#Central Emergency Command Center

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Taipei, Taiwan CNN — Rescuers in Taiwan scrambled to free dozens of people trapped in highway tunnels after the island was struck by its strongest earthquake in 25 years Wednesday, killing at least nine and injuring more than 900 others.

The powerful 7.4 magnitude tremor shook the island’s east coast, hitting at 7:58 a.m. local time, 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Hualien city and at a depth of 34.8 kilometers (21 miles), according to the US Geological Survey.

It was followed by several strong aftershocks with tremors felt across the island, including by CNN staff in the capital Taipei.

Taiwan’s National Fire Agency (NFA) said in an update on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to nine, while 934 people have been injured.

The NFA did not indicate the severity of the injuries.

Meanwhile, 75 people stranded in various tunnels in Hualien County have been rescued by emergency responders.

As of 7 a.m. Eastern Time, 137 people remain trapped.

Among those trapped were 50 employees of the Silk’s Place Hotel Taroko, who were traveling in four minibuses.

Authorities have been unable to reach them by phone and have listed them as trapped for the time being.

Two German citizens that were caught up earlier in a tunnel in Hualien County have been rescued, the NFA added.

All the deaths were in Hualien County, among them three hikers killed by falling rocks in the tourist hotspot Taroko Gorge, the NFA said.

Falling rocks also killed a truck driver in front of a tunnel on the east coast’s Suhua Highway, it added.

Reports of extensive damage have also emerged, with collapsed buildings in Hualien County, thousands of homes left without power and a major highway closed due to landslides and rockfalls, according to Taiwanese officials.

Most of those trapped are in two road tunnels in northern Hualien County, the NFA said.

Two German nationals are stranded in a third tunnel in the county, it said.

The 400-meter Jinwen Tunnel, where 60 people are trapped, is one of more than a dozen that thread the Suhua Highway, a scenic but treacherous and narrow road that runs for 118 kilometers (73 miles) along the east coast.

Meanwhile, rescuers were en route to 12 people, including two Canadians, stuck on a trail in Taroko Gorge.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration spokesperson warned that powerful aftershocks as high as magnitude 7 are expected to occur until the end of the week.

“There was really strong shaking… We quickly turned off the gas and electricity and opened the door. It was really strong. It felt like the house would fall down,” Taipei resident Chang Yu-lin said on CNN affiliate Taiwan Plus.

Chen Nien-tzu, also in Taipei, said, “It was really wild.”

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had an earthquake so it felt really scary,” she said on Taiwan Plus.

The quake prompted initial tsunami warnings in Taiwan, southern Japan and the Philippines, with waves less than half a meter observed along some coasts and prompting airlines to suspend flights. All tsunami warnings were later lifted.

In Taiwan, military personnel were dispatched to help with disaster relief and schools and workplaces suspended operations as aftershocks hit the island, according to the Defense Ministry.

Taiwan’s outgoing President Tsai Ing-wen said Wednesday she had ordered her administration to “immediately” get “on top of the situation and understand local impacts as soon as possible.”

Tsai also told the administration to “provide necessary assistance and work together with local governments to minimize the impact of the disaster.”

Taiwan, a self-ruled island east of mainland China, is home to about 23 million people, most of whom live in the industrialized cities of its west coast, including the capital.

The island is regularly rocked by earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which runs around the edge of the Pacific Ocean and causes massive seismic and volcanic activity from Indonesia to Chile.

Wednesday’s quake is the strongest to hit Taiwan since 1999, according to the Central Weather Administration.

That year, a 7.7 magnitude quake hit south of Taipei, killing 2,400 people and injuring 10,000 others.

Hualien County, parts of which are mountainous and remote, is home to about 300,000 people on the island’s sparsely populated east coast.

A magnitude 6.2 quake hit near the area in 2018, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 300 others.

Collapsed buildings, highway damaged

The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, with road and rail closures curtailing access to the quake’s epicenter in Hualien County.

More than 100 buildings were damaged across the island, the National Fire Agency said, with about half of those in Hualien County.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing Wednesday afternoon at the nine-story Uranus Building that had partially collapsed, trapping residents, Hualien County Magistrate Hsu Chen-wei told reporters.

So far, 22 people had been rescued from the building, according to the NFA.

More than 91,000 households are without electricity, according to Taiwan’s Central Emergency Command Center.

The government-operated Taipower Company is working to restore power, it added.

Footage posted on social media showed several collapsed buildings in Hualien and residents helping trapped people escape through the window of a damaged apartment complex.

The quake struck during the morning rush hour, with videos showing vehicles bouncing on a vigorously shaking highway, an overpass swaying in Taipei, and commuters struggling to stand inside a juddering Taipei metro train.

Meanwhile, video broadcast by CNN affiliate TVBS showed cellphone and security camera footage of the moment tremors struck homes and businesses across the island.

One clip showed power lines swaying violently above a street and another saw chandeliers shaking in a restaurant.

Large boulders could be seen strewn across the eastern Suhua Highway, with several tunnels broken — including one split in half, TVBS footage showed.

CNN affiliate SET News shows the front of a car smashed by fallen rocks.

Transport authorities recorded at least nine rockfalls and landslides on the highway, which has been closed to traffic.

Another highway connecting the west coast with eastern Taiwan was also damaged by falling rocks, with at least 12 cars hit and nine people injured, TVBS reported.

Tsunami waves

The quake sparked tsunami warnings across the region as authorities ordered evacuations.

In Taiwan’s Chenggong, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the quake’s epicenter, waves reached almost half a meter.

The Central Weather Administration advised residents to evacuate to higher ground.

The Japan Meteorological Agency also issued a tsunami alert for the southern Miyakojima and Okinawa islands, warning of waves up to 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) high.

A 30-centimeter (nearly 1 foot) wave impacted Okinawa, the first tsunami observed there in 26 years, the agency said.

Several hours later, the US Tsunami Warning Center said the tsunami threat had “largely passed” but people in coastal areas should remain alert.

All flights from Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures were suspended following the tsunami warnings in the area, Japan Airlines said.

Okinawa’s Naha airport resumed flights after the tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory, airport spokesperson Hideaki Tsurudo told CNN.

[fatehbaz]

Chicago, Illinois is often considered to be on the periphery of the plantation. William Cronon's famous narrative of Chicago's relationships with the "Great West" positions the burgeoning city at the edge of American expansion into plantation agriculture in the Midwest and industrial farming on a national scale. [...] [W]e could also characterize the city as an anticipatory hub between the twin plantation figures of the pre-war American South and America's 20th century colonies [in Central America, the Philippines, and beyond]. During the Reconstruction years, Chicago emerged as a logistical center, channeling America's railroads and telegraph lines into itself. As parts of this communications node, Chicago newspapers and military police served to convert white anxieties about Black migration from the plantation South into new techniques and technologies of prediction that became transportable across a newly imaginable informational plane of US imperialism. [...] [I]n Chicago between 1875 and 1890, [...] white anticipations of African American migration from plantations in the South were translated into new information sciences and policing techniques that made their way to plantations in places like the Philippines. [...]

[S]uch feelings were fundamental to linking plantations which at first seem so spatially and temporally distant. [...]

---

On May 3, 1879 the Chicago Tribune published a greatly anticipated investigatory series entitled, “The Negro Exodus: Causes of the Migration from the Negro’s Point of View” [...] the latest in a long sequence of deeply uneasy reports dating from 1860. From its location at the communicative center of all major US rail and telegraph lines, the Chicago Tribune undertook an imagined responsibility to inform its Midwestern audience of Black peoples’ movements and behaviors. [...] At the climax of the “Negro’s Point of View” series, [...] May 3, the Chicago Tribune presented its showstopping report from its correspondent in Vicksburg, Mississippi entitled “Letters Written by Negroes in Kansas to their Friends South”. In this report, the writer discusses his skepticism of earlier methods of [...] interviews with Black migrants. [...] [The newspaper] conducted its fact-gathering through the mass surveillance of Black peoples' letters [...] [to assess] inner motivations [...] about Black peoples’ “perceptions, enjoyments, and reasons” [...]. Such informational appetites became the anticipatory basis for 20th century enumerative practices. As Colin Koopman argues, informational fastening, or the atomization and separation of facts from Black peoples’ bodies, became commonplace during the Great Migration in the practice of racial statistics, criminology, and health policy directed at Black migrants [...].

---

White Chicagoans’ prolonged concern over predicting Black behaviors and intentions materialized in 1877, when the city became a central hub of militarized response to a nation-wide railroad strike. Adjutant General Richard C. Drum, who commanded the Military Division of the Missouri (Western Frontier) in Chicago from 1873 to 1878, took control of Chicago’s military response to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In 1879, after his final year in the city, Drum moved to Washington, DC and proposed the establishment of the Military Information Division (MID) [...]. The MID, which formally established in 1885, maintained close ties to Chicago's local information collection system, adopting a Bertillon identification system of collecting and storing intelligence cards at the time that the National Association of Chiefs of Police established their central bureau of identification in Chicago in 1896 [...]. By the tun of the 20th century, Chicago's police force had expanded tenfold [...], and Drum's MID had amassed over 300,000 intelligence cards [...].

---

The affective atmosphere into which the MID intensified its own predictive techniques later traversed the Pacific Ocean into the Philippines. Alfred McCoy argues that the American introduction of communication technologies and surveillance techniques in governing the Philippines constituted the United States’ first information revolution (McCoy 2009: 18). Colonial police trained in the anxious habits of the MID, rendered the Philippines a laboratory for securitized speculation. McCoy further contends that these informational “capillaries of empire” embedded themselves into the Philippines’ plantocratic-security state as well as US domestic surveillance practices. I add to McCoy’s argument by suggesting that trained feelings of white apprehension translated into imperial mechanisms for governing the Philippines through systems of intelligence cards, telecommunications infrastructure, policing units, and management sciences. Reminiscent of the psychological investigatory projects that saturated Chicago’s public life, the MID and its successors developed techniques for psychological examination and personality typing led by another Chicagoan, Harry Hill Bandholtz. [...] Bandholtz sharpened the MID's informational sciences by training Philippines police forces in the neurotic art of collecting every imaginable fact about Filipino behaviors [...].

