#Legal Rights Observatory

[alpaca-clouds]

Colonialism never ended

Okay, let me talk about one thing that a lot of white folks don't quite seem to realize. And that is the fact that colonialism never really ended.

Like, the official telling of it was: "Oh, yeah, after world war 2 the colonizing nations realized it was wrong." Or, if it is more honest, then: "Yeah, after world war 2 the colonizing empires were out of money to uphold her colonies." But even that still very much is a total lie. We still live under colonialism - both settler colonialism and extractionist colonialism.

Probably the easiest way to realize, we still have settler colonialism in place, is to look at the amount of land that never was in any way or form given back to the indigenous folks who once called it their home. No, they do not get to live there again. And also, no, they will not see a penny of the money that might be extracted from their former homes through development, agriculture or for example oil extraction.

In the US the state that shows it maybe the strongest is Hawai'i, in which indigenous folks are more and more pushed away from where they were living and praying, as parts of the island get used for tourism, rich people homes, military stuff or maybe a nice observatory on one of their sacret sights. More and more indigenous Hawai'ians are forced to move away from Hawai'i. Because through the rich folks and their development, they cannot afford to live on their own islands any longer.

We also see it through extractions. I already spoke about the land in the USA, but the same is happening in so many other places. A lot of land (especially mines) all over Africa are still owned by white people directly or indirectly. So they will still, to this day, extract the wealth from it.

Or, heck, we have all those exotic fruit plantages all over the tropical regions. Like how the US literally overthrew a government to keep the banana productions going and keeping it in white people hands.

Or there is of course the fact that the fucking lines onf the maps we have now have been drawn by white people, artificially grouping people together, who might not even be from the same culture. Something that often instabilized nations - an outcome that was very clearly intended, to make it easier to control and extract value from the nations in question.

Just look at the entire thing with the Sykes-Picot-agreement, that is responsible for so many of the wars happening in the Arabian world right now. Or at the division of India, that was and still is cause for so much violence.

And of course, while Slavery is officially outlawed, the US kinda contructed its justice system all around keeping it further going. By criminalizing Black people for all sorts of stuff and then making unpaid prison labor legal.

Colonialism is still going strong. And really, whenever western nations go crying about China's neocolonialism, what they are really crying about is, that it loosens their own colonialist control over them. Not that there is colonialism happening at all.

And we cannot have a just world, until we fully decolonize and until reparations are paid for the evils that have happened for now five hundred years.

This is also, why we cannot have anything in terms of solarpunk futures, until we decolonize. Because solarpunk aims for a just world. A just world that cannot exist unter colonialism.

[taviamoth]

🚨 Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory:

—

We call on the international community to support the work of the International Criminal Court in its potential step to issue arrest warrants for "israeli" security and political leaders.

The potential arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court stem from crimes committed against the Palestinian people on the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967.

The arrest warrants threaten senior "israeli" officials including Prime Minister "Benjamin Netanyahu", Defense Minister "Yoav Gallant", and Chief of General Staff "Herzi Halevi".

We warn against any attempts to obstruct the course of justice amid repeated talks about political pressure campaigns launched by "israel" and its allies, aimed at preventing the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants for "israeli" officials.

Any attempts to undermine the work of the International Criminal Court and affect its integrity and independence should be countered, and there should be no pursuit to elevate political interests over considerations of achieving international justice.

We condemn the smear campaigns and incitement by "israeli" officials against the International Court to deter it from taking actions against them.

We emphasize the importance of the International Criminal Court moving forward with its investigations in the case file in Palestine and taking the long-awaited judicial measures to issue arrest warrants for the "israeli" officials involved in committing crimes and prosecuting them.

If achieved, this matter will represent a first step towards achieving international justice for the Palestinian people, a partial compensation for the historical injustice still suffered, and ending the actual state of impunity that "israel" has long enjoyed.

We urge the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court "Karim Khan" to make decisions and take legal actions according to the Rome Statute, procedural rules, and evidentiary rules of the court as swiftly as possible for the sake of accountability for the victims and in the interest of peace and justice in the region and the world.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil: Same-sex marriages on the rise

According to a study from the National Human Rights Observatory (ObservaDH), 59,620 same-sex marriages were registered in South America's largest country between 2013 and 2021, Agencia Brasil reported. The new figures represented a 148.7% increase in nine years, it was also explained. In the same period, 59,620 civil unions were also recorded, the survey showed.

The Human Rights and Citizenship Ministry (MDHC) agency produced its research from data supplied by the Civil Registry statistics from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Only 3,700 registrations were entered in 2013 and 9,202 in 2021. The biggest annual increase occurred between 2017 and 2018 (61.7%) with 59,620 same-sex marriages accounting for 0.6% of all marriages nationwide. The percentage rose from 0.4% in 2013 to 1% in 2021. Most same-sex marriages (57.1%) were between women.

National Secretary for the Rights of LGBTQIA+ People Symmy Larrat argued that the data showed that legal protection for people of the same sex was vital for a fairer and more equal Brazil. “Fairness and guaranteed rights concern everyone in the population.”

Continue reading.

[frozenangelcosplay]

The Case for Jimmywing

You can skip to “Let’s start at the beginning” for the actual content of what I’m analyzing.

So about a year and a half ago, I happened upon a trade paperback of “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: who killed Jimmy Olsen” at a comic book store we regularly drive an hour just to go to. I found the coat tail riding title self deprecating and hilarious and it instantly became a favorite of mine. And it fucking ruined my life.

For a split second I mistook Jimmy Olsen for being part of Nightwing’s “Ginger Harem” as they call it. I thought “he had to be, right? Like statistically?” He’s part of the young adult demographic, or ‘gen 2’ as I call them, he and Dick are both huge parts of Clark’s life to the extent where they gotta at least be friends, and no one would be shocked if he was one of the redhead’s Dick’s “collected” as they say. So why the hell was there nothing on the internet falling for this obvious set up?

(For context the human geography of fandom behavior is of high interest to me)

This was quite a bit of an anomaly, so I set out for some research. I brushed over results from the silver age initially and saw there was just one panel coming up with both of them in present art style (a twenty years in the future thing). It was more of a Jimmy Olsen cameo than anything where all I learned is they’re not familiar these days. I still liked the idea though and if I left my digging there I probably would’ve let it go a while ago. But then I looked INTO the silver age stuff and OH BOY IS THERE A LOT TO UNPACK HERE.

Long story short, they were written as close friends for years and I feel like DC is trying to gaslight me personally into pretending it didn’t happen. There’s a lot of potential to pick up where they left off with everything that’s happened in their stories since but there’s little to no sign of taking advantage of that anytime soon.

Let’s start at the beginning…

In 1940 both Batman and Superman separately acquired child sidekicks. A pair of eyes in the story the same age of the target audience’s to see themselves in and relate to. Robin would make his debut in the comics as Batman’s sidekick, would be Bruce Wayne’s legal ward, and also dawn combat training, gadgets, and a costumed vigilante identity. Jimmy Olsen would be a cub reporter at the daily planet where Clark Kent worked (a position specified beyond it’s dictionary definition as a teen internship position in “Superman Smashes the Klan”, which is set in the radio show cannon) and help at Superman’s side as himself.

Later, particularly with the classic comic run “World’s Finest”, in a world much less saturated with superheroes, let alone sidekicks, than we have today, the sidekicks of the stars of these comics easily became close friends. Most notable adventure by today’s standard would be World’s finest # 195, probably due to it’s shock and meme value cover of Batman and Superman making their sidekicks dig their own graves.

A personal favorite of mine would be World’s Finest #141 where the sidekicks run away to an island and fake their deaths, making it the first of at least twice they do that together (another being near the end of #195). Here they establish a secret hideout in the mountains in an abandoned observatory to keep souvenirs from their respective mentor’s adventures, and some of their own. (Notably two dummies of themselves Batman and Superman had just used to get back at them for pulling this stunt).

In Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Jimmy has also filled in for Robin twice. First time was to get Jimmy into the Mystery analysts (#111), second was to settle a bet after Robin beat him in a “Young Man of the Year” pageant (#130). In #111 this is where Robin trained Jimmy in combat, and some gadget use so he’s got that under his belt now enough to do it all again at least.

Also quick fun fact before I move on, Jimmy knew Robin and Batman’s secret identities LONG before he knew Superman’s. In World’s Finest #144, due to the fact that Jimmy was radiating kryptonite, he and Robin switched mentors and Batman pretty much immediately told him that he was Bruce Wayne, and Dick Grayson was Robin (told with Robin’s approval). A bit of an anomaly, but it carried forth in continuity.

Anyway, if you try to look up any shared adventure’s in recent comics, you’ll unceremoniously get nothing. I mentioned earlier Jimmy’s cameo in “Nightwing the New Order”, and there’s also like two crossed paths in the current World’s Finest run (a flashback continuity) and it just seemed like their dynamic then was just that Robin was relatively annoyed with Jimmy for being the one to debunk Mr. Mxyzptlk and Batmite’s disguises. (Rude?!)

I can’t find ANYTHING that explains this drift. My estimate would be that their dynamic died out some time between Dick joining the Titans and becoming Nightwing. But still remains a glaring connection.

Nightwing and Flamebird

So the first time that the Nightwing mantle debuted it was Superman as Nightwing with Jimmy as Flamebird. They went as these heroes into the bottle city of Kandor on multiple occasions. At the time they modeled these personas off of two kinds of birds found in Kandor, taking inspiration from Batman and Robin. The people of Kandor were convinced that Superman was actively refusing to grow the city again, and deemed him an enemy, which justified the disguises.

You still see this referenced every now and then, usually in museums and stuff, in fact, remember that observatory hideout? Statues and/or costumes of Superman’s and Jimmy’s Nightwing and Flamebird are on prominent display. In fact, Robin and Jimmy landed on naming the place itself “The Eyrie”, because as Robin said:

“In a way, we’re both birds. You’ve been Flamebird, and I’m Robin. So let’s call it the Eyrie!”

They revisit it now and then, but it seems to have been forgotten at this point.

Now since then there have been multiple pairs of Nightwings and Flamebirds. Obviously we know Dick Grayson is THE Nightwing and has been for a long time. The most consistent Flamebird however would be Bette Kane, and here’s where this gets interesting.

So there’s a full Krytonian legend surrounding Nightwing and Flamebird, from what I can tell, different versions, from heroes to gods etc. The most complete version I can only find on the wiki, so if you know where it’s from please let me know!

Here’s the link: https://superman.fandom.com/wiki/Nightwing_and_Flamebird

Here’s the quote:

“The true Flamebird is a massive, flaming dragon-like creature from deep in Krypton's past. The bird's partner is Nightwing, who is also its mate and opposite.

Among the early Kryptonian Gods, Flamebird was charged by almighty Rao with constantly refreshing the world by burning down the new creations of her brother, Vohc-The-Builder. She did so, but there was no hostility between the two; Vohc was grateful that Flamebird constantly pushed him to reimagine his works.

However, to help his friend, Nightwing, Vohc made it possible for him to meet flamebird. As such those two fell in love. Vohc's next creation was a monument representing all of his love for Flamebird. While Flamebird truly admired and appreciated the work, she fulfilled her duty to Rao by burning it down. This time Vohc actually begged for this work to be saved, but Flamebird ignored him. This destroyed much of Vohc and changed him into Vohc-The-Breaker. (Comic Series: Action Comics)

In each cycle, the Nightwing and the Flamebird are reborn, and must find each other. Also in each cycle, they are betrayed by a friend and killed.”

It cites action comics but I can’t narrow it down. My guess is that it came up when Thara Ak-Var and Chris Kent held the mantles.

So Bette Kane initially took up the Flamebird mantle to get Dick’s attention (while he was still Robin). He rejected her and it didn’t really work out which in the grand scheme of all things considered, makes sense thematically in a “pushing fate” kind of way. She was Flamebird for a while after that, even seen fighting beside Dick Grayson’s Nightwing every now and then, but hasn’t been Flamebird since before rebirth so currently no one seems to hold the mantle at present (technically).

So where does that leave Flamebird now?

Well this year, two interesting things have come up. One, in the new cartoon “My Adventures with Superman”, Jimmy is Flamebird again in the form of a username for his conspiracy blog. As of now, he just seemed to come up with it cause it sounds cool, so unless they pull out a “what a coincidence” or back story of how he found the name, that’s probably the extent of Flamebird’s roll there.

The second is in Action Comics #1058 where Kara reveals that Nightwing and Flamebird is actually the fable of the House of El. Each Krytonian house had a fable and this one is spesific to Superman and his family.

Now from here on out this is all just my thinking. “Theory” would even be a strong word implying that I legitimately think this is what is going on. Call this “if I were in charge of this story this is how this would go”

So what now?

Dick as a fated Nightwing makes so much sense for him. Pretty much all of his best qualities as a person can be seen in Superman and in it’s been said time and time again that he got the title from him. There’s that connection. That has my thinking that Nightwing and Flamebird would have a strong connection to the House of El, i.e., Superman. We know Nightwing is Dick, we know Dick looks up to Superman like, frankly most of the time, a better dad than Bruce. Low bar, but still.

And with this connection in mind, and all the history stated earlier with not just Jimmy’s long history with not just Dick, but Superman as well, he seems like the obvious choice to me. They state over and over again how Jimmy proves his loyalty, he’ll charge into danger like it’s nothing (a trait I personally think he picked up from Lois) and he is always such a fun narrator when handed the mic. He’s earned it.

As far as the ship goes, aside from it potentially being a huge payoff for a sixty year old saga of legends of love, heroism, and fate, the dynamics of their modern personalities would be unparalleled.

Over all its fricken WEIRD that their dynamic was just randomly forgotten like that, especially with everything built around them that you’d think would have them at least cross paths. I don’t hold not having a romantic relationship between them against DC, nor do I ever expect them to ever take that route any times soon, but come on man why aren’t they at least friends anymore?

[raisindave]

[Chapter 34] Seeing the World Through Ballistic-Tinted Glasses

They had the grace to fly you first class, though the flight route was staggeringly long. Zig-zagging patterns meant you were touching down on nearly every continent, sometimes ordered to spend no more or less than 10 hours in an airport hotel room without leaving, then hurry onto the next plane. Laswell could be trying to shake someone off your trail, but more likely than not, it's just prudence. You were at the beck and call of whatever text came through your flip phone, usually directing you minutes after landing to which gate to head to and where to pick up your boarding pass. Even security was weird. You'd be 'selected for special search' by a female officer every time without fail. It's like each of these airports had express orders to handle your case with care.

Curiously, the name on your room didn't match your IDs, and none of them seemed to blink an eye. It always seemed to be a shift manager in suits and workwear dresses leading you down carpeted hallways to your room with their exquisitely polished shoes. Sure, the hotel rooms weren't spectacular, but they'll offer the legally mandated six hours of sleep you'll need before they can stick you back onto a plane. With more sliding glass doors and polished marble floors, you're back in the plainly coloured airports with a newly printed plane ticket from a code texted on your burner. It's gotten to the point where it's hard to say how long you've been travelling when you're flying to Egypt, to Switzerland, touching tires in Portugal, then finally finding the final stop.

Judging by the sea hugging this body of land, you gagued that you're likely in the Republic of Adal, a territory within Syria. It's a hotbed for gang violence, and it's made the news lately for their elections to separate from their national government. You spotted a decently sized town from the view up on the sandy hill that the small Cessna left you off on, shielding your eyes from the blistering afternoon sun. Pale beige brick buildings made up of houses and stores came closer into view as you made your way down the slippery dune. Sand had long since settled into your boots, but the closer you got to the town, the more oddly mesmerized you were by its placement. The city was backed in against the sprawling view of the Mediterranean Sea over one shoulder and an endless desert on the other. South is a marshland, west is the ocean, and the north and eastern directions are nothing but sprawling desert. It's such an odd harmony of ecosystems but an apparent hasty reaction to an oil deposit discovery. If it weren't for this small, hazy city, it would be entirely virgin wilderness. 

