Monthly Archives: January 2022

Chinas Global Times, a state-controlled publication, asserted this week thatHollywood will destroy itself as it continues to embrace political correctness with an increasingly lunatic fervor.

The state-run media outlet cited the recent decision to exclude author J.K. Rowling from the Harry Pottermovie anniversary celebration due to her comments on transgender individuals, as well as the Academy Awards new diversity quotas, which require ethnic minority representation for best picture consideration.

If Hollywood continues down this road, it will dig its own grave and destroy its reputation one day, the Global Times predicted.

The scathing article comes as Beijing is blocking more Hollywood blockbusters from being released in Chinese cinemas in a bid to boost the domestic movie industry. Movies including Disney-Marvels Black Widow, The Eternals, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings still do not have release dates in China at press time.

China has surpassed the U.S. as the largest movie market in the world, thanks in large part to the coronavirus pandemic. The top two biggest grossing movies worldwide this year are both from China: the Korean War epicThe Battle at Lake Changjin which promotes anti-American sentiment while lionizingCommunist dictator Mao Zedong and the time-traveling comedy Hi, Mom.

Other Hollywood movies are flopping at the Chinese box office, with Disneys Jungle Cruise andWarner Bros. Wonder Woman 1984failing to generate much interest with local audiences.

The Global Times noted that Chinese netizens are mocking the J.K. Rowling controversy as a joke.

Yes, this is ironic: a writer who created the great IP was expelled by those who adapted her work, the article said.

The outlet also noted that embracing wokeness hasnt helped movies at the box office, citingThe Eternals, which features a gay kiss.

Many countries have banned the release of Eternals, the article said. They made the decision not to achieve a better performance both in reputation and market, but mainly due to political correctness.

China has a long history of banning or censoring movies that negatively portray the CCP or address controversial subjects, including religion and sexuality. Communist censors have banned best picture Oscar winner Nomadland reportedly for director Chloe Zhaos negative comments about growing up in China. (Zhao also directed The Eternals.)

Bohemian Rhapsody was censored upon its Chinese release, with scenes of gay intimacy and drug use excised from the movie.

Follow David Ng on Twitter@HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me atdng@breitbart.com.

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China Predicts Hollywood Will 'Dig Its Own Grave' with ...

SEOUL They have shown up whenever women rallied against sexual violence and gender biases in South Korea. Dozens of young men, mostly dressed in black, taunted the protesters, squealing and chanting, Thud! Thud! to imitate the noise they said the ugly feminist pigs made when they walked.

Out with man haters! they shouted. Feminism is a mental illness!

On the streets, such rallies would be easy to dismiss as the extreme rhetoric of a fringe group. But the anti-feminist sentiments are being amplified online, finding a vast audience that is increasingly imposing its agenda on South Korean society and politics.

These male activists have targeted anything that smacks of feminism, forcing a university to cancel a lecture by a woman they accused of spreading misandry. They have vilified prominent women, criticizing An San, a three-time gold medalist in the Tokyo Olympics, for her short haircut.

They have threatened businesses with boycotts, prompting companies to pull advertisements with the image of pinching fingers they said ridiculed the size of male genitalia. And they have taken aim at the government for promoting a feminist agenda, eliciting promises from rival presidential candidates to reform the countrys 20-year-old Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

South Korea is reckoning with a new type of political correctness enforced by angry young men who bristle at any forces they see as undermining opportunity and feminists, in their mind, are enemy No. 1. Inequality is one of the most delicate issues in South Korea, a nation with deepening economic uncertainty, fed by runaway housing prices, a lack of jobs and a widening income gap.

We dont hate women, and we dont oppose elevating their rights, said Bae In-kyu, 31, the head of Man on Solidarity, one of the countrys most active anti-feminist groups. But feminists are a social evil.

The group spearheads the street rallies and runs a YouTube channel with 450,000 subscribers. To its members, feminists equal man haters.

Its motto once read, Till the day all feminists are exterminated!

The backlash against feminism in South Korea may seem bewildering.

South Korea has the highest gender wage gap among the wealthy countries. Less than one-fifth of its national lawmakers are women. Women make up only 5.2 percent of the board members of publicly listed businesses, compared with 28 percent in the United States.

And yet, most young men in the country argue that it is men, not women, in South Korea who feel threatened and marginalized. Among South Korean men in their 20s, nearly 79 percent said they were victims of serious gender discrimination, according to a poll in May.

There is a culture of misogyny in male-dominant online communities, depicting feminists as radical misandrists and spreading fear of feminists, said Kim Ju-hee, 26, a nurse who has organized protests denouncing anti-feminists.

