#Manpower Middle East

[alliance00]

Manpower Solutions in the Middle East: Partner for Expert Manpower Middle East Services

For top-notch manpower in the Middle East, contact Alliance Recruitment Agency. We provide both on-board and remote staffing solutions for various industries worldwide. Our expertise ensures you get the right talent tailored to your specific needs. Let us help you build an exceptional team.

[ajeetsgroup]

Are you looking for Skilled Workers from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines?

[mapsontheweb]

The dioceses from the 13th century.

« L’Occident médiéval », Joël Chancelier, Belin, 2021

by cartesdhistoire

The term "diocese" (from the Greek "dioikesis", meaning administration) originally referred to an administrative subdivision in the Roman Empire. The Church adopted this civil framework to organize its own administration, first in the East from the 2nd century, and then in the West from the 4th century. By the 6th century, the diocese came to denote the territory under the authority of a bishop.

Following the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, the bishop became the local instrument subject to close scrutiny by a global institution. He was tasked with ensuring adherence to canons, orthodoxy, and liturgical ceremonies. The reduction in the autonomy of bishops was offset by tighter control over the diocese. However, this control gradually acquired a territorial dimension. The bishopric, originally a responsibility for souls, evolved into a jurisdiction over a delimited territory, reshaping the geography of Christianity based on physical locations. This transformation was also evident in the progressive territorialization of secular powers. In the West, it established a connection with the original space: identity and governance, previously reliant on personal relationships, now also depended on a geographical location that linked taxation, jurisdiction, and territoriality.

In territorial affairs, the Church paved the way for the State by providing the manpower and administrative framework necessary for implementing two key practices that fueled its power during the later Middle Ages: surveying and direct taxation. Furthermore, it presented a model of spatial domination based on territorial sovereignty rather than feudal control.

The configuration of dioceses reflects their historical formation. They tend to be small and numerous in Italy and Provence, while being much larger in newly Christianized areas of Central and Northern Europe after the year 1000.

[winterpinetrees]

Okay yeah I’m still thinking about logistics. I am aware that lord of the rings is whimsical and I don’t care.

There must be so many people in Rivendell. It’s the Last Homely House, the last decent place before you go off into the deep wilderness. It’s at the bottom of a valley in the middle of nowhere. They aren’t getting everything imported. Elrond must have a full sized settlement there to produce most of the food, even if we are assuming that preserving magic makes it an easy place to live. Rivendell is a refuge too. It’s home to Elrond, his family, a significant number of Noldor like Glorfindel, and who knows how many wanderers. Elves don’t die of old age, and in the Third Age they don’t get murdered particularly often either, so I have to imagine that the population is large and just keeps growing. I don’t get the sense that many travel across the sea until after Sauron falls, and there really isn’t anywhere else for them to go. Lothlorien, maybe? There’s got to be thousands of people in that valley, supporting the Last Homely House and keeping the forces of darkness at bay.

More than that, it’s a huge place fit for the most powerful people in Middle Earth. Rivendell can easily accommodate Bilbo’s entire party in the hobbit and all of the visiting diplomats for the Council of Elrond. Do you have any idea how much manpower (elf power?) it takes to keep a place clean, well-lit, and functional without modern technology? It takes an absurd amount of work. There is nothing in the legendarium that I’m aware of to suggest that elves use magic as a labor saving tool. That means that people are doing all of that work by hand.

Are there elven servants in Rivendell? What about in Valinor? In the Silmarillion, we only ever really read about noble bloodlines, and in LoTR, elves are kept very mysterious. There’s craftsmen who make silmarils and magic rings, but who is forging gear for the average soldier? We know that there are a whole lot of average soldiers. Lord of the rings is a story of battles between armies. Is there upward mobility in an undying land? Whoever is cleaning clothes in Valinor, have they been doing that since the age of the two trees?

Maybe Valinor is more equal than that. Maybe in a place where everyone expects to live forever, they’ve found ways to share the load. But they did have a high king, long ago, and Feanor uses the argument that the elves should go to Beleriand to find freedom and treasure. He’s not a reliable narrator, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about.

What must it be like to be one of the other Noldor? To be a common elf and go east seeking freedom and adventure, only to find suffering like you cannot imagine? To watch that land sink beneath the ocean, to see Numenor be corrupted and fall, to fight Morgoth and Sauron and Sauron again? To finally leave it all behind as everything, even Rivendell and Lindon and Lothlorien, fades? Or maybe you die in combat and spend an eon in the halls of Mandos before reawakening in Valinor. Either way, you’re back!

And someone needs to do the laundry.

[whencyclopedia]

Battle of Bir Hakeim

The defence by Free French forces of the remote desert watering hole of Bir Hakeim (Hacheim) in Libya, North Africa in May-June 1942 during the Second World War (1939-45) is one of the most heroic episodes in French military history. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the defenders, which included units of the famed French Foreign Legion, held out for 15 days against four German and Italian divisions commanded by no less a figure than General Erwin Rommel (1891-1944).

The Axis forces attacked Bir Hakeim because it was part of the Allied Gazala Line defences, which protected the approach to the vital port of Tobruk. When finally overwhelmed, 2,700 Free French troops from an original garrison of 3,700 still managed to escape Bir Hakeim to fight another day. Meanwhile, Rommel defeated the rest of the Allied forces at the Battle of Gazala and captured Tobruk in June 1942, his greatest victory in North Africa.

