#1970s Closure

[slots-a-fun]

Overland Hotel and Casino - Reno, Nevada

The Overland Hotel and Casino, a renowned name in Reno’s chip-collecting community, holds a unique place in the history of legalized gaming in Nevada. Established in 1933, it stands as one of the state’s earliest legal gaming establishments, following the legalization of gaming in Nevada in 1931. Under the ownership and vision of Richard “Pick” Hobson, a pioneering figure in Reno’s gaming scene,…

[telephonicsonnyboy]

I rlly wanna start posting some sewing patterns from my fashion Pinterest boards on here!! Starting off with some adorable 70s McCall’s sets in my favorite colors :-)

[oxbowreality]

pacing around wondering if I'll hear back from a job despite it being the dead of night

[drsonnet]

On This Day: Kent State shootings leave 4 students dead!

Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Southeast Asia. In its immediate aftermath, a student-led strike forced the temporary closure of colleges and universities across the country. Some political observers believe the events of that day in northeast Ohio tilted public opinion against the war and may have contributed to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

Students dive to the ground as the National Guard fires on faculty and students May 4, 1970, to protest the war in Vietnam. File Photo courtesy of Kent State University Archives

The Kent State Shootings

“… Give Peace a Chance (iastate.edu)

On This Day, May 4: Kent State shootings leave 4 students dead - UPI.com

[deadmotelsusa]

New York City’s last by-the-hour love motel has closed. If these walls could talk...

They would probably share how this narrow building opened in 1908 as the Strand Hotel. Or how in 1912, due to its close proximity to the pier, The New York Times rented out every room to cover the Titanic sinking. Or how in the 1940s, it catered exclusively to men and rented to sailors who usually had only a few hours to experience what the city had to offer. Or how in the 1970s, it changed its name to the Hideaway Motel and opened a gay club in the basement called The Anvil. Or how celebrities like Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Freddie Mercury and Lou Reed frequented the club until its closure in 1985. Or how when it changed its name to the Liberty Inn, its themed rooms were the site of many affairs through the next three decades.

Or how the motel property was acquired by Hyundai and for the first time in over 100 years, has permanently closed.

The future of the former Liberty Inn is unknown, though I received a message recently from someone stating that it has already been demolished. I wasn’t able to confirm this and in May 2024 (via Google Street View), it was still standing. Per the New York Post, the 6,735 square-foot building can be replaced with one twice as large under zoning rules and because it lies outside the nearby historic district, new construction doesn’t need to be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

[blueiscoool]

Rome’s 'Lost' Imperial Palace 'Domus Tiberiana' Reopens

Until recently a crumbling and off-limits ruin near the famous Colosseum, the Domus Tiberiana palace — built in the first century AD and beloved by Nero — hopes to once again take its place as one of the city’s top tourist attractions.

The ancient palace sits on Palatine Hill — the city’s oldest hill, overhanging Rome —from where imperial dynasties ruled for centuries. But over the years, the site fell into disrepair and in the 1970s, the Domus Tiberiana site was shut due to the structural instability of some of the ruins. The closure left behind what many Romans described as a “black hole” in the capital’s archaeological heart.

Now, after a six-year makeover, the palace has reopened its doors as a “diffuse museum,” with findings and frescoes scattered across the site to provide visitors with an insight into the palace’s ancient grandeur.

And it was grand. The Domus Tiberiana was Rome’s first imperial palace, built by the emperor Tiberius who combined and incorporated the pre-existing noble mansions built on the hill. Occupying over four hectares, the palace featured residences alongside large gardens, places of worship and rooms for the emperor’s Praetorian guard.

As the seat of Rome’s power and politics, Domus Tiberiana held a prime location, high above the Palatine and Roman Forums, offering its occupants a “balcony view of the city.” Over time, the Domus was embellished and enlarged by other emperors including Nero, who was crowned on its steps aged just 16, in 54 AD.

Alfonsina Russo, director of the Colosseum’s archaeological park (in which Domus Tiberiana falls) and lead archaeologist on the renovation, said that ancient antiquities, many exceptionally well-preserved, were unearthed during the project.

The artifacts — bright stuccos, frescoes, amphorae, potteries, looms, terracotta, and divinity statues related to the cults of Isis, Dionysius and Mithras — offer visitors a trip through time, said Russo.