The wave of anti-feminism in South Korea shares many of the incendiary taglines with right-wing populist movements in the West that peddle such messages. Women who argue for abortion rights are labeled destroyers of family. Feminists are not champions of gender equality, but female supremacists.

In South Korea, women and feminists are two of the most common targets of online hate speech, according to the countrys National Human Rights Commission.

The backlash represents a split from previous generations.

Older South Korean men acknowledge benefiting from a patriarchal culture that had marginalized women. Decades ago, when South Korea lacked everything from food to cash, sons were more likely to be enrolled in higher education. In some families, women were not allowed to eat from the same table as men and newly born girls were named Mal-ja, or Last Daughter. Sex-preference abortions were common.

As the country has grown richer, such practices have become a distant memory. Families now dote on their daughters. More women attend college than men, and they have more opportunities in the government and elsewhere, though a significant glass ceiling persists.

Men in their 20s are deeply unhappy, considering themselves victims of reverse discrimination, angry that they had to pay the price for gender discriminations created under the earlier generations, said Oh Jae-ho, a researcher at the Gyeonggi Research Institute in South Korea.

If older men saw women as needing protection, younger men considered them competitors in a cutthroat job market.

Anti-feminists often note that men are put at a disadvantage because they have to delay getting jobs to complete their mandatory military service. But many women drop out of the work force after giving birth, and much of the domestic duties fall to them.

What more do you want? We gave you your own space in the subway, bus, parking lot, the male rapper San E writes in his 2018 song Feminist, which has a cult following among young anti-feminists. Oh girls dont need a prince! Then pay half for the house when we marry.

The gender wars have infused the South Korean presidential race, largely seen as a contest for young voters. With the virulent anti-feminist voice surging, no major candidate is speaking out for womens rights, once such a popular cause that President Moon Jae-in called himself a feminist when he campaigned about five years ago.

Yoon Suk-yeol, the candidate of the conservative opposition People Power Party, sided with the anti-feminist movement when he accused the ministry of gender equality of treating men like potential sex criminals. He promised harsher penalties for wrongfully accusing men of sex crimes, despite concerns it would discourage women from speaking out.

But Mr. Yoon also recruited a prominent 31-year-old leader of a feminist group as a senior campaign adviser last month, a move intended to assuage worries that his party has alienated young female voters.

By law, Mr. Moon cannot seek re-election. His Democratic Partys candidate, Lee Jae-myung, has also tried to appeal to young men, saying: Just as women should never be discriminated against because of their gender, nor should men suffer discrimination because they are men.

Mr. Lee sees the gender conflict largely as a problem of dwindling job opportunities, comparing young South Koreans to chicks struggling not to fall off a crowded nest. We must make the nest bigger by recovering growth, he has said.

It is hard to tell how many young men support the kind of extremely provocative and often theatrical activism championed by groups like Man on Solidarity. Its firebrand leader, Mr. Bae, showed up at a recent feminist rally dressed as the Joker from Batman comics and toting a toy water gun. He followed female protesters around, pretending to, as he put it, kill flies.

Tens of thousands of fans have watched his stunts livestreamed online, sending in cash donations. During one online talk-fest in August, Mr. Bae raised nine million won ($7,580) in three minutes.

Womens rights advocates fear is that the rise of anti-feminism might stymie, or even roll back, the hard-won progress South Korea has made in expanding womens rights. In recent decades, they fought to legalize abortion and started one of the most powerful #MeToo campaigns in Asia.

Lee Hyo-lin, 29, said that feminist has become such a dirty word that women who wear their hair short or carry a novel by a feminist writer risk ostracism. When she was a member of a K-pop group, she said that male colleagues routinely commented on her body, jeering that she gave up being a woman when she gained weight.

The #MeToo problem is part of being a woman in South Korea, she said. Now we want to speak out, but they want us to shut up. Its so frustrating.

On the other side of the culture war are young men with a litany of grievances concerns that are endlessly regurgitated by male-dominated forums. They have fixated, in particular, on limited cases of false accusations, as a way to give credence to a broader anti-feminist agenda.

Son Sol-bin, a used-furniture seller, was 29 when his former girlfriend accused him of rape and kidnapping in 2018. Online trolls called for his castration, he said. His mother found closed-circuit TV footage proving the accusations never took place.

The feminist influence has left the system so biased against men that the police took a womans testimony and a mere drop of her tears as enough evidence to land an innocent man in jail, said Mr. Son, who spent eight months in jail before he was cleared. I think the country has gone crazy.

As Mr. Son fought back tears during a recent anti-feminist rally, other young men chanted: Be strong! We are with you!