---

Ultimately, the US colonial plantocracy in the Philippines built its authority around information infrastructures which had been trained on apprehensive practices and feelings emanating from Chicago’s racialized geography. [...] [T]he informational networks that extended from the image of the American South, through the anticipation of Chicago's public, [...] animated the governance of colonial plantations in the Philippines [...].

---

All text above by: Jolen Martinez. "Plantation Anticipation: Apprehension in Chicago from Reconstruction America to the Plantocratic Philippines" (2024). An essay from an Intervention Symposium titled Plantation Methodologies: Questioning Scale, Space, and Subjecthood. The symposium was introduced and edited by Alyssa Paredes, Sophie Chao, and Andrés León Araya. The symposium was hosted and published by Antipode Online, part of Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. Published online 4 January 2024, at: antipodeonline.org/2024/01/04/plantation-methodologies/ [In this post, bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[one-divides-into-two]

"If we treat the Stonewall Uprising as initiating the modern gay mass movement in 1969, the left-adventurist line was initially dominant, and fell by the wayside in the late 70s. Those who led the first wave of the LGBT movement of the 60s understood themselves (however incompletely) as participating in a revolutionary movement and process: In broad strokes, the early “left” line groups of gay liberation located the center of gay oppression in the family form itself and were explicitly in solidarity with the women’s movement as in many ways the same as their own (ideologically if not always practically). The British Gay Liberation Front’s Manifesto reads

The oppression of gay people starts in the most basic unit of society, the family...At some point nearly all gay people have found it difficult to cope with having the restricting images of man or woman pushed on them by their parents...we are expected to prove ourselves socially to our parents as members of the right sex (to bring home a boy/girl friend) and to start being a 'real' (oppressive) young man or a 'real' (oppressed) young woman

The Boston Gay Men’s Liberation group argued in their manifesto for the collectivization of childcare and housework, saying

Rearing children should be the common responsibility of the whole community. Any legal rights parents have over ‘their’ children should be dissolved and each child should be free to choose its own destiny. Free twenty-four hour child care centers should be established where faggots and lesbians can share the responsibility of child rearing

Others explicitly aligned themselves with the national liberation and anti-imperialist struggles of the time –Third World Gay Revolution went so far as to explicitly call for armed struggle towards establishing socialism. The gay struggle, to these organizations, was necessarily part of the struggle for the end of capitalism and the liberation of all oppressed and exploited peoples.

Nevertheless, these groups primarily took the left-adventurist line, and the failure of these organizations to place politics in command and take up Marxism fully (despite its influence within the movement), and the failure of the leading Marxist organizations of the time to cast aside their chauvinism, place politics in command, and embrace the LGBT movement (most notably RU/RCP, which maintained that homosexuality was “perpetuated and fostered by the decay of capitalism” and to be eliminated under socialism until 2001 and engaged in conversion therapy-style practices on their gay cadre), allowed the bourgeoisie to co-opt the movement and suppress its revolutionary strains. By the end of the 1970s the main left-adventurist groups that emerged from the movement's popular initiation via the Stonewall Uprising (GLF, STAR, TWGR, etc) had collapsed, and were replaced by the newly dominant right-opportunist trend, represented in groups like Lambda Legal (founded 1971), GLAD (1978), and the Human Rights Campaign (1980). Occasional left-adventurist ruptures emerged over the succeeding years, with ACT UP's break (rooted in part in gay and lesbian anti-imperialist solidarity work in the preceding years) from Gay Men's Health Crisis representing the most significant of these, but over the next three decades the bourgeois "marriage equality" became the central demand of the movement, with the implication that once these various reforms proposed by the right-opportunist trend were enacted, the gay movement would cease to be necessary.

In the first two decades of the 21st century these reforms were realized, and the idealist fantasies of the leading bourgeois gay organizations were not. These reforms were granted because they reaffirmed the bourgeois family form, successfully assimilating the leading upper strata of LGBT people as a method of defusing the movement as a whole. While in some ways the broad social acceptability of homosexuality, transness and gender nonconformity have increased, the reaction to these reforms has produced a vicious effort to oppress the lower strata, typically trans people.

Indeed, all empirical evidence points to the continuing existence of anti-gay and anti-trans oppression. In our younger years, parents, teachers, and other authority figures will attempt to suppress any expression of homosexuality, transness, or gender non-conformity. The passive and active social enforcement of your sex/gender role is a universal experience, but is felt particularly acutely by those most directly in contradiction with those roles. When this fails, authority figures sometimes resort to violence and sexual abuse – gay and trans children suffer higher rates of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse across the board as compared to their cis and straight peers. LGBT people as a whole make 10% less than the average worker. This is felt more acutely among trans people, particularly trans women (in line with their cis counterparts), who make just 60% of the average. What bourgeois sociological evidence does exist points to significant discrimination in housing, jobs, medical care, etc. Accessing medical care is a struggle of its own for trans people – getting the treatment needed for basic day-to-day existence is often humiliating and expensive.

For younger LGBT people, particularly trans people, this political sequence has produced significant "whiplash." We grew up in a period of a real increase in broad social "acceptance," and being told that these reforms would guarantee an end to our oppression. But the utter abdication of leadership by the rightists following the reforms (after all, "we won") and the reactionary backlash has left the movement with a vacuum of political and organizational leadership at a crucial conjuncture. In the absence of this leadership, small groups have begun to emerge, largely taking up the left-adventurist anarchist line, sometimes explicitly. In some ways, this is a positive situation for communists. The broad masses of LGBT people are crying out for leadership in their struggle against the reactionary offensive, and the failure of the bourgeois rightist line to provide its promised victory has revealed to many gay and trans people, particularly those of the lower strata, the bankruptcy of reformism.

The current assault on our self-determination by the reactionary wing of first-world politics presents us with an opportunity to smash that trend, to effect a final rupture. Gay and trans people, particularly trans people, are increasingly forced into direct confrontation with the bourgeois state (through its repressive laws) and its extra-legal shock troops (with trans events becoming one of the primary targets for street fascist attacks). Not since the AIDS crisis have we seen such direct confrontation – and with it, openness to revolutionary communist political projects.

The task before communists in the gay movement is therefore to rectify the line of the movement through theoretical and practical struggle, to offer leadership to the gay and trans masses, and transform this movement into a detachment of the world proletarian struggle for communism."

Half the Sky: Preliminary Materials for a Proletarian Feminist Politics

[girlactionfigure]

🚨 IDF PREPARES FOR GROUND MANEUVERS AGAINST HEZBOLLAH, CALLS UP RESERVE BRIGADES TO DEFEND NORTHERN ISRAEL 🚨

⚠️ The IDF has successfully completed airstrikes on 60 Hezbollah targets, guided by the Intelligence Directorate. These strikes targeted Hezbollah's intelligence infrastructure, including intelligence-gathering tools and command centers, which are critical to the enemy’s situational assessment capabilities. See illustration image.

🚨 In light of the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah, the IDF has called up two reserve brigades for operations in the northern arena. This mobilization is essential to maintain defense efforts against Hezbollah and to create conditions that would allow residents in northern Israel to safely return to their homes.

🚨 Major General Ori Gordin, the Commanding Officer of the IDF Northern Command, has indicated that the army is prepared for ground maneuvers as the conflict with Hezbollah enters a new phase. He emphasized the readiness of armored forces, although the government has yet to authorize an invasion of Lebanon. During a visit to the 7th Brigade at the northern border, MG Gordin stressed the importance of preparedness to shift the security dynamics and allow the safe return of northern residents. He also noted the operation, named Northern Arrows, has already inflicted significant damage on Hezbollah’s firepower and leadership.

⚠️ American officials have suggested that the situation in Lebanon is approaching a full-scale war. Despite the U.S. administration’s reluctance to use the term, the rapidly escalating conflict indicates Washington’s diminishing ability to influence the situation.

⚠️ Hospital directors in central Israel, south of Haifa, have been instructed by security officials to increase their alert level in anticipation of potential emergency admissions. Hospitals are preparing to receive patients from northern Israel and to handle additional casualties, should the situation escalate.

⚠️ Meanwhile, the IDF launched another strike deep into Lebanon, targeting Ras Al-Ata, about 30 kilometers north of Beirut. According to Sky News Arabic, the strike resulted in the elimination of senior Hezbollah field commander, Fuad Shafiq Khazal.

🎗️In a broader diplomatic effort, Reuters reports that the U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire agreement linking Lebanon and Gaza. Prime Minister Netanyahu informed his ministers that he has authorized Ron Dermer to communicate to the U.S. that Israel is open to a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon to negotiate Hezbollah's withdrawal without further conflict. While the chances of this deal materializing are considered low by Israeli officials, agreeing to the proposal could help Israel gain international legitimacy if Hezbollah refuses.

The U.S. is keen on securing a ceasefire for several reasons:

1. The upcoming U.S. elections are just over a month away, and the Biden-Harris administration is eager to achieve a ceasefire agreement in Gaza or secure the release of hostages, a demand from the progressive base of the Democratic Party.

2. The lack of progress in securing peace only strengthens former President Trump’s position. Republicans argue that under Trump’s leadership, the war might not have broken out. With Trump positioning himself as the candidate who can prevent wars, this situation bolsters his standing.

3. Uncommitted Democratic voters could boycott Vice President Harris if no ceasefire is reached, a concern for her campaign, as losing these votes could sway the election in Trump’s favor.

After previous unsuccessful attempts to secure a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, more ambitious efforts are now underway as noted above, according to journalist Amit Segal. However, a Lebanese report from Hezbollah states that the group rejects any ceasefire involving Lebanon unless it also includes Gaza.