“They make this place — formerly (inhabited) by aristocratic families, then Roman emperors — feel alive again,” she said. “There are seven exhibition rooms full of extraordinary finds, starting with those preceding the original construction of the palace when aristocrats lived in mansions before Tiberius subsumed them into the Domus.”

Among the newly-exposed and frescoes are some of the earliest paintings of lemons (considered an exotic fruit in Ancient Rome, as they hailed from the Far East) and a depiction of a gladiator, proving that the era’s gladiatoral games were appreciated by rich families, explained Russo.

The imperial palace remained in use until the 7th century, when it became the papal residence of John VII. In the mid-16th century, the aristocratic Farnese family — who were powerful local landowners — built the lavish Orti Farnesiani gardens on the site, adorning it with ornaments and sculptures of nymphs, satyrs and fauns.

“This monument speaks of history,” Russo added. “We have restored (Domus Tiberiana) to its past splendor, but more work lies ahead.”

Indeed, painstaking efforts have been made to blend old and new. A series of majestic, reddish-brown vaulted arches that greet visitors having been carefully reconstructed with the same materials as ancient Romans used in the past.

“What makes this revamped Domus unique is the architectural style,” said Russo. “We managed to use original materials to reinforce and strengthen the handmade 15-meter (50ft) tall front arches (which run alongside the palace’s) ancient paving.”

It has certainly caught the public’s attention. Since reopening at the end of September, Domus Tiberiana has attracted some 400,000 visitors, a “huge success,” said Russo, adding that she believes that this incarnation of the Domus Tiberiana offers visitors the most “evocative” visit in generations.

Archaeologist and scholar of ancient Rome Giorgio Franchetti saidN that, in the reopening of the Domus Tiberiana complex, Rome has “recovered a lost jewel.”

“The Palatine Hill has always been the stage of Rome’s power politics,” he said in an interview. “Tiberius likely chose this spot to build the palace as it was where his family residence stood. There aren’t many places like the Domus Tiberiana where you can really breathe the past.”

By Silvia Marchetti.

[phoenixyfriend]

Can you explain the Iran-Israel situation please?

Alright, let's get to it. Please note that I'm writing this on mobile during my lunch break, so I can't include reference/source links as much as I'd like. Thankfully, most of what I'm going to be telling you should be easily located by searching for an article on one of the following: APNews, Reuters, BBC Global News Podcast, Democracy Now!, NPR, or The New York Times. Long-term background is probably best found in videos by the YouTube channels Real Life Lore or tldr global news, or on Wikipedia if you prefer text.

The short version: Israel attacked Iran's consulate in Syria to get at some of the military commanders that were there, which is legally equivalent to attacking Iran itself. Iran responded by sending about 300 bombs at Israel, most of which were shot down in transit. Given that they still called it a success, even though it seems only one person was even hurt, my understanding is that it's very likely that they only intended the rockets to be a show of force, rather than an actual escalation, because Iran can't afford a war right now.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post OR this post.

The long version:

Okay, let's start with some background on Israel, then Iran. This is... a lot, so if you already know the broad strokes skip down to 2023.

Israel was established following WWII by the English and French, following borders the two countries had secretly drawn up decades earlier in the Sykes-Picot agreement. The intent was to give the Jewish people a place to go... or, depending on who you ask, a place to send them. Their ancestral homeland was viewed as the best choice, sort of like a deportation millennia after a diaspora. Given that WWII had just ended by the time Sykes-Picot was actually put into effect, 'getting out of Europe' was something a lot of Jews were given to agree with.

The Arab world was not happy, as that land had belonged to the Ottomans for centuries, and had long since 'naturalized' to being Arab. I'm not going to pretend to know the nuances to when people do or do not consider Palestine to have been its own nation; it was an Ottoman state until WWI, at which point it came under British control for just under three decades, and that period is known as the British Mandate of Palestine; it ended after WWII, with the creation of Israel. Palestine's land and people have sort of just been punted around from one colonizer to another for centuries.

Iran is the current form of what was once Persia. They were an empire for a very long time, and were a unitary monarchy up until the early 20th century; in 1925, Iran elected a Prime Minister who was then declared the monarch. The following several decades had Iran's monarchy slowly weakened, and occasionally beset by foreign interventions, including a covert coup by the US and UK in 1953. The country also became more corrupt throughout the 1970s due to economic policy failing to control inflation in the face of rising oil prices.

