friend after losing a bet. Supposedly it was a "consolation prize." Really, it was just an excuse for him to see some tits. One of the other patrons had gotten rough with one of the working girls, Indy. I didn't even have to think about it: I stood up to him, and when it escalated, I beat the ever-loving crap out of him. Lady Sapphire likes to say I "saved the guards some ammo" that day, and she wasn't kidding: when I had looked up, a guard already had a loaded shotgun in hand. Some of the girls patched me up and just like that, I was hired by Bloom as a bouncer...and more, if I was up for it.
—————————
The Metro ride is packed today: office drones in their starched collars and pants, studiously avoiding eye contact with anyone. Early birds in astonishingly spiky and skimpy party-wear.
The monorail rumbles four stories off the ground. A few tourists gawk at the windows, staring down at the huge, flashing billboards that run down East Avenue. It was intentional, Indy ahd explained one night, excitedly recounting a holovideo she watched on the city's urban planning. The rail lines got laid down first, so the corps could have stuck it right in the middle of the street if they wanted. But they wanted a monorail, just for people to gawk at the view. Increase the ad-value.
I stop at three or four different stations along the way. More partygoers. A homeless man with a long, empty face, trying to shush the yapping Chihuahua in his arms. One of the office drones thinks she's being real stealthy as she gives her coworker an over-the-pants handjob.
I reach my stop and exit into the Red Zone. Partygoers flood out onto the streets. Several of them stop to listen to a Mariachi band playing. The lead singer clearly has some kind of augmentation: he sounds like he's singing three or four notes at the same time, belting out a Spanish ballad.
Bloom is around the corner--four stories tall, plus a basement, with an animation of a huge neon flower opening and closing luxuriously. The smell of spices drifts to me from the kebab stand across the street. I’ve got two hours before peak time, when I’ll properly need to be on the clubfloor. Been working here two or three months, and I know the gig pretty well by now.
The monorail journey seemed to always be different, and yet always the same. Something was always going on, it was never the same faces, but it had become so routine that it all felt like an extension of the same ride. I rubbed my hands as I left the station, my hot breath fogging in the air. How the fuck did these people not freeze to death? Working in this district, I saw more tits, cocks and pussies in a half hour commute that any normal person would see in their life. But then, that’s the nature of the district that I found myself in. This was a place of pleasure; degeneracy, debauchery, and good old fashioned hedonism to its core.
I push past the queue of early birds, knocking at the door and getting greeted in by the previous shift, my thick, knee-length Black coat flowing behind me as I walked. I adjust my armour weave under my shirt, and check the handgun strapped to my thigh. If some fucker tried me, they’d better go for the head. It was warm inside, gentle synthy music drifting in the entrance hall, soft neon lights around. All flowers opening their petals in an almost far-too-obvious suggestive way. I catch a couple of the girls as I head to the lower security office to clock in. They smile flirtatiously, exactly as they always did. I couldn’t fault them or be mad. It WAS their job after all.
Inside the office was Garrett. The oldest, meanest, toughest son of a bitch the district had. You fucked around with Garrett, and you found the fuck out. Normally in an irreversible kind of way. I mean, MAYBE if you could afford cyberware, maybe it would fix it.
Maybe.
“Elias.” He grunts simply. I nod. “Garrett.” I swear the only time I heard this guy say more than one word was when he talked to Lady Sapphire. Then it would be like 5 words. At maximum. I clock in and turn to him. “Am I on cams, doors, or patrol tonight?” I ask. “Patrol.” He says again. I purse my lips. Happy fella, weren’t we?
“Alright. You probably know already but I think the vending machine guy is due tonight. And have you seen Indy? She had a surprise for me, she says.” He raised an eyebrow. “Nope.” He replied. I pat his shoulder and wink. “Helpful as always buddy. See you on the floor.” He slaps my hand away, and I chuckle as I walk out.
Patrol. Right. I start climbing to the second floor. I hear the screams of delight as the doors open downstairs and I roll my eyes. My voice is deep under my breath.
“Let the fun begin.”
———————————————
Well, that might be the longest stream of semi-coherent consciousness I’ve managed to get into one post. If you’ve made it this far, well done for getting through it. Hopefully you’re the kind of person I’m looking for, and hopefully the type to get the vibes and themes for what I want to play. Those who get it, get it!
Theme-wise, this is my rendition of the now classic cyberpunk genre. Corporate and liberal wonderland, gritty, drugs, body mods, alcohol, and sex galore. Everything turned up to 11, and maybe some more after that.
As eluded to in the wall of text above (sorry, I get carried away sometimes), I’m playing Elias. Elias is a young-ish guy in his 20’s, hired on the spot by one of the establishments in the pleasure district after an “incident” while he was visiting. He caught the attention of the owner, Lady Sapphire, the guards, and Indy, the girl working there that he aided.
For appearance, he’s a big guy. Standing at 6’3 with a muscular and athletic body, he is definitely a presence in person. He has jet black hair and facial hair, both kept short. Blue eyes, a wonder to look into (or so he claims he’s told). Most often wearing a long black coat and matching trousers and boots, with armour-weave underneath. In short, he looks like a more handsome version of the typical futuristic security guard. He talks shit, takes shit, and gives shit.
And what about you? Well, I’m open to you playing just about anyone that you wish! Will you play as one of Bloom's patrons, a woman with cash to burn, neon hair, and a will to let yourself free? Are you a regular, or here for the first time and guided by reputation? Will you play one of the girl's working there, a woman under my protection? Are you new or established? Have we met, spoken, even hooked up already? Do you like me or not? You could be Indy, the girl I saved the day I was hired. How has our relationship changed? Do you feel like you owe me, or that I owe you? Are you even still working there? Or maybe you want to step into the shoes of Lady Sapphire, the gorgeous empress at the top of it all. Do you want to thank me for a job well done? Offer me promotion as a personal guard? Or do you just like to fuck staff members now and then? I will leave how you look and what your personality is open to interpretation, as I feel it will be best for you to really make the character your own!
Kink-wise, I am quite open. Anything not explicitly listed in my limits below should be able to be worked in, provided you ask me about it. That being said, here are some of my favourites: Domination, cheating, seduction/dirty talk, sexy outfits/lingerie, rough sex, risky sex, creampies, giving and receiving oral, being deepthroated, face fucking, face sitting, making out, spit, impact play, anal, light restraints, and threesomes (FFM).
My limits are as follows: underage, being pegged, anything bathroom related, beast, vore, gore, and lack of detail.
Now, down the more boring admin stuff. This post took quite a lot of effort to write, and so I would really appreciate a creative and detailed response from you, if you are interested. I'm not asking for you to write a novella for a response, or even to match me, but one paragraph just saying you like the idea or "I want to play" just won't cut it for me, I'm afraid. Don't rush a response to grab my attention, as long as this is up, I'm still looking for someone to play with. You're far more likely to catch my attention if you really show me that you're interested! I typically write between 2 and 5 paragraphs in normal messages, and at the very least aim to get at least one response out per day, but I am normally better than that. I am also located in GMT timezone, and while I am open to talking to people from any timezone, please understand that I may not always be around. I try to communicate when I won't be around for a little while. I adore creativity and detail, even if it's weird or out there. In other words, go for it and ask me!
I am looking to roleplay ONLY on REDDIT. Yes, this is a dealbreaker. PMs (Orange Envelopes) are preferred, but chat will work if it's detailed enough. If you've made it this far, 1.) you're VERY appreciated, and 2.) please include your favourite flower in the title of you message so I at least know you reached the bottom. I am really looking forward to writing something with you here!
All the best, and I hope to see you soon!

I had actually first decided to use the term 'Vis' to refer to the military (e.g. Space Vis), before changing it, briefly. I finally inserted the English (via French) term, 'military', and also ran with navy and army, with the modifier of Aionic (i.e. relating to or characteristic of Aion or its inhabitants). It's my understanding that 'vis' is from Roman mythos and is a female demi-god (though I may have confused my metaphors here). Either way, I believe it means 'physical strength'.
Vision In the first place, this made some sense, given that I wanted strong Roman/Latin and Greek roots. However, in keeping with my belief in a singular vision for any project, I removed that as to stick closely to all things Babylonian and Akkadian. (I didn't want to do this to begin with, as I didn't want a 1:1 mapping, but when I shifted Aion from our real universe to a wholly fictional one, this became anon-issue.)
This is what I mean by vision. It's the author's vision for the project, where all elements must be aiming in the same direction, to the same point, theme, and purpose (though there can, of course, be different cultures, genres, styles, and so on, you should aim for harmony and unity between them).
Inspirations
As I just alluded to (and spoke about in another post, here), the core inspirations are from the Near East (namely, the Neo-Babylonian Empire). Beyond this, the sources and inspirations for A I O N are many and varied. I can mention some direct inspirations, both hard (imitation) and soft (intimation), for (a) the game; (b) the story; and (c) the overall setting. Here is the primary list:

• Necromunda (Games Workshop; general)
• Warhammer 40,000 (Games Workshop; namely, the Tau, 'Nids, and Imperial Guard)
• Blood Bowl (Games Workshop; namely, in relation to the nested game of War Arena, though some elements are used within the game of Aion)
• Star Wars IV-VI (1977-1983)
• The Fifth Element (1997)
• World War Z (2013) (namely, in terms of semi-realistic/serious zombie fiction)
• The Walking Dead (namely, the first few seasons -- in terms of semi-realistic/serious zombie fiction)
• Resident Evil (namely, the monsters and certain mechanics from Resident Evil 4 (2005); and the movies in general)
• Germanic folklore and language
• Babylon and Akkad (history and mythos)
• WWII (general)
• U.S. military (general)
• British military (general)
• German military (general)
• Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, and Napoleon (general)
• Carl Jung (general)
• Alchemy (general)
• Judge Dredd (general)
• Alien (film franchise)
• Alien: Another Glorious Day in the Corps (2020) (board/miniature game)

