The School System of SPDM

The School Primary Defense of Mankind is a private institution where every few years, they take in orphaned arcanists around the world to train them for the purpose of becoming members of the Foundation. Many of the graduates go into the military/investigative sector of the Foundation and a handful are assigned to offices, given positions in headquarters and in rare cases accepted by the political councils. There is also a chance to work at Laplace, but thus far, Mesmer Jr. is the only one who had been placed there because of her lineage.

Not much is known about how the school works, but I will be mapping out as much information as I can find about the school, and make sure its organized as possible.

Disclaimer: This is solely based on Chapter 3, Green Lake, and the characters we have thus far who were students at SPDM. The only graduates we have are Horropedia (oldest graduate), Sonetto, Mesmer Jr., Vertin, and Matilda (youngest graduate of the group). I'll be referring to them as the "Foundation Kids", since the name sounds fitting enough. There are going to be spoilers for Chapter 3 and the characters' stories, so tread carefully.

Additionally, I'm going to be rarely using images because I really do not want to go into the effort of making screenshots after screenshots right now.

So buckle up and get ready for a big wall of paragraphs and sentences.

Known Staff Roles of the School

Principal - The head that manages the affairs of the school and responsible for all the matters that happen within. The current principal as of chapter 3 is Richard. Instructors - Their main purpose is to teach students varying subjects, a few that can be named are biology, music, potions, and arcane history School Physician - The person that takes care of the overall health of the students. It can be assumed that there are two per semester, since Tooth Fairy in particular would only stay in the school as its physician for half a year. Janitors - Of course, people that clean up areas in the school, and they have the freedom to interact with the children. Some are referred to as uncles and aunts I'd assume. Monitor Assistants - Students or Student Graduates that choose to help monitor the students of the school as a means to train them for instructor roles. Matilda is the only known monitor assistant so far. Monitor Students - Students that are given the role to monitor their peers. There seems to be a head role given to the school's high-achieving students like Sonetto. They are changed routinely every day and can increase/decrease depending on the necessity.

Level System and Enrollment

Of course, a school would not exist without its level system. The SPDM has a curriculum in place that sections off the varying different age groups of the orphaned arcanists after taking them in. The average range of the arcanists they take in are between a few months to 4 years old at its possible max.

The youngest student that had arrived in the school is Vertin at 1 month old, while Matilda is the oldest known student that had willingly enrolled at around 6 to 7 years old. This means that enrolling at the school is possible if the arcanist family is known to the Foundation. (For our Foundation kids, Sonetto and Vertin are the only ones to have been adopted into the school, whereas the other three have family or at least a guardian prior to enrollment)

The age of which arcanists graduate from the school seem to vary, in which Vertin, Sonetto, Matilda, and Mesmer Jr. had graduated at 13-15 years old. Whereas Horropedia, claimed to have been "several grades above" the group when the breakaway incident had happened. He's estimated to have been 17 at the time of the incident, while the rest of the group were around 10-12. This makes the information conflicting at first glance.

But of course, figuring out this level system would be rather helpful. This would be considered as a K-10 or K-13 curriculum, and it seems that the students can be categorized by as "Academic Year # Semester #".

Nursery & Kindergarten (1-5 years) - Where new baby and orphaned arcanists who were taken in by the school are raised in the first few years at the school.

Early Stage (5-10 years) - Young arcanists start their academic journey in the school, where they learn about the world around them while being isolated from the outside. They also begin their physical/arcanum training as a means to strengthen them whilst their afflatus and arcane skills slowly develop and awaken over time.

Late Stage (10-12 years) - The age of which arcanists begin to awaken their arcane skill. They are given the materials and training to develop their arcane skills and are slowly introduced to the world around them, being shown the opportunities they could take based on their skillset and possibly being invited to explore the work environment. (Its also in this stage that the students have a change in uniform.)

Work Immersion & Graduation (12-15 years) - The arcanists will begin to do work immersion in the fields they choose to specialize in, to familiarize themselves in the environment and even make their placements in these fields early on. Eventually, they graduate and go into official work for their sectors within the Foundation.

Higher Education (15-18 years) - Student graduates who might choose to seek higher education as a means to train for more skilled positions in their line of work. This can give them more opportunities and guidance on their first few years of work.

Rules and Education

"May the peace be with us. May the peace be with mankind." The school's main pursuit for its students are some philosophers' exhortation: "Heritage, Honor, Rationality, Responsibility"

The education in SPDM is rigorous, and goes in depth about many of the topics at hand and also putting their students through difficult trainings to ensure that they are at their best physique and readied skills. They tend to be strict, and would have a consistent flow of tests to ensure every student studies well.

Their rules are also just as meticulous, wanting to make sure that their students' conscience and goals stay close to the ideologies of the school and the Foundation. Going from disallowing them from artistic/literary media that is "not advocated or approved by" the Foundation, treating outside attachments as "meaningless", and teaching students that they are meant to sacrifice themselves for the safety of mankind.

The school has a Student Handbook that goes through these rules and guidelines. The main idea and rule that the school imposes is to pay no heed to the world outside, as creating an attachment would only bring harm and regret. They are to focus on training themselves to serve their mission towards pursuing peace and order in the guidance of the Foundation until death, since all of the students are taught that they would die martyrs for the cause.

"To live is to lose things around us until the day we lose life itself to death. That's why we should only focus on the supreme missions." - Sonetto, Frogs and Toffee (3-2)

Some of these rules include the standard things (no skipping classes, no in-fighting) while also having rules such as no mass gatherings, conspiration against the school, acquiring and keeping contraband, leaving school grounds, etc. However, there are some liberties that are taken, such as having freedom with hairstyles, free use of arcane skills, etc.

Interestingly, one of the rules is that discussion about the "Storm" is forbidden. Its also forbidden to go out when its raining, and discouraged to discuss any incident that had occurred within the school.

There are routinely inspections that are carried out to make sure no rules are being broken, such as dorm checks and head counting. Monitor staff are also in place to ensure there is order among the students, and as mentioned previously, the school would have a head student monitor that would cooperate with the respective school monitor and monitor assistant. If strict supervision is required for any reason, the Foundation will step in and arrange to deploy their own units or Zeno recruits from the academy. (Like in the case of the Manus Vindictae's olitiaus having to be scouted out by Zeno recruits like Lilya)

Punishments

Punishments are of course, carried out based on the rule that is broken. Normally, these punishments wouldn't be so harsh (it just so happened our little troublemaker just actively likes to break major rules). The most normal of the punishments that have been given out so far is a timeout and confiscation of contraband. Of course, there is the more…extreme side.

With the little shit I mean Vertin having this tendency to break rules, one of the punishments we see her go through is isolation. There is a guardhouse in the school's campus where students who break major rules stay in it for a specific amount of time based on what rule is broken. The most merciful would be only a mention of the "Storm" (1 day with no food/water), the worst of it is mass gathering and what can be classified as rebellion (2 weeks with no food/water).

Campus

We currently have a complete map of the school thanks to chapter 3 and the manus. The school is walled off and has watchtowers to ensure that there are no outsiders (and of course, escapees). There seems to be air raid tunnels beneath the schools as well, why they were built in besides its main purpose is not known, but as we know it has been rarely used. In these air raid tunnels we find that there are also blast doors that border between the tunnels and the watchtowers.

There are no labels on where the guardhouses are, but they are of course meant to discipline the students. There are critters and tools at the kids' disposal, to mostly alleviate immediate problems. The guardhouse is checked regularly, and is cleaned up weekly. Though, some messages left behind by previous dwellers are left as is for the next to help guide them through.

George the Oak is a tree possibly situatied near the lake on the map, and is known to be a famous tree for the kids because of its age and its size. There, they can go in the tree hollow or even just sit under the giant leaves. Either way, it looks to be like a nice spot to go to for the students when they have free time. Sad it got cautioned off after the parade incident.

Employees from the Foundation headquarters have the freedom to enter the school campus and visit the facilities as they'd like, as we see with Constantine and Druvis meeting in the library, and Madam Z and Katz meeting in the sports field in chapter 4.

Lastly, the school is most likely situated next to the official headquarters building, and there is a town that is near the school since there was a time where Vertin and Sonetto went to watch an outsider parade from a distance.

Events

There are 3 important events for SPDM: The Annual Evaluation, Parade Ceremony, and the Graduation of Year 10 & Higher Education students.