A vibration in your back pocket, and you're already flicking open the dinky device. A private number texting three words. Observatory back door. It's unsettling to consider how easy it would be to kidnap you, but you were already calculating your route by squinting at the blurry horizon as the thought entered your mind. Bulbous white orbs from what looked like radomes were barely visible when you shielded your eyes at the right angle. If that's an observatory, it's a ten-minute walk. You made the effort to tie your standard-issue jacket over the body of your duffle bag, feeling the effects of the punishing sun on your skin. Spending the better part of three days almost entirely stationary didn't help either; feeling cool beads of sweat immediately heat on your skin. Hot sweat formed in a thin sheen over your skin, cursing your black tee shirt for its heat-absorbing properties. 

The grand complex solidified into view, satellite dishes mounted on vast smooth grey stone made up what had to be said observatory. Chipping blue and white paint on tall metal doors was just beyond a chain-link fence; you could easily slip under a broad hole you'd found after a minute or two of searching. The chain-link rattled as you passed underneath, swinging your pack back over your shoulder that you'd thrown ahead of you. The arrogant Trespassers Will Be Shot sign above the steel door did nothing to stop you from pushing past. Cautious eyes fell on a staircase immediately after the door's opening, breathing in damp stagnant air that reeked of mildew and rust. Willing every muscle in your thighs to step silently, you reached the top of the stairs that greeted you to see an all-too-familiar face. 

There stood Price. Smiling through his moustache, he'd probably have tipped his hat to you if his arms weren't crossed over muted green body armour. The faintest thread of suspicion that caught in the back of your mind immediately smoothed, allowing you to climb the last few steps of the stairs fully. With the weight of your pack being all too apparent in the sweltering heat, the cool interior urged you to slump your duffle bag onto the ground. Your chest was heaving, gasping in the slightly less suffocating air.

"Maybe you needed that rucking back in London," he smiled.

He'd have to settle for a glare as an answer, cracking a smile as you wiped slick sweat from your brow. The room was more like an open auditorium, where tiers of metal overpasses crisscrossed over what looked like concrete floors below, though it was too dark to tell. The only reason you could identify anything was thanks to a single camping lamp twisted alive next to a cluster of miscellaneous laptops, headphones, and cassettes. It's definitely a sign of the times, as if the chipping racing-stripe wall paint didn't already imply this place had been quickly built around the late '70s and looked like it was quickly abandoned by the '90s. 

"Laswell will be here shortly to help you with settling in. In the meantime, welcome to Al Mazrah, the capital of the Republic of Adal, or so the locals want you to believe."

"Are we not in Syria?" 

"Oh, we are," he raised his brows as he spoke, scratching his beard. "We're here because a gang here is taking responsibility for the London attacks. The Separatists."

"Attacks?" You queried.

"Attacks. There have been two more explosions since you left, plus an attack on the English embassy in Damascus. The Separatist gang leader in town is toasting to his role in these strikes often and loudly." His tone was grim and stern, not unlike how he's given orders on other missions. 

The sound of heavy boots crashing down onto clambering metal from the shadows made your knees instinctively buckle into a lower stance. By the time your eyes even identified the direction of the sound, Price had the courtesy of pointing to the intruder with a glinting pistol. 

"Fuck's sake Farah," your Captain sighed, flicking the safety back onto his pistol with his thumb. 

"Keeping you on your toes, old man," A tall woman with dark eyes swaggered out of the shadows, palms raised. "You're making me nervous." 

She spoke with a candour that caught you off guard, stern and unbothered. She obviously has a rapport with Price, considering he didn't just blast those sloping cheekbones off the plane of her skull. Adrenaline still prickled in your fingertips despite their relaxed attitudes, darting your eyes between them in confusion. He raised his hand to point in her direction, rolling his head over to speak to you. 

"Lua Grant, meet Farah Karim, leader of a local resistance movement. Farah, this is the linguist I told you about."

"I hear they call you Cricket," she extended her palm to yours, taking your hand in a crushing handshake. 

"Some do," you smiled, nodding in acknowledgement. 

"Farah's offered us her support on this," Price interjected, "she knows this territory better than we ever could. And she has a knack for handling warlord Separatists."

"We have common interests, but don't get soft on me, Captain," she smirked coyly. "SAS helped me once before, so I'm just answering a called favour. Plus, these warlords' arrogance is just irritating, and it'd be my pleasure to knock them off their pedestal."

"Why are they so eager to take responsibility for the attacks on British soil?" You finally let your throat succumb to the burning question that rattled in your swirling mind. 

"To kick the hornet's rest," Farah's words tore into the conversation; even in dim light, her face was an image of passivity. 

"If they're pitting the UK up against Syria, the ensuing conflict provides enough civil unrest to let the Republic of Adal establish a martial state of their own. It'd be a breeding ground for global terrorism and extremism," Price elaborated on Farah's assertion. 

"These Separatists are a scourge of this city. They're embezzling, enlisting child soldiers, obsessed with power and keen to use violence on anyone who'll get in their way. They'd torch every hospital in the city if it meant they could make another pound." A fire in her eyes illuminated her disgust with this topic, a passion that spoke volumes to her character. 

Farah seems like the kind of woman you'd hate to make an enemy. Bloodied knuckles poking through her fingerless gloves suggested she, too, has no problem using violence against those in her way, but she fights for a different side. She fights for the people, evident by her hesitance to accept foreign aid. Even based on Price's placement of trust, she'll get no opposition from you. This woman has no interest in the games that Presidents and Ministers play on the global stage, only interest in the people's suffrage; It's a simple philosophy that you can't help but envy.

"The issue is that people are being picked off, dying and disappearing in mysterious ways. Their power is slipping, and those London attacks are the Separatists' way of initiating their control under their new martial state," Price continued. 

"The mayor tripped and fell on his switchblade 32 times the other day," Laswell's voice caught you off guard, catching her walk toward your gathering with an armful of papers. 

"Such a shame," Farah cooed, her tone thick with venom and satire. Her posture was standoffish and cross-armed, but she was still undoubtedly poised. 

You could do nothing but nod along, drinking in as much information as possible. Their sarcasm and frankness speak volumes to their attitude toward this topic despite this region being entirely foreign. You're flying blind on the words of a person with borrowed trust. Judging by the city's layout you spotted before you dodged that harsh sun, you're implied to be stationed in this observatory, over a kilometre away from the closest Al Mazrahian citizen. 

"Price, could you show Cricket to her office," Laswell nodded to her colleague, turning to tilt her head to a set of swinging doors across the steel perimeter platforms. 

Price wordlessly introduced you to your office for the next few days or months, which conveniently also doubled as a bedroom, considering the wiry metal bedframe in the corner. Paradoxically damp and dusty at the same time, the room was outfitted with those hulking wall-bolted computer displays that, at one point, displayed astronomy data. More red, white, and orange racing stripes ran along at a waist level among water-damaged drywall and a single lightbulb as a beacon for brightness which unfortunately didn't obey the command of the hollowed lightswitch. The problem with the wall-mounted computing goliaths is that they had limited desk space, so a dented sheet metal desk made up for where they fell short. Those laptops and headphones had been arranged attentively before a folding orange floral chair. The room was not small, though, surprisingly hosting a house's worth of couches and filing cabinets that were utterly caked in dust. More shadows that will keep you up at night. 

Crossing the room to set your bag down came with a cacophony of squeals from protesting floorboards. Thin walls let you hear Price and Laswell chatting with Farah from down the hall, unable to perceive words, though another one of those CIA notebooks, fresh and pristine, ranked over your urge to eavesdrop. The smooth pleather cover creaked as you pried it open to unveil the printed text across the folded paper. Flipping it open between your fingers, you blinked dry eyes to read the short paragraph within. 