Styles
Now, onto the artistic styles, sub-genres, and related realms, as it were. Again: many and varied, but fairly in keeping with the overall vision, theme, and bedrock (i.e. a modern Babylonian construct mixed with generic space opera). Of course, much of this is flexible, as the player decides the exact direction and feel and style of the game, primarily given by the miniatures, coupled with the gaming area and overall theme/setting. But, here is the primary list, for me, at least:

• Necromunda (Games Workshop; general)
• Warhammer 40,000 (Games Workshop; namely, the Tau)
• Star Wars (general)
• The Rocketeer (1991)
• Batman Returns (1992)
• Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995)
• Judge Dredd (1995)
• The Fifth Element (1997)
• Iron Man (2008) (namely, the steelpunk elements)
• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) (namely, the dieselpunk elements)
• Dieselpunk (general)
• Stripped Classicism (architectural style)
• Art Deco (style/movement; namely, of New York)

A Note on the Above The game itself has many secondary sources for game rules and such (I shall talk about this at a later date).
The primary visions and focus for Aion is one of seriousness and darkness; whereas, for War Arena, it's to be more funny/satirical and bright. As such, you can clearly see where the sources are going. But, again: this can be modelled in either direction. As a result, I coined the term 'dark space opera' to generally describe the type of space opera we're dealing with when it comes to Aion in general (notably, the game setting). This has more of a dramatic and tragic feeling to it, due to its core story and events. Of course, it's technically a military sci-fi, which some reject as being space opera at all. I use the term 'space opera' more for a low-resolution image view (i.e. quick understanding), though it does apply, for the most part.
The heavy focus on Batman is not only a connection to the darker side, with the Dark Deco style and Burton's style for 1992, but also because I was taking a more Batman comic view of Aion when I was working on a comic version. Some of this remained -- mostly with the style.
For those interested, my exact Balzarian style is an admixture of (a) Art Deco; (b) dieselpunk; (c) steelpunk; (d) Stripped Classicism; and (e) general sci-fi/fantasy motifs and symbols.
A simple example of moving in the right direction would be Star Wars (1-6), along with Blade Runner (1982), and really any example of Near Eastern dictatorship (such as X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)). In particular, I'm fond of the ziggurat, and plan on using it heavily within Aion.
Further, all things polygonic are welcome. Very squared and triangular. A good source would be Alan Lee's Dwarven style for The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Hobbit (2014-2016). Beyond that, connections can be drawn to any major city-driven culture, such as the Romans and Americans (U.S.), along with sci-fi in general (i.e. futuristic humanity). (Of course, there are clear examples of curved shapes and elements, but most of Aion is polygonic.)
In the first place, the reason we have such a -punk connection to the style is because, within my setting, a giant God-like man falls to Earth and unites America through his arcology network, which is within a kind of futuristic dieselpunk style. This ultimately defined Aion itself some time later (through its founder, High King Balthazar I). By the time of High King Balthazar II, this was their entire culture and history. Naturally, the reason I did this was because I, as the author, wanted it so (I shall speak to this at a later date). However, Aion does have some elements of generic sci-fi -- but, the way I held us firmly within this older framework is by gifting us an old ship as the primary mode for the game (Gridlock). This is a dieselpunk-like ship, and very old. This grounds us nicely in this way, whilst some elements of Aion are hyper-advanced and different in style. Most notable would be the vast arcologies and space stations, that are more generic 'utopian' structures (i.e. harmonised and white, like typical sci-fi often shows).
For those interested in said older style (either for your own imagination, or for terrain-building and miniature design, etc.), this would be many-fold, and in various ways, depending on the style, form, function, type, and time period. See below.

• Traditional and neo-constructed (that is, in High King Balthazar's mind, before Aion ever becomes a space-faring empire) Babylonian, Persian, and Iranian architecture; namely, that of Babylonia and the Neo-Sumerian Empire, with a focus on the ziggurat
• Art Deco (art and architectural style; namely, that of New York City)
• Stripped Classicism (architectural style; Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, U.S., Canada)
• Fascpunk proper (my term for the collective style of Batman Returns (1992) -- which is a complex admixture of many styles and ideas)
• Dark Deco (Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995))
• Dieselpunk and steelpunk (retrofuturistic sub-genres and art styles; namely, Nazi-centric depictions post-1940, such as via the Foundation series, The Man in the High Castle, Iron Man, Captain America, and Hellboy)

Of course, it's not that simple, but it gives you a general sense of the futuristic, polygonic, functional, stripped system and style of Aion, as a space-faring military empire, firmly grounded in both Babylonian and Akkadian values and motifs.
Naturally, this style, which I shall simply term Aionpunk is artistically driven by Symbolism, Futurism, Gothic, Cubism, and Babylonian, and more minor movements and styles, across the arts, music, and literature.
But, again: just think of the Empire from Star Wars, and you're 60% of the way there, generally speaking.
Best would be to fully nest this within the overall Mesopotamian style and culture, in which case, I can coin the term Fasctamiapunk (though, it's a bit of a mouthful). In-universe, I simply use the term Balzarian (that is, of the people themselves -- with the clear root being Balthazar), Balthazarian (of High King Balthazar I or II), or Aionic (of Aion as such).
In terms of terrain-setting, you get 60% of the way there via Games Workshop's Necromunda (or otherwise generic cyberpunk terrain you can buy). In reality, the player will only require (a) playing boards; and (b) miniatures, etc. But, this is just extra info, from a narrative standpoint: and it helps to have it in your mind, to fill out the entire setting -- even if you cannot physically represent it for the game.
Of course, I shall better inform you of the key points when I am close to actually publishing the Rulebook! :)

This is the premise for my campaign that I'm working on, I've mapped out the key bits of it and just need to session 0 with my players for more hooks and personal sidequests. The campaign uses some homebrewed monsters, one of which is the Blight (a druidic lich) that was featured on the youtube channel pointy hat.
The northern strip of the transguild promenade that borders the red wastes and selesnyan gardens of precinct three is an important shipping rout. The rout transports goods and people back and forth from the more rural parts of Ravnica into the city proper (the 10th district.) During an unusually dry Cizarm, multiple guilds have began to report that their respective shipping parties have gone missing upon entering a specific stretch of the promenade. Boros wojeks were sent to investigate, however, they too never came back. The party is a collection of different guild representatives that have been sent to collaboratively investigate the issue, acting as temporarily deputized wojeks in exchange for compensation (125 zinos each).
The walk along the promenade from sunhome is long. The party finds clues regarding the missing people and valuables, meets a humorous pair of goat herds, and encounters a group of Gruul and Selesnya in conflict. The Selesnya claim the Gruul are to blame for the civil unrest that has occurred in the area as of late, accusing them of raiding the missing shipments. The Gruul, insulted, are eager to fight as well. RP can result in teaming up with one group to fight the other, fighting both, or no fighting at all. Afterward, when the sun has set, the party rests at the near by waypoint market. Once rested, the party steaks out the local stretch of promenade to discover a mysterious figure skulking alone. When confronted, they discover it to be an Ettercap. The thing vomits a stream of spiders and webbing, then fleas. A Spector of one of the missing wojeks then guides the party to a crevasse beneath the promenade that connects to a disused chunk of Old Ravi. The first dungeon is a simple cave with monsters weak to fire, ending with the Ettercap and some basic spider minions. The end has loot and hostages incased in webbing that are related to each party member's guild.
When returning to Sunhome for their reward the party is only given a fraction of what was promised (85 zinos each). The Boros officer informs them that there are still reports of missing shipments in the area and they will not be compensated in full until the matter is settled. The party must return to the waypoint market to gather clues from the merchants and guilds of the area to discover what is really happening along the transguild promenade.