French Foreign Legion, Bir Hakeim

Leonard Chetwyn - Imperial War Museums (CC BY-NC-SA)

The Western Desert Campaigns

In the first years of the second year of WWII, the Allies, then principally British and Commonwealth forces, were especially keen to protect the Suez Canal from falling into enemy hands, that is into the control of the Axis powers Germany and Italy. North Africa was also strategically important if either side wished to control and protect vital Mediterranean shipping routes. The island of Malta was crucial in this role, and holding the island fortress (then in British hands) was another reason to control potential airfields in the North African desert. Finally, North Africa was, at this stage of the conflict, the only place where British and French troops could fight a land war against Germany and Italy. After the embarrassing debacle of the Dunkirk Evacuation and the humiliating Fall of France in 1940, any military victories at all would be a vital morale boost to the Allies.

For all of the above reasons, a series of desert battles ensued, which are collectively known as the Western Desert Campaigns (Jun 1940 to Jan 1943). At first, the British Eighth Army faced poorly equipped Italian forces, but these were soon considerably boosted by German troops with superior armour, weapons, and training. From January 1941, the Axis forces in Africa benefitted from the considerable command abilities of General Erwin Rommel, a man who had already gained a reputation as a master of fast armour tactics during the Fall of France in 1940. Rommel first commanded the specialised Deutsche Afrika Korps (DAK) and proved his worth by capturing El Agheila in March 1941 and then Mersa Brega on 1 April. By July, Rommel was in overall practical command of all German and Italian forces in North Africa, although he was still technically under the ultimate authority of the Italian high command. Two victories against Allied offensives in May and June (code-named Brevity and Battleaxe, respectively) were followed by defeat in a third offensive in November, code-named Crusader. Rommel's two persistent problems were insufficient manpower and lack of supplies (especially food, fuel, and ammunition), but by January 1942, this situation improved significantly, and the German general, ignoring his orders to emphasise defence, went on the attack.

The British Eighth Army, which was composed of a range of British, British Empire, and Free French troops, was commanded by Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie (1897-1985). The overall commander of Allied troops in the Middle East was General Claude Auchinleck (1884-1981). Unfortunately, at this stage of the Western Desert Campaigns, the British Army was poorly equipped, poorly trained, and poorly led. In contrast, "Rommel's force was numerically inferior, but his troops were more professional, better led, and thoroughly steeped in the cooperation of all arms" (Dear, 992).

General Rommel on Campaign

Imperial War Museums (CC BY-NC-SA)

Continue reading...

[memories-of-ancients]

The Non-German defenders of the Atlantic Wall,

In 1942 Germany began construction of the Atlantic Wall in order to defend its territorial conquests from a possible Allied amphibious invasion.  The wall consisted of various fortifications, mines, tank barriers, mortars, artillery pieces, machine gun nests, pillboxes, and bunkers, and was designed to fend off a beach landing. On June 6th, 1944 Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy and quickly overran these defenses.  Thousands of German soldiers were captured, but surprisingly many of those captured were not German at all.

At the very beginning of the war Germany upheld its Nazi belief in pure Aryanism, believing themselves to be the superior super race. However as the war dragged on, that sentiment gave way as casualties grew, manpower shortages worsened, and it was becoming clearer that Germany was losing to the Allies. Both the Wehrmacht and the SS began to accept foreign volunteers with many of these foreign troops being sent to garrison the defenses of the Atlantic Wall.  These soldiers came from all over Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.  

The reasons for volunteering were varied, some political, many as a necessity for survival.  By far the most numerous foreign volunteers were those from the Soviet Union. Some volunteered because they were disgruntled with Soviet rule, for example the Russian Liberation Army which joined the Wehrmacht to oppose communism in Russia. However most volunteered as an alternative to spending the rest of the war as a POW.  Soviet POWs were treated terribly during the war. Often the Germans dealt with Soviet POWs by erecting open air prisons in which thousands would be confined. Thousands would be forced into the prison, where they would be exposed to elements, given little food, and basically be left to die of starvation, disease, or exposure.

During the war, around 3.5 million Soviets prisoners would die in these camps or in concentration camps. For many Soviet POWs, service with the German Army was the only way to avoid such a horrible fate. Typically, these troops were often not very reliable in combat as they were not very motivated to sacrifice life and limb for their conquerors. In some cases they proved to by a grave liability, such as the case of a battalion of soldiers from Georgia which manned the Atlantic Wall defenses on the Dutch island of Texel, who in 1945 openly revolted against the Germans.

One notable extreme was the Indian Legion, also known as the Azad Regiment, which consisted of volunteers from India who believed that a German victory would secure India’s independence from the British Empire. 

As well as many thousands of foreign volunteers, there were also many thousands of foreign conscripts who were forcibly made to serve in the German Army.

By far the most numerous conscripts were Polish.  Before World War I many parts of Poland had been a part of Prussia, and later the German Empire. When Germany re-conquered these territories they considered many of the people living there to be ethnic Germans.  As such, they were considered full citizens of the Reich and thus were subject to German draft laws.  Many still believed themselves to be German and thus were willing to fight for the German cause, however many spoke Polish, had adopted Polish customs, and identified themselves as Polish. Regardless, refusing to obey the draft laws could result in serious consequences, not only for the individual but his family as well. Around 500,000 Polish were conscripted into the Wehrmacht, with many serving on the Atlantic Wall. Like the Soviets, the Polish also were not the best soldiers for Germany as they were often unwilling to fight for their taskmasters. Around 85,000 would defect to the Free Polish Forces during the Normandy invasion and subsequent advance to Paris. In addition to Polish Troops, a number of Czechs considered ethnic Germans would be conscripted as well. In the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan this is demonstrated in a scene in which two "German" soldiers are surrendering to a pair of American soldiers. The Americans mock them before gunning them down. What many viewers may not relize is that they were not Germans, but Czechs, and were shouting in Czech that they were Czechs who didn't kill anyone, and just wanted to surrender.