In 1979, there was a revolution that overthrew the monarchy and the elected government, replacing the system with a theocracy and declaring Iran to be an Islamic Republic, with the head of state being a religious authority, rather than an elected one. This was not popular with... most countries. 1980 saw the closure of all universities (reopened in 1983 with government-approved curriculums), as well as the taking of over fifty American hostages from the US Embassy in Iran. You may have heard about that in the context of Ronald Reagan encouraging Iran to keep the hostages until the end of Carter's term in order to force the election.

So, the West didn't like having an Islamic state because it claims to like democracy, and also because the Islamic state was explicitly anti-American and this has some Bad Effects on oil prices. The Soviets didn't like having an Islamic State because a theocracy goes directly against a lot of communist values (or at least the values they claim to have), and weakened any influence their supposedly secular union could have on Iran and the wider middle east. The other countries in the Arab world, many of them still monarchies, didn't like the Islamic republic because if the revolution spread, then it was possible their monarchies would be overthrown as well.

(Except Oman, which is not worried, but that's the exception, not the rule.)

This is not a baseless worry, because Iran has stated that this is its goal for the Arab world. Overthrow the monarchies, overthrow the elected governments, Islamic Rule for everyone. That is the purpose of its proxies, like Hezbollah (Lebanon), the Houthis (Yemen), and Hamas (Palestine), along with less well-known groups like the Salafi Jihadists in Mali, who are formally under the umbrella of al-Quaeda, which Iran denies having any relation to but is suspected of funding. In areas where these proxy groups have gained power, they are liable to enact hard Shari'a law such as has happened in Northern Mali and other parts of the Sahel region.

While other conflicts have occurred in these countries, I think the above is most relevant.

Israel has repeatedly attacked, or been attacked by, other nations in the middle east, as they are viewed as having taken over land that is not theirs, and as being a puppet of the US government. The biggest conflicts have been 1947-1948, 1968/1973, and 2014.

And then, of course, 2023.

Now, Iran, more than any other nation in the Middle East, hates Israel. They have for a very long time, viewing them as an affront to the goal of spreading Islam across the whole of the middle east, and as being a front and a staging ground for the United States and other Western powers. Two common refrains in the slogans of Iran and its proxies are "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

Due to Iran's military power and virulence towards Israel, the United States has been funneling money to Israel for decades. It has more generally been to defend itself against the Arab world at large, but it has narrowed over the decades to being about Iran and its proxies as relations have normalized with other nations like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Cue October 7th, 2023. Hamas invades Israeli towns, kills some people, and takes others as hostage. Israel retaliates, and the conflict ramps up into what is by now tens of thousands of dead, some half of which are children.

In this time, Hamas's allies are, by definition, Iran and the other proxy forces. Hezbollah, being in Lebanon, share a border with Israel's north. They have been trading rocket fire across the border in waves for most of the past six months. The Houthis, down in Yemen, claim to be attacking the passing cargo ships in order to support Palestine. Given that the attacks often seem indiscriminate, and that the Houthi's control over their portion of Yemen is waning in the face of their poor governance, this is... debatable. It's their official reason, but given that "let's attack passing ships, claiming that we only attack Israeli or American ships and that it is to support Palestine" is rallying support domestically for their regime, it does seem to be more of a political move to garner support at home than about supporting Palestine.

Iran, however, has not attacked Israel. They've spoken out about it, yes, but they haven't done anything because nobody wants a regional war. Nobody can afford it right now. Iran is dealing with a domestic crisis due to oil subsidies bleeding the states' coffers dry, and the aging Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, refusing to pick a successor. They are looking at both an economic crisis and succession crisis, and a regional war would fuck up both situations further. Iran funds most of its proxies, and they can't do that, and fight a war on top of it, while their economy is in its current state. Pure self preservation says they don't want a war, especially with the ongoing unrest that's been going on for... well, basically since the revolution, but especially since the death of Mahsa Amini.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Netanyahu has been looking at corruption charges and legal issues since before the Hamas attack. It's generally agreed that if Israel were to hold new elections right now, he would lose and be replaced, and also immediately taken to court. Netanyahu wants to stay in power, and as long as the war on Hamas lasts, he is unlikely to get voted out. A change in leadership in the middle of a war is rarely a good idea for any country, and he's banking on that.