The Annual Evaluation is where they evaluate the overall performance of their students, and rank them based on the evaluation. -Sonetto and Matilda had made it to the rankings prior to or during the 4th Year of the Storm. Sonetto made her way to rank 1, while Matilda had achieved rank 3.

The Annual Parade is to showcase the school's best image and boost morale, and with it, the school selects their best students to participate in a three-month intense training. Through this they would become the school's honor guard and represent the students in the best way possible. Before this, a pre-parade ceremony is held out to help practice and for the principal to send his regards/support to the students. -As again, one of the most outstanding students, Sonetto's "Parade Anthem" garment seems to be the honor guard uniform that she had been given, signaling that she was one of the chosen students for the training course.

And lastly, Graduation. Of course, the main focus here would be the year 10 students of SPDM; who officially become workers for the Foundation. We're not really sure how this ceremony happens, but it can be thought that the students will be given the choice to choose their paths immediately after the ceremony, or, it would be assigned to them.

Vertin and Mesmer Jr. are excluded from the choice/allocation, as they were both put into roles early on for special circumstances. For Vertin it was because she became the Timekeeper after the breakaway incident, and for Mesmer she had been put into the role of working in Laplace because of her lineage and heritage.

While Sonetto seemed to have chosen to be a field investigator, Matilda was assigned to her role as a Monitor Assistant.

Horropedia on the other hand seems to have sought out higher education since he stayed in the Foundation a bit longer than others, and thus graduated with such an honor. This made him able to start working in the external inspection unit as it seems.

Other notes on the Foundation kids before ending this megapost:

Sonetto has proven to be the most outstanding graduate of SPDM, and has been rewarded medals (i.e. Merit Medal of Session Eight) and even a ceremony stick because of her role as an honor guard.

Its very likely that Vertin was isolated from the rest of the students to train her for her role as the Timekeeper. Besides that, she is one of the most unique students of the school.

Mesmer Jr. had been assigned to work in Laplace's Rehabilitation Center at 12 years old, making her the youngest person to have started work among the five.

Besides Sonetto, Matilda has technically not seen her former classmates since graduation, and possibly has not seen Vertin for an even longer time.

Horropedia is the only person who had stayed in SPDM past the assumed graduating age, which makes me believe that he had received higher education or was held back by troublemaking…I can see both possibilities.

Overall, these are the observations that I was able to rule out. There are still some things that I might not have considered or taken to account yet, but that's just because I can't really tell if it can be added here + I wrote this at 5 am. SPDM's school system is a bit screwed because of the punishments and everything, but this entire guide feels like it can be comprehended better.

Thanks for reading to the bottom of this post. I'm open to answer questions as well as add into/fix the information here!

enstars but its what i think their report cards look(ed) like (1 semester) starpro edition

side note 1: i dont know every single character really well, and this is just for fun and the sake of goofiness. feel free to share your own opinion on their grades n stuff make it sillier

side note 2: im doing letter grades (A, B, C, etc..) and i'll be using the system im more used to

A+: 100-97, A: 96-94, A-: 93-90, B+: 89-87, B: 86-84, B-: 83-80, etc. 60 below is F

side note 3: i dont remember/know what classes they have at yumenosaki/reimei/shuetsu so im making shit up as i go but no one cares hahahaha

side note 3.1: the classes i chose should be pretty standard, like math (broad term, cuz you dont have just 3~4 years of algebra or trig or something), language classes (im putting japanese/national language and english bc i think they would have it ok), science (broad term, covers biology, physics, chemistry, etc), history/social studies, and physical education

again this is for fun and do not take any of this shit seriously. take it unseriously and baffoonish-ly .......

Eichi: [ Math ] A- ~ A [ Jap ] A+ [ Eng ] A [ Sci ] B+ ~ A [ History ] A [ PE ] B

extra: excused from like 90% of the pe activities attendance: 5 tardies, 14 official leaves, 23 sick leaves, 0 unexcused absences

Wataru: [ Math ] C ~ A [ Jap ] A [ Eng ] B+ [ Sci ] B- ~ A [ History ] A- [ PE ] A

extra: feels like the type to have wildly different impressions on teachers attendance: 60 tardies, 11 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 55 unexcused absences

Tori: [ Math ] D+ ~ B [ Jap ] A- [ Eng ] B- [ Sci ] D+ ~ B [ History ] B [ PE ] B+

extra: i think that the only reason tori doesnt fail is because of yuzuru. the 4 sick leaves are from when he didn't know what to put for his reason of absence attendance: 13 tardies, 12 official leaves, 4 sick leaves, 3 unexcused absences

Yuzuru: [ Math ] A- ~ A+ [ Jap ] A+ [ Eng ] A [ Sci ] B- ~ A- [ History ] A+ [ PE ] A+

extra: doing extra homework actually makes you better in certain classes attendance: 3 tardies, 13 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 3 unexcused absences

Hokuto: [ Math ] A ~ A+ [ Jap ] A+ [ Eng ] A [ Sci ] A ~ A+ [ History ] A+ [ PE ] A+

extra: i think hes just like the average kid in school. maybe. he's into theater though. attendance: 5 tardies, 15 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 1 unexcused absences

Subaru: [ Math ] A- ~ A [ Jap ] A+ [ Eng ] A [ Sci ] A- ~ A [ History ] A [ PE ] A+

extra: probably makes paper stars in class attendance: 7 tardies, 15 official leaves, 1 sick leaves, 2 unexcused absences

Makoto: [ Math ] A ~ A+ [ Jap ] A+ [ Eng ] A [ Sci ] A- ~ A+ [ History ] A [ PE ] A-

extra: if i added computer science he'd probably have an A+ i feel like attendance: 6 tardies, 14 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 0 unexcused absences

Mao: [ Math ] A- ~ A [ Jap ] A [ Eng ] A- [ Sci ] A- ~ A [ History ] A+ [ PE ] A+

extra: he definitely does some of ritsu's homework attendance: 9 tardies, 17 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 0 unexcused absences

Chiaki: [ Math ] C- ~ B+ [ Jap ] A- [ Eng ] B [ Sci ] C+ ~ B+ [ History ] B- [ PE ] A+

extra: hypes people up during group studies probably attendance: 18 tardies, 12 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 7 unexcused absences

Kanata: [ Math ] B- ~ B+ [ Jap ] A- [ Eng ] B [ Sci ] B- ~ A [ History ] A- [ PE ] A-

extra: not a single worksheet he turns in is completely dry. misses class by accident sometimes because he's off 'puka puka'-ing attendance: 45 tardies, 13 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 26 unexcused absences

Tetora: [ Math ] B- ~ B [ Jap ] B+ [ Eng ] B- [ Sci ] B- ~ B+ [ History ] B- [ PE ] A+

extra: broke school property at least once attendance: 8 tardies, 14 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 5 unexcused absences

Midori: [ Math ] B+ ~ A- [ Jap ] A [ Eng ] A- [ Sci ] B+ [ History ] B+ [ PE ] A-

extra: sent to the counselor/guidance office at least 3 times attendance: 13 tardies, 13 official leaves, 8 sick leaves, 1 unexcused absences

Shinobu: [ Math ] B- ~ B [ Jap ] A [ Eng ] B- [ Sci ] C+ ~ B [ History ] B+ [ PE ] A

extra: definitely carved something onto a desk at least once with shurikens when he got bored in class attendance: 9 tardies, 13 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 0 unexcused absences

Hiiro: [ Math ] A (trust me) [ Jap ] A (trust me) [ Eng ] C- (trust me) [ Sci ] F- ~ A (trust me) [ History ] D (trust me) [ PE ] A+

extra: probably knows extensive history about his tribe but not the history of anything else attendance: 14 tardies, 15 official leaves, 0 sick leaves,11 unexcused absences

Aira: [ Math ] C ~ B+ [ Jap ] B+ [ Eng ] A- [ Sci ] B- ~ B+ [ History ] A- [ PE ] B+

extra: another average kid in school. definitely daydreams in class and falls asleep attendance: 10 tardies, 13 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 2 unexcused absences

Mayoi: [ Math ] D+ ~ B [ Jap ] A- [ Eng ] B- [ Sci ] C- ~ B- [ History ] B+ [ PE ] C

extra: in the walls and ceilings pretty much for most of the semester attendance: 18 tardies, 12 official leaves, 3 sick leaves, 53 unexcused absences

Tatsumi: [ Math ] B+ ~ A- [ Jap ] A+ [ Eng ] A- [ Sci ] B+ ~ A- [ History ] A- [ PE ] A

extra: not tapping into full academic potential i suspect attendance: 1 tardies, 15 official leaves, 0 sick leaves, 0 unexcused absences

.....

again AGAIN this is for FUN AND JOKES!!1 MEMES!!! LAUGHS ETC. sorry if its not canon compliant enough. i'll make a part for each agency

Deutschribing Germany

Education

Education in Germany is free and compulsory between ages six and sixteen. States (Länder) are largely responsible for education, with the federal government playing a minor role.