By far the most interesting extreme in this instance were a group of Koreans who were captured by American forces during the D-Day invasion. For three decades Japan had occupied Korea, and the men were forcibly conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army. In 1939 Japan attempted to invade the Soviet Union through Mongolia, but were badly beaten at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. The Koreans were captured and sent to the gulags, but with the German invasion of the Soviet Union, were then forced to join the Red Army and fight on the Eastern Front.  They were then captured by the Germans, conscripted into the German Army, and forced to man the defenses of the Atlantic Wall at Normandy.

Overall, one in six defenders of the Atlantic Wall were not German. Nothing demonstrates the diversity of these defenders more than the photo below of a group Wehrmacht soldiers captured during D-Day

Front Row (from left to right):  a Yugoslav; an Italian; a Turk; Polish

Back Row (from left to right): a German; a Czech; a Russian who was forced into the army when the Nazis occupied his town; and a Mongolian.

[gothicprep]

two things I’ve been meaning to comment on: the redlettermedia video on the death of movie theaters, and The Usual Suspects of z-rate youtube movie critics blaming furiosa’s failure at the box office for being too girlboss. I promise i’ll tie these together in a way that makes sense.

there are a lot of reasons why theaters aren’t doing great right now. the biggest one is attendance, and how it hasn’t bounced back since lockdown. this has been exacerbated by a lack of product in the marketplace, driven by the wga and sag strikes. this isn’t anti-labor union sentiment on my part. I want to be extremely clear about that. it’s not a comment on the negotiations. just an objective statement about how two large guilds striking = less movies = less butts in seats. I’m surprised the rlm guys didn’t consider this.

but there are two salient other things to bring up with what’s going on with the box office rn specifically.

one of them is that movies are still performing in the way you’d expect them to in the box office rn, relative to other seasons. furiosa is a great example of this. fury road, commercially speaking, was not a big hit. furiosa had a higher budget. and mad max movies tend to stand on their own. no further proof of this exists than most americans thinking that the road warrior was the first mm movie, because WB really shat the bed on the distribution for the original. they’re highly tethered to the anxieties of when they came out. the pre-apocalyptic nature of mad max dials in on what kept people up in the 70s. the road warrior is evocative of OPEC and middle east/oil anxieties. thunderdome confronts our 90s fears of tina turner. fury road deals in environmental collapse, right down to how the manpower in the citadel is imagined. Furiosa breaks from this format in a few ways. max not being in it is the obvious one. the other is that it’s so reliant on fury road that its end credits contain a supercut of the movie. this is unusual for a prequel, at least in its extent.

this all to say, there’s no universe where this movie made a lot of money. it was never going to happen. contrary to what some may tell you, it was never a girls get it done thing. i know furiosa was great, but you need to remember that critic and general audience reception are very different things. if you’re someone who likes to talk and write about movies, you’re in a place that’s closer to critic brain than you are general audience brain.

If you had a normal release schedule for, say, may, this would be sort of a nothingburger. but remember – marvel movies have pretty much always dominated may. marvel is in sort of a weird position rn post infinity war, and there was no marvel movie to come out in may.

the second one is more related to the strikes. haulted production is a temporary hiccup. within a year, things should normalize a little. think of it like the recovery period after a surgery. something is wrong. you get it fixed. but there’s a time period after that where you can’t do much of anything. in the end, you come out healthy. your strength may be diminished, but you move on. we’re in the recovery period rn. perhaps theaters are a dying business, and this is one of those situations where you carry on but are a bit weaker. but it’s recovery. not death.

ah well, those are just my thoughts on it.

[phoenixyfriend]

Suggested topics to call your reps about today, 2/5/24!

I’ve been doing two subjects per call recently; one is almost always about the events in the middle east, and then one is domestic policy. I’m including a bit of verbiage you can use as basis for what you say (if you agree with me), for a few of these.

BOTH SENATE AND HOUSE:

Foreign Policy: Reinstate funding for UNRWA. While the claims made by Israel that employees of the relief agency were involved in Oct. 7th are troubling, this arm of the UN is currently providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to the 2.3 million displaced peoples of Gaza. It is especially disturbing and concerning that the many children of Gaza, who are already suffering due to this conflict, are now having this support revoked.

Warn Congress to reaaaaally think about whether a strong response to the incident in Jordan, currently attributed to an Iraqi group backed by Iran, if we're truly looking to avoid a wider regional war as claimed. There is already growing unrest in Yemen and the threat of another civil war, fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and now the situation with the Islamic Resistance. Caution them against an overreaction of the kind that the US has a tendency towards.

FOR THE SENATE: Urge your senator to put their support behind Bernie Sanders and his motion to restrict funding to Israel until a humanitarian review of the IDF’s actions in Gaza has been completed. Cite it as Senate Resolution 504 if your Senator is right-wing enough to react negatively to the mention of Sanders by name. NOTE: This resolution was TABLED by the Senate on 1/16, but it is being brought back in as conditions continue to escalate.

FOR THE HOUSE: Urge your representative to put their support behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s petition for the US government to recognize the IDF’s actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and put a stop to it. ALTERNATELY: recommend that they support House Resolution 786, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush, Calling for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.

.

DOMESTIC POLICY, BOTH BRANCHES OF CONGRESS:

Border policy is currently being hotly debated and negotiated. A very strong policy in favor of the Republican party is the status at the moment. Even some democrats are in favor of it due to small border communities being ill-equipped to handle large numbers of migrants, and states usually removed from the situation getting migrants bussed in from Texas despite telling Texas to knock it off. Despite some Republicans saying that they have gotten everything they could want out of the current deal, the party at large is refusing to pass it as the politics of the debate are more useful to the coming election than actually passing policy. This is also causing delays in passing the federal budget.

I... don't actually want to tell anyone WHAT to think of the border policy since I do not have any real knowledge on the budget impacts and resources dictating the actual problems (nor the racism or xenophobia, that part is obviously bullshit). I can recognize that too some degree, there is a genuine issue of manpower and budget restriction impacting the ability to house and process immigrants.