Listen to the transmission on the laptop. It's a 24-hour broadcast, and the speaker comes in at random intervals. Keeping our thumbs on the pulse of the civilian chatter. Write the transcripts in this booklet and I'll get you a new one every morning. -L

Classic. You've done this exact task dozens of times before joining this team, so a blast of normalcy was almost unheard of. Mostly useless and rarely somewhat relevant, but a standard job for a military linguist, offering fresh transcripts for the higher-ups to dissect. Having you into the location connects you to the context that this broadcast is on a local wavelength, unfortunately eliminating the possibility of doing this in the comfort of that London barracks dorm. Sliding the orange chair across splintering floors, you pried open the laptop to prepare for your remarkably simple task while cracking your knuckles. As Laswell promised, the computer displayed stagnant audio waves of a vacant broadcast, slipping headphone pads over your ears as a formality.

The task reminded you of your time in Chita, listening in on broadcasts for this mysterious squad in that crumbling bunker. Thankfully no Graves this time, though many people have had a tendency of popping up out of the blue in the past hour. Where are the boys anyway? Where there's smoke, there's fire, and where there's Price, there's his squad- so they can't be too far. Your mind couldn't help but wander, waiting for this mysterious Arabic voice to cut through the silence. A tarp covered a small window across the room, allowing you to watch settling dust caught on the light beams of the setting desert sun. Just as you became enraptured in watching individual particles dance over the dwindling sunlight, a voice cut into the broadcast abruptly, commanding your attention. Clicking the blue pen you were provided alive, you straightened your posture in anticipation. 

Hamza, 22, has been missing for three weeks. His mother misses him dearly, and please come home. Mohamed and Michel, two brothers aged 19 and 16, respectively, haven't been home in four months. A daughter, Fatima, 21, hasn't been spotted by any of her family in over ten days, and they're worried sick. All transcriptions you begrudgingly scrawled into a notebook. You knew full well what these transmissions really were. It's an impossible thing for any family to grapple with. Mothers and fathers were broadcasting the digital tombstones of their lost sons and daughters- all between the ages of 15 and 30, with the horrifying exception of a four-year-old boy. 

That much was evident in the broadcaster's gravelly voice, taking long cigarette drags between every transmission. He never said his name, which was odd. No codename or callsign, just this faceless, jaded voice calling into the abyss. Like a shout into an empty dripping cave, except this time, there's no echo to acknowledge his existence. There's something charming in that, something that touches you deeply. This lone man is a lighthouse of hope in a town with such a hostile occupying force, only thinly veiled as protection. He's making his stand triumphantly, based on motives that are beyond your understanding. 

By the time the broadcast cut out, your wristwatch read 01:43, meaning you'd spent almost the entire night listening to the dreadful intel. The pages of Laswell's booklet had long since become crinkled and wavy thanks to hours of writing, and the tender muscle on your palm screamed for relief. This bedroom had fallen harrowingly chilled, something you assumed resulted from an unforgiving desert climate with a short memory. Stacked sweaters and shirts from your pack gave you a cocoon of warmth that only barely kept chilled fingers from losing momentum. The overly springy bedframe caught your weight on its stiff mattress with squealing resistance. There wasn't even time to lie awake watching shadows behind the furniture stacked in the corner before you were fast asleep.

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Master List

[dosesofcommonsense]

(From Brian Cates on Telegram)

Election interference to ensure Biden ‘won’ and Trump ‘lost’ is only the tip of the Censorship State iceberg.

The US government censored its own citizens in direct violation of their 1st Amendment rights to drive politicized narratives that turned out to be LIES.

Our ‘public servants’ put their boots on the necks of millions of Americans and pressed down…HARD…because they were TELLING THE TRUTH.

About stollen and rigged elections.

About laptops.

About virus origins and nefarious and illegal bio weapons activity by our own government officials in the Alphabet agencies in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world.

About vaccines,masks and lockdowns.

About the war in Ukraine.

About Biden being competent.

Seriously, I could make a very long list of ‘The Official Big Brother Narratives of the Past 4 Years’ where federal bureaucrats working illegally behind the scenes were censoring millions of Americans for saying the ‘wrong’ things.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Big Brother runs on lies, and bothersome citizens who just can’t seem to take a hint and SHUT UP and stop challenging their government’s official narratives when they are ordered to need to be ‘managed’.

And so a shit-ton of very helpful NGO’S like Stanford Observatory were created to surreptitiously help the US government successfully ‘manage’ citizen’s speech on social media platforms and elsewhere.

A lot of people in this nation under direct and ongoing threat by an out-of-control vindictive and corrupt federal bureaucracy still don’t grasp just how bad this is.

And the great thanks they owe to those who exposed this evil Censorship State and are currently fighting the Hydra to restore to all Americans the constitutional right to free speech they had illegally taken away from them.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1721743484116169032?s=20

ADDENDUM:

Of course, the people who are enthusiastically in favor of all the illegal censorship activity by the State and its ‘private sector’ allies currently getting exposed are very unhappy these days.

See, they thought their ‘side’ was ‘winning’ the Great National Conversation when that conversation was rigged in their favor. They knew it wasn’t a real conversation at all.

They were HAPPY that social media discourse was being rigged and tightly controlled by political hall monitors.

They thought this meant they would win the ‘game’.

But this isn’t a really a GAME.

This is life and death.

A people that are not allowed to speak freely to their government or each other many be many things, but they are not a free people.

I meant what I said at the end of the previous post. As a people, as Americans, we have had our free speech stolen from us. We have been the targets of a massive crime committed by our own government , and the issue is still in doubt as to whether two things will happen:

1. We get our free speech, especially on social media, returned to us so we can once again exercise our God-given rights without State interference and…

2. The people in our government who violated our speech rights in dead of night using corrupt and illegal means to hide their having done this are all dragged out into the light of day and held fully accountable in such a legal manner that no one shall ever in the future attempt a repeat of such a crime.

Keep your eyes on Missouri v Biden in the courts. We won’t know if the government bastards will have to hand back our speech rights until that case is decided.

The Biden administration is currently fighting to keep The Censorship State going.

After all, over the past decade or so, the Commie Marxist scum embedded in out federal government & agencies spent an awful lot of time, money and passion in constructing their precious Censorship State apparatus.

Salivating and having wet dreams at night over the sheer amount of total speech control they were gonna have in their hands once they were done tinkering with it.

And now?

Now they risk losing it all. They can’t have that. They’re desperate to get back to the kind of rigid speech control they had just a year ago.

Well I’ve bad news for The Censorship State and all the goombahs out there who just LOVED the censorship regime because they thought this meant they were moving the ball down the field and we’re about to score.

“PERSONAL FOUL, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TEAM, BOOT ON THE NECK OF CITIZEN TEAM, AUTOMATIC EJECTION FOR THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT TEAM, BALL SPOTTED FOR TEAM CITIZEN AT THE 1 YARD LINE, 1ST AND GOAL!”

You weren’t winning. You cheated and created an illusion based on illegal deception and brute force.

And now you’ve been caught. The flag has been thrown.

There will be no going back. You LOST.

[pumpking64]

heyhey, its me... wenn du willst, tell me a fun fact about any of your special interests :D

+ picture of the moon I took for your convenience <3

Uhhh a pretty moon pic!! Been thinking about it occasionally in the little month it’s been sitting in my inbox <3

I’ve also thought long and hard about what fun fact I wanted to share, and I think I’ve finally found it. It’s a long one, so buckle up, but there’ll be pictures along the way!

It was obviously going to be about birds, bird ringing specifically (which is the catching, tagging, measuring and releasing of birds for scientific purposes, done by people with the required legal permission and knowledge to do so without harming the birds) — something I spend quite a lot of time doing <3

I’m actually going to talk about a very specific Great Tit (Parus major) that was caught last year. I sadly didn’t see it in person, but I’ve seen pictures of this bird and man, it’s bonkers.

In order for you to understand the absurdity, you’ll first need to know some basic bird anatomy. As I mentioned above, bird ringing includes the recording of information on each individual. This usually includes, amongst other things: measurements of wing, amount of fat and muscle, weight, and most importantly information on species, sex and age.