Types of schools

The vast majority of children attend state schools, but there are private schools (Ersatzschulen) as well. The latter have very low tuition fees and are also subsidized by the state, which effectively makes them privately-run schools funded by the state. Some are run by religious groups.

School terms

The school year is divided into two terms (from August to January and from February to July) and starts after the summer break, which differs from state to state but usually finishes in mid/end-August. Children have twelve weeks of vacation in addition to public holidays. Exact dates differ between states, but there are generally six weeks of summer vacation, two around Christmas, two around Easter, and two in the fall during the harvest season, since farmers used to need their children for field work.

Grades

The German grading system is as follows, from highest to lowest: sehr gut (1.0–1.5), gut (1.6–2.5), befriedigend (2.6–3.5), ausreichend (3.6–4.0), and nicht bestanden (4.1–5.0). The minimum to pass is four.

Levels

Preschool (Kindergarten)

Preschool education is neither mandatory nor free. Children between the ages of 2 and 6 attend Kindertagesstätte (Kita, “children’s daycare centers”). Many Kitas follow a certain educational approach, such as Montessori or Reggio Emilia.

Primary education (Primarstufe)

Primary education takes place in Grundschulen and generally lasts four years, from 6 to 10 years old. In Berlin and Brandenburg, it lasts six years.

Students are typically taught art, a foreign language (English or French), general studies (natural and social science), German, math, music, physical education, and religion or ethics.

Secondary education (Sekundarstufe)

Secondary education can take place in any of the following schools:

Gymnasium (grammar school) until grade 12 or 13 (ages 10–11 to 17–18/18–19), with Abitur as exit exam to qualify for university

Realschule (intermediate school) until grade 10 (ages 10–11 to 15–16), with Realschulabschluss

Hauptschule (secondary general school) until grade 9 or 10 (ages 10–11 to 14–15/15–16), with Hauptschulabschluss

Gesamtschule (comprehensive school) until grade 10 or 12/13 (ages 10–11 to 15–16 or 17–18/18–19)

The Gymnasium provides in-depth general education for university studies. Hauptschulen teach basic general education leading to vocational school or university entrance qualification. Realschule offers more extensive education than Hauptschule, leading to a vocational or university entrance qualification. A Gesamtschule combines all the aforementioned schools.

There are about twelve compulsory subjects in every grade: biology, chemistry, civics/social/political studies, up to three foreign languages, geography, German, history, math, music, physical education, physics, religion/ethics, and visual arts.

(F3 means Fremdsprache 3 [third foreign language], which is usually French or Spanish)

In grades 11–12/13, each student majors in two or three subjects (Leistungskurse), in which there are usually five lessons per week. The other subjects (Grundkurse) are usually taught three times a week.

Vocational training (Berufsbildung)

Vocational training lasts between two and three and a half years and can take place in any of the following types of school:

Berufsschule (vocational school): the standard type of vocational school, it prepares students for further vocational education or for a job in a profession. Apprentices attend school twice a week and spend the rest of the week working at a company, so they gain knowledge of theory and practice.

Berufsfachschule: similar to Berufsschule, it is aimed at people who want to study specific subjects, such as nursing or occupational therapy.

Fachoberschule (vocational high school): students who have obtained a Realschulabschluss or Hauptschulabschluss can attend a Fachoberschule, where they will specialize themselves in technology, economy, or administration and management, among other subjects. After completing the program, they can study for a university degree after passing the Abitur.

Berufsoberschule (upper vocational school): those who want to attend one need to have graduated from a Berufsschule. It provides in-depth education and training.

Higher education (Tertiärbereich)

To attend university, students need to pass the Abitur exams, of which at least one is oral. They are tested on four or five subjects, including their two or three Leistungskurse and two or three Grundkurse (German, math, and the first foreign language). All knowledge areas must be covered, including language, literature and the arts; social sciences; math, natural sciences and technology, and sports. Each semester of a subject studied in the final two years of Gymnasium yields up to fifteen points, where advanced courses may count double and final examinations count quadruple.

There are 380 universities in Germany, of which 114 are private. Public universities charge fees of around €150–350 per semester, which often include the cost of public transportation. Tertiary education institutions are classified into Universität or Hochschule. The former term is reserved for those which have the right to confer doctorates, in a similar distinction to universities and colleges in the United States. Fachhochschulen (Universities of Applied Sciences) are a type of Hochschule that concentrates on applied science and has a more practical profile with a focus on employability.

There are three types of admissions procedures for degree programs:

Free admissions: every applicant who fulfills the requirements is admitted. This is usually the case in programs in which many students quit, such as engineering, mathematics, or physics.

Local admission restrictions: only a limited number of places are available and students are admitting according to numerus clausus, whose criteria vary depending on the institution and the program but generally include the final grade of the Abitur, a weighted grade average that increases the weight of relevant school subjects, interviews, motivation letters, and/or letters of recommendation.

Nationwide admission restrictions: to study dentistry, medicine, pharmacy, or veterinary medicine, there is a nationwide numerus clausus in which applications are handled centrally for all universities.

There are three official university degrees: Bachelor (bachelor’s degree) takes three years to complete, Master (master’s degree) lasts two years, and Doktorat (doctoral degree or PhD) takes between two and five years.

Students can usually choose freely from all courses offered by the university, but all bachelor’s degree programs require a number of particular compulsory courses in the field of the study program.

Shadow High OCs Bio 4: Velia Trafford

COLOUR PALETTE: Bioluminescence

YEAR: Third

GENDER: Female

FOCUS: Visual Arts

STYLE: Eerie. Luminous. Thalassic.

QUOTE: “Don’t freak out when the abyss stares back.”

BIO: Raised by her aunt Doris and her husband, renowned marine biologist Dr. Trafford, Velia decided to take her own interest in the deep sea in a different direction. Having spent hours as a kid in her uncle’s lab sketching his most exotic specimens, she developed a talent for visual arts and a dark, otherworldly art style that was eventually noticed by Shadow High. She’s focusing in visual arts and continues to amaze her teachers and classmates with her speculative paintings and 3D-printed sculptures of the kind of nightmare-worthy sea life that lurks in the darkest depths of the ocean. She’s even added these ideas and motifs to her personal style (like her custom headband inspired by the lure of the anglerfish) so everybody knows she’s a force of darkness to be reckoned with. In spite of the unorthodox creative path she’s chosen, her aunt and uncle couldn’t be prouder of her.

OTHER:

-She’s 17 years old and from Delaware.

-Likes sci-fi, gaming, and loud rave music. Definitely has an emergency supply of glow sticks.

-She’s used to being called a nerd for her interest in marine biology and her tendency to stay indoors to draw or study, but she’s only recently begun to accept it and become proud of it. Revamping her look has definitely increased her confidence.

-The Storm Twins derisively nicknamed her “the creep from the deep”, which backfired as Velia actually likes the epithet and sometimes even uses it to refer to herself ironically.

-Recently she enrolled in an extra art chemistry class and joined the science club, with the aim of learning all she needs to know to create her own line of glow-in-the-dark paints. (She’s thinking about calling her brand “Lure”.)

-She’s not just passionate about the aesthetic of sea life, but their continued survival too. She spends her winter breaks doing art pieces for marine pollution awareness campaigns.

-Is good friends with Zooey Electra.