The Shattered Mirror was exactly what Justin expected it to be. The shelves were cluttered, a disorganized mess of books, baubles and crystals meant to pull in the superstitious and otherwise gullible. It practically begged him not to be taken seriously, but Lee swore by it and so did her new medium friend, so it was worth a look.
The problem was, Justin didn’t know what he was looking for.
Their little stakeout of the Pearl District was a bit of a disaster. Allen finally came face to face with the Black Widow, and now Milo’s phone was going straight to voicemail. Lee and Allen were out looking for him at the waterfront, near the end of the streetcar line, and in the meantime, Justin had no idea how to be of use.
He perused the merchandise, hoping that something would jump out at him as capital i Important, but it felt less like browsing a magic shop and more like passing through someone’s mediocre garage sale.
“Cal I help you?” a woman called from the counter at the far end of the store. Her hair was a storm of curled dark grays, her narrow, calculating eyes almost lost amongst the strands. She looked him up and down, getting the measure of him. “Looking for something specific?”
Justin sighed. “Not really,” he admitted, approaching the counter. “My friend Lee was here recently, bought some holy water? I was hoping to find something else to help us out.”
“Oh, Ethan’s friend,” she said, her smile shifting from professional to honest. “Always nice to meet a friend of a friend.” She offered her hand. “I’m Joanne.”
“Justin,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”
She crossed her arms. “Still having that vampire problem?”
He smiled awkwardly, taken aback by how casually she brought it up. Guess this is the world I live in, now, he realized. Lee told me that Ethan believed her right off the bat. That’s probably the standard in these circles. “Well that’s the thing- I feel like we’re still fighting with our eyes closed, here. We’re all new to…” he trailed off, gesturing behind him, to the store full of curios.
“Could always talk to an expert,” the woman suggested. She held a finger up, then disappeared behind her counter for a moment. “Here we go,” she exhaled, standing back up with a rolodex of business cards. She took a close look at one of the cards, nodded to herself, then wrote the information down on a slip of paper. “He lives up in Willamette Heights. Don’t ring the doorbell, and don’t knock hard. He won’t ask you to take off your shoes, but do it anyway. He should be able to get you started.”
Justin took the paper. “Thank you,” he mumbled, surprised by her willingness to help. He hadn’t had much experience dealing with people in the city, but the constant of everyone he’d run into was that they were often polite, but rarely so kind. “So who is this guy? Is he like an arms dealer or something?”
Joanne shook her head. “He’s a historian. His family goes back to before the founding of Portland, back when the city was a coin toss away from being called Boston. He can tell you anything about the city, and if you tell him I sent you, he can even tell you the truth. Just be respectful, alright?”
“I will,” he promised, pocketing the paper. “Hey, I gotta ask: you don’t owe me anything and we’re strangers, so why are you helping me?”
She laughed softly, then sighed. “You’re in the real world now, kid. There’s no guidebook to help you survive it. That feeling of fighting with your eyes closed? You don’t undo that, you just get used to it. May as well help whoever you can when you bump into them, and hope they’ll do the same for you.”
* * *
“We’re here,” the driver said, stopping just before the driveway.
“Thanks,” Justin replied, opening the door and stepping out of the vehicle.
“Remember to rate five stars!” the driver yelled before making a U-turn and heading back down towards the city.
Willamette Heights was a beautiful neighborhood. The trees were so dense that it felt like civilization stopped at the backyards of the two and three-story houses the lined the streets. These weren’t paint-by-numbers, mass manufactured McMansions; they each had their own style, their own character. It was a quiet place, hidden in the shadow of the city. A perfect place to raise a family, and a perfect place to spend the twilight of one’s life.
From the sidewalk, the house seemed quite pleasant at first- the winding stone walkway up towards the front door, the garage built into the hill like a Hobbit hole, the trees looming over the front lawn in an inviting, “take a load off and enjoy the shade” kind of way- but that all stopped at the actual front of the house. All of the curtains were drawn, and all of the windows were barred. “What is this, the fucking Elm Street house?” Justin asked, feeling as though he were walking down the plank as he approached the bright red front door.
He stopped himself from ringing the doorbell, lightly knocking on the door as instructed. Before he had time to consider whether to knock again, the door swung open.
The historian was an imposing figure, nearly as tall as the doorframe. The hair atop his head had long ago receded, but his lengthy beard was nearly long enough to tuck into the belt of his bathrobe. He seemed thin, impossibly thin, but not brittle.
“Mr. Roland? Joanne sent me.”
“Of course she did.” He stepped aside, but did not invite Justin in. He simply waited.
“Yeah, I don’t bite,” Justin joked, stepping inside. He removed his shoes and left that at the door.
The house was as dusty as The Shattered Mirror, but not quite so cluttered. The walls of the entryway were bare, save for crosses secured above and to the sides of each doorway. “Follow me,” the historian instructed, stepping through an open pair of double doors down the hall.
Justin followed, and found himself in an incredible personal library. There were several rows of bookshelves between the doorway and the far end of the room, where the historian stepped behind a large walnut desk. The walls were lined with shelves, and the shelves were filled to bursting with books. As Justin approached the desk, he read a few of the labels at the ends of the rows. “Demonology, Manifestations, The Vetus… something tells me you don’t have a horror section, here.”
“Everything is horror if you allow yourself to be afraid,” the historian said, taking his seat. “You’re not here for that.”
“I’ve already been afraid,” Justin admitted. He took the single seat in front of the desk, wondering why there weren’t two. “I’ll be the first to admit, however, that I don’t know why I’m here.”
The historian opened one of the desk drawers and retrieved a small rectangular box. He opened it, placing it before him, and looked intently at it. Justin leaned forward, and saw that it was a small compass. The box was a dark brown wood, nearly black, and the needle was solid white. The needle was spinning steadily counter-clockwise, but as the historian glared at it, it suddenly stopped, pointing directly at Justin. That isn’t north, he noted, wondering what else it could mean.
“I know why you’re here,” the historian said, closing the box and returning it to the desk. “You need help, and there’s only one kind that I can provide. What do you need to know?” He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together.
Justin squirmed in his seat. “There’s a vampire in Portland. We’re trying to kill her.”
The historian frowned. “The girl? She’s only active during snowstorms, and the weather’s clearing up.”
“No, this is a woman,” Justin corrected. “She hunts men every three weeks like clockwork- always lonely, single guys who think they’re getting lucky. She was gone for a while, but we know she’s been active on and off for a few years, now.”
One of the historian’s eyebrows slowly began to rise at the description. “She wears disguises, yes?” He opened another drawer and began rummaging through it.
“Yeah, actually. We’re calling her the Black Widow, but that’s just a nickname. We don’t know her real name.”
“I might,” the historian replied, retrieving a leather-bound book from the drawer. He pawed through it for a moment before stopping on a page near the end of the book. “Here,” he said, turning the book over and tapping over one of the pages.
Justin tried to read the page, but had trouble at first. It was written by hand, and it had been a while since he’d last read cursive handwriting. It was a journal. The entry was from September 22nd, 1892:
The children whisper of her again, of the woman in white. They say that she wanders the sunset woods under moonlight. They say she dances across the waters of the Willamette, but not on the suspension bridge. They say that one cannot see her with the naked eye, that she only appears in the reflections of the water itself. They say her face changes, but her broken heart remains still. They say she cries out for lost love and spilled blood.
A man was found in the sunset woods on the west side of the Willamette, drained of his life’s blood without a drop on his person. He was last seen with a woman no one recognized. This has happened before, and if Satan has his way, it will happen again.
The men tell me it was a witch. The women believe it was a ghost. I know it is a demon, but not what it wants.
I wonder if it is her- the bride!- but she is only a rumor, a story we know not to tell our children as we were told, lest they inherit our nightmares and the figures we see in the shadows. Still… they do not know the story, but they say she is dressed in white.
I only know two things to be true. There is a God watching us, and he suffers no fools. We will barricade the doors and not answer when she comes calling. We will not stray.
“The woman in white?” Justin asked, looking up from the journal.
The historian nodded. “The Bride, yes. Many believed that she was a phantom, a poltergeist of a woman whose husband was taken from her before they could say their vows. However, there is the occasional mention throughout that time of men found dead, drained of their blood, leading to some- myself included- speculating that there could be a vampire involved in this tragedy.”
“So it’s a vampire that people think is a ghost?” Justin scoffed. “What, do they think ghosts bite people?”
“Yes,” the historian replied, nodding thoughtfully. After a moment, he let a soft chuckle escape him, then frowned. “Well, poltergeists actually might- if they made a habit of biting in life, that is. Either way, the vampire responsible for killing these men over a century ago may be your Black Widow.”
Justin rubbed his eyes. “So how does knowing that help us? What do we do?”
“What you do,” the historian corrected, “is look for the Bride.”
“Listen, we need a way to track her down and kill her. Learning when and why she was turned into a vampire doesn’t help us.”
The historian nodded again. “You’re right. However, finding the Bride will help you.”
“We know where she is. She lives in the Pearl District.” Justin poked at the journal. “This is fun history and all, but it doesn’t help us kill her.”
Closing the book and returning it to its drawer, the historian steepled his fingers together again and leaned back. “Why are you pursuing the Black Widow?”
“She’s a killer, and no one else knows she exists.” Justin could feel his cheeks reddening.
The historian smiled knowingly. “You know why she should die. Why does it have to be you, specifically?”
Justin felt a cold chill wash over him. This guy’s gotta be a mind reader or something. “My friend went missing a few years ago,” he admitted. “He doesn’t really fit her pattern, but he disappeared without a trace and she was active at the time. It’s the only lead on him that I’ve got. I know it’s a long shot, but I need to know if she killed him.”
“I understand,” the historian said, stroking his beard in contemplation. He seemed to be considering something, but Justin didn’t know what. “If this Black Widow were to learn your personal motivations, do you think she could find a way to leverage it against you?”
“Sure,” Justin agreed.
“The Bride is somehow connected to the Black Widow,” the historian replied. “To know what happened to her is to know who you’re facing. This could be your leverage. This could be your weapon.”
“So who do we think she is?” Justin asked, leaning forward.
The historian smiled. “I don’t know her name, but I know where she’s been spotted.” He rummaged through another drawer briefly before retrieving a paper, unfolding it to reveal a worn map of the state. He circled a spot near the Willamette, south of Portland. “There’s a manor in West Linn, not far from the Arch Bridge. Some say it’s haunted. I’m inclined to agree. Go there. Seek her out. Learn her story.”
Justin took the map, folding it back up. “Thank you, Mr. Roland,” he said. “When this is all over, maybe I’ll have a story worth telling you.”
The historian’s smile left him. “Oh, I know how this story ends, and it’s not one I’ll wish to hear again. Good luck, Justin.”

Date: 06/05/2023
Reading time: 6 minutes, 1249 words

Azerbaijan violates Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire, small arms fire reported in two directions

Azerbaijani military has violated the Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire with small arms fire, the defense ministry says. Small arms fire broke the ceasefire in the central and north-eastern directions of the line of contact.

Armenpress, Azerbaijani forces violate ceasefire – Artsakh MoD, Artsakh reports another ceasefire violation by Azerbaijan in the eastern and southeastern directions

Woman accused of attempting to kidnap Armenian PM’s son to be detained for 1.5 months

Gayane Hakobyan remanded into custody for 1,5 months. Ashot Pashinyan says woman tried to forcefully take him to military cemetery on May 18.

ArmRadio

Armenia actively works around visa liberalization with EU – foreign minister

The visa liberalization issue is being actively discussed with the European Union, Foreign Minister Ararat Miroyan said on Monday. The issue is an item on the agenda of Armenia and EU members and Armenia is receiving support in almost all cases.

Armenpress

No final agreement on specific map for delimitation, says FM

There is no final agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on which specific map will be used for border delimitation. Ararat Mirzoyan said that the 1975 map would be an acceptable solution for Armenia. He added that as far as he knows the Azerbaijani President didn't object to the map during the latest summit.