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The New Political Cry in South Korea: Out With Man Haters - The New York Times

We attempted to write a letter in support of Dr. Craig Doc PJ Perrinjaquet and Jeff Bergeron, but upon reading letters from Sandi Bruns and Jane Hamilton, we felt humbled. Thank you for stating the obvious of what most longtime residents know about these guys much more eloquently than we would have!

PJ is a beloved, giving doctor to many of us who always works toward the greater good. Though Jeffrey may have a filter that frequently lets only the boulders through, he has taken more positive actions for the community than most. Hes an entertaining writer who also feels strongly about issues challenging our unique town and, along with the Breckenridge Town Council, has the fortitude to work for improvement.

As for the Ullr event itself, it has gone through many iterations since the first event in 1963, and I dont think any of them are family friendly. As it was, and hopefully continues, the Ullr parade (typically in January) allowed us to blow off steam after a crazy holiday season, pass bottles of Schnapps with town friends (pre-COVID), woot at humping sled dog floats and fur bikinis, and watch old Christmas trees blow up.

Condoms have been a ritual for years (and are still fun to blow up to float above the bonfire). Ullr has the reputation of fun, debauchery and questionable political correctness, so why not let the unvaccinated be included in the fun! And if thats you, you took a stance against whatever and will have to put up with the verbal jabs from those of us trying to support the move to stop this pandemic.

Live and let live, laugh when you can and just relax.

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Now more than ever, your financial support is critical to help us keep our communities informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having on our residents and businesses. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.

Your donation will be used exclusively to support quality, local journalism.

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Letter to the editor: Ullr has the reputation of fun and questionable political correctness - Summit Daily

Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.

As usual, the staff ofMother Jonesis rounding up theheroes and monstersof the past year. Find all of 2021s heroes and monstershere.

Not since the days of watching Comedy Centrals Crank Yankers as a teen have I enjoyed the simple art of the prank call as I didin 2021.Every week this year, the Canadian comedian Chris James streamed The Not Even a Show and I watched him put a thumb to the eye of the most revered figures within MAGA-land.

James is a stand-up comedian who lives in Vancouver. Making a living doing shows is difficult in Canada, and James didnt want to move to the states, so he had the idea to host a show online. But it wasnt untilhe came across the radio show of former Boston Red Sox Ace turned Breitbart hack Curt Schilling, found his calling. From there, the prank calls became an art.Instead of the hapless unknown targets we chose as teens, James victims are a whos who of grifters, bigots and liars of the right wing political scene.

In the four years since Schilling, hes pranked Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ben Shapiro, Brian Kilmeade, Mike Lindell, Sebastian Gorka, Dennis Prager, Nigel Farage,and Rudy Guiliani, among many others. He has a few particularly entertaining ongoing bits with lesser known radio cranks like JJ McCartney and Ed Tyll. If McCartney hears the word shirt, it triggers a full-blown meltdown, and Tyll is locked in a blood-feud with a character James plays named Roy, who at some point called to start a fight with Tyll. Both predate my watching of the show, and its fun to go back through the catalog and track the evolution of James claiming real estate in his victims brains.

While James has signature digs, like making fun of the size of Gorkas head or asking Guiliani about his cousin, this year James took his show to a new level. He began to appear on video programs, or hosted his own fake talk-shows booking guests like Roger Stone, Richard Spencer, Joe Arpaio, who he either torments until they leave the call, or breaks the fourth wall and outright tells them theyre a piece of shit to their face.

But his most brilliant bits are when he portrays characters that are able to push the sycophancy and dishonesty of the right to its most hilarious limits.

Officer Steve, a law enforcement officer, expects the utmost deference from the hosts and misconstrues everything they say as evidence of their insufficient respect for police. Patriot Pete demands that every self-identified Patriot immediately commit to move to Washington D.C and challenges hosts to turn up their shirt tags to prove they only buy clothing manufactured in the U.S.A. Darryl Craft is a comedian who cant get any gigs anymore because of cancel culture and political correctness, and then shows how far people will go along with a bit if its supposedly being suppressed by social justice warriors.

There is a sobering fact hovering in the background of The Not Even a Show. These people have big audiencesbigger than Jameswhich gives the show a laugh-to-keep-from-crying quality that feels right at home in 2021. James targets may have a depressing amount of money, power and influence on the state of majoritarian Democracy, but at least he can make them look like absolute idiots on a regular basis.

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Hero: Chris James, the Canadian Comedian Triggering Right-Wing Talk Radio Hosts Mother Jones - Mother Jones

California's population stagnation is tied to its ever-higher housing costs, driven by years of not ... [+] building new housing.