[naetaesarya]

i remember there was some discourse on how the reaction of the books and the ending was the reason grrm hasn’t released the books specifically suggesting that it’s daenerys ending and her “mad queen” arc but i think it’s because grrm is returning to the original outline with its major house stark points being an antithesis to the faux feminist show ending (sansa’s death, tension between jon and bran, incest between jon and arya)

Hi anon!! This will be a bit of a long long answer :) :) :) Happy Halloween!

From my foggy hazy addled memory, GRRM was having issues releasing Winds years before season 8 bombed and exploded its viscera everywhere. We'll have that goo staining the carpet for years :( GRRM seemed to believe the books would end roughly in the same place as the show... until after seeing season 8 whereupon he was like... well...

You know I had a lot of input in the beginning of Game of Thrones, partly cause I had these books out there. But at a certain point, as the show went on, I found I had less and less influence, until by the end, I really didn't even know what, what was going on. Some of these things I watched like everybody else and and, "oh...okay..." That's...

Source

Yeah.

I think it's also very important to consider what kind of messaging would a mad queen Dany send?

Dany is one of GRRM's lead female characters and she has existed as the protagonist of her own narrative since the very beginning. She defies a number of feminine conventions and is anything but a passive support sidekick character. As GRRM said, Daenerys can do anything, she can literally make up the magic as she goes. When Dany loses her husband and her child, as well as her position as Khal Drago's khaleesi, she creates and leads her own khalasar made up of misfits. Upon her brother's death, Dany is now responsible for returning the Iron Throne to her family's dynasty and what is traditionally a male's job becomes Dany's job. As such, Dany gathers forces, commands armies, plans battles, and at only 16, she is a leader and queen in her own right. This small and formerly timid 16-year old girl is now the most powerful person in this world.

When GRRM conceived this story in the late 80s-early 90s, action-oriented girls who defied convention and were the central focus of their own narratives didn't really happen. That's why shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit that special kind of nerve in the 90s, became so influential in the decades when ASOIAF was being published, and had a lasting influence on media since. Writer and producer Bryan Fuller remarks:

"Buffy showed that young women could be in situations that were both fantastic and relatable, and instead of shunting women off to the side, it puts them at the center."

Source

GRRM does just that with Dany and Arya -- Dany and Arya are active participants in the centers of relatable situations with fantastical elements. Of Arya, GRRM says:

I can’t say there’s any one specific model [for Arya], but a lot of the women I’ve known over the years have had aspects of Arya with them. Especially some of the women I knew when I was a young man back in the ’60s and ’70s, you know — the decade of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. I knew a lot of young women who weren’t buying into the, “Oh, I have to find a husband and be a housewife.”

Source

It's a reference to a certain physical type, and a certain indication of what Jon finds admirable. It's like someone who reminds you of, you know... Other people might be put off by this, you know, hair that looks like small rodents have been living in there. It doesn't put him off because he is used to that.

Source

Jon is endeared to Ygritte because she reminds him of Arya, a character who GRRM patterned after the real world women he knew coming up amidst second-wave feminism. As Arya wants options outside of typical gendered choices for highborn ladies, Dany is also kind of thrust into this sudden and pretty unconventional role. She emerges from the inferno unburned with three baby dragons and what's left of the khalasar after it has been deserted.

Arya and Dany are both thrust down unconventional paths as they navigate their environments and who they are in relation to those environments. Dany continues to explore her sexuality with Irri and later, Daario. She works hard to turn away from any dark inclinations (inclinations which all of our characters experience) and the last thing she wants to be is like her father.

What would it say if GRRM took this figure and made her "mad" or filled her with homicidal rage and hate, especially at a time when proactive action girls are not a commonality but so rare. What would that be saying? What idea of GRRM's would this be supporting?

I also struggle with Dany being mad in the books because while D&D ascribed credit for King Bran, burning Shireen, Hodor's origins to GRRM, and even shades of Jon/Dany, that definitely didn't happen with Mad Dany. While much of season 8 is divisive, what I'm gleaning is that Dany's turn was among the most controversial -- if not the most controversial -- element. Wouldn't D&D let GRRM shoulder some of that blame if it was a GRRM thing?

My own feeling is that D&D tried to recreate the Red Wedding with Mad Dany -- ambush audience with big surprise twist (whoops, Dany's been triggered by bells) and then shock, shock, shock, tragedy, and look at that artful blood.

but i think it’s because grrm is returning to the original outline with its major house stark points being an antithesis to the faux feminist show ending (sansa’s death, tension between jon and bran, incest between jon and arya)

Yeah, I think that outline is still relevant. I think there will be a succession crisis of sorts among the remaining Starks: a Littlefinger-backed and sponsored direwolfless Sansa; a Manderly-backed Rickon; a will and/or Stannis-supported Jon, and the heir whom Robb believed dead -- Bran Stark. Then there's Arya who:

is currently believed to be the Lady of Winterfell;

identity was used by the Boltons as the "key to the North"';

and is "the Ned's girl" for whom the mountains clans fight:

Even prisoners have ears, and she had heard all the talk at Deepwood Motte, when King Stannis and his captains were debating this march. Ser Justin had opposed it from the start, along with many of the knights and lords who had come with Stannis from the south. But the wolves insisted; Roose Bolton could not be suffered to hold Winterfell, and the Ned's girl must be rescued from the clutches of his bastard. So said Morgan Liddle, Brandon Norrey, Big Bucket Wull, the Flints, even the She-Bear.

(The King's Prize, ADWD)

I think Arya would choose Jon if forced to choose. There was a bitter rift between Bran and Jon in the original outline and that could manifest in the remaining story as well, perhaps over Winterfell or something at the Wall.

What did GRRM say about happy families 😭

[novankenn]

Bestial Rage

The blare and shriek of alarms filled the complex, prompting everyone with in the buildings to rush about in panic, all looking for either exits or safe rooms. Among the suited and lab coated individuals, men and women in body arm forced their way past heading towards the center of the complex.

/==/ Atlas Military Command /==/

A lanky and mustached man burst through the doors of the central nerve center of the Atlas Military machine. The abrupt entrance and noise of the door slamming into the wall, drew everyone's attention.

"Watts! What is the mea..."

"They've escaped!" Watts shouted out in a nearly breathless voice.

'Escaped?"

"Yes." Watts used one of his arms to prop himself against a nearby desk, pressing his free hand against his chest. "I was just notified."

"Turn of all recording equipment and everyone out!" Ironwood shouted, his eyes never straying from the form of Arthur Watts. It took a couple minutes but soon Watts and Ironwood were alone in the command center. The last staff member closing the door behind her.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, all I know is that both subjects went berserk and managed to affect an escape."

"Casualties?"

"Yes, multiple, but all with in those of our security forces that attempted to stop them. They ignored everyone else."

"Fuck!" Ironwood slammed his cybernetic fist down upon a desk, denting it with ease. "Fuck!"

"There is some good news."

"What could be good about this whole cluster-fuck!" James Ironwood snapped.

"The trackers are still working. We can trace them, and when they are worn out by the environment we can apprehend them." Arthur Watts informed the General. "It will take time, but it's better than throwing lives at them."

"What about Grimm? Exposure?"

"With their natural talents, abilities and the augments we gave them... they'll handle both of those with ease."

"And yous till think we should wait?"

"Yes. Solitas' hostile environment will wear them down. It will still be a fight when we move in... but it will be much less of one than if we were to go in on them now."

"How long?"

"A week?"

"A week? They could be in Vale by that time!"

"There is no where we won't be able to find them., so that is not an issue."

"But using active military in Vale territory..." Ironwood stopped talked and it the inside of his cheek. "We could always send in the Ace-Ops... covertly."

"We could, and they would be able to find them easily with the trackers."

"Okay. Monitor them. We'll revisit the issue of capture and containment in a week's time."

/==/ Solitas Hinterland (2 days later) /==/

The pair of blonds were hungry, annoyed and angry. Neither could remember anything specific, past the last year. A Year of pain, humiliation and torture. They stalked through the snow dusted scrub land, their ultra sensitive senses guiding them towards a potential windfall. The cold air bit at the exposed portions of their flesh, and they did their best to ignore it... but it was becoming more and more difficult to do so.

In a low crouch they reached the crest of a small rise, and peered over the edge. Their training and conditioning kicked in instantly when they saw the masks. Feral growls rumbled from their throats as a set of gleaming blades emerged from between the knuckles of their hands. Without a word they were in motion.

Blood splattered across the trampled down snow. Cries of pain and alarm filled the air as the pair ripped through the small group of White Fang.

A/N - This could turn into something more... I'm just not sure what or when.

[mariacallous]

As Israel marks a year since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza, Israeli security officials are increasingly worried about the surge in violence perpetrated by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. In July, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, the outgoing head of the Israeli military’s Central Command—which includes the West Bank—declared that “nationalist crime has reared its head under the cover of war and has led to revenge and sowed calamity and fear in Palestinian residents who do not pose any threat.” A few weeks later, Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, warned the country’s leaders that Jewish terrorism in the West Bank was out of control and had become a serious threat to national security. Bar implicitly referred to policies promoted by extreme right-wing ministers, primarily Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who openly advocate for the annexation of the West Bank.

But there’s something misleading about these statements. They portray the settlers who commit violence as if they’re operating outside the norms of Israeli occupation, as if the official actions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) itself are not violent and soldiers are not involved. This framing allows the IDF, the sovereign power in the West Bank, to evade responsibility for the attacks. When security officials or left-center politicians criticize the military itself for failing to address the violence, this again serves to draw a line between the military and the violence itself.