Armenpress, Azerbaijan needs to publicly confirm recognition of Armenia's 29,800 km2 territorial integrity - FM, Possible peace treaty won’t mention size of territories of Armenia and Azerbaijan - FM

Armenia works intensively with various countries to buy armaments – official

Armenia is in “intensive discussions” with many countries regarding the acquisition of new armaments. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan said Armenia is taking into account the fact that Russia’s capacity is unable to export weapons now given its war with Ukraine.

Armenpress

2 new diplomatic representations opened in Armenia in 2022

Two new representations were established in Armenia in 2022, the foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan told lawmakers during committee debates of the 2022 budget. Overall, Armenia has diplomatic representations in 90 countries, and has diplomatic relations with 178 states. In 2022 Armenia accredited four new non-resident ambassadors to Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and North Macedonia.

Armenpress

Armenia to exercise full border control on its side in case of unblocking, says Secretary of Security Council

Armenian authorities will be in charge of border control on their territory in case of unblocking. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said this has become clear for all partners involved in the regional connections’ unblocking process. Armenia’s position in this issue is very clear, he said in an interview with Public Television.

Armenpress

Customs duties from EEU budget drop, says Armenian finance minister

In 2022 Armenia received 28 billion dram less from the Eurasian Economic Union’s single customs budget compared to 2021, finance minister Vahe Hovhannisyan said. In 2021 that amount stood at 84 billion 839 million drams.

Armenpress

Armenia considers offers from several countries on building new nuclear power plant

The Armenian Government has set up a commission on nuclear energy which studies the global market to find the most appropriate offers. Director of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant Movses Vardanyan said that Armenia should begin considering the construction of a new power plant today.

Armenpress, New nuclear reactor for Metsamor to take 10-12 years and cost $3-5 billion, says expert

Toivo Klaar to visit Armenia

Toivo Klaar, the Special Representative of the European Union for the South Caucasus, is coming to Armenia. "I am leaving for Yerevan to monitor the fulfillment of EU obligations at a high level"

Armenpress

The session of the Committee of Secretaries of the CSTO Security Councils will be held in Minsk

Committee of Secretaries of the Security Councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization will discuss challenges and threats in its zone of responsibility at the meeting to be held on June 8 in Minsk. Press secretary of CSTO Vladimir Zaynetdinov said the meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Alexander Volfovich.

Armenpress

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan says maintains close contact with ex-FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan says he maintains close contact with ex-foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. Member of Parliament Garnik Danielyan asked him whether or not he sought advice from his predecessors over the negotiations process with Azerbaijan.

Armenpress

Iranian national sentenced to 9 years imprisonment for drug trafficking in Armenia

Iranian national sentenced to 9 years imprisonment for being accessory to smuggling of 350kg of heroin. Iranian national was found guilty on all charges and handed over a 9-year sentence. Customs officials discovered heroin in February 2021 during customs control.

Armenpress

Washington to host another round of Armenia-Azerbaijan foreign ministerial talks

Armenia and Azerbaijan will continue negotiations on establishing relations and peace treaty. The next round of foreign ministerial talks is planned to take place in Washington, D.C. The talks will start on June 12.

Armenpress, Peace deal with Azerbaijan possible by year end, says Armenian top security official, Armenia, EU continue dialogue on visa liberalization, Foreign Minister says

Government of Armenia must try to ensure mechanism and platform for talks between Stepanakert and Baku, says FM

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan says there are numerous unresolved issues regarding the security and rights of the people of Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh. He said the authorities of Armenia must try to ensure the start of the dialogue, the mechanism and platform.

Armenpress

Nominations close for the 2024 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity

The 2024 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity will be awarded on behalf of survivors of Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors. The nomination period opened on June 1, 2022, with the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative encouraging people all around the world to put forward modern-day heroes. In total, 730 submissions for 676 unique candidates have been received for the Prize.

ArmRadio

Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs to hold new round of talks in Washington

Foreign Ministers Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov will hold another round of talks in Washington. New round of negotiations on peace treaty and establishment of diplomatic relation will start on June 12. The Foreign Ministers of the two countries last met in Moscow on May 19.

ArmRadio

FLYONE ARMENIA achieves 400,000 passenger count in five months of 2023

FLYONE ARMENIA transported 400,000 passengers in the five months of 2023, the airline’s Chairman of the Board Aram Ananyan said. The airline is approaching the threshold of having a passenger count of 1,000,000 per year.

Armenpress, FLYONE ARMENIA to name aircraft in honor of composer Aram Khachatryan

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NOTE: I'm a junior going into senior year with no idea what to expect - my knowledge on colleges come from random senior friends and google searches with some-what help on my college counseling service at school.Sorry in advance for poor spelling, its 12 AM
Demographics: Asian (0 hooks, first gen immigrant? does that help?), Male, Upper class
Intended Major(s): either bio/chem/biochem aimed at dental or pol sci/history/ethics
SAT: 1470/1600 (SAT Superscored, just took the June one though)
No ACT
WGPA: 3.77/4.1~
(our GPA is really wack, our AP and honors are weighted the same at 4.3 if you get an A, and an A+ is the same as an A)it said on a calculator if i recalculate it its something around a 4.0 or 4.1 gpa/5.0 Weighted?
Coursework:
AP Chem (not yet out), APUSH (not yet out), AP Comp Sci A (not submitting cos too low lol), AP Calc BC (not yet out), AP Gov (not taken), AP Lang (not taken), AP Bio (not taken), AP Stats (not taken)
Honors: Spanish II and III, Algebra and precalc BC, Chem, random horror english movie class they gave for a semester lol
Awards:
(I was a rly big speech and debater)Qualified to the UKTOC (University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions). NCFL (National Catholic Forensics League), NIETOC (National Individual Event TOC), and OSDA (Ohio Speech and Debate Association) State tournament in the 2022 - 2023 season - bunch of big naitonal tournamentsFinalist in the 2022 UK National Opener, 2022 North Coast NSDA Qualifier, 2021 North Coast NSDA Qualifier, 2022 OSDA State qualifier, 2022 Sharen B. Althoff Rotary Tournament, 2022 Fred Snook Memorial Tournament, Vermillion tournament in International Extemporaneous Speaking - mostly local Ohio (yes im from ohio) circuit tournaments, but the national opener is a big national tournament that I tryharded!!!Semifinalist in the 2022 New York City Invitational Debate and Speech Tournament and 2022 TOC Digital Speech and Debate Series 2 for Extemp, 2022 Barkley Forum for High School for Impromptu (apprently this last one is rly big)Somehow the Tournament Champion of the Ohio Digitial States Tournament for the High School Open Division in International Extemporaneous Speaking in 2021.Special Distinction recognition from the NSDA (559 points as of Junior year)
Spanish awards:Placed in the 95th percentile and above in the nation on National Spanish Exam in Levels 1 and 2 from 2019 and 2020. Obtained silver award on National Spanish Exam in Level 3 in 2021.
I also have a CPR award not sure if this counts lmk
Extracurriculars: (This is where I was told I did well)
CLUBS:History Club (founder (old one died, created new one, president x4 years)- made my own history club magazine that has like 8 ish editions published? (only student-led and student-run on at the school), including a 200+ page magazine on the Russo-Ukrainian war 2022 and a guide on German WWII tanks thats like 200+ pages too- made insta page for daily updates (ik cringe lol)- website :p- 10,000 dollars raised for Ukraine!!!- 200 members
Law Club (VP in 2022-2023, president next year)- created instagram (this year ik a bit late) to inform the public- creating a blog and podcastbasically the club died this year and now that im pres im rly running it
Asian Diversity Group (co-leader 2022-2024)- planned out festivals, volunteered as MC for the Lunar New Year festival in 2022- talked with students, faculty, chair of english to change the underclassmen required humanities class to re-include Asian literature after (for unknown reasons) it was taken out- talked abt stuff that related to issues for the Asian American community in the US, including racism due to COVID, model minority myth (basically asians r rly smart 100% of the time etc), oppression of LGBTQ+ community, etc- celebrated AAPI heritage month by making cool posters with the community!
Fishing Club (Captain (sorta-like co-pres), head presenter)_ biggest club at our school (literally 300 students- make IG posts informing students abt fishing opportunities, where to catch fish, and showcasing some of the big catches- upkeep the fishing shed (we have a rly small one lol)- accompany students to pond
Fundraising Club basically supported clubs with fundraising, do it all for them - fundraised at my school in total 17500~USD
Speech and debate- I do IX and congress, look above for awards lol- mentor incoming novices- unofficial photographer (tried to make this official lol)no leadership positions L
Sustainability Council (member)- planned with the council the school's first Earth Week since COVID- discussed plans on how to improve sustainability such as turning lights off after dark (we for some reason don't really do this?!?)Really all the work will happen in Senior year
Tech intern!!!! (just a member lol)- Fix many lenovo models (light repairs)- I now run the school meeting tech board in the back where you control the screen going up and down, sound, etc!!! (promoted after the guy previously doing it graduated)- go on trips with technology head to check on tech in the morning in classrooms
Dental internship with Free health clinic- 400 ish hours in 3 years so far- learned how to use EPIC app (thats unironically what its called)- shadowed many treatments such as fillings, first steps to root canals, extractions- did patient vital checks and history taking (app told me what to ask and I did just that)- cleaned up and set trays for usage (restocking the gauze, etc)- digitized a lot of paperwork
Music: Cello for 8 years, also play in the school pep band (Bass drum)
I also have leadership positions in the Sci Oly, Robotics, spikeball, might get a leadership in MUN, but the Sci Oly, Robotics, spikeball is rly small (I was VP in Sci Oly but didn't do too much lol) and MUN is still tentative :pEssays/LORs/Other:
I HAVE ONE WRITTEN BUT ITS SO BAD basically its on my summer dental volunteering but its poorly connected to my other activities and stuff
Extra added note: My sophmore year was HORRENDOUS - I had like 3 surgeries 8th, 9th, and 10th grade on my eyes (retinal detachment and cataracts on my right), my dad got brain cancer, and (my mom was kinda absent cos she was a government teacher in another province in Korea while I was there) this guy who took care of me along with my dad until I was 8 or 9 died and this all took a rly big mental toll on me :( I'm better now tho
Schools:NOTE: these are a few schools my (overexpectant) mom and I agreed on and this is not a final liUChicago (EDing if not ED to UPenn)UPenn (PLEASE GOD PLEASE) (prob ED)Wooster's 7 year dental programNortheast/westernUIUCUVAVanderbiltYale (prob not getting in my mom wants me to apply tho)GeorgetownGeorge WashingtonWashington and LeeBoston UUCLAUCBCWRUJHUOSUI'd prob apply EA in most, ED to either UPenn or UChicago, RD in Yale cos restrictive (that is if I remember correctly)
What I want to know: Am i looking in the right places? Also I stacked some EZ classes (in my school) in the senior year - should I apply RD in most so I can show my grade improvement? Would that improve chances?Also do interviews come after or during visits? I got interviewed at Wooster on my visit and I loved it, and I rly hope to do more if possible :DAlso just general tips and suggestions
Thanks! And ask any questions I'll get to them ASAP