-She has a system where she treats herself to a new face piercing every time she gets an A on a test or project, and as a result has more piercings than almost everyone at Shadow High. It’s a great way to stay motivated, but she’s running out of areas to pierce…

-She and Coral Navarre (Rainbow High OC) are fans of each other’s work. Velia wants to be the chief set designer for Coral’s next ballet while Coral wants to design costumes based on Velia’s artworks.

long self-indulgent monologue on the piece i literally just posted below [to spare people the long end notes]

replication in reverse was inspired by:

how i felt and thought about the universe and my place in it at ages 17-19; i was lucky enough to be able to attend a series of incredible lectures by professional physicists my senior year of high school which made a longlasting impression on my mind. in particular i thought a lot about entropy and indeterminism. i still think a lot about both of those things now, actually.

my complete derangement over the beauty and tragedy of human life and mortality that i felt in 2018 while simultaneously taking cadaver anatomy and planning my wedding. there was something so visceral and raw to me about holding this person i love, this person i want to spend all of my remaining days with, and thinking about how many things had to go right for me to be able to have that. the human body is so, so unbelievably intricate; the biochemistry is stunning, and so is the cellular biology, and then even at a system level, the anatomy and physiology is mindblowing. yes yes we're made of star stuff etc etc but even more remarkably we are made of thirty trillion cells, flesh and bone and blood and organs. both of these things are insanely cool, to be clear. i just find the latter slightly more compelling to explore for my own personal reasons <3

grief and love being inescapably linked. i lost someone very dear to me about a year before i started writing for this ship. looking back on a lot of my writing, i've realized that, without me really thinking about it consciously, a huge amount of my stories from both death note and from my last fandom are about people trying to get more time with those they care about. not to get fucking contemplative in the end notes for my goddamn yaoi fic, but i don't think i've ever gotten over the realization that our time on earth is finite. it still makes me ache to think about. more than anything, i will always long for more time with the people i love. it'll never be enough, but it has to be.

i hope this doesn't come across as if i think i am uniquely profound or even very insightful; i don't want to pretend to be a great thinker or anything of the sort. i am just an insanely sensitive person who's spent ten years studying physics and biology and these are just my thoughts and feelings that have been stewing for a lot of that time. thoughts and feelings which i am, for some reason, choosing to express in the format of fanfiction for a second-class ship for a manga that came out twenty years ago :-) maybe some of them spoke to you in one way or another; if not, i hope you at least enjoyed the yaoi :3

Instead of starting a whole new speculative biology project like I tend to do, I decided to continue one I already have.  The one I selected is my Pangea Ultima project which speculates life on Earth 250 million years from now when all the continents have reformed into a super continent like they did 250 million years ago.  Where I left off on this project I was exploring the grasslands/plains on Pangea Ultima and in this post I'll showcase the (comparatively) smaller herbivores of this environment.

Plains Loper: Large descendants of crickets reaching 17 in in total body length, the Plains Lopers evolved elongated heads for reaching grasses as the wildebeest and antelope of the distant past have.  Their exoskeletons have become beetle-like to provide some protection from predators but will use their powerful hind legs to escape danger.

Grass Roach: Rivaling the largest roaches of today (at 4 in.), the Grass Roach evolved extra long legs positioned below there bodies to achieve great speeds and coloration that helps them blend in with the grasses that they feed on.

Armadillopod: Giant descendants of isopods (aka pill bugs/roly-polies), these heavily armored scavengers feed on decaying plant matter, roots, and even carcases left behind by predators.  If they feel threatened they will partially submerge themselves in the ground using their hook-like legs and barbed rim of their shells to hold themselves in place leaving only their remarkably durable shells exposed.

Prairie Ashbreather: Filling the ecological niche once filled by long extinct gophers and prairie dogs, the Prairie Ashbreathers dig elaborate tunnels below the grasslands with powerful claws feeding primarily on root systems though they will occasionally snag a Grass Roach if it's able to catch one.

As always, comments and critiques are welcome.

Friday, February 23, 2024

I am posting this on Saturday because H's mom needed to drop her off early since something came up on her end, so I never got the chance to post my Friday update. We had fun though. I still had my piano practice to do, so while I practiced, she worked on a few things that she needed to finish. On the other hand, she did say that my playing was beautiful, and I was elated to hear.

H also plays, but she goes back and forth between enjoying it and doing it because she wants to be done with it and her mom wants her to at least complete Level 10 and then if she wants to stop, she at least knows how to play extremely well in case she ever wants to come back to it in the future. I told H a while back when that was decided that I agreed with her Mom. It was good to at least have the knowledge as she didn't know what she would want in her future, so she plays often when she's in the mood and not often enough when she has no motivation. It works for her, so who am I to say anything?

I plan on doing ARCT and then I'll feel like I've mastered to where I want to be. I'm a completionist, and I actually do enjoy playing. It's why I'm trying to find more time. I want to finish by the time I finish my HS studies, but I also heard that I need ample time for the ARCT since it's a whole other level. If I pass my Level 9 exams, then I can start Level 10 and plan on completing that by the end 10th grade and then I would have two years to prepare for the ARCT exam. That's my plan anyway. My parents don't really care what I do as long I continue to enjoy playing. It's merely hard to find the time to practice! I can only do it by cutting short my supplemental study time, which I have done, but I don't really need a full 2-3 hours for that since I cut my reading down to only one extra book at a time instead of a supplemental book and a fun book along with assigned readings.

Am I doing too much? Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough at all.

It's time to practice again. I'll try to update about today (Saturday) a bit later.

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Reviewed solving systems of equations graphically + reviewed equations of parallel and perpendicular lines + learned to find the distance between a point and a line + learned to find the shortest distance between two parallel lines + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 16-18 vocabulary + read second part of chapter 26 of Emma by Jane Austen + read about understanding poetry + read about how to analyze poetry + read poems and marked figurative language identified + wrote a short poem using figurative language describing a scene from a photograph

Spanish 2 - Copied new vocabulary

Bible I - Read Joshua 17-18

World History - Watched lecture videos on what and why on the origins of WWI + started writing an essay describing how Balkan nationalism, entangling alliances, and militarism led to WWI (due Monday)

Biology with Lab - Finished my human impact presentation + presented to dad

PE/Health I - Read an article about resources for teen depression and stress

Foundations - Read the definition of resourcefulness + completed one minute creativity exercise + identified fallacies in stories and arguments

Piano - Practiced for two hours in one hour split sessions

Khan Academy - Completed World History Unit 6: Lesson 1 (parts 6-7) + completed High School Geometry Unit 6: Lesson 4 (parts 1-3) + Unit 6: Lesson 5 (some was assigned)

CLEP - None today

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 220-259 of My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron and finished the book

Chores - Dusted my bedroom, my bathroom, and the study + laundered my bedding

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Matthew 28)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

-

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful to have my friends over again tonight for a sleepover to get ready for our second to last cookie booth tomorrow.

Quote of the Day:

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.

-Wilma Rudolph

🎧Symphony Op. 11 No. 1 in D major (Overture; 'L'amant anonyme') 1. Allegro - Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

Splashdown! NASA’s Orion Returns to Earth After Historic Moon Mission NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:40 a.m. PST Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test. Splashdown is the final milestone of the Artemis I mission that began with a successful liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket Nov. 16, from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the course of 25.5 days, NASA tested Orion in the harsh environment of deep space before flying astronauts on Artemis II. “The splashdown of the Orion spacecraft – which occurred 50 years to the day of the Apollo 17 Moon landing – is the crowning achievement of Artemis I. From the launch of the world’s most powerful rocket to the exceptional journey around the Moon and back to Earth, this flight test is a major step forward in the Artemis Generation of lunar exploration,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “It wouldn’t be possible without the incredible NASA team. For years, thousands of individuals have poured themselves into this mission, which is inspiring the world to work together to reach untouched cosmic shores. Today is a huge win for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity.” During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth, to intentionally stress systems before flying crew. “With Orion safely returned to Earth we can begin to see our next mission on the horizon which will fly crew to the Moon for the first time as a part of the next era of exploration,” said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “This begins our path to a regular cadence of missions and a sustained human presence at the Moon for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars.” Prior to entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsive powerhouse provided by ESA (European Space Agency). During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown. During the flight test, Orion stayed in space longer than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has done without docking to a space station. While in a distant lunar orbit, Orion surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13. “Orion has returned from the Moon and is safely back on planet Earth,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. “With splashdown we have successfully operated Orion in the deep space environment, where it exceeded our expectations, and demonstrated that Orion can withstand the extreme conditions of returning through Earth’s atmosphere from lunar velocities.” Recovery teams are now working to secure Orion for the journey home. NASA leads the interagency landing and recovery team on the USS Portland, which consists of personnel and assets from the U.S. Department of Defense, including Navy amphibious specialists, Space Force weather specialists, and Air Force specialists, as well as engineers and technicians from NASA Kennedy, the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations. In the coming days, Orion will return to shore where technicians will offload the spacecraft and transfer it by truck back to Kennedy. Once at Kennedy, teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Next, the capsule and its heat shield will undergo testing and analysis over the course of several months. Artemis I was the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems - the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and the supporting ground systems - and was supported by thousands of people around the world, from contractors who built the spacecraft and rocket, and the ground infrastructure needed to launch them, to international and university partners, to small businesses supplying subsystems and components. Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone for astronauts on the way to Mars.