However, the war on Hamas rests on the shoulders of American money and supplies. Without that military support, Israel cannot fight this war, and America... is losing patience.

Officially, America and most of the western world have been telling Israel to not fucking escalate for the majority of the war.

There have been implied threats, more or less since Schumer's big speech about how Israel needs a new election, of American legislators putting conditions on any future aid. There have even been rumblings of aid being retracted entirely if Israel follows through on invading Raffah.

So...

American aid to Israel has, for a very long time, been given in the name of defending Israel against Iran and its proxies.

Israel has been fighting this war against Hamas for six months, killing what is by now innumerable civilians, on the power of US military aid.

Netanyahu benefits from the continued war due to domestic troubles.

Iran does not want a regional war, or really any big war, due to its own domestic troubles.

The US is, in theory, losing patience with Israel and threatening to pull the plug on unconditional support. It's very "we gave you this to fight Iran. Stop attacking civilians. If you keep attacking civilians, then you're going to have to rely on what we already gave you to fight off Iran so that you won't keep wasting it on civilians."

Israel... attacks Iran, prompting a response, and is now talking about escalating with Iran.

I am not explicitly saying that it looks to me like Israel, which is already fighting a war on two physical fronts and even more political/economic ones, has picked a fight with Iran so that America feels less like it is able to withdraw support.

I just... am finding it hard to understand why Israel, which is in fact fighting both Hamas and Hezbollah, would attack the Iranian consulate in Syria otherwise. They can't actually afford to fight this war, escalating to a full regional conflict, on a third front.

Not without pressuring American into keeping the faucet of military funding open at full blast.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post OR this post.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1967 Ford Mach II

This exclusive photo captures the elusive 1967 Ford Mach II, snapped at the renowned Kar Kraft facility alongside a prototype 1970 Boss 302 Maverick. Kar Kraft, a clandestine "skunk works" operation, was discreetly funded by Ford Motor Company to push the boundaries of performance and innovation outside of the corporate mainstream.

When Ford got out of racing completely at the end of the 1970 season, employees at Kar Kraft were shocked when they showed up to work one day in November 1970 to find the doors locked and Kar Kraft closed for good.

The abrupt closure of Kar Kraft sent shockwaves through the automotive community, marking the end of an era. Despite its separate entity status, Kar Kraft's reliance on FoMoCo funding was undeniable. The facility's operations had been instrumental in crafting high-performance Fords that had to be developed and built outside of Ford's conventional corporate structure and protocols.

[yourdailyqueer]

Vera Lachmann (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 23 June 1904 

DOD: Died 1985

Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish

Nationality: German

Occupation: Poet, teacher, classicist

Note 1: Founded a private school for children of Jewish and Jewish-Christian parents who had been expelled from public schools up until 1938. She then emigrated to United States in 1939.

Note 2: Founded Camp Catawba, a summer camp for boys in North Carolina. She directed the camp until its closure in 1970.

[rubiatinctorum]

Ok ok ok thoughts:

1. To me, the person leaving the baby at the pond looked like Alice, though I haven’t looked closely with the show paused to get a better look. I wonder who the other person was, too

2. Heartbreak hours for Katanna truthers 😔 God, that must have been so hard sending Kat away for her safety, knowing Susanna likes her enough to make that painting of her

3. That sweater Alice found is a Colton Landry sweater if ever I have seen one

4. I find it funny the brand Alice is doing her internship with has Queen of Cups as the logo bc that’s the card I keep face up on my tarot deck to remind me to bring the glasses out of my room

5. It’s Alice’s fault if the blazers in my closet get worn more often now. Oh my god it’s so devastating I had my hair cut to Kat length instead of keeping it at Alice length (whatever I’ll get over it no regrets)

6. GET IT DEL 😳😳😳👀👀👀🥵🥵🥵 lmfao

7. Who pushed Alice? Colton, needing her to go back to have the 1974 experience? Casey, who didn’t want Alice to know for sure they were using the pond?

8. It takes Del much too long and too much evidence to believe Colton wasn’t having an affair but it takes one handwritten page to convince her time travel is real and her family has been doing it.