It was very encouraging to hear everyone's reasons for wanting Philly to be a better place to ride a bike. We heard from people who have been nearly killed on a bike, people who want their kids to be able to get around on bike, and people generally fed up with being threatened and harassed while on a bike. I just wanted to share some of our plans going forward.

• We will be doing our next meetup at 7pm on the first Monday of next month. Location is TBD
• We are looking for City Council District leaders to organize regular meetups in their city council districts each month. We would like to have at least 2 or 3 in each City Council District. This is a great opportunity to meet with others in your district and organize on a more local level. Let me know if you are interested. The responsibility is simply organizing 1 recurring meetup in your District each month.
• We are moving forward with the Mass Email Monday project. The topic for the Mondays of this month will be Bike Lane Parking. Reach out to your District Councilperson and let them know you feel unsafe when people park their cars in bike lanes and encourage them to redesign streets so this doesn't happen. Feel free to share your replies on our Discord or here (if the mods allow it). This is so important as it gives the biking community a pulse on where City Council is on the issues we care about. Personal messages are always great but we understand the convenience of a template. If someone wants to create and share one, please do! Otherwise I can get around to it when I have time. When we meet next month we can do a secrete poll for a new topic. Bike lane parking has been a hot topic but I want to this decision to be more democratic in the future. District Council Contact information can be found here: https://phlcouncil.com/council-members/

The Discord link is here: https://discord.gg/KEt98kFxYz

• Let me know if you want to volunteer to keep the group running in some way. Our group is entirely run by volunteers and no one person can do it all. This most important this choosing a role to contribute and being consistent with that role. Things that we talked about tonight that someone could pick up including managing an events calendar and Instagram/Twitter page where we post videos and pictures related to unsafe biking conditions. Please reach out if you are interested!
  
• Whoever suggested the bike lane cleanup, it is a great idea. It is also a good way to get people directly involved. Maybe we can even get some shirts. Please reach out if you want to start organizing this. I have a broom and would be glad to help.
  
• Many other things but I gotta get some sleep. Ya'll please be safe out there.
  

Skipped last week because it was a holiday weekend, we're back to the regularly scheduled forecasts. Many more venues/events sources are now being tracked, and new experimental adjustments have been made for supporting recurring events. Thanks for the continuous appreciation, and for all the suggestions of event websites/sources!

Monday, June 5

• Shows
  • fish narc, YAWNS (DJ set), Bug Bath, Lich & Privacy - the_holland_project (8:00 PM $15.00)
• Competitions
  • Pignic Pub & Patio - Trivia Night - pignic (7:00 PM)
• Community
  • Open Mic Poetry - shims

Tuesday, June 6

• Shows
  • Ward Davis with Eric Lindell at Cypress Reno - cypress (8:00PM $20 +)
  • For the Love of Hip Hop (FLOHH) @ The Bluebird Reno - the_bluebird (8:00 PM Starts at $10.00)
• Competitions
  • Reno Wheelmen Twilight Road Race Series - city_of_reno (5:30 p.m.)
  • Monthly Club Meeting - northern_nevada_kart_club (6:00 PM)
• Community
  • Ward 3 Neighborhood Advisory Board Meeting - city_of_reno (5:30 p.m.)
  • Open Mic Night - coffee_n_comics_on_moana
  • Jazz Night - shims
  • Open Mic - the_blind_onion_in_sparks

Wednesday, June 7

• Shows
  • RENOITES Live Onstage Interview: PETE MENCHETTI - black_rabbit_mead_company (7:30 PM)
  • The Pig Quiz Show!!! - pignic (7:30 PM)
  • Game Night at the Bluebird - the_bluebird (8:30 PM $10.00)
  • Cosmic Hearts Sound Bath - the_virgil (6:00 pm Free – $44.00)
  • Open Mic - the_library_bar
• Art
  • Modular Synthesis Workshop - the_holland_project (6:00 PM $15.00)
  • Do-It-Yourself Sun Catcher - the_nevada_discovery_museum (4:00 pm)
• Food and Drinks
  • Feed the Camel 2023 - city_of_reno (5:00 p.m.)
• Community
  • Reno City Council Meeting - city_of_reno (10:00 a.m.)
  • Small Wonder Wednesday - the_nevada_discovery_museum (10:00 am)
  • $5 Admission After 4:00pm - the_nevada_discovery_museum (4:00 pm 5)

Thursday, June 8

• Shows
  • Stand-up Comedy Open Mic Night in Midtown - Drinks, Desserts, and Laughs - dead_panda_comedy (02:00 AM)
  • Reno Tahoe Comedy presents Comedian Sarah Colonna at “The Theatre” in Reno, NV on Thurs June 8th! - reno_tahoe_comedy (7:30 pm $23.00 – $40.00)
  • The Nevada Gay Men's Chorus Presents: Movies, Magic, & Broadway’s Best - reno_little_theater (7:30 PM)
  • Joey Medina - the_laugh_factory (8:00 PM)
  • Glare, Grave Saddles, Head Stone - the_holland_project (8:00 PM $13.00 – $15.00)
  • Open Mic Night - coffee_n_comics_on_baring
  • Comedy Night - paddy_and_irenes_irish_pub
  • Jazz Night - the_loving_cup
• Art
  • Guided Tour - nevada_museum_of_art (5:00 PM $15 General, FREE Members)
  • Art Afternoon: Workshop and Social for Seniors - nevada_museum_of_art (1:00 PM $15 General, FREE Members)
  • Sarah Coyl: Selections from Pas de Deux - nevada_museum_of_art (7:00 PM {"general":15,"members":10})
  • Clare Frank with Michael Branch, Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire - sundance_books (6:00pm)
• Community
  • Civil Service Commission Meeting - city_of_reno (15:30:00)
  • Planning Commission Meeting - city_of_reno (18:00:00)
  • Level 3: Scene Work II - reno_improv (6:00 pm $225.00 – $275.00)
  • Wyld Creative - the_virgil (10:00 am)
  • The Human Side of Management: Practical HR Strategies for Successful Leadership - the_virgil (1:00 pm)
• Misc
  • Karaoke - Z Bar - (time unknown)

Friday, June 9

• Shows
  • Reno Tahoe Comedy presents Comedian Sarah Colonna at “The Theatre” in Reno, NV on Fri June 9th! - reno_tahoe_comedy (8:00 pm $27.00 – $44.00)
  • The 10-10 Minute Play Festival - good_luck_macbeth_theatre_company (7:30 PM)
  • JeNes N the Juice - peavine_taphouse (8:30 PM)
  • Midnight, Necrofier, Early Moods at Cypress Reno - cypress (8:00PM Open)
  • Johnny Harpo & Friends, Live! - pignic (8:00 PM)
  • Kathy Lantz & Sugar High Friday, June 9 - rail_city_casino (8:00 PM)
  • The Show Must Go On: A Head Rush Murder Mystery – Improv Show - reno_improv (8:00 pm $10.00)
  • Latino Arte Presents LGBTQIA+LatinX Bilingual Play 2023 - reno_little_theater (7:00 PM)
  • Wife, Tummy+, I’ve Never Been Here Before - the_holland_project (8:00 PM $10.00)
  • Joey Medina - the_laugh_factory (8:00 PM)
  • The Doobie Brothers - the_nugget
  • Wingfield Park Summer Concert Series - wingfield_park (6:30 PM Free)
• Art
  • Art Afternoon: Workshop and Social for Seniors - nevada_museum_of_art (1:00 PM $15 General FREE Members)
  • A Legacy of Service - nevada_museum_of_art (12:00 PM $15 General FREE Members FREE Student)
  • A Closer Look Guided Tour - nevada_museum_of_art (2:00 PM $15 General FREE Members)
• Community
  • Programs on the Porch (Bats) - washoe_county_parks (7:00pm)
• Food and drinks
  • Reno Street Food - Food Truck Friday - city_of_reno (4:00 p.m.)
• Festivals
  • Reno River Festival 2023 - wingfield_park (11:00 AM)
  • Reno River Festival and Slow Roll 2023 - city_of_reno (9:00 a.m.)
  • Roller Skating - city_of_reno (6:00 p.m.)
• Misc
  • Late Night Swim - the_grand_sierra_resort (10:00 PM)
  • Vive Fridays - the_grand_sierra_resort (7:00 PM)
  • Game On After Party: Decoy - the_nugget
  • The Human Side of Management: Practical HR Strategies for Successful Leadership - the_virgil (8:00 am)
  • Karaoke - paddy_and_irenes_irish_pub