However, DREAMers are not being considered in the current deal, the delays in the deal are impacting the federal government and threatening a partial shutdown, and people are STILL getting hurt and even dying at the border.

I would focus on protection for DREAMers, chastising the Republicans for deliberately delaying the budget in order to use the border as a reelection premise instead of actually working on the policy they claim to want (emphasize that they are going to lose votes for focusing on reelection at the expense of their people), and protection for children, parents with those children, and nonviolent migrants in general.

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Paradise: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.2k

Summary: Spencer finally meets your parents, but it doesn’t go as well as you thought it was going to go. Are you a bad girlfriend for letting your dad treat him that way, or is it completely out of your control?

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

A small-town diner will have a lot of gossip that filters through, so it's the best place for information. You walk in with your two coworkers, and you're overwhelmed by the amount of people that are inside. This place is very busy for a place that's in the middle of nowhere.

"Be right with you," one of the waitresses says as she passes by you.

"It's not even lunchtime yet," Derek mutters to you as you three take a seat at the bar counter.

"The sign said people will travel for miles for Flo's Donuts," you shrug.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." The same waitress who passed you by is now behind the bar. Her name tag says her name is Betty. "Would you like a dozen to share?" You take out your badge and show it to her, and she realizes how serious this is. "Ooh. FBI."

"Ma'am, we're trying to trace the steps of a couple that may have been here a few days ago," Derek says.

"Darlin', I've waited on eighty-seven folks since we opened this morning. Somebody would have to come through here doing cartwheels on fire for me to remember."

"Would you take a look anyway, please?"

You take out the photos of the latest victims and show them to her.

"Huh! Well, I'll be. I do remember them."

"Were they doing cartwheels?"

"No, but I was. The lady left me a $10 tip for breakfast two days in a row. Nice couple. Are they in some kind of trouble?"

You don't want to give too much away, so you keep it sweet and short. Since the Gallens were here, then that means they were staying somewhere close by. Sherwood is a town that's on the east side of Lake Tahoe near the California state line. This area has over three hundred hotels, motels, and resorts. Penelope sent over every single phone number and address to everywhere the couple could have stayed.

Instead of going to three hundred businesses, you have to narrow down the list. Then, you'll be able to go door to door and show pictures of the Gallens in hope someone knows who they are. This process could take days or even weeks, but you don't have the manpower to make it go by faster.

At this point, what choice do you have?

It took all night to narrow down the list, so you had to pick this up the next morning. Everyone had been up late working on the list, so when you walk into the station the next morning, you see takeout containers everywhere.

"Morning JJ," you greet with a yawn.

"Sorry for the wake-up call."

"It's fine. I'm always tired," you wave her off.

"It looks like we've got a possible missing person," JJ says. "Ian and Abby Corbin were in Reno for the weekend. They were supposed to be home yesterday in San Luis Obispo. They could've driven right through Sherwood. They've already been missing a night. His mom's looking after their two kids."

"Call me when everybody gets here," Hotch says.

JJ turns to the table where all the take-out containers are, and she grimaces in disgust.

"What is this? Left-over Kung Pao chicken? That's disgusting." She picks up the containers and tosses them in the trash, and she notices the sheriff staring at her. "What?"

"The smell of Chinese food makes you sick, but you don't even flinch when you look at those pictures?"

JJ looks uncomfortable by his comment, and you're quick to jump in.

"JJ is the toughest woman I know."

"Thanks," she whispers to you.

"Here, eat this. This should help with your sickness."

You hand over a good snack that her baby boy will enjoy. She smiles and takes the snack gratefully. Soon, the rest of your team gets to the station, and the Sheriff gathers his men for the profile.

"Ian and Abby Corbin have already been missing for over twenty-four hours, which means we may only have until tonight to find them. According to their families, they left Reno yesterday and were planning on stopping somewhere for the night. They didn't use a credit card. Unless they travel with a lot of cash, the room wasn't too expensive," Hotch begins.

"They were not traveling on the interstate. That eliminates over half of our previous search," Emily adds. "It sounds like we're looking for somebody who works the night shift at a back road motel, and we think he's most likely in his early to mid-thirties."

"Why is that?" the sheriff asks.

"Abducting couples is an ambitious task, and this guy's had time to perfect his skill."

"He could be older."

"Don't get hung up on his age. That's the hardest thing to predict," Rossi says.

"What we do know is that females take extensive beatings from him. That, combined with the sexual assault, tells us he's a violent anger excitation rapist. A sexual sadist like this can't get off unless he's torturing and watching the effects on his victims," you state. "That part of the torture is psychological. This is another reason he takes couples. Chances are he forces one to watch his power over the other."

"Because only the women suffer sexual torture, he's likely a malignant misogynist. This typically stems from an extreme hatred towards a woman who was relentless in her psychological and physical abuse," Emily adds.

"How do you know the dad wasn't the abusive one, and he's just continuing the cycle?" the sheriff asks her.

"Only a woman could make him hate women this much. The idea of the 'terrible mother' is best illustrated in world mythology by the negative aspects of the great mother. Instead of nurturing her children, she destroyed him, and given this upbringing, it's highly unlikely he'd ever been in a relationship let alone been married."

"Since he works in the service industry, he's forced to deal with a lot of people. So, he can probably hide his aversion to women until he gets them behind closed doors. With that said, we shouldn't rule out anyone with prior offenses toward women."

"Given the amount of time he spends with his victims," Hotch says, "he requires a great deal of privacy. He may even utilize an ATV to get away from the accident sites, so the property may back up onto an off-road trail. We should therefore concentrate on the most remote motels first. Thank you."