9. Did Elliot get a record player for this season to play Colton (and Alice)’s demo or has that always been lurking in the background of his house in this show

10. Seeing Thomas on screen again was kinda whatever, nice to have that narrative closure but I don’t know how I ever was a coyleposter sorry

11. This is going to feel like one of the longest weeks of my life isn’t it

12. I wonder what Jacob will do with himself now that he might venture beyond the farm…? oh god I hope Monica and Rita leave him alone

13. I am patient. I can wait. I have serenity in my spirit WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE DIDNT GET THE SEE THE 1970s YET IN THIS EPISODE AAAAAAARRRGGHGHHRHRHHHHGHGH

[urbanrelics]

ALIENWORKS

Abandoned steelworks power plant.

This iron and steel factory is a former blast furnace cast iron factory, built in 1890 by a German family business. The factory specialized in the production of pig iron, made from local iron ore.

Thanks to the company's continuous modernization, its ideal location in the French steel basin and the restructuring of the steel industry, the company concentrated its entire production of French cast iron in the mid-1960s.

Despite all these favorable criteria and technical innovations, the company, like all other steel companies, suffered seriously from the crisis in the steel industry in the 1970s. The company managed to survive for a while, but was forced to announce its closure in the early 1990s.

Part of the site, including the blast furnace itself, was preserved as industrial heritage.

In this series of photos you see the power plant that was part of the blast furnace company. It is a classic power plant, with turbines from Brown Boveri and AEG, among others, driven by steam that was produced in the adjacent boiler room.

The site is well secured and difficult to access, which also explains why it has been preserved in its current beautiful state.

[the-time-lord-oracle]

Sonic Screwdriver prop history;

The Classic Series sonic screwdriver prop had it's origins in the 1966 film Thunderbirds are Go as the screwdriver Alan uses to repair the Zero-X escape unit. Following the closure of Century 21 studios in 1970, a number of props, including the screwdriver, were acquired by the BBC and the screwdriver became the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, making it's debut in 1971's Colony in Space.

In fact, the sonic screwdriver's emitter head had it's origins in Century 21 too, originally appearing as part of a radio mic in the Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons episode Model Spy in 1967.

[oxbowreality]

I was designing my own clothing and I was like "woah, weird, this kinda whips" (like a guy who made something for an audience of one). Five seconds later I realized that I had created something so objectively retrofuturist that it causes the viewer to decide that the wearer likely went to steampunk conventions in the past and has niche opinions on mid-century science fiction. This is not true about me, but it is a vibe. I look forwards to getting weird looks in the future.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Author: Anarchist Communist Group Topics: health care, NHS, United Kingdom

Save our NHS?

Healthcare in the UK is by no means “socialised”, as critics in the US claim. Though healthcare in the UK is undoubtedly better than healthcare in the US – just as other countries have better healthcare than the UK – it is still subject to the pressures and dynamics of capitalism, existing as it does in a capitalist society. It has also been increasingly marketised over recent decades, with attacks on both social provision and NHS workers coming under the cover of “privatisation” – the introduction of payment by results has introduced a market in health services, many non-frontline services have been privatised or contracted to companies like DHL, the introduction of wholly privately owned and operated “NHS treatment centres”, the rollout of Private Finance Initiatives etc all represent part of the same project of “rationalising” social provisions to the benefit of the overall capitalist system. Even the NHS in its classic form, as the centrepiece of the post-war welfare state, came as part of the attempt to stave off prewar-style class conflict and integrate the working class more closely into the state following the end of the war, and to provide a healthy working class that could fight and die for the bosses in their wars (our masters struggled to find enough fit cannon fodder for their First World War) and healthy enough to slave for their profits in paid jobs, and in unpaid childcare and housework, as well as from the needs for capitalism to stabilise itself after the turbulence of the 1920s, in a change of tactic well-known as the post-war settlement.

We need to defend health services, but critically. The NHS was never ‘ours’ and it is far from perfect.

Since the inception of the NHS, consultants were allowed to use NHS time and resources for their private gain, freeloading that the Daily Mail and their mates are happy to ignore. The Health Service treats our illnesses as individual cases, but most of our illness is due to economic and social conditions that we face collectively: unhealthy and dangerous workplaces, overlong hours and night time working, pollution from factories and cars, poor food, unhealthy housing, lack of trees and greenspaces, all exacerbated by racism and sexism for large sectors of the population. In the 1960s and 1970s women highlighted how unequally they were treated, particularly around childbirth. They won some improvements through struggle, but we are still miles from a genuine community health service.