Saturday, June 10

• Festivals
  • Reno River Festival and Slow Roll 2023 - city_of_reno (9:00 a.m.)
    • Reno River Festival - wingfield_park (4:30 PM)
    • Spur Crazy At The 2023 Reno River Fest!! - wingfield_park (11:15 AM)
  • Mutant Vehicle Show N Shine - glow_plaza (12:00 PM)
• Shows
  • Ohgeesy - cargo_concert_hall (8:00 PM)
  • DJ Romeo and Ohgeesy - the_grand_sierra_resort (10:00 PM)
  • Lantz Lazwell & The Vibe Tribe / Phat Mark at Cypress Reno - cypress (9:00PM $10 +)
  • Stand-up Comedy ft Aurora Singh! - Comedy Slice - Laughs & Pizza - dead_panda_comedy (7:00 PM Starts at $10.00)
  • Reno Tahoe Comedy presents Comedian Sarah Colonna at “Pipers Opera House” in Virginia City, NV on Sat June 10th! - reno_tahoe_comedy (8:00 pm $27.00 – $50.00)
  • Kevin Knapp at Dead Ringer - dead_ringer_analog_bar (10:00 PM)
  • The 10-10 Minute Play Festival - good_luck_macbeth_theatre_company (7:30 PM)
  • Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular - harrahs_lake_tahoe (8:00 PM)
  • Afterparty Summertime Kickoff w/BigBadLambo, & Friends! - pignic (8:00 PM)
  • Brad "Guitar" Wilson LIVE Guitar Showcase - peavine_taphouse (8:30 pm)
  • Chris Costa - rail_city_casino (8:00 PM)
  • The Show Must Go On: A Head Rush Murder Mystery – Improv Show - reno_improv (8:00 pm $10.00)
  • Latino Arte Presents LGBTQIA+LatinX Bilingual Play 2023 - reno_little_theater (7:00 PM)
  • Huckleberry Road Live at Faye's - reno_public_market (7:00 PM)
  • Grupo Frontera - the_grand_sierra_resort (7:00 PM)
  • Chili Sauce - the_grand_sierra_resort (10:00 PM)
  • S.M.O.G. Party: Cities Aviv + Rhamier Balagoon - the_holland_project (7:00 PM $17.99 – $23.00)
  • Joey Medina - the_laugh_factory (7:30 PM)
  • Magique - the_theatre_keystone_ave (8:00 PM)
• Art
  • Guided Tour - nevada_museum_of_art (11:00 AM)
  • Hands ON! Second Saturday – Life in Color - nevada_museum_of_art (10:00 AM FREE)
  • Guided Tour - nevada_museum_of_art (2:00 PM)
  • Do-It-Yourself Sun Catcher - the_nevada_discovery_museum (10:30 am)
• Food and drinks
  • Reno Margarita Day Crawl 2023 - crawl_reno (12:00pm)
  • Margarita Day Crawl - virginia_street_brewhouse
• Community
  • The Conservatory of Movement Spring Recital - the_pioneer_center (TBD)
  • Social Science: Cowboys & Aliens - the_nevada_discovery_museum (7:00 PM)
  • The Playground – Improv Workshop - reno_improv (6:30 pm $6.00)
• Misc
  • Rodeo KickOff Party at Pure Country Canteen! - pure_country_canteen_night_club (7:00 PM)
  • Pro Hockey Finals Viewing Party

Sunday, June 11

• Food and Drinks
  • Sunday Music Brunch - nevada_museum_of_art (10:30 am)
• Festivals
  • Reno River Festival and Slow Roll 2023 - city_of_reno (9:00 a.m.)
    • Reno Riverfest roll - wingfield_park (10:00 AM)
  • Riverside Farmers Market Summer Series - city_of_reno (8:00 a.m.)
• Art
  • B&W Film Developing + Scanning Workshop - the_holland_project (10:00 AM $20.00)
  • Guided Tour - nevada_museum_of_art (11:00 AM $15 General FREE Members)
  • Open Build: Cardboard - the_nevada_discovery_museum (12:30 pm)
• Community
  • Ranger Walks - Pah Rah Interpretive Trail @ Golden Eagle Regional Park - washoe_county_parks (10:00am)
• Shows
  • Joey Medina - the_laugh_factory (7:30 PM)
  • Elvis Costelllo & The Imposters - the_silver_legacy (7:00 PM)
  • Josh Rosenblum - the_peppermill (6:00 PM)
• Misc
  • GRR Fundrager - the_holland_project (5:00 PM $10.00)

More events

• https://pioneercenter.com/Online/default.asp
• https://therenoscene.com
• https://www.kunr.org/community-calendar
• https://renonr.com/calenda#!/
• DJ Trivia Map - At various bars every day of the week