It's time to go door to door asking managers if they had seen the missing couple. There are too many properties to double up, so you have to go alone. After a dozen people have told you they know nothing of the missing couple, it's already sundown. Everyone has been working their asses off, and it seems like you're not getting anywhere.

You make it back to the police station when everyone gets through their list. No one has any good news, and you're about to collapse from how tired you are. Hotch is still out, and you're about to call him and ask if you can take a break when you get a call from your mom.

"Hey, mom. Did you get my message?"

"I did, sweetie. Your father and I are in town right now. Could I steal you away from your job for dinner?"

"Let me ask. Send me the address, and I'll let you know if I can or not."

"Okay, sweetie."

You quickly hang up on her and get Hotch on the phone. He's not too particular about you leaving, but since your parents are down the road at a local restaurant and you've finished with your list, he allows you to go. If he needs you and Spencer, then all he has to do is call, and you'll come right back.

"Spencer, let's go," you say and grab your jacket.

"Where are we going?"

"To dinner with my parents. We won't be long in case Hotch needs us back."

"Meeting the parents, huh? Good luck, man," Derek says and pats him on the shoulder.

You two take one of the government cars and head over to the restaurant, and your parents stand when they see you enter.

"Mom! Dad!" you grin and give them both a hug. Your dad holds you for a tad longer than your mother, but you don't think anything of it. "I'd like you to meet Spencer Reid, my boyfriend. Spencer, this is my mom and dad, Julie and Joey."

Your dad immediately stiffens up, and you look at him to see his eyes seething red with anger. He's trying to hide it, but you can see the underlying threat in his eyes.

"Be nice," you whisper to him before taking a seat in the booth with Spencer next to you, and your parents across from you.

"Spencer, it's nice to finally meet you," your mom says with a smile.

You wanted nothing but to enjoy dinner with your parents, but you can feel the tension in the air even without your abilities.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Y/L/N."

"So, how did you two meet?" your dad asks.

"We met at work. I had just started and he helped me learn the ropes. It wasn't until about seven or eight months after we met that we started dating." You think about Lila Archer, and how he was smitten with her. Man, that seems like so long ago. "He's a doctor, you know."

"Y/N," Spencer blushes.

"Really?" your mom asks.

"Yeah. He has three PhDs, three Bachelor's degrees, and specializes in statistics and geographical profiling. He's very smart," you grin proudly.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?" your mom asks.

"I am."

"You're too young to be in love," your dad snaps.

Your dad stares at you with an unreadable expression on his face. He looks at Spencer and holds his utensils with a grip so hard that his knuckles turn white.

"Dad, I can feel your anger. What is the matter?" you sigh.

"Nothing," he shrugs.

Your mom places a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugs her off. You're not sure what's causing this behavior, but you try to ignore it. Even after the food comes, your dad still holds a sour look on his face.

"Okay, seriously, what is your problem?" you ask, tired of his shit.

"Nothing. I'm fine." You glare at him, and he mutters something under his breath that you hear as clear as day. "Spencer isn't good enough for you."

You slam your utensils down on the table with a loud clang, and Spencer stays silent next to you.

"I love him, Daddy. That should be more than enough. We need to get back. Call me when you have a better attitude. Come on, Spencer."

You two slide out of the booth, and you toss down some money for the meal you know they were going to pay.

"I'm sorry, Spencer," you say when you get into the car.

"Don't be."

Still, you can't help but feel bad. You head back to the station, and when Derek sees the sad look on your face, he wants to question it. Spencer shakes his head at his friend, and Derek holds his tongue for now.

"Where are we at?" you ask, eager to get back into the case.

"Garcia found a connection between a motel handyman and Rebecca. They went to high school together. So, I thought maybe he was connected to other victims. It turns out he's not, but there's something else that all of the women have in common. Rebecca was found in a bra, a t-shirt, a skirt, and flip-flops. Johanna was found in a dress and sandals, and Melissa was wearing a bra, tank top, and jeans. None of them were wearing underwear."

"How do you know it was taken?" Spencer asks.

"Because they all packed it in their bags, but none were wearing it during the collisions. He leaves his victims in a car without their underwear and waits for them to be hit. A violent collision of metal against flesh. It's like the accidents are the final rape. This sexual aspect didn't show up overnight. This is something he's been building up to."

"So, this guy sees these collisions as some kind of rape?" The Sheriff asks.

"We know that an underwear fetish typically begins in adolescence with peeping in neighbors' windows. When that no longer satisfies them, they'll burglarize homes and start taking the object that arouses them."

"If they get away with that long enough, they become more confident. Then the object becomes the woman wearing it. That's when rape can occur. The one constant is they always take the underwear as a souvenir."

"Is it possible a pervert like this has ever been arrested?"

"There's a good chance a serial sex offender with an underwear fetish has been caught before."

"Right again, Agent Hotchner," Penelope says.

You didn't even know she was on the phone with the rest of the team.

"What is it, Garcia?"

"For the last two days, I've been searching through ViCAP for similar rapes and murders in cases that are still open. That has yielded me with diddly squat. So, I regrouped. I looked at some pictures of baby pandas. I went back in and I started searching for similar rapes and murders in cases that had been solved.

"Five months ago, this guy named Clint Barnes is convicted of five rapes that have been thirty miles away in Selbyville. Now, what's interesting, and by interesting I also mean icky and sad and wrong, is that Mr. Barnes only stole the undergarment of his last victim and she was beaten in exactly the same manner as our current victims. She was the only one who died," Penelope explains.

"The first four showed no sign of torture?"

"According to statements made by the survivors, yes. There were some questions about his performance. Things like, 'Did you enjoy it?'"

"That sounds like a power reassurance rapist. That doesn't fit his last crime at all," Spencer says.

"The last victim wasn't his. It was our unsubs."