Ea, Our Second Chance (Index)

A masterpost for the speculative biology project I’ve been working on-and-off for a few years now. Ea is a roughly Earth-like planet settled in the late 21st century by a single one-way starship carrying 10,000 people from Earth. Three centuries later, the human population has grown into the millions, and is now chiefly divided between the nations that emerged from a recent global war. The inhabitants of these nations, which have structured themselves after radically different politics and philosophies, try their best to make sense of this alien, yet somewhat familiar, planet; to balance the survival of humankind and Earth’s heritage with that of their strange new home; and, despite everything, to live with each other.

> 0. Introduction > 1. Utu’s solar system > 2a. Tectonics and surface features > 2b. Meteorology and climate > 2c. Life on the planet > 2d. Ea: the human presence > 3. South of the Dagon sea > 4. Earth, 2070 > 5. Ea’s biosphere, two centuries later > 6a. The starship > 6b. The Commander > 7. Ean Biochemistry > 8. Fuscophyta: Ea’s black plants > 9. The Descent > 10a. Eucytobionta (part 1/3, cell structure) > 10b. Eucytobionta (part 2/3, unicellular diversity) > 10c. Eucytobionta (part 3/3, biotechnology) > 11. The early days > 12. Species study: the Kurukshetran springbear > 13. Anatomy of Diplostomia > 14. Reproduction of Haematophyta > 15. Dissection of trepangfish > 16. Heraldry > 17. The Leaders > 18. Origins and structure of the Pentamera > 19. The Flagbugs (Semiopoda) > 20. The Giant Thing > ...

(to be continued)

about me:

u can call me dippy or dip

i am currently 17, turning 18 this year

male, he/him

not human

i am gay, aroace, and greyplatonic

i am autistic, with adhd and mental illnesses

disabled

digital artist

furry

embodiment of "erm actually" and i have a chronic stick up my ass

certified discord mod

i have the rude flavor of autism, i come off as passive aggressive but i am just blunt and genuine. i also have issues with empathy and tone, i take everything seriously and at face value

interests:

cartoons:

ed edd n eddy

TMNT (rise, 2012, and mutant mayhem)

pinky and the brain

metalocalypse

regular show

invader zim

futurama

craig of the creek

kick buttowski

out there 2013

catscratch

rick and morty

solar opposites

whatever happened to robot jones

smiling friends

gravity falls

other media:

criminal minds

undertale and deltarune

freaks and geeks

DHMIS

the nightmare before christmas

beastars

young sheldon

mr. robot

blorbos:

topher bus - clone high - kin

toki wartooth - metalocalypse - kin

duck - DHMIS - kin

donnie - ROTTMNT - kin

raph - 2012 TMNT - kin

ed - ed edd n eddy

papyrus - undertale

rigby - regular show

bender - futurama

waffle - catscratch

giovanni potage - epithet erased

music:

favorite genres: rock, metal, folk punk, midwest emo, alternative/indie, losercore

favorite artists: ICP, harley poe, AJJ, jack stauber, three days grace, korn, MSI, slipknot, avenged sevenfold, thousand foot krutch, rob zombie, lil darkie, linkin park, system of a down, the front bottoms, mccafferty, lemon demon, set it off, weezer, radiohead, pierce the veil, seether, black veil brides, escape the fate, crywank, deftones, modern baseball, will wood, glass animals, dethklok

other interests/likes:

sciences: sociology, psychology, psychopathology, biology (human and animal), astronomy, ecology, pathology, anthropology, paleobiology, archeology

linguistics, semantics, dialect, grammar, etymology, obsolete words, currently learning spanish and hebrew

philosophy and politics

sci-fi, fantasy, cryptids, scp, mythology

prehistory: i love the early paleozoic era the most (cambrian), but i also like dinosaurs and other extinct things

animals: i like animal biology, relationships, etc. marine animals are my favorites (especially jellyfish and cephalopods)

clowns/clowncore: i like classic circus clowns, jesters, mimes, all the way to scary clowns, i like ICP, the joker, pennywise, i like circuses and carnivals in general as well. i also enjoy magic tricks and performance art

coffee

puns and shitty word play

eyesore art, psychedelics, things that glow in the dark, colored lights, trippy shit

collecting: rocks, bones, animal things (teeth, feathers, etc), shells, cool shaped glass and bottles, random blue things

taxidermy, graffiti, stop motion animation, and puppetry are art forms i enjoy but do not make

art/animated gore, violence, cannibalism, upsetting themes i guess?

dislikes:

astrology, fate, etc

guessing or gambling

all asmr

role playing (participating)

most live action sitcoms

reality tv, talk shows, game shows

most anime

most sex jokes/toilet humor

social rules/norms (i do not follow them)

sleeping

Tale of 10 chapter 6

1. The group of boys Continued to ride. Jesse Took a very deep breath. He looked at the scene around him and took note of the damages to the rv. Admittedly it wasnt as bad as it could be considering what happened.

2. It still didnt make Dj feel any better apon seeing one of his oldest freinds looking so distraught. This RV was Jesses home. He worked since he was 15 for this truck. He almost dropped out junior year to keep his job.

3. Dj walked over to his old freind."If theres anything i can do please tell me jess." Jesse just smiled." I love this thing. But thats all it is brother just a thing. Id rather lose it then you guys."

4. In silent agreement Rick an josè nodded there heads."yeah an besides we can always help fix it." José said cheerfully. Jesse raised a brow."you know how to replace a dashboard broken windshelid an numrous holes along the back?"

5. Jose chuckled nervously "well we can always watch you do it." Jess rolled his eyes." Thats what I thought now lets figure this out" jess pointed at Dj.

6. Two hours later. Progress had been slow. Rick had been trying to focus on how Djs biology worked. Honestly he had no clue." My best guess is you're currently some sort of alien. "

7. Everyone sorta just looked at him confused."how did you come up with that one Sherlock?" José asked sarcastically. Rick sighed." Well, those robot things seemed to come from space. An im guessing they were after you since I dont see any other reason to attack."

8.while not satifyed the boys accepted it as jesse started tapping hard on the hourglass symbol." Jess you good dude?"Dj asked. Jess didnt awnser right away but spoke after a minute or two."I think you should be able to push this down but it looks stuck."

9. Dj nodded before thinking for a moment. He then started repeatedly smacking the symbol. After a few minutes a red flash blinded everyone before everyone saw the form of Dj.

10. Dj looked down observing his body. Everything seemed normal even his cloths were back untill he look as his wrist. There on his wrist was a green an black watch. The frimliar hour glass symbol was also present. However parts of the watch looked damaged.

11. The hourglass symbol had a noticeable crack although its was faint an didn't distort the symbol. Some parts looked to have exposed wiring. As if the covering had been removed. But most noticble part was that something was effecting the skin around Djs arm. Little, thick, green, square ,like lines. It almost looked like a tattoo of some sort.

12. It made Dj feel uncomfortable. He immediately reach for it. Attempting to rip it off him. He struggled for a minute before his face went pale. Rick then noticed djs face as jose an jesse inspected the rest of djs body for any injuries. "Hey buddy uh whats wrong?" Rick asked as Dj stared at him.

13. Jose an Jesse were now concerned as well. "Hola hermano ¿estás bien? Estamos preocupados por ti. ...Te ves pálido" José questioned. Jesse shook his freind slightly trying to get him to react.

14. Finally he spoke. "Its stuck." The boys all go quiet. "Its fused to MY FUCKING SKIN!!!!" Dj started to scream while waving his arm wildly while the boys try to calm him.

15. After nearly an hour of panicked screaming the boys gather around Dj. At this point the boys had been trying to remove the watch using various tools most of witch were broken. The boys were now trying something new

16."Guys this is a bad idea." Said Dj as jose attached jummper cables to the watch. Rick an Jesse looked back at there freind an shrugged. "Its fine our plan is solid" Rick then chimed in. "Its this or the hacksaw.". Dj gulped. "Hey dont worry man I got only one arm an im fine."

17. " I still don't like this I dont care what happens to me but what if you guys get hurt trying to hack this thing.!" Jesse just laughed. "Dont worry besides were not hacking anything were gonna use ricks laptop to create a electrical feedback loop. Witch will hopefully cause a system overload loop to shut down whats restraining you."