Other Resources

• visitrenotahoe.com
• thisisreno.com

Unpacking the Light Police. Light Pollution News.
Show Link: https://lightpollutionnews.com/podcast/unpacking-the-light-police/
Subscribe: Apple Podcast Spotify Google Podcast
Social: Instagram LinkedIn
Guests:
John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, LLC.
Kaitlyn Evans, Conservationist.
Show:
I was busted by the light police. They had a point, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post.
Dana Milbank purchased a home in, soon to be not, rural Virginia. At night he kept the formerly vacant property lit to the degree that spurned one commentator to call it “spaceship lighting.”
Milbank recaps being visited by the “light police,” a group of concerned citizens who help educate neighbors and instill a sense of pride in the brilliance of their starry night skies.
At first, he was taken aback, but later, not only did he appreciate their efforts, but he also converted his blinding always on, white light flood lights to warm 2700 Kelvin motion sensing lights.
Per Ruskin Hartley, executive director of the International Dark Sky Association, “for 4.5 billion years there was no artificial light at night. It’s really only in the last five human generations that we transformed that. It’s one of the most profound transformations of our environment.”
Many of you may recall an earlier story, way back in our Hormone of Darkness episode, showcasing concerns by local residents prior to a 760 house (now 761) plus town center development moving into the Culpepper County, VA area. Per the Rappahannock News, this development features “a resort style swimming pool, clubhouse, tot lot, and multiple sports fields and sports courts, all connected by a network of biking and walking trails.”
The forgotten medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’ by Zaria Gorvett of the BBC.
Gorvett opened my eyes to something I never knew about, the medieval custom of two sleeps. For those of you unaware, two sleeps are exactly what it sounds like.
Folks would partake in a communal nap, complete with rigid sleeping arrangement conventions, between 9 – 11pm, then awaken for a few hours to do everything from hang out to brew beer! In fact, the idea of multiple sleeps crossed cultures and was found in places as far from Europe as indigenous South America.
How can one’s circadian rhythm make sense of all of this?!
Well, for starters, until the invention of the alarm clock, which humorously was invented by a clocks salesman so he could wake up and sell more clocks, people had no firm way to wake up at a consistent time. The industrial revolution enforced a new circadian standard.
And there’s some science behind this! In the 1992 study, In Short Photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic, researcher Thomas Wehr found that after four weeks of 10 hour days, his subjects began to engage in this two sleep cycle, involving a one to three hour period for which they became awake and engaged in between.
Want to Learn About Light Pollution? There’s a mini-course for that!, Jennifer Sensiba of Clean Technica.
Quoting Sensiba, “As I got older, I traveled a lot more and saw the problem more for what it is. Not only did I see that in many places there is no refuge from it, but I also saw that it was slowly growing worse. Places that had been dark 30 years ago had more and more light creeping upon the horizon.”
If you’re interested in learning more, or more importantly, know someone who might benefit from learning more, Sensiba links up to an International Dark Sky Mini-Course on light pollution, call it Light Pollution 101!
There’s a Play Date at the National Museum of Natural History: Lights Out exhibit!
But unfortunately, by the time you listen to this, and hell, by the time we talk about this, it has passed.
Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan. Sarah Parlette for Click on Detroit.
Evidently gambling websites have decided to honor April’s International Dark Sky week in a strange new content marketing campaign, which was to rank the best places in each state to see sunrises and sunsets. My favorite one, “Ann Arbor named best place for sunrises, sunsets in Michigan,” comes from Click on Detroit, whereby a quote “study” examined Michigan’s most populated cities.”
According to Click on Detroit, “to celebrate International Astrology Day on Saturday, staff at Great Lake Stakes, a Michigan online gambling news site, looked at light pollution in the five most populated cities around the Mitten state to determine which offers the best views every morning and evening.”
Star bathing is the new outdoor travel trend we should all be trying for Summer 2023, according to Amy Beecham at Stylist.
Evidently, as an attempt to destress and promote mindfulness, romanticism about sleeping under the stars has birthed a 70% increase in searches for the term ‘star bathing’ on Hipcamp. And to be sure, “Hipcamp recommends checking a stargazing calendar which outlines major astrological events – like supermoons, pink moons, and star showers.”
“Industry Must Face an Inconvenient Truth — Most LED Lights at Night are Unhealthy”
Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a circadian clock expert, recently published an article in LEDs Magazine chastising the lighting industry for not recognizing and reigning in the negative externalities of its products. Per the piece, such effects are, obesity, diabetes, depression, cancer, and more.
He cites three categories of industry responses, making the correlation that long term Denial or outright Ignorance of the Facts, may result in “asbestos-scale liabilities or draconian regulations.”
Per the piece, a recent survey by the Circadian Light Research Center of 2,697 peer reviewed scientific articles confirmed that human circadian clocks are highly sensitive to blue wavelengths, and that exposure to such wavelengths leads to major health disorders.
Moore-Ede calls for the industry to harvest the “commercial opportunity” to greatly limit future liability by creating and managing its own standards for circadian modulated lighting.
Unpacking the Wallpack, by Dan Weissman in LD+A Magazine.
Weissman, who recently purchased a telescope for his family in Cambridge, MA, discovered that the scope could only afford him views of some solar system objects and a few brightly burning stars.
The ire of Weissman’s pen takes the shape of a rectangular fixtures, be it box like or simply a panel these days, that typically hang off the side of an exterior wall or above an exterior door. “Devoid of aesthetic value” this light is often put up under the “pretense of security and safety” by “recommended practices and adopted municipal codes.”
Weissman recognizes labels that often accompany, what he calls, “Glare bombs,” including “contractor-select,” “energy efficient,” or “light pollution friendly.”
Further, per an earlier LD+A article, such lighting driven by its extreme contrasts is exceedingly common in minority communities where light is weaponized as a tool of power. It becomes a “device of alienation, creating a zone of control and separation.”
Weissman recognizes that the true reason such fixtures are selected often comes down to cost. He recognizes that it may take equally as much cost to persuade building and homeowners away from such lighting into the realm of more responsible, lower lumen, shielded lighting.
Weissman calls for producers of these glare bombs to be labeled as polluters, putting them in line with fossil fuel manufacturers and PFAS makers.
Songbirds, dusk and clear skies: Scientists explore migratory flights, by Erin Blakemore.
Bird migration season is ending here in the Mid-Atlantic. I was lucky enough to catch several Baltimore Orioles and Indigo Buntings last week. Researchers looked at 400 songbirds from 9 major species, “including the yellow-rump warbler, American redstart and Bicknell’s thrush.”
The question they hoped to answer was how are these birds so darn precise in identifying the best time to take off for their nightly migration? Scientists found that 90% of the migrating birds in the study took off within 69 minutes of dusk. A “much narrower takeoff window,” that even shocked the research team!
Per the study, taking off at night is all about maximum flight time. In addition to being able to precisely schedule their take offs, a feat that every airline I’ve flown with over the past few years has proven inept at, birds also are apparently good meteorologists! They often depart when the atmospheric pressure rises over a day’s span. Other factors also trigger migration, including sex, age, and celestial cues.
‘Lights Out’ initiative appears to be saving birds from crashing into Philly buildings by Sophia Schmidt.
Preliminary results indicate that bird death counts are down 70% at one Market Street tower, since it began its participation in Lights Out. As we spoke about on a previous show, birds utilize the stars to navigate, but city lights can disorient the birds. Combine the lights with reflective or transparent glass, and that spells fatal trouble for our migrating warblers!
Per Keith Russell, a program manager for urban conservation with Audubon Mid-Atlantic, “We’ve lost almost a third of our birds – and [collisions] contributing to that. If we’re going to want to preserve the bird populations here in North America, we have to look at these types of problems. And this is a preventable one.”
The Knoxville, TN Zoo is offering up what they call “Twilight Tours” per WVLT 8. Each event will feature a guide to showcase nocturnal critters.
I did something similar in Singapore years ago. The zoo had very dim lights in the exhibits – and they kept those lights dim as you walked so that you didn’t lose your night vision. It was a very different and, might I say, peaceful experience than the typically chaotic daytime zoo.
Flashlights posing major threat to nesting sea turtles. Fox35 Orlando
Apparently, a single flashlight can deter female sea turtles from coming onto a beach and nesting. Florida, as I did not know, is home to 90% of the sea turtle nests across the world, so losing sea turtles can affect the global ecosystem.
One visitor to Cocoa Beach stated, “Just leave them alone. Stand back and look. You don’t need a flashlight.”
Another, “It’s not super surprising because more buildings go up, more technology. As it increases, nature and stuff like that decreases,” said Zoe Jovaag, whose grandfather used to take her on walks to see sea turtles.
Capture the Dark 2023 officially is under way!
The International Dark Sky Association opens up its annual photo contest complete with prizes across eight categories and an additional People’s Choice category. Voting begins on July 3rd, entries must be received by June 30th.
City Tests Traffic Light That Only Turns Green for Drivers Who Obey the Speed Limit. Erin Marquis for Jalopnik.
And hey, you better not speed in Brossard, Quebec….otherwise you may be waiting around for a while. Brossard is testing out a new traffic light that will stay red until it senses oncoming traffic. However, it will only change to green if the car is going the speed limit. Per the Jalopnik article, “FRED [the French acronym for “educational traffic calming light] forces fast drivers to stop and gives them a chance to reconsider their life choices.” Such lights are already used in Europe, but this will be the first for the Great White North.
Why the Greatest Threat to Star-Gazing Isn’t Light Pollution, and this comes to us from Dorin Elin Urrutia at Inverse.
Elin Urrutia writes, in her compelling piece, that the greatest threat to star-gazing is actually the weather. Citing notable examples of the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia (which burnt down due to bushfires) and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (which sustained structural damage following the winds of Hurricane Maria).
While the threat of human-caused climate change has presented new challenges, Elin Urrutia references proactive burns that saved Los Angeles’ Mount Wilson Observatory from flames in 2020.
On a similar note, ABC News (the Australian Broadcasting Company, not to be confused with the American Broadcasting Company), brings us “A World Without Darkness Could Be a Reality within a Few Years.”
Per Carol Redford of Astrotourism Western Australia, “There are some people in the world now who don’t actually experience darkness anymore. They’re in a city like Beijing, Toyoko, or London. In all those big cities, it’s never dark, it’s always light. During the day of course with the sun, but then during the night with all of the artificial light. They’re not experiencing darkness, and definitely not seeing those beautiful stars…”
In the 66 years since the implementation of the UN Convention on the Peaceful Use of Outerspace, around 11,000 satellites orbit the Earth. But it’s about to get wayyy busier. Driven by innovations that have led to dramatic reductions in costs, over the next ten years, Per attorney Steven Freeland, it’s anticipated that somewhere between 100,000 to 500,000 objects will be sent up. Let me pause on that for a second.
On the travel front, we stay in the land down under, “Aussie region determined to keep its darkness is a stargazer’s dream” by Chantelle Francis of News.com.AU.
The town of Swam Reach, population 270, resides in a 3200sq km region of Southern Australia that received its International Dark Sky Reserve status over three years ago. On a scale of darkness between 0 – 22, the River Murray Dark Sky Reserve at Swam Reach, measures in at a whopping 21.9!
Tourism has become a growing business. The reserve hosts numerous telescope pads and offers tours of the night sky. There’s hope that an observatory and/or planetarium may also arrive in due course.
Best smart lights for outdoors in 2023, Brittney Vincent of CBS Essentials.
Oh there’s a lot not to love here, but it does fall in line with last month’s ‘Lumens are Coming’ article.
For those of you who feel the need to light your trees, because for some reason they need light at night I guess…I’ll try and pretend it’s not solely for ostentatious and narcissistic reasons. By the way, does anyone remember when those were negative characteristics?
The article features spotlights that can be programmed to over 16 MILLION colors including…lucky for us, ALL shades of white….which you can also do for a 500 lumen flood light set.
And hey, Ring now has solar path lighting. Don’t worry though, the fixtures themselves put out up to 80 lumens of sideways light.
You know, it’s astounding when you look at some of these pictures. The amount of redundant lighting. It honestly makes no sense to me. You have a porch light, which lights up the path. Path lighting, which lights up the path. And, in the one picture, god awful frontward facing flood lights, which also light up the path. How bright do you need these paths!? I digress. But the lumens are indeed coming.