Myprevious blog documented Californias 2020 population loss, the first time thats happened since the state was founded.Billionaire Elon Musk has moved to Texas, but the biggest worry for the state is the loss of lower and middle-income residents, likely driven by Californias high housing costs.The state must fix its housing affordability problem for a more secure future.

Some media coverage claims the losses are among the wealthy.AYahoo finance storyclaimed millionaires and billionaires have fled California in droves, driven not only by high taxes but political correctness.

But thePublic Policy Institute of Californiashows thats not the real problem.Rather, the Institute finds thatCalifornia has been losing lower- and middle-income residents to other states for some time while continuing to gain higher-income adults.

The Institute, like other analysts, sees the states high cost of living, driven almost solely by comparatively high housing costs as a major culprit in the outmigration story.Without a bigger supply of more affordable housing, moderate income families will continue to be pushed out while new immigrants wont be able to afford life in California.

Californias demographic troubles were highlighted by the 2020 loss of a House seat, based on the Census, although the states delegation of 53 Representatives remains the nations largest.We had become accustomed to California gaining seats because of population growthfrom 1950 onwards the state added 29 seats as it grew to be the largest state.

But as the Institute shows, population growth had been slowing for several decades, especially after 2000.Although births and international migration kept the population growing, the state began to see net outmigration, with a net outmigration of around 1.2 million people during the 2010s.

The state also has gained higher educated adults.Between 2010 and 2019, California had a gain of 154,600 adults with a college degree, while 777,400 with less than a B.A. moved out.

A primary culprit?High housing costs.Economists have puzzled for years how parts of California, especially the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and Southern California continued growing while their housing prices rose inexorably.

Between October 2012 and October 2021, theall-transactions house price index for Californiamore than doubled, rising by 105%.The Case-Shiller index for Los Angeles rose by 73% in that period, while the index for San Francisco skyrocketed by 140%.

And those housing costs are driven by a lack of supply.California (like many other jurisdictions) has made it progressively harder to construct new housing, through a combination of single-family zoning, homeowner opposition to new development, and suburban resistance to allowing multi-family housing.

All of this happened while the economy was growing and jobs were being created. But new housing supply, especially multi-family and affordable housing, is essential for working families to live in a region. California, like other places, has fostered job growth while not producing enough housing to accommodate working families.

By analyzing building permits relative to job growth,analysts at Stessaranked states on their housing production.And between 2010 and 2020, California was the nations worst on this measure.The state added 2.54 new jobs per new housing unit, so even as the economy expanded, housing prices rose faster.

Economists puzzle over how regions can grow even in the face of ever-higher housing prices.In places like Silicon Valley,Enrico Moretti found that the continuing in-migration of highly skilled technical labor creates what he calls a brain hub.

Firms need highly skilled workers, while workers seeking tech jobs are drawn to the region, allowing firms to grow, specialize, and keep expanding, luring in new workers, etc. Meanwhile, support services like research and venture capital lure entrepreneurs. Rising incomes and wealth can, for a time, support ever-rising home prices.

But that process cant continue indefinitely, especially for lower and middle-income households.And Californias population troubles reflect Californias years of inadequate housing development, which has disproportionately harmed people of color and lower-paid workers. But the lack of adequate housing supply may now be hamstringing the states entire economy.

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Californias Housing Costs Threaten The States Future - Forbes

Leave it to Americans to spoof their scary disease du jour.

Several viral videos have satirized the coronavirus and the vaccines and other woke adaptations in dark if also hilarious ways. But the one that made me laugh out loud was Coming Next Year, by comedian and viral-content creator (yes, there is such a thing) Tyler Fischer.

I recommend it for your sanity and edification. What better way to wrap up another dreary year than with a humorous look at our increasingly absurd expressions of political correctness or, in todays vernacular, wokeness?

The coronavirus vaccine is just one of Fischers targets. In brief, a guy trying to earn passage into an unidentified building must provide proof that he has submitted to a laundry list of government mandates. His proof of having received numerous booster shots consists of multiple Band-Aids crossing his arms and torso.

Suffice to say, Fischers view of our future is full of busyness attending to socially approved and government-enforced commandments and an inevitable loss of freedom. This slide into servitude began with the vaccine and escalated with the various employment-based mandates that followed. Some people feel so strongly about not requiring a vaccine that the Supreme Court plans to hold a special hearing Jan. 7 to consider the legality of two White House initiatives to curb the pandemic.

The court has promised to move quickly on the two questions a vaccine-or-testing mandate for larger employers of more than 100 people and a vaccination requirement for health care workers in institutions that receive federal funding. Government projections are that 22 million people would get vaccinated and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations if both are allowed to stand. Mores the haste given recent predictions that 60% of Americans will be infected with the dominant omicron variant by March.