The truth is obviously more complicated. Since the 2000s, two armies within the IDF have gradually formed; alongside the official army, a policing force has emerged in the Israeli-controlled West Bank. This policing army comprises an infantry brigade permanently stationed in the region, units of the border police, and settler militias armed and trained by the IDF for ostensibly self-defense. Unlike the official army, this policing army is informally controlled by a matrix rather than a hierarchical structure, characterized by a network of informal agencies, the most important of which are the settlers’ communities and their politically powerful leadership.

While the official task of this policing army is, among other things, to protect both Palestinian and Jewish communities, its unofficial task is to promote the quiet annexation of parts of the West Bank and prevent territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Authority. To this end, the policing army needs settler violence to carry out what official Israel cannot.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem described this dynamic in a 2021 report titled “Settler Violence = State Violence.” It identified an integrated process for taking over Palestinian land, consisting of the state’s official acts combined with settler violence. “[S]ettler violence is a form of government policy, aided and abetted by official state authorities with their active participation,” the report stated. This is why such violence is systematically tolerated. Between 2005 and 2023, only 3 percent of investigations launched into ideologically motivated offenses by Israelis against Palestinians led to convictions, according to the rights group Yesh Din. This number primarily reflects the period before Ben-Gvir gained control of the police.

In 2022, when Israel was led by a center-right government under Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, the monthly average of settler attacks on Palestinians stood at about 71, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Though that’s a significant number, the public discourse on this issue was relatively muted in this period, and top security officials did not issue warnings. That figure surged to about 110 after the start of the war in Gaza last year and until August of this year.

It follows that, rather than discussing settler violence in general, we should distinguish between two forms: functional and dysfunctional. Functional violence is the type that serves the state’s goals—including violence instrumental to land grabs—and is therefore tolerated. In contrast, dysfunctional violence is extremely aggressive and escalates to a degree that threatens the security order in the West Bank, which official Israel seeks to preserve, and significantly harms the country’s international legitimacy.

Dysfunctional violence includes organized and lethal attacks by settlers on Palestinian communities, such as the recent one in the town of Jit. Dozens of settlers, some masked, set fire to buildings and cars and hurled rocks and firebombs. This kind of attack does not serve Israel’s concrete goal. Similar examples include settlers’ attacks against the IDF. It is this dysfunctional violence that Israeli officials condemn.

In contrast, functional violence is tolerated. If readers are still unconvinced, the case of community displacement may serve as a compelling example. According to B’Tselem, since the beginning of the war, some 19 isolated Palestinian communities and single-farm families, comprising about 1,100 residents, were forcibly displaced. In all cases, the families left following violence committed by settlers or threats thereof, in some instances accompanied by soldiers.

Whether the IDF is able to prevent such violence is an open question. The military admitted following its inquiry into the attacks at Jit that troops received prior warning but did not act as expected to stop the assailants at the scene. Nevertheless, when the displaced communities demanded to return to their lands under IDF protection, the military could have facilitated the process. Instead, it prevented their return and even explicitly declared that it had no intention of assisting them. As of now, only one community, the village of Khirbet Zanuta, has secured a court decision and been allowed to return. In the meantime, settlers destroyed most of the homes there, yet the military has not permitted the residents to rebuild and has even pressured them to leave the village, citing legal excuses.

It is true that the IDF’s authority in the West Bank has declined amid the rise of Israel’s right-wing government in 2023. The coalition agreements gave Smotrich vast powers in the West Bank. As Nahum Barnea, a senior columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth, recently revealed, the Smotrich-led administration has played a leading role in the rapid annexation of the West Bank by bypassing the IDF’s authority. Yet the military remains the commending echelon for troops whose role includes protecting Palestinians. When the IDF refrains from providing protection, the message it sends is that such protection is not in its interests.

The conclusion therefore is that settler violence leading to the transfer of communities is functional, even if the army does not directly manage it, because it serves the goal of territorial control—something the IDF could not officially openly achieve. Security officials and center-left voices will continue to condemn the dysfunctional violence. But the functional version—the kind of violence that poses a greater risk to the potential establishment of a Palestinian state—will continue to go unobstructed and unpunished.

[kemetic-dreams]

Aro Confederacy

The Aro Confederacy (1690–1902) was a political union orchestrated by the Aro people, Igbo subgroup, centered in Arochukwu in present-day southeastern Nigeria. The Aro Confederacy kingdom was founded after the beginning of the Aro-Ibibio Wars. Their influence and presence was all over Eastern Nigeria, lower Middle Belt, and parts of present-day Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Arochukwu Kingdom was an economic, political, and an oracular center as it was home of the Ibini Ukpabi oracle, High Priests, the Aro King Eze Aro, and central council (Okpankpo). The Aro Confederacy was a powerful and influential political and economic alliance of various Igbo-speaking communities in southeastern Nigeria. It emerged during the 17th century and played a significant role in the region until the late 19th century.

The exact origins of the Aro Confederacy are not precisely documented, but it is believed to have been established around the mid-17th century. The Aro people, who were part of the Igbo ethnic group, inhabited the region around present-day Arochukwu in Abia State, Nigeria. They were skilled traders and missionaries who played a pivotal role in connecting various Igbo communities. This migration and their military power, and wars with neighboring kingdoms like supported by their alliances with several related neighboring Igbo and eastern Cross River militarized states (particularly Ohafia, Edda, Abam, Abiriba, Afikpo, Ekoi, Bahumono, Amasiri etc.), quickly established the Aro Confederacy as a regional economic power. The Aro Confederacy's strength came from its well-organized network of Aro agents who were dispersed across different communities in the region. These agents acted as intermediaries in trade, diplomacy, and religious matters. They facilitated commerce, resolved disputes, and spread the worship of the Aro deity known as the "Long Juju" oracle."The Opening Up of Nigeria, the Expedition Against the Aros by Richard Caton Woodville II" 1901

The "Long Juju" oracle was the spiritual centerpiece of the Aro Confederacy. It was housed in Arochukwu and considered a potent source of political authority and religious guidance. The Aro people used the oracle to enforce their influence and control over surrounding communities. It also served as a means to administer justice and settle disputes, often attracting pilgrims seeking solutions to their problems.

The Aro Confederacy gained significant economic power through trade and commerce Their economy was primarily based on agriculture, with the cultivation of crops like palm oil, yams, and cassava. They were also involved in trade with neighboring communities and European merchants. They controlled trade routes that passed through their territories, collecting tolls and taxes from traders. The Aro also engaged in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade by capturing and selling slaves to European traders.

Aro activities on the coast helped the growth of city-states in the Niger Delta, and these city states became important centres for the export of palm oil and slaves. Such city-states included Opobo, Bonny, Nembe, Calabar, as well as other slave trading city-states controlled by the Ijaw, Efik, and Igbo. The Aros formed a strong trading network, colonies, and incorporated hundreds of communities that formed into powerful kingdoms. The Ajalli, Arondizuogu, Ndikelionwu, and Igbene Kingdoms were some of the most powerful Aro states in the Confederacy after Arochukwu. Some were founded and named after commanders and chiefs like Izuogu Mgbokpo and Iheme who led Aro/Abam forces to conquer Ikpa Ora and founded Arondizuogu. Later Aro commanders such as Okoro Idozuka (also of Arondizuogu) expanded the state's borders through warfare at the start of the 19th century. Aro migrations also played a large role in the expansion of Ozizza, Afikpo, Amasiri, Izombe, and many other city-states. For example, Aro soldiers founded at least three villages in Ozizza. The Aro Confederacy's power, however, derived mostly from its economic and religious position. With European colonists on their way at the end of the 19th century, things changed.Burning of Arochukwu 1901

During the 1890s, the Royal Niger Company of Britain bore friction with the Aros because of their economic dominance. The Aro resisted British penetration in the hinterland because their economic and religious influence was being threatened. The Aro and their allies launched offensives against British allies in Igboland and Ibibioland. After failed negotiations, the British attempted to conquer the Aro Confederacy in 1899. By 1901, the tensions were especially intensified when British prepared for the Aro Expedition. The invasion of Obegu (in Igboland) was the last major Aro offensive before the start of the Anglo-Aro War. In November 1901, the British launched the Aro Expedition and after strong Aro resistance, Arochukwu was captured on December 28, 1901. By early 1902, the war was over, and the Aro Confederacy collapsed. Contrary to the belief that the Ibini Ukpabi was destroyed, the shrine still exists, and is intact in Arochukwu and serves mainly as a tourist site.

[republicsecurity]

Helmet Capabilities

The standard-issue helmet for the cadets in the Enforcer Academy is a multifunctional headgear designed to provide protection, communication, and situational awareness. The helmet is an integral component of the full-body armor system and offers the following capabilities:

Protection and Construction

Material: Constructed from a composite of high-strength polymers and lightweight alloys, the helmet offers excellent ballistic protection while remaining lightweight.

Ergonomics: The interior is padded with adjustable, high-density foam to ensure a secure and comfortable fit for extended wear.

Visor System

Retractable Visor: The helmet features a retractable, polycarbonate visor that can be deployed or retracted with a simple voice command or manual switch. The visor is impact-resistant and provides full facial protection.

Heads-Up Display (HUD): When the visor is deployed, it functions as a transparent display, overlaying critical information directly onto the user's field of vision. The HUD includes data such as ID overlays of other cadets, navigation aids, environmental readings, and communication messages.

Communication

Integrated Communications Suite: The helmet is equipped with a built-in communication system, allowing for helmet-to-helmet communication among cadets and instructors. This includes individual, group, and broadcast modes.

External Noise Control: The helmet can either fully block outside noise or allow selective sounds, such as authorized speech, to pass through. This feature ensures clear communication while maintaining situational awareness.

Sensory Input Management

Noise Dampening: Blocks out external noise when necessary, with adjustable settings to allow selective auditory input.

Visual Filters: Can dim, block or enhance visual input based on the cadet’s environment, reducing sensory overload.

AI Monitoring: The helmet’s integrated AI monitors conversations, filtering out unauthorized or harmful communications and providing real-time feedback.