We know that the current Tory government is making massive cuts to health services with closures of hospitals, casualty departments, rationing of services by age, cuts to services for the elderly and people with disabilities, near frozen wages of overworked staff etc. The whole idea of running healthcare as a business is contradictory (treatment based on ability to pay rather than need), and only benefits the well-off who can always pay for treatment, and the drug companies and other corporate vultures who are taking over more and more of the health service. The whole idea of ‘choice’ in this context is similarly a nonsense. We don’t want to choose which doctors or hospital service to use (the one round the corner / or the one 20 miles away?), we need local services, all of which are accessible and good.

Who Is To Blame?

What is causing the ongoing and deepening crisis in the NHS (and) the ‘lack of money’? Is it –

All those old people selfishly ‘bed blocking’ hospital beds rather than going home unwell and dying quickly so that they are no longer ‘a burden’.

The obese smokers and drinkers: no not the rich ones, and as always, blame the consumer, not the producer (the alcohol and tobacco industries have no responsibilities).

Migrant workers and ‘health tourists’ (the first pay taxes too, and the second cost less than the NHS pencil budget, and no, ignore the rich ones)

The rising cost of the NHS – due to an ageing population (as above), all those poor people who are overweight and smoke and drink too much etc.

NONE OF THE ABOVE!

Back in 2005 the now Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, co-wrote a pamphlet calling for the replacement of the NHS with a market insurance system, with the heavy involvement of private enterprise. A fox in charge of the hen coop! The policies pursued are obviously part of a death by a thousand cuts /privatisation by stealth strategy. The idea that the slow death of the NHS is just down to the Tories is delusional however. The PFI (Private Finance Initiative) was a Conservative idea they left on the shelf, with little of it being implemented. It was Labour’s Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who activated it when in government: schools and hospitals were built with finance from the private sector (banks etc) who then leased them to back to the government, who paid for them over the long term on a mortgage basis at a much higher cost (40% more). Old hospitals were closed, so overall there were fewer beds. Labour also introduced ‘the market’ into the health service, the equivalent of putting leeches into a blood bank, and introduced Foundation Trusts. These Labour policies left the NHS with debts of £81.6 billion, and they together with massive ongoing cuts are the cause of the crisis.

What Do We Want, And How Do We Get There?

We need to stop hospitals, casualty departments etc being closed, attacks on GPs, staff cuts, freezing of the wages of health service staff (which are cuts as rents, food etc go up). We need to stop the increasing marketisation of the NHS. We need to stop the NHS being run as a business concern, with vastly overpaid administrators at the top, with at least 800 of these on six figure salaries. We need to end the rigid hierarchies in hospitals, where decisions cannot be questioned, as witness the recent revelations about Gosport War Memorial Hospital where over 450 patients died after being prescribed dangerous painkillers and with according to a recent report “patients and relatives powerless in their relationship with professional staff”. We need to end the grip of drug companies on the NHS. In 2016 alone, the NHS payed these companies £1 billion for drugs for arthritis, cancer, MS, etc. The research for these drugs was funded by public money. “Big pharmaceutical companies are ripping us off by taking over drugs developed primarily with public money and selling the drugs back to the NHS at extortionate prices”. Heidi Chow, Global Justice Now.

How we do this is crucial however. If we use the same old tired methods of petitions, relying on union bureaucrats, trusting in political parties (whoever they are) not only will we probably lose, but we will remain powerless, divided, and with an illness service that doesn’t meet our needs or tackle the causes of our ill health. We need methods and organisation that empower us: to organise ourselves, control our own struggles, without leaders, and to use direct action methods: occupations, work-ins, strikes, work to rule etc. We need to break down the barriers between staff and patients, carers and service-users, workers and unemployed to link our struggles.

What do we want? – A free health service controlled and run by the staff and users. An emphasis on empowering people through helping them to educating themselves in groups about their bodies and health (e.g. books and pamphlets such as ‘Our Bodies Ourselves’ and the collective work in the last wave of feminism). Communities working together to tackle the causes of ill health: dangerous and unhealthy workplaces, an unhealthy, car-based transport system, poor food, widespread pollution, lack of green spaces for relaxation, and exercise etc. Move away from processed and unhealthy food, and from the current over-reliance on drugs. Again, self-organisation and direct action are key. But surely this is pie-in-the-sky? No, we are drawing on what people have done, and are doing, both here and abroad. In Greece, massive health cuts have resulted in health workers running hospitals and clinics etc for free, with the support of their local communities.