And here’s where it gets particularly nerdy. Whilst processing a bird, you will usually need to examine the feathers to identify species, age and/or sex. This is done by opening the wing and examining the feathers, and depending on sometimes tiny variations in shape or colour you can tell some tricky species apart, or you can see whether it’s a male or a female, or you can see which moult pattern the bird has followed, which in turn can help narrowing down the correct age. Here are some examples:

Examples on wings that tell about either age, sex and/or species, taken from the digital ringer’s guide by Ottenby Bird Observatory (homepage link).

In any case, bird ringers are very very used to looking at wings, and since many bird ringers will mainly catch passerines, it is the wing of a passerine that stands as the Basic Wing in most of our minds. This means that we are used to a specific amount of feathers in specific feather groups, amongst others a total of 10 primaries, which are the long outermost feathers on the wing. See the above photos for some passerine wings (not the top right one though, that’s not a passerine but a raptor).

I have by now seen a couple thousand birds in the hand, but I have never noticed a bird that should follow this pattern yet did not. Except this particular Great Tit. Since all tits are passerines, we’d expect 10 primaries when opening the wing to age it. However, this insane Great Tit had an astonishing FIFTEEN primaries! That’s 5 (FIVE!) more than it’s supposed to have.

And it’s just so wild to me that there is (or at least was) a bird with 50% extra primaries, and I want everyone to know about that birb because what the actual hell <3

[mariacallous]

Disinformation is material that is false, intentional, and malicious. The recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granting a preliminary injunction against federal officials contacting tech companies about possible disinformation is problematic at many levels. With a few exceptions, it nearly turns disinformation into a constitutional right by stymieing certain types of mitigation efforts by individuals and organizations on First Amendment grounds.

The legal ruling

In recent years, there have been concerted efforts to fight disinformation by strengthening voluntary content moderation by social media platforms. The rationale is that technology is an accelerator of disinformation by spreading it quickly around the world and creating problems for democracy, governance, and public problem-solving.

In the Louisiana case, Judge Doughty offered a Free Speech rationale to a wide range of possible disinformation activities by saying federal officials could not contact tech companies for the “removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted by social-media platforms.” His opinion also prohibited officials from “collaborating, coordinating, partnering, switchboarding, and/or jointly working with the Election Integrity Partnership, the Virality Project, the Stanford Internet Observatory, or any like project or group for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content posted with social-media companies containing protected free speech.”

These are research projects at leading academic institutions that are examining disinformation and seeking to mitigate its deleterious consequences. As noted below, his ruling is very broad in its potential impact on areas, such as election security, public health, climate change, and race relations and poses a number of problems for the fight against disinformation.

Stopping disinformation mitigation

The immediate impact of this injunction is to stop the ability of federal officials to inform social media platforms about content that they see as false, intentional, and malicious to election security, climate change, public health, and race relations, among many other topics. Each of those areas have been plagued by disinformation that spreads lies, damages public health, and harms our country’s ability to address important topics.

To the judge’s credit, he did specify several exemptions from his Order. For example, federal officials could still contact tech companies in cases of illegal activity, national security risk, public safety, and efforts to mislead voters about electoral requirements or procedures, to name a few. Those exceptions are helpful in the sense that the judge recognizes government officials have access to valuable information that can aid public safety and national security threats, and therefore have a legitimate right to relay that material to businesses which are able to deal with those threats.

Limiting content moderation

Another problem with this ruling is that it will likely limit the ability of social media firms to moderate the content that appears on their sites. This is not just a legal side-effect of his ruling, but a risk that arises from two other developments in the technology area. One is that several prominent platforms already have indicated possible pullbacks in their efforts to moderate content. For example, Twitter has laid off a number of its public safety and trust staff, which has weakened that staff’s ability to moderate content. And YouTube, which previously was removing unsubstantiated claims about 2020 electoral fraud, now says it will let at least some of that material remain on its site.

The second development is the rise of generative AI tools that bring sophisticated capabilities to ordinary people. Today, nearly anyone can use AI to generate fake videos and audiotapes and put people in compromising positions—even when they are completely false. These technologies have become democratized in the sense that they no longer require much technical expertise to deploy. Instead, they are readily accessible consumer tools that are available to nearly anyone who wants to use them. And, thanks to this decision, the government’s ability to act in the face of AI-generated falsehoods is significantly hobbled.

Chilling academic research

In conjunction with other developments, this ruling could chill academic research. For several months, under the guise of combatting disinformation mitigation, the House Judiciary Committee has requested emails, personal communications, and research materials from academics at Stanford University, the University of Washington, New York University, Clemson University, and elsewhere. These rather extraordinary requests sometimes are accompanied by subpoenas demanding personal documents.

Whether intended or not, the court ruling combined with the aggressive Judiciary Committee actions raises the legal and political risks for researchers because it potentially turns their activities to fight disinformation into prohibited, illegal actions. Continuing to identify disinformation and ask tech companies to remove harmful content exposes scholars to legal penalties and could endanger their professional careers.

Endangering the 2024 elections

Finally, all these side-effects of the court ruling, platform content moderation pullbacks, new AI tools, and efforts at legislative intimidation likely could create a “tsunami of disinformation” in the 2024 elections. The weakening of content moderation, the high stakes of the next presidential election, and the possible closeness in the election outcome create tremendous incentives for bad political behaviors. We saw considerable disinformation in 2016 and 2020, but 2024 could be a Wild West of lies and deception where anything goes. Candidates, reporters, and voters in general should be prepared for an onslaught of AI-generated falsehoods with the outcome hanging in the balance. It would be a disaster if this very crucial election is decided based on fake videos and disinformation.

[yaldev]

Floodgate

If you draw a line from the Aether Suppressor straight down through the ground, it will emerge at the base of the Yaostay Tower. On the opposite side of the world from the birthplace of civilization, you'll find a simple clearing, quiet but for the hum of its engine and the chirps of jays. They favor grasses like these, where spiders lurk between the stalks and delicious beetles teem in abundance through the early summer. There was a people who lived here once, resourceful and proud, but their resources were no match for half the world aimed against them, and their pride was a sin.

Humans leave this place alone now. Aside from the maintenance crews who tend to the tower once a decade, the closest bipeds occupy an observatory, safe from light pollution and heresy charges. To study the stars is to invite ruin. The scientists will be blamed by the usual lot for the coming disaster, but they are merely the first to witness it unfold, watching the sky through a powerful telescope aimed in just the right direction at the moment it all falls apart.

It couldn't have happened anywhere else. The tower network is strong, but weakens imperceptibly with distance from the Aether Suppressor. What looks at first like a supernova tears open the night sky, and the Aether shines forth in all its sublime doom. A pillar of liquid mana plummets toward the world like air to the drowned, and Yaldev breathes it in with desperate lungs. The universe intrudes on the Ascended Empire's airspace without so much as a legal immigration form.

The structure loses connection to its network. The barrier no longer holds. Beetles look up and jays take flight. The tower's backup Antimagic Field spell kicks in, but fails. Sirens begin to wail, and an annoyed universe shuts them up by engulfing the Yaostay Tower in cosmic fire.

As mana spreads from the pillar and saturates the earth, the Aether feels around. Its metaphysical fingers dig into the dirt, its breath mixes with the atmosphere, the destruction pausing as though taking a moment to enjoy this place it was denied so long.

Now to continue.

---

Yaldev is a sci-fantasy worldbuilding project by Ulysses Maurer, with art by Beeple. By looking at narratives, stylized loredumps, bad poetry and little details, we'll witness the story of a planet filled with magical power, the nation which tried to conquer it, this empire’s dramatic collapse and the new world which emerged in its wake. Along the way we'll meet the characters who live here, and we'll explore questions about nationalism, rationalism, the natural world and the quest to master it. For all stories in chronological order, check out the pinned posts at r/Yaldev!

[harmonyckrs]

Give Me Back My Wife, Grim Reaper - Part 4

Mother always said that hard work leads to faster success. And I think for once, it's starting to apply to me!

I'm starting to feel like Aktu. This is probably how he feels like all of the time.