For the record, Im all shot up two vaccines and a booster. The first injection gave me a sore arm; the second kept me in bed for 10 hours. When my body aches suddenly ceased close to cocktail hour, I popped out of bed, said, That was weird, and poured myself a glass of wine. The booster? Nada.

Its abundantly clear that vaccines at the very least help reduce the intensity of covid-19. The booster helps even more. Most vaccinated people evade infection entirely, probably in part because they also take other precautions, such as distancing and masking. Those whove died of covid over the past several months were almost exclusively unvaccinated.

All of this is known to nearly everyone by now and the scientific evidence has been convincing enough for me to endure a few hours of inconvenience. Beats dying. Yet, only 62% of Americans are fully vaccinated, and many are rabidly opposed to getting a shot. This is war, Ive heard people say on both sides of the issue.

Sensibly speaking, are you people insane?

Still, I do understand the revulsion toward government mandates. Were all a bit anti-establishment, arent we? Americans didnt become obstreperous just recently. Our warring spirit and a predilection to oppose authority precedes our arrival to these shores. Were all rebels by virtue of most of us having crossed the pond, so to speak. Saying no may not be wise in some circumstances, but as a countercultural posture, we customarily view dissent as a basic right.

To the anti-vaccine contingent, a vaccine mandate is tantamount to a violation of ones autonomy. Our bodies, ourselves is more than a book title. No one is entitled to enter my temple without my permission. Case closed. And yet: How can some people see the vaccine as a gift and others view it as a toxin contrived for dubious purposes? How do we bridge this gap?

It appears that we need a new tack. Convincing others to follow the majoritys lead requires diplomacy and empathy rather than finger-pointing and shaming. President Joe Bidens recent warning to the unvaccinated as more or less deserving to get sick is hardly helpful.

The challenge for 2022 is how to reconcile these two opposing views. One requires a united front against a potentially deadly disease (which could be with us forever), the other demands respect for individual rights. Philosophically, I support both views, but practically, I come down on the side of unity for the common good. Voluntary vaccination seems to me the only avenue for reconciliation.

Whether we can be a unified country again on any subject is a coin toss. But one thing we can agree upon is that laughter is good for body and soul. To that end, Tyler Fischer for one has provided a public service. Laughing at oneself, after all, is a sign of intelligence. Sort of like voluntarily getting vaccinated against a disease nobody wants to get.

Link:

Please get the vaccine. And try to understand those who won't. - Bowling Green Daily News

E.O. Wilson was an extraordinary scholar in every sense of the word. Back in the 1980s, Milton Stetson, the chair of the biology department at the University of Delaware, told me that a scientist who makes a single seminal contribution to his or her field has been a success. By the time I met Edward O. Wilson in 1982, he had already made at least five such contributions to science.

Wilson, who died Dec. 26, 2021 at the age of 92, discovered the chemical means by which ants communicate. He worked out the importance of habitat size and position within the landscape in sustaining animal populations. And he was the first to understand the evolutionary basis of both animal and human societies.

Each of his seminal contributions fundamentally changed the way scientists approached these disciplines, and explained why E.O. as he was fondly known was an academic god for many young scientists like me. This astonishing record of achievement may have been due to his phenomenal ability to piece together new ideas using information garnered from disparate fields of study.

Big insights from small subjectsIn 1982 I cautiously sat down next to the great man during a break at a small conference on social insects. He turned, extended his hand and said, Hi, Im Ed Wilson. I dont believe weve met. Then we talked until it was time to get back to business.

Three hours later I approached him again, this time without trepidation because surely now we were the best of friends. He turned, extended his hand, and said Hi, Im Ed Wilson. I dont believe weve met.

Wilson forgetting me, but remaining kind and interested anyway, showed that beneath his many layers of brilliance was a real person and a compassionate one. I was fresh out of graduate school, and doubt that another person at that conference knew less than I something Im sure Wilson discovered as soon as I opened my mouth. Yet he didnt hesitate to extend himself to me, not once but twice.

Thirty-two years later, in 2014, we met again. I had been invited to speak in a ceremony honoring his receipt of the Franklin Institutes Benjamin Franklin Medal for Earth and Environmental Science. The award honored Wilsons lifetime achievements in science, but particularly his many efforts to save life on Earth.

My work studying native plants and insects, and how crucial they are to food webs, was inspired by Wilsons eloquent descriptions of biodiversity and how the myriad interactions among species create the conditions that enable the very existence of such species.

I spent the first decades of my career studying the evolution of insect parental care, and Wilsons early writings provided a number of testable hypotheses that guided that research. But his 1992 book, The Diversity of Life, resonated deeply with me and became the basis for an eventual turn in my career path.

