“The day he jumped off the roof of the Baltimore Academy was the fifth day. The day he learned he didn’t know how to kill himself. Without even trying, his body grew lighter, his bones grew soft… He almost bounced when he hit the pavement.He almost laughed instead of crying when he realized he wasn’t even hurt.”

Darwin

“Always hard to make decisions. Always tough to know when to let go. When to give up. When to know enough is enough. And then there are some who never learn. And then there are others who never know when enough is enough.Who aren’t stopped by common sense, or even death. And people like that… you want to keep an eye on.Because you never know where they will lead you.”

A look into Marvel’s lesser known X men and how they came to be.

sciencefiction

Science Fiction

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

entertainment

Entertainment

X Men Files: Origins 

“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how expressive and admirable! In action like an angel. In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world- the paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me… No, nor woman neither, though by your smiling, you seem to say so…”

“Why then, ‘tis none to you, for it is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison.”

PULONIUSFaith, ⟨no,⟩ as you may season it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him That he is open to incontinency; That’s not my meaning. But breathe his faults so quaintly That they may seem the taints of liberty, The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in unreclaimèd blood,

HAMLET To be or not to be—that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles.And, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep— No more—and by a sleep to say we end.  To die, to sleep— To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause. There’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

The prince of Denmark seeks revenge against his uncle who caused the death of his father & went on to marry his mother. He struggles with moral and philosophical questions & arranges for a play to be performed. Following a series of unfortunate events.

writing

Reading & Writing

education

Learning & Education

books

Books

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Hamlet

“You’re not a monster.” I said. But I lied. What I really wanted to say was that a monster is not such a bad thing to be. From the Latin root ‘monstrum’ -a divine messenger of catastrophe, then adapted by the Old French to mean an animal of myriad origin. Centaurs, griffon, satyr.To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both a shelter and warning at once

“We try to preserve life, even when we know it has no chance of enduring its body. We feed it, keep it comfortable, bathe it, medicate it, caress it, even sing to it. We tend to these basic functions not because we are brave or selfless- but because like breath, it is the most fundamental act of our species: to sustain the body until time leaves it behind.

”Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearance. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen- But to be seen allows you to be hunted.”

I am thinking of beauty again, how some things are hunted because we have deemed them beautiful. If, relative to the history of our planet, an individual life is so short, a blink, as they say, then to be gorgeous, even from the day you’re born to the day you die , is to be gorgeous only briefly…”

“If we are lucky, the end of a sentence is where we might begin. If we are lucky, something is passed on, another alphabet written in blood, sinew, and neuron; ancestors charging their kin with the silent propulsion to fly south. To turn toward the place in the narrative no one was meant to outlast.”

“It is no accident, Ma, that the comma resembles a fetus- That curve of continuation. We were all once inside our mothers, staying with our entire curved and silenced selves, more, more, more. I want to insist that our being alive is beautiful enough to be worthy of replication. And so what? So what if all I ever made of my life was more of it?”

“When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?”…“Our mother tongue, then, is no mother at all- but an orphan. Our Vietnamese time capsule, a mark of where your education ended, ashed. Ma, to speak in in our mother language is to speak only partially in Vietnamese, but entirely in war”

Refugee

“Who will be lost in the story we tell ourselves? A story, after all, is a kind of swallowing. To open a mouth in speech, is to leave only the bones which remain untold”

“In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhó. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, Con nhó mę không? I flinch, thinking you meant, Do you remember me?I miss you more than I remember you. “

Did you know that they get rich off of sadness? I want to meet the millionaire of American sadness. I want to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and say, “It’s been an honor to serve my country”

“All this time I told myself we were born from war- but I was wrong Ma. We were born from beauty. Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence- But having that violence passed through the fruit, failed to spoil it.”

Little Dog, is a poet in his late 20s reflecting on his life as a gay man and immigrant. This book, written as a letter to his mother.

philosophy

Philosophy

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

THE VAST MAJORITY OF ANIMALS IN ZOOS ARE NOT THRIVING

ZOOS OFTEN PURCHASE WILD CAUGHT ANIMALS TO REPLACE THEIR STOCK.

Zoochosis: the mental illness that develops in animals held captive in zoos. Most often, it is seen in what are called stereotypical behaviors, which are often obsessive, repetitive actions that serve no purpose.Zoochosis is displayed through a wide variety of diverse stereotypical behaviors. These include, but are not limited to:PacingCirclingRocking back and forthSwayingHead-bobbingOver-groomingHair-pulling and feather-pluckingBar-bitingExcessive lickingVomiting and regurgitationPlaying with excrementEating disorders such as anorexiaAddictionSelf-harm

The history of zoos is rooted in the archaic practice of poaching animals from other countries to be seen in person. The first zoos were started by wealthy individuals to highlight their status. The current model of zoos was established in the 18th century as a way to study animals, not conserve their species. But today’s focus is much more on entertainment than education. Not increasing public interest in wildlife conservation. Zoos & aquariums have embodied the anthropocentric manipulation of the natural world that lies behind habitat destruction & species extinction.

Captive animals generally lack the survival skills necessary to be released into the wild and often have developed such severe zoochosis (psychological trauma brought on by captivity) that they would not survive.No gorilla, bear, rhino, elephant, tiger, or chimpanzee born at a zoo will ever be released into the wild. In fact, some wild animals have been poached from the wild en masse for a lifetime of captivity in zoos to fill their quota of animals people want to see. As of 2019, zoos in China and the United States both petitioned for dozens of wild-caught African elephants to be imported.

The Myth Of Zoos As Conservation

While many zoos & captive programs that advertise displaying live animals like to advertise their conservation efforts and how important zoos are- The truth behind the matter doesn’t quite align with those statements.

history

History

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Why Zoos & Captivity are Not Conservation

A faithful donkey had toiled long & hard for many years carrying heavy sacks of grain to the mill. Over time, his strength failed. His master thought, “That old donkey isn’t earning his keep any longer.” The donkey ran away.He came across a dog lying in the road. “Just because I am old now & can no longer hunt, my master wanted to kill me. So I ran away” said the dog.They walk together & come across a cat. “Because I am old now & my teeth are not as sharp, I’d rather lay before the fire than chase mice. So my mistress wanted to drown me” said the cat. They asked her to join them.

“Just Because I Am Old Now… My Master Wanted To Kill Me.

The three refugees come upon a farmyard, where a rooster perched on the gate crying with all his might. “Your cries pierce one’s marrow & bone” said the donkey. “What are you up to?” “I just prophesied good weather” said the rooster, “because it is Our Dear Lady’s Day, when she washes the Christ Child’s shirts & wants to dry them; but because Sunday guests are coming, she has no mercy. And told the cook she wants me in the soup tomorrow. I’m supposed to let them cut my head off this evening. So now I will use my voice as long as I can.”

X Men Files: Origins

Hamlet

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Why Zoos & Captivity are Not Conservation

Grimms Fairy Tales

Coby Konneor