18. Dj an jose give him a blank stare. Rick sighs an face palm. "Doctor redneck here is trying to fry the watch." The two nod. "Yeah frying the alien watch still sounds like a bad idea. I just don't want my best freinds getting vaporized. " dj said before he sighed." But I can't really stop you from helping."

19."Dam right now lets fry some bacon!" Yelled jesse as he started. The computer humed to life along with the watch. Jose and ruck kept a hand around each clamp incase the needed to stop.

20. Dj tryed his best to stay calm. Jose smiled "see essay were good nothing can go wrong." Rick jesse an dj gave him a stink eye as the watcu started to glow. "You just had to say it." Said dj. Jesses panicked an started to press the keys quickly. "Shit! Get thoses off him! Now!"

21. without hesitation the boys started to pull hard but soon found the clamps were stuck."Guys forget me run!" Jose pulled harded the vain in his arm showing. " HELL NO. Were brothers amigo! We wont leave you behind!"

22. Rick strained as well pulling with both hands. "It will be a cold day in hell before we abadon- whats happing to our hands?" In response José looked down at his hand an noticed it was turning a dark green while ricks were turning black.

23. They looked to jesse who held up two unnaturally white hands before a green light took over there vision. A Shockwave of green energy erupted from the watch an knocked them unconscious.

24. Meanwhile far off in space on the planet Galvin prime.

25.A small 3 inch gray alien in green robes tinkered away. He have a smirk on his face as the small machine came to life. It looked like a mechanical spider. "Theses new drones should make repairs easier. Of course this is only a prototype."

26.As the alien admired his work another alien rushed in yelling nonsense as he tryed to get the others attention. This alien wore a lab coat with large oversized googles.

27. The first alien sighed. "Darwin please I know taking the role as my new assistant has gotten you nervous but I cant understand you. Witch is saying something as I know over 12000 different languages. At least breathe"

28. The alien took a deep breathe. "My apologies first thinker asmuth. But its happened. The omnitrix is back online. An I think it done something to earth."

29. Dawrin handed a tablet to asmuth. The first thinker sighed." It seems the past is catching up with us. It looks like someone tryed overloading the omnitrix but only cuased it to release a wave of dna across the planet. This is very bad. I must seek audience with the guardians of Oa an gain permission to one again return to earth.

30. Darwin gulped. "First thinker they banned you from returning after the incident. " asmuth chuckled "its only an incident if i did something on accident. Whatever the case earth is in grave danger. I only hope the new guardian is as worthy as Tennyson. May his gods watch over him. Because i doubt were the only ones who took notice."

Is there Pokehistory classes? Asking for future reference, I’m on a personal journey to try and prove the Ruinous Pokémon exist, and I feel this may help. Or if you know any possible info, that’d be appreciated too! (@Poketablet-venturer)

There are! Paldea's Naranja-Uva Academy (Ive picked up that the younger students will pick a fruit based on their assigned section and stick with it, but us older uni level students hav been calling it Naruva for a while now) has history lessons at all levels!

Though it depends on your level, really. If you're enrolled in the school at a younger age (11-17) for standard school time, you'll be going over more general history, while only briefly touching on Pokémon specifically. However, once you reach 18 and you start degree level work, you can definitely specify!

I've got a buddy doing a degree in Pokémon History at the moment! I've asked them and done a bit of research, and last year their modules were as follows:

• An Introduction to History

• Hands-on History: Sources and their Historians

(both classes are shared between general history and Pokémon history students)

• Pokémon Myths and Legends (a class focused on legendary Pokémon and mythicals)

• Pokémon Legends and Myths (a hilariously similar name, this module is about stories based around Pokémon and how they affect and shape cultures, for example the Darkest Day in Galar and how the energies created by this ancient powerful creature made Pokémon massive and the rightful king of Galar vanquished the creature and harnessed its power into energy so that Pokémon could continue being massive, just only in certain places and only for a little bit, as a treat.)

• The Basics of Archaeology: Preserving the Past

• An introduction to Pokémon biology

Side note: we also had a class with this name in the Pokéology degree scheme, but it has a different module code (BR-16320 for us and HY-86520 for the history guys) and teachers. While ours went in-depth about how Pokémon biological systems work, such as breathing, diets, evolution methods, and slow-evolution, it's my understanding that the module in the history department goes over the basics in terms of historical findings.

This includes but is not limited to: how different types of Pokémon are preserved, the basics of evolution and how it was seen by ancient cultures, and slow-evolution, since having a basic idea of how to recognise and research past ancestors of the Pokémon we have today is important to knowing what sorts of Pokémon were important to past cultures.

I've got to say, I'm fascinated by your theory of the ruinous Pokémon being real! I've not really thought about it myself, but I'm curious as to what you plan on doing if you find them! The stories are about how human selfishness and cruelty brought them to life, and how they're suffering because it's all that they know, and they think the humanity is cruel and unkind always, so I'd hope that your mission after finding them is to teach them that that isn't the case :)

From what I've heard, they're sealed away using some ancient chain? There's a couple sets of ruins out of the way in paldea that nobody can get into, not with the usual methods or by Pokémon means. I've heard not even teleporting Pokémon can get inside. The story states that the king who sealed them away hid the keys to the seals all throughout the region. Since there were four Pokémon, there are four chambers, and four sets of seals, I dunno how many seals there are, but it's a start to go off of! The history teacher here who's name I can never remember is very scary, but she loves this shit from what I can recall. If you come here, definitely speak to her about it.

All in all, I really recommend this place! Naruva is genuinely such a fun environment when you're doing your degree here, the staff in the school are lovely, and Mesagoza is a really nice city to live in for that first year. I'm in a little house just in the outskirts this year, so I get the best of both worlds in terms of walking distance and peace and quiet.

But anyway!! I hope this gave you a bit of insight into what you might be studying here if you choose to take your degree in Pokémon history!

Interesting Papers for Week 43, 2022

Development of updating in working memory in 4–7-year-old children. Cheng, C., & Kibbe, M. M. (2022). Developmental Psychology, 58(5), 902–912.

Human adults prefer to cooperate even when it is costly. Curioni, A., Voinov, P., Allritz, M., Wolf, T., Call, J., & Knoblich, G. (2022). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1973).

Context coding in the mouse nucleus accumbens modulates motivationally relevant information. Gmaz, J. M., & van der Meer, M. A. A. (2022). PLOS Biology, 20(4), e3001338.

Modulation of inhibitory communication coordinates looking and reaching. Hagan, M. A., & Pesaran, B. (2022). Nature, 604(7907), 708–713.

Texture-like representation of objects in human visual cortex. Jagadeesh, A. V., & Gardner, J. L. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(17), e2115302119.

Optimizing interneuron circuits for compartment-specific feedback inhibition. Keijser, J., & Sprekeler, H. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(4), e1009933.

Information transmission in recurrent networks: Consequences of network noise for synchronous and asynchronous signal encoding. Knoll, G., & Lindner, B. (2022). Physical Review E, 105(4), 044411.

Controlling synchronization of gamma oscillations by astrocytic modulation in a model hippocampal neural network. Makovkin, S., Kozinov, E., Ivanchenko, M., & Gordleeva, S. (2022). Scientific Reports, 12, 6970.

Oxytocin modulates neurocomputational mechanisms underlying prosocial reinforcement learning. Martins, D., Lockwood, P., Cutler, J., Moran, R., & Paloyelis, Y. (2022). Progress in Neurobiology, 213, 102253.

Methylphenidate as a causal test of translational and basic neural coding hypotheses. Ni, A. M., Bowes, B. S., Ruff, D. A., & Cohen, M. R. (2022). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(17), e2120529119.

Receptive field estimation in large visual neuron assemblies using a super-resolution approach. Pamplona, D., Hilgen, G., Hennig, M. H., Cessac, B., Sernagor, E., & Kornprobst, P. (2022). Journal of Neurophysiology, 127(5), 1334–1347.

Calcium modeling of spine apparatus-containing human dendritic spines demonstrates an “all-or-nothing” communication switch between the spine head and dendrite. Rosado, J., Bui, V. D., Haas, C. A., Beck, J., Queisser, G., & Vlachos, A. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(4), e1010069.

Neuronal origins of reduced accuracy and biases in economic choices under sequential offers. Shi, W., Ballesta, S., & Padoa-Schioppa, C. (2022). eLife, 11, e75910.