Though I am an entomologist, I did not realize that insects were the little things that run the world until Wilson explained why this is so in 1987. Like nearly all scientists and nonscientists alike, my understanding of how biodiversity sustains humans was embarrassingly cursory. Fortunately, Wilson opened our eyes.

Throughout his career Wilson flatly rejected the notion held by many scholars that natural history the study of the natural world through observation rather than experimentation was unimportant. He proudly labeled himself a naturalist, and communicated the urgent need to study and preserve the natural world. Decades before it was in vogue, he recognized that our refusal to acknowledge the Earths limits, coupled with the unsustainability of perpetual economic growth, had set humans well on their way to ecological oblivion.

Wilson understood that humans reckless treatment of the ecosystems that support us was not only a recipe for our own demise. It was forcing the biodiversity he so cherished into the sixth mass extinction in Earths history, and the first one caused by an animal: us.

A broad vision for conservationAnd so, to his lifelong fascination with ants, E. O. Wilson added a second passion: guiding humanity toward a more sustainable existence. To do that, he knew he had to reach beyond the towers of academia and write for the public, and that one book would not suffice. Learning requires repeated exposure, and that is what Wilson delivered in The Diversity of Life, Biophilia, The Future of Life, The Creation and his final plea in 2016, Half-Earth: Our Planets Fight for Life.

As Wilson aged, desperation and urgency replaced political correctness in his writings. He boldly exposed ecological destruction caused by fundamentalist religions and unrestricted population growth, and challenged the central dogma of conservation biology, demonstrating that conservation could not succeed if restricted to tiny, isolated habitat patches.

In Half Earth, he distilled a lifetime of ecological knowledge into one simple tenet: Life as we know it can be sustained only if we preserve functioning ecosystems on at least half of planet Earth.

But is this possible? Nearly half of the planet is used for some form of agriculture, and 7.9 billion people and their vast network of infrastructure occupy the other half.

As I see it, the only way to realize E.O.s lifelong wish is learn to coexist with nature, in the same place, at the same time. It is essential to bury forever the notion that humans are here and nature is someplace else. Providing a blueprint for this radical cultural transformation has been my goal for the last 20 years, and I am honored that it melds with E.O. Wilsons dream.

There is no time to waste in this effort. Wilson himself once said, Conservation is a discipline with a deadline. Whether humans have the wisdom to meet that deadline remains to be seen.

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E.O. Wilson's lifelong passion for ants helped him teach humans about how to live sustainably with nature - Longview News-Journal

As we balance the ledger for 2021, it seems assured that a handful of the years most memorable moments will have impact that extends far beyond the confines of the calendar.

Like Hideki Matsuyamas Masters win, and its promise of inspiring a generation of Asian talent. Or Phil Mickelsons improbable major championship victory at age 50, setting a new benchmark for elderly excellence. Or Tiger Woods car wreck, which cast in stark relief the impermanence of lives and careers, and which summoned a raw appreciation both for what he has gifted us and for whatever his battered body will permit henceforth.

But 2021 was also a year in which even the most stubborn of ostriches had to lift their heads and concede that golf doesnt exist in a vacuum, that like every sport it is inextricably entwined with the wider world, and that reminders of this fact are often jarring. The painful lessons we learned in 21 will not conclude with the demise of December.

First came a reckoning with language. The year was nine days old when Justin Thomas missed a short putt in Maui and berated himself with a homophobic slur. His response was swifthe owned it with an immediate and fulsome apologybut swifter still were the factions who rallied around the controversy, one too quick to declare it a capital offense, the other contemptuously eager to dismiss any hurt as mere political correctness. The ugly episode served notice that the standards of speech and conduct demanded by todays corporations and consumers (an entirely flexible measure) also apply to this most hidebound of sports.

A few weeks later, the PGA Tour faced a reckoning with its new reality, even if the organization shows no outward sign of having grasped the importance of what happened that Sunday afternoon at Torrey Pines. It was hardly shocking that Patrick Reed acted as his own rules official on the way to winning the Farmers Insurance Open, lifting a ball he claimed was embedded before an actual rules official could arrive to deliver a verdict. Video evidence was inconclusive, but far from exculpatory, so PointsBetan official gaming partner of the Tourrefunded wagers.

The scrutiny that comes with legalized sports betting is at odds with the Tours generous attitude to questionable on-course conduct by its members, a benevolence long personified by the now-departed rules honcho Slugger White, the Mrs. Doubtfire of the nanny state. An insistence that concerned parties are gentlemen, or a reliance on artful wording about intent, is no defense against punters who are convinced that video evidence tells a different story. When it happens againand it willthe Tour is woefully ill-equipped for the firestorm. Reeds ball drop will have ramifications that linger well beyond that other ball drop next week in Times Square.