Sensors and Monitoring

Environmental Sensors: The helmet includes sensors to monitor external conditions such as temperature, humidity, and air quality, providing real-time data to the wearer and the command center.

Biometric Monitoring: The helmet continuously monitors vital signs, including heart rate, respiration, and stress levels, transmitting this data to the central monitoring system.

Safety and Security

Neck Seal: The helmet features an airtight neck seal that integrates with the body armor, ensuring a complete protective barrier against hazardous environments.

Additional Features

Night Vision and Thermal Imaging: The helmet is equipped with night vision and thermal imaging capabilities, allowing for enhanced visibility in low-light or obscured conditions.

Custom Fit: The padding and internal structure can be adjusted to fit various head sizes and shapes, ensuring a custom fit for each cadet.

Usage and Maintenance

Battery Life: The helmet's power supply is integrated with the suit's main power system, providing continuous operation for up to five days without recharging.

Maintenance: Regular maintenance includes cleaning the visor, checking the seals, and ensuring the communication systems are functioning properly. Maintenance protocols are outlined in the standard operating procedure manual.

Remote Control and Safety Features

Instructor Control: Instructors can remotely control helmet functions, including visual and auditory inputs, to ensure cadet safety and compliance.

Emergency Lockdown: The helmet can immobilize the cadet’s head and control movements via the neural interface in critical situations.

Usage Parameters

Operational Duration: Designed for continuous use up to 7 days, with standard operational periods of 5 days.

Maintenance Cycle: Requires a maintenance check and recalibration after each operational cycle to ensure optimal performance.

[eretzyisrael]

By Seth J. Frantzman

IT’S IMPORTANT to look at the timing here to understand the likely Hamas calculations. In early March, reports indicated that Israel would be pressured into a ceasefire before Ramadan. That meant that the ceasefire was supposed to start around March 10. However, Hamas increased its demands and refused to provide a list of living hostages. Hamas believed that Israel would be pressured into a ceasefire without hostages being released. Israel did reduce operations in Gaza and redeploy some units, but the IDF also stepped up raids in Gaza. This included raids over the last few months in areas the IDF cleared back in November, among them a raid into Shati and then into Zaytun. However, the IDF also warned those in Zaytun about the raid before it happened.Hamas assumed they would get a warning if the IDF was returning to Shifa. They also assumed that the IDF was facing pressure after having raided Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Hamas figured Israel wouldn’t go back to Shifa, and therefore, almost 1,000 terrorists appear to have congregated there. These large numbers of men congregating together would have been clearly visible. They would have seemed well fed, unlike the tens of thousands of others sheltering near the hospital. In some cases, these men would have been armed. They didn’t need to be armed all the time because arms were stored in various places. Hamas operates like a mafia, and mafia members don’t always need to be armed. The weapons are stored in easy-to-reach locations so members can get to them if necessary. Still, Hamas would have felt secure at Shifa, like returning to their homes, so they didn’t need weapons. They assumed the ceasefire would let them set up a command center there to resume control of northern Gaza, where an estimated 30,000 people are located.Hamas appears to sometimes operate in Gaza in plain clothes and without weapons, except when it needs weapons. For instance, Hamas gunmen have been involved in killing civilians who were trying to access aid. It appears Hamas is responsible for some of the incidents at the Kuwaiti roundabout near Gaza City. This means that Hamas arms its men when it needs to but often, the men seem to mill around without weapons. When the IDF raided Shifa, at least 180 terrorists were eliminated in gunfights. The terrorists also have mortars nearby.AdvertisementThe overall picture that emerges is that Hamas returned to Shifa because it believed a ceasefire would be announced in early March. When the ceasefire didn’t happen, it likely consulted with its leadership, which is based in Gaza and abroad. It likely heard from them that the West was pushing for the ceasefire and that Hamas should not worry too much; they would soon be reconstituted in northern Gaza.The surprise raid upset their plans. However, Hamas is still operating in the north and also in central Gaza and the south. For instance, it fired rockets at Ashdod on Monday from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, the first rocket fire of this kind in two months.Hamas understands the timeline in Gaza. It can read Western media and watch debates at the UN and the news. It is waiting for a ceasefire. It knows it is hosted abroad by two Western allies and assumes that its hosts and patrons will help return the terror group to power in Gaza and help it come to power in the West Bank. For Hamas, places like Shifa are the natural nodes in their empire of terror in Gaza that they need to reconstitute to take power again.

[dipperdesperado]

Notes Towards Anti-Authoritarian Victories: Distributed Resistance

TLDR: Distributed communities are a way to create a more equitable and sustainable society. We should decentralize and distribute power, resources, and decision-making. This comes from an emphasis on cooperation, restorative justice, and dismantling oppressive structures. Part of this process is honestly and earnestly exploring the role (and necessity) of the dialectic between violence and nonviolence in social change. There has to be a genuine embodiment of solidarity and diverse tactics. Two strategic frameworks for organizing resistance to explore and expand upon are encircling campaigns and the Fabian strategy. The overall goal is to build autonomous, resilient, and ethical movements. We have to challenge the status quo to create a more just world.

Distributed Communities

One of my main goals for how I interact with the world is to be a source of joy and hope for myself and others. Part of that is creating spaces for joy and hope. To create those spaces, we have to eradicate institutionalized spaces of despair and sadness. I’m not looking for a world without challenges…I’m just interested in finding realistic utopias, as opposed to the dystopic conditions we currently reside in. So, how do we get there, to a solarpunk world of dreams? First, let’s talk about where we are.

Centralization: The Anti-Life Equation

I’m not sure if you all are into comic books or anything like that, but I’ve always loved animated superhero shows and movies. Back when I was young, there was a DC show with a character called Darksied. His whole villainly motivation is to find the Anti-Life Equation. This is a math proof that essentially is meant to take away free will from living beings. Something about it is to prove the futility of living, therefore saying that people should just be controlled. Sound familiar?

Most people, especially from a Marxian tradition/understanding (so most sociologists and leftists), would say that this describes capitalism. Capitalism, as a reminder, is a system that functions most commonly off of two maxims: Private property rights (most notably towards the means of production, and as opposed to personal property) and wage labor. Many folks have argued, and I’d agree, that this system of withholding access to resources and goods across enforced property lines is bad, and stifles self-actualization. I want to go a bit further, though. I think that the underlying tendency that motivates capitalism, the imaginal cell spurring all of the negative emergent behaviors we see now is centralization.

Centralization is, as it sounds, about bringing “something” towards the center. In our case, that is power and access to resources and decisions. Centralization runs counter to nature. Though we apply our ideas of centralization onto nature, there is no true king of the jungle. Lions don’t “command” gazelle. And even if they did, us, as more conscious beings, can do better. Centralization is deterministic and linear instead of pluralistic and dynamic; it assumes that since people have differences that there have to be power distributions based on those differences. It’s Social Darwinism at its finest. Command-and-control social organization is pyramidal, and, no matter how “representative” the structure is, it inherently reinforces power distribution along lines of difference, creating and reifying social hierarchy.

Decentralization: A Light at the end of the Tunnel

Something that I and other folks struggle with is the pervasive nature of centralization. If it sucks for most people, as we know, then why is the entire world’s levers of power and influence pointed towards that? It seems like it has to be this way, otherwise we would be doing something else, right? Sadly, no. We, as people, are very susceptible to the systems that we interact with. We all live under centralizing systems of domination, coercion, and oppression, so our version of reality is warped by those experiences. But, just because we’re in a bad situation, doesn’t mean things have to stay that way. We’ve grown around these systems, and while they shape our thinking, they also create the fertile ground for their undoing. Subjects tend to not enjoy subjugation.

Decentralization is the antithesis of centralization. Decentralizing radically reorients power and access from a competitive, zero sum game, to a cooperative game. Even if you like competition, and you think it’s a necessary part of human nature (which it isn’t), we’re way past the point where stuff like that is useful. That’s assuming that it ever was, which I am skeptical about. The dog eat dog mentality, if nothing else, is destroying the Earth for profit. That alone, since we all need a functioning biosphere to…function, should be a searing indictment of the logics that underscore nation-states and capitalism.

By operating in a decentralized way, where we reorient our organizations to have power flow from the bottom up, we can enable more agile and resilient communities. It’ll not only give people more power to steer their lives (as opposed to hoping their boss or representative government official is a “nice guy”), but will allow society to continue existing, albeit in a new form.

Distribution: A Strong Network Flexes its Muscles

Decentralization is great, but if we’re not careful, it can just become like ancient times, where little city states have conflicts with each other, acting as little centralized pockets of power, even though they don’t have as much power over society as a whole. We want to be able to have connections with other communities and parts of society, without resorting to domination, coercion, and oppression. This can happen through distributing power across the network of communities, focusing on the goal of giving each individual the maximum autonomy in their lives. It looks like this: each person can live their life however they want, as long as it doesn’t impede others from doing the same. The same can be said on every level, from the block, to the neighborhood, to the city, and beyond.

This necessitates cooperation, as no one can provide all of their needs and wants by themselves. It also necessitates being militantly against domination, oppression, and coercion…people who are looking to cause harm do not get to claim that they are practicing autonomy. We have to do the hard work of practicing restorative and transformative justice. When people violate the autonomy of others, there has to be a victim-led response process, with a goal towards healing the victim, and supporting the betterment of the perpetrator if possible.

How we get there

Now, I haven’t gone in a ton of depth, since I don’t want to be super prescriptive as to what this new space could look like. That might leave a lot to be desired, in terms of a framework from how to get from here (a crumbling, decaying society that is looking to centralize more before it implodes) to there (a decentralized-distributed society where everyone’s needs and wants are met in an ecologically and socially harmonious way). My short answer is…power distribution. If we use this idea as an imaginal cell in our process and as the road on which we travel, we have a chance to create a situation where we can get the benefits of the olden days of city states (if you don’t like a place, you could just dip!), and most of the benefits of modern society, but spread out to each person. We probably won’t be able to see the levels of luxury of billionaires, or maybe even the lower end of the capitalist class, but we will all have a much, much better shot of living our lives in an actualizing way. Who knows what we can discover about ourselves in that kind of space?