Mesoscopic landscape of cortical functions revealed by through-skull wide-field optical imaging in marmoset monkeys. Song, X., Guo, Y., Li, H., Chen, C., Lee, J. H., Zhang, Y., … Wang, X. (2022). Nature Communications, 13, 2238.

Arousal state affects perceptual decision-making by modulating hierarchical sensory processing in a large-scale visual system model. Sörensen, L. K. A., Bohté, S. M., Slagter, H. A., & Scholte, H. S. (2022). PLOS Computational Biology, 18(4), e1009976.

Revealing directed effective connectivity of cortical neuronal networks from measurements. Sun, C., Lin, K. C., Yeung, C. Y., Ching, E. S. C., Huang, Y.-T., Lai, P.-Y., & Chan, C. K. (2022). Physical Review E, 105(4), 044406.

Examining mechanistic explanations for ideomotor effects. Sun, D., Custers, R., Marien, H., Liefooghe, B., & Aarts, H. (2022). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 48(5), 458–466.

The Development of Receptive Field Tuning Properties in Mouse Binocular Primary Visual Cortex. Tan, L., Ringach, D. L., & Trachtenberg, J. T. (2022). Journal of Neuroscience, 42(17), 3546–3556.

Dopamine influences attentional rate modulation in Macaque posterior parietal cortex. van Kempen, J., Brandt, C., Distler, C., Bellgrove, M. A., & Thiele, A. (2022). Scientific Reports, 12, 6914.

Motor Plans under Uncertainty Reflect a Trade-Off between Maximizing Reward and Success. Wong, A. L., Green, A. L., & Isaacs, M. W. (2022). eNeuro, 9(2).

day 17: silent tears

i wrote this at 2am after downing a monster energy drink and i have no idea if it makes any sense. however i was out all day so! here it is anyway

characters: Gordon

additional warnings: house fire, smoke inhalation, descriptions of drowning

________

Gordon was a big ocean guy. That was an immutable fact about him. Even when he was a teeny tiny kid toddling around he’d been fascinated by all bodies of water and everything that lived in them. One of Jeff’s favourite stories of the boys’ childhoods had been the time that five-year-old Gordon had wandered off at the zoo and sent the entire family into a panic - until he’d been found, safe and sound, entranced by the stingray tank in the aquarium. He could still remember the soft blue glow of the lights in the water, the hypnotic movement of the creatures as they swam lazily by.

The childhood interest evolved into a fascination with marine biology. Gordon was shit at physics and math - at least compared with his brothers, all of whom were absolute nerds and majored in either math or a math-based subject - but he was excellent at biology and good at chemistry. Birthday and Christmas presents were overwhelmingly sea-animal-themed. His love of swimming came as a surprise to absolutely no one. Before his last-minute enlistment in WASP, he’d planned to major in marine biology too.

This was all a very long-winded way of saying that Gordon was very much an ocean guy. He’d lived in and around water for his entire life, what with swimming and WASP and now as operator of Thunderbird Four.

He was very much not a fire guy.

Which was unfortunate, given that he was completely unprotected and disoriented in the middle of a house fire.

Either the sprinkler system had failed completely, or the house owners hadn't installed one in the first place. The smoke was curling too thickly for Gordon to figure out which was true. Orange flame licked at the doors on the north-east and south-west walls; the light fractured and splintered amidst the smoke, smothering the room in dim amber and recreating exactly what Gordon always imagined hell would look like. 

Heat prickled over his body and pooled under his skin, sweat sticking his clothes to him. It was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. There was a third exit in the room he was currently in, one that he was moving towards even as the fire ate away at the door. The fire wasn't his biggest worry right now. That was the smoke. Gordon was keeping as low as he could and had torn a strip of fabric off his t-shirt to hold over his mouth and nose to try and keep it out of his lungs, but they were only stop-gap measures for a problem that was getting more serious by the minute. His eyes stung from the heat and the smoke, tears cutting tracks through the soot likely coating his face and blurring his vision. His breath rattled in his chest.

Gordon was an ocean guy. He knew that drowning was one of, if not the most painful and drawn-out ways to die. The increased desperation of trying to hold your breath for just a few seconds more in the hopes of another breath that will never come is consistent across many accounts of near drowning experiences. The brain holds out for at least 87 seconds before it finally gives in, the dangers of carbon dioxide poisoning and lack of oxygen greater than the danger of taking that next breath, regardless of the water that inevitably floods the lungs. Still more time elapses before death as the victim gradually loses consciousness.

In comparison, dying from smoke inhalation seems tame. Sure, the dizziness and stuff sucked, but he'll be unconscious before any of the serious symptoms finally takes him out. It's more peaceful. More humane - if you could call it that.

But Gordon almost prefers the thought of dying underwater. It's more fitting, somehow, that the one thing that has been one of the only constants in his life would be the thing to end it. He doesn't want to die here, alone in a fire in some house that he's never been in before and had never planned to come back to again.

So Gordon grits his teeth and pushes himself onwards, through the heat and the smoke, blinking away the tears that still blur his vision. 

He's not dying here. He refuses to.

Known COVID-19 Health Complications

Last Updated September 8, 2023

Repeat Infections

Summary: Repeat infections, even if mild during the acute phase, cause cumulative damage to the body and increase your risk of developing health complications or Long COVID. You should aim to limit the number of times you are infected as much as possible, even if you are not currently high risk (Note: Health complications post-COVID-19 infection can make you high risk) and have been vaccinated.

Published Research

Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection | Nature Medicine Bowe, B., Xie, Y, & Al-Aly, Z. (2022).

Articles & Reports

Repeat COVID-19 infections increase risk of organ failure, death – Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (wustl.edu) Sauerwein, K. (2022).

Why Getting COVID-19 Multiple Times Is Risky For Your Health | Time Park, A. (2022).

Heart & Cardiovascular Damage

Summary: COVID-19 increases your risk of heart failure, heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolism, palpitations, arrhythmia, myocarditis, blood clots (thrombosis), etc. post-infection. Inflammation during the acute phase of a COVID-19 infection can damage the heart and blood vessels.

“Risks and 12-month burdens of incident post-acute COVID-19 cardiovascular outcomes in participants without any history of cardiovascular outcomes prior to COVID-19 exposure compared to the contemporary control cohort.” (Xie et al., 2022)

Published Research

Core mitochondrial genes are down-regulated during SARS-CoV-2 infection of rodent and human hosts | Science Translational Medicine Guarnieri, J. W., Dybas, J. M., ... Wallace, D. C. (2023).

Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 - PMC (nih.gov) Xie, Y., Xu, E., Bowe, B., & Al-Aly, Z. (2022).

Articles & Reports

Blood Clotting Proteins Might Help Predict Long COVID Brain Fog - Scientific American Reardon, S. (2023, September 1).

SARS-CoV-2 can damage mitochondrion in heart, other organs, study finds | CIDRAP (umn.edu) Van Beusekom, M. (2023, August 9).

Your vascular system and COVID | Heart and Stroke Foundation Heart and Stroke Foundation. (2023).

COVID, heart disease and stroke | Heart and Stroke Foundation Heart and Stroke Foundation. (2023, April 17).

How does coronavirus affect your heart? - BHF British Heart Foundation. (2023, March 21).

COVID-19 and Heart Damage: What You Should Know (clevelandclinic.org) Cleveland Clinic. (2022, May 10).

Heart Problems after COVID-19 | Johns Hopkins Medicine Post, W. S., & Gilotra, N. A. (2022).

COVID and the Heart: It Spares No One | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health (jhu.edu) Desmon, S., & Al-Aly, Z. (2022, March 14).

COVID-19 takes serious toll on heart health—a full year after recovery | Science | AAAS Wadman, M. (2022, February 9).

Brain & Neurological Damage

Summary: COVID-19 infection increases your risk of developing cognitive impairments, mental health issues, poor memory, early onset dementia, and permanent loss of smell due to brain damage and the atrophy of brain matter. "Brain fog" and problems concentrating are common complaints post-infection that have also been linked to brain damage. Damage to blood vessels due to inflammation during the infection may be responsible for this by restricting oxygen flow to the brain. COVID-19 may also directly infect the brain.

Published Research

Biology | Free Full-Text | Vascular Dysfunctions Contribute to the Long-Term Cognitive Deficits Following COVID-19 (mdpi.com) Shabani, Z., Liu, J., & Su, H. (2023).