We also saw a reckoning with golfs shameful past. Lee Elders presence at the ceremonial tee shot opening the Masters was as close to an apology as well ever see from Augusta National. It was crudely symbolic that even the lone moment accorded Elder was soiled by Wayne Player, an opportunistic waster who, unlike Elder, owed his place on the tee solely to inheritance and parental indulgence.

Elders death seven months later was a glum reminder of how little real redress he was granted for what he endured, and how few honors he received for what he accomplished. There were tributes aplenty, but words are cheap. Elder died without being honored by the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Memorial Tournament or sundry other back-slapping bodies that are forever congratulating themselves on how far golf has come.

Elders legacythat it is necessary to take a moral stand against those who dehumanize othersis hardly less relevant with his passing. It lies at the heart of golfs reckoning with its future, the specter of which loomed large before 2021 and which will likely continue into 22 and beyond.

One thing changed this year with the Saudi Arabian governments effort to hijack professional golf. They recruited a front man, Greg Norman, who drops vapid jargon and false equivalencies as freely as his employer does missiles on Yemeni civilians. But two things havent changed: the proposed Super Golf League still hasnt signed any players, and the scheme is still solely about normalizing the image of a regime that exhibits contempt for human rights.

This reckoning will continue in 2022 and beyond. Oil grants the specter enviable staying power. If nothing else, the Saudis are offering a reminder that the values on which golf prides itselfintegrity, honor, respectabilityare not immutable, but must be defended against charlatans and chiselers, some of whom are card-carrying members of the PGA Tour.

Read more:

Golf's memorable moments in 2021 certain to have impact on future - usatoday.com

Aid to the Church in Need reports a rise in religious persecution worldwide in the past year, but points to a ray of hope for Christians and Muslims in the Arab world.

By Linda Bordoni

Expressing gratitude for the support that allows the Pontifical Foundation to continue to fulfill its mission drawing attention to victims of religious persecution and provide economic and humanitarian assistance, the Executive President of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) said Pope Francis visit to Iraq in March gave solace and hope to local Christians and drew attention to the plight of so many Christians in the Middle East.

Although the Christians are a constituent part of their native countries, far too often they are treated as second-class citizens. In Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, they are also suffering from the after-effects of the war and desperate economic situations. The exodus of the Christians continues unchecked, he said.

Thomas Heine-Geldern also pointed to this months consecration of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, whose construction was sponsored by ACN. He described it as a ray of hope for the coexistence of Christians and Muslims in the Arab world.

Unfortunately, Heine-Geldern said, violence against Christians is on the rise as demonstrated by weekly reports of violence. Priests, religious and laypeople are being killed, kidnapped or abused as they carry out their service. In particular, the current situation in India and Nigeria fills us with deep concern and we are standing by should our assistance be needed.

He also raised the alarm for Christians in the African Sahel region and in Mozambique where terrorism is spreading, not only killing and kidnapping people but also preventing the Church from carrying out its pastoral and social work.

Heine-Geldern noted an increase in the number of subtle acts of violence against religious organisations in the West, a phenomenon that is leading to the gradual eradication of religious beliefs from public life under the cloak of supposed tolerance.

He recalled that Pope Francis has described it as polite persecution, which involves legislation that purports to implement political correctness by recommending the use of language which avoids Christian terminology and symbols.

ACNs head expressed satisfaction for an overwhelming response to the foundations Religious Freedom in the World Report 2021, released in collaboration with international journalists and experts.

The report not only covers religious persecution in many countries of the world, but is also a sign and proof that all of us Churches and religious communities, NGOs, politicians and public figures have to stand up together for the human right to religious freedom, which is deeply rooted in human dignity. The freedom of religious denomination is a gauge of our humanity, he said.

The ACN executive also mentioned the foundations initiative November Red Wednesday/Red Week that, he said, has become a worldwide symbol for the plight of Christians, with tens of thousands of people participating with initiatives to raise awareness and to pray for our beleaguered brothers and sisters.

Heine-Geldern concluded by commemorating the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, whom he said, include many religious sisters, bishops, priests and catechists who have died from the disease while carrying out their service.

They sacrificed their lives to be close to the people who had been entrusted to their care, in spite of the dangers to their own health," he said. "A remarkable witness of their devotion.

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Religious persecution on the rise in 2021 amid signs of hope - Vatican News

After a failed pilot starring Greta Gerwig,How I Met Your Fatheris finally a feasible reality. Set in the same fictional universe (the MotherVerse!? No? Okay), its essentially a gender-swapped version of its beloved predecessor, How I Met Your Mother. While Greta Gerwig has gone on to greater things (including directing the 2019 remake of Little Women), Hillary Duff is taking center stage as the protagonist looking for her soulmate.