London Anarchist Communist Group londonacg@gmail.com

[princess-glassred]

Reddie Corpse Bride AU

It's 1989 and young adults Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak are arranged to be wed to one another, Eddie's mother has seemingly been able to put her homophobia aside for her sons sake, but still hold the outdated opinion it has to be an arranged marriage so she can make sure it's "the right person". However, what she really means by the right person is just wealthy since they're almost destitute, but of course Sonia would never admit that. That might make her sound like a bad mother who extorts her son, and she would NEVER do that. Never ever.

Richie, despite being overly confident and outspoken most of the time, is nervous as all hell to make a good impression on Eddie and feels like no matter what he does he'll mess up. Miraculously though, they do seem to hit it off when Richie tries to teach Eddie piano since his mom never let him learn it since she thought it'd give him arthritis. Slowly but surely, they start to bond, and even start calling each other by their nicknames instead of edward and richard. But alas, that comes crashing down when their families have a big victorian themed costume ball/rehersal dinner that's so chaotic it ends with Richie accidentally lighting Sonia on fire, and he's so embarrassed he flees to the town's abandoned arcade to hide away. Confused and dejected, he picks up a random token he finds laying around and pretends it's an engagement ring, practicing his vows and even slipping it inside one of the machines to imitated putting it on Eddie's finger. The vows are perfect and he's satisfied, but suddenly the arcade machine starts to rumble and crack, until a lone figure bursts out from inside and destroys the whole thing in a heavenly glow.

The figure reveals itself to be a zombie groom named Connor and he claims Richie and him are now married despite his terror and adamant denial. He takes him away to Derry's underworld and explains his tragic life story to him and why he was in an arcade machine. Appearently he died sometime in the 1970's after he fell in love with a guy but his homophobic cousin Henry disaproved of it. Enraged, Henry sent a fake letter pretending to be Connor's lover, asking for him to the abandoned arcade they met at so they could elope and run away together.

Niave little Connor did as he was asked, but when he showed up to the theatre Henry and his friend jumped him, and when they were done they stuffed his body inside the arcade machine where nobody would ever find it. His cousin went to an asylum after that and his friend went on the run, so even in death Connor never got closure over what happened. So, instead of moving on, Connor vowed that he would wait for his one true love to find him in that machine, marry him, and set him free, and unfortunately for Richie he did just that.

When Eddie inevitably finds out about this and tries to get help nobody believes him, his mother outright demands they take him to juniper hills for psychiatric evaluation IMMEDIATELY, but something quickly changes her mind. Suddenly she finds a new rich guy for Eddie to marry, Patrick Hockstetter, who she takes a liking to because he's quiet and good at manipulating her. Underneath his handsome looks and quiet demeaner though, he's really just a gold digging psychopath that ACTS like a gentleman. So how the hell are Richie and Eddie gonna get outta this one???

This took, i'm not kidding, 30 hours in ibis paint on my phone. 30. Hours.

[rabbitcruiser]

Yellowknife, NWT (No. 12)

At the south end, another residential neighborhood comes near the lake, after which a rocky area buffers Stanton Regional Hospital. Commercial strip development along Old Airport Road also comes close, and the road itself runs alongside part of the lake's southwestern shore for 100 metres (330 ft). After it curves away to the west, the northwestern side and northern end of the lake are all taiga and bedrock between Frame and nearby Robinson's Pond and Jackfish Lake, with just the trail alongside.

Amid a park-like setting on the northeastern corner of the lake, and the northern shore of the western arm, stand two other large public buildings: the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly Building. The two are connected via paths and driveways through the intervening taiga and bedrock. A causeway carries the Frame Lake Trail across the tip of the arm, where the Northern Frontier Visitor Centre overlooks the lake.

Formed by the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, Frame Lake remained a relatively pure lake even as the area was settled and modern development impinged on it. The closure of its only outlet around 1970, however, led swiftly to its decline and eutrophication. By the end of the 20th century it could no longer support fish and was not being used for primary recreational purposes. Attempts to revive it started in the 2010s.

Source: Wikipedia