Frontiers | COVCOG 2: Cognitive and Memory Deficits in Long COVID: A Second Publication From the COVID and Cognition Study (frontiersin.org) Guo, P., Ballesteros, B. A., Yeung, S. P., Liu, R., Saha, A., Curtis, L., Kaser, M., Haggard, M. P., & Cheke, L. G. (2022).

COVID-19 and cognitive impairment: neuroinvasive and blood‒brain barrier dysfunction - PMC (nih.gov) Chen, Y., Yang, W., Chen, F., & Cui, L. (2022).

Comparison of post-COVID depression and major depressive disorder | medRxiv Perlis, R. H., Santillana, M., Ognyanova, K., Green, J., Druckman, J., Lazer, D., & Baum, M. A. (2021).

Articles & Reports

Long COVID May Impair Memory, Cognition for Months (healthline.com) Rossiaky, D. (2022).

COVID Variants Can Affect the Brain in Different Ways - Neuroscience News (2023).

The hidden long-term cognitive effects of COVID-19 - Harvard Health Budson, A. E. (2021). Harvard Medical School.

Long Covid: Even mild Covid is linked to damage to the brain months after infection (nbcnews.com) Ryan, B. (2022). NBC News.

COVID-19 Can Affect the Brain Even Long After an Infection | Time Ducharme, J. (2023). Time.

Lung Damage

Summary: COVID-19 infections can cause lung damage or scarring, and can trigger pneumonia, bronchitis, ARDS, and sepsis. Additionally, some people experience shortness of breath (dyspnea) and difficulty exercising as a post-acute sequela after infection, or multiple infections.

Published Research

At a crossroads: COVID-19 recovery and the risk of pulmonary vascular disease - PMC (nih.gov) Cascino, T. M., Desai, A. A., & Kanthi, Y. (2021).

[Pulmonary manifestations in long COVID] - PubMed (nih.gov) Sommer, N., & Schmeck, B. (2022).

Residual Lung Abnormalities after COVID-19 Hospitalization: Interim Analysis of the UKILD Post-COVID-19 Study - PubMed (nih.gov) Stewart, I., Jacob, J., George, P. M., Molyneaux, P. L., Porter, J. C., Allen, R. J., Aslani, S., Baillie, J. K., Barratt, S. L., Beirne, P., Bianchi, S. M., Blaikley, J. F., ...Jenkins, G. R. (2023).

Articles & Reports

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may cause long-term lung damage - UPI.com HealthDay News. (2022). United Press International.

COVID-19 Lung Damage | Johns Hopkins Medicine Galiatsatos, P. (2022).

Immune System & Autoimmune Diseases

Summary: COVID-19 infection can impair the functioning of your immune system. This means that those who have previously been infected are potentially immunocompromised (higher risk). For some people, the way COVID-19 impairs their immune system results in the onset of autoimmune diseases.

“Elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines that persist more than 8 months following convalescence.” (Phetsouphanh et al., 2022)

“Crude incidence of each autoimmune disease by COVID-19 and non-COVID groups.” (Peng et al., 2023)

Published Research

Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection | Nature Immunology Phetsouphanh, C., Darley, D. R., Wilson, D. B., Howe, A., Munier, M. L., Patel, S. K., Juno, J. A., Burrell, L. M., Kent, S. J., Dore, G. J., ... & Matthews, G. V. (2022).

Long-term perturbation of the peripheral immune system months after SARS-CoV-2 infection | BMC Medicine | Full Text (biomedcentral.com) Ryan, F. J., Hope, C. M., Masavuli, M. G., Lynn, M. A., Mekonnen, Z. A., Yeow, A. E. L., Garcia-Valtanen, P., Al-Delfi, Z., Gummow, J., Furguson, C., ... Lynn, D. J. (2022).

Risk of autoimmune diseases following COVID-19 and the potential protective effect from vaccination: a population-based cohort study - eClinicalMedicine (thelancet.com) Peng, K., Li, X., Yang, D., Chan, S. C. W., Zhou, J., & Wan, E. Y. F. (2023).

Long-term perturbation of the peripheral immune system months after SARS-CoV-2 infection | BMC Medicine | Full Text (biomedcentral.com) Winheim, E., Rinke, L., Lutz, K., Reischer, A., Leutbecher, A., Wolfram, L., Rausch, L., Kranich, J., Wratil, P. R., Huber, J. E., Baumjohann, D., ... Krug, A. B. (2021).

Articles & Reports

How COVID-19 Changes the Immune System | Time Park, A. (2023, August 18).

How COVID-19 alters the immune system -- ScienceDaily ScienceDaily. (2021, October 28).

Impacts of COVID on the immune system (medicalxpress.com) Herrero, L. (2022, September 19).

COVID-19's impact on the immune system, and how this may affect subsequent infections - ABC News Smith, B. (2022, December 1).

COVID-19 can derange immune system; survivors have autoimmune diseases (usatoday.com) Szabo, L. (2021, March 2).

Long COVID & PASC

Summary: Long COVID is an umbrella term that refers to the onset of disabling symptoms/conditions resulting from any of the previously mentioned organ, immune system, and vascular damage sustained during infection. These conditions are also referred to as "post-acute sequelae of COVID-19" (PASC). Vaccination can reduce the damage experienced by decreasing inflammation during an infection, but Long COVID/PASC can affect anyone. This is especially true in the case of multiple infections. Your risk of developing Long COVID, or worse/new symptoms, increases with each additional infection.

“Cumulative incidence and DALYs of postacute sequelae overall and by organ system at 2 years after infection.” (Bowe et al., 2023)

Published Research

T cell apoptosis characterizes severe Covid-19 disease - PubMed (nih.gov) André, S., Picard, M., Cezar, R., Roux-Dalvai, F., Alleaume-Butaux, A., Soundaramourty, C., Cruz, A. S., Mendes-Frias, A., Gotti, C., … Estaquier, J. (2022).

SARS-CoV-2 reservoir in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) | Nature Immunology Proal, A. D., VanElzakker, M. B., Aleman, S., Bach, K., Boribong, B. P., Buggert, M., Cherry, S., Chertow, D. S., Davies, H. E., Dupont, C. L., ... Wherry, E. J. (2023).

The immunology of long COVID | Nature Reviews Immunology Altmann, D. M., Whettlock, E. M., Liu, S., Arachchillage, D. J., & Boyton, R. J. (2023).

Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations | Nature Reviews Microbiology Davis, H. E., McCorkell, L., Vogel, J. M., & Topol, E. J. (2023).

Long COVID prevalence and impact on quality of life 2 years after acute COVID-19 | Scientific Reports (nature.com) Kim, Y., Bae, S., Chang, H., & Kim, S. (2023).

Postacute sequelae of COVID-19 at 2 years | Nature Medicine Bowe, B., Xie, Y., & Al-Aly, Z. (2023).

Articles & Reports

Long COVID | NIH COVID-19 Research National Institutes of Health. (2023, June 8).

Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions | CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, July 20).

The Most Important Question About Long COVID | Harvard Medical School Pesheva, K. (2023, August 9).

Nearly One in Five American Adults Who Have Had COVID-19 Still Have "Long COVID" (cdc.gov) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, June 22).

Lesson 4

Today let's look at the German school system! I'm gonna tell you a bit about how it's built up.

Kindergarten (3-5/6/7 years):

First of, before going to school, children visit Kindergarten (yay to that name you use too xD). There they play, learn basics of social life... Pretty much the same as your Kindergarten I think.

Grundschule (5/6/7-11/12 years):

I guess it's similar to your primary school. Children learn the first school subjects. The subjects are teaching the basic stuff. Mathematics, German, sports, art, Sachkunde (it's basically biology, physics, geography... all in one), music... In 3rd grade English starts and the children learn their first different language.

Moving on there are two school forms:

Oberschule or Gymnasium (11/12 years-17/18 years):

The Oberschule only goes to 9th or 10th grade. Back in my school days they were two different forms (Hauptschule (9th grade) and Realschule (10th grade)), but there was a fusion and now they are one. I was in Realschule and when I finished with a good enough certificate, I could go to Gymnasium.

The Gymnasium has the highest expectations of their students. If you want to study at a university in Germany, you have to visit Gymnasium and get your Abitur.

Both school forms basically teach the same subjects, but the level is different. And you learn/ can learn a third language (mostly it's French, Spanish or Latin).

After school, you can either make an apprenticeship somewhere or you can go to university...

Universität (as long as you need/want to):

At the university you can study different subjects and make your Bachelor or Master. Guess that's pretty similar to your universities, right?

So... that's it for today~