"I'll push a rush through the DA's office," the Sheriff says.

With him asking the DA for the files from Selbyville, they come pretty quickly. He must know the DA for it to come that quickly.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[mariacallous]

More than two-thirds of the Russian tanks that Ukraine’s military has destroyed in recent months have been taken out using first-person-view (FPV) drones, a NATO official told Foreign Policy, an increasing sign of Kyiv’s reliance on the unpiloted aircraft as it awaits more artillery ammunition from the United States and other Western countries. 

With much-needed funding and artillery rounds held up in Washington, the Ukrainian military has largely turned to FPV drones to carry out anti-tank attacks. Ukrainian troops operate the drones via a controller and are able to watch the machines’ “suicide” attacks on Russian vehicles through video feeds, which now play on a loop on Ukrainian social media channels on Telegram and other platforms.

In the third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, FPV drones have become nearly ubiquitous on the Ukrainian battlefield. Many of them can carry 10 pounds of explosives or more, and after nearly 780 days of nonstop war, drone pilots on both sides have gotten plenty of practice. 

“I used to shoot such ‘cinematic’ videos with the help of FPV-drones before the war,” Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Anton Ptushkin posted on X (formerly Twitter) last November. “Now we use FPV to defend our land.” 

But for every success, there are nearly as many blooper reel-worthy incidents. These aren’t the $20 million-a-piece Predator drones that the United States uses to hunt terrorist targets in the Middle East. These are inexpensive off-the-shelf drones that go for $400. They have cheap cameras, making them more difficult to aim at night or in cloudy weather, and they often carry improvised munitions such as grenades or homebuilt bombs, which sometimes detonate midflight. Some are duds. In one video shared on Telegram, a Ukrainian FPV drone gets stuck in the front window of a Russian minivan and doesn’t explode. Others hit Russian quadcopters and tanks that have already been abandoned. “What we’re seeing probably is a fraction of what’s actually happening,” said Samuel Bendett, an advisor at CNA and a member of the think tank’s Russia studies program. “FPV drones have a short range. So even if the Ukrainians lack enough long-range artillery, they can only use a few drones up to 10 kilometers [about 6 miles] because that’s the normal range.”

Analysts tracking the Ukrainian military believe the attacks are having mixed results. Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia program who last traveled to Ukraine to embed last November, said the overall accuracy of FPV drones is less than 50 percent. It’s an experienced pilot who is going to score a “kill” of a tank—and the soldiers inside—with an FPV drone, not a newbie.

Even those drones that get through Russia’s increasingly sophisticated, if unchic, countermeasures—boxes of signals equipment strapped to tanks—might not deal a fatal blow. “You usually don’t kill a tank the first few times,” Lee said. “It can take 10 or more [FPV drones] to kill a tank.” 

Still, Russia has a good reason to cover up its tanks with camouflage and jamming equipment, Lee said. It is running low on armored vehicles and tanks. If Ukraine keeps attriting at this rate and Russia keeps sending in more tanks to replace the destroyed ones at the rate it has been, the Kremlin could lose its numerical edge in tanks, which could make it more difficult for the Russians to carry out offensive operations in the future. 

But Russia still has more troops. “The issue is that Russia’s getting a lot of manpower,” Lee added.

The all-out use of cheap drones indicates that the Ukrainians are turning to increasingly desperate measures to improvise weapons to fight back the Russian assault, which has moved farther west into the contested areas of Donetsk. Ukraine is using a network of microphones—similar to the one you might find on your iPhone—to sense incoming targets. The microphones are good enough to classify what type of munition is coming in, what direction it’s going, and what trajectory it’s on just by using acoustics. 

And with limited air defense munitions, Ukrainian troops have rigged heavy machines with sensors to shoot down most of the Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones that are overflying their positions. The NATO official, speaking anonymously based on conditions set by the alliance, said Ukraine’s hit rate against Shahed drones with simple machine guns and small caliber weapons is about 80 percent. It’s not a complete fix, though: Ukrainian officials have spent recent days urging the United States to send more Patriot air defense systems. 

And the FPV drones are not a match for artillery ammunition when it comes to keeping up a high rate of fire or for creating explosive effects. They can also be more expensive. “You cannot replace a 155 [mm] shell,” one Ukrainian official said. “It’s like replacing a Kalashnikov with a small gun.” And artillery is immune to electronic warfare. It’s just a bombshell that’s flying through the air. 

The rapid pace of innovation for drones has made U.S. military leaders second-guess big, expensive drone programs. The future, officials think, will be cheap and attritable. 

“I don’t think we could buy a drone and say it’s going to be in our formation for the next 20 years,” U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said. “We can’t do that.”

It’s not clear how effective they will be in the long term. But like improvised explosive devices in the Iraq War, cheap drones have revolutionized the battlefield—for now.

“It’s possible that any vehicle, any system, any soldier that moves on the Ukrainian battlefield right now can be seen, observed, and ultimately hit with a [unmanned aerial vehicle],” said Bendett, the CNA advisor. “There’s no such thing as just moving around uncontested anymore.”

[darkmaga-retard]

After months of waiting, it appears that an all-out war in the Middle East is now very close.  It is being reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that an “all-out confrontation with Hezbollah” has become inevitable, and he has instructed the IDF to prepare for a “broad campaign” in Lebanon.  There are approximately 100,000 Israelis that have been unable to return to their homes in northern Israel for months, and Netanyahu has become convinced that the only way that they can be safely returned to their homes is to force Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon.  But of course Hezbollah will not go willingly.  In fact, Hezbollah has warned that there will be “all-out war” if IDF forces attempt to enter southern Lebanon.