Distribution as resilience

One of the great things about moving power away from central nodes is that it makes the system more resilient! A great example would be power grids. Imagine if your power grid for your town or city was centralized in one big plant, and everything was powered from there. If someone wanted to destroy your city’s electricity, they would just have to be able to take out the hub. Then, your city is blacked out, and there’s not a lot of ways to get that kind of critical infrastructure back.

Decentralization is a step better, but it can repeat the same things on a smaller scale. The most resilient option is for there to be a distribution of power generation (in the most sustainable way possible). We should always tend towards distribution—as much as reality would allow us.

What should be distributed, what should be decentralized?

Going back to the question of how we get from here to there, we have to face the reality that social change movements face repression from the status quo. Also, given the history of these movements, there are a lot of cases of co-option, and an incomplete version of the goal. In other words, we may not have the chance to prefigure the world we want to build before it is threatened by the old world. So, how do we uphold our values, while being strong enough to survive?

An important thing is to see this for what it is, a conflict. We have to engage as if we are facing an enemy, because we are. We also have to realize that, especially in a centralizing structure, our ire, in general, should not be for the foot soldiers but for structures and ideologies. We have a chance to win people over. It’s a lot harder for folks who are benefiting from the machine. This is not to say that we don’t acknowledge the harm that they cause. I mean to point out that if we get stuck in conflict with oppressive people and we don’t attack oppressive structures, we lose out on the ability to get decisive victories.

Another important piece is to not be dogmatic. We have to figure out our foundational principles and values, be honest about what we’re doing, and work hard to ensure we orient around short term gains that lead to long term successes, rather than quick fixes that endanger our progress in the long run. We want to know what works, but not be married to something. By thinking systemically, we can approach things in a diversity of effective tactics. This may mean that we occupy multiple parts of the centralization-distribution spectrum, depending on the area of focus.

In general, the more clandestine the operation, the more distributed it should be. Clandestine operations tend to be centralizing, so if we approach them from the opposite end of the spectrum we could potentially avoid the pitfalls. We also probably should never tend towards centralization, because that is a surefire way to destroy anything we create. Powermongers should just go work in the mainstream system if that’s their desire. Places where power tends to centralize, we should distribute, while being open to and welcoming of decentralization where it makes sense. An example could be: instead of every household having a personal car and coordinating sharing with each other (distributed), we could have car libraries that people check cars out from (decentralized). The most important thing to remember with any initiative that the goal is to make sure that power is not centralizing, even if there is a central place where resources exist.

Distributed Resistance

Violence

I want to switch gears and lean more into a side of world-change that people either knee jerk towards (”capital R” revolution) or away from (3.5% nonviolent resistance to social change nonsense). Let’s talk about violence.

Violence, as the state defines it, is something like physical force used to damage or destroy someone or something. That seems…reasonable, maybe, but let’s go a little bit deeper. Is it violent to commit non-physical harm, such as repeated verbal accosting? Is it violence to commit physical harm, when it’s on a time delay? It’s easy to point out immediate violence, like punching someone or burning something. It’s a lot harder when it’s a company putting carbon in the air, causing respiratory issues hundreds of miles away, the symptoms of which don’t show until years after the factory shut down. What about self-defense? How do we define that? Can violence be justified? Should justified violence even be labeled as violence?

There are a lot of questions to answer, but one thing is clear—a diversity of tactics is important. There also has to be solidarity. MLK and Malcom X understood how important each other’s tactics were to the success of the movement as a whole. Even if they didn’t reach the heights of their desires, that is an important lesson we can take away. If we act like nonviolence is unimportant, or act like “violence” is too far no matter what (like saying that hitting a nazi makes you no better), it makes our movements weaker. Like any tactic, it should be used tactically, not wantonly. We shouldn’t encourage fighting if its very unlikely to win (unless we have no other choice), and we shouldn’t encourage pacifism because of some short-sighted and self-defeating moral high-grounding.

An Occupying Force

A way that helps me think of our situation as people who want to help bring about new paradigms that directly conflict of the prevailing ones is framing it as if we are under military occupation. I mean, that’s basically the primary function of the state…that monopoly on violence. In my view, framing it like this makes a lot of the tactical orientation that I was discussing before make sense. When you are an occupied community, you very clearly see the subjugation that’s taking place. How “nice” your occupiers are is of little import; the fact that they’re there is transgression enough. Since we don’t have access to the “legitimate” flows of power (and if we did, we couldn’t use them to liberatory ends), we have to think differently. This is where operating as guerrillas comes in.

OODA Loop

Guerrillas are small groups that fight asymmetrically against a more powerful opponent. With us being tiny right now, it’s worthwhile to figure out how to fight in a way that makes our weaknesses into strengths. One method into this is the OODA loop. OODA stands for observe, orient, decide, and act. It’s a method for making strategic decisions in an iterative way. We observe our surrounding, circumstances, and current data. We then orient ourselves to our situation, making judgements based on that information. We decide what to do based on those judgements, and then we act upon those decisions, constantly iterating to make new decisions. The size and structure of decentralized and distributed organizations allows for iteration to happen more quickly, leading to an advantage over slower centralized structures.

Generally, the path I see to success is through operating via a distributed model of autonomous units, coordinating only when necessary, while also keeping the information network alive as is pertinent, and an alignment on vision and values. By any means necessary, but not all means. Especially if the group is operating as a singular organization, a la the ELF or ALF, ideally there would not be people that do tactics that violate that maxim. Means-ends unity is how we create the world we want. We can’t get liberation by exuding oppression.

Formations for Resistance

Before I leave, I want to list a couple strategic frameworks for organizing. The ones I’ll focus on are:

Encircling (i’ve discussed this in another post)

Fabian Strategy and Ethical Guerilla Warfare

Encircling

Encircling is when you surround an enemy in a way that doesn’t allow them to escape. You leave them two options: surrender or defeat. My conception of how this relates to organizing is that you take an issue that you’re trying to respond to (usually a system of oppression), and you encircle it with campaigns running in parallel. A campaign is like a series of actions/tactics, employed over a period of time. Since systems of oppression are…systemic, you would take a systems approach. You would work cross-functionally, looking for leverage points to exploit, and exploit those. My basic outline is that you’d have a campaign that starts off very non-confrontational, making appeals to the system of authority, and as that doesn’t yield “capital S” success (you can’t vote in socialism or decentralization), you ratchet up the confrontation, though only to the level that you can handle. It acts as a radicalization pipeline, strengthened by the results of the other campaigns. There would also be an extreme campaign, where folks are doing as confrontational of actions as they are willing to do. The rest of the campaigns would be in the middle, where they are relatively confrontational, moving towards heightened confrontation. Everything is moving into a more militant direction, where people are learning their power.

Fabian Strategy and Ethical Guerrillas

The Fabian strategy gets its name from Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, a dictator of Rome. His army was fighting against the much more well-equipped army of Carthage, so he opted for fighting a war of attrition. This sounds a lot like the situation social movements are in. It can be easy to think we have to fight might with might, but it’s a senseless and undesirable approach to try to outgun the state. We can use a guerilla orientation to organize in ways that highlight our strengths while exploiting their weaknesses. Building on this strategy will allow us to grow our movements and continue to fight, while simultaneously making it harder to put the movement down.

I also advocate for an ethical approach to this fight. By any means necessary, but not by all means available. There are certain actions that won’t yield us the results we want, and there are other actions that can only be useful in concert with other actions and campaigns. Broadly speaking, we want to minimize the harm caused to folks while maximizing the disruptions to the status quo. Here are some ways we can do this, some of which intersects and overlaps with the encircling framework:

Focus on grassroots organizing and building community power from the ground up. We have to think like stewards and coordinators rather than leaders; our strength comes not from a being a tiny centralized group, but an autonomous network of agents.

We build up our capacity, by creating multiple levels of engagement into the movement. we can combine non-confrontational tactics where we gradually increase disruption as support grows with giving support to more militant segments. This leads to a continual, dynamic (see nonlinear) process of education, advocacy, construction, and disruption.

Think about how to disrupt the status quo in a way that doesn’t target the oppressed. Instead of prevent public transportation or emergency vehicles from being able to travel, maybe focus on lavish events where some really terrible decisions are being made by oppressors at the expense of the oppressed. Actions can simultaneously be symbolic and direct.

Plan targets systemically. Keep the guillotine away. We don’t get our problems solved just by attacking elements within a system. If a leverage point ends up being a specific person… be very sure about understanding how to interact in a way that gets you the results that you want. Tactically and ethically, it becomes very hard to justify targeted attacks.

Uphold solidarity and mutual support among allies while respecting a diversity of tactics. Our analysis should be expansive enough to allow any tactics that could work within our ethical framework to be permissible, even if we personally don’t feel comfortable doing those tactics. As I said before: it’s not “anything goes”, its “we have to be willing to do anything we can that doesn’t violate our ends to achieve our means”.

If people can’t get behind your ideas, then your ideas need to be reexamined. Everyone has a horse in this race. People have to be able to understand that they have power as individuals and collectives, along with how to use it in non-coercive and non-oppressive ways. Meeting people where there at, showing up in real solidarity, and putting your ideas into practice goes way further than an isolated philosophical conversation.

We also have to keep fighting. This doesn’t mean that we are constantly ourselves fighting—through building distributed movements, we can take breaks and be sure that the network still functions. We won’t be able to create a new world in a single move, but through persistence, critical review, and intelligent strategy, we can grow and tend the seeds of change.