LDS Church will get to light up its Heber Valley Temple after all, but the faith didn’t get everything it wanted, Blake Apgar of the Salt Lake Tribune.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fought hard to rid itself of any nighttime lighting responsibility by pressuring Wasatch County, Utah officials to approve new lighting rules that would enable the church to light a proposed new temple the same way it does for every other temple.
The Church received permission to uplight the temple, enabling an exception to be made in Wasatch’s rather stringent nighttime lighting rulebook. However, the temple will be restricted by the level of lumens it can use, and it must have exterior lighting turned off an hour after sunset or an hour after normal business hours.
Smart Street Lights Market is Expected to Hit USD 14,751.1 million at a 23.4% CAGR by 2030, Market Research Future Press Release
The pandemic is officially over, smart street lighting is about to boom. Combine the rush to LED fixtures with the Internet of Things, and expect to see street lights moonlighting as traffic and parking monitors, air quality meters, and more. Not to mention, “it is anticipated that camera-connected smart street lighting will increase road safety by lowering the likelihood of accidents and criminality.”
Texas now has 7 dark sky communities for spectacular star gazing, Sana Ameer, MRT.
Let’s cheer on the city of Bee Cave, everyone! Bee Cave joins a growing list of dark sky places already in the Lone Star State, including 2 Dark Sky Sanctuaries, 5 Dark Sky Parks, and 1 Dark Sky Reserve. Nighttime is alive and well in some parts of Texas!
Our Afraid of the Dark article is a bit scary! Hilton Head’s dark roads and pedestrians are deadly combo. What the town is doing about it, Blake Douglas at The Island Packet.
Per the article, 9 pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occurred since 2018, with five occurring after dark. Prior to that period, there were 28 recorded deaths from 2000 – 2016, with 20 of them taking place after dark.
In 2018, an 11 year old resident was struck and killed while walking her dog across an intersection one night. Lighting advocates began taking shape in what otherwise is a very conservation focused island. Hilton Head, SC has a limited number of street lights, priding itself on “avoiding light pollution and blending nature with construction.”
Lighting advocates appear to be, at the very least, asking for flashing crosswalk lights on the island to indicate when an individual is crossing.
It should be noted that the article shows a chart of 9 after-dark-deaths since 2014, only two of them occurred at crosswalks. In fact, during the same time frame, 6 additional deaths occurred at crosswalks during the daytime.
As a whole, the National Safety Council reports that 74.5% of pedestrian deaths occurred at night, whereby 39.1% took place in lit areas and 35.38% took place in unlit areas.
Bryan Bloch, an auto safety expert, surmises that car companies bear some of the blame – producing cheap or ineffectual headlight fixtures, and drivers themselves, who don’t realize that they need to regularly clean their headlight lenses.
Despite opposition from residents, it appears that Hilton Head will be receiving lights at two new intersections and possibly more depending on engineering studies currently in progress.
Is lighting the key variable here? Is more light going to solve pedestrian deaths?
Our featured research article of the month comes to us from Animal Conservation, “Manipulating spectra of artificial light affects movement patterns of bats along ecological corridors.”
Bats are already known to have a wide range of responses to artificial light at night (also known as ALAN). Fast flying species tend to be more opportunistic in the presence of ALAN while slower ones tend to be more light averse. We know that “long wavelengths and reduced intensity” can minimize their environmental effects on bats. It’s not unheard of for bats to travel upwards of “tens of km per night.” Furthermore, bats are very dependent on the landscape and the structures within those landscapes.
Despite the nuances between species, the consensus is that ALAN, especially high intensity ALAN, negatively affects bats. This study attempted to answer what exactly bats do when they encounter ALAN – how do they react depending on different types of ALAN.
The study used three different light fixtures – one green, one red, and one white. The control was devoid of light fixtures. The researchers attempted to ascertain the behavior of bats as they encountered lights adjacent to woody areas. The researchers looked at three different bat groupings based on their foraging-echo location behavior, that being one of open field foraging, forest edge foraging, and narrow space – or more aptly forest foragers.
Researchers found that open and edge foraging bats increased their activity close to white and green lights, and to a lesser extent red lights. However, narrow space bats were more likely to veer away from all colors of lighting. Edge foragers were also less likely to cross a white light.
The positive effects of white and green light on open and edge foraging bats appear to be attributed to the accumulation of insects around light sources containing more blue light.
The nighttime sky over Oahu will be lit up with green lasers in the coming days. Here’s why. Hawaii News Now
Before we close up today, do you live in Hawaii? I know I wish I did!
If so, do you recall seeing green lasers streak across the night sky? Well, the Army Corps of Engineers was using lidar at night to complete a coastal mapping survey.
Why did they survey at night? Specifically, why did they do this between midnight to 5am? Simply b/c the airspace is so busy, that time was the only chance they had to complete the survey. The remaining survey was completed during daytime hours.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/05/us/los-angeles-rv-dwellers/index.html
Los Angeles CNN —
Early one recent Friday morning, sanitation workers, homeless-outreach workers and LAPD officers arrived on a little street in the west of Los Angeles. Jasmine Avenue is lined with low-rise apartment blocks, an imposing Catholic Church, a school and a handful of dilapidated recreational vehicles.
That morning on Jasmine Avenue, RV residents were offered $500 gift cards and a motel room. The city also offered to tow and destroy their RVs. One RV managed to leave, under its own steam, with what smelled like sewage leaking along the road as it left. This clearance is one small part of what has been a piecemeal approach by officials trying to tackle a burgeoning phenomenon of people living permanently in RVs on these streets.
“I’ll take a motel room,” one RV owner told me as he packed up his belongings after about six months on Jasmine Avenue. “See what happens.” But he did not let the city tow and destroy his RV. He towed it elsewhere himself, using a chain and a beaten-up SUV. He wants to keep it.
“The idea sometimes our clients have is, ‘What if this doesn’t work? If this doesn’t work, then I’m back on the streets. I’m back to square one,’” said LaTonya Smith, interim CEO at the St. Joseph Center, a nonprofit that helps the city find accommodation for the unhoused. “People who are living in RVs consider themselves to be housed, and in order for them to leave that RV, sometimes we have to incentivize.”
There are, by the latest count, more than 11,000 people living in RVs across Los Angeles County. And that number has been rising. The Covid-19 pandemic forced more people into poverty. Some of the RV dwellers have jobs but either don’t want to pay apartment rent, or can’t afford to pay it, in a city where the average one-bedroom apartment costs around $2,500 a month.
Some RV dwellers own the vehicles, but others rent them to the monthly tune of a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000, city Councilwoman Traci Park told CNN.
In Los Angeles, you are allowed to sleep in a vehicle on some streets. There are, of course, parking restrictions on many streets. But as the number of RVs has grown, enforcing those restrictions has become harder. Large, immobile RVs require large tow trucks. And, according to the city, destroying a dilapidated RV that might contain harmful chemicals can cost up to $9,000 per vehicle.
Outreach workers from St. Joseph Center interact regularly with RV dwellers. A spokesperson told CNN: “Staff encounter a large percentage, probably safe to say as much as 80-85%, of individuals who are ‘leasing’ RVs or may have purchased an RV that is not suitable for habitation or a ‘legal’ sale.”
Park and others argue that these RVs endanger their residents and blight neighborhoods, acting as magnets for crime and damaging the environment. Some advocates for the unhoused agree the impact on city neighborhoods is an issue.
“There might be trash everywhere,” said Smith from the St. Joseph Center. “People come outside their neighborhoods and homes, that’s not something that they really want to see.”
In the five years since Los Angeles County commissioned one of many reports into the RV problem and potential solutions, the number of RVs on county streets has risen by more than 50% – from more than 4,500 in 2018 to more than 7,100 at last count. Reports are regularly requested and written by various city and county departments.
“I’m tired of studies and reports,” Park told CNN recently at her freshly painted City Hall office. She was elected last year on a platform dripping with intent to handle the various homelessness issues plaguing Los Angeles. Among her first targets: people she calls “vanlords,” some of whom, she says, rent out rotting, unsafe RVs. “There is a thriving trade in RVs being rented out as dwelling units on the internet,” Park said.
Park proposed a motion that would explicitly add RVs to part of the city code that, “Prohibits a person or entity from reserving any street, parking space, or other public space without written authorization from the City while conducting business pertaining to new and used vehicles.” The motion would also force RV owners to comply with a state law, “which requires that any RV offered for sale, sold, rented or leased within California meet the design safety standards of the American National Standards Institute and Fire Protection Association.”
Right now, she said, “Apparently anybody in the city of Los Angeles can buy a junker RV off of a salvage lot and without any oversight or regulation, rent that unsafe inoperable vehicle out to a vulnerable person as a dwelling unit.”
“The point here is not to criminalize homelessness. The point is to regulate what is currently an unregulated marketplace that is causing serious public safety and environmental impacts all over the city,” Park said.
“Too often, RVs that are used as dwellings on LA’s streets are in grave disrepair,” Park’s proposed motion reads, in part. “Meaning that people living in them face unsanitary and sometimes dangerous conditions.”
She has opposition.
“It’s actually good, to provide housing for people” even if it’s an RV, said Dmitry Korikov, a filmmaker who says he volunteers helping people – mainly refugees from Russia and Ukraine – navigate van life on the streets of Los Angeles. “I lived myself in a motor home for two years. So I know how things (work), how the system works.”
He tells RV dwellers which streets they can park on, and connects them with private companies that service the vehicles for a fee: filling up the freshwater tanks, emptying the sewage tanks and sweeping the sidewalks.
“Everyone should have a right to use public streets,” Korikov told CNN. “If you cannot give them an apartment or give them a job to be able to afford an apartment and you tell them that you need to be in tents on the street, but not renting someone’s motor home, that’s evil.”
CNN put Korikov’s points to Park.
“I understand the dilemma,” she said. “On the other hand, I have seen too many of these explosions and these fires and we have got to deal with the collateral impacts that these vehicles are causing in our neighborhoods.” A small number of people have died in RV fires on the streets over the past few years, according to local reports.
Park says she is concerned that the unhoused are being exploited by the vanlords. And she is concerned about the impact the vans are having on the neighborhoods in her district, which includes Venice and much of western Los Angeles, where homeless populations tend to be higher.
One Venice resident told me he returned home from work recently to discover that the sewage tank in an RV had been emptied into the road. He had to walk through human waste to get to his front door.
“We have not resolved the RV issue yet,” Mayor Karen Bass told The Los Angeles Times in March. “But we absolutely will because it’s a very serious issue.”
One of her first moves when she took office as mayor late last year was to declare a state of emergency on homelessness. Her first target was not the RVs on the streets, but the tents on the sidewalks. Her administration has swept over a dozen tent encampments and moved more than 1,200 people into temporary accommodation in motels, the city administrative officer has said. The operation is dubbed Inside Safe.
The idea is to eventually move all those people into permanent housing, in line with an increasingly popular doctrine among housing researchers known as “housing first.” The theory is that the most impactful move in saving someone from homelessness is to provide them housing, with other services such as mental health or substance abuse treatment to follow.
Bass’ office, the city administrator’s office and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority cannot say how many of those people moved off those streets as part of Inside Safe are now in permanent housing. The mayor will hold a roundtable with the press in the coming weeks to discuss the data, her office said. The St. Joseph Center said is has found permanent housing for 32 people. A spokesperson told CNN the center expects those numbers to increase in June.
“I’m not going to leave people on the street while we’re building,” Bass told CNN this spring. “People die on these streets!”
When it comes to the RVs, a pilot program in one city council district has, over about 15 months, seen 41 RVs moved off the street and seven people moved into permanent housing. “That is why our program will be used as a model throughout the city, represented in the 2023-2024 budget adopted in May 2023,” Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez told CNN. That city budget includes $1.3 billion for the fight against homelessness.
City officials have approved a plan to deal with the RVs that includes concerted outreach to those living in them, incentivizing them to move into motel rooms, creating safe parking areas that can accommodate RVs, and finding permanent housing for those living in RVs. Now that plan needs to be implemented.
That final and fundamental piece of this puzzle is arguably the most challenging.
“We need more housing. We need more affordable safe housing,” Smith said. But housing is expensive and takes time to build. And for now, for thousands of people, an RV’s roof over their heads is all they can afford in Los Angeles.

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