Unfortunately, any hope for a peaceful resolution appears to be gone and we are being told that the Israeli government has decided to launch a military operation in southern Lebanon “as soon as international legitimacy and IDF manpower” allow for it.  The following comes from a Times of Israel article entitled “PM said to warn Israel faces ‘large-scale confrontation’ with Hezbollah in near future”…

According to Channel 13 news, Netanyahu believes that Israel is headed for an inevitable all-out confrontation with Hezbollah, as a diplomatic solution that could bring an end to the near-daily cross-border clashes with the Lebanese terror group remains elusive. Citing an unnamed Netanyahu associate, Channel 13 reported that no timeline had been established for the expected confrontation, which has been promised by top officials for months, and as such, it could be in weeks or months from now. The assessment that the skirmishes with Hezbollah on the northern border, which have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Israelis, would not be solved through a diplomatic solution was shared by the security chiefs, the report stated, and as such it was agreed that a military operation should be launched as soon as international legitimacy and IDF manpower allowed for it.

So many people are going to die on both sides.

But it has become clear that nobody will ever be able to persuade Hezbollah to stop firing at targets in northern Israel.

So a decision has been made that it is time to take action.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been against a military campaign in southern Lebanon, and there are reports that he may soon be fired by Netanyahu…

[ajeetsgroup]

Top 10 Recruitment Agencies in Mumbai

[morgulscribe]

Sauron as the God King of Middle-earth

I don't think many people consider exactly HOW Sauron came to have such sway over the people of the South and East in the Second and Third Ages. So many people think of him as an evil overlord, who is either ruling over nations of wicked people who have sold their souls to him (both figuratively and literally speaking), or oppressed peoples forced into slavery to a tyrannical master.

However, Sauron is not ruling any of these countries. It is not a case of a nation with superior manpower and/or technology taking over weaker nations and subjugating them. Sauron is one maia who resides in a country slightly larger than Turkey, the northern half of which becomes an inhospitable wasteland whenever Mount Doom erupts for an extended duration of time. The fertile land of Nurn can support a sizable human population, but I do not think that a large enough force could be rallied from the populace to create armies powerful enough to subjugate the peoples of Harad, Khand, and Rhun, while simultaneously assailing the West and protecting Mordor from counter-attacks from all directions.

No, Sauron is not using brute force to intimidate the peoples of the South and East into following him.

He is using religion.

The people of Harad, Khand, and Rhun ally themselves with Mordor because they worship Sauron as a god, not because they are intimidated by his military might. Yes, they fear him, but it is the fear and awestruck reverence with which one regards a deity.

The nations and tribes of the South and East send wagon trains of goods and slaves to Mordor, not as tribute, but as grim tithes to the dark deity whom they worship.

Without his Southern and Eastern allies, Sauron only has orcs and trolls to command, and while they are certainly intimidating, there are not enough of them to subjugate the entirety of the South and East. Plus, orcs and trolls are sensitive to sunlight, which puts them at a disadvantage to humans.

So Sauron's true power comes from the worship of his followers, and not from military might.

I think many times fans regard Sauron as a human dictator. However, human dictators usually come to power by becoming the leaders of countries that already have significant political influence and military strength.

Sauron literally has nothing but himself.

And that is enough, since he is a god, and by nature people want to worship him.

This is why truly defeating Sauron would be so difficult.

Because while individual humans may have a change of ideology and turn away from their original faiths, as a whole humanity prefers to continue worshiping the same deities that their ancestors worshiped.

Kings and warlords may rule for a time, but gods are eternal.

[whencyclopedia]

Siege of Tobruk

The siege of the port of Tobruk in Libya (April to Dec 1941) by Axis forces during the Second World War (1939-45) lasted 242 days and became a symbol of Allied resistance. Besieged by land but still supplied by sea, Tobruk was of vital strategic significance to both sides in the Western Desert Campaigns. Two attempted breakouts failed to lift the siege, but neither could the Axis troops led by General Erwin Rommel (1891-1944) break the defenders' resistance. It was not until a third Allied offensive, code-named Crusader, that Rommel was finally obliged to withdraw.

The Battle for North Africa

Into the second year of WWII, the Allies, then principally British and Commonwealth forces, were particularly keen to protect the Suez Canal from falling into the control of the Axis powers of Germany and Italy. The loss of the canal would effectively cut the British Empire in half. North Africa was also strategically important to both sides' wish to control and protect vital Mediterranean shipping routes. The island of Malta was also crucial in this role and holding the island fortress (then in British hands) was another reason to control potential airfields in the North African desert. Finally, North Africa was the only place where Britain could fight a land war against Germany and Italy and so hopefully gain much-needed victories that would encourage the British people after the debacle of the Dunkirk Evacuation and the horrors of the London Blitz. For all of the above reasons, a series of desert battles ensued, which are collectively known as the Western Desert Campaigns (June 1940 to January 1943).

At first, the British Army, with Operation Compass, won a series of victories against poorly equipped Italian forces, and Tobruk was captured in January 1941. From February, the Axis presence in North Africa was considerably boosted by the arrival of German troops such as the elite Deutsche Afrika Korps (DAK) with superior armour, weapons, and training compared to both the Italians and the Allies. Things improved further for the Axis powers when General Rommel took over command of Axis forces in North Africa. Rommel's official orders were to contain the Allies and focus primarily on defence; these he blithely ignored and immediately went on the offensive. Rommel, besides capturing two British generals, gained El Agheila in March 1941, then Mersa Brega on 1 April, Benghazi on 4 April, and El Mechili on 7 April as he moved in on the port of Tobruk in Cyrenaica (modern-day Libya), vital if he was to protect his left flank when he conducted his planned invasion of Egypt to take the Suez Canal.

Rommel's two persistent problems were insufficient manpower and a lack of supplies (especially food, fuel, and ammunition), but his opponents were beset with similar logistical challenges and, in addition, were severely hampered by poorly-trained troops, poor equipment, poor multi-arms cooperation, and poor commanders who could not cope with Rommel's tactics of using his armour with speed and audacity. Rommel's tactics more than compensated for his numerical inferiority in men and tanks compared to the Allies.