I hope this was interesting to ya. It’s a little different topically and format-wise than what I usually do, so let me know if this was interesting or useful. Solidarity forever 🙂

[accountsend]

Sales Automation: Streamlining Processes for Efficient Lead Generation

Article by Jonathan Bomser | CEO | AccountSend.com

In today's lightning-paced business ecosystem, the beacon of Sales Automation shines brighter than ever as a transformative force propelling lead generation into a realm of unprecedented efficiency and success. This voyage takes us through seven pivotal strategies that harness the true potential of Sales Automation, ensuring that you harness its power to revolutionize your lead generation journey.

DOWNLOAD THE SALES AUTOMATION INFOGRAPHIC HERE

Implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

Imagine a command center at your fingertips that orchestrates your lead interactions with finesse. This is where the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System, the linchpin of Sales Automation, comes into play. This technological marvel enables you to seamlessly centralize customer data, track interactions, and automate tasks with precision. Picture the possibilities as your sales team focuses on nurturing connections that drive conversions.

Utilize Marketing Automation Tools

Bid farewell to labor-intensive marketing efforts as Sales Automation brings forth the magic of marketing automation tools. These remarkable instruments streamline repetitive marketing tasks, from orchestrating email campaigns to nurturing leads and scheduling social media content. By crafting strategic workflows and triggers, you hold the power to deliver tailor-made messages that resonate with your prospects. The outcome? Engagement and conversion rates that soar to new heights.

Qualify Leads with Lead Scoring

In the labyrinth of potential leads, imagine having a compass that guides you to the most promising ones. Enter lead scoring, a beacon of clarity amidst the complexity. Through meticulous criteria encompassing demographic data, engagement metrics, and behavioral patterns, lead scoring empowers your sales team to prioritize leads ripe for conversion. This orchestration of efficiency elevates your conversion rates while maximizing your team's efforts.

Streamline Sales Processes with Workflow Automation

Embrace the liberation from manual, time-consuming sales processes through the elegance of workflow automation. Bid adieu to the mundane tasks of follow-ups, appointment scheduling, and proposal generation. Workflow automation transforms these into seamless symphonies, gifting your sales team precious time. This temporal freedom translates into a focus on nurturing relationships, cultivating an environment primed for deal closure.

Integrate Sales and Marketing Efforts

The synergy of sales and marketing isn't a mere concept; it's a dynamic strategy made tangible by Sales Automation. Witness the convergence of these vital forces as silos dissolve, and a harmonious collaboration emerges. Valuable insights flow seamlessly, lead progress is tracked cohesively, and communication flourishes throughout the sales cycle. The result? A seamless alliance that fuels conversions and magnifies results.

Implement Chatbots and AI-powered Assistants

In an era where responsiveness defines success, envision AI-powered chatbots as your digital allies. These innovative assistants redefine customer support and engagement by handling routine inquiries, offering instant responses, and even assisting in lead qualification. The outcome? Your team is unburdened, channeling their expertise into intricate tasks that propel your business forward.

Continuously Analyze and Optimize

Success isn't a static destination; it's an evolving journey. Data analysis becomes your compass in the realm of Sales Automation. Regularly delve into the wealth of insights harvested by your automation tools. Decode lead behavior, unravel conversion rates, and unveil sales performance intricacies. Armed with these insights, fine-tune your lead generation strategies, refine processes, and unearth optimization opportunities.

In essence, Sales Automation stands as the cornerstone of lead generation efficiency. Through adopting a CRM system, harnessing marketing automation tools, embracing lead scoring, automating sales workflows, aligning sales and marketing endeavors, integrating AI-powered support, and ceaselessly optimizing strategies, you can reshape your lead generation narrative. Embrace Sales Automation as the lifeblood of your sales strategy, and witness your lead generation expedition thrive with newfound efficiency and efficacy. The time has come to seize Sales Automation and redefine your lead generation journey.

[usafphantom2]

USAF launches retaliatory airstrikes against Hezbollah military bases in Iraq 🇮🇶

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 01/25/2024 - 15:00 in Military, War Zones

On January 24, 2024, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that it had conducted air strikes against facilities used by the Kataib Hezbollah (KH) militia group in Iraq.

This action was a response to previous attacks attributed to the KH, including one at the al-Asad air base in western Iraq on January 20.

The attacks were initiated after a series of incidents involving Kataib Hezbollah (KH), including a missile attack on U.S. military bases. In retaliation, the U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles targeted several locations in eastern Syria and western Iraq. The U.S. attacks focused on three specific locations associated with KH and other groups affiliated with Iran, including its headquarters, storage facilities and training centers for rocket, missile and UAV capabilities.

One of the targeted sites was a KH military base in Jurf Al-Nasr, Iraq, known for storing a large hiding place of rockets and ballistic missiles, leading to several secondary explosions. Other attacks targeted at least six bases in the Iraqi provinces of Al-Anbar and Babylon, which were linked to the IRGC's Kataib Hezbollah, with the aim of degrading their operational capabilities.

In response to U.S. military actions, Abu Ala al-Walai, secretary general of Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, an Iraqi Shiite radical militia affiliated with Hezbollah, criticized the attacks. He called for increased actions against U.S. and Israeli targets, including a blockade of Israeli navigation in the Mediterranean Sea and attacks on Israeli ports, indicating a potential escalation in hostilities.

The Pentagon, represented by Secretary Lloyd Austin, described U.S. military attacks as "necessary and proportional", intended to prevent further attacks against U.S. troops and ensure their safety. These operations took place in the context of the increase in attacks on American bases in Iraq and Syria, marking an increase in hostilities that were relatively infrequent before the recent escalation in the Gaza Strip.

Simultaneously, tensions increased when Hezbollah recently launched an attack on an air traffic control base of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Meron, northern Israel. This attack resulted in minor damage, but without victims, and was claimed by Hezbollah as retaliation against alleged Israeli actions in Lebanon and Syria. After that, the Israel Defense Forces strengthened their defensive measures in sensitive locations and conducted retaliatory attacks against Hezbollah and Iranian positions in Lebanon.

Tags: Military AviationF-15E Strike EagleUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air ForceWar Zones - Iran/Iraq

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[irunevenus]

Judaism: The Origin and Evolution of the Religion that Shaped Civilization

Judaism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, has played a pivotal role in shaping the cultural and spiritual identity of billions of people over the millennia. With roots dating back more than 3,000 years in the ancient Land of Canaan (modern-day Israel and Palestine), Judaism is not just a faith but also a rich tradition of laws, customs, history, and philosophy. This article explores the origin, history, and evolution of Judaism, highlighting its enduring influences on civilization.

The Origins of Judaism: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

The history of Judaism begins with Abraham, considered the patriarch of the Jewish people. According to the Torah, the main scripture of Judaism, Abraham lived approximately in the 19th century B.C. and is seen as the first to recognize a single God, Yahweh. Tradition tells that God made a covenant with Abraham, promising him that his descendants would be numerous and that they would inherit the Land of Canaan. This covenant was renewed with Isaac, Abraham's son, and with Jacob, his grandson, who later became known as Israel, the name that would give rise to the people of Israel. Jacob's 12 sons are considered the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel, which formed the nucleus of the ancient Jewish nation. ### The Exodus and the Giving of the Torah: The Making of a Nation

One of the most significant events in Jewish history is the Exodus, the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, led by Moses around the 13th century B.C. According to the biblical narrative, Moses led his people through the Sinai Desert, where he received the Torah, including the Ten Commandments, on Mount Sinai. The Torah, which means “instruction” or “law,” contains not only religious guidelines but also moral and ethical principles that govern all aspects of Jewish life.

This event not only marked the birth of Judaism as an organized religion, but also cemented the concept of a people chosen by God, united by faith, law, and tradition. The Exodus narrative has become an eternal symbol of liberation and hope, celebrated annually at the Jewish Passover (Pesach).

Establishment and Fall of the Kingdom of Israel

After their period of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites settled in Canaan, forming a confederation of tribes. In the 11th century BCE, the unification of these tribes under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon resulted in the creation of the Kingdom of Israel. Under Solomon's reign, the Temple in Jerusalem was built, becoming the spiritual and physical center of Judaism.

However, after Solomon's death, the kingdom split into two parts: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. This division weakened the Israelites, who were eventually conquered by foreign powers. In 586 BCE, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, and many Jews were exiled to Babylon, marking the beginning of the Babylonian Exile.

The Exile and the Evolution of Judaism

The period of exile forced Jews to rethink their identity and religious practices. Without the Temple as the center of worship, Judaism began to focus more on communal practices and Torah study. This period saw the emergence of synagogues as places of prayer and teaching, and the development of oral traditions that would later be compiled into the Talmud.

After 70 years, many Jews returned to their homeland, and the Second Temple was built, marking a new phase in Jewish history. However, Judaism continued to evolve, with an increasing focus on scripture, prayer, and the development of a life based on religious law, which became known as Halacha.

The Diaspora and Rabbinic Judaism

In 70 CE, following a revolt against the Roman Empire, Jerusalem was again destroyed, and the Second Temple was razed. Without the Temple, Judaism was transformed, with the Rabbinate assuming a central role in spiritual leadership and the interpretation of religious law. Jewish life began to revolve around the synagogue and the home, with rabbis guiding Jews on how to live according to the Torah wherever they were in the world.

As Jews dispersed throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, Judaism developed diverse cultural and ritual traditions that reflected the different conditions of life in the diaspora. The Torah, Talmud, and rabbinic commentaries continued to be studied, debated, and reinterpreted, keeping Jewish identity alive despite persecution and expulsion over the centuries.

Influences on Civilization and Legacy

Judaism is often described as the mother of the Abrahamic religions, having directly influenced Christianity and Islam. The concept of ethical monotheism, the importance of social justice, and the idea that history has a purpose and destiny are all elements that originated in Judaism and were inherited by other religions.

Furthermore, the cultural impact of Judaism is immeasurable. Jewish tradition has valued education, writing, and the preservation of historical memory, leaving the world with a vast religious and philosophical literature. The concept of a weekly day of rest, Shabbat, is a Jewish contribution that has shaped Western civilization.