Zoya: So...you're a hypnotist now, huh? Is that even a real thing?

Harper: Well, I think it'll be helpful with getting information about Aktu's whereabouts. Erin already told me something pretty useful.

Zoya: Ah, the self-proclaimed psychic. What did she say?

Harper: Lazlo and Crystal apparently met Aktu sometime before we got here, but he left for some reason. We've only been able to see the beginning and the end, however.

Zoya: Interesting. Maybe you can use your weird hypnotist abilities to get information out of Lazlo...especially about that murder.

Harper: Oh, that's a great idea! Thanks, Zoya.

Zoya: Wait, I was jo-

As I approached the observatory up on the hill and knocked on the door, I immediately came in contact with HIM. The alleged murderer of Victor Curious.

Harper: Greetings. I'm here to talk to Lazlo.

Pascal: Lazlo's off at work. You're free to wait for him until he comes back, though. Are you Harper?

Harper: (Shoot! Lazlo must've told him about me.) Yes, that'd be me. I'm just going around to talk to all of the neighbors...get acquainted with everyone and all that.

Pascal: Between you and me, it's not worth it. Everyone here is either an asshole or straight up evil.

Harper: Really? Sounds like something an asshole or someone who's straight up evil would say.

Pascal: I'm being serious, Harper. You know those two who live in that creepy house up at the hill? They're experimenting on a live person! And Olive literally has twenty one people buried under her house. Those are not people you want to talk to.

Harper: (Experimenting on a live human? I don't even think that's legal. Why hasn't anyone contacted the police?) I was messing with you. But also, what about everyone else? Like...oh, I don't know, Crystal?

Pascal: Crystal is a supervillain who's secretly planning to turn Lazlo against our family and keep him in a basement to torture him. She's the least trustworthy of them all, because at least the Beakers and Olive are open about their intentions.

Harper: Do you have any proof of that?

Pascal: No. But trust me, I'm gathering it soon. I know she's up to no good.

I was a bit wary of this man considering his outlandish lies about not one, but TWO families in this neighborhood, but I realized that this unfortunate scenario just gave me the perfect opportunity to solve this murder...and find Aktu, as well.

A juicy promotion would be waiting for me by the end of this, which is another step to saving Celeste.

Pascal: And also, sorry about the mess. Lazlo never cleans up after himself, and I've just been busy with the baby.

Harper: It's alright. You seem really stressed...maybe a bit of hypnosis will help you.

Pascal: I'm not paying for a pseudoscience.

Harper: I'll do it for free. Just for you, as thanks to your brother.

Pascal: Well, it...wouldn't hurt, I suppose. Sure.

It didn't take long to put him in a state of hypnosis as he let me inside of his house, and for me to put my plan into action.

Harper: ...Alright...now, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I want you to answer truthfully. Tell me about what happened the night your brother got abducted.

Pascal: ...We heard him scream...and then we saw the UFO...before either of us could say anything, my water broke, and Lazlo drove me to the hospital to deliver my baby...

Harper: (Wait, if he was at the hospital, then there was no way he could've murdered Virgil.)

Harper: How long were you in the hospital for?

Pascal: Just a day. I recovered quickly, but when we came back, he...still wasn't there...he probably ran away to prevent our fates from happening...

Harper: Erin's big revelation, right? How did you feel about that?

Pascal: Well...I was horrified. Rightfully so. Vidcund was hysterical about it...begging for my forgiveness and crying about how he didn't want it to happen either...

Harper: How did you feel towards him after that?

Pascal: Complicated. I was angry, of course...at the fates, for forcing us to go through such a thing. I tried reassuring him it'd be okay, but I also didn't think I'd be able to trust him, even if it was out of his control, and I'm sure he knew too...have you seen him? Is he okay?

Harper: (I don't think it could've been him. He's too genuine...or he's a very good manipulator.) No, I haven't.

Pascal: If you do, can you tell him to come home?...we miss him. I just hope he hasn't decided to go to the Beakers...

Harper: Beakers?

Pascal: Our crazy mad scientist neighbors. He's never gotten over his break up with Circe...I've told him to move on and find other people, but he keeps insisting that one day she'll love him again...and considering Circe's fate...it would make sense for him to run to them...

Harper: I see. Thank you...and do you know anyone named Aktu?

Pascal: No. Though, I heard Lazlo say that name one time on the phone...he might know more.

Harper: Alright, thank you. I'll keep that in mind for next time...

After I had finished talking to Pascal and began to leave the house, I found an unexpected guest waiting for me.

General Buzz: Harper Terrestrial. I have a request for you.

Harper: (Oh no, this guy's scary.) Yes, um...How can I help you, sir?

General Buzz: I've heard about your quest to investigate Vidcund's murder, and I believe the two of us can help each other. I don't know if you know this, but I'm a military general who's responsible for the safety and well-being of everyone in town.

Harper: You're doing an awfully good job of that.

General Buzz: No need for sarcasm. I'm asking if you'd like to join forces with us and help us with our investigation. In return, we'll help you with Vidcund. Is this a fair trade?

Harper: Actually, let's throw one more thing in there...

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Mount Taranaki’s Ring of Forest

On New Zealand’s North Island, a conical snow-capped volcano ringed by dark green forest rises above dairy pasture. The often-snowcapped peak of Mount Taranaki (dubbed Mount Egmont by Captain Cook) is the centerpiece of Egmont National Park. A circular piece of land—with a 9.6-kilometer (6-mile) radius from the volcano’s summit—was first formally protected as a forest reserve in 1881. With some subsequent additions, it became New Zealand’s second national park in 1900.

The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 acquired this image of Mount Taranaki in June 2023. Two older and extinct volcanoes, Kaitake and Pouakai, lie to the northwest of its peak. At 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) tall, Taranaki is the second-highest peak on New Zealand’s North Island after Ruapehu.

At the widest part of the ring around the mountain, forests of rimu and kāmahi, tall evergreen trees native to New Zealand, dominate. Stands of kāmahi have also found a niche at higher elevations in what’s known as the “Goblin Forest.” Here, they grow gnarled and twisted around trees that have been destroyed in volcanic eruptions. Moving higher, forests give way to progressively smaller bands of subalpine and alpine habitat.

Despite its neat appearance from above, the volcano has a history of dramatic change. By one count, the mountain’s edifice has collapsed and rebuilt 16 times, with each cycle sending large debris avalanches down its flanks. Steep slopes, loose sediments, high rainfall rates, and buried faults all contribute to its tendency to collapse. Avalanche deposits have accumulated to form the peninsula on which the mountain sits, and debris has even been found to extend up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) offshore.

Mount Taranaki’s last volcanic eruption was over 200 years ago, and scientists give it a 30 to 50 percent chance of erupting in the next 50 years. Hazards such as mudflows, or lahars, are still present and have occurred occasionally in the past several decades. A present-day eruption could have serious and costly consequences, researchers say, as the region is home to more than 110,000 people and economic activities such as farming, manufacturing, and energy production.

Despite its inherent threats, the towering, symmetrical cone has become iconic in New Zealand culture. It has served not only as an inspiration for artwork but also as a symbol depicted on product labels, postage stamps, and even the country’s currency. In 2017, the mountain attained a new level of protection when it was granted the same legal rights as a person, according to news reports. The status is an acknowledgment of the Indigenous Māori people’s relationship to the mountain and means that harming the mountain has the same legal implications as harming the tribe.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photo by Kathrin & Stefan Marks, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivs 2.0 Generic. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

[better-burbank-ca]

Tulekyan Lawyers in Burbank, CA           

What can you say about any Burbank motorcycle accident attorney or lawyer in Burbank, CA? If you’re not familiar with any attorney and you need one for motorcycle accident, you can research about Tulekyan Lawyers. At Tulekyan Law Personal Injury Lawyer, they understand the unique challenges bikers face on the road. Simply put, they know what their clients have gone through as motorcycle riders who got involved in a highway accident. Aside from that, their dedicated team provides expert legal representation for motorcycle accident victims. Last but not the least, they will fight for you and help you recover the compensation you deserve.