That said, with all the excitement surrounding this impending release, what better time is there to look back at the cast ofHIMYM? The iconic sitcom is host to an array of memorable characters, both quirky and heartfelt. It made Neil Patrick Harris a household name and showed us Allison Hannigan was far more than Buffys Willoworthe girl from Bandcamp.

With that said, let us rank the characters of How I Met Your Mother in terms of likeability. Sit down, kids, and let us take you back to the years 2005-2014

Oh man, oh man, oh man. What can be said of HIMYMs protagonist? Not much, because lets face it, hes kind of a bore. Teds Norman Rockefeller-esque white-picket-fence dream feels tediously dated even back in 2005 when the show initially aired. However, his character adds detestable to his resume once you think about him for a few minutes. He spends the series narcissistically prioritizing his own needs before his various romantic partners. How he stalks on-off-again love interest Robin Scherbatsky is also ominous, pressurizing her to consummate a relationship she isnt sure about. Ted is forever lost in flights of fantasy that can never be truly realized. This, alongside his lacking character development, ranks Ted the least likable character in How I Met Your Mothers main cast.

Robin is a compelling character for a sitcom, at least. She is a Canadian who was brought up to be masculine by herverymasculine father. Because of this, Robin often subverts traditional romantic tropes in her relationships, being the masculine to her boyfriends feminine. As a result of this unique interplay, Robin ends up being very endearing, her peculiar interests in guns and dogs making her a novel character. That said, she is often brought down by her Ross-Rachel dynamic with Ted Moseby. The pair are frequently presented as incompatible due to their highly differing values (Ted wants to settle down and have kids. Robin doesnt). This makes their season finale romantic reunion feel forced and unnatural. Especially so, given the show built up her relationship with Barney, only to nix it at the last minute. If not for this, she may have ranked higher in our list ofHow I Met Your Mothercharacters.

If one thing can be said of Barney Stinson, its that he was a sign of the times. Following the exposure of Harvey Weinsteins antics in 2017, its hard to watch some of Barneys scenes without cringing. That said, Barneyisa very fun, outgoing character, championing some of HIMYMs most iconic lines (Haaave you met Ted?) and his obsession with suits as endearing as it is strange. Barney is redeemed greatly by his character development in the series he eventually gives up his womanizing ways to be with Robin. And while this development is swiftly nixed in Season 9s last few minutes, his story for the series majority earns him a high spot on this ranking. There is no doubt after all, despite his lack of political correctness, that Barney is responsible for the gangs most memorable misadventures.

Lily is smart, quirky, and fun. She is Marshalls series-long partner and you can see why. The pair of them have seamless chemistry due to their similar sense of humor (she is the Lily-Pad to Marshalls Marshmellow) as well as genuine trust in one another. However, one thing that distinguishes her from Marshall is her role as Teds girlfriend-overseer. Thus quirky characteristic has her put Teds various girlfriends through the Front Porsche test to see if she can picture the woman gelling with the gang as elderly people. While her amusing inability to understand boundaries can be her curse, Lily is still an endearing sitcom icon who ranks among How I Met Your Mothers best characters.

Who can deny the manchild lawyer Marshall Erikson? While poor Jason Segel tired of his antics later in the show, we simply couldnt get enough of him. He and Lily bounce off each other so naturally, not merely because of their shared humor (for example, nicknaming her Lily-pad while she calls him Marshmellow), but also because of his genuine affection for her. Despite his silliness, Marshall is also there to support his friends (i.e. Ted) when they need him. This appealing combination of humor and compassion makes Marshall the second most likable character in How I Met Your Mother.

Despite only being part of the main cast in the shows final season, the Mother herself, Tracy, is easily the most likable character of the cast. This is truly amazing since the cast was around eight years before her full appearance and somehow somehow she outshines them all. What makes Tracy so likable (nay, lovable) are numerous. From her musical abilities, her humor, her unshakeable charm despite her past tragedy as well as her compassion, Tracy rules. Additionally, her strength and independence are the cherry-on-top of a woman who lets face it deserves better than Ted Mosby. For us, its a no-brainer that Tracy ranks top among How I Met Your Mothers characters.

That said, this is just our take. Do you agree or disagree with our ranking ofHow I Met Your Mothers main cast? Who is the most likable out of the gang? And given the controversial season 9 finale, how would you change the conclusion to the story? Be sure to check out our article on why How I Met Your Mother is a great sitcom here.

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How I Met Your Mother Main Characters Ranked By Likeability - The Nerd Stash