WWII North Africa Campaign, 1940-1943

Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

Mastering logistics remained the key to success in the desert war, though, and whoever controlled the port of Tobruk had a distinct advantage over the enemy. The commander of the Allied Middle East Forces, General Archibald Wavell (1883-1950), was ordered to hold the port at all costs. With the war going badly for the Allies everywhere else, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was particularly anxious that North Africa did not contribute to the already sorry catalogue of defeats. The Allies did have the advantage that although Rommel's armour was closing a ring around Tobruk on land, the port could still be supplied by sea thanks to the Royal Navy's presence in the Mediterranean. A disadvantage was that Wavell was obliged to send some of his force to participate in the ongoing campaign in Greece.

Continue reading...

[makethatelevenrings]

You and this person brought up a lot of thoughts about what's going on with the Palestinians for me and many others.

I try to keep my Tumblr a safe no stressful place but this is important. It's necessary for others to know and see what's happening. Thank you for teaching me.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR7t812v/

It is so, so important to me that you willingly are taking the steps to get educated and I appreciate it so much.

The way she mentioned the Iran-Contra affair made me instantly nod along because I spent a whole semester researching American foreign policy in Nicaragua. Believe me, it’s a mess.

American government officials want to keep Israel going because they want a strong position in the Middle East. As the Zionist in my DMs argued, “Britain gave us [Israel] the land fairly” which is laughable when you look at the sheer number of lands that Britain has colonized and the number of lives lost at the hands of colonial powers. Britain “gave” Israel that land in 1918 with the British Mandate but it wasn’t until the Holocaust that many Jewish persons fled to Israel for refuge. Note: the Holocaust was fucking horrific. There is no excuse, justification, etc. for the absolute devastation the Holocaust has done to the Jewish, rRoma, and many more communities. There is no justification for genocide. Ever.

In 1948, the Nakba happened. 750k Palestinians became refugees as Israeli forces pushed them out of their homes. As the Zionist explained to me “we were defending ourselves” and “we only expelled the people who would prove to be a threat”. Hear me out; 750k people are a threat including the babies carried by their mothers? Who determined they were a threat? Why were the people of Palestine so angry that they fought against the encroaching Israelis?

After 1948, Israel was recognized by the UN as a nation and a rapidly growing country in the Middle East. But how? How were they developing so quickly? The West needed a stronghold in the region to “combat” the USSR’s presence in the region. WWII decimated Britain’s finances and manpower so the United States’ Marshall Plan came in to save the day. We basically said “we’ll give you money to rebuild, you give us your loyalty and promise to not become a communist”.

That’s it. That’s the Cold War. America and the USSR were two sides of an ideological and military struggle that spread through every region imaginable in the Global South. Nicaragua, Cuba, China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Israel all can tie their roots back to the Cold War policies that we enacted. The United States is so intent on continuing funds to Israel because we want a strong hold in the region to keep an eye on every nation that surrounds Israel. Apparently, Joe Biden doesn’t care if Palestinians are murdered to achieve his goal.

I used this analogy to explain to the Zionist in my DMs and they kept skirting around it so I want others to read it:

A person walks into your house, points a gun at you and your family, and says get out, this is now someone else’s home. If you fight, you’ll probably die. If you win the fight, more people will come after you. If you concede and move out, you lose your home and have to leave in untenable conditions.

You live on the streets and try to support your family but the people that moved into your home have decided that they don’t want to look at you. They set up blockades and barriers. They take control of your water and gas and borders so they can monitor what food comes in. They treat you like a caged animal.

The person who stole your home walks by one day and sees you sitting on the street, hungry and scared and lost, and they decide to take pity on you and hand you one dollar. Look at that, they’re alleviating the struggle your life has become. The struggle they caused.

If someone did that to you, wouldn’t you be angry? Would you ever trust them again?

[dzthenerd490]

News Post

Palestine

DNC Shuts Out Pro-Palestine Uncommitted Movement (rollingstone.com)

In Chicago's Little Palestine, signs of Israel's war on Gaza are everywhere | Middle East Eye

Australian Human Rights Commission accused of mistreating pro-Palestine staff | Middle East Eye

Palestinians are being dehumanised to justify occupation and genocide | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera

Ukraine

Pokrovsk: Parents hide children from mandatory evacuations as Ukraine says Russia advancing fast on key city | CNN

Ukraine's collaboration law - are some being unfairly punished? (bbc.com)

Russia faces manpower woes after failing to stop Ukraine’s Kursk incursion | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Sudan

The world can't keep ignoring the resurging genocide in Darfur (thehill.com)

Yes there is famine in Sudan. So why isn't 'famine' being declared? : Goats and Soda : NPR

How Sudan’s civil war has ravaged millions of people’s lives in cities on the front lines | PBS News

War-ravaged Sudan battles cholera outbreak | Health News | Al Jazeera

Other

As more details emerge, key mediator Egypt expresses skepticism about Gaza cease-fire proposal | PBS News

Congo reports 1,000 new mpox cases. Africa asks for vaccines | AP News

The Taliban says it wants tourists in Afghanistan. Here’s what it’s like to visit right now | CNN

How Is Solar Energy Solving A Hospital Energy Crisis In Myanmar? (forbes.com)

Myanmar massacre: 'My family died in front of my eyes’ (bbc.com)

Improving tomatoes quality in the Sahel through organic cultivation under photovoltaic greenhouse as a climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy | Scientific Reports (nature.com)

Fallouts of Russia-Ukraine conflict reach Africa’s Sahel, prompt letter to UN | | AW (thearabweekly.com)