Burbank, CA

If you’re curious about the educational system of the Burbank, CA area, let’s talk about it. After all, it’s obvious that many people want to know their best schools. Moreover, Burbank is within the Burbank Unified School District. Then, the district was formed on June 3, 1879, following a petition filed by residents S.W. White and nine other citizens. First named the Providencia School District, Burbank's district started with one schoolhouse built for $400 on a site donated by Dr. Burbank, the area's single largest landholder. In addition, the first schoolhouse, a single redwood-sided building serving nine families, is on what is now Burbank Boulevard near Mariposa Street.

Griffith Park in Burbank, CA

Let’s discuss a little about a popular travel destination. In line with that, the popularity of the Griffith Park that is located in Burbank, CA is thought-provoking and interesting. Basically, Griffith Park is a large municipal park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Apart from that, the park includes popular attractions such as the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry Museum of the American West, the Griffith Observatory, and the Hollywood Sign. Due to its appearance in many films, the park is among the most famous municipal parks in North America.

High-speed rail connection between Palmdale, Burbank gets environmental OK

In Burbank, CA, there are interesting news reports. One of these reports is about a high-speed rail project environmental approval. Based on the news, the long-planned but oft-delayed effort to build a high-speed rail system between San Francisco and Los Angeles has reached a major milestone with the approval of the final environmental impact report on the line's stretch between Palmdale and Burbank and reports are pending Friday on other sections of the project. Aside from that, it was also mentioned in the news that the 38-mile segment was the final one between the two major cities awaiting final environmental approval.

Link to Map Driving Direction

Griffith Park Los Angeles, CA 90027, United States

Head north 92 ft

Continue onto Riverside Dr 0.3 mi

Continue straight onto Victory Blvd 1.6 mi

Turn right onto W Olive Ave 0.9 mi

Turn left onto N Glenoaks Blvd Destination will be on the left 0.2 mi

Tulekyan Lawyers 333 N Glenoaks Blvd Suite 210, Burbank, CA 91502, United States

[untitledgoosegay]

I don't speak Arabic even a little, but I've pasted Twitter's automated translation below

If anyone has the skills & wherewithal to do an actual translation, please -- the end of the thread has a few pages of text uploaded in image format, which I can't do anything with

Officially... #السودان submits an official complaint to the United Nations against the UAE regarding its aggression against the people of Sudan, its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence+

This is based on the following data: 1) Since April 15, 2023 until today, Sudan, its people and its armed forces have been exposed to a large-scale war of aggression that was sinfully planned and maliciously prepared by the United Arab Emirates, through the Rapid Support Forces militia and other rogue militias allied with it + the mercenary teams from nine different countries, which that country worked to mobilize en masse and alone, as explained to you in the attachments.

2) On April 15, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), Vice President of the Sovereignty Council at the time, carried out a large-scale attack on sovereign and strategic targets in Khartoum, aiming to eliminate the head of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the rest of the council members, and then take power in implementation of a foreign interference agenda. When the attack failed, the rebel militia turned to committing violations and atrocities with unlimited support from the UAE, as follows: The militia carried out systematic attacks against the state, destroyed its infrastructure, targeted civilians with killing, looting, rape, and displacement, and seized civilian objects and public facilities, in complete contempt for international humanitarian law and human rights laws. The Observatory for Monitoring Armed Conflict in Sudan at Yale University confirmed American sources, as well as satellite monitoring and other highly reliable sources, said that the Rapid Support Forces were the ones who initiated the attack since they sent a military team to Marawi Airport in the north of the country two days before launching their attack on the capital and detained officers from Egypt who were present there under a bilateral agreement with the government. Sudan. [Twitter wouldn't translate the following two tweets; I put them into a different translator instead.] 7. The targeting of rapid support militia with its multiple, repeated and terrible attacks against civilians, military, civilian installations and ethnic components would not have prolonged without the explicit and clear support of the United Arab Emirates, either based on its planning, incitement and direct support, 8. This enabled the militia to continue to launch these terrorist-specific criminal operations, which not only attempted to target and kill the President and members of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and to overthrow the transitional regime through the means of armed violence, but also included strengthening and strengthening the war force of the rapid support militia, plus, and plus the militia to continue to do so.

In addition to the UAE’s sponsorship of the militia with funding, diplomatic, media, propaganda and logistical support, and public intervention in a war that the UAE played a major role in igniting through its internal ally, the Rapid Support Militia, in what is considered an act of shameful aggression that led to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians. Collectivism, as happened against the Masalit tribe in Western Darfur, the destruction of infrastructure, the demolition of the country’s capital and its main cities, and other atrocities and atrocities that require international condemnation and legal deterrence.

4) The various forms of political, media, diplomatic and financial support, in addition to the supply of weapons The equipment and bringing in mercenaries from various countries that the UAE provided, and is still providing, to the Rapid Support Militia as it fights the Sudanese National Army, constitutes an ugly pattern of use of force that is inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations and with the principles of international law related to friendly relations and cooperation between countries, in accordance with the Charter. The UAE was committing its sinful and disgraceful act while it was a non-permanent member of the Security Council, which is the body to which the Charter entrusted the task of maintaining international peace and security, which is the mainstay of the purposes of the United Nations. The actions of the UAE constituted a serious threat to regional and international peace and a form of acts [of?] aggression, a complete breach of the peace, and a blatant violation of Sudan’s sovereignty. It also represented the most egregious and even most dangerous forms of illegal interventions, which are aggressive interventions that threaten sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the freedom, independence, and well-being of peoples. The UAE's behavior also violates Security Council Resolution No. 1591 issued in 2005 AD, a decision that harmed the military balance of power in Darfur in favor of rogue armed groups, such as the Rapid Support, and led to the weakening of the military capabilities of the armed forces, which encouraged rebellious and cross-border movements to disrupt security and stability. Moreover, the acts of aggression carried out by the United Arab Emirates violate the established rules of customary international law, as well as Article 8 of the Charter of the League of Arab States, which reads: “Every state shall respect… The League participates in the existing system of government in the other League countries, considers it a right of those countries, and pledges not to undertake any action aimed at changing that system therein.”

5) International law and the established practices of states affirm the illegality of the use of armed force to attack the territory of any state or subjecting it, even temporarily, to occupation and indirect military aggression, as the UAE is currently carrying out against Sudan, or taking any measure of brute force to violate the United Nations Charter. Thus, the actions of the UAE fall under the threat of aggressive war, which requires the duty to support the government of Sudan to suppress it so that it does not become a precedent that passes without accountability and accountability. Conditioning the current actions and actions of the UAE in Sudan as an explicit act of aggression is consistent and consistent with the definition approved by the General Assembly in its Resolution No. 3314 of 1974, where aggression was defined as the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence of another state, or any other aspect inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.”

6. The UAE, with its active support since the beginning of the war in Sudan on April 15, 2023 AD, to the Rapid Support militia, has committed a grave violation of the Charter, which in itself represents sufficient evidence. In principle, it committed an aggressive act against Sudan. Clause (g) of the resolution,

[after that it's several pages of text in image format.]

[globalwarmingupdates]

Global warming | Global warming updates | Climate change

Not known Facts About 10) causes of global warming

These salinity changes may sooner or later have an effect on several of the large ocean currents that assistance identify lengthy-term climate trends in portions of the earth.

In 1948, American climatologist Charles Thornthwaite formulated a climate classification technique that experts nevertheless use these days. Thornthwaite’s system relies on the location’s water budget and prospective evapotranspiration.

Wildflowers dot the landscape, and flocks of migratory birds feed on insects and fish. Whales feed on microscopic creatures in the region’s cold, nutrient-wealthy waters. People have tailored to lifestyle on the tundra for Countless decades.

“Strategic litigation can help to deliver climate justice and secure the legal rights of billions from global warming, especially essentially the most marginalized, and will produce Added benefits – as We have now witnessed these days with the Swiss scenario.”