Judaism in the Modern World Today, Judaism continues to flourish with millions of followers around the world. Although there are diverse streams, such as Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism, they all share a common bond with the Torah and the rich Jewish cultural heritage. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 marked a turning point in Jewish history, providing a national home for a people who had lived in diaspora for centuries.

In the contemporary world, Judaism continues to face challenges and adapt, maintaining its traditions while engaging with modernity. Their legacy is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of a faith that, despite its ancient origins, remains alive and relevant today.

Judaism, with its long and complex history, continues to be a living force that influences not only its followers but also global culture, morality and philosophy. The faith of Abraham, Moses and the prophets has survived empires and exiles, and its message of justice, faith and hope continues to resonate in a world still searching for answers to the eternal dilemmas of the human condition.

[burningknucklecraftworks]

Griffin and Sword Targe for Fergus O'Dae

This is a build log for a late period Scottish targe for Fergus O'Dae, a border reaver and rising star of the Northshield Army. The Griffin and Sword is our Award of Arms-level award for excellency in armored combat.

Before starting the design, I layed out my idea using Heraldicon, a free website built to be even more powerful than Drawshield for assembling coats of arms. I thought it would be very fetching to have the Northshield populace badge outlined in the brass studs characteristic to targes, with the griffin and sword represented with different colored metals.

Laying out the carving and the tacks. A missed step in this album is cutting the wooden core. I actually already had a 20" round of plywood lying around. It wasn't actually a shield blank; it was the center cutout of a wooden ring I made to hold the 3.5' long bolts on our giant electrical wire spool in a specific pattern so I could reassemble the whole thing.

The griffin layout. Many thanks go to Heraldic Traceable Art and Heraldicon as well as the /r/heraldry community for maintaining so many Creative Commons vector assets. I've used this griffin asset by Gunnvôr (Viking Answer Lady) so many times.

With the leather dried it's much easier to see the layout lines. Here's a spot I can make some big improvements on next time: I attached the leather before trimming it to a proper round, and then I didn't fully tack down the back before beginning the layout process. The wood I used was pretty trashy plywood so my drawing and carving surface is also extremely bumpy underneath the leather.

At this stage I began to carve the central award badge with my swivel knife. I need to see if there's swivel knives for children with arthritis because my bog standard Tandy knife gives me hella hand cramps and extreme inflammation on my thumb-palm muscles.

Your eyes do not deceive you: I did in fact have a crisis of attention span and pivoted from carving the badge to outlining the compass rose in brass tacks. The majority of the tacks used for this project are 7/16" low dome brass tacks from Crazy Crow Trading Post down in Texas. I also used 1/2" high dome and 1/4" dome tacks from the same shop.

Lining up the 1/4" tacks. I actually hadn't planned to do these lines initially, but I had to emergency order more tacks and tossed these in for greater variety. I love the end result of this decision. If you tuckered out your arm hammering in 2/3 of the outline tacks with a ball peen, a drill press can take over in a pinch. I really need to get a stool for the drill press.

Tacks complete! We can carve again now.

Added some obligatory trinity knots. It's not Scottish if it doesn't have a triskelion or a trinity knot, dontcha know?

(Sarcasm aside, check out the targe used by Donald Cameron of Lochiel, the Cameron Clan Chief who was a prominent Jacobite commander throughout the 1745 campaign. Post period for the SCA but who's counting? Photo from Paul Macdonald of Macdonald Armories in Scotland.)

All trinity knots cut, one carved, and I began to add a braid motif too.

...Aaaaand here's improvement opportunity number 2. I was low on time and hand strength so I decided to dye the leather before I carved the braids, but after I cut them. I also picked Fibbings Medium Brown for my dye without doing test patches, and used the standard daubers to apply it. That is three Big Mistakes in a row, and only one is actually justifiable in any way. The result is an extremely uneven dye job that completely washes out the uncarved braids. If I'd given myself one more week to do this scroll, I would've had more rest time for my hands and I think I wouldn't have made these mistakes, but in a way I'm grateful I did because now I know to schedule more time for working on scrolls for the next assignment. Plus, I try to remember what Samii of SunCat Designs says about art: "the mistakes are what make it human".

Because this is an SCA award, I chose to swap the traditional deerhide backing for glued muslin and paint. I then taped off my handle locations and handed it off to my spouse @dustycymbre for the award scroll text. They used their default uncial hand, which is my favorite of their script hands.

Traditional targes have a small brass center boss. When I originally conceived of this award, I had imagined the griffin in brass with a tinned sword, but I haven't actually tried chase and repousse yet and struck upon a different method of making the center griffin allude visually to the center bosses: carve it directly into the leather and then gild it. This particular stage is sealing the carving with Ecoflow Cova Color leather paint, to provide a smooth surface for the glue (also know as gild size).

Cova Color white shouldn't be directly applied to damp dyed leather like this because it soaks up the brown like a sponge. My brightest white application is my H-shield, which dried for about a week before I painted it.

Another ADHD swing of focus: needed to have a long phone conversation with my spouse and bro in law and stitching is a far less active hand activity for me than The Thing I've Never Done Before, so I stitched up the strap and handle. Here the handle is inside out in a jar of water to get nice and soft for turning. 

I stitched a rabbit hide into the interior of the arm strap. It's soft and a little padded, and I think it looks quite fetching. To figure out the right strap length for the recipient's ridiculously beefy arm that helped him earn this award, I asked my former football player bro in law for his arm circumference and then rooted around the house for a pickel jar of the same diameter. Stitch width awls are your friend. One of the top ten tools I own for sure. 

Turning out the handle. This took a lot of hand strength and chopstick finagling. I'm genuinely looking forward to making Kat the Herald's purple shoes because they'll be easier to turn than this fucker. 

Fit check. Look at that beautiful wet shaping on the handle! At this point I felt a level of actual mastery of my craft. I think I can really call myself a leatherworker now. I still have so much to learn and improve, but I feel comfortable. It feels good. 

With the handles done, it's back to gilding. According to the Pinterest mommy blogs, you can skip the professional artist size and use watered down mod podge for the gilding process. I gambled on them being right, whipped out my pack of silver, copper and gold foils, and got down to business. I used a tiny but cheap paint brush to apply the thinned glue to the sword, let it dry a little, and then applied the silver foil. I tapped at it with a napkin through a flour sack towel, let it dry a little and brushed off the excess with a second and much fluffier brush. 

The Pinterest pinnsters aren't entirely wrong about mod podge, but they aren't entirely right either. I had to add more glue and gilding foil like eight times. This is after one of the last additions, but before I brushed away the excess. Mod podge doesn't want to work on the irregular curves of carved leather. The dry time to tackiness was also imprecise and very very short, which made applying the delicate foil correctly very difficult. 

I finally had to give up. There were just too many spots that would not take foil at all. I grabbed my Stewart Semple Heavy Metals box set, pulled out the Goldest Gold, and painted over the bare spots. At this angle, the difference in reflection angles and quality is obvious. The paint is so much more yellow. But deadlines are deadlines, and imperfections make it human. 

This angle is much more favorable. I find myself in love with the effect of the gilding over the carving on the feathers. I need to get good at gilding. 

And here she is signed by Their Majesties Northshield, in the warm lights of the Sioux Falls Coliseum stage. Fergus loves it and it got a lot of ooos and ahs from the populace. I had a lot of fun in spite of some of the frustrations of this build, and I'm excited to try another targe with even more accuracy at some point.

[lover-of-mine]

https://www.tumblr.com/lover-of-mine/759737746190467072/okay-so-we-have-vehicles-from-118-119-217?source=share

NPLH anon here!

THIS! That's just so many houses! Both engines and ambulances.

There are pictures of first class looking a mess. So, passengers were already inside the plane when some type of chaos happens?

The redditor mentions Athena transporting a prisoner. If we are to believe that to be true, either that's a separate storyline happening somewhere else at the airport or maybe the prisoner has an escape plan and that's part of the plane emergency?

Officially, the only real promo the 911 accounts have done is about the bees. And it feels almost wrong to think that the bees are actually a minor emergency when the plane situation seems to be the real big boy here. So... bees on a plane? The prisoner's plan to escape? A separate issue at the airport altogether that converges somehow? Allergic reactions?

Does the plane just take a chunk out of the airport itself?? Causing multiple houses to be dispatched since there's a bigger fire and way more than the passengers of said plane needing help?

Chimney and Eddie possibly partnered? Is it because Buck isn't there at all from that short clip of him not getting in the truck? Why isn't he getting in the truck? He did have phone in hand...

Is the emergency Gerrards's or Bobby's? I mean, we have Bobby sightings already! A big giant welcome back sign and everything! How quick are we getting him back??

I have so many puzzle pieces but where's the goddamn picture😭

Hi love 💜

I'm still thinking the bees are a distraction and that we're getting a secondary, more intense disaster after the bees are dealt with, because the thing is, one plane crash wouldn't need 7 houses. All houses seem to be in the same spot, there's a chance the airport is some sort of command center and not the real emergency, just central enough for it to be convenient for all the houses to be there, because unless they are blowing up all of LAX, I don't see how one plane could need that many people. I can see Eddie being partnered with Chim the same way he sometimes is partnered with Hen, if they need more medical expertise, maybe? There's a chance Buck is benched for some reason, but since that video of Buck running away from the truck has no context, there's a chance it's just one take and Buck is gonna be there anyway, but honestly, we have dots and I can't find a way to connect them that makes sense. I'm just staring at it trying to find a valid connection. My current bet is that the bees are a misdirect, and that the plane is only part of the problem at the airport, maybe they blow something up or crash into the main building, I'm also expecting unusual team-ups, just because. I'm also thinking maybe Bobby is at the 119 and that's why we saw the truck earlier and we might get some tension there.