About 30% with the radiation that strikes Earth is reflected again out to Area by clouds, ice as well as other reflective surfaces. The remaining 70% is absorbed through the oceans, the land and the atmosphere, In keeping with NASA's Earth Observatory.

Climate change will go on to obtain a significant impact on ecosystems and organisms, however they are not impacted equally. The Arctic has become the ecosystems most prone to the effects of climate change, as it can be warming at the least two times the speed of the global common and melting land ice sheets offsite backlink and glaciers offsite connection lead radically to sea amount rise around the world.

We have now cumulatively captured extra CO2 than every other corporation – one hundred twenty million metric tons – accounting for roughly forty per cent of every one of the anthropogenic CO2 which has at any time been captured.

Increasing techniques effectiveness and predictive upkeep. AI has a rising part to Engage in in optimizing techniques, including freight transportation, meals refrigeration, and heating and cooling in Global Warming updates buildings.

In California, which was strike by enormous wildfires in recent times, regulators and lawmakers have designed it tougher for insurers to move expenses on to people and barred insurance plan firms from canceling coverage for homeowners in or together with ZIP codes hit by fires.

As some researchers have highlighted, The shortage of daily life-cycle assessment knowledge disaggregated by fuel can lead to the loss of vital information which could assist us create a lot more best procedures for climate mitigation.seven

"Having said that, forests simply cannot sequester each of the carbon dioxide we've been emitting on the environment from the burning of fossil fuels, and a reduction in fossil fuel emissions is still necessary to prevent buildup from the atmosphere."

Is this occurring for the South Pole in addition? No, because whilst the Arctic is generally h2o surrounded by land, Antarctica is the alternative, a huge land mass surrounded by ocean.

Facilitating the creation of future-era systems. AI can be utilized as being a kind of scientific assistant. Donti explained how scientists at Stanford applied AI that can help providers manufacture batteries much more efficiently by analyzing the results of previous experiments. The challenge reportedly lowered the quantity of style cycles by a factor of 10.

In locations with mild climates, the enhanced atmospheric moisture connected to humid climates might boost the probability of hurricanes and typhoons.

[boricuacherry-blog]

Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Scores Worse Than Shein In Ethical Practices

US popstar Rihanna is facing backlash after Legal Rights Observatory filed a complaint with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) of India against the brand.

Her company launched in 2017, Fenty Beauty, was recently reported for allegedly sourcing mica from mines in Jharkhand which employ child labour. Fenty Beauty's connection to "blood mica" became a major topic of discussion.

Priya Kulkarni from the United States wrote, "Fenty Beauty Brand is under the lens in India for using mica from mines hiring child labour."

It was also brought attention to that it was in violation of the California act, which stipulates audits for companies to ensure that there is no child labour or slavery involved in merchandise.

Taking to Twitter, Poonam from London wrote, "So glad I no longer use #FentyBeauty...of the products I have used...it's COMPLETE trash. I will NEVER support makeup brands for using mica or exploiting child slave labour...So much for being 'vegan' and 'cruelty-free' #ashy #basicbitchmakeup #boycottFenty."

Now, another controversy has been brought to light over her Savage X Fenty line reportedly scoring 'worse than Shein' in ethical practices. This is after some buyers were complaining that the clothing material was flimsy and ripped after limited use.

Ask where a Savage X Fenty product comes from and this is what its country of origin label will tell you: "Imported."

Contacted to explain, one Savage X Fenty customer service officer gave the following reply. "I know SXF items are not made in the US," they stated. "Only assembled and processed." Another replied, "I do not know. I am very sorry."

SXF is among the lowest-ranking companies on Remake's 2022 Fashion Accountability Report, scoring a meager four points out of a possible 150, demonstrating an utter lack of transparency and accountability in all of the assessment categories. For context, the average score of the 58 companies analyzed in the report was 14, with even ultra-fast fashion brand Shein outranking SXF. Remake's scoreboard for the brand concludes that the company "blatantly disregards industry standards when it comes to social and environmental disclosures, merely noting on its website that products are 'imported.'"

The company doesn't report on its carbon emissions or indicate any carbon reduction targets. Most of its products use oil-based synthetic materials, and the brand has set no clear targets to move away from these materials. Alarmingly, SXF lacks even a Supplier Code of Conduct to define guidelines for assessing factories' compliance with international labour standards, especially in regard to workers' health and safety. This disconnect is striking; we see a brand profiting from using feminism and inclusivity as core elements of its marketing and branding, while at the same time neglecting to put in basic safeguards to protect workers in its supply chain, 80% of whom are women.

What's more, SFX was fined $1 million by Santa Clara County and four other California local governments for defrauding customers by automatically enrolling them in a "VIP" program with recurring monthly credit card charges without their knowledge. The lawsuit also detailed that SXF's website improperly advertised the ability to use store credit and misled customers about the store's products.

"Consumers have a right to know up front what they are paying for and how often," Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Deng said in a statement. "And businesses have a duty to be transparent about their automatic renewal charges."

The company's actions "were likely to deceive members of the public and were performed with that intent," the complaint said.

[lillianeshaw24]

Activism

In 1993, Brazil launched one of the first discussions on obstetric violence with the foundation of the Network for the Humanization of Labour and Birth, where the region recognised the circumstances of violence and harassment in care settings (Sadler et al. 2016:50). Then, in 2000, Brazil held the First International Conference for the Humanization of Birth. At the conference, a group of Latin American activists, researchers, and health professionals gathered in response to the high rates of medical intervention in childbirth and growing recognition of abuses directed toward birthing women (Sadler et al. 2016:50). Since then, several Obstetric Violence Observatories have been founded, which, in 2016, released a common statement declaring obstetric violence as one of the “most invisible and naturalized forms of violence against women, constituting a serious violation of human rights” (Sadler et al. 2016:50). 

Since then, the issue of obstetric violence has captured the attention of the WHO. In 2014, the WHO released a statement on the prevention and elimination of disrespect and abuse during facility-based childbirth (Lokugamage and Pathberiya 2017; Sadler et al. 2016). The disrespectful and abusive treatment women in childbirth facilities experience worldwide violates the rights of women. The statement released by the WHO and other organizations call for greater action, dialogue, research, and advocacy on this important human rights and public health issue. The WHO has urged governments and development partners to research, recognize, and redress abusive maternity care (Diaz-Tello 2016:58-61). Some existing organizations and movements include Human Rights in Childbirth (HRIC), the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) Global Respectful Maternity Care Council, the Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) campaign, and the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization (IMBCO) (Lokugamage and Pathberiya 2017:2). Collectively, their efforts present opportunities to highlight the institutional injustices and social inequalities which exist and call for broader reform.   

Additionally, social media has become an integral part of the obstetric violence movement, and has become increasingly used by patients as a platform used to exchange views and lobby (Lokugamage and Pathberiya 2017:2). The incorporation of social media may have the capacity to shift the power relationship between patients and healthcare providers. On Facebook, pages such as “Spaces for Healing”, “The Positive Birth Movement”, and “They Said to Me” feature dozens of testimonies from women who were systematically and pervasively distrusted in childbirth. Hashtags such as “BreaktheSilence” and “realEBM” has also offered hundreds of women platforms to share their experiences of bullying, coercion, and unconsented procedures including episiotomies and vaginal examinations during birth (Diaz-Tello 2016:58-57-59). The women who have contributed to those platforms were relatable to each other in the sense that they left their birthing experience feeling betrayed and frightened in addition to the physical challenge of giving birth, and that many of them required therapy or changed the course of their reproductive lives (Diaz-Tello 2016; Lokugamage and Pathberiya 2017). 

Though current activism is an extremely important step to the recognition of the issue of obstetric violence, it is not sufficient. Milli Hill, founder of the Positive Birth Movement, believes there is still a huge amount of polarity in the birth world, including that between women and the medical and legal system, midwives and obstetricians, holistic midwives and obstetric midwives, and doulas and doctors (Lokugamage and Pathberiya 2017:1). The current polarized environment does not create a suitable environment for women to give birth in. Trust has become lacking or is completely lost which has hindered the safety and freedom of birthing individuals.